27) Best Retirement plans

In my mid 20s, I was bitten by the spiritual bug with an unquenchable appetite for Upanishad studies. I was a regular at those biweekly one-hour lectures at Chinmaya Mission, on Chetpet road.

If you start attending these classes for years on end then one learns to recognize regular faces and begin to interact. I became friendly with an old couple; the lady looked late 60s and her husband comfortably 75; they looked remarkably healthy and active for their ages. Mr. Muthukrishnan would drive a Maruti Esteem and once they learnt that I lived in their neighbourhood; I would get a free ride back home.

Soon our acquaintance gained momentum as we went beyond discussing Atman and Brahman but also the mundane; of jobs and rising inflation. When I first visited their house, I was startled. Right from the teak wood furniture, fresh linen seat covers, the centre coffee table, carpet, the bright walls and a swing that partially hid the dining table- all spoke of peace and harmony. Never has a drawing room speak of class or vibrate good cheer than that house.

Sarada mami filled in about themselves,” Mama (referring to her husband) worked in ITC and my children are all well established: one son in the army, another a Chartered Accountant while the daughter is a doctor. We stay alone and travel about 4 months a year to be with the children”.

I asked, “How do you’ll fill time in such a large 3 bedroom flat?”

She laughed,” Sathya, the reality is we don’t have the luxury of time. We get up at 4:30 am and read a spiritual text or meditate. As you know that’s Brahma Muhurtham and an ideal time for the mind to mould itself. Then from 9, we spend at least 4 hours a day reading for blind students. It’s now 8:30 now and pretty soon they’ll start coming. In the evening, we go to a Carnatic concert of which uncle is big patron”.

Seeing such content and sense of purpose my mind automatically resolved,” If I live up to my retirement, then this is how I’ll be”.

In the Bhagawat Gita class, there was a common friend of the Muthukrishnans and he once remarked,” Sathya, these people are the best husband and wife one can find in town. You speak to each one separately on an issue and they would very much sound alike. But as for Adwaitha and their spiritual progress, they are at best, pseudo intellectuals”.

Over the years the Muthukrishnans were as regular as a clock with their morning meditations, blind students and concerts and coming to Chinmaya Mission on weekends until their eldest daughter-in-law was stricken with cancer.
Ranjana would spend a month in Apollo and the next at home and then relapse back to hospital. This became an ongoing pattern for the next two years as Sarada mami and Muthukrishna mama kept going to and fro the hospital. The old lady herself was 70+ and sleeping in a hospital room tending a 45 year old daughter-in-law. Their regular life was completely disrupted as concerts and blind students were given a go by.

Even if Sarada mami absented herself a day from hospital duties, her daughter-in-law would be agitated, preferring and insisting on her company despite her own parents in the vicinity.

Ranjana died on Sarada’s lap after two years of intense suffering.

I thought that the Muthukrishnans would be heart broken. Not for a moment did they lose their composure or indulge in ‘why me’ trips. The lady said,” It was her karma to suffer and our karma to serve. I do feel sad at times that my son as lost a life partner even in his 50s”

This kind of dignity is awe inspiring as the Muthukrishnans resumed their reading for students and concerts within a week after Ranjana’s death; losing none of the glow and cheer in their faces.

The critical friend said,” Sathya, I was wrong about that pseudo intellectuals remark. Their minds have indeed absorbed those spiritual lessons”.