Acting on the advice of Muni Jai Kumar ji, Anamika had now started establishing a shield by chanting the Logass (the hymns sung in praise of the 24 Jain Teerthankaras) before her meditation in the morning and the evening. This also resulted in an increase in the time she took for meditation. The practice proved beneficial as she was relieved of some of her physical pain and it began to appear as if the dark forces would not harass her any more.

Unfortunately, the practice was perhaps not adequate and in just a few days, Anamika’s suffering began to resurface. On the one hand, Anamika built the shield around her with complete dedication and meditated, on the other, the dark forces returned from time to time to frighten her and cause her physical pain. Wearing black clothing, they would surround her from all sides, abuse her, make loud noises, and pressurize her to stop her meditation.

A new occurrence, however, brought some hope. Anamika had begun to visualize divine forces as well. Anamika had begun to feel as if the divine forces, wearing white clothing, were seated all around her and chanting the Navkaar mantra to encourage her to continue her meditation with complete resolve. Whenever she would question the divine soul about this, she would get a similar indication to continue with her meditation.

Sitting in the same room as Anamika also gradually helped me understand when she was faced with the dark and evil forces and when she was visualizing the divine forces and the divine soul. Depending on who she was visualizing, the entire expression on her face would undergo a transformation and one could easily determine her encounters. Of course, neither I nor any of her other colleagues sitting by her during her meditation could see, hear, or feel anything of what was being visualized by Anamika.

Now, there had arisen a terrible predicament ahead of me – the journey was a long one and there appeared to be no solution in sight to the problem being faced. There was the constant fear of untoward incidents which loomed ahead.

And then, an idea came to my mind.