I have seen Death with my own naked eyes

As usual, I reached Mumbai Airport late but as the flight departure was also delayed by two hours,  I straight-away went to the CHECK IN  counter and got my Boarding Pass from the counter executive. Having seen my turban, on her own, she gave me the window seat at the ‘ no smoking zone’.  After security check, I sat at the waiting lounge and started reading my favorite novel. Two hours had since passed but no announcement for departure was made for the Mumbai-Kolkata flight.   

Mumbai to Kolkata flight duration is 2 hours 20 minutes and even after landing at Dum-dum airport, it usually takes  another one and half hours to reach home.  It was already 8:00-pm and yet no announcement for the  departure made.  I wanted to inform my wife about the delay, but the STD booth was outside the waiting lounge. Therefore, I dropped the idea of calling her.  I knew, she will understand.

Finally, the departure announcement was made and all the passengers proceeded towards the Kolkata flight.  At 10:30-P.M. the flight took off.  Every one seemed happy at last.  So was I, because I was going back home, after a week’s sales-tour. The crew members were very efficient.  First,  they gave us toffees and welcome drink and after half- an- hour  started serving  dinner.

The serving crew member gave me non-vegetarian tray and I had to request her to replace it  with  vegetarian food. She politely said ‘sorry’ and after few minutes brought the  vegetarian tray. I had just opened  my  tray to start eating,  an urgent announcement from the flight captain said, "due to bad weather, the flight may be delayed further".

Within next ten minutes,  we could sense that there was something seriously wrong with the aircraft and one of the passengers shouted in panic "only one engine is working and we all will die in the air".  The crew members rushed to that passenger and took him to a back seat. Within no time,  there was panic and  some passengers started crying , some shouting and a few like me began praying. The scene was so horrible as if I was seeing death with my own naked eyes.

I thought, finally, the D-day has come but I was not ready for it. I never expected it to come so early in my life. I have many things to do, and  how God could call me back so early. What is my age?  My mission had not accomplished yet.   I am married,  having elderly parents and children to look after.  I have to go a long way in my professional career also and here in the air,  death is knocking at my doors. No,  no, there was something seriously wrong; the God Almighty, all merciful God could never take so many lives at one go. How could He?

Every one was upset and few elderly passengers including women and children started crying and shouting in the plane. Crew members were rushing everywhere and consoling the passengers; serving waters etc.  They did not show panic, but I knew inside, they were as much worried as we all,  but still  were performing their duties with lots of courage, conviction and confidence, as if, they were not worried at all about their death. The co-pilot was repeatedly announcing  "please do not get panic, things are under control, we will land at Nagpur airport within next thirty minutes. Please calm down and every thing will be alright".

I could not concentrate any more on the novel I was reading and started thinking about my family in general and my children in particular. All of a sudden my entire family came alive in front of me and I started rewinding my life from my childhood.  I was stunned and almost in shock to know that an end of my life had just arrived and I did not know whether my family will be able to even see my body, forget about  proper Dah-sanskar and Arthi-visarjan activities. I was thinking of my elderly parents, my beloved wife and two beautiful daughters, who were studying in school. I did not know what will happen to them, after my death;  my provident fund, life insurance policies and total savings would not be sufficient enough for them to lead a peaceful life. So,  how will they manage, my Lord?

But then I realized, why think negative.  God Almighty will save us all.  For the first time I was not very confident about His existence. I was very sure, if the Lord was to make a balance-sheet of my  life's Karmas today, He will find it in red, because I had done more bad than good things in life.  Now, I cannot rewind my life again and do necessary corrections. I have hurt many people by my words, deeds and acts knowingly or unknowingly, but I cannot do any correction now,  because the past is past.

And within no time all my past deeds came in a flash in front of my eyes and the guilt inside me became so strong  that it was no more important for me, whether I die today in this plane crash or not.  In real sense,  my soul had died many times in the past but I did not realize because that time I was  under the influence of my ego, pride, hotheadedness, ignorance and wrong doings. In each and every personal and professional relationships, I had repeatedly hurt my family members and friends. I can see for myself  today how wrong I was then, because I was doing those shameful acts with my insufficient knowledge, skills, attitude, behaviors and last but not the least my big/fat ego.

Today, all the 228  passengers of this flight including  two pilots and six crew members will die in one  crash. Oh my Lord, please pardon and forgive us, at least, give us one more chance  to make necessary corrections in our lives. Why don't you understand, I have my family to look after.  Please do not be so cruel and unkind.  After all,  we are human beings and we keep on making mistakes and you, our only Lord,  will always pardon us without any preconditions, so why  this punishment  my Lord?

I opened my bag and took out the Holi book of "Sukhmani Sahib" and started reading. But to be honest, I could not concentrate on it, but still tried to read it loudly. Meanwhile, I also started telling my co-passengers to start praying so that we all can have a safe landing soon.

While we were still undergoing the trauma in the horrific atmosphere inside the aircraft, the Chief Pilot announced the safe landing of our flight at Nagpur Airport, thus abruptly ending our ordeal.  

More than Twenty years have passed since that night but I could not forget that incident till date and  it reminds me every time that this could be my last day of my life and I must finish my work fast and do not blame later for my incomplete task, and since then, I am living my life on daily renewal basis.

With Prayers-Gurcharan

May His Soul Rest in Peace

I boarded Ispat Express train at 6:15 a.m. in the morning from Howrah station for Jamshedpur. Somehow, I was not very happy about this visit but inside me, the hidden-salesman was repeatedly provoking me to make a trip to Jamshedpur and collect the order and advance. I had made twenty-seven visits to this client for the order without any success. My Boss has categorically told me, not to make any more visits to this client, without his prior approval. I knew for sure, even if I ask for his approval, I am not going to get it. Therefore, I opted for a noble idea of visiting Jamshedpur without informing my immediate supervisor; and if I can get an order with advance then only I will make my trip official and submit my visit report and travel expense bill along with order, otherwise, I will take one casual leave and show it as a personal visit.

I had visited this client first time almost most seven month's back and at the very first visit, this client  said, "I need this machine immediately, please send us your no-regret-offer along with early delivery and attractive terms of payment; we will release the order within a week or ten days maximum."

I could not believe my luck, it has never happened in our Industry that a client had ask for the offer in the very first visit itself (yes in case of repeat order this is possible, but with new client, never). I thought, my God will be so kind to me and I am going to break all past record by concluding this order within one sales call only, isn't it great?

Six months four weeks and three days have passed since my first call and 27 visits have gone in follow up for this order, but there was no sign of order. As a matter of fact, after submission of the offer, the client told me to come after a week and collect the order with 25% advance, but that one week never came, and many such weeks have gone in follow-up visits without any success.

On top of it, I had earned a tag of over ambitious sales person who believes in closing the sale-call within one visit. Due to this reputation, my Boss has also started criticizing me about my lack of clarity in evaluating client need, want and desire. More-over, my over-ambition, excitement and inadequate knowledge of customer behavior has further added on to my reputation of over ambitious salesman.

The story goes like this, proposal to buy a capital equipment was made by the concerned department and submitted to accounts cell for preparing ROI (return on investment); the proposal was sent for capital purchase approval to the board of directors; later it was sent for in-principal approval from CMD's office; thereafter, application was filed with the bank for term-loan; and this exercise took seven months, but till date, no good news was received from the customer's side except repeated assurances.  

I reached Jamshedpur at 11 a.m. and rushed to client's office. At the entrance of the factory gate, I met with the Purchase Manager, who gave me sad news of GM sir's father untimely demise. I was in a shock as if I have lost my father. Since my return train was at 5:30 p.m., I decided to visit GM sir's residence along with the Purchase Manager and if time permits, I will attend the funeral also. 

GM sir was sitting on the floor along with his family members, relatives and friends. His father's body was lying on the floor of the lawn of his bungalow. I paid respect to the departed soul and with my wet eyes, looked at the GM sir, who was also staring at me, as if  he was asking "how come you are here?". I wanted to ask him about the order but some-how or the other, I could not speak a word to him, instead I started crying as if I had lost my father. Many people came and started consoling me, but I was unable to control my emotions and I kept on crying for a very long time.

After attending the funeral, I came back home at 11:30-p.m. night, and my wife's first question was "Did you get the order?" And I could not control myself and started crying again like a small child who lost his favorite toy. After explaining my wife in details about day's incident, I started looking after old news papers for appointments, because I knew for sure, tomorrow my boss will come to know about my Jamshedpur visit and he will send me a pink-panther (termination letter) within next three days by courier, I was hundred percent sure about it.

As expected, on third day, I got a telegram in lieu of courier from my Boss, which read, "please proceed for Jamshedpur immediately and collect the order and advance from GM sir " And during our annual sales conference my Boss told me that, same night GM sir has called him on phone and informed him about his father's sudden demise, my visit to attend the funeral of his father and reasons for the delay in releasing the purchase order. Although he will be on leave for next 13 days but he will see to it that the said purchase order and advance will be released within next 24 hours, without fail. He categorically told my Boss that I should visit Jamshedpur again and collect the order and advance from his residence, a day after.    

I pray to God Almighty to give enough strength to GM sir and his family to bear this great loss and his father's soul may rest in peace, Amen!

With Prayers

Gurcharan

      

Unforgettable journey with Swami ji

After attending an annual sales conference at Pune, I was returning home. The train reservation in Gitanjali Express was done by my company. And Pune-Mumbai distance, I was supposed to cover by share-taxi. I always use to visit my boss's residence on the way to Mumbai, and that night, after a dinner with my boss, I left for taxi-stand at mid-night. I was fully confident of covering the distance within 4 hours by taxi; the departure time of Gitanjali Express train (from Shatrapati Shivaji Station, Mumbai) was 6-AM in the morning and I was having six hours in hand.

We crossed Chinchwad at 1.30-AM, but we were stuck on the way due to heavy road traffic and massive jam at the Ghati road. I had no option left but to pray to my Lord and I actually started doing so in frustration. The other co-passengers in the taxi were sleeping without any worry or tension. I started cursing myself for this delay. In the head office, my senior's always used to advice me to leave early for Mumbai, so that I may not miss my train and this time, I knew for sure, I was going to miss my train.

But, thanks to my Lord, I reached the station just on time and I straight away entered AC-II compartment and went to sleep on my side-upper-birth. Around one o'clock in the afternoon, I woke-up and asked the service boy for a cup of tea. But the service boy told me, point blank that its lunch time and tea will not be served now; I better look for tea at the next station, which will come within half an hour.

Finally I stepped down from the upper-birth and I sat down at my side-seat and in the opposite seat one very healthy, fair, beautiful and very impressive Swami ji was sitting and he gave me a big smile and asked me "did you have a nice nap, Vatsa?" and I was not very keen to answer his question, but after seeing his saffron cloths, first I folded my hands offered respect by saying "Pranaam" and nod my head in approval. He replied with a long smile "Ayushman Bhava" (have a long life), and raised his right hand in the air for blessings.

Gradually, we started discussing various subjects, which includes Shrimat Bhagwat Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Guru Granth Sahib, Kuran Sharif and Bible. Besides, we also discussed about Guru's: Shri Arvindo, J. Krishna Murthy, Shri Ramkrishna, Acharaya Rajneesh, Shridhi Sai Baba and Swami Vivekananda. I was not only surprised but also amazed to see his vast knowledge, experience and clear conviction about his thought process and views on various subjects including Life, Death, Salvation and Sanyas. He answered all my questions with ease and explained to me with facts and figures, gave logical/rational answers, but the thirst to know every thing in one day was not ever-ending and  I was afraid, his destination may arrive any moment now and his discourses will be stopped automatically.

Train was running towards it's destination with high speed and so was the time which was not running but was flying. As the time passed, I started liking this Swami ji and gradually the deep sense of respect developed within and he was no more a stranger and so called Swami ji, I was getting more and more impressed with this young Swami ji, who was very practical, well behaved,  well mannered, knowledgeable, educated, well read and having positive attitude.

He was around 32 years of age, bachelor, post graduate in Sanskrit, became a disciple at the age of 18 and head of the Ashram at the age of 24 (when his guru expired). Since then, he is running the Ashram very successfully and having strength of ten lakh disciples spread all over the country and abroad.

The Ashram head quarter was at Haridwar, build on 15 acres of land, plus they were having 100 acres of agricultural land also where they grow crops, vegetables and housed 150+ cows, which is in the out-skirt of city limits, on the way to Rishikesh. Besides, Ashram was having  150+ disciples, Sanskrit School up to class ten and old age home. The land and building belongs to Ashram which was registered under the Hindu trust act.

I always wanted to know more about Indian Bhikshu, Guru, Naga, Ojha, Oghar, Swami, Sadhu, Sant, Sanyasi and Tantarik. Our conversation started in the afternoon which continued till late night, and it stopped only when the train reached it's destination at Bilaspur station. I got down at  the station along with Swami ji to wish him good bye and I was surprised to see the big crowd of his disciples at the platform, and most of the people were carrying garlands, flowers, snacks and hot/cold beverages; and they immediately started serving food to all passengers of our coach.

Swami ji was literally surrounded by his disciples and the distance between us was getting longer and longer and I thought, I will not be able to meet him again but to my utmost surprised, all of a sudden, Swami ji came in-front of me and said, -"you have not asked any thing for your-self, not an issue, but one day, you will have to come to our side and I shall be waiting for you with my open heart, may God guide your path and always be with you." I bow down and touched his feet with respect and he hugged me and blessed me with his love and affection. The fragrance of his blessings are still alive, very much, which I will not forget, within this life  span.

Many years have passed since, neither I could meet Swami ji nor I have visited his Ashram till date and I don't know how long will it take to reach his Ashram, may be the journey is very long and I am still not prepared for it or maybe I am not capable or qualified of being his true disciple in this lifetime. I pray to my Lord for his blessing to enable me to have enough strength, courage and confidence, so that I can put my right foot forward towards the final destination, wholeheartedly with my mind, body and soul, Tatha-asthu! 

With Prayers

Gurcharan