Wednesday, November 5, 2008

deepening the well

Interviewer: I wonder -- have you met during your long years in India any other enlightened saints?


Lucia Osborne: No one came up to Bhagavan! He was extraordinary. Just to see him walk, just to watch his actions… they conveyed something. And I want you to really understand about his silence: it was most potent. With others, such silence could be embarrassing … I won’t say any more.

Interviewer: Did you and your husband build this house or is it Ashram property?

Lucia Osborne: I built it with four workmen, without a plan, without an architect. I built it like a sculpture: first two rooms, then the verandas, steps, arches — and the upstairs is rather nice. We just created it as we went along. The people here have such love, such devotion to God. One of the workmen was deepening the well, and I saw him folding his hands to do namaskar. He had found a small picture of Bhagavan in the well — floating — it must have fallen in.

~ Malcolm Tillis, New Lives

1 comment:

David Godman said...

I lived in that house for eighteen months while Lucia Osborne was still alive. I had a little room at the back of the house. The garden was gorgeous and my rent was Rs 30 per month, about 65 US cents at today's exchange rate. The design was a bit eccentric, but it felt like an organic growth, rather than a planned and constructed building.



David