COMRADE BUDDHA

In Zen, a Buddha (Sanskrit: awakened) is any being who has become fully enlightened. I always look forward to anyone who shares my interest in Zen stories and values. One such person was a Marxist, yet a student of philosophy. A person with depth of knowledge and yet possessed an open mind and attitude. He was my Comrade Buddha!

Narayan Desai was forty-seven years older to me. 15 years, when I first met him, he was nearly three times my age, but it never mattered. His memory was sharp as ever, his reading was immense. His exuberance towards “experiential wisdom” would put a teenager to shame. He was a freedom fighter, teacher, journalist, socialist, thinker and distinguished author. He was multi-lingual, multi-skilled and multi dimensional.

Narayan Desai was born in Pernem Goa on 16 December 1920. He completed Curso de Letras (Portuguese Literature and Philosophy) and started as a teacher at Margao. It was here that he got involved with the 'Kisan Sabha' along with socialists like George Vaz and Shamrao Madkaikar. He was actively involved in the freedom struggle for Goa .

Post liberation, he remained active with the Communist Party of India. He travelled to Russia , Germany , Cairo , Iran , Berlin and other countries as a speaker. However, it is a writer that he received greater applause. He wrote more than twenty books, all well acclaimed, including Biography of Lenin, Swami Vivekanand in 21st century, Me - a socialist, Buddha – my companion and others. He books are available in Marathi, Konkani, English, Gujarati, and Hindi. He also compiled a Spanish-to-Marathi Dictionary.

Narayan never gave up being a student. As Director of Thinkers' Academy, Mumbai, he devoted his entire life to research and writing. He kept him self abreast with the global happenings. He was one who could see the bird’s eye view of the situation as well as the ground reality. He de-emphasized theoretical knowledge in favor of direct individual experience of one's own true nature. He would say that ‘thinking and experiencing’ was the only to live. That’s the way he lived, till he died on 5 August 2007. Now he lives through his writings and in the thoughts and actions of the people he inspired.

The whole world is our space to ‘Develop new dimensions’,
Narayan Desai inspires us to acquire experiential wisdom…