TANTRIC-QUEST-Encounter-with-Absolute-Love

up deep communication and getting me in tune with theother. I vaguely understood that disease was only a superficialfacade for this initiation. The real base was simplythe other, which presents itself when the ego implodes. Itwasn't a matter of giving a little or a lot, of giving anythingat all. It was simply a matter of giving oneself. It's this giftthat the ego refuses most stubbornly to make.I bowed deeply before those who had taught me so much.They returned my salute, and I climbed back up into therickshaw. In the afternoon, I bought one hundred kilos ofrice and took it to them. Now that I had given myself andreceived so much in return, I could give something material.The gesture was no longer an evasion. It was simple, profound,and real. Since that day, I have never again felt repugnancefor a human being, no matter what his or her stateof physical decay.Devi didn't say a word about this experience she'd imposedon me. That I'd passed the test led to no acknowledgmenton her part. This was nothing more than a normalexperience of the inflated ego coming face to face withreality.Devi had regained her good humor. She stopped at abazaar to look for a toy seller. She showed me some littlepainted metal boats that moved when a candle heating awater pipe produced steam to propel them. She boughtfive colored pinwheels. I bought pants and a tunic of lightcotton and rolled my soiled clothes in a newspaper. Webought a few bags of grain and lentils and finished ourshopping in a back courtyard, where Devi asked for a bottleof bhang, a milky greenish liquor. I was astonished by thispurchase, but she told me that we needed it for a ritual we122