’m enrolled in an intense course at Sri Baghavan’s Oneness University located in Varadaiahpalem, a village in Chittoor district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.
Today, we heard news about one of our classmates who got stranded at Chennai airport on as she tried to leave India to return home with an expired visa. As she was trying to board the flight, they stopped her, refused to extend her visa and demanded more paperwork. Now they are threatening to arrest her and put her in jail.
Imagine, a 6 foot tall blonde haired, blue-eyed, healer from New Zealand with the most innocent disposition loaded into a crowded Indian jail. The image of that made everyone in our class cringe. Immediately, we set to work on our cell phones contacting people we knew in the embassy and lawyers in Chennai who could protect her from going to jail.
As our day commenced, we boarded a bus in the afternoon to a sacred forest. Sitting in meditation on a rock outcropping overlooking a stream, my thoughts kept drifting back to Crystal, our classmate stuck in expired-visa-purgatory.
As the movie of my mind was playing out scenes of our blonde princess suffering in a sweaty, dirty jail cell—the Divine rudely interrupted my thoughts like a sudden commercial break. The Divine showed me a scene of when I was in college, terribly lonely, financially broke, scared and with no one to help me. It was a defining moment in my life because practically overnight, it made strong, resilient, and fearless.
If anyone had reached out a helping hand, I would not have found it within to me survive. The crisis that crushed me, also birthed me. I heard the Divine speak to me in a thick Indian accent quite similar to Kiranji, our dasa or monk guide, “Imagine you are lost in a forest. You are hungry, cold, thirsty. In fact, you are dying. If someone comes to rescue you, what will happen? You will be grateful for their help and vow to never venture into the forest again. But suppose no one helps you. What will happen? Do you really think the Divine will let you die? Really?” The Divine paused.
Then continued speaking, “Most likely, you will learn how to talk to bears. The bears will show you where the berries are. They will share their fish with you. You like sashimi, no? When you emerge from the forest five days later, you will have lost twenty pounds of fat and you will look great.”
I contemplated a moment on that scenario. The Divine repeated the lesson in a new way, “Remember when you were a baby first learning to walk? What if your parents helped you every time you fell down, so you never learned how to walk on your own. You were always needing someone’s help. Because you never learned to walk, you also could not learn how to run. Then jump. Then dance. Be grateful for when people help you. But be even more grateful for when they do not.”
Of course, my thoughts drifted back to Crystal, our friend. Did that mean that we should not help her? I wondered. Because according to the Divine, not helping her might have a positive outcome.
The Divine immediately answered my questioning, “There are so many possibilities. Not just one. Why are you thinking the worst? Why are you thinking she will go to jail and die or regret this moment forever? Why are you not thinking of the best? Maybe she will find her inner strength. Maybe she will meet her future husband the minute she feels confident and really independent for the first time in her life. Maybe this was just a process the Divine is putting her through before she returns home, so that she can remember she did not just come to India for bliss, she also returned back from India with flesh and blood courage. You don’t know how many possibilities there are. You opened the door for the Divine to create a bad possibility, but you did not open the door for the Divine to create a good possibility.”
Then the Divine said to me, “Put your feet in the stream of living water,” it pointed to the stream down below where I sat meditating. “You are thinking too small.”
“Stop treating her like she is helpless. Start treating her like she is a hero. If someone helps her, she will not transform and she will learn how to have gratitude for others. If no one helps her, she will rise to the occasion and learn how to have gratitude for herself. Which is the better gift?
“Maybe you should not pray that the crisis be resolved. But that the opportunity be seized.”
