05.17.07

Avadhuta Gita

Posted in Articles and Essays at 2:05 am by Shri Jadu Garudanath

Adesh, Adesh,

On a Sunday afternoon, two days after Guru Purnima, July 1991, after a gloriously intense ritual honoring Guru Mahendranath at a place called Syn Dhuni and a day spent reading the English translation of the Avadhuta Gita by Shree Purohit Swami and edited by S. Mokashi-Punekar (Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers) in the company of Lalitaji, I was struck by a direct transmission of the entire text of the Avadhuta Gita. My consciousness was rendered completely split by the experience. At once I was still, yet I could completely attend to the sound of my housemate and guru brother Shree Kapilnath listening to Star Trek, The Next Generation on the television in the next room.

The clarity of that dichotomy amplified the importance of the experience. At once I was Here and yet There. The There was a vision of wintertime trees and sky, and the completely chilly dispassionate feeling that everything you know is Wrong, and the Ego response of “please don’t say all my practice/life is wasted”. I was bankrupt in a millisecond. Everything I had thought of as useful was utterly useless, irrelevant…Kaput! The emotional panic of that realization was quickly followed by the corresponding understanding, …that all of my Fears of failure or other mishap, were equally Irrelevant, cosmic pause…..emptiness …. I was inherently Free!

Curiously, I had stumbled upon the answer to a question of many years yearning, yet the answer was startlingly Alien in texture from the expectations I had previously imagined. The transmission had the lack of sentiment of a transmission from a complete Uberlord 108 eyed Alien from another galaxy. From this experience, I was left with the idea that much of my sentimental human concept of “Freedom” was false… but all was not lost, because my worry and likely most other mortal’s misconceptions were equally irrelevant, and so equally without karmic worry.

The paradox was liberating. At that moment, at a deep level, I was free from the snares of expectation. This transmission had the vibrational signature of Guru Mahendranath all over it. I was in a zombie-like emotional zero state for a week afterward, but also very liberated… again more paradox. I set out to make plans to visit Mahendranath in India, to ask his opinion on my recent experience with the Avadhuta Gita. Ah, but this is another story. Let me instead emphasis that the Avadhuta Gita is my talisman. It stands in equal to the I Ching.

Guru Om,

Garudanath

05.04.07

On the way to Shambhala Tapowan…

Posted in Kapilji's Skull Chatter at 3:07 am by Shri Kapilnath

Greetings,

I was reflecting on the short missive of the poster who wished to find an Indian disciple of Shri Mahendranath to bend their ear. Why some private person would want to discuss their relationship or experience of a holy man with a stranger is obscure, if not invasive, but it set me to thinking…

I remembered my first visit to Shambhala Tapowan. I was in Gujarat State and boarded the train from Ahmedabad to Shambhala Tapowan. It was early evening and the sun had set. The train car I found a space in was filled with village people and a collection of chickens, bundled clothing, pots and pans and much dust. I found and staked out my spot on a bench. Across from me was the only other “gentleman”, a bespectacled Indian person wearing a rather tattered coat and tie, protectively guarding his traveling case which was wedged between his knees.

After being underway for some period and the chickens having been subdued and placed in bags, the man looked at me from behind his coke bottle glasses and suddenly spoke in perfect English. “And what brings you to India my good man?” Somewhat surprised by his British accent, I replied, “I have come to meet my Guru”. “And who is your Guru?” he prodded. I said the name “Mahendranath”.

Suddenly, the car exploded with the yelps of the villagers, “Mahendranath Babaji!” - “Mahendranath Babaji!” The resting chickens entered the fray with excited cackling while the villagers pressed in to form a circle around us. It seemed that everyone in the car had met Shri Mahendranath with the exception of myself and the “well dressed” Indian fellow. A flurry of Hindi ensued from the villagers to “Mr. Spectacles”.

“It seems our traveling companions know your Guruji and speak highly of him. Will you be staying with him?” he asked. “Yes,” I replied. “Mr. Spectacles” merely nodded and the villagers moved away to give greater distance. I went from being the odd white man in the car to an alien presence…

So, if one wants to meet someone who met Shri Mahendranath, board an east bound train out of Ahmedabad and keep mumbling “Mahendranath Babaji”… Since this was over twenty years ago, your mileage may vary…

Kapilnath