The Indian Guru Who Thought I Couldn’t

When have you allowed yourself to be in a place where you were open to what is appearing now? A place where the universe being able to support you? Enjoy my video or read the transcript below:

In The Passion Test there's a running theme; a story about how I followed my passion,  and how I went to different parts of India and Nepal to interview different masters. At one point in time, I ended up in a beautiful town called Uttarkashi.

Before I went there, I had met a young meditation teacher in Rishikesh, a young boy who hardly spoke any English. In a crazy, spontaneous moment of mine, I asked if he’d like to come with me to be my translator. He agreed to come, so together we went up into the Himalayas, to Uttarkashi.

The town of Uttarkashi was really crowded, and it was when we were looking for a place to stay. I remember being really chilly, and feeling dirty and awful from the trip. My hair was all straggly and I wasn’t feeling so great. But as we stood in one of the hotels, desperately hoping to get a room, I all of a sudden got this hunch; "There's a master nearby.”

I could not pin point who or where, but it was such an unmistakable feeling. I started to look around, when a group of three Indian men caught my attention.

So I walked up to them and asked, "Excuse me, but are one of you a guru?"

One of the three men jumped up and said,

"Madam, you have just hit the bullseye! This is the great Pilot Baba!"

The man introduced me to this ‘Pilot Baba’, who was indeed a very well known Master. Pilot Baba not only had a multitude of followers in India, but in Japan and other parts of the world as well.

This Master, Pilot Baba, ended up inviting me to come stay near his area, where we could talk and I could interview him.

One day as Pilot Baba and I were talking, he said,

"Janet, my group is going to the source of the Ganges. We're all going to trek to the Ganges, would you like to come?”

I thought and replied, "Yeah, I'd love to come!"

But then he thought about it for a minute and said,

"Well, you know it's a little rough. Actually, I might stay back. Maybe you should stay back with me."

I thought, "Are you kidding me!? I'm a yoga teacher, I'm not staying back with you."

In that moment I was thinking inside, "I'm so strong, so powerful and so clear!"

So he invited me to go with his little Japanese following, to trek the Ganges.

The day was a beautiful sunny day, an unbelievably beautiful sunny day. I had on my white punjabi, my white tennis shoes and a little windbreaker. My translator was with me, and we went trekking up the mountain.

But within two hours, of all things, it started snowing.

"You have got to be kidding me!" I thought.

And the next thing you know, I’m acting like a crazy woman. At first, I couldn't stop laughing. Then I couldn't stop crying. I was so bonkers. I felt like I was in a weird place because I didn't know if I was going up or down the mountain.

When we finally made it to the little tent city, which was about a kilometer from the source of the Ganges, I was so ill.  We rented a tent, but the tent had no door. It must have been minus below something, and the cold air was coming right into the tent where I was lying. Needless to say, I was freezing and so terribly sick.

Suddenly, one by one, strangers came stopping in.

Someone had told them, that there is an American who is really sick and cold in the tent.

A woman whom I didn't know at all came into my tent and said,

"Here’s my new blue jeans." She had given me her brand new jeans.

Then there was a boy who came in and said,

"Here, here's my sweatshirt. You can have it."

Shortly after, a man came in and said,

"Here's tulsi leaves, chew on those. You have mountain sickness."

I said, "Oh my God, thank you so much!"

There was someone who came and brought socks. I also remember a man with his daughter saying he had some pills for mountain sickness, saying,

"Take these immediately."

It was one person after another, after another.

The next morning after I didn't die, I woke up and I couldn't stop crying.

I couldn't stop crying because I was in gratitude, the kind of gratitude that was just so great, I knew I was guided.

So often times I plan and make things “perfect” in my life, that I can't tell whether the universe is supporting me or not. But all of a sudden, when I was up in the Ganges I had no choice but to surrender to whatever was happening in that moment.

The question I have for all of you is;

When have you allowed yourself to be in a place where you were open to what is appearing now? A place where you’re open to the universe being able to support you, so that you could see that every moment is a gift?

Because every moment in life is a gift, no exceptions.

With love

Janet Bray Attwood

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