Power of Belief

“Keys for room number 209, please”, I asked the lady at the reception at Hotel Fidalgo in Panjim. I looked at the clocks at the reception which were displaying the time of all the major cities of the globe. Suddenly my searching eyes could locate the local time which said 7:55 for Mumbai. At the same time my colleague Mr. Kulkarni was also asking for his keys. The lady could find neither of the keys. Mr. Kulkarni excused himself for some time giving the lady some time to get it, he moved on. I was waiting for the keys, my limbs aching. To add to it the day’s work had left my upper back in excruciating pain that I go through almost every evening for the past decade in my life. But today it was hurting really bad. The onset of a viral infection could not have come at a worse time and I was feeling being eaten up by it. I could sense the ascending temperature in my body. Feeling weak, I mumbled to the lady “Is it going to take long for the keys?” to which she replied “I’m getting it” and disappeared into the back office. With no option but to wait, I hung on for a couple of minutes and then I realized that tonight’s the last evening of my trip to Goa this time. I had to buy the customary cashew nuts; this time it was more urgent as the premium produce of Goa were supposed to be carried by my parents who were going back to their parents in Dhenkanal in a week’s time. It was a restless wait as I was torn between my physical inability to get the cashew nuts and the wait for the lady at the reception to give my room keys so that I could go back and give my body the much needed rest.

In a couple of minutes, I took the decision to go out and get the cashew nuts. There was a Zantye’s shop just in the block behind my hotel. I struggled to find from half the distance that its closed. “Zantye’s is the best”, the words of Nilesh, a Goan colleague, were ringing in my mind. So buying cashews from another shop was a big NO. As I was mumbled “What a day its been for me!!!”, it occurred to me that another Zantye’s outlet is at the other corner of the block albeit a smaller one. I tried my luck and there it was open, as if waiting for me to buy so that he could call it a day! I got the cashews and my back sack suddenly seemed like a big stone on the back to be dragged back to the hotel.

My keys were ready and I somehow found it to get back to the room. I already had my dinner with Mr. Kulkarni at 7:30 on his insistence contrary to my wish to get it served in the comforts of my room. It had to be the earliest dinner in my life in the last decade and a half, but a good one due to the company I had!  I took the self-prescribed medicines which also included a pill of 650mg Paracetamol following which I had to pack up my bags. I did it with great difficulty but had not choice as I had to check out early and did not want to mess it up in the morning. Each and every single muscle was aching and with a more pronounced pain in the upper back. As I hit the bed with a temperature which must be around 101-102 degree Fahrenheit, I was shivering. Although air conditioner was switched off, the chilled air from the supply grill of the Air Handling Unit was bleeding and it was making life difficult. I put my socks on so that the matter did not deteriorate. The next day was important as the focus of the ongoing audit at our Goa plant was on complaints something that I had been on location for the past week. I couldn’t miss this due to the fever. As I was thinking thus and put on my efforts for sleep, I recollected my wife’s request of not discontinuing my daily prayers during the call she made when I was having my dinner. I thought “God!! No…. spare me tonight, I’ll continue my prayers from tomorrow”. It had been almost a week since I had stopped my daily prayers owing to a very hectic schedule and then due to the viral attack which had left me so weak. It was a Monday, and this was the day of the week in which I had elaborate prayers for Lord Shiva which included chanting the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra 108 times.

I had become weak not only physically but also mentally as I pleaded to God: “Please forgive me for this last time, I’ll start my prayers as soon as I get well”. As if a directive from God, a thought flashed in my mind “How are you going to get well if you don’t pray?” With great difficulty, I again pleaded, “Oh God, I’ll pray in the sleeping posture as I’m too feeble and in too much pain to sit and chant the Mahamrityunjay for  108 times”. I started chanting and by the time I had chanted for 4-5 times, I had garnered the mental strength to go for the 108 chants and that too with the regular Padmasana posture (seating with legs folded and arms straight and resting on the knees). Now it was the time to muster up the physical courage to go for it. I sat down and chanted the mantra for 108 times with astonishingly comfortable ease. As I completed the prayers, I tried to sleep. In 5-10 minutes, I started sweating profusely with itching in my legs and heat radiating out of my body. Within 15 minutes, I was back to normal as if nothing had happened to me. Gone was the fever, the weakness, the aching muscles that I was afflicted with since Friday night. It was as if the viral infection was jettisoned off the body through the itching in legs and the radiating heat associated with it. I was hale and hearty all of a sudden.  

Was this the power of the powerful mantra from the Rig Veda? Being a pharmacist, my mind argued, it was the fourth day of the viral infection and it does get better from the fourth day onwards. The believer in me asked, why then was your 650mg dose of Paracetamol took 2 hours to subside the fever on every intake before the miracle happened? Is the Paracetamol powerful enough to make a mentally and physically worn out person in just a matter of minutes? The answer was obvious. The reticent person that I am could overcome the inertia to write this, was it because I had the will power. It’s an overwhelming feeling that the belief system took over to overpower the illness on the 9^th of July 2012 and now today its once again wrestled out the laziness in me to put together this for you to read.  Wasn’t this some sort of a miracle…..the alleviation of my pain, which I have gone through, and me getting on with writing this, which everyone close to me would agree.

Thank you for the patience of going through this. Peace be with you.