Conversations with Sri Swamiji – 31

In Gopika Geetam, the Gopis, while speaking of the way Lord Krishna speaks, say that His speech is the sweetest and it is not just sweet; it is so profound and filled with wisdom that even the most intelligent ones are baffled. They say that even to doltish brains that cannot understand what He speaks, His lotus-like eyes would convey a special message as His lips spoke!

One who observes our Sri Swamiji speak will go through a similar experience! Even an offhand remark by our Guru Maharaj conveys different experessions and meanings to different devotees. Of all the Rasas (expressions) that He would convey, the ‘haasya rasa’ (expression of humor) is the one that catapults everyone! The Master’s spontanuous humor and wit is beyond words!

About 4 years ago, once Sri Swamiji visited Bengaluru and went to the residence of Sri Shankaranarayanan and numerous people had gathered there to have His darshan. There, he asked Sri Shankaranarayanan’s daughter to give a discourse on a particular topic. As the devotees were still unsettled, He asked all of them to sit down and settle in. Sri Shankaranarayanan’s son, Vijay was struggling hard to squat on the floor as he had a recent knee injury. Looking at his plight, our Guru Maharaj instantly said, ‘Ellarukkum ‘naan’ than problem.. ana unakku ‘knee’ problem!’

The greatest impediment to spiritual advancement for one and all is the ‘I’ (‘Naan’ refers to the ego ‘I’ in Tamizh language) – but in your case, ‘knee’ is the problem! (knee – pronounced as ‘nee’ – in Tamizh translates as ‘you’).