In the footsteps of the master continued

To make my narrative come to life. I am showing here a picture of Swami Chinmayananda .
It was a sight I was to see before me for many years as I followed Swami Chinmayananda from one college campus to another for the next twenty years. He sat rigidly upright, in the lotus position, his bare feet jiggling expressively as he talked. He was almost hypnotic, and although I could not at first understand him I enjoyed his antics and body language. Later I would become more accustomed to his accent and be able to follow his lectures easily. But that was in the future. On this first night I could only watch and observe the reactions of his audience.
He was an animated figure to watch. Chortling, slapping his thighs, pointing with the long pointer he held in his bare foot, he held his audience enthralled. As the evening progressed, more and more watchers slipped into the tent, until he was looking out over a closely packed crowd of seated students.
I was both puzzled and intrigued. He had a trick of looking right into my eyes, it seemed, until I felt that he was lecturing me alone, and I rather think his other listeners felt the same. We were motionless under his spell.
This was Swami Chinmyananda. He was already a renowned figure in India and had been imprisoned for his activities with Mhatma Ghandi in seeking independence for his country. Born into wealth and educated in some of the best Universities on the continent of Europe, he had already had a career as a writer, newspaper reporter, political activist and attorney. Before me sat one of the great ones of the world. He was a teacher in the truest sense of the word. He had given up all the privileges of a wealthy Brahman to roam the world, owning nothing but the saffron robe he wore, to bring enlightenment to the rest of mankind.
In the early years of his quest, he held meetings on College campuses, wherever he could arrange a gathering place. One year we stayed at Humboldt College, another at Stanford. I particularly enjoyed Santa Cruz and Lone Mountain College. Somewhere along the way his followers managed to establish a mission up on the Eel River, near Piercy, and from then on we held our summer camps there. He had an amazing memory, and I developed a rapport with him that I felt with no one else in my life’s experience. Some of his female followers fell romantically in love with him, but since he was a renunciate they could only dream of fulfillment. I admired him for his intelligence and commitment. He was kind enough to respond with warm interest to my concerns.
What did I learn from him? He opened a whole new way of thinking to me. He taught me tolerance, logic, concentration, commitment. He was both stern and kind. He was not above chastising a wayward student or praising one for an act he admired. He attained worldwide recognition, being asked to address the United Nations in l992. Although he was able to keep that assignment, he unfortunately died in August of l993. His study groups and missions in many of the cities of the United States continue his work.