A Tap on the Head

On a cool August morning, Jyot Maharaj had left his home with his destination set for the Toronto Mandir. The clock on the dashboard of his car read 5:40 a.m. with a 13-minute estimated time of arrival. For the past 4 days, he and many others had been taking the close laabh of Guruji Swamishree in an AYP camp. With today being the last day of the planned activities, Guruji insisted that everyone come for Mangala Aarti to participate in a short group dhyan (guided meditation) session before the regular philosophical talks. 

It was Jyot M's first time participating in dhyan while in the presence of Guruji. With a level of excitement that paralleled nothing else, he arrived at the mandir. 

After aarti, Jyot Maharaj noticed that he was starting to show signs of drowsiness. With only 5 hours of sleep a night for the past 4 days, he did feel a little tired being up this early in the morning. Regardless of what he felt, he decided to stick with his original plan and sit in the dhyan session. 

Everyone was directed to sit in a systematic fashion. Row after row, column after column. It was a testament to the accuracy and precision that Guruji exhibits in his life and it is only expected of us as His students, to instill those same qualities in our own lives. 

Maharaj's divine Murti gave its darshan on the large projector screen. Soon after, a pre-recorded tape with a previous dhyan session started playing. Everyone followed the instructions given by Guruji in the recording, including Guruji himself, who sat in the front row, partaking in dhyan himself. 

As Jyot's eyes closed, he tried to focus on Maharaj's Murti, and the thoughts of how Maharaj had made him an Anadimukt and kept him in Murti. But with the strain of waking up early taking a toll on him, Jyot started to doze off. He repeatedly caught himself starting to sleep and would open his eyes to focus on Maharaj's Murti on screen instead of with his eyes closed. But even then, his eyes prevailed and he dozed off one more time. 

But this time was different. He felt a warm tap on the back of his head and a peaceful breeze pass his left shoulder. Opening his eyes, he noticed Guruji himself, walking up and down the rows waking people up if they were also dozing off during dhyan. 

At that moment, Jyot was filled with energy and inspiration. "Guruji could have sat through the session and scolded us afterwards, but in his kind nature, and vision for the future, he corrected our wrong behaviour in the moment it happened." He even recalled that throughout the entire day, he didn't yawn even once. "That one tap filled me with so much energy, so much motivation to follow through on Guruji's wishes. And now, anytime I start to lose interest in dhyan, I think of that moment to give me support."

With the end of this prasang, we should all learn to see Maharaj and Motapurush's good intentions behind each and every action. We shouldn't feel ashamed to be scolded, but instead happy that it took place. Just like Jyot, we should take those moments of mistake and use them as reminders whenever we encounter a similar situation.