The Arrival
June 8, 2018
Since the inception of Vedanta
Society of Iowa in 2006, an epoch of undented 13 years came to a close in March
of 2018. Our beloved spiritual guide, Revered Swami Dayatmanandaji Maharaj
(currently head of UK Ramakrishna Mission center), has chosen to retire on June
15, 2018.
Relinquishing his post, he will be heading back to India to eventually
retire in the ancient Moksha-kshetra of Benaras. Before he commences this special journey, out of compassion he undertook a 3-week grueling tour of USA to meet his devotees,
disciples, friends and admirers. Goodbyes are never easy but with our SwamiD it
was like a magnificent Durga Puja occurring albeit a bit early. Until 2017, he
had chosen to come right before Durga Puja usually in September. Here is a
series of photo-journal of this trip.
May 25th, 2018, Friday. Super-excitement charged late-morning finally arrived, where the weather lady also decided to cooperate after a severe cold bought. Some VSOI members (all Mj’s initiated) eagerly showed up at the airport.
From L-R Sukumar Ghosh, Tirthankar
Banerjee, Kumar Velugulati, Jyotsna Maan, Lakshmi Padakandla and Kiran Devaram.
Since I
was the photographer, I forgot to capture myself 😊..
Soon
the eager anticipation came to a close and SwamiD arrived with a flourish. 
The arrival area was under
construction but this could not stop anyone. We vied with each other to do our
pranams while I was busy clicking the first moments. Between the neck-dangling camera
strap trying to strangle me, my salt-n-pepper chopped hair (coloring stopped a
few months ago) and my flowing churni (of salwar kameez), that created a
flowing bow of a pranam (bowing down), I scrambled up to hear a gurgle of
laughter infused (in Bengali) “sara airport jhanT diye dilo” ( whole airport
has been dusted.. by my churni) being declared to others!
He repeated it so many times and each time I could feel the
love and it filled my heart. I would gladly roll on the under-construction area
every day just to hear it.
We all proceeded
to the baggage claim only to a rude shock that his little carryon &
shoulder bag is all he was carrying for the entire 3 weeks! Talk about sarvatyagi-sannyasi
(all renouncing monk)! As soon as we got outside, a beautiful glorious
sunshine, a light breeze greeted us and we were dazzled by a transition lens
donning, headphones-cradled-neck and a perfect color-coordinated Rock Star
Swami…!
Amidst leg-pullings & shouts of laughter we reached Sarada
Cottage. Just as we were getting ready for lunch, another fresh bout of
devotees arrived for second round of pranams. Our glorious Durga Puja 2018 had
started.!
(c) Nandini Mitra Banerjee
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