Stories from the spiritual life - Volume 1

These are a few stories inspired by following the spiritual life under the guidance of Sri Chinmoy. Some events are loosely based on real life; sometimes the stories just try to capture the spirit of the spiritual life according to my own understanding and perception. There is a well-known story of five blind men coming across an elephant. Each man gives a different description of the elephant - one describes a tail one describes a long bending trunk another describes a thick impenetrable hide. Each man is right from his particular perspective but at the same time none of them can see the totality of the elephant - let alone understand the inner beliefs and thinking of the elephant. As disciples we are sailing in the same boat; we can describe an aspect of our Master which is correct from our limited perspective and personal filter but this is just a glimpse into the life of the spiritual Master who is dealing with many layers of consciousness - mostly invisible to our outer eyes. If the stories have any value and wisdom I would like to give credit to my spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy. If the stories give any misleading impression or limited perspective bear in mind they are just a work in progress. I did not set out to write a book. I just found that writing stories was a rewarding way to reflect on certain issues and experiences. The stories were also not written in chronological order. I started off by writing the stories in Part 2 but over time found a lot of joy in writing conversations between different imaginary disciples. Perhaps sometimes a young Tejvan is speaking to an old Tejvan - you can make up your own mind! Sometimes I was surprised at how the conversations developed and this reflects how it is in real life. If you start speaking about mundane things your memory can be triggered and a story of the Master from many years ago comes to mind. This is the beauty of the spiritual life - it is all pervasive and even in the most mundane activities we can learn to see from a different perspective which gives us much greater satisfaction and joy.