Remembrances of Dennis

om namo bhagavate śrī ramaṇāya

Dear friends, it is indeed a privilege to be here with you all to commemorate the one year anniversary of Dennis’s leaving for solitude. Dennis has surrendered totally to Sri Bhagavan and has placed all his burdens at his feet and they are now for Bhagavan to bear. How nice it was to hear the morning reading, wasn’t it? It felt like we were sitting right in front of him again.

I have said to many of our friends, we may be able to travel the world over but we make not find another like Dennis. This I feel to be as true today as when I first said it, many years ago.

Dennis, without doubt has led us all to the feet of Sri Bhagavan.

Wherever he is, he is at the feet of Sri Bhagavan.

How can we honor him? By abiding ourselves at the feet of Sri Bhagavan.

By knowing ourselves as we are and breaking our identification with the transient appearance of mind and body.

I just want to mention a couple of incidents which you may or may not have heard about before.

I was working in the hospital one weekend, being a physician there, and was surprised to see Dennis come into the hospital. He requested me to see a patient who was not feeling too well, and who was in the car outside. I was not busy at that time, and said sure, and we went outside to assess the patient. When I went outside, there was Shep, the ashrama’s German Shepard, lying in the back of the station wagon, with his paw bandaged.

Now of course, Shep was no ordinary dog. He attended all the temple pujas and parayanam every day like clockwork. Often Dennis would be away from the ashrama for an extended period of time, and during these times, Shep would stay at Mr. Connell’s place, who lived next door. He would not wander back to the ashrama while Dennis was away. Now, no one knew when Dennis would return. However, invariably, on the day Dennis returned without any notice, that day, Shep would return to the ashrama and sit on the ashrama steps, as if he knew that that was the day Dennis would return. And in fact, Shep did know, and Dennis did return. This happened many times. Such was the connection between Dennis and Shep.

When I asked Dennis what happened, he said that Shep had cut his paw on some barbed wire, and needed some help. So, when we looked, I could see that Shep’s toe was cut badly and was hanging on just by some skin. So, I went inside, got a try of surgical instruments, and with Dennis as the chief surgical assistant, did the necessary removal of the toe portion and repairs. I was thinking this was certainly unusual place (in the parking lot in the back of the station wagon) and not an ordinary patient (Shep), what to say of the chief surgical assistant! The good news is, Shep got to keep his healed paw, and I got to keep my job for a bit more.

Saving the Fish

Every May 21 was “Save the fish day.” What did this mean? Well, in Kejimikujik Park in NS, not far from the ashrama, there is a beautiful River, the Mersey River. Well, the fish migrate up the river, but there is a big waterfall there, and they can’t jump high enough to get above it. So Dennis came up with a plan for us to lean over the deep, swift and cold water, and catch the fish that were trapped in the pools at the foot of the falls with our bare hands in order to transport them above the falls. Let me slightly correct that, his idea was for me to lean over the rushing water, and Dennis would hold me by the belt from behind, so that I wouldn’t fall in. We would catch a fish and carry it above the falls, and deposit it into the calm river above. By doing this, the fish and of course the whole ecosystem, was saved.

I give you these two small examples, just to show you what compassion Dennis show to all living beings, not just to us as fellow devotees, to whom he displays unlimited kindness and friendship, but to all animals also, just as Sri Bhagavan had shown. And I want to say that we have been fortunate to see before our very eyes, the ideals of devotion, dedication and service exemplified by Dennis. I am sure each one of us will have many examples of the same. We will share all of them, hopefully in person together should Dennis return to our midst, which is our ardent hope. In the meantime, we will wait, just like Shep did. Should he decide not to return of course, then we can rest assured that Dennis will continue to guide and inspire us all, and we can be like the fish, knowing that we have been picked up from the whirlpool of life and placed in the placid waters at the feet of our Master.

So Dennis, today we will eat this cheesecake in your honor, with tears of gratitude in our eyes.

om namo bhagavate śrī ramaṇāya