I will tell you story today.
It was the year 2008. I was given a small stretch assignment at work which should have been completed in 3-4 days. It was some investigations on an application of which I had no idea. The application team was working on a project which was in total shambles and they had to get all hands on board. Typically my bosses avoid looking at my direction during emergencies unless it is an emergency which requires us to vacate the building. But this time they didn't have a choice. And I thought I knew what to do and kept postponing this work until I actually realized that it is not as simple as I thought it would be. Not for my peanut sized brain anyway. And I had realized that only a divine intervention could now possibly save me. I had to prepare a spreadsheet and was supposed to share my findings and that spreadsheet to my boss on a call. I was in a soup and really needed something to calm my nerves before the call.
My usual cure for nervousness is music. And being in the situation I was, I needed a bhajan and that is when I heard this for the first time.
I instantly fell in love with this. There is certain effortlessness in Bhanu didi's singing. There is an ethereal softness and the bhakti is unmistakable. I heard it back to back for a couple of hours while filling something in that spreadsheet. Somehow my boss liked what I filled in there and asked me to do some more investigations on that. The next meeting was in two days. Needless to say, I was in a similar situation and had to get back to Krishna Govinda. And my boss liked my spreadsheet even more and asked me to dig even deeper. This wasn't a simple stretch anymore. I was complete and dirty into this project working on an application of which I had no idea about against a crazy deadline and with a team where everyone was getting on top of each other (and I say this very politely) to get the work done. I was finding myself in a situation every single day and everytime I would turn to Krishna Govinda to calm my nerves. And magically it would happen, things would work out and I was strangely finding myself winning over some really tense moments.
Well, things eventually do work out. But how we go through the time before they do is the important thing to note my lord! Krishna Govinda always came up to my rescue! Always!! And then there were numerous satsangs in Dallas when I would attempt to sing this. Dallas AOL always was kind enough to allow me to have my way and let me sing a few lines. They would actually join in the fun!
This is a very very special bhajan. I had the good fortune of doing the Sahaj Samadhi Meditation with Bhanu didi this weekend. There was no electricity today at the venue and it felt actually being in a Bikram Yoga class. She lead a meditation session and answered numerous questions (without a mike walking around the packed hall to ensure everyone could hear her) with a certain calm and poise I usually associate her brother with. :) I had the good fortune to listen her sing this real up close. And when she sang, it was with the same effortlessness and it was the same ethereal softness with the unmistakable Bhakti.
I sang and I clapped and I was in a moment with the familiar feeling of being at home with complete strangers.
It was a moment I felt grateful for this wonderful life!
