THE BOY, THE SWAMI AND A RAINY DAY

Many many years ago a young boy ran into what was then known as the Swami Vivekananda Ashram (now called the Swami Ramakrishna Ashram) in Halasuru, Bengaluru – not because of any love for the Swami or the Hindu Dharma but because it was raining and in the long stretch connecting old Madras road and CMH road this was the one place that seemed ideal to shelter from the pouring rain.

The boy walked into the main hall where a few people were singing bhajans – it was the time for the evening aarati. He walked in and out as the bhajan did not appeal to him and instead went around the little temple and then his eyes fell on the little stone plaque embedded into the wall with the words:

“Every soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy – by one, or more, or all of these and be free.”

The boy stood transfixed staring at the words – reading and re-reading those words. It was like his feet were nailed to the ground below, unable to move. He stood there for no less than 30 minutes oblivious of the men, women, and children filing past till the time one of the young monks (who he would later come to know and respect as Shankar Maharaj) asked him what he wanted and the young boy shuffled away without a word.

For that young deracinated boy it was a homecoming, a return to his source. He has since traveled the world but he has always come back home like a bird with a string tied to its feet – reeled-in each time he crossed a threshold…

I am that boy from many many years ago. I am eternally grateful to that “Hindoo Monk” who woke me up and brought me back into the fold of the Dharma. I have never shared this before but today on the occasion of his 155th Jayanti I was instructed to share it and so I have….Please don’t ask me by whom, what, or why – some things are best left unsaid…

ॐ…