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I am blessed to be born as the
Grandson of Late Dadanbai & Dr.Premchand Manghirmalani & son
of Sou. Shobha & Sachanad Manghirmalani. From my early
childhood I have be guided to the path of devotion, religion &
rattional thinking by my mother and my father. I my early days
of this life my grandmother taught me the basics of life and
philosophy. She also introduced me to Gurmukhi and Guru Granth
Sahib. I am thankful to her till date and will remain so for
teaching me the first lines of Devotion and explaining to me
the meaning & need of those lines.
In my schooling days, though I was a
brillant student and was always amongst the top ranks, I
lacked convention in the teaching that was imparted at school.
Somehow even though I learned things taught at school with
great interest & understanding, I never felt that this
education was creating any change in my thinking and life.
Quite a few incidences happened in my schooling days, which at
that time seemed like hell, but today appear to me as the most
beautiful experiances one can ever have. Since my schooling
itself I was drawn towards disscussing philosophy, life,
religion with my parents and teachers. I also joined Computer
Classes as Computers was the second thing that appealed me.
Once one of my Computer Teachers gave an important instruction
for using computers as well as living life. "Computers & Life
have limited resources", he said "We can only run a few
applications at one time, however if we run some front-end
programs effectively we can always have resources to run some
back-end applications. Simliarly if we perform our
materialistic duties effectivley, we can always perform our
spiritual duties". This discussion brought about a thought
process in my life and also further taught me that if only we
can increase the resources we will be able to run more
back-end applications, till such time that these back-end
programs actually become the main front-end applications. That
took me on the path of opening a small Computer Firm and also
studing law after my 12th.
The happenings which brought me more close
to myself are two fold.
 First my visit to Tirupati. For quite
some time before this trip I was advised to read
"Autobiography of a Yogi", even I saw this book a couple of
times, however I was not inclined to purchase or read it. But
on this journey to Tirupati, I was lucky to get a copy at the
Station Book stall, by the time we reached the Devasthan, I
had gone through major part of the book and the words there in
by Paramhansa Yogananda were already creating waves in my
mind. The experiance of standing in the DARSHAN que for about
3 hours and the view of the diety for about a minute also made
me more inclined to devotional and spiritual mind frame. The
best part of this trip came when befote the return journey, my
father bought me some more books. While handing those books to
me he said, read this & you will find answers to most of your
questions. This was the collection of various books by Swami
Vivekananda. These books took me to where I belonged. I leaned
the basics of life and religion from these books.
The second incident which following in
coming days was death of my grand mother. It so happened that
she was not feeling well and all her family members went to
see her in her last times. Me and my sister however could not
make it then. (She was living with my uncle at Burhanpur at
that time). By some divine grace, my grandmother recovered
from her illness & to disbelief of many she laughed and shared
many happy moments with her near and dear ones. This did not
last long though, as after a few days we again recieved a call
announcing her sickness. Again most of the family members
gathered there except me & my sister. On her death bed with
chances of her death at any moment, she somehow withheld her
life force, it did not took long for my father to realise that
she was waiting for someone and that someone can be me or my
sister. So he immediately called us to Burhanpur. We reached
there, to find the almost dead physical condition of my
grandmother. My sister asked her. "Amma, who are you waiting
for ?" and those who were present there including me and my
father saw her raise her hand and point a finger to my sister.
Later we were told that last time she wanted to listen to my
Sister reading out Bhagvad Gita to her, which could not happen
as we were not there.
My sister sat beside her reading Gita as
the rest sat in silence. I usually don't sleep during daytime,
but that day I felt like and went to sleep. I had dream, which
was not far from a divine vision, I saw my Grandfather coming
in a Golden Chariot (My grandfather had left for heavenly
abode before my birth). He signaled and my grandmother joined
him in this chariot. I ran to them as the rest just watched
frozen. I sat near my grandmother's feet, she & my Dadaji
blessed me. I stood in mid-air hands folded as i saw the
chariot vanish, both my Grandfather & Grandmother turn to
flourosent sources of light and merge into what seemed like a
giant sun. I was woken from this state by the cries, of my
family members, "She is no more, but I don't want you to cry"
my father told me. I was silent for that day and the next. It
was the third day that my human emotions overflew and I shed a
silent tear in memory of my grandmother. That dream vision,
those two days of silence awakened all the thoughts, feelings,
knowledge, quest in me & is still leading me on this path to
Realisation.
Waiting for my sister by grandmother made
my belief in Guru Granth Sahib more rigid as my grandfather &
grandmother both were strong followers, and I witnessed the
powers blessed by this divine Guru upon my Grandmother.
Once during the days of my junior college,
I told my father, I feel like I have no aim, no purpose in my
life. I was expecting some encouraging words, some goals, some
aims to be set from my father, but he scolded me saying that a
person without an aim is dead, why are you alive then. This
again made my belief in Divine Purpose of my life more rigid,
If I am
alive, I have a purpose !
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