You do this course now, and since I am in Bangalore, you come here in December and we will do the Advanced course at the Ashram. It will be amazing!” Pradnya (Me): “Ok Nami :)” That was it. I googled the website of Art of Living, found two phone numbers, called up and signed up for the course. Out of the two teachers, I selected the one whose voice appealed to me. Thank God for my madness, otherwise I wouldn’t have met the very wonderful Aruna Aunty, my Teacher! That was the beginning of my spiritual journey. I got introduced to a life that has Sudarshan Kriya, Satsangs, Seva, Knowledge and GURUJI All this while I had just known Sri Sri as the founder of AOL, but now, He had become my personal Guru. All I can say is that I liked Him, liked Him because He was always smiling. Every time I looked at any of His snap, I smiled. I got the same feeling you get when you look at a child. I always wondered – how can any person manage to evoke such intensely blissful emotions? My love for Guruji took its own time to blossom. It wasn’t exactly love at first sight for me. But He didn’t wait to check how I felt, He loved me from day one! His magic flowed into my life right from 16th September 2011!!! Every day, I find moments where I am amazed as to how my work gets done, how situations that seem so complex get sorted so effortlessly. I am amazed at the innumerable surprises that life gives me, the abundance of love that I am blessed with. From fulfilling each and every wish to saving me from falling into disastrous situations, the past 3 years have been wonderful. He has delivered even when I have fought with Him, got angry at Him, lost faith in Him. The most beautiful thing is that He has accepted me always when I have come back, with all my flaws, and loved me for what I am. He just doesn’t seem to give up on me, and for this, I am grateful to Him. There are times on this spiritual journey, when you are confused. There is a dilemma between your conditioned mind and spiritual teachings. You may even feel like an outcast because you could be criticized for being on the path, your close ones would not be able to relate to you. We may have to go through these situations, but when you see the growth in yourself, when you see how far you have come as a person, you just don’t want to stop. There is this question that people tend to ask, “Do you choose a Master, or does the Master choose you?” To which there is an answer “When you take 1 step towards the Master, the Master takes 10 steps towards you”. I thank you Guruji, that you took those 10 steps towards me. I thank you Guruji, for you sailed me through my thick and thin. I thank you Guruji, that you never let me down. I thank you Guruji, for simply being the way you are. You are my Everything I am glad, happy, grateful and fortunate that I have a GURU and that is you – Sri Sri. Always so grateful. JGD.
~ Pradnya Halankar
