michaelsharrington (Hridayam)

Never before has humanity been exposed to so much toxicity. 

With dementia growing worldwide, most of us know one or more people who have been diagnosed with the disorder. So, it is important to realize that each of us has a unique soul destiny which may include undergoing the loss of cognitive function and memory.

Dementia might be one of the evolutionary happenings that thrusts mankind towards the light, showing us a new way of being and inspiring us to live from love and compassion while reducing the necessity of memory. As we live more from the present moment, past histories are not the most important element of connection. As we evolve spiritually, we move towards deeper and deeper love and compassion which knows no bounds. 

Most humans have spent much of their lives transmitted by the mind, which is really only a thought storage device. Memory is considered one of the sacred tools of life. Yet, the spiritually illumined have realized that what we really are in reality, our soul essence or True Self, is beyond the mind, beyond thoughts, beyond memory. These illumined beings learned to trust in the Source of memory itself, so they did not grasp at or suffer from the loss of memory or personality. 

If we look at the lives of the spiritually illumined a higher perspective emerges, as far as mental decline in conditions like dementia. Let us take a look at two examples of spiritually illumined beings who went through the loss of memory and mental decline and yet remained in firm abidance with God as Source Consciousness, beyond the normal confines of mind.

These men clearly had exhibited all the telltale signs and symptoms of dementia, including memory loss, and other cognitive issues, yet stayed in the present moment as the Witness of events, continuing to help everyone they came into contact with.

The last decade in the life of Richard Rose is one such case. He was born in 1917, was once referred to as “the greatest man no one’s ever heard of”. He had a profound spiritual illumination at age 30 in about 1947. Later he shared his illumination with those interested in the highest truth. He transformed many lives. He was direct, funny and unflinching, a mixture of West Virginian Farmer and Zen Master.

Later in life, in the mid 1990’s dementia began to set in and he spent his last decade in an Alzheimer’s Home until his bodily departure in 2005. One of his long time devotee’s, David Gold, in a book, After the Absolute: A Memoir of Richard Rose, noted:

“…the disease had taken his memory, words, and previous personality, and left only the all-compassionate Buddha behind. He smiles and laughs and looks after other patients, bringing them food or just stands next to them with a hand on their shoulder. Watching you can almost “see” him using his direct connection to source consciousness, sending silent messages of pure love to the ravaged minds of others in the home.” 

The second case of illumination and dementia mixing is illustrated in the life of S.S. Cohen, who was brought to illumination through the aid of the great 20th century Saint, Ramana Maharshi. As shared through V. Ganesan, the Saint’s grand -nephew in his beautiful work, Ramana Periya Puranam.

  Cohen was an Iraqi Jew who first came to India as a boy, worked himself off the streets of Bombay and came to Ramana in 1936. After years of intense spiritual practice be stabilized in abiding meditation. In the last years of his life in the late 1970’s he displayed the hallmark signs of dementia. Ganesan writes of his time with the great master’s direct disciple:

“Cohen alternated between hallucination and normalcy towards his last months. (Clearly dementia was being manifested). Immediately after saying this, he would continue, 

     “Your father has put me on the seventh floor. I have no legs, so how can I climb to the seventh floor?” The first time this happened, I was shocked: 

     “What are you talking about?” I said. “There is not even a second floor in the ashram!” Since he continued to blabber, I shook him to get him out of what I thought was his delirium. At this, his eyes brightened and he said,

     “Ganesan, just as in old age the body goes out of control, the mind also sometimes loses control. But, since we are neither the body nor the mind, it does not matter.” I asked him, 

     “What state are you in?”

Cohen replied, “I am in bliss. I am in total bliss.” The next minute, he started blabbering again, 

     “You appointed only one attendant, but there are nine in my room. How can I sleep alone in the room?” When bewildered I shook him again, he looked at me steadily and said, 

     “Why do you listen to my mind? These are all in my mind. I told you not to listen to my mind.” Since the intellectual aspect was very important in his life, his mind was now playing tricks.

The illumined clearly saw that what they are in reality is beyond the mind, beyond thought, the living presence or true Self that lives eternally.