The Sage and the Housewife
THE SAGE AND THE HOUSEWIFE
By Shanta Kelker
This book on U.G.Krishnamurti brings a whiff of fresh air in an atmosphere infested with self-proclaimed godmen, gurus and pseudo-religious seekers. If you like to tread a path of adventure risking your pet beliefs, assumed certainties and habitual hypocrisies, you will love this unique work by a simple and ordinary housewife. Her spontaneous encounters with the enigmatic sage are full of wit and humor. The amusing episodes transport you to newer heights of crystal clear vision of yourself. U.G.'s straightforward but ego-shattering statements give you no scope to duck out of real life situations leaving you to face life as it comes. Within these pages U.G.Krishnamurti emerges not as a guru or a godman dishing out homilies and commandments but a person in flesh and blood. He is a zen master without a school and at large. But there is "something" about him which defies description. Nevertheless the readers cannot fail to notice the freshness and vitality of his words which seem to spring from a source 'unknown'. However, there is no occultification or mystification surrounding U.G. The fragrance of his simplicity and openness is spread throughout the book. At last, here is a book that is refreshing, radical, unconventional, as it clears a lot of muck spewed forth in the name of God, religion, enlightenment and related matters.
Shanta Kelker was born in 1948 in Bombay. Her devout parents and her brahmanical background were to a great extent responsible for her very early spiritual quest.
Convent educated and a graduate in home science, she had to leave her hometown, Bombay, after her marriage and settle in Bangalore where she currently lives with her two children. As a housewife, she spent most of her leisure in reading philosophy. It was in Bangalore that she chanced to meet many saints and philosophers. Her mind continued to be intrigued with the mysteries of life till she met U.G. in the year 1980.
U.G. seemed to be an answer to most of her questions, and after every visit to him, she noted down her conversations with him in a diary. The book is a collection of some of the amusing incidents from her diary pages.
"Are there any boots to walk on thorns?"
His reply came back crisp and direct, "There are no thorns."
Unsatisfied, I pursued, "The thorns are very much there for me!"
With quiet patience he answered, "Stop looking for roses and there will be no thorns."
NOW THAT WAS REALLY SOMETHING!