Reminiscences of Dennis' company
06 Dec 2020
I am Mohan, Ramaswami; I would like to say a few things.
After Dennis left, I am the doormat in the Ashrama now. I cannot not even visualize that....
How to express ? somebody like Dennis and for me to step in - it is beyond my imagination. That being the case, my relationship with Dennis....
It was so nice to hear the heart-felt experiences and connections about Dennis very eloquently expressed.
My relation with Dennis was slightly or far different from most of the other devotees. I met him about thirty years back; I still remember my father, called me from Bangalore, telling "eh!, I have found the Arunachala Ashrama (telephone) number."o
In those days, the communication / there was no internet or anything; and the communication between Arunachala Ashrama and Sri Ramanasramam was totally different.
As a family we were always closely connected with Sri Ramanasramam for twenty five years before i met Dennis. We (Dennis & I) rarely discussed sadhana, or practice - probably he knew I am beyond redemption. Or gently he brushed my aside, saying "you know all that."
We were very nostalgic, about discussing the great devotees - just to mention, Sri Ramaswami Pillai, Om Sadhu, Viswanatha-swamiji, Kunju Swami, Cohen, Suri Nagamma, Kanakammal, and the galaxy of devotees - all of whom both of us had seen. Dennis had a great sense of history and dedication to follow up with alot of old devotees to record their reminiscewnces through video and audio recordings.
That generation of devotees who were blessed to interact with Bhagavan are no more there. We owe a deep gratitude to Dennis for us to feel the presence of Bhagavan through those recordings.
On the lighter side, the best time I had was on Saturday mornings. I usually used to pick up Dennis who used to accompany me for the narayana seva for the homeless, conducted by the Satya Saibaba organization. For a number of years he used to accompany me. The entire Saturday was a seva day, ending with a very late lunch or early dinner at home. He was very kind and service oriented and fervently believed that compassion is the hallmark of spirituality.
He strongly believed that spirituality without service leads to dry intellectual egotism. Also I was the butt of his joke about my frugal eating habit. To quote, "I have wasted my entire life in not eating the delicious food prepared by my wife Savitri.
Arunachala Ashrama both in New York and Nova Scotia are the fruits and testament of his total dedication and service to Bhagavan and his devotees. Personally, I always feel it is a matter of great celebration in the way Dennis left for refuge or solitude. Most of us can not even comprehend the total conviction and fearlessness required to take that step. Bhagavan has taken complete control of Dennis' life because of his absolute surrender.
Let us all emulate Dennis' surrender to Bhagavan completely. I hope and pray to Bhagavan for Dennis to come back to the Ashrama – for the good of everyone and I can go back to just doing the seva.
om namo bhagavate śrī ramaṇāya