BN Andley

A new life for my special child
B. N. Andley, January 2012
I have read and heard of Guruji helping people in difficult times. But all of these satsangs happened to be of those devotees who had met Guruji in His physical form.

I have never met Guruji in person, yet it is my firm conviction that He is omnipresent and keeps constant watch on his bhaktas and helps them sail through any problem-provided the devotee has surrendered to Him totally.

My satsang illustrates this. In October, 2010 my younger son, who has Down syndrome, fell prey to dengue. It was Dussehra day when his blood report revealed that his platelet count had nosedived to 32,000 platelets per microlitre against the normal range of 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh per microlitre. He was admitted to Max Hospital, Saket. He was immediately shifted to the ICU when he passed a lot of blood through the stool. His condition kept deteriorating.

On the third day, doctors called us at 3 in the night to inform us that he was bleeding internally and that his organs-the liver and kidney-had begun failing. Liver failure had affected his brain; he had stopped recognizing people and was not making eye contact. He was put on a ventilator. Doctors believed the only chance was to go for a liver transplant-yet none of our family members' blood groups matched our son's. Doctors lost all hope and so did we. There was no chance of survival. It was a matter of three to four hours.

Fortune brought a friend of my elder son to the hospital. He suggested to my elder son that he go to Guruji's Bade Mandir. We had never heard about Guruji, and my wife told my son that he should spend whatever short time was left with his brother. She suggested that my elder son could go to the ashram the next day. My son's friend, however, insisted that we needed to go to the Mandir that day itself: What would we do the next day?

Finally, my wife allowed our son to leave. It was a Wednesday. My son and his friend had darshan of the samadhi, but the rest of the Mandir was closed off for repair and renovation. They went to the court yard at the back and found the gardener. He told them there was nobody else at the Mandir. My son meanwhile wanted to at the very least see Guruji's photo, as he had never seen Him before. He began weeping uncontrollably.

As if on cue, a lady devotee came out and asked about his plight. She learnt of our grave trouble and assured my eldest son that everything would be fine. She had a Mandir room opened, where my son bowed in front of Guruji's photograph. She gave the friends laddoo and samosa prasad along with a bottle of amrit (water) and directed my son to give the prasad to the patient. That was not feasible, because my son was on a ventilator. The devotee then gave my son a photograph of Guruji and asked that it be kept under the patient's pillow. She also managed to bring a flower from Guruji's samadhi.

Returning from the Mandir, my son felt enormous strength and very positive energy. He came back to hospital, explained everything and also expressed his certainty that his brother would be saved. We kept Guruji's photograph under my son's pillow. Right away my eldest son felt that Guruji had taken over all our problems and his brother would be fine. He felt as if Guruji was saying, now I have come and nothing untoward will happen.

The next morning my son showed signs of improvement. A day later he had recovered his senses. The doctors were surprised and said it was a miracle, as they had not seen anyone pull through from a similar situation. By the third day, my son had started taking a normal diet. He is now hale and hearty and regularly goes to the ashram with us.

Such miracles can only happen with Guruji's kripa. Guruji's grace flowed towards us even though the Mandir was closed in the form of every possible means available at the Mandir-the flowers, prasad, and Guruji's photograph. That is because Guruji is always there and knows the problems and state of mind of those coming to His Mandir. Guruji Maharaj can appear in any form, or send His devotees to help those in trouble.

In spite of his best efforts, my son could not meet the lady devotee who had helped us that day. However, in March 2011, he saw her and we all met her. She was Dutta aunty from Patparganj. She herself had been wondering all those months about the child whose brother had come weeping to the Mandir. And here we were all safe!

Guruji listens to all our prayers and also provides the best remedies. The only thing we have to do is surrender totally with full faith.
B. N. Andley, a devotee
January 2012