On a weekend, I went to a place to attend a course related to Spirituality. Unexpectedly, there were some issues in my office work and I had to support them. So I came out of the hall and sat in the waiting place working on my laptop.For me , every second of the course matters and even if I miss few minutes, I feel as if I lost something precious because I know precious teachings can be given in just few minutes. Now, because of my unexpected office work, I had to lose some hours of the course and you can imagine my pain.

In my sadness, I continued working on my laptop in the waiting place. There I saw an Energy Healer doing service. I will call her as Aparna (name changed to protect privacy) to make my narration easy.I know Aparna since years but never spent time or effort to know about her life. We smiled at each other and continued doing our respective jobs. My work is on hold due to some issues and I was waiting for the support team to look into those issues. Due to the delay,I was  further frustrated and disappointed.

Meanwhile, Aparna and I started a friendly conversation. What started as a simple conversation went on for good amount of time and in this time, I learnt some profound things. Aparna is a nice person with always a smile on her face. Seeing her smile, I used to think she is a happy-go-lucky person with no issues in life. I used to think may be her life is pretty smooth and that’s why she always smiled. After I spoke to her, I understood looks can be quite deceptive.

Aparna started speaking about her life, marriage and work.She said she has been meditating since 10 years and doing tithing every month. Tithing means donating 10% of one’s own income. I was impressed by her regularity in her practices and felt fortunate to spend my time with her. As she narrated her story, I listened with all my attention because its not so easy to get to spend time with a serious spiritual seeker like Aparna. I thanked my Guru and  unexpected issues in my work for giving me this opportunity and gave her all the attention.
Aparna was born in a very poor family where her parents did not even have the money to pay every month’s rent. She was looked down by others for her looks and she was made to feel she is ugly.She was married at a young age of 17 years to a man who is 20 years elder to her and this man subjected her to domestic violence. There used to be blood on her face and body after severely beaten by her husband. She lived in utter poverty, with low self confidence and constant domestic violence

Due to some stroke of luck, she came into Energy Healing. She also got a job which allowed her to earn some money. Because of the mentoring she received from my mentors Ruchi Sanjil, she started meditation and tithing. She did meditation almost every day and though she earned very less and lived in poverty, she tithed regularly.To tell me how her life is transformed because of doing meditation and tithing for years, she mentioned below changes in her life

1. She bought a house for her family – her dream home.
2. She bought and gifted a house to her parents.
3. She earns a lot from multiple sources of income and she is financially very abundant and prosperous.
4. She took care of the needs of all her siblings and enabled them to become financially independent in their lives.
5. She earned respect and dignity in her family and community.
6. She is confident about her life.
7.In her life before meditation and tithing, her family could not pay rent every month. Now, she has rented out some part of her own home and she charges rent significantly less than market price as the tenants cannot afford normal rent and she knows their pain.
8. In her childhood, she used to dream of going in a flight someday. She fulfilled all such desires she had in her life and today, she does not have any more desires unfulfilled. I asked her – “what would you ask God now if you get a chance to meet God?” She said “Nothing. I have everything in my life and I am very content”
9.Coming to her marriage, it has transformed into a relationship of love and care.Today, her husband does not abuse her at all and takes very good care of her.

I was amazed at the way her life transformed by regular meditation and tithing. I still had questions and asked her – “Aparna, now that you are prosperous and beautiful(yes, she is pretty), why do you still need to be with a husband who abused you physically for many years? why not divorce him and marry someone of your age who will take good care of you? What’s the need to be with a man who gave you so much of pain?”Her answer just amazed me. She said – “I cannot leave my parents no matter how bad or old they are. Same with my husband. I cannot leave him just because he gave me pain in the past or he is 20 years elder to me. He is part of me. Because of my meditation, our relationship became in such a way that we live for each other.”

Till I spoke to Aparna, I used to think, divorce is the only solution for marriages which have domestic violence. I had zero tolerance for physical abuse whether it came from a man or a woman. She changed my thinking and made me see that with meditation and tithing, marriages can transform. She taught me so much about marriage through her life story.Sometime back, someone asked me what are the long term benefits of tithing. Story of Aparna is the answer to this question. And she said my mentors Ruchi Sanjil are her living Gods. I could only thank God for blessing me with great mentors like Ruchi Sanjil and great Guru like my Guru.

I thought I missed my course and felt bad but after spending time with Aparna, I felt only life knows when to teach me what. May be I needed to learn this more than the course and that’s why I was given this opportunity to learn from her. I know Aparna since years but only now, I learnt these things from her.

Her story gave me inspiration, hope and strong determination to practice my Guru’s teachings every single day. I practice my Guru’s teachings but I cannot tell that I do them everyday. Some days or for some months, I skip the practices. But now, I felt determined to do the practices every day.

I just pray and wish strongly that I meditate and tithe regularly like Aparna and become a great human being like her. May every person who wants to practice the teachings be blessed with the inner strength to practice the teachings. I asked Aparna if I can share her story with others. She very happily agreed. Thank you Aparna for allowing me to share your story with the world. May you and your family be blessed with good health, happiness, prosperity, harmonious relationships, peace.

Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavanthu!