[Advaita-l] Life is wonder-1

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

                                                             Whata wonderful Life!Part-1
This happened last week. We were traveling fromWashington D.C. back to Chennai to live for six months, from October to the endof next March. On the way to India, we had to stop by at Delft, for a week topresent series of invited talks on my Unified Approach to Fatigue Damage Analysis,at the Delft University. The plan is to break journey at Amsterdam, store thefour heavy suitcases at the airport, travel light by train to Delft, returnback to Amsterdam after my talks, and resume journey to India via Frankfort.  When we landed at Amsterdam after a long red-eye flight,our most frustrating experience started. First, there are no porters availableat the airport. Lugging four heavy suitcases and going around in circles tofind out the place where we can safely store the suite cases was a nightmare.  After searching for couple of hours to findthe place, without proper instructions there, with invisible Hanuman’s helpbehind us, we could somehow put them in a tightly fitting self-operated storagecabinet. To find the right train, and learning to use the ticket machines that cantake only coins, with instructions only in Dutch, was another nightmare withlot of run-around. Reaching the Amsterdam central station and from there by anothertrain to Delft with no directions and guidance became a big task.  Amsterdam airport was the worst airport that we have experienced.  One should avoid it at any cost, if possible. When we reached the hotel it was almost 3:00PM, past anylunch time. We had to wait till 6:00 PM to find an Indian Restaurant close byto have vegetarian meals. With jet-lag we tried to sleep that night. The nextmorning with jet-lag when I went to bathroom with the body fully exhausted by theprevious day’s experience, I felt little dizzy with sweating, and before I know,I passed out.  The next I know was that Iwas comfortably lying down with face up, as though in heaven, with a beautifulangle sitting on me giving me mouth to mouth recitation and trying to pound mychest calling my name. When I came to my senses I recognized that the beautifulangle was my own darling wife. I am reminded that I am back on the earth,finding myself strangely in a very narrow bathroom floor lying on my back andlooking up.   The Lord Narayana’s name came to mind automatically, whichI chant most of the time, and I began to see that light of consciousness in theform of my wife sitting on me to wake me up, and strangely seeing the Lord takingall forms in the bath-room, including commode and the sink – a local-viswaruupam.I was reveling in the vision of the Lord and my wife noticed that I was smilingnow, to myself. She started blowing into my mouth some more Oxygen to insurethat I am OK. She then ran to the telephone asking the hotel receptionist tocall an ambulance and trying hard to make her understand the urgency of thesituation, and again running back to pay attention to my need. For her it was areal nightmare and a hectic dance. While I was enjoying the heavenly abode, sheheard big thunder noise caused by my falling down and rushed to the bathroom todiscover that I was on the floor on my back and unconscious with stiff body.  ----------------Rest in the next.