Full Moon, New Moon

Do you know that story from the Ramayana?

The demon king Ravana had kidnapped Lord Rama's wife, Sita. Back at his palace, Ravana asked Sita what she thought of him.

"You are like the full moon," Sita replied. "While Rama is like the new moon."

Ravana was pleased, thinking it a compliment. What Sita meant, though, was that Ravana's power was at its peak -- like the full moon, his power would only wane from that point. Rama's power, however, like the new moon's, was on the rise.

That's what I'm reminded of when I look back at this picture of me and Jeevan from October 1986. I was at the height of my discipleship -- the full moon to Jeevan's up and coming new moon.

Guru had made a trip to the Bay Area, which included a visit to my old Center in San Jose. Giribar had since opened up a juice bar and gallery. That's where Jeevan worked and the picture was taken.

On his way out of the gallery, Guru stopped in front of Jeevan and me and began meditating. After a minute or so, he looked at both of us with half closed eyes.

"You two know who I am," Guru said, nodding affirmatively. He gave us each another smile, and then walked out.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

David Moretti

Image
On October 18, 1981, I got the word that Sri Chinmoy had accepted me as one of his disciples. I was 16, a junior in high school. Young as I was, the story behind my applying to join what some in my family believed -- perhaps correctly -- to be a Hindu religious cult stretched back a few years and is a story of happenstance, serendipity and interesting personalities. Over the following nine years of my discipleship, I would meet some of the most unique individuals I've ever met and I'll do my best to draw attention to them as my story unfolds. First, though, I want to acknowledge my boyhood friend, David Moretti (pictured above). Dave was my best friend through grade school. His father worked for the Almaden winery when there were still vineyards in Silicon Valley, and his mother worked for a local bank. Unlike my parents, Dave's mom and dad hadn't divorced. I spent just about every day after elementary school hanging out at the Moretti's house. When the whole...
Read more

Hear Me Roar

Image
The time for former women disciples to come together, "in numbers too big to ignore" as Helen Reddy sings in her famous song, is now. With the huge exception of Jayanti Tamm -- and her book Cartwheels in a Sari -- there have been precious few examples of what the disciple life was like from a woman's perspective. That should change. There are now scores of women who spent significant time in the Center leading extremely disciplined lives, who are now living outside the shadow of the Center, standing on their own, each of whom have distinct and unique voices. I'd really like to hear from them (you all know who you are). And I don't mean just in guest posts here (though I love them). What I'm really advocating is a site for women, by women. Something like a spiritual Double X site . I take inspiration again from Jayanti, who is perhaps laying the foundation for such a site at her blog -- read the latest lion's roar here . That's Helen Reddy in the pho...
Read more

Lavanya - A Guest Post

Image
I WAS NOT AS SPECIAL AS YOU AND I THOUGHT This is the story of a few pivotal experiences of my 31 years in the Sri Chinmoy Centre. Telling it makes me feel sad, mad, ashamed, and foolish for staying and serving for so many years after I knew things were not as they should be, starting with our divine leader. Still, when I finally left the Centre, I swore to myself that I would never tell what I knew about him, and until recently I thought I never would. But when I left the Centre, I thought I knew what was true about Chinmoy, when actually I knew almost nothing. Now, as the real Chinmoy is gradually being revealed by piecing together all of our experiences with him, it seems I can’t keep my own story tamped down any longer. It needs to be told.  It’s not a good story, not a happy story, and I am not a heroine – on the contrary. But life is telling me it’s time to speak up. I probably should have spoken long ago. I definitely COULD have spoken about 40 years ago. Maybe I...
Read more