A memoir to Sharada

For those of you who haven't read my novel, Wayne Liquorman is an old friend I met at Ramesh Balsekar's Satsangs / talks. I subscribe to his newsletter.

This is a letter he has written, a letter that allowed my eyes to water for Sharadama.


Hello my loves,

About a week before I reached Mumbai for Guru Purnima, I received the sad news that Ramesh's wonderful wife, Sharda had died quietly and peacefully in their home. What I will always remember about Sharda Balsekar is her hands. They exist, frozen in my memory, fingertips and thumbtip gathered into a point, suspended over a plate of puri batata, as if sprinkling magic, fairy dust. And it WAS a sort of magic, fairy dust...if you can call love, magic, fairy dust. Because that is exactly the ingredient that transformed those mundane components into something truly sublime. Sharda's love infused everything and everyone she touched, transforming us and enriching us.

Sharda lived in my home and I lived in hers. For twenty-one years our paths crossed yearly, sometimes briefly, sometimes for months. She was always the epitome of graciousness and subtlety. She was both interesting and interested. She had the ability to make me feel as if I had her complete attention.

Another image that will remain fixed in my mind is of her standing high on the slopes of Mt. Haleakala on the Hawaiian Island of Maui, sipping giddily from a glass of champagne, the helicopter that had brought us there standing ready in the background. Her eyes sparkled like the wine and I could see that in that moment she was truly, truly happy, almost like a little girl who had been granted a forbidden pleasure.

More than anything...Sharda cared. She cared for her family and for mine. She cared for me and for all us who were graced with a little of her time here on Earth.

I loved her.

I shall miss her.


With love,
Wayne

Hello my loves,

(begins this email message from Wayne Liquorman, an old time sweetheart)

One of my favorite quotes is: "Life is like licking honey off a thorn." It points to those twin qualities that make up all of existence. There is no pleasure without pain, no joy without sorrow. To deeply realize this is to come into harmony with What Is.

Ramesh's words in this month's newsletter (look towards the end, below) point to the fact that this deep realization comes from a "bold, clear look" into the Essence. One of the most direct avenues into this looking is to start with what is there in front of you....your experience of the moment, your breathing, your sense of aliveness....any of these will do. If you find yourself spinning off into philosophical speculation....what does it mean? why is it happening?...come gently back to the experience in front of you.

With Grace comes a dissolution of the Problem of Life leaving an unobstructed view of life's ongoing problems and joys.

With much love,
Wayne

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