Saturday, February 07, 2009

He had grace


Somewhere, lost in time, is truth. Sometime, lost in time, is a soul.

Between six-o-clock in the evening of January 19 and the morning of January 20, 2009, Ananthakrishnan passed away. Brutally murdered.

As far as I knew him, he was just like us. Human; flawed, bright, cunning, mean, spiritual, drunkard, liar, and more. He was like a guru to me… Then, there were things about him that I never knew about. I, now, will never know about: his past, his nakshatra, his gotram, his relatives, etc. He said, his native place was Srirangam at Thiruchirapalli.

What amazes me more than his own prediction of his death (sometime in 2005, I think, he had first predicted his own death in the year 2009) is the fact that he had the grace to die in Thiruvannamalai, near the foothill of Lord Arunachala. I am sure, if all that the Tripura Rahasya says is true, then, he would have attained awareness.

If we had not gone to Thiruvannalamalai to see his dead body, we would not have been graced by Lord Arunachala… Shiva works in mysterious ways: we met and made awesome friends in Gerry & Gabs and Prasad & Devaraj. Each of them with a story of their own… each of them very colorful and spiritual in their own way. We also met Dwaraknath Reddy, a celebrated spiritual author, and had coffee with him in the morning.

I love Prasad singing and playing the flute… and Devaraj telling us his stories. What a storyteller he is! Gabs’ silence and Gerry conspiracy theories made us think and ponder and laugh… Prasad, staying over at your humble home was a very humbling experience. This was the first time, when we both just did not want to leave Thiruvannamalai.

Then, listening to Gerry and Swamiji, Prasad’s neighbour, debate and discuss for more than three hours was awesome.

Shiva took away one soul and made us meet four instead. That too, in Thiruvannamalai… AK had once said, if you meet and bond with strangers in Thiruvannamalai, you are related to them somewhere, sometime in a previous birth.

I believe in it: Prasad, Devaraj, Gerry, and Gabs. All you wandering souls, we are all related… The way we met and bonded… Man, like Gerry says: “There are no coincidences. We are all same, same but different!”

I know, I shall miss talking to AK about various things under the sun and over the moon in my sad, broken Tamil… My questions, his answers… but I sit back and wonder how Shiva almost always had an interpreter for us!

5 comments:

Aswin Kini said...

Very sad to hear that AK passed away. To think that somebody had murdered him, that too in a holy place like Thiruvannamalai sounds even more horrific. May his Atma rest in peace.

Anonymous said...

I don't know of any one of whom you wrote about but i always felt that the people we associate with , there seems to be a reason for them to come into life and that god monitors the way things happen with us . Each person is an experience in himself and some times when the bond breaks there is this feeling that what had to be passed between the 'two' was just finished for the life time .

abhilash warrier said...

Hi Anon,

You are right... Your thoughts are interesting.

Shanti said...

Interesting read by Anonymous .. especially the part "...people we associate with , there seems to be a reason for them to come into one's life and that god monitors the way things happen with us". So that made me wonder why after all this time...we are meeting for the first time even though and at this moment too? To me I am thinking probably its to exhaust somethings......before we proceed in life. Your take?

abhilash warrier said...

Hi Shan:

Yes, that is an interesting take. We are not equipped right now to analyse why we met only now for the first time... :-)

Let's be ourselves and leave it at that, shall we? Let's soak in.