Goa is our favorite family holiday destination. The beautiful beaches, the good food, the easy going vibe of the place, the vibrant night life all have a special attraction to me and our family. I think from the last 20 years there has always been an annual holiday of mine to Goa either as a bachelor or with family.
So as usual, we planned our annual holiday to Goa. One of the best , cheapest and most comfortable options to travel to Goa is via the Konkan railway . We looked at the various trains to Goa , but most of the express trains were full and we could not book the seat in those trains.
The only option was the notoriously slow Local passenger between Mangalore and Madgaon which has many stops between Mangalore and Goa. It stops at even the smallest station and gets stuck at signal crossing as its usually given last priority when other faster express trains have to pass by. I remember waiting for more than half an hour at stations on it on earlier journeys, waiting for the green signal to move on. It leaves Mangalore at 5.50 am and Its scheduled arrival at Madgaon was 12.50 pm in the noon, but it always used to arrive at 1.30 to 2 Pm minimum and sometimes even at 2.30 pm. This really used to disturb our schedule whenever we have travelled on it, as reaching late and then having lunch around 2.30pm would be unsettling . My daughter would always cry in the train due to hunger and we would reach Goa with a tired mind and hungry body. So we generally avoid travelling on that train. But this time since there was no other option we decided to travel on it.
This time we decided to pray to Guruji before the journey itself that we have a good and enjoyable trip, and particularly the starting train journey would be smooth with minimum delays. We did a Guru pooja before the day of the journey with this sankalpa and also on the day of the journey I did Guru Pooja chanting on the train itself ( in a low voice) before the journey started.
The train journey started and we slowly started to notice that it was going quite fast. To our amazement we notice that even the signal crossings where our train waited for other express trains to pass was going like clockwork. Our train used to wait at junction, the other train which was scheduled to pass used to come within a minute or two and then our train would move on. This happened multiple times and at multiple stations. I was thinking is this Indian railways or Swiss railways which is generally supposed to have this exact time precision.
It was around 12.15 and my wife said that we are slowing down at a station, I think we are arriving at Madgaon. I was sleeping and just woke up and said, its impossible as the scheduled time of arrival itself is 12.50 , But to our suprise it was Madgaon and we reached at 12.25pm which has never happened as far as I am aware when we have ever travelled. Even the taxi driver whom we had engaged to pick us was surprised. He said he was half hour jouney away from the stations as he expected us to arrive only after 1 pm. We had a comfortable lunch at the station.
Though we had done all the prayer asking for a fast journey ,I myself had not expected such a miracle. My logical mind could not comprehend the kind of permutations and combinations which were required to have this journey so fast. There were multiple trains travelling on the narrow konkan railway track at the same time. So generally that is the reason why the trains get stuck and delayed. But on that day all of them ran perfectly and we had a smooth journey.
On that day I truly recognized the power of the Guru, of the Divine and how he takes care of even the small, seemingly insignificant desires of the Devotee. The feeling of being taken care of was too strong and we could feel his presence with us on that railway station. All of us bowed down humbly and we felt truly blessed to be connected with him. Our faith became stronger and more firm due to this experience. Truly if we surrender any of our problems to him, big or small, he will take care.
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