Station
Master - The Saint with the knife and rod
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Meditation
is Universal and yet the most
individual happening one can possibly imagine.
In the so called developed countries younger generations are in danger of
losing their
individual faces in the
matrix-like black hole of consumerism.
Individuality is thus becoming defined by the choice of mobile-phone
ring-tones. We purchase special watches, get unique tattoos
or plastic surgery to
cover the fact that
we have all become so terribly alike and one-dimensional
that our behavior patterns easily can be
reproduced in the Californian dream-factories.
Red Hot Chili Pepper have made a music-video
called
Californication.
The post-modern philosopher
Baudrillard has shown how simulacra
replaces true life
in a hyper-real world.
We self-satisfied
westerners are metaphorically becoming like the Antarctic
birds called
lemmings
who collectively commit suicide - 50.000 at a time.
The
blue pill is
made of true individuality - Soul. |
India is still a place of
Soul! It is a country harboring a Dickens-like rainbow of distinct
archetypical individualities.
You could clone an entire nation out of just one Indian! I think you
can feel this just by browsing this website for a few minutes. After a meeting with the man you see in the picture, I
spontaneously felt like hugging him goodbye.
At that time I had no thoughts like the ones you can read here.
The room in which we were was dark and unbearable hot - Indian summer
June 2000. And his presence felt like something in between ice
and light.
So I went like a moth towards the candle and embraced it.
He replied:
Why
does this man embrace this body?
My wife says it stinks!
The universal truth behind this statement made by this old retired
stationmaster living somewhere in a dark room without fan can be
found in
the ancient Indian scriptures as well as it can be rediscovered by any
individual who has the courage to loose herself into itself.
The universal truth in His words are: You are not this body!
But at the same time this grumpy old runkedor through his unique
humor had managed to add his own distinct "smell" to the universe.
There is no other being on this planet similar to this Stationmaster.
I
think you can sense it - looking at these rare photos.
(They were actually taken against his will and with a disturbing
flashlight - forgive me!)
The good and the bad Master When
Bharadwaj
and I knocked on the door to the Stationmasters humble house he
made one thing clear from the very beginning.
Actually he made it a condition for our entering his premises that
each of us had to chose now - if we had not done so already.
He said:
You have to chose...
there is no middle path ...
either this world
or GOD!
I must confess that I was irritated by the predictability in his
words. Now this was a typical spiritual cliché! I have heard
this statement many times
before... (Oh, how wrong I was!)
Do you have any questions?
If you don't have any genuine questions you might as well leave now!!
His intense, impolite behavior
caught my body between the chair I was going for and his couch.
He grabbed my arm and practically forced my to sit beside him on his
couch. His face went closer to mine - it stopped when our faces
were around 5 cm from each other. Through a distinct odor of "old man" a
pair of laser-eyes had spotted their target - a deer caught on the
middle
of the road by the lights from a car - collision was unavoidable.
Do you know that
the most important sense to conquer is the sense of feeling?
Through the skin it covers the whole body. Therefore I never use a fan -
not even in June! You are all slaves of positive feelings through this
sense.
Now what is your question?
I then asked him how
he had conquered his skin and the world. His answer made me sweat and
freeze at the same time.
I was sitting on this couch. I held a knife to my throat.
I said:
Oh mind! -
if you rise your head
I will cut...
Then the mind did not come.
In this moment the world stopped.
So I will use this break from time and space to write all these thoughts
from here: from my laptop years later. What the Stationmaster here
uttered was not mere talking! His words were more like primordial sounds
capable of being transporters of spiritual essence. It was a pure gift
of intense aliveness in a stark contrast to the old body on the couch.
Yet at the same time I can say that I did not make this choice between
this world and God - I never did. This dualism had and has
no meaning for me.
Dear reader! This leads us to a very important issue:
If we are all individual in our universal essence it is impossible to
copy a Master - it is impossible to do what he tells you to do...
So we have to imbibe essence instead of sitting with our small knives
trying to imitate a Stationmaster.
Why do you come again and again?!
Like
Bharadwaj
- soma, same in essence, but at same time coming from an entirely
different planet. The stationmaster always scolds Bharadwaj:
Why do you come here again and again!?
Don't you know that God also is in the streets?
Bharadwaj replies with a silent,
radiant smile ... This requires courage!
And courage as essence was easy to feel and imbibe in
the company of this Divine Inspirator! Listen now what the Stationmaster
said about the
relationship to his own Gurus.
The Stationmaster had had two Gurus. After 10 years of unwavering spiritual
practice starting with his retirement at the age of 60 he realized his
Eternal Soul.
Then he went to his first Guru with the following words:
I have
Realized... I don't need you or your company anymore.
This Guru got furious
and through the Stationmaster out of his ashram.
Then the Stationmaster went to his
second Guru - a man still living on a churchyard around 100 Km outside
New Delhi. He repeated his statement. The churchyard-guru congratulated
the Stationmaster with his achievement.
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Now back to Hoshiarpur
June 2000...
With the immense intense eyes you can sense on the above picture the
Stationmaster grilled us with these words:
Don't rely upon a Guru!
Don't make me a Guru!
Just cultivate your willpower
and
If the mind comes:
use the rod!
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Stationmaster
to
Bharadwaj:
The
rickshawallah was suposed to get 5 rupies.
You gave him 10 - That is good!
Why do you come here again and again!?
Dont you know that God also is in the streets!?
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