Chapter 1

Problems Solved !

 

That incident is quite vivid in my mind.

I was only 12 years of age and never even heard of stress
problems. My father was getting ready to go to the house
of a common friend, Mr. Jindal. Mr. Jindal had invited a 
learned saint who would handle the problem of his devotees.

It was a fine Sunday morning. After reluctantly taking bath,
I was sitting in our kitchen eating my typical favorite 
Punjabi breakfast that my mother was cooking on old styled
charcoal grill. It was so delicious, as usual, I kept eating
irrespective of my needs or even irrespective of space in my
stomach. As I started feeling full, my mother asked me if I
needed more. I reluctantly said no and she quickly wound up
and went to get ready to give company to my father.

My father asked me to get ready so as to accompany them. I 
was in no mood to go anywhere on this rare holiday and 
requested him to let me play. Immediately came a reprimand
"You don't want to learn anything good. Babaji (as he called
that saint) has solution to all problems". But I did not 
have any problems other than some spanking by schoolteachers
now and then. Anyway I had to accompany my parents to join
the congregation. Mr. Jindal's house was about half a mile
from our home. We walked down to that place. There were about
35 to 40 people in the living room. Most of them were family 
friends. We found a place to sit right in front by the side of
our neighbor, Sharma Ji. How I wished we could have sat 
somewhere in the rear.

The saint was speaking something about spirituality, God and
Karma , which sometimes I would hear as part of sentences.

The saint, known as Baba Ji, was a very typical looking old 
wise man with flowing white beard. He was bearing some 
mysteriously calm smile on his face adding lot of grace to his
personality. He was wearing a white kurta and white dhoti. 
He was sitting on an 'asan' (a raised platform covered with 
cushioned mattress) with folded hands. Every now and then he
would raise and wave his hands to emphasize some point and 
again would go back to his position of folded hands. Everybody,
intermittently, was nodding his/her head as if to communicate
their understanding and acceptance of the utterances of Baba Ji.

Suddenly I heard the saint addressing my father.

"Harivansh, I understand you have lot of problems".
(Although my father's first name was Harbans, Baba Ji used to
address him like this only)