"
"Atlantis was destroyed by greedy people."
Afterwards, we drove back to Tom's and caught the last few minutes of The
Twilight Zone. It was late. I was getting sleepy. Atmananda began
to repeat how Guru had saved us from stove-demolishing Entities.
I entered a state of mind where I heard his words, but did not
scrutinize them. Fifteen or twenty minutes later, he suggested
that we meditate on the Transcendental which Tom placed on a table
by the television.
In the months that followed, Atmananda accepted me into his inner circle
of friends. But not every encounter with him, I quickly learned,
was a party.
* * *
One morning Atmananda emerged from his cottage in Stony Brook carrying
a thick stack of posters. Bluejays, doves, sparrows, and chickadees
flocked around a feeder. Sal, Paul, my brother, and I stood nearby.
Atmananda approached, but the little birds remained.
"Ellaow," he said in a Cockney accent.
"Ellaow," we echoed.
"WHAT...is your name!" he demanded, quoting from the movie Monty
Python and the Holy Grail.
"Sir Waff-noid," offered Sal.
"WHAT...is your quest!"
"I seek the higher worlds."
"WHAT...were you thinking about last night at 11:30!"
Sal blushed.
"Alas, my lad," said Atmananda, patting him on the shoulder.
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