arjun wrote: I heard that there is a Mama's rock also situated behind the Omshanti Bhavan. A PBK who lived for many years at Mount Abu had told me about his experiences of climbing up to the Mama's rock. Very few Madhuban niwasis know about it.
I've been there. A narrow path goes a short distance--maybe 20 minutes' walk--to sandstone cliffs looking out over the plains below. Brother Ramnath of the Toli department took me there. He had a story about being out there late in the afternoon in deep, deep Yaad (remembrance) intense meditation, and stayed a few minutes longer. On his way back there is a narrow part of the trail along a slope with a large rock on the uphill side and a drop-off below. There was a tiger waiting there with shoulders that came up as high as Ramnath's chest. He tells that he wasn't thinking anything and walked straight ahead, looking the tiger straight in the eye. The tiger lept out of the way as he passed. Later he remembered some line from the morning's Avyakt Murli about Baba protecting his children, and started shaking uncontrollably as it dawned on him the danger he was in: there had been reports of a tiger roaming in the area and that it had killed a calf.
After Ramnath took me there (pointing out the rock where the tiger was) I came a few times either alone or with friends, making sure to come back while it was still light.
As a side note, Ramnath taught a very interesting method of meditation, that I've mostly forgotten. Perhaps I'll remember it enough to write it up. I had my best bodiless experiences through that. Now I am remembering something else: the honor of being invited to give drishti to the group before Avyakt BapDada would come in Om Shanti Bhavan (or earlier in the Meditation Hall). Sometimes trying to go away and be bodiless, other times consciously looking/not-looking at the group, using my powerful lighthouse stage to invite those seated into soul-consciousness. What was humorous was the intense desire that I and others had to be the one on the white stool in front. Occasional people would come up to take drishti who hadn't been designated. They were allowed to stay there, but were scolded (sweetly, firmly) afterwards. It was Maya!
Now my story about going to the lookout. On my last visit to Madhuban, a group of friends from the Hong Kong center and I walked out there. (I never called it "Mama's rock.") One of the group was a good-natured once-athletic woman from Singapore, who because of some kind of stroke had a leg that dropped. Her walking was slightly unstable.
I had become aware of how my starvation for the warmth of touch, combined with my sexual starvation, had made my system so edgy that any touch I found disturbing, as it evoked my intense feelings of need. Facing those feelings on one side, and on the other seeing the instability of that woman's walking, I decided to risk taking her hand. It was a step for me in taking responsibility for my acts, and in deciding to be human-mammalian rather than... uh... reptilian in my relationships. Walking hand-in-hand made the hike joyous. She was a friend. Strange for me to have been so alienated from touch.
So, near that same place that Ramnath faced the physical tiger, I faced the tiger of self-judgment, self-suppression and external conformity. The tiger jumped away and I am here to tell the tale.
Now that I remember, there was another really nice man (I would have said 'Brother' in those days) with us on that hike, Richard Green, who I would certainly be pleased to hear from.