Bewilderment

There are festivities everywhere as the Durga Puja was only a few weeks away. My colleagues were preparing to go on leave and some others were thinking about going to visit various tourist destinations. But I was stuck up in one of my serious problems with my department. I was selected for overseas training by a very reputed institute. However I need a No objection certificate from the department stating that my organization has no objection and my absence during the training will be treated as on duty without any traveling/daily allowance being paid. All traveling, accommodation, pocket expenses and food will be arranged by the organizer. My file was moving from one table to another table without any decision being taken. I was so frustrated and personally met those decision makers, all of them had promised prompt action but final approval was not coming. In the meantime, I received the air tickets and an invitation letter from his excellency, the President of the host country and I have practically very little time to apply for a visa. Without seeing any hope with holidays coming after 10 days or so, I went to my home to be with my family and forgot this whole affair as I lost all my hope to get the certificate.

I had a very close friend who had a reputable bookstore and I used to be in his shop whenever I was at home. He was one of my closest friends whom I lost a few years back. I was in his shop but he understood that I have some problem going on and I was looking very depressed. He arranged tea for the two and he asked me what the problem was. I told him the whole story and he was thinking something without saying a word. When I was done, he told me whether my bicycle is with me or not. I was surprised, instead of saying anything to console me he asked me for my bicycle. I told him Yes I have the same in good condition. He then told me to be ready with my bicycle in my house at 5-30 the next morning and he will meet me in my house by that time. He also told me to take a few leaves of Tulsi and some grains of rice with me. I asked him what was happening and what was in his mind. He did not tell me anything but I know he was a very serious person, a book worm who rarely opens up and only with close friends. I did not pursue him further and the next day, I was ready as advised by him. I have taken the Tulsi leaves and the some rice grains in a small paper. He told me that we are going to meet a very special person around 8-9 km from my house. We started immediately.

I asked him who the man was and why we were going there, he did not tell me anything except that the person is very special and I will make my own assessment after coming back from him. It was the month of October and winter has just started. I was not using my cycle for quite some time and after cycling for around 5  km, the rest of the journey was a narrow lane  through a paddy field for nearly 4 km. After that we reached a better road and nearly after 200 m there was a SHIV TEMPLE. My friend Gyan told me to wait outside. He went inside and found it was locked. We kept our bicycle there and as led by Gyan, we entered a house just nearby after crossing a big water tank (Pond). I saw a man coming crawling towards us in a special cycle with hand paddles. Both of his feets were amputated and his hands were also very thin and bent. It was a very difficult scene for me. Gyan must have been coming here several times and the man recognised him and smiled. He with our help, sat in the hand paddled cycle and reached the Temple and was given the key to open the Temple door. The temple was made of bamboo walls pasted with mud, with a thatched roof. The floor was earthen and at the center of the room there was a Shiv linga and this area is concreted. a earthen pot was hanging from the top with rope and was over the shivling and water felt drop by drop over the linga.  A lady came and broomed the floor and then cleaned with water. We were waiting outside and looking at what was happening. I was totally in deep thoughts about what was happening. Soon after I came to know she is a neighbor of the special person whose title was Gogoi.

Gogoi then went inside the temple and told us to wait. He was inside for more than half an hour and during this time I was totally engrossed in my thoughts and not even talked a single word with Gyan. After half an hour or so, the door opened and he called us inside. He was sitting in one corner over a mat on the earthen floor and some more mats were lying nearby. He told us to use those mats and sit in front of him. A sarai was in between us .

Gyan only introduced me as his friend and he smiled.

He also told him that I wanted to know about my future. 

I have no idea about astrology, palmistry sort of subjects as I never read about these and therefore was not interested about such things. It is not that I believed or not on these subjects but were not interested as I had no knowledge about these matters. Therefore, I never visited any astrologer or palmist. As I do not know the subject, I never felt it was a superstition and may have some scientific background. 

The belief that particular events happen in a way that can not be explained by reason or science at my level of knowledge. May be there is some scientific basis which I don’t know .

I was sitting in front of him and there was a sarai in the middle. He asked me if I brought some rice and Tulsi leaf with me from my home .

I told him yes.

He put one Tulsi leaf in my left hand and put some rice that I had carried from my house.

Then he took out the Tulsi leaf from my palm and told me to count the number of rice that was in my hand. 

He was wearing a rudraksha mala and started praying, taking the mala in his hand for a few minutes and I started counting the rice. Before I finished counting he wrote something in a piece of paper and kept the sarai in reverse position, so that I could not see. I finished counting and told him the number. I still remember it was 324. Then he gave me the sheet of paper where it was clearly written as 324. 

I was shocked and he was smiling.

Then he gave me a second sheet of paper, where some alphabets were written.

I asked him what it was. He asked me to go from left to right and whether the alphabet represents the first letter of the name of my family from oldest to the youngest. It was perfectly correct. 

Gyan told me later that, if the number and alphabetic of names are not correctly told by him, he will not tell anything further to the person and call him for some other day.

After that he goes on praying for sometime with the rudraksha mala on his forehead with his hand. 

After sometime he started talking without waiting for my reaction about my family, my job etc. Then suddenly he told me that on a particular date I am going out of the country to a quite far off place crossing the sea and will return on another date.

I was damn shocked as he had told me the exact date of my departure (I already got my tickets) but return date he told me was one day late. I was just looking at him in astonishment as he neither knew me nor my family and Gyan also simply introduced me as his friend. He also did not ask me anything about my family, job location, education etc.

After some more time with him, we came out. But on the way back, I was thinking about this man. It is neither astrology or any other science, I know about. But he was dot accurate except telling me that my return journey will be late by a day from the tickets I have.

Next day I went back to join in my duty and my friend, who was from the HR department, was frantically looking for me. I went to his room and to my utter surprise, he handed me the No objection certificate 5 days before my scheduled departure. The same day I came back to Guwahati and the next day went to Delhi for the Visa. With the presidential invite in hand, it was easy for me to get the Visa the same day but as the number of people applying for Visa in the Embassy was quite large, it was almost 5-30pm that I could get my visa.

Even after getting the Visa, I have faced a lot of problems from my organization till the last moment but finally, I was able to go on the same day Mr. Gogoi (The Surprised Man) predicted.

We completed our course successfully and nine persons from India participated along with similar teams from quite a large number of countries. This was a great learning experience and luckily, I did not miss it by grace of God. We really enjoyed every moment of it and after so many years, it is still a very fond memory to all of us participants who are still in contact with each other after internet helped us to do that .

After the completion of the program, the Indian team reached New York for our return journey to Delhi. We all boarded the flight and waited for the take off but there was a substantial delay. And at last moment, there was an announcement that due to a sudden strike by the Air India Pilots, the flight had to be canceled and we will be accommodated in different flights shortly.

During all these days, I forgot about Mr Gogoi who told me a month ago the journey dates and return date was one day later than the ticket I received then. I was not very serious about it. But the announcement took my mind to the prediction of Mr. Gogoi. I told my friends who were all from renowned organizations like IITs, Maharatna PSUs, NGOs, Film makers etc about the prediction and all were listening to me with great surprise. There was no scientific explanation about what I was conveying to my friends. I was accommodated in Lufthansa to Delhi via Frankfurt exactly as predicted by Mr. Gogoi. He was so accurate about my return being delayed by a day for and not as per my confirmed tickets I had. Till today, I do not know how he predicts the future so accurately without having any formal education or following some astrology-like system of predictions.

I came back and joined my duty. Soon I visited my native place and went to Mr. Gogoi. Like the first time, he predicted something which later proved to be 100 percent true.

As there were not many visitors to him that day, I was asking how he was able to make such accurate predictions.

He then started a long story. In short he told me that he was a well to do person and had sufficient earnings from agriculture though he had problems due to polio. But due to some accident he lost both his feet which were ampulated below the knee and it became impossible for him to carry on his agricultural activities. Survival was a problem for him and his wife and a boy child they have adopted. During this period a sadhu (saint) visited his place who stated to be  roaming around the country for six months and living on the food and shelter given by the villagers and balance six months in a cave in himalayas doing tapashya. When he saw the condition of Gogoi and his family, he stayed in his house doing tapashya  for 6-7 days and at night he took Gogoi near to a big banyan tree where later Gogoi built his temple and whole night. He prayed for 4 nights continuously. Before he left, one midnight he called Gogoi and put his hand on Gogoi’s head and told him that he had given some power to Gogoi. Gogoi realized immediately and as advised by the sadhu, he built a small temporary temple below the big banyan tree . For the last ten years or so, he has been practicing the same and he does not take any money from anybody. whoever wants to donate anything they can keep the same in a box placed near the shivling. The villagers have helped him to make the temple and and the visitors give him rice, fruits, money etc of their own and those who can not give anything, offered a betel nut with betel leaf which is a symbol of honor in the society. I asked him whether he is teaching these knowledge to someone, he told that he was told by the sadhu that he will be able to know when he is going to die and than only to pass on his power to someone who is needy to avoid misuse of power.

I told these to my friends and colleagues who also visited him and found him to be accurate.

I used to visit him several times and he told me so many things which came out to be true.

Once my elder sister, who lives in another city visited us. I told her the story of Gogoi and she wanted to meet him . I took her to his place. He told her a date and told her to be careful on that date which may be the last date of her mother in law who was otherwise healthy. My sister did not take it seriously. But I believed him. So on that particular date, I started to my sisters house which was about 6 hours journey only to find her mother in law expired early in the morning of that day because of a heart attack.

Mr Gogoi died a few years back. Till today, I do not know what is this super power Gogoi was having. Whether any scientific explanation is possible or not. But, I personally observed this power of prediction firsthand and hence have no other alternative but to believe this as some super natural power.

The definition of superstition as per dictionary is, the belief that particular events happen in a way that can not be explained by reason or science. So whether it is a supersition or our ignorance about so many phenomena is to be left to the readers.

Rajat     04/5/23

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