A Journey of Spiritual Awakening: Unveiling Miracles and Lessons
Today I am expressing an instance from my life through this blog.
Though I had had many spiritual experiences most of my life, as a teenager I was mostly an atheist. If you are an atheist, just like I was, you would understand how hard it is to believe in anything if there’s no logic involved in it, right?
All my life, I have been questioning everything — from the concepts of Spirituality to my own spiritual experiences I had. I always wanted more to substantiate the existence of the spiritual experiences to myself (not to anybody else).
And, by the grace of the Lord, I have been blessed with hundreds of spiritual experiences.
I have stopped keeping the count now.
But where did this all start?
Well, it started from the time I found my spiritual teacher. [ Also Read: WHO IS A GURU? — NOT A HUMAN BEING]
The ‘Real’ spiritual teacher whom I did not recognize at that time.
Now a person like me who had spent 10 years looking for a real spiritual teacher will probably remain doubtful even after finding the one, or so, as she thinks.
I always had my doubts. I could never trust my spiritual teacher completely even after I had found him only after 10 years of searching and analysis of many spiritual teachers in India.
Today, when I look back it seems that my eyes had been closed tight with a black cloth covering the realization of who HE (my spiritual teacher) really was.
The existence of many fake teachers had taken away my trust after all. The common sense that the FAKE always imitates the REAL was also not evident to me when I was a teenager.
Of course! If the FAKE is there, the REAL must exist! Else, who is the FAKE copying, right?
I always used to wonder how Arjuna was not able to recognize Sri Krishna as a Spiritual teacher all his life and had his doubts even in the Kurukshetra field, while they were going to war.
— Refer to the Bhagavad Geeta: The conversation between the disciple Arjuna and the Spiritual Master, Sri Krishna before the Kurukshetra war started
As a child, when I watched the Mahabharata (the B.R.Chopra series that included the Bhagavad Geeta conversation), I used to laugh and comment on Arjuna, ‘What an id**t, he could not recognize Sri Krishna even after witnessing so many miracles during his life? Such a mess he is!”’
Today, when I look back at my own spiritual journey, I realized that I am that same id**t who could not realize the highest Spiritual Master that the universe had bestowed me with. Even after experiencing hundreds of miraculous instances in my life, I remained blind to the fact of His existence on Earth.
Let me share one very little and basic experience that I believe I can share openly with you.
But mind that I would rate the following experience as a 1 on a scale of 1 to 100 (100 being the highest) out of the many spiritual experiences that I had in life. This will give you a perspective of the magnanimity of the spiritual experiences I had in life and also about my stupidity of being a faithless disciple like Arjuna.
This was a time when I was practicing in a school during my teacher training at Delhi University.
I was going to school, dressed up in a saree (Oh! God, don’t even get me started on draping the saree topic, I know). Got up early morning and only after 1.5 hours of wrapping and re-wrapping the saree, I finally wore it. I was wearing a saree for the third time in my life. It was messy.
Anyway, I was driving and I had to pick up my friend on the way. The school was far away and with all the traffic, it used to take at least 45 mins to 1 hour to reach the place.
While on my way, I felt the need to use the washroom.
After I picked up my friend from her stop, she told me to continue driving to the school as we were already very late. But I could not wait any longer. I decided to stop at one of the nearby metro stations and use the washroom.
So I stopped my car 2.5 km before reaching the school and went on to use the washroom at a metro station.
My friend, Prachi, was very understanding. She waited and did not complain at all.
Well, I went all the way up (in that saree) only to realize that the lavatory was locked. Now, I did not know what to do or where to go. It was bad. Very bad.
Anyway, I turned and thought to find out a washroom somewhere else, if I were able to live until then! Lol, nature calls!
As I turned, I heard a voice from behind. A lady called me. “Bibi, come here. You want to use the washroom, right?” (Bibi is a synonym for a woman in the Punjabi language)
“Yes. I do”, I replied.
“Don’t worry”, she continued… “I work here. I was late today for duty. I will open the washroom for you. You can use it.”
I breathed deeply. Knowing that I had been saved
As she moved towards opening the washroom door, she opened the men’s washroom and not the women’s.
I inquired, “How can I use the men’s washroom?”
“Don’t worry. I am standing outside. You go. Use it and come back”, she said.
As soon as I stepped in, two men came and stepped in to use the washroom. I stopped myself from walking further.
The woman extended her hand to block the door passage and said at the top of her voice, “Stop. Stand outside. Can’t you see the bibi has to use the washroom? Wait here!…
Bibi you go inside. Don’t worry. I won’t let anybody go in until you are out. Go now.”
I thanked God with all my heart for the help that he had sent.
Now, did I think that this was a miracle? Not yet! I do not believe in anything so quickly.
Listen to what happened afterward.
I came out of the washroom. Relieved. Thanked the woman helper.
As I was expressing my gratitude, one of the two men interrupted me. He asked the woman, “Now may I go?”
The woman replied, “I am sorry. I have to go now. Please go elsewhere.”
She immediately locked the door and said to me, “God bless you bibi.”
I was shocked to witness what had just happened.
“What was that really?” I thought.
Still awestruck, I started moving toward the stairs.
3–5 seconds had passed when I turned back before stepping down the first stair.
“Wait. Where did she go?”, I said to myself.
There was nobody. This was impossible.
She was here just 3 seconds ago. She could go nowhere!
My mind said, “you will get late Kashish, go to school.”
“Shut up”, I replied to my mind.
I went back to look for her. I ran toward the other side of the stairs to check on her in case she went through those. The stairs were many, maybe 40–50 in number. For a woman of her age (55 or above and also a bit physically heavy), it was impossible to run down the stairs in 3 seconds.
She disappeared.
She came out of nowhere and went nowhere!
Now if you have been connected with me for a long and have been reading about my life for some time now, you will know that this is not the only experience I had in my life. You will also know that this miracle is nothing in comparison to the experiences that I have been blessed with in life (although we can’t compare any of them at all).
Now, all these experiences started in my life since the time I met a True Spiritual Teacher.
The experiences have continued since then and it’s been more than 20 years now since I met Him first. But I did not have my faith in Him. All my life, I never had faith in Him!
I am grateful to the Lord for my 10-year journey of searching for and reaching the right Spiritual Master. On the spiritual path, always remember, ‘Direction is always more important than speed’.
It’s useless to start one’s spiritual journey without exploring all the options or without understanding the existence of different paths.
But I do help people today. I understand how important ‘Time’ is in one’s life. I mean, time is all that we have, right?
So today, using the experience of my 30-year spiritual journey and being blessed with an expanded consciousness, I give consultation to help people find the spiritual path and the spiritual teacher that is the best for their souls and the one that could help them realize their spiritual goals in the shortest amount of time and in the best way possible way for them.
Also, sometimes I find that when seekers come to me for consultation, they are already on the best spiritual path for their souls but they do not have the conviction because they do not have the right logical reasons as to why they should follow that particular path and not the other.
They might have started following that path because their parents or their friends took them there.
This in turn leads them to a place where they do not have any faith in themselves or in their path.
The lack of faith then translates to a lack of practicing spiritual techniques, a lack of meditation, and a lack of spiritual experiences thereof.
Therefore, it is of utmost importance to get clarity about the spiritual path one starts with.
It is most important to know the reason why one is following a particular path and where that path will eventually lead one to.
With a three-decade-long spiritual journey, I must share this one thing with you –
“Spirituality is not a Sprint. It is a Marathon. Understand this. And therefore, take a deep breath and calm down your heart and your mind that is trying to graduate the senior year in spirituality (12th grade) when it has just taken admission into the school.”
We must build a strong foundation so we may never fall apart on our spiritual journey and building the foundation takes time.
[ Note: This article was first published in March 2023 in the Times Of India Newspaper.]
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Kashish Gambhir is Spiritual Consultant from India. She helps people find their best spiritual path and technique that may help their soul to progress in the quickest way possible in this very lifetime. Having walked the spiritual path for more than 25 years, and having explored almost every technique, method and different religions, along with getting trained under one of the greatest spiritual teachers of India, today Kashish can save at least 9–10 years of exploration on one’s spiritual journey.
Namaste.
