My Guru and I

Today I created a new page on this site for Kunda Miss, My Veda Guru. And I have tried to put together lines from my various posts that I have already written about her. It is not a biography.. it’s more a little shrine to her on Stories and Stuff…

Today my mom came along with me to yoga class. Many decades ago my mom was teacher at degree college. Kunda Miss was so excited and pleased to see her. She bowed to her at the beginning and end of the class and gave her some milk and blouse pieces.

To my mom, Kunda miss is a little girl who grew up and became a saint. She went on telling me.. “your Kunda Miss is so sacred now.. so saintly”.

With great love and devotion, Kunda Miss taught my mother some breathing practices, muscle and joint loosening exercises and pranayama. Mom took her some flowers from her own garden, because that is one of the very few things that Kunda Miss will accept from anyone, for use in her puja.

Once I decided to give her some dates for her puja. She loves distributing prasadam to her young students. When I went to the shelf in the store, there was a “buy one get one free” offer. So I got a free packet of dates that my mom could use in her puja. So the gift for Kunda Miss cost me nothing. As usual she distributed it to all the children after offering it to God. Then she made sure I had some. Only then, when I insisted,  she put one into her mouth, looking like a small happy child with a toffee in her cheek.

Then recently when I went for a class she was buying some soppu – green leafy vegetables. With her permission, I paid the Rs 10 for the soppu to save her some time and bother. Then on the way home, for Rs 10, I saw a tempo guy selling fresh soppu very cheap and for another Rs 10, I got the best soppu that I had ever bought in Bangalore in recent years and tons of it!!

So it is really hard to give her anything! No wonder.. it is said that Rukmini did not allow Sri Krsihna to accept the third handful of ‘avalakki’ from Sudama. By accepting 2 handfuls, Sri Krishna had already blessed Sudama with all the wealth needed for his present and future births.

I must stop trying to give her material things and concentrate my efforts on learning all that she has to teach. I must preserve and transmit her knowledge. Yet I do want to take her some honey or ghee for her next puja.. I guess I do not learn easily. I must learn to with draw my mind from the manifest material layer.

She says that for all these years I have given so much to the prapancha (world), that the prapancha has a strong hold on me now. My challenge is to let go and withdraw my mind into myself. My problem is Vyasa’s problem.

She says that the prapancha needs brahmagnyanis for solace and soothing. But brahmagnyanis need that one perfect student who can learn what he has to teach. That is why Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was so excited about Swami Vivekananda and not about the thousands of people who came to him for comfort and compassion.