Sarama - my spiritual name

The Centre was small in the early days. It included Madhuri, Radha, Dulal, the owner of the building and half a dozen other men and women, plus Tanima’s mother, who was soon followed by Tanima herself. No one was referred to as a disciple. I am not even sure that the word was ever heard at the Aum Centre. I was not concerned about being a disciple myself, because with my lack of religious background, I didn’t really know what it meant, aside from the 12 disciples of Jesus.

At some point later on, one girl asked me how she would know if she were a disciple or not. The best I could tell her was, "If you feel that you are a disciple, you probably are."

Apparently I was not the only one who didn’t understand the whole thing. I overheard Guru offer one girl a spiritual name. Her reply: "Thank you, but I like Elizabeth well enough."

A few months later my husband said to me, "Why don’t you ask Guru for a spiritual name? I know you would like one." My answer was, "I’m sure that if I deserved one Guru would give it to me."His reply: "I’m going to ask for you." And so he did!

Guru’s response was, "I have had her name ready for three months. I was just waiting for her to ask."Yes, things were quite different in those early days! At any rate, Guru said we would both receive our names the following week, and that I should wear an orange blouse. We were not permitted to wear saris. I had always loved the color orange but it was not a trendy color at that time, so I had no orange blouse. Guru’s second choice was pink, which I borrowed from my daughter.

At that time there were no Centre photographers or stenographers to take notes as Guru spoke about the new name he was offering. The first thing he did was to spell out and pronounce the name slowly. He asked me to repeat it, and the words that followed thrilled me. I wanted them to be etched in my memory forever, so at the very first opportunity I wrote them down:

"Sarama, the Goddess of Intuition, Illumination and Realisation. Sarama is the Divine Dog, the Dog of the Supreme, symbolizing loyalty and devotion. I shall expect you to work very hard and realise God in this lifetime."

Well, I have certainly not worked as hard as I should have or nearly as hard as Guru hoped I would. One proof is that I am only now getting around to writing my story, as he requested of me years before his Mahasamadhi. If those words did not play out in my real life as they should have, I can always call them up for inspiration when needed.

As for my husband - long gone - his very inspiring name has been recycled.