Further thoughts on Further thoughts on Rissala

The last time I broached this subject was in 2013. In 2017 a commenter asked how one might get Rissala into the light of day. In collaboration with friend Todd Katz several emails were exchanged with the inquirer. We hoped he might succeed where we had thus far failed. It rather quickly became obvious our correspondent was not to be such an instrument, though his situation did show some promise. He appeared to have some standing in the literary world, one might say, being that he claimed to be the (an?) author of Desani’s Wikipedia page. Alas, it didn’t pan out. As far as I know he never reached out to the one contact most likely to hold the “key” to Rissala’s whereabouts and, indeed, to Desani’s final wishes as to the disposition of the manuscript.

I’ve tended to come to the conclusion that the right instrument – person – has not come forward  and that for some reason Todd and I are not appropriate or, Desani decided unbeknownst to us that the work would be withheld in spite of evidence to the contrary. He’s allowed to change his mind though for all intents and purposes it’s publication was a driving force in his life during his final years with us.

In Desani’s Nadi Texts written about in this space in 2011 it says that Desani will appear to some people after his passing. I don’t think it was meant in a “dream”. But He has been in my dreams – no surprise there. We dream about all kinds of things. But, two such dreams stand out. In one He was very stern with me….just a disapproving look, as it were. In another, more vivid, he stands alone and gives me one word. “Yield!” Well, the duty of a Bhakta is to do just that. He said so. Yield! And that’s what I’ve tried to do. So, I’m not in contact with that one person who holds the key and the attempt to pass on that effort to another was an obvious mistake and thus a failure.

On this the first full moon of 2018, I Yield.