The search for peace

Image courtesy : http://toonjoke.blogspot.in/

This was a day that Diya had been looking forward for quite a few months now. Today was the day that she would finally get to meet her spiritual guru, Ghoosaram Bapu. Approximately 6 months ago, while flipping the channels due to absolute boredom, for whatever reason she stopped at the Aastha channel which was a 24 hr spiritual program channel. And that was when she first heard the guru speak.

His pleasant personality, his command over the holy books, his ability to simplify complicated concepts and explain them in layperson language, his elegant style of communication, his confident body language, his likeable demeanor, all of these immediately caught Diya’s attention and she was hooked. As somebody who had led a reasonably hectic lifestyle caught up in the rat race, her mind was on the lookout for peace of any sort for the past few months now, and Ghoosaram Bapu’s words seemed to have this calming effect on her.

Since that fateful day, she had devoted herself to regularly watching his TV programs, buying books written by him, reading up his words on the internet, and in general anointing herself an unofficial follower of the guru. However, it did take her all of 6 months to find that extended weekend to convince her husband, Raj to drive down the 280 odd kms from Mumbai to Surat where Ghoosaram Bapu’s ashram was located.

She had booked an appointment with him well in advance by calling up the ashram help desk and was all set to meet her guru in real life. Raj, on the other hand was not all that excited about this trip and Diya’s obsession with this particular guru. After all these were days when bigger Bapus were being arrested on charges of sexual harassment and were being investigated in land-grab cases and the like.

While not discouraging Diya’s spiritual endeavors in the last few months, Raj also ensured that she didn’t go overboard with this particular guru’s teachings and his influence on her. Despite his best efforts though, Diya seemed completely convinced that Ghoosaram Bapu had the answers to all the random ramblings and incessant irritation caused by her restless mind. And she was more than convinced that today was the day that her mind would finally be put at peace.

When they finally reached the ashram at Surat, they just had 10 mins to go before Diya’s appointed time to meet the guru. And in these 10 mins, Raj thought of the most appropriate things to tell Diya to warn her that her guru might not seem all that likeable and pleasant in real life as he seemed on television. And in his mind, the warning bells started ringing like crazy as each one of the remaining 10 mins started passing by.

Finally, one of the junior members of the ashram came into the waiting room and escorted Diya into the guru’s chambers. Raj did not accompany her and waited outside. The meeting itself lasted for around 30 mins by which time Raj had completely lost his cool and had started wishing that he had also accompanied Diya to meet the guru. That way at least he would have known what was taking Diya so long.

Suddenly the door opened and Diya came running out. In the time that she covered the 10 metres between the door of the guru’s chamber and the waiting area, Raj’s mind went into overdrive. More so because he could clearly see the tears streaming down Diya’s cheeks.

And then she uttered the words. She said “He is a God!” He mistook it to be “He is a fraud!”

His worst fears had come true, Raj immediately sprinted into the guru’s chambers and started beating up Ghoosaram Bapu. It took 4 of the ashram’s security guards and a couple of the guru’s disciples to finally break them up. While the guru or Diya couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening, little did Raj realize that his wife was now enlightened.

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This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

This week’s prompt stated that the post had to include “She said ___. He mistook it to be ___” and that is the reason that this phrase has been specifically highlighted in the post.

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This post has been picked as one of Blogadda’s WoW posts for the weekend of 06-Oct.