Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
one of Baba's chief aides - that I could teach at the Brindavan college
in my spare time. In return, I got to sit in Baba's house whenever I
wanted to, or whenever he was there. This, I came to realise, meant
that I saw a far more personal, human side of him, occasionally being
jarred back to reality when he materialised objects and
vibhuti
inches
from my nose, or sit, suddenly still, remote, with eyes that saw into
undreamed-of realms. Eyes that saw all.
Over a period bordering on several months, all he ever said directly
to me was 'Yes, yes . . . very happy.' It was open to many interpretations.
As before, the material life gradually overwhelmed the spiritual one.
If there was anything that became clearer, it was again the utter
necessity of realising Truth within. Like other teachers, Baba
did
operate on inner levels - nothing else explained the intensity of one's
inner life around him - but, in so doing, he made it very clear that
his physical presence was now more of a hindrance to me.
The interior experiences I had over this time are beyond the scope
of this topic and my talent, but, once again, they finally flung me
back into the world, the real battlefield of the
Bhagavad Gita
. That
was where one had to apply the lessons learned inside.
Simultaneously, my interest in India broadened now. The more I
read, the more fascinated I became by the sweep and majesty of its
very long history, the intricacies of its culture and society, both good
and bad, and the ways the past coexisted with a present that most
people still saw as the foundation for the country's future.
'You gotta serve somebody . . .'
- Bob Dylan
'Now,' I said to my students at the University of Bangalore, 'you've
all read Shakespeare's wonderful tragedy,
Macbeth
- so, before we
start examining why it's so wonderful, does anyone have any
questions?'
A resonant silence descended upon the acoustically challenged
room, broken only by a creaking of chairs, the gurgle of metabolic
processes, and the short-circuiting of brain synapses. Faces looked
as if I'd caught them masturbating.
Then a voice said, 'If the Macbett is believing these sadhu womens
