PURANDARA BABU IS THE RIDDLE OF A MAN By Mihir Srivastava

Purandara Babu, will soon turn 59, is a unique man in a significant way. He’s unorthodox, true to himself, and leads an extraordinary life in a very ordinary way.

He’s a witness participant; sorted, arrived in life a long time ago. He has journeyed within, and a good part of the world but for the notable exception of the dark continent. He is a lone traveller, and makes friends along the way, and remains his quintessential self even when on the move, across seas, continents and countries.

Purandara’s energy is such that he’s noticed in a crowd, his head shines like a moon, dressed mostly in crisp white attire, his shoes shinning, he seems to have an angelic presence. An aura that he's acquired over a period of time leading a certain kind of life. He is freer than many of us, and is unabashedly himself. No external influence is deep enough, for there’s this inherent silence about him.

He’s single and has always been one. He’s attached to his mother, ever since her demise in 2019, she has come to illuminate his consciousness even greater. Her picture in a green saree hangs in front of his dining table, she has a benign presence in her absence.

He has been in love and is a powerful emotion, you start to relive someone else as your own self. And he describes it as a “sudden lightning that awakened soul shattering pangs—and life opened unto him deep and profound emotions.” It was like a storm that hit him and passed away more than once. He survived and became stronger, cemented his quintessential self.

Purandara has many friends from varied fields, artists, politicians, filmmakers, bureaucrats. And he’s acquiring new friends in the journey of life. They seek solace in his company. He does his best for his friends and is there for them when they need him the most. His life choices exemplify what Sri Aurobindo famously said, “Matter Shall Reveal the Spirit’s Face.”

He now lives in Hyderabad though belongs to the holy city of Tirupati. A businessman who is never seen working, or running after money, but he’s a doer, categorical in his actions and views, a fulfilled man in the true sense of the word. He is unperturbed by concerns that disturb a lesser mortal. He is a social person, a facilitator, he does good to people without any expectations.

In words of Sri Aurobindo, “Matter Shall Reveal the Spirit’s Face.” That is so true. I spent a couple of days as his guest, his home reflects his persona. His space is open, flooded with light, decluttered, simple, definitive, has a temple-like energy. The sweet fragrance feels like a breeze from the woods. He likes to listen to chanting, also songs in various languages, and admires classical music, that includes western classical. He has access to technology, but he prefers the old ways to do new things. He likes to listen to LP records.

A cup of coffee starts his day, walking is an essential part of his daily routine, and stays close to the KBR National Park where he frequents. He never seems to be under pressure or in stress. He goes about doing things at his steady pace, which may cause others to lose their cool sometimes. He is frank and candid and things find a way to happen around him.

Purandara has many friends from varied fields, artists, politicians, filmmakers, bureaucrats. And he’s acquiring new friends in the journey of life. They seek solace in his company. He does his best for his friends and is there for them when they need him the most.

I have to say, his spiritual self is an elated one, he is curious (he prefers the word inquisitive, instead) about the world around him and yet he is one of those rare people who seems so self-contained, and that actually makes him open to the world.

When he travels, makes instant connections with people that are lasting. Like when he was in Iquitos in Peru, met a disarmingly beautiful Columbian couple, and they spent a few hours together as if a family on vacation, and they presented him a wooden sculpture of a face, with a hole and a tunnel, meant to smoke up Ayahuasca (pronounced 'eye-ah-WAH-ska'), a psychoactive substance traditionally used by the indigenous cultures and healers in the Amazon and Orinoco for spiritual ceremonies, healing a variety of psychosomatic maladies. They gave him a part of their culture as a gift.

Purandara is a self-taught scholar of Sri Aurobindo. And his lifestyle and philosophy has been shaped by his spiritual association with Sri Aurobindo, though he clarifies he is not a follower. He suggested a book to me. I read it with much pleasure and the following passage reminded of Purandara. The perfection of the integral Yoga will come when each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga, pursuing the development of his own nature in its upsurging towards that which transcends the nature. For freedom is the final law and the last consummation.'

Change is the only constant. Purandara, though not much has changed about him in the past few years, this very fact makes him comfortable to change. Like, lately, he is drawn to Osho, his teaching makes a lot of sense to him, and there’s admiration for Osho—a genius of a man who was a bundle of contradictions. But so far, an image of Osho hasn’t made it to his walls like that of Sri Aurobindo.

Purandara was not sure if he wanted to be written about, but also wanted to know how he is perceived by others, for he described himself as ‘a riddle of a man.’ The riddle is not solved, yet, though he is closer to solving it, every day more than ever before. What if this riddle personifies him existentially! He embodies many contradictions, lives them with penchant, that makes him a unique man with a distinct destiny. And witnessing his life from close quarter, I can say with some conviction: in his case journey is the destination.