This Monk From India - The Divine Life Society

THE GURU COMES INTO MY LIFE
“But can they directly”
“Oh, you have doubts. So you are not....”
“No, I have no doubts, but how could this happen to me”
“Oh, you are humble! Then you deserve to be initiated.”
“My mind keeps interfering, asking questions.”
“It is the nature the mind.”
I knew Sivananda was my master, this dialogue confirmed it. Why then did I follow
Chidananda with such love and devotion As an answer to my question, this vision came to me.
I had been walking for a while. It was very hot. In the distance I could see mountains and
water gleaming. The ground was flat; it was a big plain. There was no road or path. I seemed to be
walking across bare fields. As I was walking, I saw two profiles silhouetted against the sky—a tall
big man with a shiny bare head and a very thin man. They stood close to each other, as if waiting. As
I came up to them, I could distinguish their features. It was Sivananda and Chidananda. I bowed to
their feet. They looked down upon me for a while, then turned back and started to walk slowly
away, towards the mountains and the water. I followed; then I tried to walk exactly in the footprints
they left on the ground. But which footprints should I put my feet into There were two tracks, and I
decided to walk in the middle. But I was not satisfied. I wanted to fit my footsteps exactly into
theirs. Just then I looked up and saw the big man slide sideways and disappear into the thin man.
Only one man, Chidananda, was left for me to follow—one man’s footprints into which I started to
fit mine, very exactly, as I walked on and on behind him.
A realised saint, a friend of Swamiji, had said to me in Amsterdam, “Forget your
reincarnations, do not go to India, it will develop the emotional side in you too much. You need the
cross of the bishops”. And although I tried to cling to the memory of the Indian lady who had told
me in London, “Sivananda appeared to me, he told me you will go to Rishikesh”, some fear was
there at the back of my mind. One evening a Swamiji showed us a film of Rishikesh. I could not see
because of the tears in my eyes.
Just as Swamiji was going up the stairs, I suddenly ran to him, and without any explanation I
blurted out, “I will go to Rishikesh, everybody can go! Why shouldn’t I go”
Swamiji answered coldly, “Of course, anybody can go to India, but you will go only when
you are ready.” And, after a little pause, he asked, “You know Swami Satchidananda It took him
two years of reflection to make sure he could leave Ceylon and go to America, and he is a little bit
more evolved than you, don’t you not think”
The people who were there laughed. “He sure does not look for disciples,” they said.
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