The Fast Path - Shiva's experiences studying with Rama, Dr Frederick Lenz

Chapter 27 - The Call

It was a beautiful Saturday morning and I was excited about next week's meditation in La Jolla. I was traveling down from Riverside with one of my students, Tracy. The week before, I had arranged by telephone to rent the Women's Club meeting hall, and now it was time to complete the agreement and put up the posters.

Tracy had just been accepted as a student of Rama and I was really excited for her. We talked about her up-coming move to New York.

"Tony, why don't you apply. I bet Rama would accept you back in a minute!" she said excitedly.

"Not me," I said. "I have crossed over into being a teacher. I can't go back and be a student again. Besides, I'm sure that things will start working out for me here real soon."

We traveled in silence for a while. My mind started to drift. I had been teaching for three years now. What I didn't tell Tracy was that I was very concerned about my level of consciousness.

Over a year ago I had resigned from my church in Grants Pass. I finally realized that church politics is one area of my life that I no longer wanted to deal with. So for the past year I traveled on a circuit holding monthly meditations in Idaho, Oregon, and California where I visited Palo Alto, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Riverside. Now I was trying to add La Jolla. It was a busy but fulfilling life.

However, lately it seemed that my meditations had leveled out. It had become a nagging concern that I couldn't share with anybody. The only thing I knew to do was to continue holding meditation seminars.

"New York is not the place for me," I said. "I love being out west. I can't imagine moving back east."

"What if Rama called you up and said, 'Come to New York.' What would you do?" Tracy queried.

I honestly didn't know. I was scared to death that he might and then I would be forced to leave my students and everything else. It was comforting to know that Rama never made such calls. At least not to my knowledge.

We arrived in La Jolla and started putting up the posters. As Tracy and I walked across the park, there was small band playing a song. "That's so strange to hear a band in La Jolla playing the song 'New York, New York,'" Tracy said. Something in my navel twinged. Everything was going fine until she said that.

I told Tracy that I needed to mail a letter. I walked over to the Post Office and through the door. As I waited for a window I started humming a tune and then I began to softly sing it. It was a catchy little tune that I hadn't sung in over twenty years.

"East Side, West Side, all around the tow... OH SHIT!" I said out loud. Everyone in the Post Office turned and looked at me. One middle-aged woman glared at me with extreme disapproval because of my language. I didn't care! Rama had done it again! I had been called to New York! I knew! Nothing else needed to be said. My life as I knew it was over. Everything was ashes.

On the drive home I related this to Tracy. I thought she never would stop laughing. She laughed at the way Rama had called me. She laughed at my reaction in the Post Office, but most of all, she was laughing at my state of mind as I drove home to Riverside. I was a real mess.

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