The story behind these pictures starts “an Aussie boy traveled to rural Africa to build a school”. It should have
been “the end” right there. What happened was that I met a traveling Indian monk called Dada Shiveshananda.
A special mentor/mentee relationship developed (mostly because we both spoke fluent English and no one else did). Over the months we spent together, the monk taught me the ways of Ananda Marga (a socio-spiritual organization of monks), took me on as ‘acharya’ (my teacher), and, eventually, inducted me as a monk.
Months of peaceful but intense meditation, nondenominational scripture study, contemplation, and yoga (while building the school) went by until one day, I was infected with malaria by a mosquito. I fell sick and flew to London to recover.
Over time I recovered and flourished in London, took a job as a lawyer there, built great things, and forged amazing friendships. The rest is history. While I feel like I lost the essence of myself as a monk in deference to thriving in the capitalist way of life, I’ll always remember the kindness and wisdom of my spiritual mentor, Dada Shivesh, and the lessons of my time as a monk in Africa.
By andrewmasa