Resairrection

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The Infinite One
Cannot be Understood
Only Experienced

Swami has passed away.

Earlier this month, i was wondering: "Hey, did i pray for His recovery?"  I didn't.  I wasn't even doing the basic stuff, even though He's done so much for me: (snipped from Letter to The Week on their "80th birthday of Swami" issue)

• Swami looking right into my eyes, interestingly enough, on Valentines' Day in 1993 (more in వీడే).
• Getting the Infosys ESOP on His birthday in 1994, which enabled me to shift close to Swami's Brindavan Ashram in Whitefield, just 6.25 km away.
• One of the more interesting dreams is the Flying Dream, where one feels that one is flying, including maneuvering in the sky. I have had this dream a few times in Life and it's always a great feeling. In one instance, Swami was massaging the calf of my leg and, soon after, i had a flying dream that filled me with exhilaration.
• Seeing a huge dark cloud at Puttaparthi and noticing that it was in the shape of Swami looking down at His abode.

Some of His great observations:

• Puttaparthi stands for Put-apart-the-i
• Properties are not proper ties
• Television is actually tele-visham (poison).  Research has shown that frequent viewing dulls the left (logical) brain
• Even though Neti, Neti :-) has generally been translated as Not this, Not this, i think Swami has given the best interpretation for it: Not only this, Not only this, which can be abbreviated to NOT and expanded endlessly liked the Universe (somewhat like God = God over djinn, in Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter).
• When Prof. Venkatraman, who wrote Sai Baba's Final Days - An Eyewitness Account and many other interesting articles, met Swami for the first time, Swami asked him: "What do you want?"  The Prof. said: "I want peace",  to which Swami responded: "Drop the I and the want, and you'll have Peace"!

Some of His humor:

• To a devotee who wanted Swami to give him a haircut: "I am Baba, not barber"
• To a devotee with a BA: "You're a BA, I am a double BA"
• When someone wanted Swami to materialize something alive, He created a monkey that pranced & "pranked" about and disappeared after a while.

~~~*-*~@~

In SEP.2004, He saved me from a monetary jam within the space of 12 hours when i cried in front of His photo in our puja room and, at the end of the month, showed us His Third Eye:

~~~*-*~@~

On Rama Navami in 2007 (March 27), my father-in-law and i found a masterpiece set of 160+ Sundaram Sai bhajans, which i still listen to on a daily basis.  More in Bhajan Cornucopia:

Here's one of my favorites: (in Telugu script; download the MP3)

~~~*-*~@~

Probably, in my heart of hearts, i feel that He's the Formless. Don't know for sure, but this really made me understand what He once said:

The ananth is an anAth
(The Infinite is an orphan)

"Yes, for you, you have Sai. You will pray to Him and get any work done by Him. But whom shall I call? I have no Sai. I am anAth."

The Master explains the mystery of the Incarnation in his own inimitable, pithy way in the Gospel: (page 505, top)

Festival at Adhar's House
…
Even a judge, while giving evidence in a case, comes down and stands in the witness-box.

~~~*-*~@~

Given that we are right on Easter, what could be more fitting than Swami resurrecting like Jesus and living on for 96 years as has been predicted?!


The ToI quoted Tapovanam this morning:

Baba had said he would come back stronger, claims book
…

This was revealed in a book `Tapovanam - Bhagawan Sri Sathya Saibaba Satcharitra Nityaparayanam' in which the author Jandhyala Venkateswara Sastry has written an essay on Baba's ill-health. Saibaba had told his students and followers at his Sai Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal in 2000: "Though most of my disciples fall at my feet, they don't know my real value. A time would come when I would vanish and take a walk across the skies. During that phase, my body would face serious health problems and devotees would be desperately praying for my recovery."

The Baba also goes on to say, according to the writer, that several gun-toting cops would be guarding the premises where he would be hospitalised.

As Saturday marked the 27th day of his stay in the SSSIHMS, many devotees said Baba would soon give darshan. "Time and place cannot hold me captive. I decide when to come back. If I want I can go anywhere and come back any time," he is said to have told students during the discourse.

Be that as it may, Swami is always close to Me and cheering me up through this photo in the kids' room.

The eyes have It.

The words of Ramana Maharshi are still ringing in my ears:

To devotees who begged him to cure himself for the sake of his followers, Sri Ramana is said to have replied, "Why are you so attached to this body? Let it go" and, "Where can I go? I am here."

Water Woe

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The water shortage in BLR has hit Palm Meadows as well.

There were a couple of red alerts that turned out to be red herrings, but there was no point in carping about that.  However, they turned out to be more of dry runs ;-) as we weren't lucky the third time around, and the water supply was stopped as per schedule at 2:30 PM Monday.

One of the guys did a calibration exercise some time back and found that each flush uses about 20 liters.  My ballpark estimates over the last couple of days have resulted in a similar figure, except that the damn thing is on this side of the tail-pipe.  That observation by Michael Caine makes even more sense now.  When asked about the secret of his successful marriage of over 37 years to Shakira Baksh, his response was two words: "Separate bathrooms"!

~~~*-*~@~

I was impressed with Caroline Wozniacki on her comment on how to solve global warming:

Global warming? I’m flying quite a bit, so that doesn’t really help (laughter). Uhm, go green. Make cars that don’t use so much gas. Make them electric. That would already help. Use the buses, the trains, instead of taking the car. When you take a shower, don’t stay there for half an hour. Two minutes is enough. Even the girls.

Two minutes is impossible.  As a kid i was needled about being like Ravana, taking forever in the bath and finishing off food in a jiffy.  But there was a simple idea from last April's issue of NatGeoMag: "Don't have the water running all the while."  So one can still stick to that two-minute usage.

In fact, this morning i was wondering about keeping the shower running, when Prof. V Raghunathan and his defining idea of combining Games Indians Play with the Bhagavad Gita surfaced:

It doesn't matter what others do, one should stick to dharma.

So much for that.  They say:

Happiness is good health and a poor memory.

I have them in reverse.

~~~*-*~@~

Later in the evening, on my walk around PM, i ran into Prakash and we were talking about the same thing when an amusing factoid came up:

Wherever he goes, Shekhar Kapur has a bath from a bucket.  In international hotels, they go crazy trying to locate a bucket & mug for him.

~~~*-*~@~

The hissing in the tap after a break in the supply reminds me of this incident concerning the Holy Mother:

She herself narrated a funny story relating to her experiences of city life, illustrating how strange the environment appeared to her. She said: 'I had never seen water taps before. I came to Calcutta one day and entered a room where there was a tap. I opened the tap. Before the water rushed out, there came a hissing sound, like that of a snake, out of the tap. I was terror-stricken and ran from the room. I at once came to the other ladies of the house and cried, "There is a snake in that water pipe. It is hissing." They laughed and said, "There is no snake there. Do not be afraid. The hissing sound comes from the pipe before the water rushes out." Then we laughed and laughed till our sides began to ache.'

Gunayana

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After almost five years of leaving work, one thing i notice is the lessening of rajas in everyday life.  Content prevails over form.  There's no need to dress up for work or for anyone.  No one to kowtow to.  There's no traffic & road rage to contend with.

Though it's not as much as i would like it to be, there's more of sattva in one's life, esp. if i have a good siesta in the afternoon, like today.  The mind gets cleared of all the gunk and the evening is pure pleasure.  Reactions are muted, one is more being (rather than becoming), going with the flow of the Great Infinite Spirit.

Ramana (Maharshi) says that sattva is a precondition for experiencing bliss.  Unless the waves are stilled in the mind, how can the sun be reflected in all its pristine glory?

I can't thank my stars enough to get work out of my everyday life in 2006.  And, thanks to my general tendency to prefer Shreyas over Preyas (the good over the pleasant), i steer clear of tamas.

The Master gives a startling allusion in the Gospel: (page 294, middle)

Instruction to Vaishnavas and Brahmos
…

"What can a man achieve through mere scholarship? What is needed is prayer and spiritual discipline.  Gauri of Indesh was both a scholar and a devotee.  He was a worshipper of the Divine Mother.  Now and then he would be overpowered with spiritual fervour.  When he chanted a hymn to the Mother, the pundits would seem like earth-worms beside him.  I too would be overcome with ecstasy.

"At first he was a bigoted worshipper of Śakti.  He used to pick up tulsi leaves with a couple of sticks, so as not to touch them with his fingers.  (All laugh.) Then he went home.  When he came back he didn't behave that way any more.  He gave remarkable interpretations of Hindu mythology.  He would say that the ten heads of Ravana represented the ten organs.  Kumbhakarna was the symbol, of tamas, Ravana of rajas, and Bibhishana of sattva.  That was why Bibhishana obtained favour with Rāma."

In an earlier chapter, the Master compares the three guna to so many robbers:

The Festival at Panihati
…
"None of the three gunas can reach Truth; they are like robbers, who cannot come to a public place for fear of being arrested.  Sattva, rajas, and tamas are like so many robbers.

"Listen to a story.  Once a man was going through a forest, when three robbers fell upon him and robbed him of all his possessions.  One of the robbers said, 'What's the use of keeping this man alive?' So saying, he was about to kill him with his sword,  when the second robber interrupted him, saying: 'Oh, no! What is the use of killing him? Tie him hand and foot and leave him here.' The robbers bound his hands and feet and went away.

After a while the third robber returned and said to the man: 'Ah, I am sorry.  Are you hurt? I will release you from your bonds.' After setting the man free, the thief said: 'Come with me.  I will take you to the public highway.' After a long time they reached the road.  Then the robber said: 'Follow this road.  Over there is your house.' At this the man said: 'Sir, you have been very good to me.  Come with me to my house ' 'Oh, no!' the robber replied.  'I can't go there.  The police will know it.'

This world itself is the forest.  The three robbers prowling here are sattva, rajas, and tamas.  It is they that rob a man of the Knowledge of Truth.  Tamas wants to destroy him.  Rajas binds him to the world.  But sattva rescues him from the clutches of rajas and tamas.  Under the protection of sattva, man is rescued from anger, passion, and the other evil effects of tamas.  Further, sattva loosens the bonds of the world.  But sattva also is a robber.  It cannot give him the ultimate Knowledge of Truth, though it shows him the road leading to the Supreme Abode of God.  Setting him on the path, sattva tells him: 'Look yonder.  There is your home.' Even sattva is far away from the Knowledge of Brahman.

RiObama

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I try to follow this funda of Roald Dahl:

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

The other Saturday (26.MAR) i saw this exquisite nugget stashed away at the bottom-right of the International page in ToI.

Even Mr. Obama needs a break, what with his Drinking From a Fire Hose, of late.

Matthew 11:28 goes:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Anyway, this pic came into my head during the morning routine and the floodgates opened up. Mysterious.

Bismillah Khan says it best: (from Visions of Balaji)

In music, the sur is a clean thing, it is a pure thing. It cannot be deceived and it cannot deceive anybody. It is like a mirror in which you see the world, in which I see my own face when I play. When I start playing, the mind wanders here and there and takes me with it. But all the time I am striving for the assar. But when that comes, when the sur clicks, it is like I am unconscious and the heart has taken over. Sometimes I don't understand who is playing.

As if on cue, GP buzzes of his travels in Brazil with this pic at the end:

Christ, the Redeemer makes me cry.