AHIMSA—A TRIBUTE TO BOB HILLMAN

I attended a funeral service on Saturday for one of the kindest, most giving men I have known. Bob was an alcohol and drug addiction counselor and a therapist—certainly one of the best in this part of the world judging from the number of people he has helped and the number of lives he’s saved.

I brought my own thoughts about Bob to his service but I found my thoughts became universal—as again and again I heard others describe the same feelings I had. Those few who shared their stories at the Saugatuck Congregational church shared for the hundreds of others who came. And when each of us shed our tears because we missed Bob, it turned out that we all cried together.

I thought the closest, deepest sentiment anyone expressed was from someone whose life Bob had saved from the depths of depression caused by alcoholism. The man felt that he is the one who should have died—not Bob. The man’s point was that Bob was the one who had saved so many lives—so many of the lives in the church that day, that it seemed so unfair that he should be the one to die. But, paradoxically, the man whose life Bob saved was a living testament, including so many others, to Bob’s skill and grace and love.

Bob touched my family and me in the deepest possible way. So it is only fitting that I offer a tribute to honor him in a way that would mean something to him and to the work he dedicated his life to.

It is no co-incidence that I had just renewed my interest in studying non-violence. Just a few days ago I started to read Mahatma Gandhi again—after thirty years. At Bob’s service, one of his oldest friends and colleagues mentioned Bob’s love for Ahimsa.

For all the spiritual guides out there who can contribute to this discussion, I hereby invite you to join in...

To start, "In the Name of Hillman" I’ll begin by evoking some words I think he would’ve liked. These, most beautiful words, are from the Rig Veda:

"Peace be the earth, peaceful the ether, peaceful heaven, peaceful the waters, peaceful the herbs, peaceful the trees. May all Gods bring me peace. May there be peace through these invocations of peace. With these invocations of peace which appease everything, I render peaceful whatever here is terrible, whatever here is cruel, whatever here is sinful. Let it become auspicious, let everything be beneficial to us." —Atharva Veda: X. 191. 4

To change the direction in which the world is sliding at this time—towards war and hate—I invoke the following prayer in Bob’s name: "Let us have concord with our own people, and concord with people who are strangers to us; Asvins, create between us and the strangers a unity of hearts. May we unite in our midst, unite in our purposes, and not fight against the divine spirit within us. Let not the battle-cry rise amidst many slain, nor the arrows of the War-God fall with the break of day." —Atharva Veda

And this: "Let your aims be common, and your hearts be of one accord, and all of you be of one mind, so you may live well together." —Rig Veda X . 191

I can almost hear Bob repeating these words of Swami Muktananda out loud: "O lover of meditation, become pure and clean. Observe nonviolence in mind, speech and body. Never break another’s heart. Avoid wounding another’s feelings. Harm no one. Help all. Neither be afraid nor frighten others."

These words I give as a gift to Hillman: "We are all of the same race and religion. We are holy beings established in Divinity itself. This truth can be understood only by those who have grasped it through the magical charm of a life of dharma—not by other means. Because of that, sages have emphatically proclaimed again and again that it is necessary to love all existing lives as one's own." —Siva Yogaswami.

To me, in these words of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, this is Bob Hillman: "The Hindu sage who sees the whole of life. If he does not fight, it is not because he rejects all fighting as futile, but because he has finished his fights. He has overcome all dissensions between himself and the world and is now at rest…"

Posted by Tony at January 26, 2003 08:35 PM