Time Alone & Camp with Swamini SaradaPriyananda
September 21, 1998
Dear Parents,
I am continuing to spend more time alone in the room, doing sadhana and also working silently on the computer. Now I see how the computer is so good for you and me Mom - it is silent with no use of voice or others around! Yes, yes, nice indeed! Now I have completed the list of published articles of Swami Omkar, about 1,600 of them, arranged in alphabetical order thanks to the obedient computer. Now I have the fun job of emptying a trunkful of moldy papers – a favorite pastime of mine, as you know! So many articles are already published and I have been offering all of them to Godavari Mata (the canal), after patiently looking at each paper to make sure it is nothing useful.
I’ve made a list of unpublished articles, about 300 or 400 of them, which I’ve been typing, meanwhile thousands and thousands of papers have merged into Godavari Mata. One huge trunk emptied, and only a few more loose papers to go. Still the Telugu section is waiting, but I leave it for now. Though I can easily read and write Telugu, it is more difficult for me to compare millions of words and thousands of articles in Telugu!
Another job they want done is transcription of Swami Omkar’s diaries - daily he used to write in them from 1924 onward, till about 1980, in hard-to-read script. First the contents will have to be written neatly in notebooks and then typed on the computer. Anyway it’s some sacred thing to do to pass the time, to have a balanced life. They are all happy here that God has sent someone to sort through all the matter laying low and rejected since years, the holy writings of their guru.
No traveling lately. I’ve decided not to move from here until you come in January, I’ve grown weary of traveling with holy Jnaneswari, swallowing the namaskars, being made to lead satsang and hearing the small talk in various places. Natures are very deep-rooted, are they not? It is indeed admirable that people like you can live together for so many years, though having varied personalities. We can only feel it is the strange and inescapable magnetic force of karma and the Will of God, and do our best to attain perfection in whatever situation God has decreed.
Still, as I said, personalities and vasanas are indeed deep-rooted. See how I verily lived a householder life, in my years with Venkamma (scrubbing floors and dishes, taking care of new-born babies and hearing all about family quarrels and tragedies, all while having Darshan of the Lord daily!). Some people in Parthi actually thought I was a social type but in my heart I'm a loner only, a quiet type like you Mom. Even now if I have to be with people or talk for more than 15 or 20 minutes, my head whirls and I have to escape.
Some days ago some big contractor came from Hyderabad, sent by Swami Ramaswarupananda to help with ashram affairs, and Jnaneswari ordered me to talk with him about the ashram (Swami Ramaswarupananda also gave the same message to the gentleman, to talk to Divya). He was a retired man and sat me down and talked and talked for 3½ hours! After escaping I had to rest for the whole day, with bad headache and body aching, all due to the strain of hearing talking for so long. Saaad but true!
Here all was busy for everyone but me and the old lady Parvatamma, who can barely move about and is confined to her room. Everyone but us were running to discourses for four hours a day, in the camp lead by Swamini Saradapriyananda. She’s the one who gave our Vinamra training, and made her a Brahmachari. She is doing good work, because there are many young people who want to dedicate their lives to God but who don’t have the capacity or inclination to spend all the time in meditation and silence. Swamini Saradapriyananda (a direct disciple of Swami Chinmayananda) trains them to give discourses on Vedanta and do all pujas, then sends them all over India to conduct programs of discourse and homas, puja functions, etc. She gives practical hints to live good, pure lives in the world, and all the activities keep the young sanyasis busy and contented.
Only I cannot listen to hours of discourses, so for two weeks I was having a nice private retreat. Now and then Swamini Saradapriyananda would send word for me to print some letters (she has a laptop but her printer wasn’t working) or get library books.
Anyway, it was a lively camp as the sanyasis are young and they made noise laughing and joking like college students, a happy batch as I found out, because I was called to take some photos of their events.
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu.
With Love,
Divya
YOU ARE READING
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...
