3rd May, 2015.  I declare myself a spiritual person.  I am… as I have realized the term “Surrender to GOD”.

Meera ( A very staunch devotee of Lord Krishna )  was enlightened and was so strong in her conviction. Her family must have outcast her, seeing her behaviour- a complete surrender to her BELOVED. My first two statements above are explained this way. REALIZE…MERGE…DISSOLVE.

Many people do not cognize that way. They say that we are given this life to prove our worth. So we need to be vigilant to grasp the opportunity, focussed, work hard, make attempts to achieve and so on…

MY LIFE MAKES A TURNING NOW : 1994. Meeting Astrologer Malhotra Ji. Let me expand on this now with what took place to change my life…..

IT was my first step up the ladder of ‘Realization” when the destiny took me to a scholarly person,less popular, quiet, calm, composed but substantial who was very precise and brief in his predictions through an extensive, ancient Hindu Vedic Science of Astrology – Yash Pal Malhotra who lives in sector 16, Panchkula, Haryana State of India.

My patient cum a good friend, younger to me by almost 10 years, Pushinder Chhibbar ( now in Vancouver, BC, Canada) had met with an accident, skid from his motor bike, fractured his zygomatic bone and broke the central incisors to almost half. I worked on the incisors and fixed the crowns. He was happy. I advised him to go to Amritsar city of India and have the bone fixed by my teacher cum head of the Oral Surgery department, Dr BK Kapila (late) who attained perfection in his field. I assured him to arrange for his free stay at Amritsar and a gross discount in the costs of surgery. But he had already met a plastic surgeon locally in Panchkula;  a young, dynamic and versatile man who had just passed out with not too much clinical experience; Dr. Kapilash who had assured Pushpinder for the best results. That confused him and barred him from deciding on the surgeon. He came to meet me at my house in Sector 6, Panchkula.  I had stopped him from driving the motor-bike. So, some one rode him in to my house. After the due discussion and refreshments were over, I drove him back to his house. He lived in Sector 15, Panchkula, down south of Sector 16. On the way, he urged me to pass through Sector 16 to discuss the issue with his astrologer who would help me decide on the surgeon for me:  choose between the best surgeon having 25 years experience and the one with 1-2 years of clinical experience. I had heard of the astrologer’s name through another friend, Shashi Bansal who was Malhotra Ji’s devoted client. I tell you, till this date, I did not have faith in the science of astrology.  I never knew astrology as infinite scientific division involving mathematical total of permutation-combination of digits. I had no idea of the sidereal time. Sidereal time is a time-keeping system astronomers use to keep track of the direction to point their telescopes to view a given star in the night sky. Briefly, sidereal time is a “time scale that is based on the Earth’s rate of rotation measured relative to the fixed stars.” Astrologers use the mean sidereal time to judge the degrees and strength of the gravity of the planets.

We have different Types of Time in the Sky:

• Local Apparent Time
• Local Mean Time
• Standard Time
• Universal Time (UT)
• Greenwich Mean Time
• Ephemeris Time
• Dynamical Time
• Coordinated Universal Time
• Sidereal Time

My naughty mind wanted to make fun of the astrologer. So, it commanded me to follow Pushpinder in who consented to take me along. There is a tremendous degree of privacy and confidentiality of ethical standards that astrologers are supposed to follow to keep the predictive information secretive to the client without letting others hear or know without his or her consent.

Astrologer Malhotra Ji made a very “weird” statement… ” I do not care about the surgeon, good or bad, a barber may even do the surgery. Your astro-chart is predicting that you are going to go back to normal life. So you decide what ever.”  That statement kicked me down. How can that be? People chose the best of the best hospitals and pay out of their limits to presumably get the best of the medical reconditioning and refurbishing. I got puzzled. In my heart, I rejected Malhotra Ji’s statement and counted that as fake.

That worked. Pushpinder had his surgery done locally from Dr. Kapilash (at this time, 20-25 odd years later, he is one of the most successful plastic surgeons in New Zealand / Australia.) and put his wheels of life back to the track happily.

Meanwhile, while sitting with Pushpinder at Malhotra Ji’s cabin, I urged Malhotra Ji to see my hand as well as I was not sure of exact date of birth and time. My approach to him was  filled with lack of assurance and confidence in the subject which Malhotra Ji must have realized. So, he snubbed me and reminded me of professional conduct and customer / client ethics. He had two days in a week, Sunday morning and Tuesday afternoons, kept for new consultations. Follow up clients were given appointments during rest of the time. I think, that was Sunday evening. So, I had to come back to Malhotra Ji later on Tuesday afternoon. But he gave me clues on my exact date and time of birth to come back with a printed computerized copy of the horoscope. And the place, of course was Hoshiarpur.

There was probably only one shop on a first floor in Sector 17,  Chandigarh above the Sony store or opposite the famous Empire store where the senior gentleman had the facility of  computerised horoscope with a dot matrix printer. I paid him hundred rupees for two charts, one for me and the second one for my better-half, darling wife.

With the two horoscopes handy, we, me and my wife, sat outside the Astrologer’s cabin, waiting for our turn with couple of people already sitting. One chart reading normally would take half an hour. People usually would enter in with charts of their siblings or parents.Therefore, average time taken per family could go upto an hour. But you keep waiting as the service provided was free of charge.

Our turn must have come after waiting for at least 2-3 hours. Malhotra Ji went through my chart, did some mental calculations, consulted some index note book . Then he looked into my eyes, finalizing on his thoughts, he opened up. “You may ask me your question now”. I was taken unawares. I did not have anything specific in mind. Life was at the helm of affairs in terms of name, fame, status,family, love , relationship, income…everything you may wish to count in the material world. He insisted that the client had to initiate the query. What do I ask him ?  ummm….. ok. ” I am travelling to Dubai in a week’s time for better prospects and career. How would my stay be in Dubai?”  He looked back into my chart, lifted his head up, closed his eyes for a while….. made his head straight and opened his eyes into mine….. ” There is delay in your going. You can not go in a week’s time as you mentioned. You will go, but later.”  That statement confused me again. Did he say what I heard or I cognized wrong?  What?  “You heard that already what I said” he commanded. I repeat that for you. ” There is  delay in your going. You can not go in a week’s time as you mentioned. You will go, but later.”  I responded without wasting a moment- ” But sir, everything is already planned and confirmed…Tickets, Passport, Visa, job, stay….everything.”  He once again closed his eyes, looked up and returned. ” You will go for sure but later.” He closed the booklet of my horoscope and handed that back to me.

He, subsequently, opened up Jyoti, my wife’s horoscope. repeated  the whole exercise as he did in my case. This time, he scratched his  partially turned grey and  reasonably well shaped beard, cognized  the chart, planets, their placements, their aspects on each other, the main and the sub periods and the heavenly transition of all the  planets, mainly Sun-the father and its placement in the chart and  gravitational pull on it by other planets and lots of permutation  and combinations. With a visible gap, creating a silent environment and looking back into Jyoti’s eyes, he spoke. ” Ask me your question.” Jyoti, my wife, was blank. there was nothing in specific to enquire… Life was at the helm of affairs, happy, joyful and thrilling. He kept looking into Jyoti’s eyes. “No. So, why did you guys come to waste my time when you have nothing to consult?” We were quiet, motionless and at his mercy. The divine kindness supported us. He turned humble. ” Ok. Let me help you out. Do you have parents? ” Yes. ” How is your mother-mom?” she was hale and hearty, in sound health. ” How about your father-dad?” He is fine too, healthy. But…. “But? ” He has become little senile and old. He gets lost when he sits watching Tv. His memory has partially been weak. Malhotra Ji closed down the little booklet of Jyoti’s horoscope. looked back into her eyes. He handed back the horoscope to her while declaring a statement. ” Go home and look after your father. Do the best service for him” We bowed down before him to receive his blessings as all the astrologers in our culture are revered as priests who carry the divine knowledge of “trilokas”-the three dimensions of the Universe: Past, Present and Future  also understood as ‘bhumi” the illusioned world, “Aakash” the unseen world of higher dimension and “Pataal” the hidden and dark world of negativity and evil. He blessed us and we moved out.

I was kind of mute on our way back home while driving. We kind of joked on astrology which at that time sounded so fake and meaningless. That was because, the astrologer talked to me against my hope and expectations. There was nothing wrong with Jyoti’s father. Afterall, age had started showing on him at 74.

We had our late dinner as had been the practice, finish clinic by 9PM , reach home in 10 minutes, relax , freshen up and then eat. The kitchen mate finished her kitchen winding up. My in-laws would go up the first floor to sleep or may be watch TV for late hours. We prepared ourselves to sleep with my Jyoti, our two ten and eight years old daughters and three dogs; two female Labs; Princy and silky and one white adorable Pomeranian, Tinny. It started raining out side heavily and we took our positions in the beds and turned off all the lights. there was a thunder outside and some odd sound was heard with in the house.In the dark, all the three dogs ran towards a specific side of the house, near the stairs joining the first floor.I had just fallen asleep, must be in the beta-alpha level. I simply jumped off the bed and shouted “what happened? ” I turned on the lights of the huge master bed room where we slept and looked around. I noticed that our dogs had assembled at the base of the stairs and barked uninterruptedly. I turned on the lights of the lobby and what I saw right away gave me shock. I was almost falling to my unconsciousness.  I recouped myself. My father-in-law, Col.Albail Singh Grewal was lying on the ground, half rolled up with pool of blood flowing from his head. He fell down from the stairs. Two wall hangings were also lying scattered on the floor, indicating that my father-in-law tried to take some support from the wall on the left side of the stairs to stop from falling. the railing was on the right side which , probably, he missed to take support from. It was midnight. The
telephones got disconnected because of storm of heavy rains. India has till date not been able to cope up with emergency services of this nature.They can not do proper maintenance. So, it is the time to bring awareness there for “sustainable development”. In canada, the telephone lines fail only very occasionally. It will sustain that kind of rain pressures.                                                             We have our city’s biggest hospital, General hospital, at a distance of less than 100 meters. It was not  fenced that time. So the access to the emergency was even faster, running straight there over the bushes. I ran in the rain to ask for the Ambulance to transport my father in law there. The doctor in charge gave me a surprise by expressing his inability and helplessness. They had only one van “Ambulance” which was not even equipped properly. The then Chief Minister, Late Bhajan Lal, had hijacked all the state legislative members (MLAs) to a near by hill station, Morni to influence them ( buy them) to be with him at the time of proving his majority on the floor.So, a medical team along with the rotten old van “ambulance” had escorted the Chief Minister to Morni. People say that the VIP culture in India is a boon given by the colonial Britishers. But I do not take it. We do not have this kind of VIP culture seen in Canada. It may be there but, at least, it is not noticeable.

 I came back home, disappointed. My father in law had gone into coma and the head was still bleeding. “o my Lord ! what should I do next?”.  I had worked at Arya Hospital on profit sharing basis. The night resident, hired by Dr. Varinder K Arya  and the staff of the hospital was known to me.I drove down to the hospital which was around 2 kilometers away and woke up the resident doctor, Dr.Dogra from Jammu who gladly agreed to come along with to our house. We gave the primary medical aid to my father-in-law at home. He was palpitating with low BP but there was no way to take him far off to PGI which was almost 10 kilometers away. So, I was advised to keep him at home till the day breaks and find some better alternative to carry him to a better hospital with better facilities-The Post graduate Institute (PGI).  The next morning, I had all the necessary scans done and I was directed to the PGI by two of my senior Physician friends.

My father-in-law laid on the patient carrying trolley  in the emergency room  and after three days of struggling, I got to him into the emergency ward. He breathed his last after few days, precisely on 19th of January 1994.

 While my father in law laid in coma on the trolley carrying the patients in the emergency room where you are given initial aid to sustain the life of the patient, I found time to get back to the astrologer, Malhotra Ji. Though I could not scream at him yet i expressed my disappointment with him. “Sir, you have ruined my life. My father-in-law is in emergency and I am the one to provide him support. His son lives far away in Pune and I am not sure when he would be able to come and take over. In the present circumstances, I can not fly to Dubai after four days.” Mr malhotra was very composed. He listened to me patiently and assured me that he did not do anything wrong. Only thing he did was read the chart of my wife and noticed the planetary gravity which was compelling the event to happen that way.” It is all the linear shaft of time that they see in the horoscope and are able to predict the major events as they can be seen very clearly. But I did not have this knowledge that time. I was puzzled. My future was jeopardized.  I could not go to Dubai any more. Mr Malhotra assured me that I will, for sure, go to Dubai but at a later time.

It took me almost ten days after the death of my father-in-law to complete the rituals, meet all the relations and friends who would come home to mourn.

One of those mournful days , I went back to Malhotra Ji to enquire about his skills of predicting events. ” What do you see on that page of horoscope to come to drastic conclusions to make grave statements to the nature of such events?”  He gave me a seat and probably offered me to drink. After I was settled, he told me that my life journey ahead, especially the immediate couple of years were for realizing GOD.” You know the story of Mahatama Budha? His whole life journey changed after he accidentally happened to come across a corpse. Like wise, the way you witnessed the death of your father-in-law, your onward journey is going to take you more towards spirituality- knowing your self and SELF REALIZATION.

That day onwards, 21 years back, my journey to enlightenment began..

To Continue….