Big Meeting in Visakhapatnam
August 7, 1998
Shanti Ashram
Dear Parents,
We went to Visakhapatnam on 24th July and returned on the 28th. The ‘Big Meeting’ was successful there. They invited 400 people and expected 200, but over 300 came - mostly well-to-do devotees living in Visakhapatnam. Uncle (Prasada Rao) demanded I recite the Peace Prayer at the meeting, and while giving the order he put on his most fearsome look and I felt that I was being led to the gallows guarded on all sides – escape out of the question! So I had to comply and said the prayer in the mike, watched by everyone, filmed with movie camera, clicked with cameras, flooded by lights and nauseating situations like that, all for the sake of an unbending Uncle.
Next day the real shock came when Uncle arranged for a news reporter to come (thanks to high-up influences, forced no doubt by the same frightening, demanding techniques of Uncle!) and I had to humiliatingly answer questions about my bio-data for a report of my life to be published in the daily Telugu newspaper ‘Ee nadu” – all this for propagating the ashram, all in the name of devotion to Jnaneswari and the ashram, assured Uncle. Poor thing, he should have entered politics instead of laid-back, old fashioned Shanti Ashram! Fate is strange indeed.
Anyway, we returned to the quiet life here. Swami Ramaswarupananda is busy with agricultural improvements and Kumari and I are busy with the computer. Now that mailing lists are done, we are making a Master index of all writings of Swami Omkar, starting with the 60 years of publications of peace magazine. Next we can compare published writings with the thousands of loose pages stored in moldy trunks in various parts of the ashram, adding unpublished articles to the computer and offering the rest to Godavari Mata (the canal!).
Currently there is a camp going on here and a yogi is training the participants. Rules are only milk and fruit diet for one week, and hours of meditation. Several ashram residents are participating and two or three of them are able to be immersed in meditation for 12 hours at a stretch, not moving! Thus Shanti Ashram attracts quiet souls. Only, after meditation our personalities should be transformed so nothing bothers us and all seems like a funny play of the Lord, is it not? That is the hard part! So may He Bless us all to gain that experience, then only true and permanent happiness will be found. Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu!
With Love,
Divya
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A Change for the Best
September 9, 1998
Shanti Ashram
Dear Parents,
About my horoscope changes you mentioned, I really have felt a change lately for the best, inside, although my outward life is pretty much the same (except for the arrival of the computer!). I feel free like a bird – content and recognizing Him in different aspects of His creation. How happy I am that from young age I stayed away from all bondage and ties, now I am enjoying a life of Him inside, free to roam or remain in my cave-room, as all the world is a playground and dream, full of His shakti.
Our Yogi Susheela has returned from the Mouna Swami’s ashram and ended her silence, and is now very busy reforming everyone she sees and complaining a lot, of course even about me. Even in such unpleasant situations, I find I can keep calm and laugh, considering it all a dream. I also remember often 60th Birthday, when Swami said in front of us, “If people say ‘bald-headed Sai Baba,’ why should I get upset or worried? I know I'm not bald! And if others say, ‘Sai Baba with a huge puff of hair,’ why should I feel insulted? For I know I have a crown of hair and I don’t mind!”
Like that, if anyone says anything we can look honestly at ourselves. If it is true and we don’t like it, we can reform ourselves but not get angry at others! And if it is not true, even if they don’t believe our words, why should we be affected? For Swami knows the Truth and that is enough. There is a saying here that if anyone complains about another, they have to bear the person’s karma for it! In Parthi we used to laugh if anyone happened to complain, “There goes my karma for what I did, he complained about it and has therefore taken it!” It could very well be true, for a complaint against us may be our karma, but our state of mind determines how we take it, like taking an aspirin for headache.
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu!
Love,
Divya
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Letters from Shanti Ashram, India
SpiritualI lived in India from 1984-2005, and wrote to my parents regularly about my adventures in Indian ashrams. From 1984-1993 and again 2001-2005, I was living in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, and I am adding all of those my "Letters from India" book, whi...
