He quit, I stayed back!
The overcast sky accompanying intermittent showers punctuated by drizzles off and on, is reminiscent of the days in late 60s. I was in my teens, fighting. It was a battle for survival, so to say, as it then seemed. Odds were heavy against me. The task ahead was uphill.
Since my school days, Kuppa Ghat on Ganges bank, enamoured me and my friends who knew it as an underground caved path of Mirquassim, that ran through the Ganges river bed to the northern bank of the river. We would often go there. We used to drop inside the underground caved route that extended into dark lengths in which we used to see sanyasins or monks sitting in lotus posture with candle lights.
One day, in a tensed metal state, I drove alone to Kuppaghat , just to sigh and relax , as also to update myself.
There I wondered to see that an Ashram had come up, it was Maharshi Mehi's.
I went inside, to find that Mahrshiji was sitting in a room, with some disciples around, while Sant Seviji Msharaj, his Chief Disciple (who later succeeded him) was reciting from a chapter in Mahabharata.
The episode was that in which the Pandavas , while roaming in a jungle, were accosted by a long tail of an aged Hanumanji whom the Panadvas didn't recognise and committed the audacity of challenging, commanding that the tail should be removed from their way, fetching an answer from Hanumanji that he was old and infirm, resting, unable to move. As such they should lift the tail and clear their way. So on and so forth, as it is not the story which is of interest.
What is of interest is that the story telling and its response in the room was somewhat like a gossip that we used to often hold on trivial issues. But here the story aphorisms came to be discussed very seriously as though something around was going on that evoked instant reaction.
To a young mind of a novice that I was, unacquainted with the mythological background under discussion, it was amusing enough that Hanumanji of the Sri Rama age was being mentioned in the Mahabharata age.
I couldn't endure the irrelevance, hence chose to quit, driving back home, to mention the above irrelevance before an uncle who was an authority in scriptures. There I learnt how stupid it was on my part to have misconstrued the episode of the Mahabharata.
That realisation sent me back to that satsang room, large enough to accommodate some two dozens.
My interest grew, day after day as I kept attending the satsang in which Mehi's Baba's interruption and comments were quite instructive. It deeply relaxed me, giving me insights into finding resolution of the issues I was battling against, though I never asked for it in so may words.
One day, my friend Uday Gopal Jha got curious, wanting to find out where I used to vanish each afternoon for over an hour or two.
To quench his curiosity, I asked him to accompany me, which he did. I ushered him into that room and asked him to sit by my side, while the satsang was midway already.
Whereas I squatted there, erect and resting in peace, I fouls Uday restive. I couldn't figure out, why. Even before I could realise anything, I heard Mehi Baba asking, which he never asked from me on my earlier visits.
Babu aap kaun ho. I was about to answer, but was stopped by my realisation that it was Uday who had been addressed, not me.
Uday gave his introduction but didn't stop , adding even mine for a proxy.
'Aspko kya chahiye?', Baba asked from Uday.
'Mansik shanti', pat came Uday's reply.
'Eh! Mansik shanti', Baba mocked, turning to his disciples one after the other, asking each, pointedly, whether he/they had mansik shanti?
Each gave a stock reply, in one and the same tone, 'no'.
The again the Baba turned to Uday, 'Bade aye hain mansik shanti wale. Aur kuch mango, Mansik shanti chahiye, dekho to bada........'
Even before the Baba could finish, Uday got on his legs, protesting and speaking fiercely, rather venomously, 'shanti nahi to yeha aye kahe hain?' Uday's head was oscillating upon his neck in ire, as if it were a tooth brush running across the teeth. He turned around and walked out, leaving me alone to be the next on Baba's radar, I thought.
'Ha to Babu aapko kya chahiye?'
'Apka aashirwad, Baba'.
'Bahut bahut Ashirwad hai, Lekin Aur kuch mango'.
Then I politely said, nothing was required to mentioned , once a blanket relief had already been give, so I said by specifying a single boon, I would not surrender the blanket relief, I had already been promised. I said in a low whispering tone, I didn't need to settle for just one or two trivial rewards, when the whole treasure had already been laid bare by the Baba.
Baba then asked his other disciples to see what I had said, and explained its implication but before that he asked me to tell whether I was already some one's disciple. I said no, not formally, though I was a trainee under Sw. Satyananda .
That's why, you have got the key. You have a master key and you may unlock and unblock any issues that come your way. He again blessed me, telling me to keep coming.
I kept attending the Satsang , and Uday continued to abstain, refusing to condone the slight that was meted out to him.
My quest had already begun to be answered how blessings materialised. The concept was then not matured enough, but now it is.
I have strong reason to reason it out, without departing from rational base. But the whole point is, whether you are listening, or are about to turn around and quit, as Uday did.
Uday, who is FB friend, might still remember the episode, or has it slipped from your memory? If it is still alive, it is proof that you are still not senile, as many might wrongly believe, as does Hiru. Isn't it Hiru?
