Enjoy stories of divinity and divinely inspired beings

[Guest guest]

Swamiji quoted from the Ramayan , that one of the ways of staying

inspired and on the path is to enjoy stories of divinity and divinely

inspired beings. What better way to start than by a story on Swamiji

himself ?

 

Swamiji talks about how he served his Guru when he was in India.

Sushil (who went on to co-author the book "Sahib Sadhu" in later

years ) and Subod are devotees. Swamiji is the perfect example of a

disciple doing seva so that the Guru may continue with his practices.

 

My acknowledgement and thanks to the author Siddhananda . Please

refer to article http://www.shreemaa.org/article04.htm

 

 

Swamiji says :

 

In my own experience, in my own development, I built my Guru an

ashram. It was 40 feet wide, and 60 feet long, with a straw roof, and

a havan kund,and that was the ashram. With Sushil and Subod, I

actually built the ashram. We carried the mud, and we made the walls

and stuck the bamboo in, strung the roof, baled the straw, and we

made this 40-foot by 60-foot ashram. The walls were 3 feet high, and

the rest was open so the smoke could go out. We put a havan kund in

the center, Guruji sat down and chanted the Chandi 9 times each day

for 3 years.

 

Sushil, Subod and I would travel around in an oxcart from village to

village, and we would sit down in every farm house, and I would play

harmonium, Sushil would play finger cymbals, and we'd sing Hare

Krishna and All You Need Is Love, we would take whatever they would

give us. We'd put out a gunny sack. Somebody would give us a can of

ghee, someone would give us a bag of rice, somebody would give us

some dal, and someone would give us wood. We'd fill up the oxcart and

we'd walk...we walked 100 miles in a week, all around the interior of

Bengal and Bihar, and we'd walk through the rice paddies and along

the wagon tracks to the interior villages. We'd sit down at every

farmhouse, every courtyard and we'd sing, and not say a word. Well,

we'd say, "there's a Yagya going on" or "whatever you want to put in

the yagya" and people would come out with a bag of rice, clean dal,

and we'd fill up the gunny sacks, and we'd go back to the ashram and

Guruji would be chanting the Chandi all day long.

 

In doing what I did to support my guru in his sadhana, I got the

privilege to learn the Chandi, to see India , to learn six Indian

languages, and to get the Bhava, the flavor and the desire to do it

myself. And so I was able to sit for 1000 days on four different

occasions. That's how the Chandi became part of my life. As a

privilege, I gave Dakshina to my guru.