By Mitesh Khatiwala
Most people who have been around Mohanji have always heard him say, “Don’t worry. I am always with you.” While comforting, most people casually interpret it as a manner of speaking. However, some of us who have had the good fortune and grace to be around Him for a while know that He means it when He says it to anyone. Recently I had the benefit of experiencing the efficacy of that statement through a couple of events in this year and last. The first was the amazing Badrinath with Mohanji pilgrimage in 2016 – part pilgrimage, part adventure, part edge seat view to nature’s fury, part … (you get the picture) and the other was an amazing occurrence during casual interactions with a colleague back home in South Africa. Without further ado, here are the events.
Badrinath with Mohanji 2016 – August 2016
Mohanji had planned the Badrinath trip in 2016 before the Kailash pilgrimage to help pilgrims acclimatize better before the grueling Inner Kora. Other people apart from the Kailash participants were also welcome to join. The timing for the Badrinath trip couldn’t have been worse since there were cloudbursts leading to landslides and floods in the area. The weather was completely unpredictable which sent the logistics haywire. The trip was full of adventure and we had to use a couple of extra days, than planned earlier, for travel due to the inclement weather. Hence, we were left with only one day to do the places surrounding Badrinath. There are primarily two clusters of important places in Badrinath – one is Charan Paduka, Neelkanth Parbat, etc up in the mountains and the other cluster (Vyas Gufa, Ganesh Gufa, etc) is on the route to Mana village (Mana is the last Indian village on the China/Tibet border). Since both are at opposite sides of Badrinath, doing both in one day is not feasible. Hence, it was decided that half the group would do Mana and the other half would do Charan Paduka. Mohanji went with the group that went to Charan Paduka. Since the climb is steep, the group that headed to Charan Paduka had to ensure that people joining the group had to be relatively fit to undertake the climb.
I couldn’t join the group to Charan Paduka as I had kept the heater on in my room the entire night and due to that was feeling very nauseous. I somehow went to the reception area of the hotel and saw Mamu and Kedar. From them, I got to know that Devi Maa is also at the hotel. I went to a roadside shop and got 2 packets of biscuits and ate them. After about 45 mins or so, I was feeling better. Mamu informed about the visit to Mana village and around to visit Vyas Gufa, Ganesh gufa, etc. Mamu arranged for a taxi to take us to Mana village. It was me, Mamu, Devi Maa, Vigneshwaran and Kedar. The trip was very leisurely. We were chitchatting all along and posing for pictures wherever we got a chance. I was busy taking pictures of the group all along the way. When we were heading towards Vyas Gufa after visiting Ganesh Gufa, we took a halt to admire the scenic beauty and were clicking pictures of the same. I noticed that the sky was amazed by its beauty. I decided to take a picture of it and took a few shots. I didn’t check my pictures closely at that time. We continued with our visit, visited all the gufas and surrounding places and then returned back.
After sometime, I was looking at the pictures taken earlier and noticed a peculiar thing in one of the pictures taken en route to Ganesh Gufa. The cloud shapes in the sky showed a clear face of Mohanji. His face high up in the clouds was as prominent as we see in a photo. When I showed it Mohanji when He returned to the hotel, He said that one of the devotees was thinking of Him very intensely and hence He came there in the form of clouds. I later showed the picture to Mamuji (Narinder Rohmetra). He said that he was worried about Mohanji considering the steep climb to Charan Paduka and was thinking of Mohanji around the same time. Our happiness knew no bounds. As always Mohanji tells us, “I am always with you wherever you go.”
Total solar eclipse – August 21st 2017
At work, most of the people I interact with on a daily basis know that I follow Mohanji. A few of them talk to me to try and understand a bit more about Him. One of my colleagues was interested to know more about Mohanji. Even though she was from a Christian background, she had always been seeking and exploring alternative spiritual philosophies especially Buddhism. She has been going through the videos on Mohanji’s YouTube Channel as well as the Mohanji.org website regularly. The topics of our discussion sometimes were around Mohanji.
Recently there was a total solar eclipse on August 21st which was visible mostly in the USA and surrounding regions. A few days before the solar eclipse, she had a few questions regarding the eclipse and I directed her to different blogs and YouTube videos of Mohanji. During the eclipse, she messaged me a live picture of the eclipse that was sent by her friend from the USA. I took a casual look at the picture but did not notice anything in particular. Our conversations on the eclipse and about Mohanji continued for some time. During this time, she happened to use that pic as her profile pic on Whatsapp. When I happened to take a closer look, I noticed Mohanji‘s face appearing next to the Sun. That was when I looked again at the picture she has sent me earlier and noticed that I could clearly see Mohanji‘s face. I wondered how I missed this seemingly obvious observation earlier.
I immediately wrote to her that if she knew that Mohanji is always with you. She was curious to know why I said that. Using an imaging application, I circled Mohanji‘s face on the picture she had sent me earlier and sent the updated picture back to her. I again told her, “See! Mohanji is always with you!” Now when she saw the picture again, she was really amazed and bewildered. Since then, her faith in Mohanji has increased manifold and so has my belief in Mohanji’s oft-quoted statement, “I am always with you”
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