Dear Ramji,
I understand you are on a deadline regarding Trout Lake, but that is still no excuse to disrespect one of your students. Yes, you answered some issues in my email—thank you—but that’s no excuse to ignore other important issues with “Gotta go.” The effect was hurtful.
Saying something like, “Regarding the other issues, let’s talk about them when I get back from Trout Lake,” would have been fine.
You’ve been kind and supportive in the past, and again, I thank you for that, but as a “Mahatma,” you can’t be kind one day and cold the next.
Yes, I’m whole and complete, and I should take it all as prasad. But that doesn’t take you off the hook as a teacher.
Krishnan
James/Ramji:Well, I didn’t realize how arrogant and emotionally fragile you are, Edward. After the seminar, I was going to ask some donors about financing an AI app for ShiningWorld and then try to find out how qualified you are to set it up. If you qualified, I would have offered you a job. I’m glad that Isvara exposed your vulnerability because our relationship, such as it is, doesn’t include holding your hand emotionally either as a teacher or as an employer. That’s your responsibility, which also doesn’t involve lecturing me about my responsibility toward you. The word entitlement popped forcefully into mind the moment I finished reading your lecture.
Your duty as a student of Vedanta is to take a stand as awareness at all times and tough out the emotional stuff as you see fit. If I had a dollar for every time I said I’m not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, I’d have a yacht on the Costa del Sol by now. I teach Vedanta as my gurus taught me. It works. Although I inspire people, to play the psychological card is a violation of my duty as a teacher. For emotionality, you should know that Vedanta recommends karma yoga. I’m not going forward with my idea to involve you in the AI plan, which was backed by sympathy for your financial circumstances, of which you have informed me several times already. I advise you to get clarity about your goal in life, the purpose for which you incarnated. Hint: it’s not to write a literary book. That, and the energy you spend worrying about money and other things, should be invested in a single, all-consuming desire for freedom from want. If you are rightly resolved, as Bhagavan says to Arjuna, who has this is worry, “I’ll take care of your getting and keeping.” Trust the Lord.
Vedanta requires qualifications, which you must know but don’t seem to take seriously if you are hectoring me about my responsibility toward you. The immediate qualifications that come to mind are dispassion and discrimination, which go hand in hand. Seeing what happens from the point of view of awareness is dispassion. Had you trusted me to get back to you at the appropriate time, things may have worked out favorably for you. Not telllng me off would be an example of discrimination. I serve many qualified people. Why should I put you at the head of the queue? Emotionally sensitive entitled people are a dime a dozen these days, as are armchair psychologists.
You have two choices with regard to our relationship, as I see it. You can see me as Isvara and accept what you hear as Isvara’s words, which will make me happy and solve your problem. Or you can see me as James and complain, which serves nobody.
Poor mouthing spiritually and or materially doesn’t work in God’s world or in man’s world. The only appropriate response for both of us involves keeping your head down and listening with an open mind. You are free to listen to anyone you want. People regularly join and leave the ShiningWorld satsang. Some get what they want here. Others leave and find what they want elsewhere. If not, sometimes they come back and thank themselves that they did. Or not.
I don’t do guilt because I do my dharma properly. Whether or not I’m a mahatma, I’m free to blow hot or cold. I’m free to laugh or cry at this email, but as you can see, I find it useful to lecture you instead, as you and/or others may gain clarity about how I see things and life’s purpose. You’re free to be happy with everything that happens or to whine until you are content. You’re just miffed because you aren’t getting what you want. What you want can only come from you. End of lecture. I hope you get the point.
By the way, you mis-signed your email. Krishna would never write such stuff. It should be signed Edward.
