Letters from Shanti Ashram, India

14. Visit to Bombay

Visit to Bombay

April 8, 1995

Dear Parents,

Divya conveys her namaskars. From 27 March till 7 April, Jnaneswari took me to Bombay! She wanted me to accompany her there and I agreed. It was mainly for a devotee who had been regularly visiting the ashram for the past 30 years, but had not come since two years due to ill health. She has been begging Jnaneswari to come see her and Jnaneswari finally agreed.

Well – I went on a nice holiday to Bombay! It was almost exactly 10 years ago that I went last, with Sai on the airplane in early February 1985. Then I stayed only three or four days, just going direct to Darshan then back to the hotel again.

This time, Jnaneswari and I went by car to the train station about 1 hour away, and made the 30-hour journey across Andhra and into Bombay city, the capital of Maharashtra state. It is a huge modern city of noise, cars, high-rise buildings and fashionable people rushing here and there and everywhere. At the same time, it has typical Indian scenes of wandering cows, goats, pigs and dogs (right in the middle of the huge modern roads), poverty stricken huts, beggars in rags mingled with young Indian girls in jeans and elderly ladies wearing loose dresses reaching just to their knees. It was a shock to me!

For three days we stayed at Dinoo’s house, she’s an old devotee of the ashram. A typical modern Parse family with Western habits. Days were spent talking worldly subjects nonstop. It surprised me that even in the Presence of Jnaneswari, they constantly talked about irreverent things. At the same time, it was awesome to feel the deep realization of Jnaneswari, to see how in all situations she clung to the One Reality. Most of the time she listened to them but rarely talked much, instead holding a far-off gaze of Peace. In this way I could experience sadhana most of the day and night, being in her presence.

We of course got VIP treatment, given our own room in the modern city flat, fed with special foods, etc. One day all went for an “ice cream party” to a shop that had 35 flavors (rare in India!). I was not so interested but Jnaneswari insisted on dragging me everywhere. Anyway I must say the double chocolate fudge sundae was delicious! Wonder how many years since I had ice-cream sundae?

In Dinoo’s house it was just us: Dinoo, her busy contractor son, his wife and their 15-year old daughter. She talked like a typical teenager and went around in short dresses. Quite a culture shock indeed!

After three days we went to stay with another devotee in the city. She’s named Sushila, in the house also was her husband and grown-up daughter. Another daughter came to visit, with her baby daughter. They took great special care of us in everyway, always eager to serve Mataji, with great devotion. Since I came with Jnaneswari, I was forced to accept equal measure of their services, always by her side eating, sleeping and traveling in taxis. So it was really a Divine experience going to all places always beside her. Sushila showed us various places like Swami Muktananda’s ashram, Chinmayananda’s ashram, different temples, etc.

The temples in the city are all of the modern type. Being an orthodox type, I was not so attracted to them. I like better the dark, musky cave-rooms housing crudely chiseled stones and devoted pujari chanting Vedas. The city’s temples are all big and airily, well-lit with brightly painted idols decorated with fancy clothes and fashionable jewels. The priests sit against walls looking disinterested, yawning and absentmindedly repeating mantras, whilst constantly looking all around to see whose coming and going. I felt sad to see the lack of interest. Still, they do look after the Mandir well, keeping hem neat and clean.

After Bombay, we went for two days to Visakhapatnam, a city about three hours away from Shanti Ashram. There is a branch of Shanti Ashram by the sea. It is a nice, quiet ashram, full of trees. It is not so big though, just about three or four acres. It has a famous school for deaf and dumb children, about 150 kids come from all over the city to it. A primary school also is there, having about 400 or 500 children. The hostel there, however, has only about 20 kids (10 of them deaf and dumb). It was funny to see them sign each other, using typical Indian motions. To put the finger on the side of a nose means “female” (showing a ring in the nose!) and to pretend to twist a mustache means “man”! (It is said a man without a mustache is no man at all, so most men here have mustaches!) We stayed two days then returned to the Mother ashram.

Now we are settled back in the ashram, and summer is upon us! It is nice and hot and we sweat a lot. Three baths a day (with washing the sweat-drenched clothes, and pouring water on the hair also) is the order of the day. The tempting mangoes are ripening fast, all around my new kutir.

Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu.

Love,

Divya