Remembering Donald Eichert

Discussing the mystical aspect of his life is a tricky exercise. For instance, he distinctly remembered the moment of his conception. The first words that he spoke were in Bengali. Once, on a visit to the ashram on his motorbike, he had a series of mishaps, including a free fall into a deep khud. His survival convinced him that this path had protected him.

Yes, there was indeed no dearth of the mysterious in the life of our dear guru-bhai, Donald Eichert. He was, from all accounts, an old soul. He had, however, no illusions about this giving him any special 8216;spiritual8217; status. Nor do I intend to paint a larger than life portrait of him just because he is no longer with us. Why did he have to go for a walk on that rainy day of August 7 in Mumbai and happen to be under that big tree precisely at the moment when it came crashing down? As if the gurus had this case in mind when they wrote in one of their books, 8216;8216;Oh God! What a mockery it all is! Why did all those happenings happen just then and not a moment later8230;8217;8217;

The Hindu reaction to his violent death would be to invoke the theory of Prarabdha past karmas that have started bearing fruit. But could there be a more esoteric factor? Had he done something that could have led to a withdrawal of the protection that he had enjoyed? What Gurdjieff said to C.S. Noti about the death of Orage comes to mind. Orage need not have died just then. Only an Englishman would have died. Does this in some way apply to Donald? Did he retain a measure of unnecessary Englishness and false Indianness with a hyphen in between that hindered his maturing?

He had made three attempts to live in the ashram under the tutelage of his guru. The first two did not last long. He missed his chocolates and nuts which were not provided there. He also missed the other diversions of city life8230;.fire, food and friends, as he put it. Boredom, he declared to me once, was his main bugbear. The third attempt stretched to about ten years, largely because of noble Pervin whom he had married with the guru8217;s blessing. This golden period of Donald8217;s life as a devoted husband ended with Pervin8217;s death a few years before his. After her death he did not dare go back to the ashram. We heard him say more than once that after the death of the spouse there was nothing left to live for. Unfortunately, none of his friends had the courage to tell him that this attitude went against the teaching to which we all were exposed: that nothing can take away from us the never ending motivation of self-awareness.

Will he come back to continue the work from where he left it? Who knows. What I do know is that once, when he expressed despair over his inability to do anything worthwhile, Ashish Da had reassured him by citing Sri Krishna8217;s words to Arjun: 8216;Ma shuchah don8217;t lose heart.8217; Remember that, Don!