Journey to Maharajji - Part 3 - Supriya meets her teacher, the Mahasamadhi Ashram manager

Make sure to read the previous parts if you haven’t already:Part 1 - Journey to Maharaji - Meeting MaharajiPart 2 - The Journey to Maharaji continues - “Nothing to Achieve”-------------------------Fast-forward 2 years later, in 2005. Supriya was working 10-14 hours a day for a big architecture firm in India and feeling exhausted. Her roommate’s mom visited Vrindavan every month and during each visit asked Supriya to come along…but she was never interested. Then, Supriya began wondering why people always go to Vrindavan. As many of us do these days for spiritual matters, she did a google search. Coincidently, the first website that appeared described Neem Karoli Baba’s Mahasamadhi in Vrindavan. That was all she needed. She took one week off from her job (which she eventually extended to one month’s leave without pay) and left for Vrindavan on a bus.Her mom had always told her that whatever place someone takes Mahasamadhi in becomes powerful by the continuous presence of the Universal Conscious energy. That place would hold so many blessings that even angels will live there. But getting to Maharajji’s temple was complicated and tiring. She first went to the main bus stand of Delhi, almost 20 kms away, only to find out that a bus to Vrindavan left from a local bus stop, just one block away from her apartment. She finally got on the right bus, which happened to stop in Mathura, the city of Lord Krishna’s birthplace, before ending up in Vrindavan. For anyone who knows India this extra stop to Mathura is 10 kilometers away from Vrindavan. I have a hunch this was a place of importance for her to visit. If all travel plans had worked out smoothly Supriya would have arrived at Maharajji’s mahasamadhi ashram at 4pm, but like her travels to his temple in Taos she arrived late in the night at 11 pm. She got out of the small auto rickshaw and told the driver to wait. She didn’t know anyone in town, mostly everything was closed and so she started banging on the big locked ashram gates.Then along came a watchman “How many are you?” he asked.  She responded, “only one.” The watchman looked shocked, as he couldn’t believe a single girl would wander around close to midnight, just to come to an ashram. Then he went inside and asked for the manager to come out. This was her first meeting with the man who would become her confidant, close friend and her first teacher in physical form – Bhaskar Bhat. He had a very stern look on his face, a deep frown on his forehead and a sharp gaze. She thought for sure she was going to get scolded. She felt so exposed and uncomfortable that she started looking around, and then, without warning, the manager started laughing. Finally, he told her to come on in.She had profound memories of him and would affectionately come to call him Bhaskar Bhauji (father). Bhaskar lived like a hermit according to Supriya. His room was austere, with one small bed, a small desk, and a single cooking burner. He was the manager at the ashram because Maharajji had told him he couldn’t leave unless he found someone better to be the manager. 13 years later, he still remained at his post. Bhaskar told Supriya, “People are not meant to stay here more than three days, but you can stay as long as you want. And if you have any problem just come to me.” He would often laugh when he looked at her.Some devotees who lived with Maharajji say that he taught them through other people, and this was Supriya’s experience with Bhaskar.  For example, one morning she found out it was an auspicious day for Hindus to do parikrama (circumambulation around sacred site) around Vrindavan barefoot. Doing the parikrama barefoot around Vrindavan is not for the novice and burns a lot of karma, along with the feet. Supriya came back with numb feet and Bhaskar laughed at her. She couldn’t take it any longer and respectfully asked him, “Why do you keep laughing at me?”“What are you looking for?” he replied. She told him that she is looking for God. Looking intensely into her eyes he said, “Let me know when you find him.”  Then he noticed she was getting annoyed and told her “anyone who walks through that ashram door is God for me. Because when you look for something you become That.”Another day, she went to see Bankey Bihariji (Lord Krishna) and it happened that day was the only day of the year on which there is no singaar (ornaments) put on the deity. When she told this to Bhauji with a lot of excitement he humbly asked, “Is there a day of the year that ever gets repeated?” And she found such wisdom in that, because no moment of life is ever repeated again, and so we must make sure to value it. He would often say, “This ashram or the temple is not the only temple, but the whole world is His creation – a big temple, only if we can see it that way!”Supriya says it took her years to understand those simple concepts from Bhaskar Bhauji. The pieces of advice he gave her were glimpses of wisdom that kept her inspired as if Maharajji was talking to her through him.(Next week you’ll read about Supriya meeting with a fatal accident on a Journey to Maharajji..............)