As I type these words on my keyboard, I am heavily burdened by life.

I wake up to never ending

challenges and my to do list keeps piling up. Everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. My whole
life seems to be in shambles as if it was just one long nightmare. I sometimes wonder whether there
would ever be an end to all this suffering. Will I wake up one day and be filled with purpose and drive?
Will I be loved by one and all, overlooking my many flaws and inconsistencies? Will I meet a mentor
who will guide me along life’s long and meandering journey, and lead me to a better place? Woww, to
many heavy thoughts. I close my laptop, sip my coffee and pet my four-legged daughter Lily. Somehow
that interaction with her seems to bring out a selfless love within me.

Oh well, better get on with the day. I climb the stairs to me spare bedroom and strip off my clothes. I
turn on the power to my water heater, adjust the water control know and set the temperature to
moderately hot. The warm water cascading down my body is wonderfully calming and as I soap myself
down, I feel rejuvenated and clean. I linger under the warm shower, unwilling to step out into the world
and what is my life. Finally, with great reluctance I turn off the water and dry myself down with a soft,
downy towel. I slowly get dressed and head downstairs to pick up my car keys and wallet, before
heading out the door to my job as a project manager.

As I get into the car and start the engine, I suddenly feel a panic attack coming on. My hands are
trembling, my throat is dry and I feel sweat running down my forehead. Oh shit! Why is this happening
to me? What did I do to deserve this? Must be some bad joojoo from my last life. I take deep breath
and calm myself. Yes, I can do this. I will go to work and earn a wage today. I have no other choice.

I get onto the highway and decide that some music was required to break the monotony of the drive.
My journey would take more than 2 hours and I was not in the mood to endure the silence. My
thoughts were beating down the door of my resolution, to have a good day and was swinging me in the
direction of the pit of despair. Arggggh. Why is it always like this?

Slowly the miles are eaten up and I am almost at the end of my journey. It had been quite tedious and I
was looking forward to reaching my destination. Suddenly a wonderful aroma wafted past my nostrils.
Where in heavens name was this fragrance of a rose petal coming from? My windows are all closed and
I do not use any air fresheners in the car. I was miles away from any buildings and was on long desolate
road, surrounded by trees and grass. Not a rose bush in sight. Hmmm what’s going on? I try to ignore
the wonderful scent and keep driving. Now a low hum, followed by indistinct voices, singing a strange
melody, were audible in my ears. I quickly check to see if the radio is on. Nope, all turned off. This
getting weirder by the minute. The voices have now turned into a low-key hum. The hum was steady
and quiet (wow seems to be a contradiction there).

I decide to ignore this new phenomena and steer myself into the parking garage at work. I gather all my
necessities for the day, dump them into my office bag, lock the car and walk over to the garden that
surround my office building. The humming continues and seems to be gathering intensity. I decide that
it would be a good idea to sit down for a minute and to get a grip on myself. I shake my head from side
to side, thinking that there may be something irritating my ear canals. Nope, nothing happens and the
hum continues gathering strength. I look around and notice that there was no one in sight as far as I
could see. Hey, that’s unusual. It was the beginning of the work day and the area was normally a hive of
actiovity. Here I was sitting on a bench, alone, no one in sight, no sounds present except for the
humming. Hmmm, this was defitely unusual. I start to become anxious; am I going nuts? Was this the
final breakdown? Were they going to cart me away and drop me in the loony bin? If that happened,
what would happen to my pets? Those four loving creatures that depended on me. My heart starts
thumping, my breath comes out in spurts and my head was starting to pound. Maybe I was having a
heart attack. Too bad there was no one nearby to help.

Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light and a startling brilliance all around me. I can’t stare at the light
as it was very intense. I can feel a vibration of sorts coming from the light, and there seemed to be a
dance taking place within it. It rose and ebbed in brilliance, swirling, dancing, slowing down and then
picking up. Oh my lord, was the coffee I drank loaded with some kind of magic mushroom? Was I day
tripping?

Now the sound of conches being blown, could be heard. Then a slow stirring and as if the screen had
been parted, a thin sliver of space appeared. From within that parting the image of man formed and
gathered shape. As if an out of focus object came into focus, this man emerged from within that light.
He seemed to be young lad, probably in his teens. He had long black hair which was shoulder length.
His face was slender and his nose was long and sharp. His eyes kept changing color between brown,
green and blue. His look was piercing and penetrated something deep within myself.

I slowly came out of my reverie and decided to ask this boy, who he was. My lips parted and my moth
opened, the words forming on my tongue. But no voice issued forth. I was speaking but there was no
sound, as if some had pressed mute on the remote control. I could not figure this out. Strange smells,
humming sounds and now I could not speak. Was this a stroke? Was the young boy a hallucination
brought on by this dreadful malady?

Slowly the boy moved closer, until he stood a mere 2 feet away. He was quite tall and his skin
complexion was molten white. He was dressed in a white cotton dhoti covering the lower half of his
body and his upper torso was wrapped in a shawl. He was clean shaven and there was a mysterious
smile forming on his lips.

“Namaste” he uttered, in a low, deep, melodious voice. I tried to return the greeting but was unable to
form the words. He smiled graciously and indicated that he knew that I couldn’t speak. “You have been
driven by winds of turmoil and uncertainty”. “Despair and dejection seem to be your constant
companions”, he noted serenely. “Don’t worry, I have heard your lamentations and come to steer you
back home”.

I could not digest any of this. What is going on? How does this boy know all about my problems? More
importantly what was he going to do that would alter my fragile and fruitless life?

I finally managed to utter “who are you? how do you come to be here?”

He smiled benignly and gently nodded his head. “I am everywhere and nowhere” he said. “ I know you,
but you do not know me. I have come as a result of your despair. There are many things that you still
need to experience and accomplish”. He smiled again, his cheeks expanding and forming a dimple.

I pinched myself as I was unsure whether I was dreaming this or was it really happening? OK, this seems
to be real. What do I do now? Do I ask another question? Who is this boy? What could he possibly
teach me? He seemed so young.
The boy smiled again. He seemed to read my thoughts. “Do not judge me by my appearance, for I am
older and wiser than I appear. I have seen many things and lived through many ages. There are many
more things to come and I will witness them too”.

“Do not fear or doubt me, for I am here to help you. Here, let me set your mind at ease”. He raised his
hands to my forehead and touched me in between my eyebrows. Immediately I felt flash of bright white
light, which seemed to pulse downwards from my forehead to my lower back, almost to my tail bone.
The light writhed, danced, forced its way through blocked channels, determined to reach its destination.
When it touched the end of my tail bone, there was an instant connection and then the circuit was
complete. Now the energy moved or bounced between my tail bone and between my eyebrows.

I suddenly felt emotionally loose. All the constriction seems to have vanished. My being seemed lighter
and the dark emotional veil seems to have lifted. I gazed thankfully at the wonder worker in front of
me. Before I could prod him any further, he smiled, lifted his hand in benediction and dematerialized.

Yikes! I could not believe all that just happened. I called the office and informed that I was taking a sick
day. I slowly stumbled to my car and drove home in a daze. The rest of the day passed by in a haze and
the last thing I remember was my head hitting the pillow and my consciousness surrendering to deep
sleep.

The alarm trilled as usual and my eyes opened, my body commencing its wake-up ritual. I felt strangely
well rested and somewhat energized. I went about the rest of my routine and headed out to work. The
rest of the day passed by uneventfully and I slowly pushed my previous day’s experience to the back of
my mind. The days passed by in a steady stream and there was nary a thought of other worldly
possibilities.

Before I knew it, more than 5 years had passed. I was still stuck in a rut and was unsure of the direction I
was headed in. There seemed to be no overarching purpose in my life and I was completely alone. I had
no family members to speak of and no relationships that were meaningful. Work was just the means to
earn a living and I was barely scraping by. All the usual life challenges were still present; however, they
did not weigh me down as heavily as before.

The year was slowly winding down and I decided to take a short break. Out of some deep recess in my
mind, the thought of visiting India suddenly popped up. Since I had sufficient leave, I decided to book
my plane tickets and head to my motherland for a 2 months trip.

Having completed all the prerequisite preparations such as obtaining a visa, arranging the flights and
reserving hotel rooms, I finally got down to drawing up a list of places to visit. The usual locations such
as Bangalore and Mumbai were listed and I decided that some unique places would need to make up
the rest of the itinerary.

I turned to my most trusted advisor, Dr Google, and typed in some search terms. The results were
reasonably predictable and so I kept drilling down to the end of the search results. Somewhere on page
25, I saw the words ‘Chaturagiri’ and ‘Siddhas’ highlighted. For some unknown reason these 2 results
sparked some form of recognition in my mind. I decided to go down the rabbit hole and explore these 2
topics. As I read through the relevant web pages, I was sucked in by the stories of sages and saints with
superhuman powers, who kept a vigilant eye on humanity, through a cloak of invisibility.
As I eagerly devoured the stories and anecdotes, one particular illustration of a siddha (perfected being)
captured my eye. It was a drawing of a young boy, with shoulder length hair and sharp features. At that
instant there was a flash of recognition. The events that took place almost five years ago came racing
back into my mind. He was the person I met and had the unusual experience with. I quickly scanned
the page to determine his identity. Beneath the picture was a small caption that indicated that the
drawing was of a great saint called Mahavatar Babaji.

Ha, I had finally put a name to a face. I had not dreamt that experience, so long ago. There was an
actual person, a saint no less, who had visited me. This was beginning to get interesting and I was
excited about all the possibilities that I was about to discover.