Extraordinary Evidence > A Bargain With God

A Bargain With God

Hellie Kalogeros

Hellie Kalogeros has been a devotee of Adi Da since 1972.

This story was originally published on James Steinberg's website, Divine Distraction.

I have been with my Beloved Guru, Heart-Master Da since May of 1972, a few weeks after He officially opened the Ashram in Los Angeles. Since that time I have sat in Darshan with Him hundreds, if not thousands of times.

As was customary of His sitting with devotees in a large group, He would come in, sit with His legs crossed in a lotus or half lotus position and begin to meditate all of us. Most of the time Beloved Adi Da did not move, except to sometimes gaze over the crowd of devotees, making occasional eye contact with people. And sometimes, during certain meditations with Him, His Body would spontaneously animate certain hand mudras.

On one of these occasions at The Mountain of Attention Sanctuary in northern California, I happened to be sitting next to a brand new student-beginner, there for her first Darshan event. She was an older lady, and I was thrilled to see her excitement at seeing Beloved Adi Da for the first time.

When Beloved Adi Da came in and sat down, the room got extremely quiet as it usually did during our time of sitting with Him. On this particular occasion, He began animating hand mudras almost immediately. This was the first time I had seen this happen so quickly. As I sat there with my attention on Him, I noticed something about one of the hand mudras He did, and thought to myself, "That's odd, I don't remember Him ever doing that".

At that point, the new lady student next to me burst into tears, and began weeping uncontrollably. I could see and feel that she was completely touched by the event of her first Darshan. I could not wait to talk to her after the occasion to see how she was doing.

When Darshan was over, and Beloved Adi Da had left the building, I went up to her and asked her what she had experienced. She replied, “You probably won't believe it if I tell you.” Laughing at her response I said, "With our Guru, anything is possible. . . try me!"

She then told me a story that really did blow my mind.

When she was a little girl, she would talk to God constantly, bargaining with Him to reveal Himself to her in life. She said that, when she was in her twenties, she made a deal with God that, if He lived in the world, He should reveal Himself to her by demonstrating a certain hand gesture that only she and God knew about. She had been a seeker for years and had many spiritual teachers. She always looked for them to display the special hand gesture that would prove themselves to be the Incarnate One. But none of them had done it.

This was her very first sitting with Beloved Adi Da. Within the first few minutes of the Darshan, He had demonstrated to her the hand gesture she "required" for proof of the Incarnation of God — at which point, her eyes filled with tears of gratitude. With tears in her eyes again, she told me how grateful she was for her first Darshan occasion.

Thinking back over the years, I reflected on whether Beloved Adi Da had ever done this one particular hand mudra — before or after this one Darshan occasion — and I have never seen Him repeat it in any Darshan I have personally had with Him.

* * *

This leela showed me even more that the story of Krishna and Radha (from the Hindu tradition) is really true. In the paintings where the "Rasa Leela" ("Round Dance") is taking place, Krishna is shown in the center of a circle of female devotees, dancing with one woman: Radha, his chosen one. The other women who are encircling Krishna are jealously (but also blissfully) pining to be in the center with him, all wanting to be in Radha's place.

But in some versions of the traditional story, Krishna dances both with Radha in the center and with each of the ladies in the larger circle.

Adi Da has described this as a way of rightly understanding the Guru-devotee relationship: that He Dances with every one of His devotees Personally and Intimately, each according to their particular needs. . . just as He danced with His new devotee during this amazing Darshan occasion.

Thank you, my Beloved Heart-Master Da.

 

This story appears in
Extraordinary Evidence