TEACHING IN TANDEM

Suma Varughese interviews Sadguru Rameshji and Guruma Kusumji, an enlightened couple whose simple and powerful teachings have been awakening seekers to their true identity

- Suma Varughese

In the 21 years that I worked with Life Positive, it was my good fortune to meet scores of gurus. Each was a delight, and my encounter with them remains embedded in my mind. And yet it is not often that I experienced the elation I did at the end of my interview with Sadguru Rameshji and his wife, Kusumji.

Guruji, as he is called, was a businessman, and Kusumji, a housewife. The couple, residents of Hyderabad, led happy, productive but unexceptional lives, until the bug of spirituality bit Guruji hard. Husband and wife ventured into spirituality together and emerged enlightened a few years later (on the same day!).

There is an ease, openness, honesty, and amity about the couple that is disarming. My conversation with them flowed smoothly, and two hours disappeared like magic. The harmony between the duo, who seem to have moved in tandem all their married lives, is a striking example of what married life could really be.

Their teaching too is very attractive. Freeing the seeker of all rites, rituals, and practices, they strive to restore them to their natural selves, to the Source, as they put it. The heart of their approach is to help separate the aspirant from his mind. Although presiding over an as-yet small community, Guruji affirms that most of his followers are established in enlightenment. A young businessman, Vikas Agarwal, says, “Anything material is temporary; we know we are permanent. With this perception, we enjoy everything, even what we were unable to do earlier.”