Field Walks by Baba

Later in the morning, Baba announced that the expulsion of 3 of the sisters was withdrawn, and that they should be accepted back unconditionally.

Anchala and one other sister were, however, “to remain indefinitely outside of Ananda Marga.”

Hearing this, Anchala fell into deep despair. She and the other sister cried loudly, and tears fell profusely from their eyes.

Just before evening darshan. Baba asked Ramanandaji, “Have those girls properly learned their lesson?”

“Yes, Baba. They will never again repeat such a mistake. Everyone else clearly understands that Personal Contact is your personal affair.”

“Yesss. Then the sentence against the last two is also to be lifted. They may again rejoin the organization, if they so wish.”

This evening the 5 protesters were all on their best behavior: sweet and polite to their utmost. Their eyes shone like those of small girls.

[Author’s note: Many years later I heard of an incident witnessed by Dada Yatishvarananda. It occurred in India preceding the time when Baba started to give Personal Contact to women in small groups. All the members of one family were devoted Margis. The daughter was adamant that she must get Personal Contact from Baba. She sat outside Baba’s room performing long meditation. Dada said he never saw any Indian sister with such determination and fighting spirit. Several brothers were called for Personal Contact. Of course she was not called. She continued doing meditation. The Personal Contacts finished, and it was announced that all should proceed for Baba’s darshan in the adjacent hall. Though everyone else left, she refused to go for darshan, and instead continued meditation. In the darshan Baba said, “For Parama Purusha [Cosmic Consciousness] boys and girls are exactly the same. In the case of Personal Contact, however, I give it to the boys directly. For the girls I use a different style.”

At that moment, everyone heard the sister scream “Baba!” Her parents jumped up and ran out of the hall, anxious for their daughter. They found her lying on the floor, with a blissful expression on her face. Not knowing what to do, they again entered the hall.

Baba said, “Social conditions compel me to use this style when dealing with the girls. When she regains normal awareness, you should massage the joints of her body, and then give her hot milk to drink.”

A few hours later, Dada Yatishvarananda asked her what she had experienced. She said, “I was very angry with Baba. Due to anger I became fully concentrated in thinking about Him. Suddenly my mind soared out of this world, and through the Cosmos. I saw all the stars and galaxies, and finally entered into ecstasy beyond description. I became one with Baba. So I don’t want Personal Contact anymore.”]

Next day. Valencia airport. My note-taking continued even without request:

While waiting for the flight, Baba said, “The Bay of Basque was originally a part of Atlantis —that’s why it is so shallow. Wherever the sea is shallow, there are big waves. The Pacific Ocean is very deep—in some places more than six miles deep—and the waves are small in size. The man who knows little talks tall.

“There should be cultural, geological, zoological and other surveys around the coast of Iberia, because some new clues may be found about Atlantis. But that is only feasible if Iberia gets economic help for the survey from such an organization as the UNO, because it requires huge expenditure, and Spain is too poor. Physically I come here for the first time, but mentally I have been here before.

“Just after taking a hot drink, you must not take a cold drink. But the reverse can be done. The former disturbs the nervous system—the nerve fibers cannot tolerate the change. So, rules should be followed in each and every sphere of life. Since the time I left the military department in (1940-something), I am not wearing socks. It is my system. If I use socks then my head will be heated. If I take onion I will feel feverish. Garlic likewise makes me sick.

Everything must be done as per system. I did not feel any difficulty while I was barefoot in the snow in Switzerland—rather my feet were hot. Create a system. I did not take any food for 5 years, 4 months and 2 days—and I did not feel any difficulty. When the special medical team came from Delhi, the doctor said, ‘Baba’s heart is stronger than ours.’ There was no shortage of memory, nor problem with the brain. My memory is perfect since I was a one-day-old baby. I remember everything. All of this is by your grace, by your mercy.

“For philological surveys, you will have to go to remote villages to study the vocabulary used by them. Tape-record their intonation. If you go northward from London, you will hear different intonations.”

He spoke the words lake and gold in about ten different British intonations proceeding upward from London.

“You will have to go to villages, undergoing the pain of such travel-books will not help much. You will have to study the rocks, the underground and above-ground water. Study the language of the bulls—the bovine language. A farmer of south India uses a particular commanding tone to bulls. The tone used by farmers in England and Scotland is different. The bulls understand only the language of their own comer.”

Baba demonstrated the difference between the tones used in north and south India.

“There are twenty-two pronunciations of the letter ‘a’ in English, five in Spanish, and two in French. You will have to go deep into the source of intonation. So philology is not an easy subject.

“There are many special customs in Spain. For example, bull fighting. In Latin bull is torus. Only in Spanish exists the word tor ear, which means bull¬ fighting. One constellation of the zodiac is Taurus or bull. The first is Aries, which means sheep. The second is Taurus.

“If I get sufficient time, I may do something to help the cultural life of Iberia through Renaissance Artists’ and Writers’ Association. Due to the Ananda Marga organization I hardly get any time. You may form Renaissance Universal clubs—it has immense possibilities. And we should try to do something regarding the capacity of the vocal chords, through which we express our feelings. The scope of talking is less than that of feeling. If you are stuck with one pin, you say ‘Oh!’ If you are stuck with two pins, you also say ‘Oh!’ Language fails to express the difference. And if one finger is cut, then too you say ‘Oh!’ Feeling is far deeper than expression. Similarly, one tear drop may come in the case of both one or two pins. So tears do not exactly express the feelings either. Tears are physical, ‘Oh!’ is verbal—such points also come within the range of philology.”

Baba explained the names of some Margis present.

“Liilananda means the bliss that Parama Purusha [Cosmic Consciousness] feels when He creates this universe. When He does not create anything He enjoys bliss within Himself and is called Nityananda. Liilavatii means the energy which dances along the movement of creation. The vital energy used in pleasing the Lord is called A rjuna….

“In 1969, when I first went to Manila, they sang Spanish songs. There, all educated people know Spanish. Before World War I, Spanish was the official language. After that the Philippines came under America and the official language became English. Most of the Margis know some Spanish. Our Filipino acharyas have been posted in South America because they know Spanish.

“Something has to be done now about Esperanto . Before Esperanto is established, our people should learn at least broken English as a universal link language. It is a necessity. Esperanto had immense pos¬ sibilities, but there were no big supporters….

“Are there any special arrangements to study Indology or Egyptology or Sinology in Spanish universities?”

One Margi answered. “Maybe in Madrid. Baba. But these things are better to study in Germany.”

“In Munich there are several branches of humanities. The first link was studied by Max Mueller. He studied Vedic and modern Sanskrit. In his time he was an authority.”

On the plane. Even here my notes continued, trying to catch Baba word-for- word.

“The same style of octave is followed in Spain as in the Far East and China. Here the music contains a blending of oriental and occidental tunes. Music is not of standard European style….

“For Iberia, the past was bright, the present is cloudy, and the future is full of sunshine. I love the people here very much.”

In relation to the priest who lost his temper while we were in the monastery. He said, “A man in missionary service should try to keep his brain cool.”

Doctor Pathak commented that the Spanish word salida is close to the Bengali word chalo.

Baba joked, “In an English class (in India), the teacher said, ‘If you wish to pronounce cholera with a hard “ch” sound, then Ch-olera chale!” [meaning Go away cholera!]

“The name of the old mixture of Spanish and Portuguese was called the Iberian language. Even today, some of the Spanish dialects vary more from standard Spanish than from Portuguese. If the European Common Market system were extended to all countries of Europe, then Spain and Portugal would both be benefited.”

As Baba spoke this sentence I wrote benefitted in my notebook.

Though He could not see what I had written, He said, “Dharmaved-ananda, what is the spelling of benefited!”

“B-E-N-E-F-I-T-T-E-D,” I said.

“No. Though the rule is that a short sound gets a double consonant, this is an exception, and there is only one ’t’. There was a man named Rainjan Chateijee who had an MA in English, and was very proud of himself. Shailapati was not proud. Rainjan spelled benefited with two ’t’s, and Shailapati questioned him. But Rainjan was sure of himself.

“Shailapati said, ‘Okay. You can spell benefited with two ’t’s because lately in Bankipur there has been a number of incidents of dacoity. So two ’t’s is good for security.”

(Afterwards I looked through my notebook and found this to be my only careless spelling mistake in twenty pages of notes. Just see how nicely Baba caught me.)

He continued, “English replaced French to lead the world because: A) It has the flexibility to accept words of other languages like raja and jungle. B) Its grammar is more simple than that of French. The verbs do not change according to the number and gender of the nominative case. And the nominative does not change according to the gender. C) Book-French and people’s-French vary with each other. So what should be taken as the standard?

“See how English ate up Scottish, Welsh and Irish. By the same reasoning, Hindi is not popular throughout India due to its grammatical complication.”

(This ends my detailed notes from three days of His informal talks.)