THE HEALING

A friend of mine can ‘heal’ troubled souls!

One day, he healed a very troubled soul… a doting grandmother, that was.

It was a distant-healing! 

The elderly woman was calling from Indore and my friend was in Mumbai. The woman’s distress was this: Her ‘laadla’ grandson had just joined one of the famous colleges in the city. In this college, he made new friends, who hailed from well-off families and, who came to college daily by their cars. Our young-man began to move around in their cars. After some months, the young-man started throwing tantrums at home… He wanted his parents to buy a car for him. Though they could afford to get a car for him, they were against the idea of their young son driving the car to college. 

“No way,” declared the young-man’s parents, “you are too young to drive a car to your college.”

The boy remained adamant and parents, even more. Finally, the boy threatened to dropout of the college. “No car, no college!” he declared.

When this turmoil was on in the house, the most heart-wrenched soul was the young-man’ grandma. Torn between her own son and grandson, the old lady, who doted both of them, first tried to prevail upon the grandson. But, the young-man was not ready to budge. “Tell dad to get me the car,” he put his foot down. The woman, then, tried to convince her son. “No way,” he remained firm. The old lady was left heart-broken.

It was during this period of the old lady’s sorrow, that she called up my friend and sought help. She had great faith in him; she had, often, sought help from him earlier and felt relieved through his help. So, this time around, too, she expected the relief to come.

“Can you do something about my young grandson?” she asked my friend, after recounting to him the entire trouble, “He needs healing.”

“My dear madam, your grandson doesn’t need healing,” my friend gently informed the troubled lady, “You do!”

Obviously, the grandmother did not understand why my friend thought so. She knew that the problem would be solved the moment the young-man dropped his demand… or, the moment his parents agreed to his demand.

“My dear madam, your young laadla is not in pain… you are,” my friend said to the old lady, “Look, he is not concerned about your pain, your troubled heart… He is happy and least bothered about others in the house. Now, who needs to end the turmoil? Who needs peace in the first place?”

The woman was now able to see 

the point which my friend was trying to make. 

She became open to what was being counseled. 

Yes, she became open for ‘healing’.

My friend told her this story:

Once, a young mother approached a saint when her only child was badly ill. The saint calmed her down with his kind words and taught her some simple prayers and urged her to say them through out the day as she went about her daily work. “Everything will be okay, my dear woman,” the Holy man gently assured the anxious mother, “have faith.”

After some weeks, the woman returned to the Saint. She looked even more troubled. In fact, she was bitter and angry. “So much I prayed for my suffering son,” she complained to the Holy man, “still, I lost him.” She added, “Prayers could not save him!”

“My dear young woman, don’t lose faith in prayers… They never forsake you,” the kind-hearted saint reminded the distressed soul. He concluded, “The problem was: you prayed for the ‘wrong person’!”

“Well, what did that mean?” I hope, you will not ask me.

I did not have to ask my friend…

Nor did the young woman, to the Holy man...

Yes, the healing had happened!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics.: Raj Dhage Wai