Arvila Shah, is a devotee of Gurudev, and lives in Matanchery, Cochin.

1991 Cochin: Arvila ben’s husband had just passed away. Gurudev came to Cochin and stayed at Jayshree ben’s house. Much excitement spread in the vast Gujarati community in Cochin. Arvila was 39. It was not even a month since her husband expired and per tradition she was not supposed to even go out.

That was when Mridula, a close friend told her of Swami Chinmayananda who had come and was being hosted at Jayshree ben’s house! Arvila had not even seen, let alone met Gurudev, nor did she know anything about him. Meanwhile friend that she was, Mridula went and told Gurudev about Arvila and her untimely loss. And soon she was at Arvila’s home urging her to come along and meet Gurudev. A confused Arvila looked at her in-laws who told her she must go. And Mridula took her to see Gurudev.

An already stricken Arvila bent down and touched Gurudev’s feet and Gurudev placed his hand over her head and gave her an orange as prasad. He told her she must eat it by herself, it was not to be shared. And Arvila did just that.

Arvila had the onerous task of taking care of her husband’s business in spices. A commodity business on top of that! It was scary. She was a science student – a Bachelor of Science, what was she to know about commodities? Her boys were less than 14 years of age, there was no way they could do anything, and her in-laws had retired from active working. Arvila slowly got into the groove of her husband’s business. She who knew nothing about accounting, banking, finance, managing people…. she was getting involved and even understanding the business..

Often she marveled at her own self and wondered about her newly acquired skills.

Seven years layer she ran into Saroj ben suddenly. Saroj was another friend she had known many years. Saroj said, come, join our Bal Vihar. The children are sweet, you listen to what they learn… And Arvila agreed. She had no objection..! “And that was when it hit me! I realised so much about Gurudev and where I got my ability to do business and look after my in-laws…!” says Arvila ben. She now remembered with clarity that the Swami had blessed her specifically.

To continue in her words, “I started reading his books with a passion. Hindusim was not main to my life as I am Jain. But I liked his books, I liked reading and now I liked reading what He had to say. Then I joined Devi Group for a year. I enjoyed all that and then it all stopped. I moved on with work and looking after my in-laws.

The classes may have stopped but I still regard him my Guru and get my inspriation from him.. “Every time I look back and think of those years, I am stunned. Even today when I
open the records of the business, I wonder how did I do all that? Where did the ability and knowledge come from? I don’t know how I did it all, I knew nothing of accountancy or signing cheques… but I did all that for 12 years!

“It is amazing that when I met him that one time, I did not understand a thing but 12 years later in 2002, when I was reading his books, it came home to me that it had been his grace all along… His shakti that gave me support to raise my children, look after my in-laws and manage my husband’s business. Because of his grace I was able to bear that pain. That one meeting, that one blessing had set me for life…..”… and it was His Grace too that Arvila realised His Grace

-Excerpt of an article from Celebrating Gurudev – Arvila Shah (09-05-2015)