SOMETHING I HEARD OR SEEN OR BOTH....

I came to Amethyst a bit early that Sunday of February...Amethyst is a Chennai Intelligentsia joint with a beautiful lush tropical garden surrounding a colonial style old bungalow. It has a very nice dining Hall and an outside veranda around it where one can dine too. All that, at the Center of the busy South Indian metropolis of Chennai (ex-Madras)...

I was alone and I wanted to eat something that would give me back that energy I felt I had lost during my short stay in my Hermitage in Kolli Hills. I thought the new type of Diet started to be effective. Is it going to be good for me?....

The surgeon who did that angioplasty in my left leg artery two months ago had given me a jolt: “either you change your Lifestyle or you die of a heart attack soon” he said!!! That was indeed a powerful kick. I woke up. I looked up on the Net where I found about the Ketonic Diet. I thought it would be powerful enough to force me to stick to it and LOSE WEIGHT...I thought the new type of Diet which I think is rather effective could be good for me. Yes, it was effective considering the 6 kilos I dropped off from my aging body in about one month +...

However now, I needed a meal, a once a week meal little step out of the draconian new path. Later on, I found out that once in a week out of my new draconian menus would help my Mind to relax (a kind of a breather!!!) so that I can continue my Keto Menus with a renewed fervour and shed more of  all those ugly fat folds around my body. At the same time it would boost my aging better health, and who knows, maybe a better and  longer life?

I brushed aside all those ideas and to divert my mind out of that health issue. Here I was now, typing on this machine about my physical feelings and what I heard at the tables around me. I was now “all hears” and very curious to know what those people came to share. After all, Eating at a fancy restaurant is meant not only to satisfy one’s palate but, also to show one’self but also, to see the shows of others around us. 

Basically, those people here did not seem unhappy and not too worrying as to when they will be able to get their next meal!!!...Pretty women, handsome men, or old crumbling oldies with a protruding belly, their wrinkled face spouses with wrinkled face dressed in all silk saree straight from the latest Mumbai Fashion...One young couple came few minutes ago along with a trotting infant girl. They are now sitting two tables away...the kid is screaming at the top of her shrill voice. Small human being but, Oh boy, what an eardrums piercing sound. It reminded me of “The Countess of Castafiore” of Tintin as I was wondering how such a small and frail looking little thing could emit such a high pitch sound!!.

On my right, three women are endlessly talking...small talks, not at all of the highly intellectual kind...a bit loud blas blas blas...the other side of the passage, around a table, a small family time to time have a decent laughter. I am wondering how and when they are able to catch a breath and keep on talking. Others were busy taking group pictures from every possible angles but, thank God not the intrusive kind...Of course, some were busy taking selfies with their smartphone, one arm around his friend shoulders and the other with a “victorious V” fingers.  I was wondering what victory they was to leave to posterity with their snaps. Meanwhile, a young cute couple was looking in each other’s eyes, smiling, holding hands. In a far long table, the other side of the dinning hall a group of people is having a good time, eating, cracking jokes, laughing, having a good time...it is Sunday in Amethyst, in Chennai...

Dressed in a black uniform the waiters are running from one table to another delivering piping hot dishes that had been selected...Eyes are following them, mouths salivating and wondering if it was to be given to their table. 

It is Sunday as usual the place is crowed with hungry customers. Some are waiting for friends to come and join them. One waiter is standing, puzzled in his run to deliver, wondering which table it was supposed to be given to. Probably a new waiter!   

 

At last, my orders came, all together, entrees with main course. I probably had been forgotten and my dishes must have been waiting for their delivery to customers table for. That old Frenchman was famished...

about a weird visitor to our Ashram Hermitage in Kolli Hills

Today, 27th Feb 2011
On the 25th of February 2011, a Frenchman by the name of Pierre (name changed) had requested me to join me and stay in our Hermitage so that he could be taught about my path which he wanted to follow. I Picked him up from the Meridien Hotel in Chennai at 7 am and drove him to our Kudil in Kolli Hills. A seven hour drive from Chennai. However, from the start I had found him rather odd but could not put my finger on the reason why. Was it his shifting eyes? Was it his strange way of talking? Though he kindly offered and paid for our breakfast on the way, he showed a weird way of behaving the next morning by just walking out of the Hermitage to walk the 12 km and back to the Temple Arapaleshwara Swami and the waterfall, skipping his breakfast with us. He just walked away...we a could not care less about the very reason of his stay with us. However, I resigned to the fact that after all, if he wanted to visit the temple and the waterfall, to know about the Hills it is normal.

From that day and upon his return from his walk, he started to behave in a weird manner. He spent most of his time on the Net and according to Ani and Sunny he spent his time working on Financial Sites, obviously working on some share portfolio. He was busy online the whole day. In the night, during our conversations that had nothing to do with Spirituality and which subject was never talked about during his short time with me, he mentioned about his health which had called for a Doctor intervention in France. He never came forward with any details. This made me guess he had some mental issue. My guess was true as what happened the next day will show. 

The Next day he woke up at about 10 am which seemed strange to me as he had woken up at 4 am the previous day despite the long journey we have had. Was it the effect of medicines to quieten his impulses? The whole morning he did not bother to come to me and show his interest in Spirituality. I was wondering why he came here. 

Before lunch, Sunny our Hermitage Manager came to me. He was in a huff and in great annoyance. He informed me that the Frenchman had shown forcefully his displeasure to the fact that the Internet connection in our Hermitage was not working properly and was angry to the fact that he could not 'WORK". He told Sunny he had selected our Kudil because it is mentioned in our website (www.aumnamahshsivaya.org.in) we have Internet. It sounded very strange to us that he was concerned about not being able to do his work. He was not here to work but rather to learn about my spirituality and put it into practice. He showed his anger to our Hermitage Manager who, of course was very irritated by this out of the blue burst of anger of this man. 

The Frenchman decided to leave. I did not hold him back as we did not want to have a repeat of the stay few years earlier of another French person, a woman whom we had learned was taking a treatment for schizophrenia !!!. He had his lunch with us at the end of which I wished him a safe journey and  goodbye...

At the gate of our Kudil, he boarded his buss at 5.30pm on his way down to the plains: Namakkall from where he would board another one to Salem and out by train or bus to Vizakapatnman as this is where he was aiming to go for some Oil/petrol/gaz strange deal....good riddance!  

Why am I plagued with this kind of supposedly "Spiritual Seekers" who come to me on for material benefits. I must be more careful in accepting people to visit me in our Hermitage or anywhere else.

2 seconds ago

reconnecting...

It has been a long time since I wrote my last blog. Actually, I hardly went and checked if there were any comments. To my surprise, there were few of them. It made my think that after all I was not just pasting a note on a wall no one would see...it did attract attention and I thought that after all maybe it is worth to write more on it.

Years have past by and many things have happened. Good things and not so good things. Some were nice and others not so nice. All this made my mind active as to what is this all about. I became more and more inquisitive about myself. Of course, my readings, my meeting with some persons as well as my personal feelings about the Ultimate made me feel deep inside me the Reality of the Self. It made me understand how futile all our passionate fights towards who is right and who is wrong, about the Knowledge of the Divinity that "rules" us and all are. As we ARE the All. We are not a part of the Ultimate. We Are the Ultimate. We are not part of this Universe. We Are the Universe as there is Nothing we Are not.

in Haridwar, 1998 

sitting on the Mandapam we built on top of our Mountain overlooking our Hermitage. Peace 

Avadhuta Gita, Chapter I

Sloka 17
For you there is nobirth or death,
for you there is no mind,
for you there is no bondage or liberation, no good or evil.
Why do you shed tears, my child?
Neither you nor I have name or form.

Sloka 21
Know that which has form to be false,
that which is formless to be eternal.
Through the instruction of this truth there is no longer rebirth into this world.

Notes by Swami Ashokananda: knowing oneself as eternal, one is not born into this world anymore, since incarnation is caused only by the soul's ignorance of its true nature.

Sloka 22
Sages say that Reality is one only and the same.
And through renunciation of attachment, the mind, which is one and many, ceases to exist.

Note by Swami Ashokananda: "one" is high (but not the highest) state of illumination, and "many" in the state of ignorance.

Sloka 23
If it is of the nature of the not-Self, how can there be samadhi (superconscious realization)?
If it is of the nature of the Self, how can there be samadhi?
It is both "is" and is not", how can there be samadhi?
If all is one and of the nature of freedom, how can there be samadhi?

Note from Swami Ashokananda:by "it" it is meant the Universe of Experience.
by "samadhi" it is meant the quieting and extinction of the mind, as a result of which the eternal Truth is realized. Dattatreya maintains that the practice of samadhi has no justification. If the universe of our experience is the not-Self, then we are not in the state of samadhi, for the Truth is not there. If our experience is of the Self, then samadhi is superfluous.

in our Forest surrounding our Hermitage in Kolli Hills, Tamil Nadu, South India 

Swami Pranavananda at his Hermitage, Kolli Hills, Tamil Nadu, South India, Nov 2003 

Swami Pranavananda at Haridwar Kumbha Mela Feb/March 1998 

Posting for the first time

Aum Namah Shivaya

To start this blog, I would like to give two slokas of the Avadhuta Gita (Song of the Free) by Dattatreya and translated by Swami Ashokananda of the Ramakrishna Mission.

Chapter II, Sloka 1

Of the teacher - even if he be young, illiterate, or addicted to the enjoyment of sense objects, even if he be a servant or a householder - none of these should be considered.

Does anyone shun a gem fallen in an impure place?

Chapter II, Sloka 2

In such a case one should not consider even the quality of scholarship.

A worthy person should recognize only the essence.

Does not a boat, though devoid of beauty and vermilion paintm nevertheless ferry passengers?

These two slokas should be read and meditate by all those who criticize the behaviour of their Gurus, Teachers.

My personal Guru is a very simple, almost illiterate man and could shock many of the so called highly educated people looking for 'enlightment'....however, no one can remain indifferent to His charisma, his aura, his teachings coming through him wordlessly. Yet, he has his wicknesses but, I consider these as only those of the body of my Guru as it does not affect in any manner the value of his teaching.