Those were actually the best days of the scenario.
It was truly about everyone getting together to serve the Lord.
Most of the local scene was located in two big houses beside a converted church we used for satsang, plus a diaspora of outlying houses.

There was a splendid feeling of togetherness, expressed in lunch-time and nightly satsang, replete with songs and the inestimably beautiful Arti.

I fell in love with the local princess gopi. I was at the time rated as about the most alpha princely male gopi.

At that point everything went tits up. According to the theory, everything should have fallen out Veda-like beautifully.
In reality, we were subject to the normal societal forces of
karma and backlog of relations, and it fell into pot, provoking much questioning of the divine plan.

At that time I realised the true value of meditation. Nothing is preordained in the world, but by turning inside ourselves, we feel what is right and comfortable for us. It gives us a sense of what is right at the end of day, so we can act on this.

In that particular confusion, however, I started shagging an aspirant I brought to Knowledge - just after she received it, to keep things right, but ongoingly and guiltily for some time.

I wish, looking back, I had shagged the new premie even more, but I was locked into some terrible scene in which I thought the gopi and I were meant to be together, by some inescapable fix of events.

I think that we were all victims of very simplistic thinking of the times.

It takes a lot of time to escape such thinking, which I have now done for years. However, I received a good Xmas card from the old gopi, so I'm tempted to look her up again. She is one of the most beautiful people who I know, and a very close friend, so I may chance my arm again, depending how liberated and open-minded she now is.

Tempora