Pure Inspiration

Ven. Ñāṇadīpa Thera – 74
Once he was staying at Vajirarama in a room next to the common
bathroom. I had gone to his room to pay respect when someone
flushed the toilet cistern next door making a loud noise, he smilingly
dismissed the loud sound saying, ‘Waterfall’, showing his equanimity
toward such disturbing sounds. This was a teaching for me in regard to
handling such unwanted disturbances.
Regarding Ñāṇavimala’s giving up vegetarianism as detailed in ‘The
Life of Ñāṇavimala Thera’, I have heard a different explanation. At
Polgasduwa in ‘69, I heard him telling this story: ‘I got very sick from
lack of protein and the doctor kept telling me that I had to eat meat.
Still I refused. Finally, they told me: ‘If you don’t eat meat, we will
send you back to Germany’. Well, going back to Germany, I would
have to kill people! So I decided to eat meat.
In the same article, it is stated that Ñāṇavimala set out on cārikā in ‘66.
I disagree with this. It must have been in ’67. In ’68, I spent seven
months at Polgasduwa (April-November) and he came back in the
middle of that period. The day he came in ’68 was exactly one year
after he left in ’67 (as the first Yugoslavian monk, Ñāṇajivaka told
me). He had set out on that first cārikā after eleven years (not ten)
years of uninterrupted stay at Polgasduwa. On a later occasion, he said
to me: ‘I didn’t leave on cārikā till I knew I could control my mind’.
After returning he spent one more year (or slightly more) at
Polgasduwa, after which he left for good. Thus, altogether, he spent
some twelve years at Polgasduwa in his initial grounding period. I had
left in November ’68, but was back in June ’69 in time to have a few
more months with him. I was ordained as a sāmaṇera in September, a
few months before he left for good (apart from some short visits).