Sunyata

Sunyata ji .

A few days ago I was sitting in an English looking pub with Russell and the name Sunyata poped up .We had a small chat about how he met Rabindranath Tagore working as a gardener which I was not sure of as I read much about Sunyata and could'nt remember that . While Russell wandered in to get another pint I found myself immeadiately feeling a profound sense of love for Sunyata which started to stir some deep bhava of bhakti, the clouds were looking down on me and I felt them ready to burst through my eyes brimming with tears !

I came to know about Sunyata probably through reading a Mountain Path magazine . A " natural born mystic " as stated by Ramana Maharshi; he lived most of his life in India and was good friends with prominent members of Indian society such as Jawaharlal Nerhu and Rabindranath Tagore and Lama Govinda. In Lucknow I read about his experience as a child playing soccer (there is an account of his experience while playing soccer as a young boy , all of a sudden he found his body running with the ball as if he was out of his body as an expanse clear space ) and of his meeting with Ramana Maharshi . The more I read about him the more I came to love the Sunyata who came to India and lived quietly and simply .

Negi ji

On one trip to Lucknow I had the good luck to travel with a good friend to Delhi and got chauffer driven to Chandigargh where I met Negiji a guru in a lineage which traces itself from Kabir . This particular line of Gurus alternated between Hindu and Muslim backgrounds . I met Negiji while he was in Samadhi , that is to say on entering the driveway a perceptible prescence which overwhelmed me powerfully could not be ignored! I went to sleep in the room next to his and enjoyed this sleep very much , and we met for breakfast the next morning . I received prasad after this Samadhi , some Indian sweets with a gentle smile . I got to talk with him over the next few days , this was a difficult time for me as I was forced to look at how people could look after me as my credit card got swallowed by the ATM and I was busy being a karmi in survival mode while I was being fed sheltered and loved . He invited me to his ashram in Horshiapur and I stayed there with a Danish friend , a fun guy who loves his

Bharadwaj ji

music . He told me about the people in Horshiapur called the "City of Saints" as most of them age in grace and seem to exude an air of charm, delight and wisdom. It was here I had the great fortune of meeting Bharadwaj ji who was a close and intimate friend to Sunyata I brought a book of Papaji which he excitedly exclaimed in joy as I presented it to him . When we met it was like we were somewhere in a silent place where we were friends. Even though we were ages apart we were so dear in heart! Bharadwaj ji recalls his friend and tells "Sunyata was staying in my house during every winter. One fine day in spring he prepared himself to go back to his Himalayan retreat in Almora.I asked him: "Sunyata! Please give me a last teaching before you go back to the mountains." Then Sunyata looked at me with immense intensity and said with great force:"You are THAT!You are the ultimate Reality!"In this moment I lost all body-consciousness.I realized unchangeable Reality - being one with THAT several days later I found someone rubbing some arms.While rubbing I realized that I was the rubber and that these arms belonged to me.Then I discovered that somehow I actually had a body."
A few days later Bharadwarji came to talk with us. Gunnar showed me a stack of type written letters from Sunyata . Here they lay in my hands , the very words dearly written by Sunyata and I had the good fortune to be holding all of them in one go !! I started to read some and got lost in 'innerstanding' as he would say . Years later in Tiru I found another book about Sunyata in the Ramana Ashram library and brought it home and read it aloud to Russell who listened carefully , and so.................I must have said something about Rabindranath Tagore meeting the mystic gardner!