In the 1980's I was in the Siddha Yoga movement and on speaking terms with some of the swamis. One story of the dozens I heard stuck with me, and Shirley and I, then known as Siddheshwari and Vaman respectively, have found it very cogent as the years go by.

Muktananda had a big ashram in the Catskills and it was there that one of the swamis had a most disturbing dream. He dreamt that his leg was damaged very severely, beyond hope of repair. The dream was so vivid and real that he woke up sweating and went down for his swami breakfast in a disturbed state.

It didn't make things better when the swami sitting opposite said, "I had a dream about you last night. Dreamt you lost your leg in a bad accident."

Living round Muktananda extraordinary things were so commonplace that people weren't usually even surprised at synchronicities that would have blown them away in their home town. But that one certainly got his attention.

At that very moment another swami appeared and told the disturbed one that Baba wanted him to go on the ashram rounds. Baba was what everyone called Muktananda, who often went round the extensive grounds on his golf cart, giving instructions about building, gardening and the day's activities.

The swami hurried off to where Baba usually started his rounds and was walking beside the golf cart as Baba was talking. Without any warning at all Baba swung the cart around so that one of the wheels went right over the foot of the leg that the swami had dreamed about. He then carried on as though nothing whatever had happened.

"Hey Baba," protested the swami, "You just ran over my foot."

Baba grinned at him and said, "It was supposed to have been much worse."

Everyone at the ashram knew what that meant. As an enlightened being, Baba had the power to moderate the karma of the swami, and the little accident balanced the books.

Living a life since then has often produced situations that were somewhat uncomfortable, but we remembered the swami, knew that we were being looked after and that it was supposed to have been much worse. And often we could see how much worse it could have been without our doing anything more than we did.

There were people of every religion in the Siddha movement when we were involved in it and a basic saying that covered them all was, "In your faith the Supreme Being dwells."

We were reminded of that very recently. We heard on the news that there had been extensive damage due to a tornado in Grandview, Iowa, a town where Shirley spent many years. She had an aged friend who lived there.

At Christmas we received an upbeat letter from the lady, who is 90+ years old, written in the beautiful hand writing that was common years ago when people wrote to each other with a pen and ink.

The letter contained a newspaper clipping with her tornado story. When school let out on that particular Friday a group of teenagers went swimming in a pond on the property of one of the parents. But as Iowans they went on red alert when the sky turned a funny green colour and they ran into a basement for shelter, dressed only in their T shirts and swim trunks.

When the tornado feeling died down they came up from the basement and saw that the roof of the neighbour's house had been torn off, and the house was badly damaged.

They knew that the old lady Helen lived there alone, her husband had died the year before. Still in bare feet and swim trunks the teens ran across and saw through the window that Helen was one the floor bleeding from numerous cuts due to flying glass.

The boys jumped through the broken window and wrapped their T shirts round their feet to protect them from the shards as they tried to stop the bleeding, carried her outside and called for the ambulance.

The doctor said that Helen would have bled to death if the boys hadn't acted immediately in spite of having to wade through the broken glass.

The boys concerned are being honoured by governor. Helen spent 4 hours being sewn up, as she put it, and spent seven days in the hospital.

She and her daughter salvaged what they could from the home where she and her husband had lived for some sixty years. Then a neighbour bulldozed it for them and burned the remainder.

Helen's Christmas note was upbeat and cheerful, without a trace of despondency. She is a real Christian who lives constantly in the awareness of the divine presence, and is very grateful to her Lord for the help that was at hand.

As Baba said, "It was supposed to have been much worse" ...but in her faith the Supreme Being dwelt, and took a hand in the proceedings.

And you know people whose day would have been totally ruined because they couldn't find a parking place near their destination. She lost nearly everything in a couple of devastating minutes, and is as cheerful as can be, living in the present. Happy New Year...What you think is what you see, and what you see is what you get.