Building a Dam at Dehri

By Manoj J Lekhi

We used to have Teacher’s AMC (Advance Meditation Course) very, very regularly. One of the teacher’s AMC was in the Dehri Ashram. We were about 40 to 50 people, teachers gathered from all over the country.

I remember distinctly that AMC because it was a very unique and a special AMC. In my mind the first few AMC’s I had attended were based on silence. We would be keeping silent most of the days on very, very less food, more of fasting and silence and this was embedded in my mind that AMC means silence & fasting.

That particular AMC too we started in the same way. Guruji would be silent for many, many long periods of time, but it was pre-monsoon and suddenly he got the idea that in the stream flowing next to Dehri, we needed to make a dam to stop and store the water.

So the second morning he called all of us as a part of the Fun Club to put the rocks in a particular way and all 40 of us gathered singing haiyaa ve haiyya putting the rocks, in a particular way.

We thought it would be over probably in an hour’s time but it took 3 to 4 hours and we were there doing the same thing. We came back, rested for a while, had some juice, again he said let’s go back and continue that work and we continued till the evening, till sunset.

Well, it was one of the things which was required to be done and Guruji was doing so.

The next day we got up in the morning thinking that there would be more silence, fasting and processes in the AMC but to our surprise once again we were there at the dam arranging rocks here and there.

Breakfast time was over, lunch time was over and it went on till evening. We were wondering as to what we have come for? silence or picking up rocks!!!

The 4th day same thing continued and the program concluded after lunch.

I distinctly remember we were all in the bus and one of our teachers Paaniji and his wife Indranima had come down all the way from Vizag by flight for this very important AMC.

Jokingly he said, ‘I have come all the way from Vizag for an AMC just to put the stones from one side to the other side. All I did was picking up rocks from one side to the other’.

We laughed and laughed and laughed for probably an hour on this particular joke and we went on laughing that what we all get out from this AMC was, picking up stones from one side to the other.

Of course the laughing was in jest and not serious and we all got deep lessons in this AMC.

We all learned the lesson of Team Work! We learnt how we need to do whatever is needed to be done, rather than just follow a fixed format. We learnt how to become nobodies for 4 days doing something which was beyond our concept.

We learnt to be useful wherever we are. We further learnt that Meditation need not be sitting in silence but it can be doing things continuously in nobodiness.

Guruji had this unique way of teaching. Probably he was also not aware that it would be a teaching but he would live in such a way where we would receive all his teachings.

Guruji would always teach us in different ways! He would impart his knowledge by his very ‘being’. That was his greatest quality.

He would speak less but would, by his actions, ‘BE’ more. People around him would just receive what he had to say through the state of his ‘Being’ and would get transformed.

Being with him throughout, my experience has been of immense learning. I know so many meditators and teachers who have also been with Guruji and they would comment, ‘Oh… he is speaking the same thing again and again’. Whether it would be on five fundamental educations or six levels of consciousness or for that matter any other subject, they observed that he would repeat it over and over again. In fact he would repeat each topic more than a 100 times, till he himself got the whole message.

Like myself, people who have been connected with him closely for many years used to hear it again and again.

Many of them used to get bored and would not turn up the next time if they knew that he would be talking on the same topics.

For me it was very different. I would not hear Guruji’s words. I would just receive the silence in between the words. I would enjoy the gaps between the words. I would hear the music which was created by the “silence” he had, the pauses between his words and sentences. I would just receive his ‘being’, I would understand the intention behind what he spoke. Many times the words were saying something but he was meaning something else.

It is the most phenomenal experience between a disciple and a Guru – just receiving his intention, rather than his words.

I pray and wish that all the readers of this particular chapter drop their left brain towards their Guru and receive the ‘being’ rather than ‘doings’ of their Guru.

I found myself laughing so many times on something which was really not so funny for other people, but I would laugh because I would just get the context of what he was saying.

It was a great learning being with him all the time and picking up that how he would perceive things in the Universe very, very differently from anyone I have ever known in my entire life.

Thank you Guruji for always teaching by example, living by your values & leaving it to us to connect the dots.

Thank you Guruji!