This is an unusual story which illustrates the strange ways and circumstances that Shri Nathji as God manifests and unfolds, to fulfill even the weirdest of the wishes, of a man who just offered one casual Pranam. A great example to illustrate the age old saying : Man Proposes; God Disposes.
Naval Officer Banka Swami (Whose photograph is given) is the younger brother of Shri Nathji’s devotee Shri Gopal Swami. Unlike his elder brother, He has always been a rational man and never had any faith in Shri Nathji or anything other spiritual entity for that matter. Being a Naval officer he was posted to serve many days on ships while his family was housed at some remote Naval Stations by the sea. Thus he was always away from his home town in Punjab. As luck would have it, he was able to secure a posting for some time in Delhi at Navy Directorate of Manpower Planning and Recruitment (DMPR). He was happy in Delhi as now he was always on dry land, living with his family. He had relatives is Delhi and he was close to Punjab. His daughters were also pursuing higher education in Chandigarh and Delhi and he enjoyed the relative easy desk work here then the life of a sailor at sea. Time arrived for his eminent transfer and he was unhappy that he will now have to leave his comfortable posting in Delhi and be will be sent to join a ship stationed in Kerela.
Gopal Swami once came to Delhi and met his bother Banka. From there, while leaving for Shri Nathji’s residence, he also persuaded Banka to accompany him to meet Shri Nathji. As Banka had nothing better to do that day, he agreed to accompany his brother only reluctantly. He came for the Darshan of Shri Nathji with his brother and while leaving said rather carelessly to Shri Nathji: “This is the last time I am meeting you.”
Shri Nathji was surprised and asked why he said that? He said that it was only a stroke of luck that he managed to be posted in Delhi for some time and he is now going back again to join a ship. As a Naval man I can never come back to Delhi or anyware in North India for that matter as Navy is always confined to the sea. So as he is leaving Delhi he will never be able to meet Shri Nathji. On hearing this, Shri Nathji smiled and said to Banka that it seems you do not want to go to Kerela. Then where is it that you wish to be posted. Banka found this question amusing and answered in a fashion a man is told to describe his day dream, fully aware of the fact that it will never come true. He said, he wishes to stay with his family while posted in the beautiful city of Chandigarh. To this Shri Nathji said : “My blessings are with you.”
Now there is no Naval station in Chandigarh or any ware in Punjab, or for that matter in any town in India which is not by the sea. Only exception being, the recruitment office in Delhi, where he had already served. So there was no Naval Base in Chandigarh, nor there can ever be, unless continental plates drift rapidly and Chandigarh ends up by the sea. So it seemed to him that he had stated a wish that can never materialize no matter what. He as such had no faith in Shri Nathji and his desire was all but a utopian fancy, thus he had no reason to believe that Shri Nathji had actually granted him his wish there and then.
Tomorrow he stated packing up to be ready for the unhappy departure to Kerala. But he got orders not to leave Delhi, and instead proceed to Chandigarh in Punjab, where a new Naval station is now to be set up. He could not believe this, but much before he can fully comprehend what has happened, he was packed off with five other Naval Officers to immediately set up and take charge of an office for the Indian Navy in Chandigarh.
Now it so happened that during that time (1989) the Indian Navy had newly acquired a new class of aircrafts called Sea Harrier, from British Aerospace. It was technologically very advanced jet plane and only aircraft in the world to vertically take off and land, like a conventional helicopter. These aircrafts were meant for India’s two aircraft carriers INS Vikrant and then the newly acquired INS Viraat. Provisions for repairs and overhauling of these planes were done at some Naval stations like the INS Hansa in Goa.
In a most bizarre of decisions, the Navy suddenly decided to make an extra station to carry out repairs of Sea Harrier (Whose photo is given above) in Chandigarh also. Perhaps they thought that Chandigarh already has a large airbase were the air force had an existing maintenance and repair workshop for jet fighters. They decided to also house a Naval maintenance station next to the existing air force maintenance base. The Indian air force has 60 airbases all over India, including several large inland airbases close to sea like in Bhuj, Madurai, Lohegaon in poona and Kalaikunda at Kharagpur, etc. So why an additional Sea Harrier maintenance base was a made in so far inland Chandigarh remains a mystery.
Banka Swami was a sailor, not a aviator or Naval Pilot. So it was weird that he was posted to an aircraft maintained base. Banka had a very comfortable stay in Chandigarh up to the period of his retirement from the Navy. He literally had no work here as NOT EVEN A SINGLE SEA HARRIER JET EVER CAME TO CHADIGARH FOR MAINTENANCE, the original purpose for setting up of this Naval Station so far away from sea. So Banka Swami lived a easy life of no work and good pay. He lived comfortably in Government accommodation with his wife and three daughters, who studied in Chandigarh. He was back in his region among his family and relatives. About three to four years after being posted to Chandigarh Banka Swami retired from the Navy from Chandigarh itself. He was not transferred any ware in this period and upon his retirement another great miracle happened. The Navy suddenly woke up and took notice of the useless Naval Base in Chandigarh were no work has been carried out what so ever, since its inception. Better sense prevailed and the Navy decided to immediate close its useless base in Chandigarh and recalled back all its remaining 5 officers. THIS NAVAL BASE WAS CREATED BY SHRI NATHJI ONLY FOR BANKA SWAMI AND IT EXISTED AS LONG AS HE REMAINED IN THE NAVY.
Meanwhile Banka Swami continued to stay happily in Chandigarh as he had already purchased his own flat in the city, by the time he retired. Then after retiring from the Navy he immediately got a very lucrative job in a company “Gabriel India” in Chandigarh itself. Two of his daughters married and settled in USA and his youngest daughter is married in Chandigarh. These days Banka Swami and his wife shuttles leisurely between US and Chandigarh, still enjoying the boom of Shri Nathji to stay happily in Chandigarh. Many a times, Shri Gopal Swami told his brother Banka to go for Shri Nathji’s blessings or atleast offer his thanks to Shri Nathji for haulting his posting on to the ship and miraculously stationing him in Chandigarh. But Banka never came to see Shri Nathji again. It seemed his conditioned brain, figured out some perfectly rational explanation for the sudden decision of the Navy to set up a base in Chandigarh to service the Sea Harrier planes. He couldn’t see that the Sea Harriers just become a “bahana” – an excuse, for Shri Nathji’s divine plan to unfold.
For that one reluctant Darshan and Pranam and perhaps the fact that he was the younger brother of His dear devotee, Shri Gopal Swami, Shri Nathji gave him this boom. But he was not granted any divine recognition. To those, whom the Divine Light chooses to reveal, no miracles are necessary to inculcate faith and devotion. For others, even an avalanche of miracles may not induce faith and willing surrender to God.