How I met with Swamiji!

Meeting Swamiji, Prabhu Yogananda, was not a chance or a probability. The preparation of this started more than 8 years ago before I met Swamiji. I was going for an entrance exam on a train and suddenly one gentleman of my age with a lot of glow on his face boarded the train and got a seat just in front of me. I felt his aura and couldn’t resist talking to him. The talk with him was enlightening beyond my expectation. Coincidently, he was also going for the same exam.

Fortunately, the exam got postponed and I got another chance to see him, talk to him and to feel more inspired. After the exam was done we bid goodbye to each other. I never expected that I would ever see him again.

But, as Nature knows how to nourish a seed and provide an environment for it to become a tree leading to bearing fruits. Similarly, the same Nature knows how to nourish a desire of knowing life to fruition. One day I was coming back on a bus from a place 450 Kms away from my hometown and to my surprise, the same gentlemen boarded the bus from a city on the way to my hometown. This meeting helped me to know more about him, his dedications, his austerities, his attitude, his goals in life. Above all, I got exposed to the qualities that I was never able to see or perceive before.

Finally, Nature blessed me with the association of the same gentleman for 2 years where I learned a lot from him. Then after a long gap somehow we got re-connected and he introduced me to a beautiful personality and left. This person finally became a means for me to get introduced with Swamiji.

Today, when I think back and connect dots, then I understand that the meeting with that bright gentleman 3 times became a base for me to be in touch with him in those 2 years, to meet that beautiful personality, and finally to meet Swamiji. In fact, everything happened with the purpose of meeting Swamiji. When I contemplate little more, then I feel that association of the bright gentleman and the beautiful personality made me qualified to have Swamiji’s introduction. In fact, these two bright personalities were my initial introduction of Swamiji. Their association did some groundwork for me to grasp Swamiji’s inputs and perspective. So, nature took care of providing the environment in which a seed of my true desire, to know life, should grow into a tree with fruits of knowledge.

Though I know Swamiji from 16 years, but it feels as if I know Swamiji since inception. It is hard for me to imagine my life without him. It wouldn’t be possible for anyone to understand the roles that he played in my life. As I’m addressing him as Swamiji, so the first thought that would strike in anyone’s mind is that he should be a master only for me. Swamiji didn’t limit himself to that but played a role of father, friend, guide, career counselor etc. Pains of my life, he considered his pain and also felt the same to the same level and sometimes more.

I was not special in any way to get this kind of attention and support. More I came to know about Swamiji with time, more I realized that it is his nature to vibe with anyone around him, to feel their pain and providing them support or comfort that a father can provide, a true friend can extend, a guide can offer. And anyone who really understood his nature perspective and inputs got benefited. Others, in my opinion, not only lost opportunity but lost a great well-wisher and a friend at least.

Though my life, like most of the people’s lives, is not a bed of roses, but I consider myself very fortunate that I got a chance to meet Swamiji. And I always say thanks, in my mind, to the two noble souls who became a reason for my meeting with Swamiji. I don’t think I would have been able to come this far without Swamiji.

Asheesh Kwatra