Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Gurudev and the ashram life

How to start describing Gurudev and the Pahari Baba Ashram. He is the most remarkable person that I have met to date. He is incredibly humble, off the charts caring, well educated (he had been pursuing a PhD when he turned directly to his spiritual path), attends to every question or request with thoughtfulness and wisdom. Every type of person comes in devotion. One of the interesting parts for me is meeting and observing native people coming to "worship." The practice is to bring flowers or food. They don't pass around a money bowl. He doesn't drive a Rolls Royce, wear expensive robes, have elaborate decorations, or have anything the least bit over the top. He wears an orange gown that looks like something you would wear in the hospital and sandals. The ashram is kept very tidy by attendants who love him dearly. He treats everyone with respect. One of the practices is to give each person attending a bowl of something to eat: fruit with a sweet, or something tasty. He often gives the children candy. And he is regularly on the phone answering questions (a dial phone) or answering the questions from the people coming to him. Most everyone comes well dressed with respect and the greeting is to bow down to the ground, (coming and going.) He never receives this with any sort of arrogance or control. He is available from 11:00 until 9:00 pm. This is all at the surface physical level.

I had an experience that one of the dead gurus who was his predecessors, Pahari Baba, visited me in my room. He was levitating above the ground, but he didn't say anything. Of course, I was thinking about this and I hadn't said anything to GuruDev. I had gotten to the ashram before everyone else, since I often spent lunch wandering around. I was invited in to wait and while I was sitting on the other side of the ashram--thinking, he sent one of his attendants over to tell me that it was okay if I wanted to sit in front of Pahari Baba's shrine area. I was very surprised by his psychic sensitivity. When you are in the presence of someone that spiritually evolved, I would never even think he would even notice me. It was a very touching moment for me. I have witnessed other moments like this as well.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Absolutely correct... Jai guru dev... Jai guru....