This is a story about how a chance encounter changed my life forever. After completing my final year MBBS university exams, I eagerly searched for the dates on which Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar would be at the Bangalore ashram, as I had decided to attend the Advanced Meditation Program when he would be there.
Despite my dad’s advice to check airfare, I booked a bus ticket from Pune to Bangalore. One day before my departure, I received a call from the ashram that the Youth Special course had been postponed to March 28th due to Guruji’s presence at the ashram during that time. I was given an option to join the other course in Bangalore which was starting on March 2nd. I arrived at the ashram on the morning of February 28th and decided to explore it the next day as I had a free day before the course started. The next morning, I thought of texting Shivprasad Sir, my teacher who took the course in 2022, to see if by chance he was in the ashram and could meet with me. He replied that he was in Bangalore, but he didn’t stay in the ashram. He lived about 25 minutes away and invited me to his house if it was convenient for me. I agreed and decided to go to his house by cab. I arrived at his house in the afternoon, and we started chatting about my exams, life in general, and my plans for the holidays. I also told him that I had a desire to meet Guruji, but his tour to Bangalore got cancelled. During our conversation, I received a notification message on my phone that read “Love and Blessings.” I was stunned because the message was from Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar himself. Shivprasad Sir took my phone in his hand, looked at it, and after a few seconds, he took out his phone and checked something. He laughed and said to me, “Not his secretary or assistant, but Gurudev himself has personally messaged you. This is his magic.” If I had checked the fares, I definitely wouldn’t have traveled overnight by bus. Instead, I could have flown as the airplane ticket prices were lower than the bus fares, maybe due to the off-season. If I hadn’t traveled by bus, I wouldn’t have received a message from Guruji. When I was in the bus, I was very bored and continuously on YouTube, and Guruji was live on YouTube, saying, “There’s an application called ELYMENTS like WhatsApp, download it, it’s much more secure than WhatsApp and promote it in society.” Without a single thought, I downloaded the application. The first person who messaged me on this so-called ELYMENTS APPLICATION was Guruji himself. Jai Gurudev,
Atharv Rajesh Kokare
