Continued....

YES, Guruji was always a foodie. When he was a boy, he was forever getting into the kitchen and our mother's way! She was a good cook. And I suppose he learnt by watching her. He was very creative with food. In time, don't ask me how, he came to create his own recipes. The cuisine would be North or South Indian. Sometimes even Continental. And Guruji's experiments were always successful, the food tasted most amazing. Now so many years later, and after he has travelled around the world several times and more, he can cook most anything he turns his hand to.

I remember this time in Lake Tahoe, USA, when there were 200 hungry disciples and only 40 pizzas to share between them. Guruji rose to the occasion. He said, "Let me do something!" And in a big vessel, he poured rice, haldi, jeera, some other masalas, dry-fruits, like he was conducting a puja. And he cooked the whole thing. When it was time to eat, his disciples were astonished to find that Guruji had cooked them a most delicious meal. It was just perfect. I don't think anybody had the pizza!

He's my elder brother but I address him as "Guruji" just as everybody else does. As a boy, my brother was very special. He was brilliant in human relationships. He loved the fine arts, especially painting and music, and he was very talented himself at such things. Additionally, he was very friendly and gregarious. He always had terrific leadership qualities. He was always guiding people. And people young and old were always wanting to meet him and take his advice. Even the teachers in our school! I was small, but I recognised that there was something different and special about him. Today he is my idol!

Guruji always had this streak of divinity in him. He believed in offering everything to God before accepting it himself. Especially food. Nobody could eat anything at home until Guruji had made an offering of it first. "Close your eyes, close your eyes," he used to say when offering such pujas even as a boy. He liked collecting pictures of religious deities and he loved visiting shrines and holy places.

And while he was a spiritual person, there was also this physical side of him that made him take to sports. He used to do the Bullworker at home then go to a gym for body-building. He also took up yoga and swimming. But he could not stand football. And he had lots of girl-friends! Yes, all his friends used to be girls. Now, because of his Art Of Living, he has gained so many sisters and brothers around the world. He makes life seem so beautiful... that's what special about Guruji. He gives of himself, of his time, to make that difference in somebody's life.