Awachita Parimalu: Experiencing the fragrance without props

 

Awachita Parimalu:

Experiencing the fragrance of Being without any props

A rather lazy Friday at home, I spent the morning attending to various miscellaneous chores like paying some utility bills for property in India and getting some documents that my 

tax professional needed. The weight of a pending income tax audit was bearing on my mind after a late night conversation with the accountant handling my taxes in India. The prospect of heavy penalties for an innocent oversight ten years back was worrying me. With few options left at hand to appeal or get relief, my mind was pacing anxiously trying to seek the best solution. Should I go in person to India in the coming weeks to testify before the tax officer regarding my circumstances? Should I seek intervention from the officials who are directly aware that I have given my property rent free as a goodwill gesture to the Government of India health program administered through Tata Memorial Hospital? Or just let the IT department of India washout my life’s savings with these penalties? 

After a phase of utter confusion with these thoughts running through my mind I arrived at a conclusion that I should just pay the penalties than do the circus of appeal or seek intervention from anyone. All it would imply is I may have to work to recover these unexpected expenses. What’s the big deal? I may have less savings at the end of the road. So what? In the bigger scheme of things it would leave no dent on my life or lifestyle.

 Suddenly I felt free. I had regained my peace and clarity. My mind was freed from the trap of thoughts of money. It was free to contemplate on things I really cared for, which is teachings of the saints and learning from them. So I sat by myself allowing myself some space to consider what should I read or work on. Should I open and read something from the Dnyaaneshwari? That would be an activity. Even if it would be a good activity, it would still be an activity. The mind and intellect would be employed towards gathering pearls from the words in the text. 

In that moment I realized that there is a “ fragrance” of peace, tranquility, completeness in the present moment that is not dependent on knowledge gained from learning or the satisfaction that can come from reading or understanding anything more. The awareness of this inherent quality of simply being was indisputably superior to any activity I could engage in. This was the very first time I was getting a taste of the inherent fullness of pure being as opposed to a guessing game of whether that state would be a vacant existence of some sort, a void that lacked the previously experienced sublime emotional exchange between jeeva and deva. Mind needn’t worry anymore. Whether it busies itself in soaking up the wisdom of the saints or handling the complex duties of this mortal life, it would be playing on the belly of this completeness that is the pure being. 

The words of Sant Tukaram are sounding in the ears as I summarize this experience: 

तुका म्हणे आता खेळतो कौतूके
जाले तुझे सुख अंतर्बाही
जेथे जातो तेथे तू माझा सांगाती

Now I play with joyful abandonment, having experienced your blissful presence within and without. You are my companion wherever I go!! 

Saree is an Ajrakh print on cotton with predominant indigo dye.