I just learnt
the very sad news that my good friend, Sri Vasant Kothari, passed away in
Tiruvannamalai on 21st August 2013.
He would be
known to a lot of devotees who visit Sri Ramanasramam, if not personally, then
as a familiar face hanging about the Halls. As he hailed from Gujarat, he used
to assist in looking after devotees who visited the Ashram from that part of
India. Of late though, his ailing health implied that he could not take up any
duties at all. He was probably around 75
years of age, single, and lived in a small, rented, one room apartment in
Ramana Nagar. I do not know what exactly happened at the end, but he had been
suffering from heart ailments for a while, and it was probably a heart attack
that did him in.
He and I became
friends after our first ‘encounter’ in Sri Ramanasramam about 10 years ago,
when he fired me for holding my shoes in my hands when trying to take the path behind
the Mother’s temple, to the single rooms behind. I had just arrived at the
Ashram, and the taxi fellow had already gone ahead with my bags. I necessarily
had to carry the shoes I had been wearing during the long trip from Delhi, up
to the room. Kothari Saheb thought that I was a casual visitor, insensitively carrying
shoes into the interior of Sri Ramanasramam. I simply bowed to his dedication
and zeal and without saying anything walked back till the gate and left my
shoes there for pickup later. Afterwards, he accosted and fired me again
for not telling him that I was going to the rooms to stay, and that I had just
arrived! Subsequently, when he came to Delhi for a few months to stay with some
close family friends, he came to our house many times and would spend a lot of
time chatting away with my parents.
 |
| Mr. Kothari. In my room in Sri Ramanasramam (in 2009) |
They say that
old age for single people gets to be tough, really tough. I guess life was hard
for Mr. Kothari too. All he would say to me on the last few occasions that we
met in Sri Ramanasramam was, that he didn’t care for all that he had to suffer
as Bhagavan was there to look after him. And that when the end comes he should be
in Tiruvannamalai only.
Well, he got his
wish on that at least. I and my parents will miss him.
5 comments:
Vasant Kothari helped me to find copies of the original works of Swami Madhavatirtha, and then translated them into English for me.
The Swami Madhavatirtha chapter in The Power of the Presence, part one, contains replies by Bhagavan that are not repeated elsewhere in the published record.
I should like to put on the record my appreciation of Vasant Kothari's work on this and other projects.
Thanks David.
I spoke to Mr. Kothari once about the Swami Madhavatirtha chapter in Power of the Presence. So revealing and important are the conversations recorded by the Swami, that I picked up his Gujarati book “Sri Ramana Maharshi – Temno Parichay evam Bodha” too. It is available in the Sri Ramanasramam bookstore. I thought this original work may contain a few more insights. Gujarati script is not dissimilar to Hindi-Devanagari, but I found that I could only muddle thro’ at a painfully slow pace.
Struggling with this book, I got hold of Mr. Kothari to help me with the difficult paras . But Mr. Kothari told me that he and David had taken a lot of care to pick up all the meaningful conversations as available in this book, and included them in the Power of the Presence. He told me not to waste any more time in trying to read the Gujarati work. Interestingly, he mentioned that he knew some relations of Swami Madhavatirtha, now living in Bombay. The Swami had been a prolific writer, and apparently there was more unpublished, handwritten material of the Swami’s in existence. He said that he would try to find out more about their contents and whether there was anything concerning the Swami’s visit to Sri Ramanasramam, though he himself believed that everything important was included in the Gujarati book. Don’t think he could manage any of that though!
Best wishes
Thx David and Vasant ji. I am looking for booklet "Maya" mentioned in power of the presence - part 1
How to obtain that booklet ? Thx
Since last two years I am searching the book 'Maya: It's Spiritual exposition based on the theory of relativity (1943), it is out of stock at Amazon. I found out that Swami Madhavtirth was a good friend of Shri Akhandanada of Sastu Sahitya Karyalaya Ahmedabad and Shri Manu Subedar. I read somewhere he belonged to or had some sort of ashrama in Nadel near Ahmedabad. I live in the US and after at least 13 years I will be visiting India next February. I am personally going to explore the details. Whoever I asked, could not help me find his books or any photograph of Swami.
I plan to visit Ramanashram the same month and plan to meet Shri Godman.
You may find the book here...it is in Gujarati....https://docs.google.com/file/d/1k3umB53jEtDY0zR_kQy2ndpBm2ibj8Ji/view
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