4. THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

Within a period of 2 years, I visited this World Teacher 4 x. On 3 occasions it was to experience his 3 ashrams, located in different parts of the south....the main ashram in his birthplace in Puttaparthi known as Prasanthi Nilayam (Abode of Peace)...another in Whitefield, Bangalore, a third in the hill station of Kodaikanal. 

My 4th visit was with a few friends who wanted to 'check him out' after an international spiritual conference we attended in Madras. Despite warnings by local Indians that the ride was long and dangerous, we traveled 10 hours by taxi and had a few close encounters with huge speeding trucks, buses and an excavator along stretches of narrow rural roads which became pitch dark as soon as the sun sets for there were no street lighting and no electricity in the villages.
 
We returned to Madras none the worse for our journey much to the awe of the Indians who must admire our guts. 

The lesson is - one's travel companions must be like minded. The 3 of us embraced each moment, we were totally opened to whatever comes and simply Allow. Faith may have something to do with it. These 2 friends are my fellow pilgrims traveling Home together supporting each other on this journey call 'Life.'

I started my search for Truth and its meaning late in life but things seem to be accelerated as I gave my all into researching great spiritual writings by several Masters and their closest disciples who acted as their conduits on the physical plane. I started by reading a few books by devotees passed to me by friends, they were ok, the writers were relating their personal experiences, it was light reading. 

One occasion, a colleague asked if I could accompany him across the road after work, to an Indian temple. He was invited for some ceremony and did'nt want to go alone. A room in the temple was used by a spiritual society, it was beautifully calm and peaceful when I walked in. A large picture was in the middle of that room, I took it to be their guru but did'nt know him. Behind him on the wall were 5 smaller pictures, I recognised 2 - Jesus and Krishna, the rest must be yogis, I concluded. 

As I stood looking at the pictures, the thoughts going through me were ' Who's this man?' 'Who are these people on the wall?' 'Why is Jesus among them?' My colleague was clueless, he was there because he did'nt want to say no to his friend who invited him. When the ceremony began, a lady gave a little speech, they were gathered there to commemorate the mahasamadhi (the conscious exit of the soul from the body) of their guru, whom she referred throughout as Master so I never got his name. Soon after, I left quietly.

That week, I popped into a Sai centre to sing some bhajans - Sanskrit does something to me, I seem to feel lighter. 
A chap I discussed books with once before, placed a book into my hands, saying, I may want to read that. I was stunned into silence. Looking back at me from its cover was the exact same face I had seen in that room in the temple just a few days before.

All the questions I had in mind than were answered in that book, the autobiography of an enlightened Master. 

I plunged headlong into researching this Master's writings and for 2 years was a student of his lessons about Universal truths and right living, human values, meditation and energising exercises to charge the body, and diet. All his writings are published and distributed through the Mother Centre in LA where Master spent 30 years teaching, writing and lecturing throughout the US and Europe.

It has never ceased to amaze me that profound tomes on complex very abstruse esoteric science are written by those who are not from English speaking societies, who become conduits to disseminate this knowledge to earnest seekers of Truth who are led to that source of knowledge when they are ready. 

I never attended University, my life's learning came from the School of Hard Knocks and the Social University. My life experiences are my greatest lessons. Mark Twain once said that he never let school interfered with his education.....I second that.

When I go through such profound writings, I don't have any difficulty understanding them. I became selective in my reading, settling for writings by Masters - straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. In any case, as a member of spiritual societies, the books in their libraries will take me a lifetime to read. 

High education has nothing to do with spirituality - it's an evolution of the person and more importantly, that person's soul. The message to me is obvious - don't waste anymore time, I've started late. Another obvious message - all great Masters belong to the same club, the same brotherhood of evolved souls whose task is to bring the one Truth to earnest seekers.

I may have had special personal experiences with 2 Masters, yet I'm not a fanatical follower of both. I remain open to any other knowledge that may come along and I continue to discover and explore other sources of writings, albeit I do less reading now.

I'm not actively involved with any centres which after all, are in the hands of committees who are more keen to grow their memberships for memberships translate into dues/donations which keep the place going. The committees inevitably preach that their Master and their source of knowledge is the right one, the best one, the only one, and you don't need to look anywhere else.

Among centres, you'll find rivalry, jealousy and egoism, attendees associate themselves only with 'our centre.' It's organised religion all over again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell, whilst the great ocean of Truth lay all undiscovered before me.'

Isaac Newton.