When Muktananda sent his wife, Shanti, up to the terrace, he expected her to return freshened up for a visit with her relatives and neighbors—not making declarations about a new religion. Yet there she was, tears in her eyes, clutching a strange book to her chest and announcing the impossible: She had found a new God on the way to the bathroom.
Wife Sick for 10 Years
Shanti had been sick for the last decade, beginning with six years of seizures and continuing with tuberculosis. In a time when her body most needed rest, she was overcome by unexplainable fears each night.
“I almost became insane. … I used to stay home weeping all day,” Shanti said. “My two sons used to cry with me since I was not even able to cook food. They used to fear that I would die soon.”
Throughout her suffering, Shanti begged her gods for relief, regularly performing rituals for their attention. When that didn’t work, she asked her doctors for stronger medicine, but they insisted they were already giving her the strongest dose they could.
Shanti asked her gods and doctors for healing, but neither could help. Eventually, her doctors refused to give stronger medicine, driving Shanti to desperation.
When Shanti started struggling to breathe one day, she gave up on her search for healing.
“I told my sons to bring some acid,” Shanti said, “so I could drink it and die.”
Shanti’s family didn’t bring her acid, but they did watch as her situation grew more hopeless.
Husband Calls Christians for Prayer
One day, Muktananda decided to call a Christian television channel that offered prayer at the end of each show. Obediently, Shanti listened as the Christians prayed over the phone, though she remained unconvinced that it would do anything.
When Shanti’s relatives came over that day, she and her husband talked about the phone call, and the relatives shared that they had Christian neighbors in their building who would also pray for Shanti.
Muktananda decided they should visit these Christians, too, and asked Shanti to go up to their terrace bathroom and wash up before they went.
The whole way up the stairs, Shanti thought, I am not going to make it today. Surely I am going to die. When she got to the roof, however, she found a book called The Gospel of John leaning against the wall.
Wife Reads Mysterious Book
“I started wondering how this book reached our terrace,” Shanti said. “We didn’t know any Christian who would give us this book.”
Indeed, her relatives’ Christian neighbors often gave literature to the many local children who came to visit, but Shanti’s sons were never among them.
With her family still waiting, Shanti began to read the mysterious book and found she couldn’t stop. Her heart filled with joy when she reached Christ’s words in John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I have chosen you.”
Assured of Jesus’ love, Shanti wept as she went downstairs and showed the book to Muktananda.
“I told my husband that this is the real God,” Shanti said.
Couple Visits Missionaries for Prayer
Full of hope, Shanti and Muktananda went to their relatives’ home to meet with the Christian neighbors: Balika and Sadhvi, who served as Gospel for Asia women missionaries, and a local GFA pastor, Kavi, who happened to be visiting.
The missionaries shared the Good News with the couple and invited them to come to church. Later that week, the missionaries came to the couple’s house to pray and tell them more about Jesus.
By Sunday, Shanti had great hopes for her first church service, but they were shattered the instant she walked into the building.
“To my disappointment,” she said, “I found no Jesus at the church.”
All her life, Shanti had worshiped gods by praying before their images, but there were no images of Jesus Christ in this church building. The God she sought was nowhere to be seen.
Missionaries Teach Family About Christ
“I cried a lot that day in the church, thinking Jesus was not there,” Shanti said.
When Pastor Kavi realized what was wrong, he explained why Jesus doesn’t need an image to represent Himself. He encouraged her with the story of the blind man who was healed after praying to Jesus.
That night, the Lord appeared to Shanti in a dream, saying she would be healed. Believing Him, Shanti asked the missionaries to pray for her again.
As Pastor Kavi, Balika, and Sadhvi continued visiting and praying for Shanti, her health improved. After one month, Muktananda and her sons put their full trust in Christ, too.
Since she gave her life to Christ, Shanti’s health problems have disappeared completely. And now, instead of crying with her sons while Muktananda goes to work, Shanti writes praise songs. She also spends much of her time reading the Bible—without which she says, “I would not have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. By reading the Gospel according to John, I believed in Jesus Christ.”
