mccoy
Do you remember Brother Turiyananda? Did you ever meet him?
I met him once at the Lake Shrine. It was not an inspiring meeting, rather a strange one. I asked if I could take a swim in the lake since I believed I remember there was a special blessing attached to it. He answered NO and gave further explanations in a preaching-like tone. At the moment he seemed to me curmudgeon-like. He was looking at me as if I told some blasphemy. After a while I recalled the blessing was simply attached to being in that place.
i'm sorry mccoy but this made me laugh. But like you he had a very different sense of humor. This may strike u as unusual but there were actually women that dressed in their bathing suits and layed near the lake out in the sun. There were also people who would come there and teach classes on the lawn. Now if people swam there and people were laying in small bathing suits in the sun and others were teaching classes... well the place would be quite different.
My first meeting with him was somewhat like yours. Perhaps i have already shared it. i had just gone thru a challenging relationship at the time and sought some relief from it. i was walking around the Lake Shrine and met Brother Turiyananda. He told me at first meeting that i should be careful because he had seen looks like that on convicts. i broke up laughing and the spell was broken. He would use unusual shock therapy on people.
He asked me if i wanted to visit his room. i replied "Yes" He took me to the top of the windmill chapel and opened a door that exposed a room with nothing in it save a mat on the floor and a picture on the wall. i was immediately drawn to the picture because of the Gestapo medallion under the mans' neck. The man was a Nazi i thought and asked him about the picture. "That is Rommel. He might have fought for the wrong cause but he
FOUGHT" Brother Turiyananda explained with a special emphasis on fought as though it was a spiritual strength.
i suppose we are all are inspired by different things. Must admit... no doubt Brother Turiyananda also had his days when he wasn't quite as good a host as he could have been...but he was (inspirational) to me even in his 'curmudgeon-like' behavior!
i remember once telling him that if he told me to go over a hill and there were enemy soldiers on the other side i would have done it. Perhaps that is because i did share a time and life with him under his command. He told me it was because his words had "Soul Force" Some people do have that effect on you---- just being in their presence... you feel a strong spiritual discipline and vibration. It may b up to us to b in tune with it. i believe people r in tune to what may suit them at the time especially if what you are experiencing is genuinely coming from the person involved.
