 A SEEKER'S JOURNEY TO SELF-REALIZATION My father's eldest brother had a daughter but no son. His wife was a very kind and loving woman who had enormous faith in God. She loved me a lot and invited me often to her house, where I would spend many nights. Often she fed me with motherly affection on my return from school. The Sacred Thread ceremony was performed for me when I was nine years old. By then, my uncle and aunt had already adopted me, therefore this ceremony was performed at their home. At the age of about 12 years I started to live with them permanently. I was molded into family tradition through systematic teaching of the Vedas, ritual practices and Sanskrit language. Once so happened that Badeej (literally elder mother in the local language), who loved me very much, was away visiting her daughter and I stayed home with Bade Bauju. In our language Bauju means father and his elder brother is called Bade Bauju, elder father. One evening, something suddenly happened - I can't say if it was the force of destiny or something else. On his return from visiting one of his parishioners, Bade Bauju was in a bad mood. I don't remember the reason or the cause of it, as it happened a long time ago. Also it is not worth remembering either. But I haven't forgotten that he was very angry and he yelled at me. He said many things which I don't remember, but suddenly some words came out of my mouth. I have no clue as to why I responded that way, because it was not the first time that he had yelled at me. I used to obey him and had never felt bad about it, as it is the right and duty of the elders to reprimand the youngsters in order to teach them. The young ones are also obligated to listen to the elders as well. However, that day it all happened unexpectedly. He was very mad at me and I don't know how I said those words that were neither in my subconscious nor did I have this kind of knowledge. I said to him, "You can not derive happiness from having a son by merely adopting someone else's child. If the Divine had so willed, you would have been blessed with a son. That would have given you joy. It is not possible to have such joy through an adoptive son." |
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