The Protection of the Master
Letters from Col. Chandgi Ram and Lt. Col. Ottar Singh
Any disciple of the Living Master Kirpal Singh Ji who has been initiated for some time and has kept his eyes open has some knowledge of the protective Power of the Master. The following instances are extraordinary only because of their setting – the fourteen-day war of last December between India and Pakistan – and because they show the extremes to which the Master-Power will go to protect those who are trusting in Him.
Of course, initiates do die, when their fate karma runs out, just like everyone else; but instances like these show us vividly that the Master is in control of the whole thing, and if the disciple is able to utilise the gift for his Ultimate Growth, then – the Grace is given.
The letters that follow are from old Satsangis, educated, high-ranking Army men; yet us their words show, they are like little children at the feet of the Master. The letter from Col. Chandgi Ram of Meerut was translated from the Hindi; that of Lt. Col. Ottar Singh was written in English. Both letters have been approved by the Master for publication.
*****
Col. Chandgi Ram,
24 December 1971
My dear Satguru Maharaj Ji
There is not a grain of doubt that Life-Impulse is only possible with Thy sweet Grace. Oh Master – how can we human beings express our thanks to Thee? Our failings are numerous and yet Your gracious blessings are being poured out with Thy hand of protection wherever we go.
Here I wish to relate the happening in which Thy sweet Grace was seen to protect my son, 2nd Lt. Brijendra Singh, who has been writing to the Master regularly. This boy was selected for the Army more than a year ago, and trained in basic military subjects in Madras with sweet blessings of the Master. He joined the Poona Horse Regiment sometime in April or May of this year. In November 1971 his regiment went to Samba in Jammu & Kashmir where they later advanced and fought against this enemy, but he was detailed by name to take a training course in technical subjects at Ahmednagar. He volunteered to stay in the held and tight rather than take a course at that time.
In action at Shakargarh Bulge on the border near Jammu, on 14th December 1971, the electrical system of his tank failed and it was stranded on open ground, making a perfect target for the enemy. Four saber jets soon hovered over his tank, and he decided to take shelter under the tank rather than get killed in the open. He ordered the crew to go underneath, and he followed. Two infantrymen who could not find shelter elsewhere followed him, thus making two men on either side of him. The sabers were continuously bombing and strafing, and killed the four men on both sides of him. Brijendra got splinter wounds in the legs, thigh, and back. He managed to get himself into the tank, which was still stranded with its batteries all run down. As he got in, he saw a picture of Guru Nanak, which was pasted near the driver’s seat, transform itself into a picture of Maharaj Ji and with His usual smile told Him, Koi dar nahin (there is no danger). Brijendra says that he also got a very big smile and made an attempt to start the tank. As he turned the switch, the tank automatically started. He drove it about six hundred yards under a grove of trees, and then became unconscious. He was later evacuated. He keeps a picture of Maharaj Ji in his pocket, although torn in folds.
During his operation he asked me by letter,
What is Simran?
He had been guided by Maharaj Ji to do Simran. Last night Bakhshi Parmanand Ji with his wife came to see this boy and we talked and talked of Maharaj Ji. It was nothing but an intunement with Him and so a form of Satsang. Our failings are numerous; our ability to follow Thee is nothing: and yet Thy sweet Grace is ever ready. Just a thought of remembrance leaves one in an indescribable state; what happens to those who are beyond this stage only Thou knowest. Whenever it is possible, people in Meerut, especially those in RVC Centre School, are very anxious for Darshan. Daya wishes me to mention her Nunaskar.
With humblest submission.
Yours lovingly
Chandgi Ram
*****
Lt. Col. Ottar Singh
4, Magdala House,
Napier Road. Colaba,
Bombay-5
3 January 1972
My revered Master: I bow to Your Beautiful Feet. I bow to the Holy and Gracious Mother.
I wish the Master, Mother, Sawan Ashram and Manav Kendra a very happy New Year blessed with peace, joy and success in their noble endeavours. I humbly enclose my diary for the months of November and December 1971. I also humbly and joyfully state that during meditations I am blessed with the Master’s Radiant Form. …
While by now I am fully accustomed to the moment to moment presence and guiding hand of the Master in my everyday life, I wish to narrate below, out of sheer joy, a significant experience with which I was recently blessed and which shows that the Master’s Love, Grace and protection are ever available to us and more so in times of danger and crisis. When the recent fourteen-day war was raging in full fury, on the 6th of December, 1971, at about 7 p.m. during a blackout night at Bombay, I sat down with brother Lt. Col. Charan Singh in his drawing room to listen to the Master’s tape-recorded discourse and meditate. A short while later the air-raid sirens shrieked and the ack-ack guns boomed with all their might and broke the quiet and silence of a blackout in the metropolis. Naturally all the members of Lt. Col. Charm Singh’s family in their first-floor flat, as well as mine from the opposite flat on the same floor of a two-storyed army house, rushed to us in the drawing room and pleaded that, like all occupants of other flats, we should also immediately go down and take shelter in the compound around our building. But Lt. Col. Charan Singh and I calmed down our family members by telling them that while the Master was present and talking to us on the tape recorder there was no safer place than the drawing room where we were sitting and meditating. So the family members took the hint and while some of them remained in the drawing room the others stood at the windows on the flat’s verandah to enjoy the colourful fireworks, as they told us later, produced by the guns around the dark skyline of Bombay.
And while the ack-ack guns which were located quite close to our residence, were spitting out fire and the Master was talking on the tape recorder in the drawing room, I, in the course of my one-pointed meditation with closed eyes, saw the Master Himself in His dress of white turban, white shirt with a black coat on, and white salwar, walk through the door of the room, go around the room and then settle down on the sofa. (Incidentally this was the very sofa on which the Master sat when He was gracious enough to visit us along with the Holy Mother and other disciples during His tour to Bombay in May 1971.) I saw this beautiful and uplifting vision of the Master going around and around the drawing room and then settling on the sofa until the all-clear was sounded at about 7:30 p.m.
Naturally tears of joy and gratitude flowed from my eyes after the wonderful experience above. And thereafter during subsequent air raid alerts during the war I never left my flat but sat quietly and remembered the Master while the air raid warning was on. I have also not told of the above experience to anyone. I would be glad to share the joy of the above related experience with other disciples, friends and members of my own family, if the Master alone gives permission to do so. I thank the Master for His Love, Grace and protection. With Love and reverence to the Master and the Holy Mother, I remain,
Yours humbly
Ottar Singh