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Meditation
is most beautiful ugliness.
He was lying on a bed. He looked weak so His
first words to me sounded like coming from somewhere else:
I knew you would come today. I have been
awaiting you. Come to my place. Stay with me.
Eat with me. Sleep in the same room as me.
And you will become like me.
It is needless to say that his words were indeed
surprising to my western ears. And at the same
time I knew that these words were not personally meant and that they could
as well have been spoken to you, dear reader, if you had the good luck to be
at this time at this place.And then again this fragile voice - reciting spontaneously flowing poems in
streams of consciousness. Devotees enter the room with food,
prasad. They offer it to Him with tremendous reverence. He eats lots
of it with a strange
pleasure while his voice continues this wonderful song of words. But now
these fragile melodies are rhythmically mixed with big burps
coming from His stomach. But now it is all too late.
In this intoxicated state I am in now I cannot tell the difference between a
burp or God's voice.
I have to
continue the story about Manav Dayal. I went to His ashram in
Hoshiarpur.
And at that time I met so many beautiful beings! ... it could no
longer just be a lucky projection of my own beauty: Shabdanand, Lahori
Pandi ji, Sita and a lot of others just passing by.
A devotee from Hyderabad, Suresh Babu, arrived. He was my age, late
30ies and a successful man having his own company. He is also a
passionate wild life protector and photographer. He told me many
wonderful things. The story I want to narrate now begins where the
burp ends.
Suresh told me: "I was - as you are now - staying together with
Manav Dayal in his private room. One night he came out of the bath
room, coughing and with almost no clothes on. My first thought was: My
dear GOD... is this my Guru? Is my Guru that ugly? I cannot even look
at this sight. Why is he old? Why can I not have a young
beautiful Master? Full of doubt I went into sleep. In the middle of
the night I was awaken by something pulling my arm. I looked up and
saw a Divine Being of light so radiant that I could not contain the
beauty. It was such an intense beauty that it felt like pain.
I cried in terror: Go away!! I cannot look at you. The Being smiled
teasingly and asked: Do you find me beautiful now? Am I beautiful
enough for you? Yes, Yes I cried!
You are too beautiful!
Next morning Manav Dayals first question to me was: Do you find me
beautiful?
Guru Ji!... I replied: You are too beautiful! And I fell at his
feet in gratitude...
Give me all your money! Shortly after arriving in Manav Dayals
Ashram there was a great gathering with
several thousands of people coming to
celebrate Him. This occasion is called Guru Pornima. All over India
people travel to
visit their Guru to pay Him respect with
flowers and love. The place was really
crowded. Manav Dayal called me. He said:
Give me all your money!
What was this?!
Had I ended up once again
in a spiritual commercial trap?
In spite all the doubt I gave him my
money belt. He took out all the foreign money:
Dollars and traveler checks. And now to
my terror he also took out my passport.
Then he handed back the money belt - now
only containing a few hundred Indian rupees.
Trust me! he said with a smile...
One hour later when I was walking around
in the Guru Poornima crowd my money belt
was stolen.
Then Shabdanand came: "Manav Dayal
calls you."
And yes... I had to laugh...
With a mischievous smile.
Manav returned passport and money.
I put it all in my pocket and
disappeared into the crowd of celebration.
This was the last money ever between
me and Manav.
Manav Dayal/I.C. Sharma lived until
recently with his devotees in a peaceful Ashram in Punjab.
I stayed with him for five month.
He never asked me to do anything for him.
He just gave - gave bliss - gave food - gave shelter.
He has now left his body.
Manav Dayal was a
Professor of Philosophy in the United States before
he in 1981
was appointed as head of the Manavta Mandir Mission by Faqir Baba.
Both Manav Dayal and Faqir Baba had close contact to the American mystic
Edgar Cayce. Manav Dayal has among many books written: Cayce, Karma and Reincarnation. (Look at amazon.com)
Here he makes a kind of New Age synthesis of Cayce Western
approach and the Eastern tradition of Radha Soami.
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