35053668-Empire-of-the-Soul-Paul-William-Roberts

‘NO LIKE A-FEESH?’
Om Asatomah sat gamayah
Tamaso mah jyotir gamayah
Mrityomam amrtam gamayah
Om Shantih Shantih Shantih
Baba had once told us that this was the only request worth making of
God:
Eternal One
Lead me from the Unreal to the Real
From Darkness to Light
From Death to Immortality
To be with Eternity in everlasting peace
With around five hours to go, by my estimate, I was very surprised
to see a sign reading Puttaparthi 30 km, assuming it was an error for
300 km. I mentioned it to the driver, who’d shot past the turn-off
indicated by this sign, anyway, and he brought us to a slithering halt,
backed up to the sign, nodded, and then turned off down the side
road.
‘Thirty kilometres?’ I inquired, laughing sagely.
‘Half hour more arriving,’ he replied.
‘Arriving where?’
‘Sai Baba place.’
‘It’s only six o’clock!’ I yodelled. ‘We’ve only been driving for two
and a half hours. How can we bloody well arrive there in half an
hour?’
‘Journey is three hours only.’
‘No it’s not,’ I snapped. ‘It’s at least seven hours.’
‘Three hours only.’
First the Gayathri, and now what? A warp in the space-time
continuum?
‘It took seven hours in 1974,’ I added, trying to sound less
hysterical. ‘Why does it take three hours now? Hmm? Why?’
Because they’d built a new road, was the answer. Instead of
weaving north, then east, you could now go straight, on the new
road. Humbled, I sank back, not wanting to be so near to Puttaparthi
so soon.
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