Swami

This fellow came up to me as I got off the boat after returning from the far shore of the Ganges where I went for a short swim. This was Monday morning of my departure day for Mumbai. I had arisen at 4:30 to be on the ghat for the sunrise when the people do their ablutions and morning prayers. I sat and witnessed and had tea with a barber who eventually shaved me and gave me a massage, I was sitting next to a sadhu called Babaji and a dog who kept circling. I felt called to hit the water but it is so truly gross that when a boy came to ask anbout a boat ride i figured it would be better to immerse on the far side. All along I had thoughts of the marvelous novel by the Japanese writer Shasedo Endo DEEP RIVER, set here in Varanasi. Wonderful spiritual journey of a Japanese Catholic who embraces his non-Eurocentric Chrisitianity. So after the swim I got off the boat by the ghat below my tower room in the palace built by the Majaraja of Jaipur in the 1700, This fellow offered yoga and I went a washed up thoroughly and follwed him to his place, the most squalid space I have ever seen, dank, dirty, strewn with papers and yellowing images, no light. He tried for a quarter of an hour to offer me his philosophy and only grudgingly acceded to giving me the yoga asanas I had come for. He thought I only wanted 20% of what he had to offer. I tried to be pateint but his presumption was that he was teaching me things i didn't and how long can one submit to such self aggrandizement in the guise of arcane wisdom? Anyway this fellow has made himself a swami and doesn't have the 600 ruppees he needs to keep his cell phone charged. He does charity work with handicapped children and was hoping I would donate a library to his institute. I gave him what I gave the barber and took his address and details to make him a business card. His English was very good, but he was virtually clueless about the world and somewhat self important. Yoga is the best but his was somewhat strenuous and nothing compared to the lesson I had at theashram in Haridwar.