Abandoned roads - Jos Lammers

its purest form. Always. Everywhere. The beginning of a
new world. He was going to devote his life to this guru.
I gave him his pot, his clean sheets, his antibiotics and
a whole lot of attention. After a few days, I visited the
Amsterdam ashram of his guru and just knew. The serenity
in the house, the wise smile on the faces, the smell
of incense, the songs at a whispering guitar: it all came
together. I wanted to be part of this. The next day I quit
my job and my room and brought everything I owned to
the Salvation Army. I then reported at the ashram of the
Divine Light Mission of guru Maharaj ji with my sleeping
bag and some clothes (always longed for just one bag - in
this case my Carl Denig rucksack, bought with my first
hospital salary - as maximum baggage in life). There they
told me that I had to wait. Until I was ready for a life of
meditation, dedication and devotion. I bowed deeply to
the picture of the fourteen year old guru that sat in the
reception room of the ashram in a gold colored frame on a
chair with a shiny cloth over it. As far as I was concerned,
I was totally ready for it.
Fortunately in the meantime I was able to use my grandmother’s
apartment, as she was permanently staying with
one of her children. There, on the floor between her old
heavy furniture and her television in a wooden cabinet, I
spread out my sleeping bag. On the shiny polished coffee
table I put a small version of the picture that stood on the
chair in the ashram. I was waiting for one of the trave-
22