The train brought Dharmendra to Haridwar. Roaming all around the town, he gathered information and finally proceeded towards Rishikesh. There he stayed at the Kali Kamli dharmashala. The wheels of destiny had brought him all the way to Rishikesh. Now he was only a short distance away from his final destination, and that distance, too, was about to be bridged very soon.
A large spiritual gathering had been organized in Rishikesh, which was being attended by thousands of sadhus and sannyasins. His holiness, Swami Sivananda, had also come to grace the occasion. Amongst the thousands milling about, his gaze rested on one bright and spirited youth. Although the youth was nineteen years old, he looked like a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy. The youth also looked back at Swami Sivananda in amazement and wonder. The two souls connected at first sight.
Swami Sivananda beckoned him. Dharmendra’s mind had already flown towards the majestic swami, now at his signal his body too rushed towards him. “Ohji,” Swami Sivananda addressed him in his usual manner of greeting, “come and meet me at Ananda Kutir tomorrow morning.” Once the rushing river bursts forth from the mountain’s bosom, sooner or later it finds the ocean’s shore and merges itself in its limitless expanse.
In a similar manner this youth had somehow or other made his way to the doors of Ananda Kutir. The omniscient guru looked into the depths of this youth, he asked him to come to the ashram.
The next day, on April 19th 1943, this radiant youth, ardently intent upon the experience of transcendental consciousness and bliss, set out towards Ananda Kutir. It must have been a grand moment indeed when the youth bowed his head at the feet of the helmsman he had been searching for. Mother Ganga must have danced with joy on witnessing this momentous meeting of guru and disciple. And Mother Earth must have felt ecstatic as well.
Published in Mere Aradhya