Isha in The Upanishads

"I have always been in love with the snow" is the opening line to Rama’s book, Surfing the Himalayas. Rama reminded us about love. It could be squirrels, your car, a career, your hounds, a computer, your lover, or simply the experience of going to the movies. But, you have to love something.

Rama often took us to the movies with him. One time in Greenwich we watched "Being Human" starring Robin Williams. It was a multi-lifetime tale that involved the effects of speech, action, situation and change . Set at a meandering pace, the movie was both funny and poignant as it connected various habits and themes to different lifetimes.

In a similar manner to the narrator of "Being Human," Rama too sketched a few limited details of his own triptik. From Atlantis, Egypt, India, China, Japan and Tibet, Rama came to the West, to the urban lowlands of the United States of America. A beautiful country, with ISBN numbers.

Should you happen upon Isha in The Upanishads ( ISBN 0-451-62607-9 ), the theme there is about action and spirit, misconceptions about action and spirit, and the zero-difference between the goals of action and spirit. Written a long time ago in India, this particular version was translated into English and distributed in America during the 1940’s. Much has changed in America since then.

Perhaps, in this land of beauty, disposable income, leather auto upholstery, micro-electronic programmable devices, fat-free-skim-milk-iced-cappuccino’s and easy-on-lump-free-wet-look mascara, the presentation of yoga for the American consumer needed a bit of a make-over.

Rama accomplished that make-over. He brought Enlightenment to the continent of North America. He defined American Buddhism with flair and style, with the elegance of the ancients.

Take Isha as an example. Rama’s culture-relevant nineties version of The Upanishads was not only presented but actually delivered to us, through computer programming, music, golf, database, business, dance, Java 1.1, martial arts and Shakespeare.

We loved it.

Rama, thanks for stepping into the middle of all this and doing what you did. Thanks for instilling in me a fourth-row wonder and love for the movies.

P.S. The tuxedos at the Pierre and the winter coats you wore for us, were so beyond cool.

-- Jeffrey Sutter