Letters from India

86. Non-Attachment to Everything - July 1988

Non-Attachment to Everything

July 1988

Prasanthi Nilayam

Sai Ram All!

I hope you are all fine and enjoying the peace and Bliss of the Lord in your humble dwelling in that interesting country America (cough, cough). :-)

I am quite fine here. Now He is teaching me about non-attachment to everything, even Godly matters! When one does not have ‘avedana’ (tension, due to interest) in worldly or spiritual pursuits, what great peace there is! That is, not caring for the world (not being attached; therefore not being emotionally involved if things turn out or not) and not being attached to spiritual rewards or failures, hopes or disappointments. Even spiritual attachments can cause ‘avedana’ which leads to asanthi (lack of peace), which I learned in the case of Parvatamma, and which I'm now learning with Venkamma! I hope with all this peace, moksha will come! Still I have this ‘slight’ attachment.

Janakiram’s (Swami’s younger brother whom we visited Mom, when you were here) second daughter was married on July 4th. Meenamma (Janakiram’s wife) had given me an invitation and so I went. All VIPs and family members were invited, and of course, all devotees came even without invitations! They stood at the back (this was held at the Old Mandir, it was held outside so more could attend).

Swami came and did the usual: watched, created Mangala Sutra (the wedding necklace for the bride), created a gold chain for groom, took pictures, gave namaskar, and sprinkled materialized rice on them many times.

The strangest thing was, right in the middle of the wedding when Sai was there watching, He gave orders for ice-cream to be distributed to all! You can imagine (maybe) the craziness that happened! Wedding procedures on the stage (priests, bride, groom, parents, big fire in the middle and offerings all around, being thrown into the fire), Swami on lady’s side in a chair facing the stage, five rows of devotees sitting and everyone past the first five rows, standing and fighting about getting the ice-cream! Only God could manage such a play.

Well, it was something to remember! It was my third wedding I’ve seen with Swami. I had no chance to see Janakiram or wife, let alone the bride. Good excuse. If you’re interested in worldly details, the bride was really pretty, tall, thin, long, long hair; the groom was tall and thin, with a thin mustache. Tons of people came from the groom’s family.

Anyway, good it’s over. Before the wedding all had wedding fever, all talking only of the wedding (I guess the foreigners didn’t know anything about it, but any Indian I talked to, knew!). Even Swami came to Darshan on wedding morning, and said to Mataji, “Wedding, wedding!”

There are finally less people here - only about 18 or 20 lines for line-up. Swami’s been giving interviews to the groom’s family lately.

I was alone in my room and my one month time was almost up, so I moved in with a Sri Lankan lady whose daughter is in Anantapur college, in R3-C12.

The office seemed extremely happy that I was with her, and even implied that I could stay as long as she did! (She’ll stay until November!)

Everything is fine in the room, except for two things: she always wants the bathroom door and front door, closed tightly! I need air, air, air! When she’s not there, I open the doors wide; when she goes to the bathroom, I open the front door wide! When she comes, she promptly closes everything - at least in a nice way. So I spend a lot of time outside. What can I do, she insists in her sweet way to have everything closed. She may be my ticket to stay in the ashram, so I must accept this penance, I suppose. (Also there are no screens on windows and mosquitoes come in!)