November 8, 2002

Today was the fourth day of Kanthar Sashti, the time of the year dedicated to God Skanda. Today was also my third biochemistry exam in medical school. It tested knowledge from a lot of content compared to my previous exams, and hence, I was a little anxious about it. Doing as I always do, I said a little prayer before I left to write the exam in the morning:

“Dear Skanda, please help your child to do reasonably well on this exam. As you have always blessed me on all my other exams, please also bless me to do this exam with confidence in myself and in you. May I some day use this knowledge to help save a person’s life.”

Having said that, I went to do the exam. I was a little sad since I didn’t receive any sign from Sri Skanda. Usually He shows me a sign, either a dream or a vision of a rainbow, before I write my exams. Anyway, I reassured myself,”Doubt not. He is with me.” and proceeded to write the exam.

After I finished, the general consensus among my peers was that the exam was pretty difficult. I too, felt the same. Anyway, I wondered how I fared in spite of the difficulty. As I was on my way to the bathroom, something caught my eye. On the floor of the rotunda of my school was a little rainbow. I gasped and stopped. I looked around and saw another rainbow on the wall this time. And another one on the pillar. And another one, and another one. Everywhere I looked I saw a rainbow. Above me, around me, in front of me, and behind me. I immediately said Sri Skanda’s Mantra and then went to the bathroom.

It was as if Sri Skanda was saying,”Doubt not. I am always with you, within you, and around you.”

Later that afteroon, I received my score on the exam: 90%. This was surprising as many of my classmates only managed to achieve around 75-85%. In our school, the grading system is as follows:

FAIL = <70%

PASS = 70% – 89%

HONOURS = 90% (or more)

With my Guru’s help, I managed to honour (for the third-time), the exams in biochemistry. Thank you Bhagavan Skanda. I knew your grace would help me survive yet another one of life’s tests. Aum saravanabava!