Instant Tarma
Apr 25, 2022by Nayaswami Narayan
The hallmarks of Swami Kriyananda’s life were the twin desires of finding God and sharing Him with others.
His expansive spirit expressed itself through a lesser desire to purchase an RV so he could travel around the country giving his guru’s teachings. Sometime in the beginning years of Ananda through hard work he was able to purchase one.
As he was enjoying this new gift from Divine Mother, she taught him a lesson. He realized he was getting a little too delighted with the RV and thought to himself, “Uh oh, I’m going to pay for this overexcitement.”
Not a few minutes later Swamiji received the instant karma. The driver, one of Swamiji’s close friends, thought he had put the RV in park. Unbeknownst to him and Swamiji the RV was in neutral and was imperceptibly slowly coasting in the parking lot when it suddenly slammed into the side of a large supermarket.
At the time of impact, Swamiji was standing up reaching for a book on a shelf within the RV. He was thrown down to the floor and injured one of his fingers in the fall.
My favorite part of this story is how he responded. As soon as he fell and felt the pain, Swamiji began to laugh. He knew it was Divine Mother playing with him and reminding him to remain even minded and cheerful under all circumstances.
Recently, instead of instant karma, I experienced instant tarma! What, on earth (pun intended!), do I mean?
Nayaswami Dhyana visited us in Los Angeles this past week (it’s been an absolute joy to host her as she radiates the teachings). Her mother lives in the South Bay so we made a stop with her and some friends to walk on Hermosa Beach.
Everyone took off their shoes to enjoy the warm sand. That is everyone, except for my friend, Michael. Now since I’m very good friends with Michael, I started saying to him playfully:
“Michael, there’s this thing called the earth… take off your sneakers and enjoy it.”
But I didn’t stop there:
“Michael, there’s this natural phenomenon called the beach… take off your shoes and feel the warm sand.”
And, last but not least:
“Michael, you’re missing out on the earth’s magnetism… Earth with us!”
Like Swamiji, I was enjoying playing with Michael’s use of sneakers on the beach a little too much. In the back of mind, I thought, “I’m going to pay for this.”
Well, the instant tarma was literally on me! After walking for about thirty minutes we stopped to clean our feet before putting our shoes back on. What did we all find? The bottom of our feet had tar (from natural oil seeps that you cannot see) on them!
That is all of us, except for Michael. Then it was Michael’s turn to play with us! He simply smiled and said, “I knew intuitively to keep my sneakers on.” We had a good laugh together.
So the next time you feel the need to excessively tease your friend or get over excited about some new purchase, remember Swami Kriyananda’s advice:
“To be “evenminded and cheerful” under all circumstances is the first duty of a yogi. The devotee should proceed evenmindedly towards his goal by performing ever calmly his karmically assigned duties.”
Joy (beyond instant tarma) to you!
Nayaswami Narayan
