My 98-Year-Old Dadi in Honor of Women's History Month

A few days ago, I witnessed a meeting on live streaming when my 98-year-old Dadi, called Janki, was dancing and laughing away! Dadi means Elder in Sindhi, a language from Sindh, Pakistan.  When I was a teenager, she came into my life via my mother and father who attended an event in Miami, Florida, in the 1980's. The live stream conversation featured, "How to Remember God Accurately" by Dadi Janki.

A few months after my parents experienced their epiphany from meeting Dadi, I inherited a mother who no longer raged with anger or lived in fear. My stepfather, who had been quiet and reserved, opened up and became conversational, to the extent that we used to pray that he would be quiet.

Like many teenagers in the U.S., meditation and being spiritual was not of the slightest interest to me. Rather, I thought people who were involved in spirituality were strange, and out to escape something.  I have since had to reform that assumption, as I find myself on a full spiritual path of self-realization.

Dadi met me before I met her. My mother used to show her my picture and Dadi's eyes were on me from then on. It wasn't until many years later that I began to realize that I had someone covering my back, subtly supporting and offering me protection with their well wishes.

I met Dadi on a mountaintop in Mt. Abu, India, at her home, the headquarters of the Brahma Kumaris. I was excited to finally meet her face-to-face and I basked in the sparkle of her eyes. I wanted very much to absorb everything she knew which couldn't be hidden from those eyes of light and strong wisdom. For starters, my mother had been given a new name by Dadi Janki, from Kida, to Gita, an elevated scripture and funnily her real name Kida meant insect in Hindi!  So, when I first encountered Dadi in the living form, I asked for a new name, a spiritual name to make this change in my life tangible and profound. She looked at me deeply and quietly, as only an Elder could. Then she said, "Become sensible!"

 My world crumbled and I left feeling like a poor, unloved or undervalued child. I was furious and disappointed that my first human encounter with this elevated, most powerful gentle force was met with me having to become sensible after my whole 24-year track record in life had been of being an overachiever.  Now, after trekking halfway across the world and sitting in a room filled with pure vibrations and profound power from the presence of Dadi, I'm being told to be sensible?  Great!  Just fantastic! I thought I was perfect and had already arrived.

It wasn't until three days later that I came to realize that she was wise and I understood why I was offered this focus.  She knew I was exceptionally sensitive, it's a Piscean gift which can also be a curse, but it was clear that if I developed more wisdom nothing would affect me. It was then that I knew how valuable my Dadi would be for my development as I found my inner world opening and listening more to an honest dialogue between my percentage of truth and illusion. 

I have learned to listen compassionately to the stories of others and it becomes a tool to learn a lot about ourselves. Dadi at age 19, got her calling to view life beyond traditional bars and left everything behind.  It was as if her deep memory track, which had been tucked away in her sub-conscious, resurfaced and her original bliss returned.  This was the result of her profound meeting with Brahma Baba, my great-great spiritual grandfather who was a lighthouse of purity and love. His download in the 1930's from the Supreme Energy, whom many call God, Allah, Jehovah, Shiva, etc., was not just a moment, but the beginning of decades to come that would mobilize and uplift 50 percent of the world's most untapped potential, women. One of those women was my Dadi.  Impacted by a glance of truth by Brahma Baba, Dadi's whole life changed, when my mother met Dadi, her life changed, when I met Dadi my whole life changed. I am always struck by the power one human being can have on our lives.

I'm amazed by the power of transformation in a glance. That glance changed Dadi and her glance changed me. For 78 years she has remained unwavering in her belief that at the root of every soul is a carved memory of God's radiant light and the vibrations of love and power are generated when we are AWARE of His presence in our lives. She is also firm in believing that when the soul becomes clean inside with its purpose and intention, that soul can transform the negative vibrations of others simply by being clean, loving, and pure hearted. Similarly, Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount, included, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."  I now understand that very well.

Dadi at 98-years-old reminds me of seven key points which I will treasure for a very long time.

1.    Situations might not change, but your attitude must change.  Your attitude creates the atmosphere.

2.    Never doubt yourself, your awareness is power.

3.    Holding anger, lust, greed, attachment, ego (ALGAE) in your consciousness is the doorway to depression and sorrow. Don't feed them.

4.    Get addicted to change by having self-realizations every day.  Keep checking the energy of thought flowing inside of you.

5.    Death has no calendar. Break attachment to the body.

6.    Check your thoughts when performing actions, because repetition of actions creates your nature, future, and realty.

7.    God is here now. Don't miss taking maximum benefit from His ocean of wisdom and love. Keep your awareness positive and you will stay close to Him.