Learning to Push Beyond Limitations
Nayaswami Nirmala: I was Swamiji’s assistant in the early 80s, again in the 90s. Altogether, about 23 years, Swamiji was my direct employer, my direct boss.
I had a very wonderful role with him because I was an assistant and part secretary. Occasionally, I would be his cook if his regular cook wasn’t feeling well. I would be called in for a little bit of housekeeping. Sometimes he would have so many projects going and, so many stacks of correspondence and letters and books and all sorts of things all over his apartment. Sometimes he would say, “Would you just help me clean this up?” It was wonderful to just have that kind of relationship where we did all kinds of things.
Learning to Push Beyond Limitations
One day, it was very demanding work, though, I remember we were doing a photo shoot for one of his books or albums. I don’t really remember the project so much anymore, but we had been going all week for 12–14-hour days for a long stretch of time. I was really looking forward to Saturday, being able to sleep in and catch my breath a little bit, and I hadn’t been feeling quite perfectly well either.
So, Friday night wrapped up, I went home, I was just luxuriating in this thought of Saturday: “oh, what a blessing!” and at 8:00 a.m., the phone rang. It might have even been a little earlier than that. I answered the phone and Swami’s voice said, “Where are you?” We were mid-project, so it was like, “You’re not going to let me down now, are you?” And I just said, “I’m running a little late, I’m on my way.” And I dashed over, and we started in again.
I realized from that, and it’s a lesson that I’ve always carried with me, that you have to keep going. You have to push through those limitations of the body and the mind, that resistance to a flow of energy. Swami would often say that when he was in a particular flow of energy, he really couldn’t break it because it would form this inertia and you couldn’t get back to it. So, it was very important to muster that will and be able to push through the resistance.
He would tell the story of when he was using a staple gun trying to get one of his first structures up at Ananda, and it was so difficult to squeeze this thing and get the staple gun to work. But after he used his willpower and just kept going, then it got easier and easier. That lesson was very important.
The Importance of Balance and Self-Awareness
To balance that lesson though, I remember one time I was working in the photo studio, which was in the lower level of his house. I worked there all hours of day and night because that’s how he worked; he just kept very interesting hours. We had pushed through many projects, but this one night, it was after midnight, I was working on a project by myself in the photo studio, and he came in and said, “You need to get some rest.” And I said, “Well Swami, I’m modeling myself after you. You’re not asleep and I’m still working too.” And he just very kindly and firmly said, “You have to remember, you are not me.” So, he insisted that I go home and get some rest.
Working with Others in an Uplifting Way
Nayaswami Dharmadas: I’ll share a couple of stories that relate to life with Swamiji.
This is an experience that we had with him in Italy. This is something that I’ve occasionally told before, but it just showed his insight and his ability to just stay in the moment, even when things are sort of not going the way he might have wished that they would.
What happened was we were driving; I actually was driving his car, with him in the passenger seat, and I believe the other passengers were Nirmala and Kirtani in the back seat of the car. We were driving through the countryside in Italy towards Assisi from Perugia. We had been in the Perugia area for some errands in the late afternoon or early evening, and it was driving rain, just a monsoon-style rain in Italy.
Calmness in the Midst of Difficulty
As I was driving down the highway, and this is Italy, so you can drive at a fairly good rate of speed, probably on the order of 90 or 100 kilometers an hour. The windshield wiper right in front of me as the driver flew off, just sailed right off the back of the car and was gone, just lost forever. It broke right off in the moment. So, I pulled off to the side of the road. I stepped out of the car. I got his windshield wiper on his side and moved it over to my side successfully in the rain, of course getting very wet doing it, but at least I now had a functioning windshield wiper in front of me, which was important to be able to safely drive the car.
Understanding People with Wisdom and Compassion
Swami said, “Well, I know where the dealer is. He’s not far from here, he’s on our way, so why don’t we pull over there and see if we can get a new one?” So, we did that. It was closing time, I’m guessing it was like 7 o’clock in the evening, and this owner who was there was the last one there. He was closing up, and he was clearly a man who was ready to get home, to be dry, and to have some good dinner. He was not interested in a long conversation.
He was friendly, but he was matter-of-fact that it was time for him to go home. Swamiji explained our situation: we just needed one windshield wiper. And it so happened that there was a car, a brand-new car similar to his (which was now several years old), sitting there. “Could we just use that one because it’s the same windshield wiper?” “Oh no, no, no,” the man didn’t want to disturb a brand-new car. “Come back tomorrow.” But for Swamiji, tomorrow was not convenient, he was giving a class, etc. There were complications to it. And the man was making excuses.
I realized in that moment, Swamiji just turned and walked toward one side of the room. He started pointing at some brochures there and said, “Dharmadas, what do you think of this?” He pulled out one of the brochures and said, “Look at this van. I’ve been telling Ananda we should get one of these vans.” He just started a different train of thought. He could have said, “Look, I bought my car from you and you should help me,” and gone in that direction. But no, he just went in this other direction. And you could just see the lights went on in the man’s awareness. He said, “Well, why don’t you take the windshield wiper and you can pay me later?”
Working with Others in an Uplifting Way
Sure enough, Ananda Italy did end up getting that van some years later. But it was a fascinating example to me of staying centered in the moment, understanding the psychology of this fellow, that he would be motivated to help if he felt like there was more business in the future involved in it. It was just a sweet reminder of how Swamiji could work with people at their level, and yet do so in an uplifting way. An uplifted and an uplifting way.
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If you would like to enjoy the full video, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNdKSe59Q2o