Karkat Man Tuladhar

(AD. 1923 - 1981)

I

YB: Would you please tell me your meeting with SB?

KM: It was my private English teacher, Purna Bahadur Manab, who took

me to SB in the year AD 1946.

I was full of energy then, and was under a great influence of Buddha, and wanted Enlightenment badly! So when I found SB singing the glory of Right Living, it appeared too slow a method to me! I wanted God very badly and quickly! I told SB so and asked him to please guide me earnestly.

He said, “If you want God so badly, you must be prepared to start your journey Now. To Shivapuri you go straight, right Now!”

It was a sort of challenge. And I left his Ashram immediately for the Shivapuri forest. It was already afternoon when I started. I never had gone to Shivapuri before. I had no guide nor I searched for one. I just walked from Pasupati to Narayanthan. After ascertaining the direction of Shivapuri, I began climbing. But I did not know the proper road or track nor I cared for any! Such was my enthusiasm! Pushing aside the obstructing bushes and branches of trees which came on my way, I climbed and climbed and climbed, so that to reach the top of the forest I spent almost all the night! While going up I encountered a tiger who gave me way instead of attacking me! And it was only when I reached the top, I realized that one dog was accompanying me from the very beginning of my climb from the Narayan Temple at Buddha-Nilkantha. He disappeared some time after I settled in the area, where SB used to live when he stayed at Shivapuri!

“Being the hot season I was not too disturbed by the weather. After resting for a while, I started to meditate! But the morning came quickly and I went to Bagdwar, being the place where SB’s former helper, Julfy, used to stay. So that for about a week I shared his food and stayed with him in his Gompa or Buddhist place of worship. The Basket family also helped me.

“Slowly but surely, I came to realize that my method of finding God was wrong! Not only I needed this - worldly thing as money to sustain myself, but also I had to be ready for begging, if necessary, which I was not at all prepared to! I must also know the art of cooking to take care of myself, have an accessible Guru of my own and so on. So I started thinking to go back home. However my ego did not permit me! Meanwhile my home people, knowing my whereabouts from SB, came to search me out. Thus by the end of a week I was at my home again!

Noticing my nature with predominance of God-love SB prescribed Ramayan to me. He however told me, “Bhakti alone is not good. One should take care that one may not fall into the trap of emotional exhibitionism under the

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name of Bhakti. Without living Right Life, God would not give Dharshan or reveal Himself to you.”

II

YB: I was a book-lover from my early days. Once, during my Class VIII

period, I suddenly came across a small booklet called, THUS SPAKE

VIVEKANANDA, which I read avidly. Electrified with the heroic words of

Swami Vivekananda, I wanted to inculcate the good qualities mentioned! Deeply stirred by his words like “There is no sin on earth like weakness- weakness of body, weakness of mind and weakness of spirit. Weakness is a sin, weakness is death... We must develop muscles of iron and nerves of steel... Never forget the glory of the human nature. Christs and Buddhas are but waves in the boundless ocean, which I AM!”, the Swami became my ideal. I therefore decided to take the medical profession as my career, because, I thought, I would reach God, the ultimate aim in my life, through service, because in that way only, I will be serving the Brotherhood of man to attain the Fatherhood of God.

Inspired by his zeal, attracted by his youth, fired by his call, I started my day by rising at 4 AM, attend the call of the nature, take cold bath, and go out for my morning walk, for at least one hour. Then I would practice some simple Yoga exercises, including the Soorya Namaskar which I carefully selected from a Yoga Book. I abstained completely from eating meat, fish and egg and also from touching the money. After graduating from the school, I was given a holiday by my father and took immediately me to Calcutta for a holiday, when he, bought a set of Complete Works of Swami

Vivekananda in 8 volumes, as requested by me, and I read them all

hungrily!

So that when KM lent me his Prabuddha Bharat, the monthly magazine, of Ramakrishna Mission, I really appreciated it! (This happened in early seventeen-YB). KM also gave me other spiritual books to read. If he did not possess them, he would borrow from others and transmit them to me! I am ever so grateful to him for this! One common friend CBR, told me later that when he did not do charity as suggested, KM would snatch bundles of cloths from his house, to distribute to the poor or holy people! Protests or displeasure of CBR did not deter KM from such acts of piety.

KM had a small spectacle shop in Ason near his house. He had several sons and daughters. Beggars and sadhus regularly visited his shop. He never failed to give them some charity, even though the amount may be a small one. His shop was a meeting place for Satsang as well. I remember him asking the following to TL:

KM: SB told me that the Bhakti I was practicing was not enough. “God will

not recognize you, unless you live RL and remove your defects, physical, intellectual, mental,/moral and spiritual”.

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you reach the Goal, the greatest, unless you struggle properly?

TL: Our children are now established in their careers. But we are still drawn

to the pleasures of this world! The Maya is dragging us in her maze! We are not yet fully successful in getting out of it! We must try to be full timers in RL now!

KM: Once I asked SB, “You said that you have been living RL since many

many lives. Are you still living it?”

SB smiled and replied, “I am now beyond RL. (Turning to TL) Please tell me what does it mean?

TL: Well, once you realize God and finish your commitments, you are free!

You can then live life as you like to. Therefore, such a man can live as a stone (Jadbat), as a child (Balbat), a fool (Moodhabat) and so on! No action of his then can “touch” him, because he becomes “seedless”! Shankracharya said somewhere, “Let me be born again and again, even as a worm in the excreta, if only I retain the knowledge of you, O Lord!”. Yes, SB has gone beyond RL. It does not apply to us, however!

KM: What do you advise me?

TL: Discrimination first, Devotion next then only your Devotion will bear

fruits. “Suppose you came to me”, SB said to me once, “without locking your safe, which contained all your valuables. -Can you concentrate on my teachings? Even though you manage externally to listen to me, you are internally agitated all the time with the fear that your valuables may be stolen any moment! In the same way, unless & until you attend to your duties rightly, you will never be able to attain that quietness, which is absolutely essential for Meditation. Therefore, you must first use Discrimination while living your worldly life. Then & then only, you will be able to live RL successfully."

Some of the devotees of SB say like this about KM:

TL: “KM, a symbol of Innocence, used to do many things which one would

or should not have done. For example, He would distribute many books to those who needed them. He had a good heart and therefore wanted to help everybody whom he came across by whatever means he had in his hands! It did not matter to him whether or not that material belonged to him. When a work was assigned to, him SB used to correct him many a time, without being tired. For example, he too tried, as myself, to present flowers to SB. SB said that Innocence is a virtue. For example, Yudhisthir was not of good Intelligence; but he had a good mind contrary to Duryodhan. That was why Krishna did not leave him. Instead, he guided him all the time, in bad days as well as in good days.

YB: About 6 months before his death KM came to me for medical

consultation. I was shocked to see him as a picture of extreme malnutrition characterized by a skeleton-like body. Being the elder brother of my class

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friend, I used to regard him as my brother. I found that he and his family was in a meditation spree. He and some friends had gone to Burma for 2 months’ meditation camp. According to the camp discipline, they had to subsist on one meal a day. Being a vegetarian he did not take fish or neither meat there nor he could get suitable food specially prepared for him. This was too much for KM! I knew that he was a good eater and used to eat at least 4-5 times a day at home! Then he was rather fat and had a big stomach. But now he had changed greatly and badly. I warned him and gave a big lecture that God had given him a vehicle to carry him across the river of life. Instead of looking after it properly, as and when required, he utterly neglected it and damaged it. Now that it was already leaking badly, how can one manage to cross the river? That was why, I said, SB was emphasizing the First Discipline i.e. Physical Discipline, to keep your health in sound order, for the simple reason as mentioned above.

“Next time when he called me at his home, he had already developed Jaundice and Ascites. I provisionally diagnosed him to be suffering from Acute Yellow Atrophy of Liver with signs of Liver Cell Failure as shown by Ascites. However malignancy had to be ruled out, for which KM and his party wanted to go to Christian Medical College, Vellore. There, he expired within a couple of weeks.

It was known later on that he was foretold by SB that he would leave Right Life and go the Buddhist way and undertake severe meditation exercises about 6 months before his death...

And this was what exactly happened in course of time.

Born in the family of artistes, classical singers and actors--KM took to Violin as his most favorite instrument. For about 3 decades he played it from Radio Nepal, and was rated as Class I artist.

A well-known senior political worker, freedom fighter and a colleague of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Gunada Majumdar, knew KM since many years. He said, “I am grieved to learn of KM’s demise. His life was a life of dedication to Truth, Honesty and Simplicity. I often found inspiration in his company and it was a lesson to see him following steadfast and strictly disciplined life. Such a person is rarely found in these days”.

TL was in Sweden when KM died in June 1981. He said, “It is really a great

shock to me. Such an intimate friend I had none. There is no limit for sorrow, knowing well that such a thing can happen to any one of us, any time! This is the nature of what we call life. My prayer for him; but I am sure that in his next life he will improve and do better in his journey to the Truth. A symbol of Innocence and helping nature to everybody, let him rest in peace”...

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7. Bhavani Spanker Rajbanshi