"Haven't you been feeling it?" he asked.
"Yes, Rama," came the inevitable response. "I feel it."
Rama quoted Chaucer, Roethke, and Shakespeare. He also told a story
(from The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury) about a Martian who,
when approached by humans, transformed into the object of
their desires. The Martian became a woman's dead son, for instance,
until someone else walked by. "I am like the Martian," said Rama.
"I am constantly being called upon to fulfill your desires."
Rama might question disciples with a portable microphone,
a la Phil Donahue. "Why don't you share what you saw tonight,"
he said, roaming the aisles. He seemed to enjoy interrupting us
when our response was spiritually or grammatically incorrect.
Then Rama sat in front of the auditorium, wiggling his toes
and fielding questions, a la Chinmoy.
"Rama?" a woman might begin.
"Yes."
"The men where I work are constantly sending me sexual energy.
Each day I come home completely drained."
"What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a receptionist."
"Why don't you study programming?" he suggested. "Software professionals
tend to be less visible and, therefore, less prone to psychic attack."
Rama often lectured on the nature of consciousness: "Consciousness, like
a complex system of software, has thousands of levels of nested,
self-accessing subroutines.
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