It was time of summer when we were playing carrom, we all cousins and 2 elderlies. The topic of discussion was that of our family guru. I am an agnostic person to be real and have kept denying the advices of guruji ever since. Mom said there are things beyond our understanding so we should do as he says in case of bhakti and holy rituals, to be exact out of her unknown she chose to be misguided so as to feel free from all the confusion. My father is a calm man in this matter, that's the combination i'm allowed to be like i am. The way my mom's friend was talking about this ashram she went to made her look less intellectual to be sure.
"There is this mountain near the ashram and the local people from nearby villages consider it to be holy, they have a banyan tree grove at the top and a river lost from himalayas re-emerges from this mountain valley, at the valley entrance is the ashram which is managed by the local tribe people and guruji who himself is a practicing physician." She kept on talking.. I was totally following her till she said "yagya", my mom just got to know this new atmashudhhi yagya that is a pooja ritual which is gonna make every one of us god's favourite. The thing was that we do not get a say in this but we looked at dad and he too was looking anxious hearing the expences of these rituals.
My cousin brother was about 3 years older and we had a different plan in mind, The same mountain range had this river rafting camp where they were arranging the mountain trek and dedicated river rafting training of 4 days with stay in tents and camping in forest.At this point I must clarify that he had been an earning member in family so he worked his way out of this plan to his plan, but i could not convince my own parents i was told to behave and listen to their adventurous sadhana, fun activities in ashram! I did some arrangements for our dear guruji though...