from Swami Kriyananda
When I went to India in 1972, Divine Mother was my traveling companion. In every situation I asked first of Her, “What do You want?”
I flew from New Delhi to Calcutta to see old friends, hoping also to go further south to Bubaneswar to visit Dr. Mishra, an Indian friend I had gotten to know at the University of California at Davis. But I had no idea how to reach him. No address, no phone number, just the name of the city where he lived.
In Calcutta, two young men were to meet me at the airport, but they were nowhere to be seen. In such a situation, the obvious response would be to rush to the telephone to try to contact the missing friends or arrange things for oneself. Instead I turned calmly inward and asked Divine Mother, “What have You got in mind?”
Hardly two seconds later a passenger from another flight, a man I had never seen before, stopped and asked me, “What is your good name?” (That is how people in India ask, “Who are you?”)
When I told him, he replied, “I thought you must be he. I have seen photographs of you in an album shown to me by my friend, Dr. Mishra.”
“Dr. Mishra!” I exclaimed. “I have wanted to meet him. Can you give me his address?”
“No need,” he replied. “I have come to Calcutta to see him! He is staying here just now. I can take you to him.”
And so I got to meet my friend. My other friends had been delayed by traffic and it wasn’t until the next day that we caught up with each other.
As it happened, all the habitable hotels in the city were booked that night. Dr. Mishra happily provided a place for me to stay. If I had had to find accommodations I would have been unsuccessful.
Divine Mother knew and made Her own arrangements for me.
