Tara Dutt
Tiwari
deactivated
There is a small shop-com-lodge on the way from Kasardevi to Binsar - Lali's Inn. Putting second hand books left by foreigners in a part of this shop of Mr. Taradutt Tiwari for the past 20 years used to be a rare pleasure for me. No matter how unexpectedly a book I've been searching for a long time.
A now unavailable book of Bob Dylan interviews, the first edition of some books of Marquez and Pamuk, a fabulous coffee table book on Western history, the entire collection of Joseph Conrad etc were some of the rare things he later started hiding for me. Dia.
In the shop's misery, there is an old box of teen, with white paint the box-owner's name written - 'Zero'. I would have wanted to ask them about that but I would have lost it.
The world used to call him your teacher. It would have been a reassuring experience to see Tari Guru reading newspaper while coming to Kasardevi-Binsar, sitting on the porch of Lali's in their leisure time. It was always a rule to stay there bila naga and get lost in a book rack straight after duasalam.
Old books brought me closer to them. This is why we soon started talking about the history of Kasaradevi and the extraordinary geniuses that have come there. It's also a solid realization that countless things associated with this wonderful place are a very close part of their memory. Tari Guru became a great source of stories!
After suddenly his pneumonia worsened four months ago and after a visit to hospitals, today he finally bid farewell to the world at the age of 68 in Delhi.
They are no more so I'm remembering the same box that has or was inside, I probably never know. I know a little anecdote, so let me tell you.
Something must be talking in Kasardevi!
Alfred Sorensen, a florist and amateur pianist from Denmark, who turned forty years, when Rabindranath Thakur first reached India for the first time, spirituality was his first concern. He's been here for two years. So much to see and go. Deeply impressed by the Indian philosophy he came again next year. Someone advised him to meet Raman Maharishi while traveling to Kashmir. Took him a year to make this visit. After staying with Raman Maharishi for two weeks, he found that he had no question to ask such a proven teacher. On the other side Raman Maharishi told his very close Paul Branton that Alfred Sorensen has all the symptoms of a congenital proven.
After this reached Kasardevi near Sorenson Almoda in 1936-37 where Angrika Lama and Dr. Evans Wenz were living as the reached seekers. Sorensen built a cottage for himself in Kasardevi and Kamobesh cuts there for next forty years. When he met Raman Maharshi for the third time in 1940, Guru gave him a small message - "We are always aware void".
Since that day Alfred Sorensen named himself Zero. He also achieved citizenship of India in 1953. People in the surrounding villages still remember them in the name of Shunyata Baba.
A local young boy named Tara Dutt comes in contact with him in the early 1970s. Zeroata Baba is impressed by his simplicity and gesture of life learning and in one way grant him his discipleship. This companionship of Guru-disciple is not on spirituality, but on the foundation of sharing understanding of pure worldliness.
Alfred Sorensen, who turned 88 in 1978, decides he will have to leave Kasaradevi and move to America due to health reasons. Spent six years with his disciples there when they were hit by a car while crossing the road in Fairfax, California on August 5, 1984. He died after being in coma for eight days.
Taradatta must be 28 at that time. Philosopher-poet-musicians-painters and ghumkad Kasardevi have been drawn around the world for the past four-five decades and this little place has become a shining point in the map of unique hippie movement spreading worldwide. These guys used to spend a long time in Kasaradevi and apparently while living here they wanted everyday needs such as good filter coffee, western brand cigarettes, cheese, pasta, baked beans etc which were hardly found in hill towns like Almoda.
Taradutt had an understanding of these things while living with Alfred Sorensen and other foreigners he got. This is why he opened a shop in Kasaradevi which provides their necessities to those coming from abroad for decades.
Shunyata Baba has described her life philosophy like this:
In this life I have not been searching for any Guru, no God, no truth, no salvation, no lust or Nirvana. I have no desire to be different from who I am. I felt everything is within us. I have been completely satisfied. I used to find joy in all that appears. “
I got this vision from my Guru to a extent, your Guru had also been attained. The knowledge and experience of this magnificent man with a very calm and decent body language was as poisonous as any encyclopedia. The idea of writing a small book in my mind for the past decade regarding their relationships with people who came to Kasardevi from time to time.
They are not and there is a very deep regret spreading within. Kasardevi will not be the same without him.
Salute to his memory!
More...
Less...
