It was the second week of September of the year 1981. The Summer heat was becoming tolerable by then. Rather the mornings had already started becoming pleasant and balmy. During this time a team of teachers visited our school from Australia. They taught the TM meditation technique to the whole school. It was initiated into the world by Mahrishi Mahesh Yogi.
These white gentlemen possessed a calm composure. There was an apprecialble serenity on their faces. It took them about a week to impart the meditation technique to the students and the teachers. The day before we were to be given the Mantra, we were asked to bring an apple and a handkerchief to the school.
The apples that we brought were placed on a table in a corner and covered by a handkerchief. One by one we went to the teacher and received the Mantra in the form of a whisper. It was very much like the way a secret is told where the speaker places his hand like a wall alongside his mouth and the ears of the listener.
After receiving the Mantra we meditated and later on ate the apples. The soothing weather and the tanquility obtained by meditation was a wonderful combination. The inward journey was a novelty for me. I started practising this meditation regularly. After about an year those teachers sent a message to the school and sought a kind of feedback. "How many of you still meditate?" asked the Principal during the morning assembly. Two hands were raised. The other student was Praveen Kulshreshta who meditated occasionally. But I meditated exactly as it was prescribed twice a day and carried on doing so for about two years and eight months. Finally I discontinued when I developed a taste for Gurbani Kirtan which provided me with a wholesome spiritual diet.
I would honestly acknowledge that the TM meditation technique was an important milestone in my spiritual journey. I am sincerely thankful to the Australian teachers for that. They might not have earned any dollars by their efforts. But they certainly earned a lot of goodwill which is a currency of great value in the spiritual world. May God shower his blessings upon those Australian teachers for their selfless and kind service!
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