The Universe Supports You

Over a decade ago, in my early thirties, I was going through a tough transitional period. I had just weaned off my psychiatric medication, which I had been taking for twelve years. My sensory input and nervous system was going haywire, and I was feeling unusually fearful. One night, I woke up from a nightmare in terror. It impacted me so much that the following night, I took a moment before going to sleep to ask the Universe for protection. It was a simple statement, with hands in prayer formation, “Please protect me.” 

That night, while I was asleep, a man’s face came to me in my dream and stared intently into my eyes. He was Indian, and he had white frizzy hair down to his chin. There was nothing else in view except for his face, which was about a foot away from mine. His eyes met mine with so much intensity that it startled me awake. The image of his face was fastened in my mind, and I couldn’t shake wondering who this man was?

A few weeks later, I traveled from Brooklyn, New York to Los Angeles to visit my sister. She told me about a clairvoyant she regularly goes to and recommended her so highly that she offered to pay for my session. I had been opening to a bigger trust in the unknown, and having a session with a clairvoyant sounded intriguing. Before my session the next day, my sister suggested that I look at the clairvoyant’s blog. She posted daily collections of images, poetry and music. I began perusing her blog, and as I was clicking through the posts, I suddenly came face to face with the man from my dream. I nearly jumped out of my chair. His photograph was on the center of the page with a blue bird animation flying over his head, and the words “Worry pretends to be necessary” written as the title.

In the photograph, the man was dressed in a golden robe draped around his bare shoulders, and a white cloth wrapped around his waist. He had orange, red and white paint on his forehead. But most interestingly, he had long dreadlocks wrapped around the top of his head in an orange and golden turban. His eyes had the same intensity from my dream, staring into the camera.

I ran to tell my sister what I had just seen. She thought it was very curious and we both agreed I had to ask this clairvoyant where the photograph came from. 

The next day, the clairvoyant told me that the photograph had come from a Huffington Post article about the holy men, or sadhus, of Pushkar, the Indian pilgrimage town, where there is a fair every October. The article featured a series of portraits of sadhus, which were taken in 2007. That was seven years ago. But the second most electrifying discovery was not the sadhu, but who the author of the article was…my friend and roommate from college, Mallika Rao. I was stunned. 

It took me years to find some rhyme or reason for how this sadhu came to me in my dream. I believe it’s a testament to the web of connections we make on this earth and the super conscious plane that connects those webs, or energy fields. Sadhus are ascetics who give up worldly life and devote themselves to spiritual paths. I believe this sadhu, in his meditation practice, could perhaps access the super conscious plane that connects the people who have seen, or been moved by, his photograph. I was part of that web, and he was conscious of my prayer for protection. Although I do believe in premonitions, the fact that the sadhu’s hair was dreadlocked in the photograph, but frizzy, white and chin length in my dream, suggests that he had aged and cut his hair, meaning it was a genuine real-time connection.

When I had asked the clairvoyant why she had placed a flying blue bird over his head, she smiled and said it represented the “macro” view, while the sadhu’s focus was so “micro.” The second lesson for me is to remember to see the big picture when worry pretends to be necessary.

The Author