Lunch at "A Rama Nayak's Udipi Shri Krishna Boarding"

Last Saturday afternoon, I was at Matunga (C.R.) to buy some things from the market. Since I landed up at Matunga station taking a C.R. train, I thought I might as well eat some South Indian stuff. There was the hopelessness of making a choice from among so many eateries there: Starting from "Ram Ashraya" near the station, "Saraswati", to "Cafe Mysore", "Anand Bhavan", "Cafe Madras" at Maheshwari Udyaan. "Idli House" was out of the question as it would be closed for lunch (what business sense?). Calculating at what seemed to be the speed of light, the mind zeroed in onto "Dahi Rice" at either "Cafe Mysore" or at "Ram Ashraya". But when I came out of the station, of course, there was "A. Rama Nayak's Udipi Shri Krishna Boarding" (hereafter referred to as ARN USKB) (review by Busybee is here) to be considered. How could I have forgotten to consider that? All computational power used up was wasted and I decided to go to the ARN USKB. One of the main driving forces was that I hadn't visited that eatery for many years now.

So up the flight of stairs behind Matunga vegetable market (BMC market) and I arrived on the first floor. Lots of people (well-dressed) waiting in a queue. (Those Gujjus certainly contribute to lot of these ARN's business, I thought.) I went past those people and landed up near the counter...the same boss (Satish Nayak from Idli House seated there). I gave him a Rs. 100 note and he gave me some coupons and Rs. 71. That made the lunch cost equal to Rs. 29. But I could've opted for a bare minimal meal and got only one (main) coupon...I think that would have cost me Rs. 23 or so.

Anyways, I was directed inside the "general" seating hall, ahead of all the people waiting. It wasn't that I used influence...those people waiting were for the "unlimited" section, I guess. The "general" or the "limited" section is for getting only limited food. Sayings by "Sane Guruji" and his photograph were displayed on the walls. I could not understand the relationship between Udipi and "Sane Guruji". Maybe ARN was firmly impressed by Guruji's thoughts and ideals.

After being seated, a "server" came to my table, took one of the coupons, and put down a glass of buttermilk. Then, came a plate with 2 chapatis, 2 mounds of rice, a bowl of sambar, a bowl of kadhi, papad, and 2 vegetable preparations (subji). I finished eating it. Some "servers" keep moving about asking if we would like more of the gravy. I then gave another coupon and took a bowl of curd. Another coupon was for the sweet dish. There were 4 sweet dishes to choose from. I took "aamras". I was done with my lunch. Then, it was time to look around.

Oh I could see people of all kinds...some Gujarati women, some North Indian men, even a Muslim family with women in burqas. I was surprised to see this family. I mean one does not expect people who relish non-vegetarian food to eat at this eatery. Maybe they did not know what they would get, but one second thoughts, no one would come to the eatery on the first floor of a municipal market whose entrance is at the very end of the road (next to the tracks) had they not known about it. Maybe they just felt like eating "plain" food for one lunch.

Of course, there were people from the relatively lower-middle classes. At Rs. 23 for a gentle-on-the-stomach lunch plate, why would anyone want to eat somewhere else?

A major milestone reached

By the grace of the Supreme Lord, I can now say that I've finished reading the (English) translation of the "Bhagavad Gita - As It Is". For quite some time (years), I was stuck with having read only 3 chapters. Recently I figured out what the problem was and why I wasn't making any progress. I worked around that obstacle (you'll never guess it was so trivial, but the solution involved LaTeX).

The completion of reading the Gita is definitely the most major milestone in my life. That does not say anything about my having understood 100% of it. Also, the workaround involved skipping reading the purports (by HDG ACB SP) in the translation. Hopefully, reading the purports will increase my understanding. Until then, I can claim to have read (the translation of) all the verses.

I have never watched the Mahabharat serial that was telecast on television some years ago. I believe it also covered the conversation in the Bhagavad Gita. I do not know if it covers whatever is there in the Bhagavad Gita. I was surprised to see many questions directly answered in the Bhagavad Gita.

There is one thing that I would like to quote for now:

From BG Chapter 13, Verse 26:

Again there are those who, although not conversant in spiritual knowledge, begin to worship the Supreme Person upon hearing about Him from others. Because of their tendency to hear from authorities, they also transcend the path of birth and death.

In my case, the "others" mentioned in the verse was a co-worker of mine. He is, of course, an ISKCON devotee. I would like to thank him.
Some other quotes will follow in posts to this blog later.

The next logical step is to read the purports and then the Srimad Bhagavatam.

Amazing lectures of HDG ACB Srila Prabhupada

Recently I had the chance to hear some lecture recordings of HDG ACB Srila Prabhupada (courtesy Internet streaming and a good mechanism to find these built into Amarok, the KDE media player). Although I have read several books by Srila, I found the lectures to provide much more information. The voice also provides the emotional content - something that is not captured in the books. Srila's rasping voice, a tone that almost seems to reprimand the audience, and the authority with which Srila speaks, made me wanting to listen to more of the lecture recordings.

Most of these are recorded in the 1970s. CDs featuring these lectures are sold in the ISKCON stores. There is also a MP3 library (24 CD set) available containing all these lecture recordings (but I think its a bit too expensive).