In the Company of Mystics

It was my first day visiting Sri Ramana Ashram in Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. I checked into a simple guest house, and then explored the ashram’s premises.

I was getting really hungry, and I knew that the ashram had a canteen. I couldn’t find it, so I decided to ask someone about its location.

I’d approached one woman who looked like she knew her way around. When I asked her if she knew where the canteen was, this was her reply:

“Sure, I’ll show you. It’s strange that you’ve approached me since it’s my last day here, and I hoped God would send me someone who I could help with the knowledge I’ve acquired about this place. And here you are.”

This woman was from Italy, and she was one of those people whose age is hard to tell. Later I’d found out she was 39, but if I had to guess, I’d give her maximum 30 years.

She told me that there were better places to eat than the ashram itself, and showed me them. After sharing a meal at one of such simple eateries, she invited me to her rented house to have herbal tea. She really wanted me to meet an owner of the house – an older man who in the past had his own ashram, but now secluded himself to meditation and spiritual practices, and accepted only certain people to stay in his house.

So I found myself in the company of two mystics, whose insights were deep and beautiful. I rarely feel like people totally understand me, but these two truly did, and our minds were so open to communicate that it didn’t even feel like there were three bodies in the room – only One mind. No longer did I need to explain myself, since these two totally understood what I meant straight away. It was such a relief and joy to be in their company.

Simplicity is beauty

This woman was extremely simple; she had no money, but never lacked it because of her trust in the Divine which always supplied her with everything.

She owned only a little bag of personal belongings, which made her travels easy and her mind free from useless thoughts about protecting or caring for the stuff.

Behind this external simplicity hid a penetrative mind – she had the ability to quickly get under the surface of events to see their real causes.

For example, she said that it’s a mistaken notion to say that we are ‘connected’ when browsing online, or talking on mobiles. If you’re in another part of the world, and you receive a call that someone is in immediate danger, is there anything you can do to help?

Or if someone is in big trouble whilst you’re on holiday and they call you to ask you to come back. Two things might happen. You may decide to cut your holiday short and come back, which will cause you to feel upset about missing the rest of the holiday, or you may disregard the call and continue with your holiday, feeling guilty throughout the holiday about the choice. Is that good for the mind? Because mobile phones are unnatural, they give birth to these unnatural effects.

She said that we rely so much on artificial connections, that we are not only disconnected from those far away from us, but those connections keep us disconnected from the people who stay physically close to us too. So they should be named ‘disconnections’, to more accurately describe their purpose.

That’s the reason she owned no mobile and no laptop. The only unnecessary possession she still had was her car in Italy, but she said that as soon as she has a chance to go to her home country, she’d sell it.

She never planned where she would travel to, and when she’d visit a particular country, she never planned how long she would stay there for. She allowed the Divine to control all her actions.

Sometimes she slept outside, sometimes she’d get invited to sleep in strangers’ homes.

When I asked where she was before coming to India, she said that she spent a long time in Ethiopia, Africa. When she got there first time, she slept completely alone in her hammock in wilderness, and after a few days the family who saw her invited her to sleep in their tent.

She had absolutely no fear about sleeping at night alone in wilderness; again and again I witness that people who have no aggression at all, have no fears about anything, and nothing ever happens to them. It’s the attack that produces fear and in turn attracts events to be scared about. By initiating an attack deep inside the knowledge hides that you’ll be attacked in return, so fear arises.

Free from thoughts of body

But what I respected most about her was her unassuming appearance. She owned only one set of clothes, she wore no make up and wore very simple sandals. She told me that when her kurta (Indian dress) wears out, only then she would buy a new one. Since my appearance is becoming simpler, I already predict how blissful and at peace I’ll feel when I achieve her stage.

Many people do exactly the opposite – they want to impress with their appearance, so they’re excessively preoccupied with their bodies. They own lots of attention-grabbing clothes, they wear alluring perfume to attract with smell, they wear make up or accessories to attract the eyes of the world.

What a difference it is to meet someone who wants no attention at all. And because she’s not trying to pretend how very special she is, she can be herself, and only by being herself can you be completely at peace. What can be a better accessory than that? I truly hope to achieve such utter simplicity – when there’s no thought about the beauty of the body at all.

When you strive to make your body look beautiful to attract attention, you cause those who pay attention to it to remain in the illusion of this world. This, in turn, keeps you in illusion too. You must feel you’re a body when you spend so much time improving its looks. This keeps you a prisoner of this world, as the soul is unacknowledged.

But when the soul is given much more care and importance, that’s when the quiet happiness is felt, still inner royalty is uncovered, and only then you can know who you really are. I wish more and more people would access such deeply empowering knowledge about themselves.

(This excessive preoccupation with the body is such a waste of power. Since my energy is becoming one-pointed as all my life is dedicated to God, I can feel how I’m being held back from the realization of my full power by spending a little too much time on the body. These unnecessary preoccupations is what stops one’s willpower from literally ‘moving mountains’.)

The Shiva statue

The elderly man she introduced me to had many incredible stories to share too; one of the stories he told was that once he and his friend got lost in the jungle in India.

When it was getting really dark, they saw some light far away.

They followed the light, and found an ascetic sitting alone in the jungle.

They approached him and asked how to find a way out of the jungle. The ascetic smiled and showed a stone statue of Shiva.

When the ascetic saw that the lost travelers didn’t understand his suggestion, he said that Shiva would help them out, if they would only ask him to do so.

They saw total conviction in the ascetic’s eyes, so they both asked Shiva to help them.

“Now go, you’ll be okay”, the smiling ascetic said.

They reluctantly left the ascetic, walking in pitch dark. They both noticed that their hearts were no longer heavy, and that fear had left them.

Soon his friend saw a tiny light in the jungle, and they both started walking towards it, which led them to a road. The light was from the beam of a car, and when it was approaching nearer, they both started waving at it.

The car stopped, the driver agreed to drop them, and they were taken to the nearest city to find accommodation there.

Stories, increasingly more mystical, made the time fly, and I realized that it was getting late. Since it was my first day there, I wasn’t certain if I would find my way back, so I had to excuse myself.

The woman volunteered to take me back halfway, so that I wouldn’t get lost. When we left her house, she told me some last advice about which eateries to avoid, and gave more tips about staying in the ashram.

Finally, it was halfway down the road, so we hugged each other and said final goodbyes.

Something, after walking for a minute, made me turn around. She also turned around at the same time, smiled,  sent me an air kiss, and called out: “May God bless you!”

Resource: simonarich.com