Anandham Paramanandham!

Anandham paramanandham*
(Tiny story)

The other day, I was looking at the YouTube videos of Nithyananda. ‘Oh, what a comic relief. I had not come across any stand-up (rather sit-in) comedian of that stature in my life so far. You are in splits hearing every one of his utterances. Where did he gain such an expertise?’ I was wondering.
I was laughing aloud seeing his ‘That me, through this me talking to you me’ ... episode when my mother-in-law happened to pass by.
“What are you laughing at so much?” she asked.
“Oh that, very funny. YouMe asking meMe about thatMe. He.. he.. he...”
“I don’t understand anything. Show that to me” sheMe plucked the Ipad from meMe.
“OMG! This man looks like yesterday years’ Rajarishis. Look at his attire and gait. Look at his mesmerising eyes and the tejas emanating from him. What a profound philosophy he is uttering! Amazing” she said.
“What is so profound about his utterances? I could only sense some good nonsensical humour.”
“No, he is talking about the highest Advaitha philosophy of Sankara. Aham Brahmasmi, Tatwamasi .. all rolled into one. Look at his examples. If you cut meMe, you are cutting youMe. Don’t hate meMe, youMe. But love meMe so that HeMe will be pleased with youMe. How did such beautiful explanations come to him at such an young age?” she wondered.
“What philosophy? I don’t understand a thing” I said.
“How will you understand? You are never into such spiritual thoughts. Look at the cat there? What does it tell you?”
“Meow, meow” I said.
“You silly. That is what you hear. But what the cat tells is something else. It tells you that today you are there and I am here. Wait! A day will come when you will be here and I will be there”.
“ How do you know?”
“That’s it. You don’t even understand and doubt the enlightened. These things you understand when you spiritually develop. Now tell me what the dog barking outside is telling you?”
“May be the same thing like the cat - ‘you be there, I be here; then you be here I be there’ business”.
“Wrong once again. It says it is hungry and is asking whether there is any good human being around who could feed him”.
OMG - I was astounded. I knew that my MIL was a bit high funda type when it comes to spirituality - mostly flowing above my head - but not so high.
I thanked God profusely for her daughter had not taken after her.

Just then I looked up to see my wife standing in front and staring at me, with her hands on her hips - like Rukmini Mai in Pandharpur.
“What is that cat and dog non-sense? Don’t you hear me calling you for quite sometime to come and change the gas cylinder?”her look told me very clearly.
“Did you hear what your daughter said?” I asked my MIL.
She said “No”.
“That’s it. In my twenty years of married life, I have learnt to understand her stare language well. It is calling me to do something useful otherwise no food for both of us. I find that is more useful than understanding what a dog or cat has to say about me. I am going” so saying I escaped to the kitchen.
Still my thoughts were hovering around Nithyananda only.
Oh, man. This man Nithyananda seems to attract admirers of the fairer sex from nine to ninety with all his fancy dress and loony talk. I wish I could also learn the secret and get few admirers and followers for myself so that if not Nithyananda, I could become Weekly Anandha or atleast Monthly Anandha.
I waited for my MIL to leave the IPad down and rushed to pick it up for watching more Nithyananda videos, but with renewed interest.
Anbudan,
RRG
03/06/2020
PS:
1. The ‘me’ in the story is not meMe and the MIL is not my MIL. These are all imaginary folks, no reference to anyone alive or otherwise.
2. My apologies to Swami Nithyananda followers if it has hurt anyone’s sentiments. Meant as a lighter read. Please relax.
RRG