by Purnakama Rajna
Winnipeg, Canada

I had been living and teaching in a small mining town nine hours north of where I now reside, Winnipeg. I had been in this town for about four years, and had been deeply spiritually seeking while I was there. This town was very isolated and remote, so I would often drive on weekends to the nearest large city and browse the bookstores for anything related to spirituality. I read books from all different paths, from Taoism to New Age philosophy, but the more I read, the deeper my hunger grew.

After four years of teaching school, spiritually seeking, and making my jaunts to the city for my spiritual fix, an inner feeling came over me so powerfully that it was clear that I had to leave my safe little town and move to Winnipeg, a larger city, to find – I wasn’t sure what. I had no idea how this would happen. I didn’t know a single person in Winnipeg. I didn’t have a job there, or a place to live, and I was currently living nine hours away from there, but in an incredible leap of faith I took a leave of absence from my job, and then the universe took over, and set what was to be my new life in motion.

Within a week of making the decision to leave, with only a couple of inquiry phone calls, I had a job in my field waiting for me in Winnipeg. Also, with only one phone call, I had my dream apartment. I had prayed about where I wanted to live, and I had asked for a nice apartment in a house with a nice family, in a particular area of the city, so that I would feel safe and not so alone, as I didn’t know anyone in the city. I was given exactly that.

With all of my living arrangements settled, I started packing up my things, but two weeks before I actually moved, I made one last trip to the city where I bought all of my spiritual books, and found one book that for some reason appealed to me. It was the only book in the whole store by this author, and I loved his picture on the back cover, so I bought it.

One month later, finally having settled in Winnipeg, I saw a poster for a free meditation class. At first I just glanced at it without giving it a second thought. Then, later that night when I was at home, I got a strong message to go and find that poster, which I did the next day. I went to the class a week later. It was then that I realised that the book I had bought a month earlier was written by the same author whose books I was perusing in the class. I got an inner thrill as I had this realisation, and I knew I was in the right place. The book I had bought was by Sri Chinmoy: Garden of the Soul.

I immediately applied to be a disciple when the class was over, and the rest, as they say, is history. Looking back now, I see and feel how my life was absolutely divinely led, as soon as I made the decision to follow my inner calling.