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BEDEGRIFFITHS SAMADHI
May 13, 2009
Dear Friend,
Today, May 13th, is the Mahasamadhi of my mentor, the late Bede Griffiths who crossed over to that further shore this day in 1993. Bede was my spiritual father and, in many ways, a guru-figure in my life. I say guru figure because he did not encourage people to treat him like a guru; however, he inspired the sense of it from local illiterate villagers to brilliant scientists and theologians, including Rupert Sheldrake and Raimundo Pannikar. I was blessed not only to spend about five years in direct study with him, but extended portions of each year after I left India in 1989. Bede lived with Asha and I for almost four months each year (1990 - 1992) and our sense of the sacred grew with each visit, for this man had an extraordinary capacity to sense the divine presence at all times and all places and this intense awareness drew everyone around him into its sphere of influence.
My book Jesus in the Lotus began as a personal memoir that he had commissioned me to write shortly before he passed on. However, that work evolved into its present state over a three-year period of working continuously on it. There are many anecdotes that I share in this book about my relationship with Bede Griffiths. Here is one of my favorites for your reading pleasure …
I emerged from my dark night in stages, as if I were
climbing out of a deep hole. At each step of the way, something
happened to catalyze an inner shift that left me better
able to make the final breakthrough. The process began
when I had the opportunity to travel with Bede Griffiths
and be constantly at his side for more than a week.
The administrator of the ashram asked if I would be
willing to accompany Bede to an interreligious conference
in the city of my birth, where the Dalai Lama and a host of
other dignitaries from around the world were going to
discuss spirituality together for a week. I readily accepted,
excited about the opportunity to encounter so many spiritual
luminaries in such an intimate setting and perhaps
revive my inner life.
We set out by a specially arranged taxicab and stopped
on the way for a cup of tea at a local tea stall. The eyes of
the patrons popped as they watched Bede enter the tiny
space, which was blackened by soot from the kitchen and
littered with garbage. A group of children gathered outside
to watch this English sahib dressed as a Hindu holy man
drink his tea from a tall dirty glass. Bede was oblivious of the
attention he was attracting, or maybe he was ignoring it,
but he was very present to people at the same time, smiling
and greeting them in a personal way whenever there was
eye contact. For my part, I was reeling from the amount of
energy moving around and through us for those few short
minutes.
On our way back to the car, a beggar approached us for
alms. Bede put his hand into his small suede purse and
pulled out a rupee coin. The beggar was surprised and, in
typical Indian beggar fashion, was about to demand more,
when his eyes connected with Bede's. Without accepting
the coin, the man fell down at his feet and prostrated right
in the middle of the street, holding up traffic. There was a
cacophonous sound of horns, and people hung out of bus
windows to catch a glimpse of this white man in saffron
robes blessing a beggar in the middle of a busy intersection.
It was like a religious ceremony, and I could not help feeling
that I was with someone extraordinary.
Use the link below to read a little more of this section and see a photograph of Bede Griffiths …
http://www.russillpaul.com/articles/article/6904625/124958.htm
In One Spirit,
Russill
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