Last year I met my dear friend Rita for dinner. We had not visited in over a year, so there was a lot to catch up on. One of our main topics was the recent break to her collar bone. Rita had been a student of martial arts for several years. On one occasion, her teacher, Dan had decided to challenge her, hoping to get her to break through some fear and hesitation. On his 9th advance, she made a mistake, which resulted in the break to her collar bone. As we talked around and through this subject, I had the feeling that something was wrong. It just didn’t feel like a mere accident.

At some point, I mentioned this to Rita. Rita paused and then began to reflect back on the past month at the martial arts center. She started to devulge the difficulties the teacher was having with money. She mentioned that his wife had recently left him and wanted a big buy out. Rita then began to recount story after story where others were coming to the studio and leaving with a broken collar bones. Something was definitely wrong here. I knew the signs that something was going wrong with this teacher or his studio, but felt no skill in determining what the problem was. I proclaimed to my friend “someday, I’m going to be able to walk into a place like that and know exactly what the problem is and how to remedy it”. (Still waiting for that day, but it’s a wish).

As it turned out, I was able to meet her teacher (Dan) a few days later. Rita invited a group of friends to a reading she was giving with some other writers. After the reading we all went out for Thai food and got acquainted. I sat across from Dan and kept trying to figure out what might be going on with him. I could only ascertain that he was sincere, passionate and cared for the people he worked with. I felt great compassion for him, but that was as far as I got.

The following Sunday, I had done a mantra meditation with the Grace Light mantra, Arul Perum Jyoti. After the meditation I laid down for a nap. When I awoke, I was compelled to go to my altar and ask Datta to give me some insight on Dan’s situation. I prayed to Datta and was first shown a past life where a man was filled with rage and would beat people up. It was hard to witness as I could also feel these emotions. As I observed, I felt a vibration move out of my body. I knew this feeling well, it was karma moving out. I was used to feeling this on many Pradosham nights as Datta would remove my karma. So naturally I thought Datta was gracing me with some karma removal.

I asked Datta if there was anything else that I needed to see about Dan. I was then shown a man who had been a soldier. He was a very cruel man and enjoyed hurting helpless victims. Once again this was so difficult to witness and once I felt these vibrations moving out of my body.

To make a long story short, I had intended to give Dan instructions on prayers and rituals to remove karma and sin. Instead, I became aware that Datta had immediately removed Dan’s karma on these issues. I sent an email to Rita with this information and to my surprise found out that Dan had been at her house when Datta was removing his karma. Rita and Dan had been talking about the changes in his life and he mentioned that he felt somehow his life had already shifted. In fact, Rita said he never displayed that kind of rage again at the center. He told her that he had tried so hard for so long to get rid of that rage. Now it was gone. It also seemed to alleviate the high rate of broken bones at the center.

I had prayed for others in the past regarding their issues and knew some karma had left them, but this was different. Datta took Dan’s karma out as if he were a devotee. Though Dan had never heard of Dattatreya Siva Baba, the master had heard Dan’s sincere prayers and came to his aid.

Om Dattatreya Siva Baba thank you for your grace.