A Life Devoted to Life‘s Highest Calling
I came to Arunachala Ashrama in the summer of 1971. Dennis came a few months later. It was a frigid, snowy December day when Dennis camped out on the cold cement step of the storefront on East 6th St. in Manhattan that was Arunachala Ashrama at the time. There Dennis awaited the arrival of Arunachala Bhakta Bhagawat who was traveling to greet him from his apartment in the outer borough of Brooklyn; this apparently took quite a while and inspired many pages in Bhagavatji’s prayer manuscript as a result, pages that pay tribute to the nobility, the sincerity, the one-pointedness and earnestness of the young man who that very night spread out his sleeping bag and dedicated his life in service to devotees of Bhagavan from then on.
In my early memories of Dennis, I see a young, tall man of noble mien marching with purpose from the house to the temple in Nova Scotia, ever-focused on spiritual practice. I envision Dennis sitting up close to the shrine, singing bhajans with heartfelt one-pointedness.
From those days on until Dennis entered his time of solitude, I came to see Dennis as a friend of my soul. ‘Friendship’ was a big word from early on with us, when Bhagawatji used to tell us all: “Never give up your right to call a friend.“ We saw the friendship among us as the glue that would hold us together and sustain as we pursued our life‘s ideals of service, surrender and Self-knowledge. I believe that Dennis’ willingness to surrender all in the pursuit of his highest aspirations lead many devotees to think of him over time as our Friend-in-Chief.
The first time that I was preparing to go to Sri Ramanasramam on my own, in 1979, I remember traipsing around lower Manhattan with Dennis by my side guiding my purchase of necessities — clothes line, and who knows what all. I suppose it was his wish that my time there would confer on me that same deep peace that it would have bestowed upon him. During that same pilgrimage, I got to spend time in the blessed presence of iSwami Vishwanathan.
During the summer of 2004, Dennis made it possible for Darlene and me to travel together to India for a couple of weeks’ soul-refresher time. My hubby Paul’s M.S. had progressed to the point that he was in need of companionship, so Dennis, Dave Rubinson and Peter Fell came up to the Thousand Islands and gave Paul company, and Darlene and I took off for India. Before long, Dennis was signing their emails “The North Country Boys”. It was an intercontinental celebration of Bhagavan‘s Grace! The happy memories made possible by this kind gesture of blessed friendship would take far more than five minutes to detail!
Dennis‘s one-pointed focus on meditation resulted in an amazing gift for managing the details of every day life as he had learned not to waste time on useless thinking. Taking Bhagawat‘s admonition to “remember to call a friend” when in trouble, I once called Dennis for advice in a negotiation with a used car salesman. Dennis told me to make sure the price the salesman offered was the final price. And so I did, I think.
My last vivid memory of Dennis is from the fall of 2019 when he came up to Ogdensburg, NY for the samprokshanam of the Ogdensburg Mandir. Spiritually, Dennis was ablaze with an ecstatic spirit of renunciation. Here, Dennis spoke of the bliss of looking into the gracious glance of Bhagavan’s eyes as the fulfillment of life’s purpose, the summum-bonum of existence.
Whether or not we see Dennis again in this life, he is ever with us even as the grace of Bhagavan who is, after all, our no. 1 Friend-in-Chief, always with us in all matters that we entrust to Him, great and small!