Sri Swamiji was a conqueror of hearts. He could uplift the mood; transform it to joy, tearing apart the guise of seriousness and life’s lila. His contact penetrated all levels of your existence. In so many ways he could lead you, open you, widen you and correct you. His grace flowed bounteously towards openness and acceptance.
When Sri Swamiji came to Greece in 1984 on tour, I found myself driving the open jeep, with him sitting next to me. Although it had been planned that he would sit in the back of the car, on the right side, he changed everything in a moment.
Throughout the journey he analysed in detail what was going wrong with the plugs, the ignition, the petrol, the circulation system and the entire well-functioning car. While he was talking, he seemed to be channeling all of this outer description of the car to the inner condition of my body. Indeed, at that time I was having problems with my digestive system and some other health problems. By analysing the mechanical functioning of the car, he was analysing me at that time and reconditioning my whole physical system. It was an inconceivable way of ‘repairing’ which he applied.
We reached the square of Syntagma, in the centre of Athens, with Swamiji’s hotel as our destination. We were about three hundred metres away in slow, blocked traffic, when he suddenly opened the door, flew outside, and with quick steps, almost running and turning towards us at the same time, gave us a beautiful smile of innocence, purity and playfulness, leaving all of us dumbfound. He broke all the patterns of our plans and procedures. He showed us the beauty and the spark of life through the unexpected, the uncommon, the unforeseen and, finally, what was most practical!
This is the way Sri Swamiji used to work and still works with us. If you open up, he gives you a thousand wings to fly along his side, floating in the air, above existence, in ranges your eyes have never seen before, your ears have never heard before and your body has never felt before.
In Rikhia, after Sri Swamiji’s Mahasamadhi, it felt as if each one of us was initiated by him. When sprinkled with holy water, it was he who was spreading his blessings. While looking at us from a higher plane, although we couldn’t realize it, he left his heritage and stock to us. Now, from where he is, he can see us, hear us and talk to us, through any person, through a bird, a flower, through the wind. If we listen closely, we can have the revelation of his presence every moment. We should be ready to receive his messages, his commands and his guidance, to continue his work in this life and pass it on to the future generations, widening the heritage he left to us, which time won’t be able to erase.