(not necessarily in that order)
Krishna (Kristy) has been a constant presence in my life since I arrived at Ananda Palo Alto in 1998. That’s basically a quarter century.
One of the most willing, serviceful, joyful people I ever met, Krishna left her body today after a short but intense illness.
It happened so fast I can hardly believe she’s gone.
Lots of memories are surfacing but I’m not ready to try and put them into words.
Go with love, dear friend. 💖
Ramesha and I just completed a special project for our May Patreon video (a little behind schedule due to illness).
As part of it I got to talk about a gift that Swamiji gave me back when we stilled lived in Switzerland (the full story is part of the video).
But it gave me a reason to remember and reflect on other special items I’ve received from Swami.
In September of 2003 Swami went to Milan and Como for book release events and I traveled by train from Assisi in order to participate (it’s a long story, involving a suitcase full of books; missed train connections; an impromptu “choir;” fabulous meals; deep inspiration; and getting to know a crazy young guy named Fabio — I’ll have to write a full blog about it sometime).
It was definitely an eventful weekend, made even more intense by the fact that I stayed in the apartment of two devotees from Milan who I didn’t really know and who spoke virtually no English. It really was quite uncomfortable and awkward.
At the conclusion of the weekend I was supposed to take the train back to Assisi, but was invited to join the group at Swamiji’s hotel for breakfast first. This somehow got communicated to my host who dropped me off near the hotel on his way to work.
As I walked up to the entrance I suddenly heard a “hello” from up above. It was Swamiji, calling to me from a window on the second floor. He said he had something for me and would be right down.
I met him in the lobby and he handed me the little Krishna that you see in the photo. A unexpected and precious moment I’ll never forget.
I bought this fabric painting of Krishna from The Expanding Light Boutique way back in my early days with Ananda (probably 2000 or 2001, when I had been on the path for only a few years).
I had been moving around a lot in the years leading up to my arrival at Ananda Palo Alto, and the moves accelerated once I arrived in the Palo Alto community, culminating in my move to Ananda Assisi in 2002.
From there it was Lugano (two moves); back to the States, starting out housesitting; Ananda Village (three moves); Ananda Los Angeles (two moves); and back to Ananda Village (five moves).
And this beautiful Krishna came with me throughout all those moves, sometimes thumbtacked to a wall, often tucked away in a box.
But now — finally! — he’s beautifully displayed and protected within a frame. And it only took twenty years — a small but HUGE thing which I’m feeling really good about. 😊
It seems to me that we’re all — the entire human family! — currently engaged in an intense practice of Nishkam Karma or “action without attachment to the fruit of the action”.
Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (verse 47, chapter 2): To action alone hast thou a right and never at all to its fruits; let not the fruits of action be thy motive; neither let there be in thee any attachment to inaction.
Of course, this is not an attitude that most of the world endorses. In fact, the exact opposite is usually the norm. But hey! even though I know the concept of Nishkam Karma and seek to apply it in my life, it’s still not easy to see my plans get changed or to not know whether the thing I’m working towards is actually going to be able to happen or not!
But then I read about the San Francisco Symphony cancelling their final tour with Michael Tilson Thomas directing. And Major League Baseball delaying the start of their season. And entire school districts closing for three, four, even six weeks! And it does put things here at Ananda Village in perspective. 😕
Back in 2006 Ramesha and I moved from Lugano to California for one year…or so we thought. It soon became clear that we would be staying on at Ananda Village, which is where we still are…thirteen years later!
Because our plans were to return to Switzerland, we put all our household goods and furnishings in storage and then had to figure out what to do with it all on our first visit home in fall/winter 2007.
It took a few years worth of flying back and forth to get most everything over to the States. Add in additional moves within the Village and to Los Angeles and back, and it’s gotten harder to remember what we still have and where it all is!
In fact, during our visit to Lugano two years ago, we discovered two boxes at Ramesha’s father’s house which we had completely forgotten about. And the other day we finally went through those boxes.
Not surprisingly, we have absolutely no need for most of the contents — after all, not only has it been over thirteen years since we saw any of this stuff, we didn’t even recall that these boxes existed.
On the other hand, it’s delightful to realize that a few special items which I had given up for lost — like my Krishna statue pictured above — have been waiting all this time to be found once again.
What a great exercise in non-attachment it’s turned out to be…