Reshma Thakkar was a 30-year-old woman working in healthcare IT in Chicago when she became overwhelmed by the sense that her life was missing something.
Though she was professionally successful, Reshma felt that her personal and spiritual lives were lacking. As a Hindu woman, she felt as if she should be "married and have two kids" already, but at the very least, the daily grind of focusing so much on work didn't seem like it was God's plan. So, Reshma quit her job, said goodbye to her family and made the journey to India, her spiritual homeland, to find what she was looking for. The documentary "Belief" helped tell her story.
Reshma's timing was no coincidence; she planned her trip to arrive in India for the Kumbh Mela, a sacred festival in which Hindus cleanse their sins by bathing in the water of the Ganges, a river believed to be a living goddess known as Mother Ganga. With 80 million people making the pilgrimage, the Kumbh Mela is known as the biggest religious event on Earth and the largest gathering of human beings in the world.
"A lot of people come here for the blessings, the healing, the community," Reshma said. "For them, it's a personal expression of their faith."
Reshma was looking for the true spirituality that she knew intellectually but longed to feel deep in her heart. As she wandered the riverbank one day during the festival, something extraordinary happened.
"It was the eyes that this man had that just drew me to him. They were warm and loving and just very gentle," Reshma said.
Reshma sat with the gentleman and struck up a conversation about belief and faith, asking him the question that had been plaguing her for some time.
"In America I'm doing well. I have a good life and a good job, but I still feel as if something is missing. How did you get such belief?" she asked.
"It's all given by the Goddess," he told her. "When she enters your heart, you will sense it. Until she dwells inside you, faith won't come."
As the two talked, others sat down and joined them. The experience was deeply moving for Reshma.
"It was just a few minutes of conversation, but I felt like they could see inside my heart," she said. "What they offered to me was something that I'll never forget: When it's your time, it will be revealed to you."
The next morning, the most important event of the Kumbh Mela began. It was the holiest day of the festival, and some 30 million people bathed in the Ganges River. For Hindus, bathing here at this special time was to be embraced by Mother Ganga herself.
Reshma made her way to the water and stepped in. She immersed herself several times. Surrounded by millions of other people all yearning for the same thing at the same time, Reshma had a profound realization.
"The answer I was looking for was within me the whole time," she said. "There's something bigger than us, but that something is also a part of us."
Explore more stories of diverse faiths in "Belief," airing every night from now to Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. ET on OWN.
