Here was someone who just embraced me right in front of her door. No woman before Diptiben outside my closest relatives had ever embraced me so tightly. I was taken aback.
Way back in 2003-4, I was told by some person casually that I should visit a Reiki Master for my Achlesia. Dipti lived in Bangalore just a few miles away, so one fine day I decided to visit her. I went to her house early one morning and rang her doorbell. I could hear her dog barking away to glory.
Dipti is a short stature lady but very kind-hearted and divine. I asked her if I could learn Reiki from her and she agreed. I started learning Reiki from her but she refused to accept any kind of compensation from me in the second year. I learnt a lot from her which had a lot to do with spirituality, not just Reiki.
One day, she told me to accompany her to meet her Buddhist Master. We went there and I got initiated into the path of Medicine Buddha, the Buddha of Lapis Lazuli. Her Master was none other than the teacher of the Dalai Lama.
One day I decided to get initiated from Dipti Ben herself so I sat at her feet catching them hard and implored her to take me as her disciple and initiate me. She picked me up and sat me down next to her and spoke very kindly. She told me that I am troubled because my veil hasn’t yet lifted. She said She cannot be a teacher to a very Venerable Master. I was shocked and asked her what she meant by that. She said that in due course of time I will know who I am and then I will know what she meant by it. I hoped that I will get my understanding sooner.
Again another time, Kalpana asked me where I used to go every day and who was this person. I told her to accompany me the next day. Diptiben gave her a warm welcome and they both being Gujarati started talking in their mother tongue. Kalpana asked Dipti why I behaved like a savage and an uncouth person! Dipti told her that I was passing through terribly troubled times spiritually as I was trying to find my identity. Kalpana was not convinced with what Diptiben said so I asked Diptibens permission to grant an experience of what I go through every single day. Diptiben said that I should offer Kalpana an experience of that divine. A few days later Kalpana got her experience when she got up early in the morning. She sat completely riveted to her bed and she couldn’t move her limbs or body. She went into a deep state of consciousness and samadhi. Much later, I tapped her and asked whether it was enough for her or not. Her tears streamed down in an incessant flow. She came out of that trance state and said that she now understood what was happening to me. After that earth-shattering experience, she never asked me what happens to me every day.
Diptiben left for the United States in 2006 and thereafter I only met her a couple of times.
