Kathleen: Dear James and Sundari, much love to you both this holiday season and much health and strength for the coming year!
I just returned from India. I did spend some time near Coimbatore in Swami Dayananda’s gurukulumand found the teaching there very fine and also the atmosphere much more inviting and friendly for Westerners. However, I felt that somehow my time in India is over. It’s as if I have gotten what I needed to get from her and there is no need to return.
My first calling to India came in a meditation when just the word ARUNACHALA popped up (which I had to google afterwards; I remember a picture of Ramana came up on the screen) and then after some days, again during another meditation, the information came through that I would be going in February. It was November 2012, and I was living in Cheggio in the mountains of Italy, where you visited me, was broke and had no idea how I was going to get to India.
In any case, I met you there, was introduced to Vedanta, was extremely blessed by Ramana and Arunachala, and a whole new inner journey began. That was in 2013. At first it was just a kind of fascination – I heard you shortly teaching in Tiruvannamalai, a friend brought me to you. Then followed the home study course of the Bhagavad Gita from Dayananda which you had gifted me.
I worked on that for almost a year – it was such a blessed time in the mountains, I had hardly no distractions and could continue my meditation practice. After that my healing work demanded that I travel some, and I took off not knowing how and where spirit would lead me but truly encircled and embraced this beautiful earth of ours while listening to your teachings (I had them on a memory drive) all along the way. After returning from my second trip to India, the retreat in Doro took place, which was grace pure for me. I had fallen from a spiritual high, and the timing could not have been better! It is crazy how the universe takes care of us when we surrender to its grace! That was what finally “cracked the nut” – the teachings spoke directly to my heart; I could see how the words were like riding on waves of love (that is why I have not understanding when people tell me Vedanta is so intellectual!; for me it is compassion pure!) and I WAS SOLD on Vedanta forever. I understood then finally the difference between self-actualization and self-realization.
As you know, since then my life had changed dramatically. I am truly grateful. I have no ambition to teach, but spirit has given me a nice little part-time job in a lovely little hotel that includes me giving weekly lectures to entertain the guests who are doing meditation. I think I sold just about 100 of your books last year, so those seeds, I pray, may, according to the karmic laws, someday flourish. Also, a couple of my colleagues have attended your last teachings, which they very much enjoyed.
So having said all that, I am finally getting to the point and the reason for writing. The center used to be part of the Maharishi Network, but left it. My boss is very worried that when I talk and introduce Vedanta to our guests I might talk about lineage and my guru (I do that because it is important for me to be clear that ANY teachings are always coming from the parampara). She wants me to leave it out because she is worried that we will be seen as associated with some kind of sect (which is what happened before, so there is this kind of guru-swami fear, or getting “too spiritual”). However, I can still recommend your book, it seems, as long as I do not use the G-word.
But isn’t totally important to help people understand that these are not personal teachings? Of course if they buy your book, those who are interested, they will get that information eventually.
I really do not need to give these lectures, but was happy to do so. Still, I feel conflicted to talk about Vedanta and not the parampara. If we do not introduce the parampara it could be misunderstood as my experience or knowledge. I can refuse to give the lectures and see what happens. There is still plenty of other stuff for me to do. What are your thoughts about this?
I hope to see you again sometime in Spain, so God willing! Much love to you both!
James: Lovely to hear from you, Kathleen. I think of you fondly and often. You are doing great sadhana!You needn’t feel guilty as long as you know that all the glory goes to the sampradaya; it’s fine not to mention it. If people think you are some kind of spiritual genius, it will not go to your head. If anybody asks, you can say it just comes to you from within or from God, something they can understand. And as you say, those who are interested will eventually figure it out one way or the other. In fact you will be pleased to know that I – Mr. Sampradaya – accepted a commission to write a Vedanta book without any mention of India, Sanskrit, the dreaded G-word, etc. I think of it as a modern Purana.
~ Om and prem, James
