Dr. Govindbhai Patel

Govindbhai heard the 'call of the Spirit' while still young. He was accepted by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo when he was only twenty-one years of age. He started getting valuable experiences as he was gifted with a great capacity for concentration and could open to the occult world with marvellous ease and naturalness. Also that was the golden period in the sadhana of the Ashram. In the author's own words "It was the period, when Gods were called down to inhabit those who were fit to assimilate their consciousness. The Grace of the Divine Mother had favoured and had begun to work upon me and I was dragged many a time in trance and came back with different types of experiences. Once I saw myself acting as a military officer on a mountain in one of my past lives." Dr. Govindbhai reported this matter to the Mother. She not only confirmed it, but added "you were with me in Italy and was one of the best sculptors".

Govindbhai had thus joined the stream of Yoga with varied experiences in the past births. He acquired a certain discipline in no time and started reaping a rich harvest of visions and experiences. This continued for years. But the pressure increased and he had to seek a change into a relaxed pace. He returned to Gujarat to normal life. But in fact it was a return upon life with a measure of Yogic preparedness. The touch of the Grace he continues to receive is nothing but the Yoga applied to life in normal circumstances.

Govindbhai had left Pondicherry, but he had not drifted away. The strange turn he had taken was indeed a significant turn. For he had drifted into the vastness of the Presence. The events and experiences he describes bear it out in ample measure. The life meandering back towards worldliness after years in sadhana will be, to say the least, full of uncertainties. But to him it comes with its itinerary accurately planned and its course minutely charted. He carries the Breath of Grace wherever he goes. Or shall we say that the Breath of Grace carries him safe through all exigencies of life as events seem to come beautifully planned from a high ether. It is the ether of the enveloping Presence. His worldly life is a happy confluence. The sense of deduction with which he leads his worldly life, the spiritual culture which informs his return to life is like the purifying stream of the Ganges absorbing its many propensities and purifying its outcomes. The author's journey in life is a real pilgrimage. Its guiding light is the Grace of the Divine Mother. His difficulties are transformed into challenges, nay, opportunities. He is transported to the place that is destined; he is thrown into the work that is ordained by the Grace. In the beginning he is advised to start a bank which becomes successful. But the Grace that guides his steps has been preparing him for something more directly related to human suffering. He becomes a Doctor; but he is of no specific brand, nor does he prescribe medicines like physicians of high conventional training. He practises the art of healing. And he heals the body with tenderness and faith. For he is healing that which is the instrument and vehicle of the Spirit. In healing others he is always healing himself. He is always growing, his relation always deepening with the vast Presence. The amazing stories of success in restoring sight to the blind, the technique of cure he practises and is constantly developing are all gifts of the Divine to the pilgrim advancing towards the Spirit.

After Govindbhai has left the Ashram, the course of events that follow are very much the same as in any one else's life. He has to settle himself in a profession, he marries, has children, educates them and helps them to settle themselves in life. This is the course that people ordinarily follow. Here we have the story of a veritable pilgrimage. It starts with a well-founded attitude. His marriage is a union of two fighters, as he himself puts it. It was the fighter for the freedom of the Spirit joining the fighter for the freedom of the country. It is a reformist marriage. The fighters join their fighting instincts to fight the evils in life. They start with faith, in themselves as well as in the Power that guides their steps.

Govindbhai speaks of the miracles that follow. But they are not unrelated miracles. His developed intuition helps him to study the mysteries of life and develop a course of treatment that proves itself effective in chronic and sometimes also in lost cases.

Vistas of fame and wealth open up before him. But he cannot be lured. The goal he has set before himself beckons him to the expanding horizons of the Spirit and he presses forward with the zeal of an explorer. He charts a new life of sacrifice and service, as he goes on telling people about the art of living effectively and fruitfully. His pilgrimage into the social life is a transforming crescendo. He inspires as he moves. For he inspires people to a spiritual attitude.