In December 2019, we had a family reunion in Myanmar.
In a conversation with my mother, 85 years old at that time, I was reminding her that, in what appears as a bewildering world of different people and things, there was only One.
For my mother, this triggered a recollection of a specific childhood memory. About “Rama Paati”, the subject of this story.
Rama is a name of God. Paati means “grandma” in my native language, Tamil.
My mom was about five years of age. In the extended family that lived under one roof, there was an old relative who was called Rama Paati. There was something really peculiar about this old woman. No matter who she would address in a conversation, she’d call them “Rama”.
“Rama! Did you cut the vegetables?” She’d address the servant maid!
“Rama! Food is ready!” She’d address the child!
“How much longer will it take Rama?” She’d address a sibling having a bath!
My mother found it weird that Rama Paati was calling everyone “Rama!”. She, along with other young children in the household, thought that this old woman was insane!
One day my mother, still a 5-year old child, mustered enough courage to ask her: “Paati! Why are you calling everyone ‘Rama’,?”
And Rama Paati replied, “Why do you ask, Rama! Rama, He alone is here! Who else would I address?”
Narrating this recollection, my mother told me, “Sundar! After so many years, this is the first time that I really appreciate Rama Paati. She really saw only Rama everywhere and in everyone.”
I was so moved to hear this precious story of Rama Paati!
An awakened one in my own family! And how awakened? As awakened as the Sufi Master who remarked, “The face of God is upon everything!”.
Be like Rama Paati! She saw only Rama, the One without a second, in everyone and in everything.
To be like Rama Paati, your humility should run so deep, that your sense of personal-self is absent. When you let go of otherness, the sacredness that is the One, the No-otherness, that alone is. When your surrender is so complete, then you begin to see the world as it truly is, One alone, as it is.
Be like Rama Paati!
Love
Sundar.
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Awaken to your real nature. Find what is beyond your sense of individuality. Find if you are truly the otherness that you feel, a separate person, apart from this world. The book, “Awaken: An Experiential Exploration of Enlightenment“, provides guidance to the process of Self-Inquiry, probing into the essence of who you really are.