Living with My Himalayan Master: Sri Sri Bhajan Brahmachari - A Biography by Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari

Author:Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari [Brahmachari, Shuddhaanandaa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lokenath Divine Life Mission
Published: 2020-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The Divinely Playful Master

The Ego of a Good Cook

Pushpa Ma was one of the foremost of Thakur’s disciples who left her home to join the ashram. Her husband had died long before then. She was middle aged, very hard working, and outspoken. Looking after the ashram kitchen and its cleanliness, she cooked for the ashram residents, for Thakur, and the deities in the temple. Though she had a couple of assistants, she always cooked for the deities and Thakur by herself. She was deeply concerned about the sacredness of the food being offered to Gurudev and the deities at the temple.

She lived her life serving Thakur at the ashram. Though she had been initiated once, uniquely enough, she was initiated for the second time into Gayatri Mahamantra by Thakur. This was extremely uncommon in our tradition, since this initiation ritual is restricted to male Brahmins only. Pushpa Ma was Brahmin by caste, but Thakur gave her the sacred thread to wear. We might possibly find a parallel for this in mythology, but it remains very rare. She lived in the ashram serving the Master until her last breath.

One day when Pushpa Ma was sitting in Thakur’s room with other devotees, the Master suddenly said, “Pushpa, these days you are not cooking well. It no longer tastes good. I can cook better than you.” Pushpa Ma was hurt. She thought that her cooking had been her most sacred form of worship and she had been doing it with all her might. To express her anger she said, “OK, if you wish, you can cook.”

The next day, Thakur went to the kitchen and started cooking. He chose the same menu about which he commented to Pushpa Ma the day before. When the food was served, he himself was dissatisfied with the taste. It was most unusual, as Thakur’s mere touch would always make any dish taste like nectar for all of us. We always longed for any food that Thakur would once in a while prepare. This time it was different.

Thakur was sitting with all the other brahmacharins to partake of the food. As he started to eat, he looked at Pushpa Ma and said, “Pushpa, it does not taste good. Yesterday your food was better. You know, yesterday I said I could cook better than you with a touch of ego. Now God does not approve of it. He always chastises your ego because ego is never good for us. It destroys us.” Then he smiled at everyone present. The message was conveyed.

This is the subtle way the Master teaches. Inscrutable are his ways in bringing the message home, so that disciples and devotees can realize the obstacles along the path and take preventative measures to overcome them before they become deeply programmed in the subconscious. He himself was beyond the egoic mind. He was ever established in his egoless state of purity. But he created this little play to exhibit that no one is spared when ego dominates.

Later, Pushpa

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