The Secret of Many Blessings Part 1 of 5 The First Miracles

The First Miracles

In the first five years or my Reiki journey, literally from the first day I was attuned to Reiki-1 in Bangalore, India, my life changed, as miracles and manifestations happened in my life.  Kind of dramatic to say that, but let me elaborate.

In January 2001, I had traveled from Cincinnati, USA to Bangalore, India for just 4 days to see my dad who had been paralyzed and bed ridden by this time for 5 months.  My family, upon my request, had found a reputed Reiki Master, and had arranged to have her come home to a Reiki treatment for my dad.  I had flown from Cincinnati just to be with my dad for this.  I knew next to nothing about Reiki, except that it was some energy healing system about which there were number of healing stories on the Web.  Here I was, standing by father’s bed side, and seeing this diminutive catholic Christian woman, put her hands on my dad, and exuding peace and calm all along the time for an entire hour.  After this session was over I talked to her, and the conversation went something like this:

Sundar: When a person is in such horrible pain (my dad had spastic paralysis where his bones started curling up causing incredible pain, and they couldn’t administer pain killers for some medical reason), and is suffering right in front of your eyes, how come you stood there all peaceful and calm?  I don’t get it!

Susan: When you practice Reiki, you will find that the peace and calm is always there.

Sundar:  But what is this Reiki?  And can ordinary people like me learn it?

Susan:  Reiki is a healing system from Japan.  And yes, you can learn it too.

Sundar (with palpable excitement building):  Do you teach others Reiki? 

Susan:  Yes, I do.

Sundar:  How long does it take to learn Reiki?  Weeks?  Months?

Susan:  No, the first level of Reiki can be taught in 1-2 days.

Sundar:  Will you teach me Reiki?

Susan:  Sure, I will teach you Reiki.

Sundar:  I am here only for 3 more days and I have to head back to the US.  And this is the middle of the work week.  Is there any chance that you might be able to teach me before I go back?

Susan:  Sure!  I will take a day off from work tomorrow, and I will teach you. (Note: Dr. Susan Verghis was a professor of Botany at a college in Bangalore. That was her day job)

Sundar (jumping for joy on the inside):  Really!  You would do that for me?  Where should I meet you and when?

Susan:  Just come to my home at 9am in the morning, and be ready to be with me till about 5pm or 6pm.  I’ll make you lunch while you are there too.

This is literally how I went into my first Reiki level 1 class.  She talked about the origins of Reiki (not just the “Dr. Usui”, Hayashi, Takata origin stories we’ve heard in modern Reiki classes, but also some additional theories related to Tibetan origin, and Lemuria and more) and frankly a decent bit of that was something so far out there, that I could not believe.  In any case, I respectfully listened, openly and with as little judgment as possible.  She did the attunement for me.  Felt nothing. Nada. Zip.  And learnt a bunch of hand positions which I practiced in class.  The main thing I heard her say repeatedly, was to practice this 1 1/2 hours a day for 21 days, and then at least for some time each day after that.

If learning Reiki level 1, under these unusual circumstances was itself miracle number 1, miracle number 2 was waiting at home that evening.

I arrived at home, and sat at the dining table to relax and contemplate what had happened that day.  The chair was an open back chair with an arching steel frame for back support.  When I sat down, I felt something wet and slithery underneath my butt.  I panicked.  Big time!  I yelled.  Arms flailing, I leaped out of the chair from the sitting position.  The chair went flying backwards and crashed some distance away.  The sound of yelping brought me the awareness that I hadn’t sat on a snake, which is what I was freaking out about, but the wet snout and tongue of my brother’s new collie puppy dog, Zeus, who had stuck his face underneath my butt without my knowledge.  Geez!  That felt foolish!  As I calmed down, I felt a deep stinging sensation in my left hand.  I glanced over to find a deep gash on the back of my left hand, and a set of parts around it where the skin had come off, all fresh and ready to bleed.  The dining table was a 100% glass dining table, and my stupid flailing had dragged my left arm underneath the table and over the edges of it and torn off this skin.  “Crap!  Now I have to go wash the wound off and put some antiseptic cream and perhaps a bandage”, I thought to myself.  And then I got this insight (this would the first conscious insight of this kind among a whole cascade of insights like this, the “little voice” if you will, over time), “Hey!  You just learned this healing method today.  Why don’t you use it?  Maybe it will work!”  And for the first time, unquestioningly, I followed that insight (and in time, this habit of listening to the voice of intuition and unquestioningly following what it says, has been a big strength in life).  It was getting dark, and I told my mom that I would step out into the balcony, close the door behind me, and would need to be left totally undisturbed for a while until I come back in.  My mom agreed to keep the door closed and disturbances away.  I stepped out and followed Susan’s instruction to start a healing session and placed my right palm over the injured area of the left palm.  And I kept my attention on the sensation in that area, and in as close to a state of stillness as I could muster at that time, eyes closed.  Sometime later, I opened my eyes.  It was pitch-dark.  I stepped into the home, into the light of the kitchen, and glanced over at my left hand, and was totally shocked to see no gash, no wounds, no signs whatsoever of the stinging hurt and peeling skin that I had seen just a few minutes before that.  “What the f&^%!  Just what the heck happened here?” screamed my mind!  I wasn’t delusional.  I was injured.  I saw it just few minutes before, and now it is gone!  And all I did was what Susan told me to do.  My left brain insisted that this is ridiculous and that I shouldn’t make a fool of myself by talking about this to anyone.  So I decided to simply carry on with the rest of the night, but knew that something amazing had just occurred.  My wound was spontaneously healed. I made a deep commitment to myself, that I would practice the hands-on healing for 1 1/2 hours each day for 21 days, and practice a bit more daily thereafter. If this kind of miracle can happen on day-1, what might happen with practice!  This was my logic / thinking.

And yes, this was only the beginning.

But what was the secret of these many blessings?