Letters from Shanti Ashram, India

60. Tar, Tower Building & Daily Schedule - July 2000

Tar Blankets, Tower Building & Daily Schedule

July 23, 2000  

Dear Mom,

Namaskars! First, although I am writing separate letters, both are for all four eyes (or actually eight eyes, including glasses!) (or 14 eyes, including other family members) (or even more eyes, as you wish!).

Glad you are enjoying the Discourse excerpts. You said you were discouraged about mental thoughts staying with us after death. It may be sad but I believe it's true. We may lose our physical bodies but our mental makeup remains intact.

Recently I've been reading a book by one Swami and he states that it is only highly evolved spiritual souls that reach higher realms (like those described by Yukteswarji). The others, the ones who will have to be reborn again on earth, hover around here, near places and people they are drawn to, and work out subtle Karmas. (You may say you won't like to be anywhere, but our wishes can’t always be fulfilled, especially when karma is there to work out!).

So, the point is that we have to strive to make best and peaceful life here because no great miracles are going to happen when we give up the body. It is no wonder Easwaramma continues to haunt Sathya Sai Baba (as he mentioned in a recent discourse) with her fears and anxieties after death, just how she haunted Sai in the same way when alive!

Here, I keep three small boxes (size of about 1½ a shoe-box) with small supplies for occasional needs for me and others, like pins, pens, medicines, glue etc. Although I have so few things, my house is known as a general store, medical shop, paper mart, cool drinks shop (I keep drink concentrate ready for any thirsty wayfarers, though it is room temperature, not cold!), cassette lending library and bank, all in one! I always have two of nearly everything, in case someone really in need, needs something (like flashlight, clock etc.).

You asked about the rats. Well, I wanted to spare you the irritating details, so I have kept quiet all this time. As you remember, they put the tar blanket upon my cottage roof. The four sides were warped with huge openings for ratlings to dodge in. My complaints fell upon deaf ears. I could only sigh, "INDIA!" and keep quiet. I climbed up on a ladder (they had left the one they used for several weeks after the work finished) and fixed big stones on the four corners, to weigh down the tar blanket.

Then what happened, during the big winds and light rains, one strip of tar blanket (they had fixed three over my roof, length-wise) flew to the other side of the roof! You guessed it, it was not secured properly. Now the ratlings had free reign again.

I showed it to the chief mason and engineer. They commented in their own charming Indian way, "Yes, all the other tar blankets that we fixed on other cottages in the Ashram, also flew away! We thought yours was OK. Never mind, we will get a stronger type of tar and re-apply them."

They contacted a knowledgeable expert and after more weeks, they came and deftly removed the blankets, swept all the baby and adult ratlings away and re-applied the blankets with lots of tar.

First they made a make-shift stove right outside my window, with stones laid around and sticks from the mango groves. Then they took a tar-encrusted tin bucket on the stove and lit the fire. In the meantime, they opened a sack of coal-like pieces and with a handy near-by rock, crushed them into powder and sprinkled it into the bucket.

After a long time of cooking, the mixture became thick, gooey and boiling. They removed it from the fire and poured some liquid tar from a container into it. As the mixture bubbled up, they climbed the ladder with it to my roof. They re-applied the tar blankets with the sticky mixture. Of course, it cooled off quickly so they kept coming down to boil it again, feeding the fire with sticks and gossiping happily with each other.