THE SWAMI AND FRIENDS...
Donning the ochre changes nothing, if you don’t change!
An awardwinning writer renounces the world, and lives to tell the tale...
What happens when one dons the ochre rob? Does it transform you magically into a monk? Do you undergo a mutation becoming a super-human who is above the laws of the Earth? Do you become a person who doesn’t feel the regular human emotions — anger, greed, lust, negativity?
“No!” laughs Sadhvi Vrinda Om, award-winning author and poet, who was called Ismita Tandon before she became a sanyasi. In fact, far from it! She struggled to deal with emotions we all deal with even as a sadhvi. She writes all about it in her latest book, A Prayer That Never Fails, and attempts to show the way to those “who might be feeling as looney as I was once” through practical, userfriendly techniques.
“For a long time after I had renounced, these basic human emotions were as alive in me as any other person,” shares she, who first worked as an editor with Om Swami on his books.
The 40-year-old’s latest book is autobiographical in which she honestly shares her journey, writing about her failed marriage, then dating a married man who abandoned her and the promise of a fulfilling love life. Then, she lost her father, later, even her mother. The pain was so unbearable that she decided to take her own life, but luckily survived it.
When she came in contact with Om Swami, she saw “life was bigger” than her problems. At 36, she decided to become a monk. “I decided to take sanyas when I finally figured that God wasn’t ready to accept my prayer of taking my life. And I didn’t have the courage to kill myself,” she continues, “So, I thought, if I’m not going to die anytime soon, I might as well cast my selfish desires aside, and do something meaningful with it by serving God and His world. Yes, it’s exactly how this played out.”
She not only casts her prejudices aside but also helps cast away preconceived notions that one might have about renunciates. She is in ochre now, radiating calmness, healing people, and carrying an obvious glow that comes with being at peace with life and oneself. But Sadhvi Vrinda is still as lively, as talkative, and as animated as Ismita Tandon.
What inspired her to share her personal life details, which might be considered somewhat scandalous by many, in the book? The book is a gift to her “guru (Om Swami) on his 40th birthday”. She says, “I had this deep desire to help people like me who were desperate, drowning, vulnerable and tired. If not for my guru, I’d still be struggling to put the pieces of my life together,” says Vrinda, who has laid down techniques in the book in a reader-friendly manner.
But not everyone wants to pull off this feat of battling one’s demons in the ochre. To those, she says, “I‘d say, work very hard and be very good at what you do. Yet, in the rush to be someone, don’t forget to remember God, to say your prayers. The whole world can fail you, but as long as you keep working on purifying yourself, He’ll never fail you.” She adds, “As my guru rightly says, ‘One step at a time, take one problem, one emotion and deal with it, then get to the next.’ It’s what I did. I dealt with them one by one. It’s never easy to peel the layers of your mind, but you must begin somewhere. What’s challenging today, will be effortless one day.”
And find your source of joy. “My guru is my beacon of hope, I draw my strength from him. You, too, find your source of divinity, strength, peace, and contentment will flood your life,” she concludes.