End of becoming

MY MASTER IS MY SELF - The Birth of a Spiritual Teacher: Andrew Cohen; Full Circle, 19-19, Dishad Garden, G. T. Road, Delhi- 110095. Rs. 125.

ANDREW COHEN is not the first visitor from the West to find his Self awakened by an Indian Guru, nor is he going to be the last. The very nature of this sub-continent pre-supposes a plenitude of spiritual teachers, referred to as ``Acharya samruddhi'' by the Manipravala commentators on the hymns of the Azhwars. Andrew is somewhat special because he has made a success of the ``Guruhood'' of cyber professionalism. Having mastered the in- phraseology of sadhana, it is so engagingly soothing to click on to his site and hear his intimate voice answering ever so many questions. Go to andrewcohen.org and tickle your mouse. There floats in his voice explaining enlightenment: ``It is relief. It is cessation. It is the end of becoming. It is the end of the struggle to become anyone or anything. It's coming finally to rest, here and now, in this life.''

To those of us who are cyber-browsers who also like to be seen around with a copy of The Mountain Path, Andrew Cohen is a familiar name. The present book is a chronicle of his days with Hari Lal Poonja who was a disciple of Ramana Maharshi. Andrew Cohen met Poonja on March 25, 1986. Their ways parted in 1989. Apparently these three years turned out to be the transformational point in Andrew's life and he became a Guru on his own not long after. What was it that was conveyed to him by Poonjaji? Who knows?

When dealing with such Advaitic experiences we are, for the nonce, mesmerised by the language. At the end, the questioning mind reins in the questing spirit. The eternal battle between faith and belief starts once again. What remains are but lectures, discussions, letters containing a ``wonderful description of the undescribable non-entity'', and of course, what you get from Internet spirituality.

The amazing self-confidence of Andrew Cohen, even in those days of disciplehood is revealed in his letters, as when he wrote to Poonjaji on May 19, 1986: ``I have no more doubts about anything.'' Was this because the master had told him that his eyes had the same look as Ramana Maharshi? The master himself seems to have been somewhat non-plussed by the speed of the disciple and asked him (March 4, 1987): ``You will give me the details of how you have presented the no teaching to enlighten the people by no way whatsoever.''

``Satyam Advaitam'' we have been told. For the author the reality was also ``living in a wonderful big house in the country with Alka and five others.'' Probably the Advaitic consciousness had to part ways at some point. But the book remains as an interesting flashback to his gestatory days as the prepounder of ``a complete teaching that embraces both heaven and earth.''

PREMA NANDAKUMAR

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