Leap of Faith

In my last post, I mentioned that, the choice to go ahead with a critical operation for my father was a very big leap of faith for my family, which, with God’s grace, proved to be a good decision.
When I shared the story about the above incident in 2007, my narration, sent in a simple email to a group of teachers went viral & found its place on several blogs & websites. Today 6yrs later, I would like to narrate the same incident mentioned above, albeit, a version of my learnings from the same!

10 days before the end of my first trip to Israel, for teaching Art of Living programs for Jewish & Arab women suffering from breast cancer, I had received news of my father’s critical health condition & probable operation.

Leap of Faith

I had a choice to make, a leap of faith was demanded for: to stay back & teach the last 2 courses at Augusta Victoria hospital or to cancel the courses & go back to India & be by my father’s side. This was a moment of tremendous fear, where personal preferences easily over-ride the thoughts about betterment of others. A wrong decision would have meant I would possibly never see my father alive again. Going back to India meant leaving behind a group of 40 women who looked to the breathing technique 'sudarshan kriya' as a saviour for their psychological well-being during their fight against cancer.

After a communication with my family & my Guru, Poojya Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji, I chose to stay back & teach the courses, while my family made the critical choice of going ahead with the operation.

When I look back I wonder how I found the strength to decide my course of action. I would like to share here few factors that helped me make the decision:

1.    A Strong Fallback:

You are not alone

When we make critical emotion based decisions, each one of us needs a strong support we can fall back on, in the form of family, a friend, reliable professional help or even Guru. For eg. my family found a strong fallback in the form of a reliable & highly experienced doctor & for me, my faith on my Guru & support from my family for my every decision, helped take the leap.

2.   Being responsible for the leap brings strength:

There was undoubtedly tremendous fear of my decision going wrong, what if, I had truly lost my father & never seen him again? 

                                                          

It was more convenient to let someone else make the decision about what to do! In which case, the onus of responsibility shifts to the others’ shoulder. Making a personal choice & standing by it, gave me an inner strength that nothing can compare with.

The result of our actions in not always the way we would like it to be, but end of the day, at least it was my own choice & I didn't have any else to blame.
3.  Trust in the Higher power:

In the war-torn environment of Israel, I realized that there is a power that is much bigger than any individual, language, religion or geographic boundary.

It is the Power of Prayer.

Power of Prayer

In the above narration, after I chose to stay back for teaching, every single Jewish & Arab woman (all cancer patients) whom I had taught the Art of Living program during that trip, came together, held my hand, lit candles & prayed for my father’s & my family’s well-being.

To-date I strongly believe that their prayers made a world of a difference.
4.   Patience:

My journey on the spiritual path has taught me that patience is the strongest of all virtues. There is no substitute. Whether I was sitting in a far away country & waiting or had I returned to India & would be sitting outside the operation theatre & waiting: either case, some answers can be known only at the right time.

Budding Flower

After doing everything that is physically possible, we reach a point where we can only give up & wait!!! Even if it takes years for the balagaan & chaos to settle down, patience makes it worth the wait!

Message for the week: 
We want a lot many things but truly don't always know what is in our best interest. Personally, at the end of every single action & prayer I like to add a word saying 'If this is good for me, let it happen, if God has something better than this in store for me, let thy will be'. Do everything that is physically possible & then allow nature to take its course.