Walking on the Right Path

I was given accommodation during pre-TTC (Teachers Training Course) in the home of another participant and I stayed with him the night before the first day of the pre-TTC. After the first day of the course, we were let to relax by 10:30 pm. My friend and me started walking to the bus stop to reach home soon and relax as the next session was supposed to begin very early the next morning.
As we went near the bus stop, my friend noticed that there are other participants who were looking for some help in shopping and returning back to their place. He wanted to help them out so I told him to go ahead. Since I didn’t know the city and wanted to retire for the day, I took the house key and got into the bus thinking I can make it to the house. When the bus started to move, I realised that I don’t have my phone with me.

I went to the bus driver and requested him to help me with the address since I remembered the street name vaguely and he complied. I traveled for a few minutes and I noticed a stop name on display that was partially to what I remembered. I went to the driver to confirm for which he replied in broken english that I’m right. I was very happy that finally I made it and got down. I started walking and realised it was very dark and there were very few street lights. Though I could feel that I haven’t seen that bus stop in the morning, I started moving thinking since it is dark, I could be bit confused. Relying on the confirmation of the driver, I kept walking confidently but realised that I was lost.

I started walking back and started to look for people. Since it was almost midnight, I could not find anyone on the street. After walking for a while, I met two people but they did not know English and we were not able to communicate. Being unable to recollect the exact address of my friend’s home or phone number, I started thinking of all my next options. Then a thought came to me that its not me who decided and made it to pre-TTC, its HIS plan. If coming to the course is HIS plan, taking me further also should be HIS only. With this thought, I continued to walk little further.

Suddenly, I saw a lady coming out of her house with her dog. Without thinking much, I asked her to help me out. She tried to guide me a bit but since I was tired and didn’t remember the address, I couldn’t grasp exactly what she is saying. I gave up the idea of asking for help and started to move, even though it was dark and there were no bus stops in sight. I continued to simply walk as though I knew where I was heading. I don’t know what kept me going. My mind was simply struggling and I was losing energy. Despite of all my internal struggles, something kept pushing me to walk some more. After covering some more distance, I started to feel a familiarity with the neighbourhood and I felt I have passed this area before but wasn’t able to fully recollect.

The feeling that I knew this area made me calm down. With confidence, my pace was increasing as well. After walking for a few kilometers and taking turns, I realised I was on the right track home! I could not thank Gurudev enough for His Unconditional Love and for always being there. As quoted by one of the teacher during pre-TTC, one has to be REALLY dumb to miss noticing HIS grace. Even if we ignore it 100 times, it shows up 101th time demonstrating HIS pure love for us.

Guruji, cannot thank you enough for choosing me!

Jai Guru Dev 🙂
Shiva Shankar
Shiva is currently studying in University of Liège, Belgium