A wonderful evening together

Volker and his family had returned from Bhagavan's darshan. Nothing had been spoken but his family knew that the Lord had heard them, and His decision, whatever it was, was welcomed by them.

They enjoyed the south indian meal prepared by the landlady. Jyoti had purchased some appalams (paapadums) in their absence and prepared them. They enjoyed the crisp pappadums.

Gurunathan narrated in brief what they had been through with a lot of help from Jyoti. Jyoti took over at the part when they began reading the book "Have Love For All Creatures". The german family listened with great interest to the stories about Bhagavan and the lion cubs. Then Volker and Helga told them more about Bhagavan. They kept talking late into the night.

Gurunathan and Jyoti knew very little of Bhagavan. They were eager to hear every detail of his life. Tears flowed quite freely as they heard about young Venkataraman's journey. Heinrich and Elfi would add in details about his childhood days. It seemed they did not want to come to the part of Bhagavan growing up! Stories about young Venkat sleeping while he was carried away often beaten up were told in great detail by the children.

The children enacted the death experience of Bhagavan. Gurunathan and Jyoti were completely confused about the order of events since the children kept hijacking the flow and going back into childhood, or forward into the later years.

Now suddenly from Venkat being picked up while asleep in school, they jumped to the times when He sat still for weeks in the various temples and was lifted and carried from one to another by devotees.

"When will I have my death experience?", demanded Elfi.
"I can't wait!!!", shouted Heinrich. Everyone laughed and dabbed their eyes upon hearing this.
"I am going to go to Bhagavan first thing tomorrow and ask him for it!", declared Elfi.
"I intend having mine tonight itself!", said Heinrich not to be left behind.

For Gurunathan and Jyoti, the past was something dark they wanted to forget, while the future was blank and unfathomable. They had no idea where Bhagavan would take them. They were melting rapidly but where would this melting take them, they did not know. It had all happened so suddenly, like just moments ago.

For Volker and Helga, Bhagavan had been a part of their every moment for many years, and would always be. The past and future and present were one, one happy continuity, whichever way they looked all they could see was Bhagavan. They were beginning to get past that point when one believed Bhagavan Ramana to be limited to one body, and so they knew deep down that Bhagavan was always with them wherever they were. They were beginning to see and know Him in everything. They had sunk so deep into Bhagavan that they were always in a state of deep peace. That maddening desire to be liberated which had caused so much pain had melted along with all other desires.

Heinrich and Elfi dozed off listening to stories of Bhagavan. Seeing this, the parents decided it was time to sleep too. Tomorrow would be a long day.