It was August 26, 2026 and water was rushing furiously into the tunnel of the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric power plant in Nuwakot, Nepal. Sanjay Sah, a 30-year-old mechanical foreman, stayed in the control room shouting for his colleagues to escape. “When such an accident happened, it would not have been right for me to run“, he would say later.
That decision left him trapped 170 meters inside the tunnel. Without light. Not knowing how many hours passed between one silence and the next.
There, in total darkness, he began repeating a mantra that he had learned as a child: the Hare Krishna. He recited it again and again, and shouted from time to time so that other trapped workers would know they were not alone.
That is how he endured nine days. Almost no food. No certainty at all.
On September 4, 2026, a rescue team found him alongside Kabir Maharjan, his colleague. When asked what day it was, Sah replied without hesitation: nine had passed.
He walked out. He was the first to cross the mouth of the tunnel into the light.
That day, in Nepal, Krishna Janmashtami was being celebrated: the festival of the god whose name he had repeated underground for more than a week.
Sometimes faith does not promise that nothing bad will happen. It only promises that, if something bad happens, you will not be alone waiting for the light.
