me & memoirs II

I had lost my first election in 1999 by only 600 votes & was in a deep state of dilemma of my future career in politics. Though i used be on constant tour in my constituency i still use to in state of mentally & bodily fatigue.

Ultimately a day came when a spiritual book songyal rinpoche's tibetan book on living & dying came in my hand. Uptil that time i was a rather atheist beliving that every sucess & failure is a output of once own competency.

In disgusting moments i used to blame others. I use to drive my body like a mad dog from morning till evening and had no regard for a word call fitness.

But this book almost glued me from start to end. Being a rational thinker i was rather skeptical of major part of this book. But then then this book sparked a differnt thirst in me. I rather became more curious to study buddha & his philosophy. Then i read one of the classical fiction by Hermann hesse,s siddhartha which struke my chord...then came series on buddha of which karen armstrong,s buddha & thich nhat hanh,s old path white cloud were notable. After that i did deep reading in medition & its method. Modern medition guru,s has joseph goldstein, jack kornfeild, sharon salzberg , lama surya das were on my shelf to help me. I had a vipassana meditation course in s n goenka,s place which changed the whole view on dhamma.

in this period my uncle whom call shivajitatya introduced me to two great books dean ornish,s reversing heart the disease & the otherone was a marathi book by one of the most revered personality in social & medical field in india that was dr abhay bang,s maza sakshatkari hridayrog. these two books changed my whole attitude towards fitness & lifestyle. But the former one was even a spiritual treat also.

Slowly i shifted from buddhist technique of anapansati & satipathana to more tibetan schools as well as to old hindu advaita traditional meditation. Tibetan one were more ritual & near to heart. Names as guru rinpoche, shantideva,milrepa, tsongkhapa entered my space. soon they all took me to old buddhist nalanda school of nagarjuna,kamalashila,chandrakirti, vasubandhu,asanga..... finally to school of shunyata(emptiness) madhyamika. this was a long but thrilling drive ....

But finally i started to long for His holiness dalai lama ,s blessing & dharshan. I had done much of correspondance by email to his office but was invain. Finally in 2009 i had a holy dream in which i was serving meals to haji,s.( muslim pilgrims going to mecca)

In next few days i was in Dharamshala listening to teachings of hh dalai lama on kamalshila,s stages of meditation (a book i had read & practised often)...At same time i requested HH dalai lama,s office for private audience....& my merit was not my political post but my deep thirst for buddhism & tibetan vajrayana.....What a surprise i got precious 20 minitues to interact with him....

I am sitting in his visiting lounge which is full of thankas & wooden wall & floor. He enters in room with smiles accompanied by a translator. He sits down and ask me to sit however i touch his feet(indian way) ...

To my surprise he starts discussion with asking about my family background . In next few minitues we were talking topics like indian democracy, shivsena, neobuddhists, indiansociety....& thus i found him to be intrestingly smart political leader also. later he discussed about tibetan dharma & his books of which he advised me to translate ethics in millenium in marathi .( on which i havent done a bit...what a.........i am) ..At last he offered me a small golden buddha & put a khata (shawl) around my neck almost held me in arms said worship this has lord vishnu...i tell you it was a moment like meeting mother of thousands of births ( HH dalai lama is alokiteshwara lord of compassion)......


Nowever days now i feel indifferentl to sucess & failures of my political & social life..i am never in carreer dilemma .....i meditate on advaita or almost say on emptiness ....Saint dyaneshwar has directly pointed on advaita in his spiritual text amrutanubhava......Just so, the one pure Consciousness becomesThe enjoyer and the object of enjoyment,The seer and the object of vision,Without disturbing Its unity.

me & my memoirs

i was about sixteen and on a holiday in jorve my maternal grandpas place.my usual timepass in those pretty golden days was reading. one day in morning as i was peeping in some pages dada dropped in his living room and asked what was i reading. than he suddenly stood on small stool & extended his hand in his copboard full of books. he picked one book dusted it of and handed to me and said 'read this its my favorite'...it was go ni dandekar's smarangatha , a autobioraphy. i read it like a hungry wolf found it one of the best memoirs till today.
dada was a vorocious reader. one of his favorite book was biography of george washington carver's marathi biography written by veena gavankar named ek hota carver. dada distrubuted this book among schools & institutions. he used to persuate his partyworkers & youngters to read it. his speeches were always filled with incidances on life of george washington carver.his other favorite were pra ka atre's karheche pani, yeshwantrao chavans krishnakath & henry kissinger,s dairies.
further dada wrote his own memoirs in autobigraphical way in two volumes named amrutmanthan & amrutgatha which became a instant hit and got applauded in literaute circle. another memorable incident happened in 2005 . i accidentally encountered a marathi version of french classic the man who planted trees by jean giono. one day my aunt by chance picked up a copy from my desk and carried to sangamner where see dropped on dada's desk absentmindedly....and that night
dada read the short book and could not sleep. he got up in morning and called out a early morning meeting with all his senior partyworkers...this whole episode gave birth to a green movement called dandakaranya abhiyan..rest is history!
however reading autobigraphy's have been passion of my life....in may 2010 i got hold of the autobiography of malcolm x....i swear i tell you what ...its almost like a bible...it almost a emotional roller coaster..it swirls,moves,dives deep in water,swings in sky........you wont believe this book has vibes!
i havent finished yet has reading it needs a mental space which i hardly get....but i assure you its a life time treat! some of favorite memoirs alias autobiography's are swami rama's living with himalayan masters, obama's dreaams from my father, mauhammed asad,s the road to mecca, dalai lama's freedom in exile, jon krakauer's into the wild are only some of the few...otherwise many more!