On our five-hour journey from Kuchaman to Bikaner, we shared our compartment with several R.R. engineers. One struck up a conversation saying he was teaching himself English and wanted to practice it. He had served 3 years in the paramilitary and said that he found most of the soldiers to be honest and with good morals. He contributed that to the fact that the majority came from the countryside as he did. This branch of Indian government is not corrupt, he said.

He asked us if we were interested in spirituality and was that one of the reasons we came to India. He went on to say that he was doing a meditation that was associated with Osho but was emphatic in saying he was not a follower of Osho. He also liked Eckhart Tolle’s ‘Power of Now.’ But what we found the most interesting was what he had to say about his wife. It was an arranged marriage and even though he was interested in meditating they had never discussed it.

Three years into the marriage, she asked her husband to get permission from his mother, whose house she was now living in, for her to continue her meditation practice. This was the first he’d heard about it. She told him she had meditated on Shiva since she was five years old and he was very pleased to find this out and persuaded his mother to let her do her practice. It also encouraged him to take up mediation again. He said she would leave her body when she meditated and stay in this non-responsive state for four hours or more. After they had a child, the baby would cry for his mother when she meditated. In frustration, he once put the baby in her lap and told her, take care of your baby! But he was inspired by her ability to go within. He hastened to make the point that he was not at that stage himself but found his practice fulfilled something very important in his life.

The system of arranged marriage continues to amaze us. The unseen hand brought them together.