Dr. Michael Kosak

My "First Date” with Swamiji Balendu ............ - Dr. Michael Kosak

Foreword

Meeting Swamiji Balendu in May 2001 was a great honour for me. The friendship that exists between our families has become one of love and is precious to us all.

At this point I would like to explain that the circumstances that occured during a flight to Mallorca on the 27. May 2001 when I met Swamiji, were so bizarre that I have decided to dedicate a book about our developments and experiences at a later date.

This is the story of my "first date":

To obtain the true perspective of the story one should take into consideration that our first meeting took place on 24. December 2000; only I had no idea it had taken place.

An unexpected christmas card arrived on 24. December 2000 from my very good friend Bernd Dietrichs that I had worked with years earlier.

The card showed two indian gods arm in arm that I did not recognise. At that time I had travelled extensively through India but had not yet acquired any in-depth knowledge of the Indian religion.

I kept the card and glanced at it periodically.

-----time passed-----

In May 2001 my wife Andrea had travelled to Mallorca with friends. The plan was that I finish work for the week and follow with our son Ravael.

I looked forward to the trip and was full of pleasant expection. I was relaxed and very open for new experiences. Accordingly I wore white jeans and a bright orange shirt for the trip. Life was good.

After check-in at the Airport Terminal 4 in Hamburg, Ravael and myself sat down to relax with time on our hands and observe the goings-on of the airport.

Amongst the passenger crowds I noticed a young man dressed in magnificent white robes, with long black hair and beard. The way this person was moving had a destinct style and was lightly sweeping through the crowd. Seeing him I felt a big joy and an inner calmness which I knew from my meditation practice. I mentioned to Ravael: "Look, there goes a true king".

We were out of sight of the graceful king and took the oppurtunity to do some shopping. I bought perfume for my wife and a new fragrance also for myself. I was in such a good mood that I grabbed a couple of bottles of 'Veuve Cliquot', some great French Champagne, as well.

While waiting for the boarding-call, we sat and watched the aircraft landing and taking-off on the runways. Within me I felt once more a sense of inner quiet. I looked around and my glance fell upon the nobleman full of grace. I was deeply fascinated.

I was happy that he also seemed to be travelling to Mallorca. That he was indian seemed obvious.

The flight was scheduled to take off at 9:15pm. Ravael was five years old at the time and so I concluded he would fall asleep quite quickly once we had taken off. That would give me the better half of two hours during the flight to make contact with the interesting man from India.

The flight only being half full meant that I shared a full aisle with Ravael. Great! The unknown man took his seat a few rows further forward in the back half of the aircraft.

I told myself to be patient and wait for an oppurtunity while he or myself would be going to the lavatory later on.

As suspected Ravael was fast asleep within minutes. My second guess to wait for the man to make the first move was confirmed when he rose for the bathroom. My oppurtunity would be on his return.

As he approached my seat just a few minutes later I greeted him with: "Hi Swami!"

Instinctively I thought my approach was in a too direct tone, however, the gentleman stopped, turned and smiled at me.

"Where you go to?" was my question. He answered: "I fly Mallorca!"

At that instant I said to myself: "What a silly question since we are on the same plane already going to Mallorca!"

"What you do Mallorca?" I asked curiously.

He said: "I do preaching and meditation."

For some reason the tune and pictures of the 70’s hit: "Preacher Man" came to mind.

"Wonderful!" I answered and made room for him in our row. "I also meditate" and dreamt of once meditating with him.

"Where you live Mallorca?" was my next question.

"I don’t know" he replied, "I have phone number."

"Wow" was an instinctive response of wonder that I had met a real travelling freak that even had no idea where he was going to stay! This was going to be a real adventure!

He told me that he was from Vindavan, not far from Agra.

- Vindravan?, Vindravan ? - never heard of that. A little bit embarrassing, I thought, you have been to India so many times and have never even heard of this holy place. But it is close to Agra and the Taj Mahal. Everybody knows that. This thought calmed me slightly and gave me a general idea of orientation.

Eventually I asked for his name.

"My name is Goswami Balendu" was his reply.
He spoke so softly that it compared a beautiful melody. I had actually misheard him say "Swami" and thought to have a Osho Sanyassin next to me.
Being a Sanyasin myself and having been to the Ashram in Pune on my previous travels, I got more and more excited.

Soon we discovered that I had misheard. His last name was Goswami and his first name Balendu. But now I wanted to know what his name meant: "What does it mean, Balendu?"

"That means 'Little Moon'", he replied.

I was in Love. ....like an arrow to the heart!

Little Moon, Little Moon, I repeated to myself again and again. I was in love!

We talked for a while and he asked me what I did and how I lived. In this way time passed very quickly. As Ravael awoke it was apparent that we had started the approach to Palma.
Balendu gave me his phone number and I promised to call.

"What a terrific start to the trip!" I said to myself.

Thirty minutes later, with luggage and Ravael by my side I walked towards the exit of the ariport. I had not seen the Swami again. Maybe he travels with hand luggage only, I thought and now looked forward to meet my wife Andrea again whom I expected to be awaiting us eagerly.

I already saw her from far away and smiled at her. Ravael left my hand, ran towards his mother and gave her a tight hug. This joy of reunions at airports is something wonderful!

On the way to the car-park I wanted to tell Andrea of Balendu as she mentioned she had seen an interesting Indian leave the Terminal and suspected I had been already in touch with him.

That's feminine intuition for you!!

On Monday I was wondering the whole morning where Balendu could possibly be staying. Maybe further in the country, maybe in a quiet and peaceful finca, somewhere far off the crowds, I imagined. It was obvious he had not got a clue where he was heading

"I have invitation" he said and this seemed to be enough information for him to come here.

My mood was great and I looked forward to caling him Monday afternoon. As usual we had rented an apartment in Sometimes near the Plaja de Palma. It is not far from the beach and easy to reach the city from there.

That afternoon I called Balendu and reached another unfamiliar Indian voice on the phone. I asked for Swami Ji Balendu.

"Moment, please."

"Yes, helloooouu?" came in a sweet melody.

"Where are you now?" I asked Balendu.

He put the phone aside and I heard him ask someone in Hindi. I smiled and thought now he maybe asks for the first time where he actually was on this island. Then I heard him reply "I live Schinkenstraße".

"Where are you?" I replied in disbelief!

Did I hear right? I had to laugh about myself thinking that I had misheard. A holy guru in Schinkenstraße, the midst of the famous Ballermann, the party road of Mallorca. Hilarious!!

But he repeated "Schinkenstraße!"

I had heard right! He was actually there in Schinkenstraße. The noise, the music, all those people the whole night through! I imagined it to be an enourmous contrast to the silence that was usually around Balendu.

"You can come here 6 o’clock. I give Darshan", he invited me.

I confirmed and as I put the phone down my whole body was excited in anticipation. I started dancing in my joy.
My first visit would be alone and I would report the experience to Andrea.

The fact we were only 10 Minutes from the "Schinkenstraße" was a huge coincidence considering the size of Mallorca. Truly unbelievable.

Just before six I left for the Schinkenstraße and was more or less dancing down the road, full of anticipation, past the small roads and huge finca gardens. The mysticism of the shadows and light of the evening formed a deep sense of greatfulness within me; I was alive!

Before entering the four-storey building at the end of the Schinkenstraße I paused and took time to gather myself in preperation. While observing the area and the nature of the road it struck me to be unexpectedly quite, even silent. I was looking down the road toward the sea. I was sure that you could spot the sea from the higher floors of the building. At the opposite end of the street a few cars entered through a stone archway.

I rang the bell. The entrance was open, so was the apartment door on the fourth floor which was where Balendu had told me to come to.
Two pairs of indian eyes greeted me.

"My name is Dr. Michael Kosak, I come to visit Swamiji Balendu!?"

The two ladies led me to the living-area that had been completely emptied except for one small table by the fireplace and a couch.
The view was magnificient and looked straight out to the sea.
"I knew it; you can see the sea from up here!" I said to myself.

One of the ladies asked me to be patient and sit down. Also if I would like have something to drink or some fruit. I took some peanuts and sat myself cross-legged on the floor.

Duly the doorbell rang and two further indian women in beautiful saris entered the room. They sat down alongside me.
In the next twenty minutes more and more indian women arrived, until we were about fifteen people sitting in a half circle. The fact I was the only man present made me savour the moment exceptionally.

Balendu duly entered the room, was smiling, concentrated and silent. Our glances met only shortly. He sat down on the couch quietly. He closed his eyes and folded his hands in front of his face. His lips moved as if he was whispering and I figured a was saying prayer for all persons present. No one was talking and an energy-filled-silence prevailed.

Balendu began singing in Hindi and the women joined him. The sounds entering the appartment from the area did not disturb them or me. Slowly the singing and their voices went quiet. Balendu began to speak.

Of course I could not understand a word he was saying. I was very aware of the energy, intesity and presence I saw in his eyes. Something I had experienced before only in the presence of Osho while in Pune.

The Darshan lasted about one hour, I think. The relaxed state I had once again found had made time unimportant and I had no idea what time it was. I knew one thing; I was happy!

When the darshan was over the women left some sort of gift for Balendu and he blessed each and every one of them as they left the building.

I took a moment for the experience to settle and seated myself next to Balendu on the couch. We looked at one another in depth.

My vision returned back into the room and I looked around. I noticed a picture in a silver frame on the small table. Somehow the picture touched me and I had to ask "who is that?".

It was a picture of a child and so unbelievably beautiful I have difficulty to describe it. I wasn't sure if it reminded me of someone or something??

"That's my master" replied Balendu.

All I could articulate was a "wow!" and I got up and said goodbye.

"You can come back!" he said.

I thanked him for everything and left saying "I have your number".

My way home led back along the beach on the bay of Palma. The Tramuntana mountain range to the west being highlighted orange in the evening sunlight. During dinner I explained my experience to Andrea and Ravael.

The day after I rang my old friends Rainer and Regina Franke who have been living on Mallorca since the mid nineties and were not too far away either. On every visit we find a reason to have dinner and party together. As soon as I told my story they were also eager to meet Balendu.

That Tuesday afternoon I called Balendu once again.

„You can all come together“ he said with a laugh, „come Wednesday morning 11 o’clock“

“Thank you, we will all come” I replied and had a huge smile on my face.

Punctual at 11 o`clock we were all gathered in the famous Schinkenstraße of which I now know that its predjudices are not justified.

Regina and Rainer had their two children Samira and Ramon with them. Andrea and Ravael accompanied me, too.
The sun was shining magnificently, the sky was blue and the air had a freshness which Mallorcan people often long for in the hot sommer months of July and August.

After a heartily welcome of the hosts, we "seven pilgrims" sat down in the still half-empty living room and were then welcomed one after another by Balendu with a lovely smile on his face.

He sat down on the couch again and after a short introduction there commenced a long discussion where anyone could openly speak about what was on their mind.

After a time Balendu asked if we would like to see a film about him made in India. "Of course!" we answered excitedly.

The first part of the film showed the scene on 10. September 1997 in Vrindavan when Balendu entered the cave; his hair was shaven for the occasion.
I calculated had was 25 years of age at that time and wondered what could possibly motivate a young man like himself to leave the world for several years??

The second part of the film was taken on December 24, 2000. Christmas Eve in Germany I thought. The scene was the breaking of the cave-wall and Balendu`s return to normal life exactly 3 years and four months after initially entering the cave.

How did he survive this?

We were all deeply moved by the pictures that only created even more questions within us some of which I can only estimate to take weeks, months even years to digest.

Balendu told us that he would be travelling to London the next afternoon, on Thursday. We made a date to see him off and say farewell at the airport.

Of course all 'seven pilgrims' were on time again the next day.

Similar to my previous experience at Hamburg Airport I sensed the notion of tranquility in his presence, a deep silence and calmness awakening me in the moment of an elevated sense for my surroundings and situation not otherwise experienced in my every-day state of mind.

"You can all come visit me in India!" were Balendu's words of good-bye with a big smile on his face which brough tears of joy in our eyes.

„And you can come visit us Germany”, I shouted as he turned one more time. With that he was through the gate and gone.

The following days went by with ease and some "rituals" with friends that included the opening of the "Veuve Clicquot" bottles!

And soon we were on our way back to Germany.

Some time after our arrival home the christmas-postcard we had received on Christmas Eve 2000 found ist way into my hands. This time around I took a closer look at it. One of the two gods on the card seemed similar to the face portrayed on the picture Balendu had had with him. Just this face was considerably older. On the back of the card its name was written: Shri Ram.

Didn't Balendu say something very similar when I asked him about the card on the table next to him?

Besides that: When had Balendu left the cave?

It was Christmas Eve 2000!!!

I noticed how the increase of adrenalin in my blood quickened my pulse. A strange feeling rose in me. An idea, a guess, a presentiment. I was wondering about possible connections which the mind vigorously refuses and denies. Could it really be possible?

A few months later, in November 2001, I answered the phone at home.

"I can come Lüneburg?" I heard a distinctive voice ask. Of course it was Balendu.

"Of course!" was my instant response and I already looked forward to "my second date with Balendu".