WHEN I MET THOSE SPIRITS IN THE WOODS......

I was a regular jogger and practiced yoga on regular basis until last year I met with two successive accidents. Both the time, my right leg was hit and that too at the same spot, my right joint. Jogging became a painful experience after that and I couldn’t perform forward bend asana and other poses that stressed too much on my right leg, for it pained a lot. I gave up jogging and yoga altogether.

I took up meditation for time being and started meditating a lot. Reading the bible is one of my best hobbies, I also started reading other spiritual books, books written by Osho, Deepak chopra and Dr Joseph Murphy. I don’t know what was happening within me or my mind but I started getting weird dreams in the night, dreams that drained me of all the energy within me, everytime I woke up, I woke up really tired as if I was fighting with someone.  I started talking and screaming in the night.

My parents got worried and advised me to keep a bible beneath the pillow before I went to sleep. I shared this problem with my girlfriend and she thought I was just making a fool of her but then when I constantly stuck to what I said, she understood the seriousness of the situation. She started praying for me every day and talked to me late till the night, singing songs for me at times until I fell asleep. The bible worked wonders and so did her love and care. I stopped getting those nightmares.

Months passed by like this, I gained a lot of weight. I weighed 72 kilos now and for a 5 foot four inch guy, this much weight came under the heavy weight category. I started jogging again once the doctors declared me fit and once the pain was over. I get free after 6 in the evening and reach the jogging track by 7 pm, that’s the ideal time for me as I would rarely find any one there and I could jog on my own without any disturbance. Even if there was anyone left, he or she would be preparing leave. The club where I go is an old one set up in during the mid 50’s and 60’s, there was a jogging track, football ground, basketball court, golf court, hockey stadium, a gym and many more in one single place. Each sport was located at a considerable distance to each other. Everything was made amidst a forest and there was vast greenery all around.

It was a pleasure to spend some lonely time in the woods, there was this bridge there below which a stream of water flows during the rainy season, it was dry though now, as summer was going on and around it was dense cover of trees, shrubs and climbers. It was my habit that once I was done with my jogging, I use to sit on the bridge and meditate for a while as it calmed my body and I just loved the feeling of a sweat drenched me, cooled by the winds of the forest as I kept my eyes close.

Today was a windy day, as I went for my daily jogging session, I was already late. There were just a few human souls left and they too were preparing to go. It was already 7.15 and the cover of darkness was falling all over. I started jogging and I found it difficult to jog as the wind was blowing against me, I still continued jogging but felt like it was a different day, I felt my body had become heavy, running had become quite difficult. By the time I ended my third round, I felt my body breaking, falling apart. I felt difficult to breathe but I still continued and was determined to finish atleast 5 rounds. By the time I finished my 5 rounds, I was quite exhausted. Never did I feel so tired. I was sweating all over, sweat was trickling out from every single pore of my body. As I came out panting, I noticed there was no single soul left.  I went straight to the bridge and sat there with the right leg resting on the thigh of the left leg and the left leg was hanging on the bridge. I rested my hands on my joints and with my fingers made the gyaan mudra. I closed my eyes and felt the heavy breathing within my body. I could feel my sweat drops flowing down my body lanes. I was engrossed in my ownself when suddenly I started feeling uncomfortable sitting at that place. I could feel the winds around me, whistling and making sounds. The place was dead quiet and the sound of the wind made it quite alive. I opened my eyes to find trees before me and I saw them making weird shadows on the ground.

I closed my eyes again to meditate but some unknown fear began creeping into my mind. I felt as if something was unusual with this place. I opened my eyes again and this time I found spirits around me, souls hanging in air moving around me. I felt  shivers within my body.  I felt dry in my throat ,I closed my eyes again. When I opened it again, everything was back to normal. I checked my neck and felt assured that my cross was still with me. Jesus is there  to protect me. i felt relieved. A voice within me said, it is not safe to stay here now, move out as quickly as possible. I didn’t had the guts to disobey the voice within. I ran towards the gate and as I came out, found three men talking to each other. I felt good after seeing them. i don’t know why but I did. They were surprised to see me as they never expected any one at this hour to perspire on the ground. I kickstarted my bike and drove back home thinking about the experience I just had. As I reached home, I thanked God to bring me back safe and I was determined to go back again to test my guts. Those visuals were back again.......