The Stillness After Maharaji Speaks
After great performers come to the end of a great performance, it is not uncommon for grateful audiences to give them a standing ovation. They clap, they cheer, they focus all their attention on the one who has just opened the door to magnificence. Think Pavarotti. Think Martin Luther King. Think anyone you've ever stood your ground for and loved.
What I find amazing is this is how Maharaji's presentations begin.
Before he utters a single word, audiences are on their feet, applauding. And when he's done? Pin drop silence.
Somehow, through his own unique alchemy of humor, wisdom, presence, and delight, he finds a way to bring everyone in the room to a place of perfect stillness... back to the very beginning -- where there is nothing left to do, but be.
When Maharaji's done speaking, I find myself barely able to move. I am stunned, pinned to the back of my chair by the invisible arrow of love. All dramas in my life disappear and there is no "me" left to applaud the end of the show.
What remains... is a feeling.
In this place, I am free. In this place, I am home. In this place, I finally come to rest -- and clearly, I am not the only one.
Maybe that is why it's so quiet in the audience after Maharaji speaks.
Sitting in the afterglow of this man's communication of truth is a complete and total joy. Oh yes, I know I must move from my seat eventually. Oh yes, I know I will soon be walking and talking and asking someone to pass me the grated parmesan in that great little Italian restaurant just five minutes down the road, but now... here in this moment after he speaks... here in this alpha and omega point of creation... nothing else matters.
I close my eyes and let go deeper to the realm that opens in me simply by listening to him. Then I open my eyes once again.
I see people sitting. I see people starting to stand. Some move toward the stage, wanting to linger just a little bit longer in this extraordinary state of arrival. Others walk in silence toward the exits, eyes down, not wanting anyone or anything to distract them from the deepest of feelings welling up within them far beyond time.
What to call this is a mystery.
It has no name -- only the enjoyment of the experience and the first waves of quenching and thirst that arise from the depths of whatever it is that has saturated my soul with love.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at June 19, 2009 12:35 AM
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