An Inexplicable Stroke of Fate

In May of 2000, Robyn was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. She had suffered symptoms of the flu for months, and then, the morning after the 21st birthday party of her elder son, Keeva, she was alarmingly breathless. Nearly two liters of fluid were drained from her right lung, and the biopsy told the story. She had adenocarcinoma in the right lung, and no allopathic treatment was recommended but only attention to the quality of life for the remaining time she had. The prognosis was fourteen to fifteen months.

This news came entirely out of the blue, as Robyn had always paid attention to right diet and never smoked. She was forty-eight years old. It was one of those inexplicable strokes of fate. Robyn and her family, including myself, were devastated.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj was immediately told of the diagnosis, and one week later Robyn and her intimate partner arrived in California on retreat. At the time, Avatar Adi Da was Granting His Darshan (or sacred occasions of sitting with devotees) in a private residence in Los Angeles.

Robyn sat in the front row that first evening during the Darshan occasion, and so she was one of the first to approach Beloved Adi Da and offer a flower at His Feet.

When she rose to return to her seat, Beloved Adi Da motioned her to approach Him, and while Robyn knelt before Beloved Adi Da, her arms on His legs, He laid His hands on her heart and chest and throat and head. This was very unusual, for in a formal occasion of Darshan such as this, Avatar Adi Da hardly ever touches anyone physically.

After a few minutes of His Blessing Touch, Avatar Adi Da Samraj licked His right thumb and placed it on Robyn's forehead, at the ajna chakra, in an upward gesture of anointing — something I had seen Him do only in rare occasions of Spiritual Initiation. In the ecstasy and heartbreak of that moment, I felt that He had taken care of everything Spiritually, whatever was to happen with the disease in Robyn's body.

At the final Darshan occasion of Robyn's retreat two weeks later, Beloved Adi Da blew kisses to her as she left the room and sent a message that she should come back and see Him whenever possible. He had already inquired about natural healing regimes she was moved to adopt, and He asked to hear from her frequently.