𝐀 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐚 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐲𝐚’𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞

A four day Jnana Yagna (Spiritual Discourses) on HASTAMALAKA STOTRAM just concluded today in Sacramento Country Day school. I had received information about it earlier in the week, got busy with other stuff, so couldn't make the first 3 evening sessions. Aparna received a text message late last night from a friend Gayathri that Sri Girish-ji wanted to talk to me and was looking for my cell number. She asked me to prepare for a call early in the morning as the last day’s discourse was due to start at 9 AM.

Bramachari +Girish Chaitanya is the resident Acharya of the Austin, TX Chinmaya Mission. He did his Engineering in UC Davis and worked in the Sacramento area. I had briefly attended his class on Katha Upanishad several years ago when he was a bachelor prior to joining the Chinmaya Mission full time.

I assumed from the text message it was a reminder for me to attend the discourse; As an ex-Balvihar parent I have attended similar events in the past. So I decided to show up (தலைய காண்பிக்கணும்) for the last session. Saturday did not start well for me; I was running late and hit a floating plastic bucket on I-80 en route to the class. I barely made it to the very last session. In the short time I was there, Sri Girish-ji impressed me with his erudition and exposition of the text and quick responses during the Q &A session. Having known him as a young man out of college, I could see he had blossomed into an excellent Spiritual teacher. 

Sundar's transformation!

Physically, he was the same slim person I knew from several years back. Talking about changes, I too underwent some transformation but not the kind you are thinking of :-)

At the end of the class, when I was in line to do namaskar and receive blessings, he said “You are finally here! I have been looking for you a long time. Can you join me during the Bhiksa?”. As Aparna often points out I rarely miss out on opportunities for food, so of course I said yes.

During the Samasthi Bhiksa (pot luck prepared by various devotees), Girish-ji asked me to join me in his table and asked me “Do you remember the book you gave me?”. Initially I said "No, I don’t remember" and then recollected I had given him a book long time ago. He continued  "The book you gave me Yoga, Enlightenment and Perfection several years ago really transformed my life. I took it with me on my trip to my training at the Chinmaya Mission in India. I carried it with me everywhere I went. My mother even complained that I was mad after that book!. The extraordinary thing about the book is every time I come back to it I get a different perspective.”

I was pleasantly surprised at all this and said I was really amazed that it had such a impact on his life and explained it was written by my Guru Sri Umeshi-ji who was my Senior in College of Engineering, Guindy and the book was a compilation of the Spiritual Sadhana of His Guru.

Sri Girish-ji continued “I attended the classes on the 12 Upanishads at the Chinmaya Mission and the learning was solidified by reading the book after the classes and reviewing the Upanishadic quotes from the book. He went on and on in a similar vein for several minutes, showering praise for the book, then concluded “That book is the railway track I run my spiritual life on. Whenever I deviate from the track I come back to the book. It totally transformed my life and helped my spiritual growth”.

The Significance of Sri Girish-ji's statements was not lost on me. He has access to hundreds of books and other literature through his calling. Yet this was the one book that became his guiding light.

I was reminded of Steve Jobs who could access millions of books for his iPad but the only one he chose to download was the Autobiography of a Yogi by Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda.

Finally, he asked for my cell number and said “Now, I want to meet your Guru who wrote this book. Even if I have to fly to India to meet Him I am willing to do it”. I was really glad to have been a messenger even though I didn't grasp the message myself :-)

People read about Sri Ramana Maharishi and other self realized souls, but very rarely, if ever get to meet one in person. I find it fascinating Sri Girish-ji is willing to travel half way across the globe to meet Sri Umesh-ji. On the other hand, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming across the college campus. I had the arrogance of youth, thought of myself as a cool dude, had no interest in religion or spirituality , prided myself on being an agnostic and had a pretty dim view of people wearing Vibhuti etc as ritualists with 'no logic'. In contrast I was a rationalist backed by proven scientific methods and earned the nick name Quantum due to my fascination with Quantum Mechanics. 

Interestingly my first few conversations with Sri Umesh-ji broke my bubble as He resorted to nothing but logic to address all the questions and objections I had.

The meeting place was not in an Ashram but around the Royal Enfield motorbike Sri Umesh used to ride to college. There were no formal discourses but friendly, casual chit chats about anything and everything. Only much later, when I started tasting the tranquility in deep meditation due to His Grace, I could revert back to those college days and correlate to the overwhelming, magnetic sense of peace that is the hallmark of a great Yogi.

Fire cannot but burn, likewise a Jnani is always able to turn anyone's mind inward and seek the self, whether you are a saint, a sinner, religious, agnostic, atheist, spiritual or just spiritual in the morning and spiritual in the evening!

Orginally published November 9, 2013