The Cute and sweet baby to the left is My Master in his childhood.
In my early days of childhood, spirituality was not understood by me in its real sense. It was more of a habit than a selected path for me. My uncle Masilamani was mostly responsible for my spiritual environment. He used to narrate episodes from the epics Ramayana and Mahabaratha. I have heard volumes about Lord Krishna and his leelas. As the famous Nataraja temple of Chidambaram was on the way to my school, I visited the sanctum sanctorum of the Lord Govindaraja perumal of that temple at least once a day.
Chidambaram was a small town in those days and it was no place for entertainment or recreation if one found free time. To while away the time my uncle and myself would visit the temple; after dharshan of Lord, we used to sit at the entrance of temple tower (Gopuram) where the flow of breeze would be very enjoyable. Sitting there, I have heard many episodes of Ramayana and Mahabaratha from my uncle. All these were helpful for me to focus and concentrate on the search for spiritual goal.
I believe. that place of birth, parents and relatives etc. are meticulously planned before the birth of aspirants to pursue their spiritual journey from where they had left in their previous birth. It may be different in the cases of people who have not begun their serious pursuit in the direction of liberation. My uncle Masilamani, an ardent spiritualist, staunch baktha of Lord Mahavishnu was with me through my life until very recently. His company was a great boon to my yoga path. Today, I would rather think that he had a caretaker sort of position to help me pass on to the yogic path from non-formative early days to these days of consciously pursuing yoga. Sometimes I used to think that I would have struggled a lot if he had not figuared in my life. While writing this sentence a thought pops up in my mind that ‘if he was not there someone else would have taken his place if Lord had decided so’. A wonderful entity our eternal father is!
As I was growing up, my search for truth was becoming stronger and stronger. I was looking for some hard facts…..wanted to come face to face with some evidence to prove that there is some life beyond this life. However deep-rooted my faith in Lord Krishna was, I wanted Lord Krishna to prove his existence as my uncle claimed.
I began reading books on spiritual subjects. I was very keen on subjects like paranormal, extrasensory perceptions, clairvoyance, out of body experiences, kinetic energy, hypnotism etc.….in short; my mind was focused on occult science.
In the meanwhile, I moved to Chennai where my father was pursuing his profession of civil construction work. My school education continued here.
Some events started happening when I was about eighteen years or so. I encountered strange people in my life at that time
The first one was a tailor working in Cinema field. He had a strange hand with long narrow sharp ending fingers and claimed to be a palm reader. His appearance was peculiar. He had long hair hanging down till his shoulders., very sharp eyes and was wearing saffron colored clothes if I remember right. I was neither interested in palmistry nor was keen in knowing my future from a person of that kind. The one who introduced him to me was a respected colleague of mine so I showed my hand to this person. After viewing my palm for a few minutes silently, he said only one thing. “You will become an ascetic (‘samiyar’) in your 45th year” was his observation. I only smiled and kept quiet. I did not believe his observation because of my worldly interests. Although I was interested in spiritual matters, I had a mind-set for a normal life like my friends and relatives. But one thing happened. His observation kept coming back to my mind at regular intervals and I began wondering whether there was a faint possibility of my becoming an ascetic. I never met that man again. To my surprise, I started seeking a spiritual grur at the age of 40 plus and had my initiation in my fiftieth year.
The second person was different from the first one. His appearance was different. He was a short man and fair complexioned. His dressing habit was also unusual. He wore a hat, khaki half pant like the one police men used in those days and a slack shirt. He spoke chaste Tamil. His eyes were deep and penetrating. He had an indescribable air about him. I liked him. He used to call me ‘anbu’ (in Tamil language ‘anbu’ means ‘love’) even though he knew my name. The first time I met him, he impressed me with his mind reading ability. He had never visited my home but he used to mention casually everything about my family affairs. In our first meet in the Pachaiyappa college play ground, he asked casually “why did you pick up quarrel with your mother this morning for a silly thing like the shape of idly?” I was stunned at this. How could this man who did not have even a remote chance to know about what happened in my house speak like that. What he said was true. I had picked up a quarrel with my mother that day that idlies were not perfectly round in shape. His abnormal power impressed me. The next thing he did was to create sugar, ‘kunkum’ Vibuthi out of mud and coins etc out of nothing. I was wonderstruck at his ability. He said he came from Mumbai. I knew nothing more about him beyond this. He did not do any harm to me. He expected nothing from me. He only showered love on me. It was most unusual in the worldly sense. Like he came out of blue, one day he vanished into thin air without leaving any evidence to trace his whereabouts. He only advised me to be a good boy, a good son to my parents, concentrate on my studies etc. At that time I viewed him like my elder brother who cared for his younger one. He was a hero to me at that time.
Another person came in the same time slot a little later. This person was a regular Samiyar with big beard and wore only a loin cloth in saffron color. He had a mud pot kept in a cloth hanging from his shoulder. His eyes were dark and deep, shining and twinkling. He always looked at me with smiling eyes brimming with love. He never demanded anything from me but said that he had come from Himalayas and said nothing in particular. But if I remember right, I began having a vision of a yogi sitting in Padmasana with unflickring light at his naval after his visit. I had no understanding about this vision. There was no one to explain it to me. This vision kept coming back repeatedAll these interesting episodes happened within a span of about a year or so. Thousands of questions erupted in my mind and there was no one around to answer them. I became restless inside. I needed someone who can answer all those questions. Perhaps a coincidence but later I came to know that Doctor, my master was doing his college education in the same Pachiyappas College at that period of time. The question is, why did he not meet me then? Perhaps I was not ready for the journey yet! Or was he in disguise like the person from Mumbai who addressed me 'anbu'?
to be continued next month..........
Kesavan
