Ma & Me

A spiritual memoir both timeless and contemporary, Ma and Me invites us to follow the author into ever deeper waters. We meet him as a young Oxford Don who studies the classics of many mystical traditions, but remains hungry for more. We accompany him through his own opening awareness, then through an apprenticeship with an unconventional guru, and into his own reckoning with illness and early death. We follow him willingly because of his rare honesty, humor, and love, while he reminds us that a seeker's life, in our own time, still rhymes with the lives and teachings of the great teachers and mystics of all times.

A spiritual memoir both timeless and contemporary, Ma and Me invites us to follow the author into ever deeper waters. We meet him as a young Oxford Don who studies the classics of many mystical traditions, but remains hungry for more. We accompany him through his own opening awareness, then through an apprenticeship with an unconventional guru, and into his own reckoning with illness and early death. We follow him willingly because of his rare honesty, humor, and love, while he reminds us that a seeker's life, in our own time, still rhymes with the lives and teachings of the great teachers and mystics of all times.

Dr. Thomas "Billy" Byrom (1941-1991) earned his Master's degree in English Literature at Baillol College, Oxford University, and his PhD at Harvard. He taught at Harvard, Bennington, and Oxford, where he held the J.R.R Tolkein chair in English Language and Literature. His life changed dramatically when he met his guru, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, in 1974. Billy had studied the great mystics of many traditions, but now he was face to face with a genuine modern mystic who quickly set him on a path of direct experience. After some hesitation, he committed to what he calls his "apprenticeship." Besides absorbing spiritual practices, he assisted Ma Jaya in developing a spiritual community, founding a school, developing AIDS service organizations, engaging in interfaith networking, and supporting her work as an author and artist. He is the author of published books including Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha, and The Heart of Awareness: A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita, a classic of nondualistic Indian philosophy. At his death he was working on a translation of the Katha Upanishad to be entitled The Third Wish: The Disquisition of Death. Billy often accompanied Ma Jaya in her work with people with AIDS. She taught about AIDS internationally, and offered deep and personal teachings to thousands who were dying. Meanwhile, he was facing his own diagnosis of terminal leukemia. He died at Kashi Ashram, with Ma Jaya by his side.