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.