ReDefine your 'Family'

#MemoriesForLife

Pankaj ji's participation in the Art of Living Teachers Training Program (TTP) in 1997 completely changed his life and later also changed mine! Below is picture from last day of Pankaj ji's Teachers Training Program.

Nitin bhaiya would visit our home very often, travelling from Gujarat to Bangalore would always include a stopover at Mumbai. I remember one such trip in June 1999, we were at V.T. station, bhaiya had boarded the train and he looked at me and said "mai next week Bangalore ashram me TTP le raha hoon; Pankaj tum ek kaam karo, isko (pointing towards me) bhej do". He instructed and I went! Thats it!

I had already been organising and assisting basic courses week after week, had already been listening to knowledge series back to back. I only needed a train ticket, which got confirmed at the last minute (like it always does for many of us, especially when we are going to Bangalore ashram).

I reached ashram and was asked "Do u have the TTP form"; I had never even seen any TTP form. I remember I had said

"Nitin bhaiya ne bola aa ja, aur mai aa gayi".

I discovered only on the last day of the TTP that this was ALL fully pre-planned by Pankaj ji and Nitin bhaiya together for pushing me into taking this big leap that changed my life...

I had been a Software Engineer spending several hours in front of the computer writing programs, using all my sadhana and Intuition for developing programming logic, teaching C, C++, VC++. I will not say I was not on the brink of a break down.

That is when Pankaj ji had spoken to Nitin bhaiya and asked him to give me this push, this nudge. Standing at the station and being told "Isko bhej do" was all pre-planned. Pankaj ji had ensured I was involved full time as an Art of Living volunteer, and he had been silently preparing me for this day.

So, in those days, What did it mean to have an Art of Living family??

It meant having a big brother like Nitin bhaiya who was a safe house for the biggest secrets, a co-conspirer behind our transformation, a hand that we could hold onto even after committing the biggest blunder, the one shoulder that would always be there for us, come rain or storm!

Even today, this is what Family means to me. It need not necessarily be people sharing the same surname with me. For me, MY Art of Living Family is made up of people who have been hand-picked by the Universe for playing the role of my big brother, my kid sister, my god father, my caretaker, my mentor, my best friend;

3 weeks back I fell sick with high fever, and 2 of my very close friends from my Art of Living family, were on stand by full 48 hrs, with their phone ringer kept on - in case I needed immediate help or hospitalisation any time of day or even in the middle of the night!

On hearing about my ill health, a Guru-sent kid of mine, took leave from work and flew down from Ranchi for bringing me a bottle of NAOQ19 (an extremely effective ayurveda medicine for enhancing immunity against Covid). On arrival at Mumbai airport he informed me that he was on his way to my house.

We are all blessed with a Family hand picked for us by God! We only need to redefine our 'concepts' and see that its truly a "One World Family"!