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Sitting at the feet of the great
disciples of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, the religion that we learnt taught us
not to be egocentric, but to be dedicated to the service of the Lord in man.
Some words of Swami Vivekananda come to my mind always. From America he
wrote, and these were also the last lines in his reply to the Madras
address, `First let us ourselves be gods and then help others to be gods.'
Swamiji put this idea before us in another form: each one of us should lead
our life in such a way, that we attain to our spiritual realisation, freed
from all bonds. Not only that, we must also be able to promote the welfare
of others. The ideal is, that in the innermost core of our being, we have to
realise the God-head; again, we have to experience Him as manifest in all.
Out of this realisation of his have come into existence all the various
forms of service of the Ramakrishna Movement: Medical Service, Educational
Service, Preaching and Publication. The ideal is to serve the Divine in
others. Just as we ourselves try to be free we should also try to help
others to be free.
I would like to read to you some
passages from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
A Devotee: "Sir, is it necessary to
have a Guru?"
Master: "Yes, many need a Guru. But a
man must have faith in the Guru's words ...
"One should constantly repeat the name
of God. The name of God is highly effective in the Kaliyuga. The practice of
Yoga is not possible in this age, for the life of man depends on food. Clap
your hands while repeating God's name, and the birds of your sin will fly
away.
"One should always seek the company of
holy men. The nearer you approach the Ganges, the cooler the breeze will
feel. Again, the nearer you go to a fire, the hotter the air will feel.
"But one cannot achieve anything
through laziness and procrastination. People who desire worldly enjoyment
say about spiritual progress: `Well, it will all happen in time. We shall
realise God sometime or other.'
"It is said that, in the Kaliyuga, if
a man can weep for God one day and one night, he sees Him.
"Feel piqued at God and say to Him:
`You have created me. Now you must reveal yourself to me.' Whether you live
in the world or elsewhere, always fix your mind on God.
"Go forward. The wood-cutter,
following the instructions of the holy man, went forward and found in the
forest sandalwood and mines of silver and gold; and going still farther, he
found diamonds and other precious stones.
"The ignorant are like people living
in a house with clay walls. There is very little light inside, and they
cannot see outside at all. But those who enter the world after attaining the
knowledge of God are like people living in a house made of glass. For them
inside and outside are light. They can see things outside as well as inside.
"Nothing exists except the One. That
One is the Supreme Brahman."
Why Do We Not Make Progress?
As in our worldly affairs so also in
the world of the Spirit there must be systematic practice. We all must be
able to prepare ourselves, so that we may be in the proper mood to follow
the spiritual path. Many of you might know this story: Sri Ramakrishna had a
great disciple, Saint Durgacharan Nag - Naga Mahashaya as he used to be
called. His father was very much attached to him, and again the old man used
to do a lot of `Japa'. Once when he was told, `Your father is a great
devotee', Naga Mahashaya replied, `What can he achieve? He is so much
attached to me. An anchored boat does not move'.
There is a story behind this saying.
Some drunkards, one moonlit night, took it into their heads to go on a boat
ride. They went to the Ghat, hired a boat, sat at the oars and started
rowing. They rowed and rowed and rowed, the whole night. Early in the
morning, when the effect of the drink was gone, to their surprise they found
they had not moved an inch. `What is the matter? What is the matter!' they
asked. They had forgotten to raise the anchor.
I hear constant complaints from
people, `We are doing our spiritual practice, but we do not make any
progress'. The reply is here. At the time of your spiritual practice, are
you able, at least to some extent, to free your mind from worldly matters
and give your purified mind to God? That is the point. We need training in
all paths. Some of you might have read Swami Vivekananda's Jnana Yoga, Karma
Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga. Whatever path one may follow, one needs
discipline, proper training of the mind and creation of the proper mood. If
the mind is trained and the mood is created, one can carry on one's
spiritual practice with great success. Our trouble is: in worldly matters we
may follow some method, but in spiritual affairs we are like children. I
have seen grown-up people and big officials talking like children. So an
inner personality is to be built up. Many of us are persons but have no
personality. We are individuals, but have no individuality. Through moral
practice, through fulfilment of duties, through regular worship, a
spiritualised personality is to be built up. It is then that our spiritual
practice becomes fruitful. Our prayers and meditation will prove to be a
source of great blessing. I repeat, in all the paths, in all of the Yogas,
disciplines are necessary. If I follow Karma Yoga, my mind must be
comparatively calm. I must try to be detached from the things of the world
and from the fruits of my Karma. I must try to dedicate the work to God. If
I follow Bhakti Yoga, I must have a great yearning for God. It is a
spiritual hunger that cannot be appeased by anything in the world. Through
prayer, through Japa, through meditation and ultimately through Divine
contact, the spiritual seeker appeases this spiritual hunger and finds Peace
and Bliss in Divine realisation. Many want to follow Jnana Yoga, but the
mind is to be trained so that it can follow the path of extreme
self-analysis - `I am not the body; I am not the mind; I am not the ego nor
the senses; I am the spirit.' Our teachers of Jnana Yoga say: one must have
perfect dispassion for enjoyment, dislike for any future life and power to
discriminate between the real and the unreal. One must have mental
discipline. One must have infinite faith (Sraddha) in the Supreme Spirit.
One must be able to practise concentration.
When Concentration Becomes Beneficial
Let us remember one point. Many people
say, `Oh! I am not able to practise concentration'. Knowing the persons,
that their mind is not pure enough, I say to them `It is good that you don't
have concentration'. If an impure mind gets concentrated, it becomes like a
bombshell. Aren't we concentrated when we are angry, when we are full of
hatred and jealousy? That concentration is no good. It is actually
dangerous. So an amount of spiritual discipline is necessary. In the path of
Yoga, Patanjali speaks of Yama and Niyama. You have to practise these
disciplines as much as you can. One cannot be established in the spiritual
life all of a sudden.
Ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya,
aparigraha (non-dependance on others' charity) are the first disciplines;
Niyama - which consists chiefly of Saucha, purity of body and mind, Santosha,
contentment - has to be developed. If one is always grumbling and
complaining, can one with such a mind, ever do anything successfully either
in this world or in the world of the spirit? No. We must adjust to the
things in this world and try to improve ourselves.
Tapas: There should be an amount of
austerity in life. Without rigour in spiritual practices, each generation is
becoming softer than the previous one. Nothing can be achieved by these soft
people.
Swadhyaya: We study books. Does
anything enter our mind! We hear a lecture and say it was wonderful; and
when asked `What did you hear?' we would not be able to repeat anything. The
words enter through one ear and pass out through the other. They are not
retained. Swadhyaya means to reflect on what you study. Make it a part of
your own. `Srotavyah': First you hear or read, then you have to reflect on
what you have heard or read, i.e. `Mantavyah'. That is the way. When we are
established in the moral path, to some extent, then we will surely get the
benefit of spiritual disciplines.
Asana: You may sit like a statue for
many hours; what do you get? Pretty nothing. At least there should be
spiritual aspiration; then your sitting posture helps you in your spiritual
practice.
Pranayama: In the practice of
Pranayama you stop your breath. What do you gain? If it is merely a physical
phenomenon, a football bladder then must be a great Yogi. What do you get by
it? Nothing by itself. But when the mind is greatly disciplined, when the
mind is in a spiritual mood, Pranayama helps one to rise to a higher plane
of consciousness.
Praytyahara is detachment. From
everything the mind is to be detached. When you are attending to some work
you banish all other thoughts and give your mind to that particular object.
If you fail to practise detachment you invite worries. When you go to sleep,
and think of too many things, you don't get sleep, you suffer from insomnia
and fall ill. The mind is to be detached from all things at will.
Similarly if you wish to meditate,
what should you do? Detach your mind, as much as you can, from the things of
the world; even from the pictures, the thoughts and the feelings that arise
within you. But detachment should not create a vacuum in your mind. A vacant
mind will fall asleep. Be wide awake. Take the name of the Lord and meditate
on Him. Then there would not be any fear of falling asleep. Instead the mind
will rise to a higher plane.
Dharana: Fix your mind on some divine
theme and that is Dharana.
Dhyana: Fix the mind on a holy word or
on a holy blissful form - that is a step to attain to what is called Dhyana
or contemplation. You remain absorbed in Divine Consciousness and that leads
to the higher state, the superconscious state.
But before we proceed we will ask
ourselves a question and that is very vital. We identify ourselves with the
body and think that we are men and women. We worship a certain Deity - Male
or Female. We begin our spiritual life that way, and end also in that way;
what do we gain? At the very beginning of our spiritual life, it is
essential on our part to be conscious that we are all souls. The Atman, the
spiritual entity, has become bound by ego, bound by the mind, bound by the
senses, bound by the body. This Atman is to be freed.
Worship of God
What then is worship of God? What is
the conception of God? In Europe a devotee said to me `Swami, never utter
the word "God". It calls up our childhood image, viz., there is one beyond
the clouds, in the Heaven, ever eager to punish those who break His laws. I
cannot think of that.' I said, `All right, use the word Ishwara. I use the
word Brahman.'
If we wish to worship God we must feel
our nearness to Him. In a way He is the Creator, the Protector and the
Destroyer. He takes things back to Himself, which we call destroying; but He
is much more than that, He is the Soul of our souls, nearer than the
nearest, dearer than the dearest. He comes to us as Father and Mother. He
comes to us as the Guru and He comes to us also as Ista Devata - the deity
chosen for worship. According to the dualistic Vedanta, and most of us
should start as dualists, the soul and the over-soul - the Atman and
Paramatman - are ever connected. They are ever in union; yet owing to the
impurity of our mind, we become attached to the Lord's creation but not to
Him. A great Western psychologist, seeing the ways of ordinary religious
people, once remarked, `People do not want God. They want to use God!' They
want to pray to God so that He may grant all their prayers and if He does
not grant these prayers, some become sceptical and say "Oh, God does not
exist, and even if He exists, He is deaf, He is blind, He does not respond".
That kind of childish conception is no good. Again you want only the good
God, as if He has no other task but to grant you boons.
You know, Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna
worshipped the Supreme Spirit, first in the form of Kali, a representation
of the Cosmic Process. Mother with one hand is creating; with another hand
She is protecting; with the third hand She is destroying; and with the
fourth hand She is holding the decapitated head. This is the formal
representation of what one of the Upanisadic seers said. The disciple asked
the father `adhi hi bhagavo brahmeti', `Master, tell me about Brahman.' And
the father replied: `Brahman is that out of which all things come into
being, by which all things live and unto which all things go back.' In our
Bhakti Sastras we call it Ishwara, `God', and in Vedanta we call it
Sat-Chit-Ananda. He is Infinite Existence, He is Infinite Consciousness, He
is Infinite Bliss. He dwells in our soul and is the Soul of our souls. Again
we all dwell in Him. We must feel it, at least His nearness. But even if we
cannot feel it, we should try to develop the consciousness that He is nearer
than the nearest, dearer than the dearest. What is it that obstructs this
consciousness? Our desires stand in the way of this spiritual awareness. So
let us try to purify this mind.
Here you come across a big problem. It
is the impure mind that runs after the things of the world. The pure mind
naturally reflects the glory of God, moves towards Him, meditates on Him,
tries to feel His Divine Presence, Love and Bliss. How to purify the mind?
First of all you must avoid evil thoughts, evil feelings, evil actions, as
much as you can. Entertain good thoughts, good feelings and perform good
actions. That is the first step. We should always bear in mind that we are
all souls, Atman. This Atman has put on a human personality, with a view to
play a part in the Cosmic drama of life. Whatever be the part that is
assigned to us, that part has to be played well; that means, we have to
perform the duties of life and work in a spirit of detachment, as a form of
service to God. But mere moral practice and the fulfilment of duties are not
enough to purify the mind; we have to meditate on Him, pray to Him who is
the Infinite Source of purity, of Knowledge, devotion, compassion, Love and
Bliss.
Here we come to the question: How to
worship God, how to pray to Him? But the conception of God is too vast. I
give an illustration: We are like small bubbles. The ocean is too big for
our conception. So what should we do? We find some mighty waves; let us move
towards them, attach ourselves to them and in course of time we have an idea
of the ocean itself. Similarly, we start our spiritual journey with one such
mountain-like wave, our Ista Devata, we just worship Him, pray to Him, then
we come to have a broader conception of life and a broader conception of
Reality. The Ista Devata tells us `Look here. I may be a mighty wave, you
may be a small bubble. But all of us have got the infinite ocean behind us'.
When the proper time comes, He reveals to us the highest Truth.
Is A Guru Essential?
Now, we read in the Gospel of Sri
Ramakrishna, a devotee asking, `Sir, is a spiritual teacher necessary?' Sri
Ramakrishna replied that it is necessary for many. If there be some unique
souls, born with divine consciousness, who feel the Divine presence even
from their very childhood, they do not need a spiritual teacher, but all
others do need. Once a devotee asked our teacher Swami Brahmananda - and I
have been telling many of you to read, if you have not done so, The
Spiritual Teachings of Swami Brahmananda - `Maharaj, is a Guru necessary?'
and the Swami smiled and said, `My boy, even if you want to be a thief, you
need a teacher. How much more should there be the necessity of a teacher
when you want to know the highest truth!' You know there are gangs of
pickpockets; they have to pass through a tremendous discipline and training
and then only one can be an expert pickpocket.
In this connection, I wish to tell you
a story: Girishchandra Ghosh, the actor and dramatist and a great devotee of
Sri Ramakrishna, used to practise Homeopathy in his old age. Taking the name
of the Master he would give medicine. He had naturally tremendous intuition
to achieve success in his way of treatment. One day an elderly and very
decent-looking gentleman was sitting by his side, when a young man came and
said, `Sir, I have lost my wrist watch on my way'. The other gentleman
became inquisitive and asked, `When and where did you lose it?' He said,
`Sir, I lost it at such and such an hour, at such and such a place', and the
man said `You will get it back'. How could he give the assurance? Because,
the fine-looking gentleman was one of the leaders of the pickpockets, one of
their Gurus.
I give you another instance. You want
to learn Astronomy; you take a book and try to understand it; you get
precious nothing! But the Astronomer says something astounding. Every day
you see the sun rising and setting and here comes a man who says the sun
never rises; the sun never sets; it is all due to the movement of the earth.
If we believe our sense perception fully, we do not pay any heed to him. But
if we do not, we have to go to him, study under him, make experiments, and
then we really convince ourselves what we have seen is an illusion and it is
just the truth that the sun never moves, the earth moves.
A spiritual teacher also comes and
says something astounding. We are all conscious of our body. We think we are
all men and women but the spiritual teacher says that we are the Spirit,
distinct from the body and distinct from the mind and distinct from the ego.
But if you think as many think, `He is a cheat', Lord bless you! But if you
doubt sometimes, `Am I this mass of flesh, this mass of filth or is there
something living in me, something living in everybody?' If you start
thinking like that, your spiritual life begins. I go to a teacher who has
been following the spiritual path all his life, has attained illumination,
has come to possess a tremendous sympathy, love, compassion and kindness. I
sit at his feet, learn from him something of spiritual disciplines and do my
spiritual practices regularly. As my mind becomes purer and purer, I get
something in the domain of the spirit and my Ista Devata becomes living. I
feel within me a presence that permeates my being, a presence that permeates
everybody.
I will tell you a story. In the
Upanisads we come across `Narada Sanatkumara Samvada', a discourse between
Narada and Sanatkumara. Saints are not born perfect, they have to manifest
their perfection. Through sadhana they unfold their potentiality. Saints and
sages do not drop from the sky. Narada had his period of true studentship,
studied all branches of learning, studied the scriptures, sciences and arts.
But having mastered the subjects, he found something was lacking in him. He
had studied many things but had not known himself. We all are quite content
to read and know of the outer world but we forget to know even a bit of
ourselves. It is most unscientific. A great Western physicist has said `That
to which Truth matters must have a place in reality, whatever be the
definition of reality'. Without some knowledge about the subject, education
is incomplete. Our world is full of half-educated people, of those who don't
know themselves, who don't know anything of the higher Reality, but pose to
be teachers or saviours of the world. Such persons are about to destroy the
world. Now, let us come back to the anecdote: `Narada felt "I am not an
Atmavit".' He felt a deep pain. He says, `Soham bhagavo sochami - (I, who
have not known the Reality in me, am in great sorrow). Please remove my
sorrow. Take this sorrow away from me. Give me peace.' The Guru listened to
him with infinite tenderness, took him step by step, helped him to have a
finer and finer mind and ultimately revealed to him the Truth. `Yo vai bhuma
tat sukham nalpe sukhamasti ` That alone which is infinite is bliss. There
is no Bliss in the finite.'
How To Purify Our Minds
Our trouble is that our soul longs for
infinite joy, infinite love, infinite bliss. But we want, we try to find
that in the finite and if we don't succeed we feel frustrated. The Guru
said, `If you want real joy, unbounded joy, you have to reach the Infinite'.
So the question was: What is meant by the Infinite? It is that which is
everywhere - above, below, to the right and to the left. But how to reach
it? Here the great ancient teacher Sanat-Kumara gives us in a nutshell the
whole course of spiritual discipline. "Food should be pure. When food is
pure, our nature becomes pure, and when nature becomes pure, mind becomes
pure, and when the mind becomes pure, we remember our spiritual nature.
Gradually we are established in spiritual consciousness and that is
emancipation. That is freedom when the Self-Consciousness (Divine) has
dawned, when we have realised the Infinite Spirit. Once that is done, one
feels oneself one with the Infinite Spirit, and all bonds drop off. Let us
now try to understand the meaning of ahara: ahara is what we take. Does it
mean pure food? Pure Sattvic food? Pure vegetarian food? How far does it
help? It helps a little; but unless you know how to purify the mind, nothing
happens. There are plenty of wicked people who are vegetarians. What type of
vegetarians are they? Lord bless them! You feed a poisonous snake with the
purest of milk. It will manufacture poison, won't it? So something of our
poisonous nature is to be discarded. Therefore, Shankara observes: `All
right! you take pure food, but that is for the nourishment of the body. But
the food that you take through the eye, through the ear, through the senses
and the mind, all that food also should be pure. Then, your nature becomes
pure, the subtle body becomes pure, and then comes illumination.'
Some of you might have seen the three
Japanese monkeys; you know, one monkey is closing both the ears, another
both the eyes and another the mouth. During my stay in Europe, in
Switzerland, I came across a stone carving on the beach of the lake on which
Geneva is situated. It was in a small town. There also there were the three
monkeys, but with this difference, one had only one eye closed, another had
only one ear closed and the third had half of the mouth closed. I was taken
aback for a moment. I thought: `What is this?' Then came in a flash. I
understood the meaning, `Don't see what is bad; see what is good. Don't hear
what is bad; hear what is good. Don't say what is bad; say what is good.'
First I thought it was an original idea. Then my mind turned to the
Upanisads. There is a text, a peace chant: `Let us see what is "Bhadra" -
good. Let us hear what is "Bhadra". Let us sing the glory of the Divine
Spirit.' That is to be done. And, when you have done that, to some extent,
the mind becomes pure. Make the best use of your vocal organ. You may make
bad use of it saying some awful things. Don't do it. Take the name of the
Lord - any Name that appeals to you. Meditate on any aspect that appeals to
you with an amount of devotion. After some time you will find, your mind is
becoming pure. The Divine Name, the Divine Form, uplifts you. Later on, you
may even have a glimpse of your Ista Devata, a glimpse even of the universal
Spirit.
What Is Japa And Where Is One To
Meditate?
The Infinite Spirit is there but we
cannot reach it. We must follow a path that helps us to reach That, higher
and higher, step by step. I want to reach the snow-capped mountains; can I
jump and reach it all at once? No. Swami Brahmananda says in his Spiritual
Teachings: `You want to reach the roof. Do you jump to the roof? No. If you
do, you fall down and break your legs. Go step by step.' So Japa, as the
Master has been saying, is one of the most efficient means. But Japa is not
to be done like a parrot. As you repeat the Divine Name, do the
Artha-Bhavana. What is Artha-Bhavana? Dwelling on the meaning. First of all,
let us think of the Luminous, Blissful Form of the Lord, i.e. the Ista
Devata. Then think of Him as an embodiment of Infinite Purity, Knowledge,
Devotion, Compassion, Love and Bliss. Then think He is no other than the
Paramatman - the all-pervading Spirit dwelling in all beings.
We are asked to meditate in the `Lotus
of the Heart'. Where is this Heart? Is it the physiological heart? We cannot
do anything there. It is the consciousness that is in the Heart, the
consciousness that permeates my entire body and mind. It is the
consciousness of the Atman, the consciousness of the Paramatman. We have to
meditate in this Chidakasa. We have to think of ourselves as the devotee,
and think of the Ista Devata as the manifestation of Paramatman.
Swami Brahmananda used to tell us, "As
you do your spiritual practices, you understand what is meant by the word
`Heart'. First you may think of it as the `Mahakasa', external space; later,
you may think of it as the cosmo-mental world." The real heart is in the
Chidakasa, in the realm of pure consciousness. In that, the soul, the unit
of consciousness, is eternally united with the Infinite Spirit. So you have
to meditate on the Ista Devata in the inner world.
It is good to have a picture. Gaze at
the picture; watch the picture. But it is much better to install your
picture, the Holy form, in your inner world. Then you are not to depend on
anything outside. Whenever you want, look within where your Ista Devata is
seated, and pray to Him. Repeat His Divine Name; meditate on Him; first, it
may be on His Form, then on His attributes, next on His infinite nature.
That is how one is to progress.
Let us go back again to the Yoga
aphorism of Patanjali, already referred to, wherein he tells us how to do
japa. Now if I repeat the Lord's name and meditate on Him, what will happen
to me? The Teacher says, "Think of the meaning - the contents, the
connotation of the word." What happens if we do that? Obstacles are removed
and new spiritual consciousness awakens. Now with the help of Japa and
simple Dhyana, obstacles are removed. Psychologists have explained this in a
remarkable way. We are always manufacturing worries and anxieties, always
manufacturing evil thoughts. These evil thoughts sicken our mind and sicken
our body. The more we think of holy thoughts, the more we repeat the holy
harmonious sound and the more we meditate on the blissful Form of the Lord,
the more the mind is set in abundant harmony. Illnesses, self-created,
self-manufactured, drop off. Then harmony is established in the mind This
harmony reflects itself on the body. So, to some extent physical health and
mental health improve with the repetition of the Divine Name and we come to
know the power of the Divine Name. With the power of meditating on the holy
Form, a new spiritual consciousness that was lying hidden, that was
potential, manifests itself. Then we discover that we are not just these
personalities but we are all souls; and the Ista Devata is no other than the
Paramatman, the source of all Peace, source of all Bliss, the source of all
Love. Such is the power of the Divine Name.
What is Dhyana? We talk of meditation.
You say `I am meditating'. What are you meditating on? Going on brooding
over something or other? That is not what is implied by the word Dhyana.
Dhyana is: when as you think of the Lord, you become absorbed in the Divine
thought. But this absorption would not come all of a sudden. The Japa we do
is a step towards that. Repeat the Divine Name, think of Him, and the mind
becomes a little calm. Even the sound drops off. You can go on thinking of
Him. Then, when God or the Ista Devata becomes more real than the things of
the world, naturally the mind gets absorbed and you gradually get a taste of
the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss. He may come to us in the form of the
Ista Devata; as the Supreme Spirit, as Sat-Chit-Ananda, i.e. Infinite
Consciousness, Infinite Love, Infinite Bliss. This is what happens if you
undergo regular spiritual practice.
In the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the
Master has said, `You must have spiritual yearning'. Spiritual yearning is
like hunger. When people ask me `Why should I meditate?' I say in return,
`Why should you? Don't do it.' But if you had the yearning born in you, you
would have come to know what spiritual hunger is. Then you could not but
think of God, you could not but pray to Him, you could not but take his
Divine Name and think of His glory. This hunger is to be awakened. This
hunger is to be maintained. That becomes possible if you do your spiritual
practice regularly. You feel the body with material food; you feed the mind
through study, with thoughts. But you actually starve the soul in the midst
of plenty. Do you not feel starved? The soul yearns for the Infinite Spirit;
it yearns to realise the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss infinite, and we do
not satisfy the yearning. But when that is done, a new life starts.
The Master has also said that holy
company is necessary, company of those who are following the spiritual path,
who help in strengthening us in the spiritual path, who reflect something of
the Divine Glory, which we also wish to realise. That is necessary.
Follow The Right Path: Begin From The
Beginning
Again the Master said, `One must
follow the right path.' Suppose I am thrown in the wilderness. If I follow
one path, what happens? I enter the wilderness more and more. If I follow
another path, I come out of it. I am reminded of an American story. A
motorist was driving at break-neck speed. He wanted to reach a certain
place. He asked a schoolboy who had studied a little geography: `My son, if
I go this way, shall I be able to reach the place?' `Yes Sir,' said the boy,
`You will reach it.' `How far is it this way?' asked the motorist. `Sir, you
will have to go 25,000 miles,' replied the boy. `If I go the other way?'
`Then only two miles' was the answer. Do you follow the idea? By one path,
you have to come round the world to reach the place. If you go the other way
just two miles. Through proper mood, through proper attitude, if you follow
the proper directions you reach the goal soon, progress is quickened. A
tremendous change takes place within you. But don't try to quicken your
steps too much. Go slow, but with determination, along the right path.
Gradually you shall reach the highest truth. But, as I said in that
illustration of climbing the snow-capped mountain, proceed step by step.
So in our spiritual practice, first
comes `Pratima Puja', i.e. worshipping the Lord in some aspect with the help
of a form, a symbol, a picture, or an image. Next, the repetition of the
Lord's Name, thinking of Him and singing of His glory. Later on as I said,
the mind gets a little absorbed; you feel the Divine presence. That is
Dhyana, and Dhyana leads to the highest goal, the highest realisation. In
order to move, we should proceed step by step. So the Master says, `Go
forward, step by step; from the sandalwood, come to the silver mine, come to
the gold mine and then come to the diamond mine'. Similarly, if we sincerely
follow the spiritual path and begin from the beginning, we will reach the
Truth. But, if we begin from the end, we reach nowhere. Some want to
practise Advaita sadhana. I tell them, `I know nothing of Advaita sadhana:
go to some other teacher.' But if you want to begin from the beginning, I
can tell you something of it.
So, first of all, begin with the
form-aspect. I have body consciousness, I am an embodied being. I am a
person amongst persons. How can I think of the Infinite Spirit? I can't. So
let me begin as Maruti said. Hanuman was asked by Sri Rama `How do you think
of Me?' Hanuman said: `Lord, when I consider myself as a personality, as an
embodied being, I think of myself as Your servant and You as my Master; and
Lord, when I think, I am a soul distinct from the body and mind, I consider
myself as a part and You as the whole. But at other moments, my Lord, when I
rise above all limitations I think You are myself and I am Thyself.' So let
us begin from the beginning.
Sri Ramakrishna is very practical. He
speaks to us of three types of ananda: vishayananda i.e. the ananda that
comes to us through the contact of the senses with the sense objects;
bhajanananda, the ananda that comes to us through bhajana, through Japa,
through Dhyana; and then finally comes brahmananda as the result of the
realisation of the Infinite Spirit. In spiritual life let us have as much
bhajanananda as we can. It is within the reach of all of us. The ananda that
comes to us through Japa, through Dhyana of the Blissful Form of the Lord -
let us have that. And as we have it, let us try to share this Ananda with
our fellow spiritual seekers. That is why, when devotees with such a
spiritual outlook meet together, they repeat the Lord's Name, sing His
glory. At least for the time being they forget the troubles of the world.
The mind is transported to a higher plane, something of the ananda of the
Supreme Being, something of the peace of the Supreme Spirit comes into our
soul, but as I said, we should not stop with that. Our great teachers used
to tell us always, `as you advance, you help others to advance.' One who is
illumined can alone be the real teacher; but in order to be of service to
others one need not be at the beginning fully illumined. Now, I may be a
student of a senior class and when teachers are lacking I can take one of
the lower classes, I can be of service to those who are in the lower class.
Let us not wait for fullest illumination. At every stage it is possible for
us to be of service to our fellow beings.
The highest ideal, as Swami
Vivekananda has said, is this: First let us ourselves be gods and then help
others to be gods. If we advance to some extent, we can help others also to
advance. Here comes the ideal: `To work for our own illumination and
spiritual emancipation and at the same time to render service to others.' As
we improve, we also help others to improve. There is a wonderful prayer. We
have it in the Universal Prayers: `Let the wicked become virtuous and the
virtuous attain peace - tranquillity. Let the peaceful and tranquil attain
illumination and freedom. Let the free help others to become free.' Let us
do it in our own humble way. As we do our spiritual practices, as we
progress in our spiritual path, let us try to be of service to others. So,
my own individual spiritual practice and service to others - these are the
two-fold ways which will help me to attain inner purity, which will help me
to attain Divine Presence, Divine Love, Divine Bliss. There is the whole of
this ideal before us, and let us proceed, each one in one's own way, towards
this truth, step by step; let us be sure of every inch of the ground. And as
we do our spiritual practice, let us not be egocentric. Let us offer all the
fruits of our labour to the Supreme Spirit. Sri Ramakrishna has said, `If we
move towards God one step, He comes towards us ten steps'. It is a fact to
be realised in the world of Spirit. So proceed. The Lord will protect you.
The Lord will guide you. The Lord, the Supreme Spirit, will fill your heart
with Divine Presence, Purity, Love and Bliss.
Let us all offer our salutations to
the Supreme Spirit, who dwells in the hearts of us all. He is the Supreme
Principle of Existence, the Supreme Reality, the Supreme Light and the
Supreme Self. Out of this infinite, all-pervading Spirit we all have come
into being; in that we rest and unto that we return. Let us for a few
moments meditate on the Infinite Spirit. Let us do it each in his own way.
Let us try to feel something of the Divine Presence, Divine Love, and Divine
Bliss. May the All-pervading, All-Blissful Divine Spirit, the Soul of our
souls protect us all. May He guide us all. May He nourish us all. May He
bless us all. May the teachings that we learn become fruitful and forceful
through His Grace. May peace and harmony dwell amongst us all. Om Shantih,
Om Shantih, Om Shantih.
Oh! Lord, all spiritual paths are like
streams leading to Thee, the one ocean of Existence, Consciousness and
Bliss. Thou art our Mother. Thou art our Father. Thou art our Friend. Thou
art our Comrade. Thou art our Knowledge. Thou art our Wealth. Thou are Oh
Lord! our all in all. From unreality lead us to Reality. From darkness lead
us to Light. From death, lead us to Immortality and Bliss. Reach us through
and through - Oh Lord! May we find Thee in our heart of hearts; May we
discover Thee in all our fellow-beings. May we love Thee and serve Thee in
all. May we thus realise the highest goal of human life.
How To Purify Our Minds
Our trouble is that our soul longs for
infinite joy, infinite love, infinite bliss. But we want, we try to find
that in the finite and if we don't succeed we feel frustrated. The Guru
said, `If you want real joy, unbounded joy, you have to reach the Infinite'.
So the question was: What is meant by the Infinite? It is that which is
everywhere - above, below, to the right and to the left. But how to reach
it? Here the great ancient teacher Sanat-Kumara gives us in a nutshell the
whole course of spiritual discipline. "Food should be pure. When food is
pure, our nature becomes pure, and when nature becomes pure, mind becomes
pure, and when the mind becomes pure, we remember our spiritual nature.
Gradually we are established in spiritual consciousness and that is
emancipation. That is freedom when the Self-Consciousness (Divine) has
dawned, when we have realised the Infinite Spirit. Once that is done, one
feels oneself one with the Infinite Spirit, and all bonds drop off." Let us
now try to understand the meaning of ahara (food): ahara is what we take.
Does it mean pure food? Pure Sattvic food? Pure vegetarian food? How far
does it help? It helps a little; but unless you know how to purify the mind,
nothing happens. There are plenty of wicked people who are vegetarians. What
type of vegetarians are they? Lord bless them! You feed a poisonous snake
with the purest of milk. It will manufacture poison, won't it? So something
of our poisonous nature is to be discarded. Therefore, Shankara observes:
`All right! you take pure food, but that is for the nourishment of the body.
But the food that you take through the eye, through the ear, through the
senses and the mind, all that food also should be pure. Then, your nature
becomes pure, the subtle body becomes pure, and then comes illumination.'
Some of you might have seen the three
Japanese monkeys; you know, one monkey is closing both the ears, another
both the eyes and another the mouth. During my stay in Europe, in
Switzerland, I came across a stone carving on the beach of the lake on which
Geneva is situated. It was in a small town. There also there were the three
monkeys, but with this difference, one had only one eye closed, another had
only one ear closed and the third had half of the mouth closed. I was taken
aback for a moment. I thought: `What is this?' Then came in a flash. I
understood the meaning, `Don't see what is bad; see what is good. Don't hear
what is bad; hear what is good. Don't say what is bad; say what is good.'
First I thought it was an original idea. Then my mind turned to the
Upanisads. There is a text, a peace chant: `Let us see what is "Bhadra" -
good. Let us hear what is "Bhadra". Let us sing the glory of the Divine
Spirit.' That is to be done. And, when you have done that, to some extent,
the mind becomes pure. Make the best use of your vocal organ. You may make
bad use of it saying some awful things. Don't do it. Take the name of the
Lord - any Name that appeals to you. Meditate on any aspect that appeals to
you with an amount of devotion. After some time you will find, your mind is
becoming pure. The Divine Name, the Divine Form, uplifts you. Later on, you
may even have a glimpse of your Ista Devata, a glimpse even of the universal
Spirit.
What Is Japa And Where Is One To
Meditate?
The Infinite Spirit is there but we
cannot reach it. We must follow a path that helps us to reach That, higher
and higher, step by step. I want to reach the snow-capped mountains; can I
jump and reach it all at once? No. Swami Brahmananda says in his Spiritual
Teachings: `You want to reach the roof. Do you jump to the roof? No. If you
do, you fall down and break your legs. Go step by step.' So Japa, as the
Master has been saying, is one of the most efficient means. But Japa is not
to be done like a parrot. As you repeat the Divine Name, do the
Artha-Bhavana. What is Artha-Bhavana? Dwelling on the meaning. First of all,
let us think of the Luminous, Blissful Form of the Lord, i.e. the Ista
Devata. Then think of Him as an embodiment of Infinite Purity, Knowledge,
Devotion, Compassion, Love and Bliss. Then think He is no other than the
Paramatman - the all-pervading Spirit dwelling in all beings.
We are asked to meditate in the `Lotus
of the Heart'. Where is this Heart? Is it the physiological heart? We cannot
do anything there. It is the consciousness that is in the Heart, the
consciousness that permeates my entire body and mind. It is the
consciousness of the Atman, the consciousness of the Paramatman. We have to
meditate in this Chidakasa. We have to think of ourselves as the devotee,
and think of the Ista Devata as the manifestation of Paramatman.
Swami Brahmananda used to tell us, "As
you do your spiritual practices, you understand what is meant by the word
`Heart'. First you may think of it as the `Mahakasa', external space; later,
you may think of it as the cosmo-mental world." The real heart is in the
Chidakasa, in the realm of pure consciousness. In that, the soul, the unit
of consciousness, is eternally united with the Infinite Spirit. So you have
to meditate on the Ista Devata in the inner world.
It is good to have a picture. Gaze at
the picture; watch the picture. But it is much better to install your
picture, the Holy form, in your inner world. Then you are not to depend on
anything outside. Whenever you want, look within where your Ista Devata is
seated, and pray to Him. Repeat His Divine Name; meditate on Him; first, it
may be on His Form, then on His attributes, next on His infinite nature.
That is how one is to progress.
Let us go back again to the Yoga
aphorism of Patanjali, already referred to, wherein he tells us how to do
japa. Now if I repeat the Lord's name and meditate on Him, what will happen
to me? The Teacher says, "Think of the meaning - the contents, the
connotation of the word." What happens if we do that? Obstacles are removed
and new spiritual consciousness awakens. Now with the help of Japa and
simple Dhyana, obstacles are removed. Psychologists have explained this in a
remarkable way. We are always manufacturing worries and anxieties, always
manufacturing evil thoughts. These evil thoughts sicken our mind and sicken
our body. The more we think of holy thoughts, the more we repeat the holy
harmonious sound and the more we meditate on the blissful Form of the Lord,
the more the mind is set in abundant harmony. Illnesses, self-created,
self-manufactured, drop off. Then harmony is established in the mind This
harmony reflects itself on the body. So, to some extent physical health and
mental health improve with the repetition of the Divine Name and we come to
know the power of the Divine Name. With the power of meditating on the holy
Form, a new spiritual consciousness that was lying hidden, that was
potential, manifests itself. Then we discover that we are not just these
personalities but we are all souls; and the Ista Devata is no other than the
Paramatman, the source of all Peace, source of all Bliss, the source of all
Love. Such is the power of the Divine Name.
What is Dhyana? We talk of meditation.
You say `I am meditating'. What are you meditating on? Going on brooding
over something or other? That is not what is implied by the word Dhyana.
Dhyana is: when as you think of the Lord, you become absorbed in the Divine
thought. But this absorption would not come all of a sudden. The Japa we do
is a step towards that. Repeat the Divine Name, think of Him, and the mind
becomes a little calm. Even the sound drops off. You can go on thinking of
Him. Then, when God or the Ista Devata becomes more real than the things of
the world, naturally the mind gets absorbed and you gradually get a taste of
the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss. He may come to us in the form of the
Ista Devata; as the Supreme Spirit, as Sat-Chit-Ananda, i.e. Infinite
Consciousness, Infinite Love, Infinite Bliss. This is what happens if you
undergo regular spiritual practice.
In the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the
Master has said, `You must have spiritual yearning'. Spiritual yearning is
like hunger. When people ask me `Why should I meditate?' I say in return,
`Why should you? Don't do it.' But if you had the yearning born in you, you
would have come to know what spiritual hunger is. Then you could not but
think of God, you could not but pray to Him, you could not but take his
Divine Name and think of His glory. This hunger is to be awakened. This
hunger is to be maintained. That becomes possible if you do your spiritual
practice regularly. You feed the body with material food; you feed the mind
through study, with thoughts. But you actually starve the soul in the midst
of plenty. Do you not feel starved? The soul yearns for the Infinite Spirit;
it yearns to realise the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss infinite, and we do
not satisfy the yearning. But when that is done, a new life starts.
The Master has also said that holy
company is necessary, company of those who are following the spiritual path,
who help in strengthening us in the spiritual path, who reflect something of
the Divine Glory, which we also wish to realise. That is necessary.
Follow The Right Path: Begin From The
Beginning
Again the Master said, `One must
follow the right path.' Suppose I am thrown in the wilderness. If I follow
one path, what happens? I enter the wilderness more and more. If I follow
another path, I come out of it. I am reminded of an American story. A
motorist was driving at break-neck speed. He wanted to reach a certain
place. He asked a schoolboy who had studied a little geography: `My son, if
I go this way, shall I be able to reach the place?' `Yes Sir,' said the boy,
`You will reach it.' `How far is it this way?' asked the motorist. `Sir, you
will have to go 25,000 miles,' replied the boy. `If I go the other way?'
`Then only two miles' was the answer. Do you follow the idea? By one path,
you have to come round the world to reach the place. If you go the other way
just two miles. Through proper mood, through proper attitude, if you follow
the proper directions you reach the goal soon, progress is quickened. A
tremendous change takes place within you. But don't try to quicken your
steps too much. Go slow, but with determination, along the right path.
Gradually you shall reach the highest truth. But, as I said in that
illustration of climbing the snow-capped mountain, proceed step by step.
So in our spiritual practice, first
comes `Pratima Puja', i.e. worshipping the Lord in some aspect with the help
of a form, a symbol, a picture, or an image. Next, the repetition of the
Lord's Name, thinking of Him and singing of His glory. Later on as I said,
the mind gets a little absorbed; you feel the Divine presence. That is
Dhyana, and Dhyana leads to the highest goal, the highest realisation. In
order to move, we should proceed step by step. So the Master says, `Go
forward, step by step; from the sandalwood, come to the silver mine, come to
the gold mine and then come to the diamond mine'. Similarly, if we sincerely
follow the spiritual path and begin from the beginning, we will reach the
Truth. But, if we begin from the end, we reach nowhere. Some want to
practise Advaita sadhana. I tell them, `I know nothing of Advaita sadhana:
go to some other teacher.' But if you want to begin from the beginning, I
can tell you something of it.
So, first of all, begin with the
form-aspect. I have body consciousness, I am an embodied being. I am a
person amongst persons. How can I think of the Infinite Spirit? I can't. So
let me begin as Maruti said. Hanuman was asked by Sri Rama `How do you think
of Me?' Hanuman said: `Lord, when I consider myself as a personality, as an
embodied being, I think of myself as Your servant and You as my Master; and
Lord, when I think, I am a soul distinct from the body and mind, I consider
myself as a part and You as the whole. But at other moments, my Lord, when I
rise above all limitations I think You are myself and I am Thyself.' So let
us begin from the beginning.
Sri Ramakrishna is very practical. He
speaks to us of three types of ananda (bliss): vishayananda i.e. the ananda
that comes to us through the contact of the senses with the sense objects;
bhajanananda, the ananda that comes to us through bhajana, through Japa,
through Dhyana; and then finally comes brahmananda as the result of the
realisation of the Infinite Spirit. In spiritual life let us have as much
bhajanananda as we can. It is within the reach of all of us. The ananda that
comes to us through Japa, through Dhyana of the Blissful Form of the Lord -
let us have that. And as we have it, let us try to share this Ananda with
our fellow spiritual seekers. That is why, when devotees with such a
spiritual outlook meet together, they repeat the Lord's Name, sing His
glory. At least for the time being they forget the troubles of the world.
The mind is transported to a higher plane, something of the ananda of the
Supreme Being, something of the peace of the Supreme Spirit comes into our
soul, but as I said, we should not stop with that. Our great teachers used
to tell us always, `as you advance, you help others to advance.' One who is
illumined can alone be the real teacher; but in order to be of service to
others one need not be at the beginning fully illumined. Now, I may be a
student of a senior class and when teachers are lacking I can take one of
the lower classes, I can be of service to those who are in the lower class.
Let us not wait for fullest illumination. At every stage it is possible for
us to be of service to our fellow beings.
The highest ideal, as Swami
Vivekananda has said, is this: First let us ourselves be gods and then help
others to be gods. If we advance to some extent, we can help others also to
advance. Here comes the ideal: `To work for our own illumination and
spiritual emancipation and at the same time to render service to others.' As
we improve, we also help others to improve. There is a wonderful prayer. We
have it in the Universal Prayers: `Let the wicked become virtuous and the
virtuous attain peace - tranquillity. Let the peaceful and tranquil attain
illumination and freedom. Let the free help others to become free.' Let us
do it in our own humble way. As we do our spiritual practices, as we
progress in our spiritual path, let us try to be of service to others. So,
my own individual spiritual practice and service to others - these are the
two-fold ways which will help me to attain inner purity, which will help me
to attain Divine Presence, Divine Love, Divine Bliss. There is the whole of
this ideal before us, and let us proceed, each one in one's own way, towards
this truth, step by step; let us be sure of every inch of the ground. And as
we do our spiritual practice, let us not be egocentric. Let us offer all the
fruits of our labour to the Supreme Spirit. Sri Ramakrishna has said, `If we
move towards God one step, He comes towards us ten steps'. It is a fact to
be realised in the world of Spirit. So proceed. The Lord will protect you.
The Lord will guide you. The Lord, the Supreme Spirit, will fill your heart
with Divine Presence, Purity, Love and Bliss.
Let us all offer our salutations to
the Supreme Spirit, who dwells in the hearts of us all. He is the Supreme
Principle of Existence, the Supreme Reality, the Supreme Light and the
Supreme Self. Out of this infinite, all-pervading Spirit we all have come
into being; in that we rest and unto that we return. Let us for a few
moments meditate on the Infinite Spirit. Let us do it each in his own way.
Let us try to feel something of the Divine Presence, Divine Love, and Divine
Bliss. May the All-pervading, All-Blissful Divine Spirit, the Soul of our
souls protect us all. May He guide us all. May He nourish us all. May He
bless us all. May the teachings that we learn become fruitful and forceful
through His Grace. May peace and harmony dwell amongst us all. Om Shantih,
Om Shantih, Om Shantih.
Oh! Lord, all spiritual paths are like streams leading to
Thee, the one ocean of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. Thou art our
Mother. Thou art our Father. Thou art our Friend. Thou art our Comrade. Thou
art our Knowledge. Thou art our Wealth. Thou art Oh Lord! our all in all.
From unreality lead us to Reality. From darkness lead us to Light. From
death, lead us to Immortality and Bliss. Reach us through and through - Oh
Lord! May we find Thee in our heart of hearts; May we discover Thee in all
our fellow-beings. May we love Thee and serve Thee in all. May we thus
realise the highest goal of human life.
Back to Contents
Pain Must Have A Stop
Reprinted, with grateful thanks, from
`Vedanta
Kesari', May 1965.
Although the True
nature of man as defined by the Upanisads is Absolute, Infinite, and has the
attributes of pure existence, pure consciousness, and pure joy, we find most
commonly that we are neither happy and free from pain, nor secure and free
from fear, nor all-knowing and free from ignorance. Ordinarily, when life is
miserable and we are racked with pain and feel shrunken by oppressions, we
could laugh at the idea that there is anything absolute and free about us.
Why is this?
Pain is there as
an opposite to pleasure and is experienced by the mind of an embodied soul (jiva)
which is conditioned by desires and ignorance. Pain exists only for him, the
individual. For on the Universal level spoken of by the Upanisads there is
neither pleasure nor pain. By clinging to pleasures and identifying himself
with body and mind, the individual (jiva) causes a kind of imbalance where
he experiences now pleasure and now pain in their full intensity. But on the
universal level (Cosmic Mind or God) these two can be said to have
neutralised each other so that neither is experienced. Thus during the
period of his life when Sri Ramakrishna had the painful throat cancer he
said: `I notice that when my mind is united with God the suffering of the
body is left aside.'
The desires and
ignorance which cause the imbalance and individuality have no existence
apart from the mind, and the mind again, has no existence apart from the
soul (atman) - like waves which are not separate from the ocean although
they may each have an individual form. Therefore jivahood - the
individualised state with its pleasures and pains - is experienced in mind
alone. But mind per se is unconscious and unintelligent and derives the
attributes of consciousness and intelligence by reflection from the soul
which alone is pure consciousness. It is only by conjunction of the mind
with the soul that jivahood and pain are experienced. And conjunction occurs
due to ignorance of the true nature of the soul - and this in turn brings in
its train egoism, attachment, aversion, and attachment to life which are the
afflictions (kleshas) and the direct cause of pain. These, again, are not to
be found in the soul but only in the mind. Each time there is a perception,
feeling or thought there is a reaction in the mind like a wave and when the
embodied soul (jiva) identifies itself with this there arises ego and
personality with their inherent desires and aversions. These in turn bring
into being the causal chain of karma, and one painful situation is the cause
of another.
Two main ways are
given for the cure. One is the way of knowledge (jnana) by the practice of
discrimination between the true Reality and the apparent one, renunciation
of all elements of the apparent reality which he finds to be the non-Self,
and by meditation. It is the wilful withdrawal of the reflected
consciousness from the mirror of the mind-waves. This results in the
disjunction of the true Self or soul from the body-mind mechanism and man
abides in his own blissful nature, full of peace and free from pain. Such a
mind, deprived of its reflected consciousness, ceases to exist as mind and
no longer has any relation to personality or ego. Then the question of pain
does not arise, for where there is no ego there can be no pain.
A modification of
this method is given in the Upanisads and by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras,
which consists in the conscious entity - the Self - taking the position of a
witness of phenomena and being aware that in any perception, feeling or
experience the Reality is not to be found in the experience but in the
experiencer, the feeler, and the perceiver. That is, what is seen is not the
Real but the seer (the conscious Self) is the Real; what is heard is not the
Real but the hearer is the Real; what is felt is not the Real but the feeler
is the Real; what is thought is not the Real but the thinker is the Real -
He is the witness, the True, the inner controller. Thus there is no
involment in, participation of, or attachment to the experience and neither
pleasure nor pain will be experienced as such. The waves of the mind
deprived of the power of the Self will subside and cease to be troublesome.
Here the question
may arise as to what happens to the pain-bearing karma remaining in the mind
of one who has accomplished disjunction or the position of a witness? The
answer is that this cannot be accomplished until the mind is purged of that
kind of karma. That is, the impression of inertia and indolence (tamas) and
those of selfish action, ambition and violence (rajas) must have been
removed and only the tranquil (sattvic) condition remains.
Again, we may
think that since pain is the result of the accumulated karma from the past
resulting from the action based upon ignorance and desire, it might be
possible for one to create such a karma through virtuous and selfless action
that eventually one may be free from pain altogether. But pain can at best
be only attenuated by this means, for as long as one functions in the body
and mind there will remain some kind of pain. There is what Patanjali calls
`guna-vrtti-virodha' - the interplay and counteraction of the gunas, the
forces of nature which now cause pleasure and again cause pain.
The second way to
cope with pain is by love and devotion to God (bhakti). By directing these
feelings to God pain is transformed and sublimated. The mind-waves are
identified with God by means of a strong feeling of love for Him in a
relationship of mother, father, friend, servant, child or beloved. The mind
thus concentrated on God becomes pure and sattvic, and the tamasic and
rajasic modifications which cause our pains are overpowered and merge in the
ruling emotion of love. Not that one does not feel pain any longer, but pain
is accepted with good grace (and sometimes with joy) as coming from the
Beloved. For God as the all-in-all is not only the creator and preserver of
the universe but also the destroyer and He who gives life and brings joy and
happiness is also He who brings pain, misery and death. The true devotee
receives both opposites with equal love and grace. We often find this
standpoint expressed in Christian mystical literature. For example, Jean
Pierre de Caussade states,
`To suffer in
sweetness and in peace without offering any resistance is to suffer in the
right way ... You are to thank God, as though for a grace, for what you
suffer meanly and weakly ... these God-wrought calamities, if rightly
viewed, are worth more than all worldly prosperity. For they are over in a
moment while their fruits are eternal.' And, writing to a friend, `When I
think of the infinite value of your present tribulations I dare not wish for
them to end; what I do wish is that you shall be kept in a continual state
of sacrifice and self-abandonment, or at least, that you shall strive after
this, yearn for it and unceasingly beseech God for it. When our hearts are
thus inclined, our wise employment of tribulations and afflictions advances
our eternal welfare more than do successes and consolations.'1
Meister Eckhart
says,
`We need not fear
all the pain and trouble that could come, because it is going to have an end
... We are to be so dead that neither good nor evil affect us ... Life
cannot be perfected until it has returned to its secret source, where life
is Being, a life the soul receives when it dies down to its roots, so that
we may live that life yonder which itself is being.'2
This is not to
imply that one should actually court pain or seek it out, for that would be
a kind of morbid and pathological practice. But when pain comes as the
inevitable effect of previous karma one should be resigned to God - that is,
one concentrates the mind on God rather than on the pain or the ego-reaction
of depression, frustration, anger, etc. Thus pain is transformed and
sublimated. The pains and unhappy circumstances that may come to a man of
spiritual knowledge are like events that happen at a distance and do not
relate to him, for he has become detached from the vehicles wherein pain
inheres - the body and mind. It is as if these were happening to someone
else while his true Self within is at peace and is blissful.
It may be that
those who have many desires and attachments say that this is a pessimistic
viewpoint for it negates all that they hold dear - the empirical self and
the phenomenal world of maya. And the doctrine of karma makes them
responsible for their own limitations and misery, whereas they would rather
blame something or someone else - the family, relatives, the state, country,
social, economic, or political systems etc. and they are unfortunate victims
of a hapless fate. But maya is an explanation of the status of the
phenomenal world just as it is, and karma is the law of cause and effect
working within it. For the man of wisdom who knows the Self alone is dear,
the maya viewpoint naturally follows and it is a happy and blissful one, for
what it negates is that which is the cause of misery and bondage, i.e.
ignorance, desire and attachment. It is stated in the Panchadasi:
The sufferings of
the three bodies (gross, subtle and causal) are caused by the desire of the
enjoyer for the objects of enjoyment. These sufferings affect the three
bodies, but the Self is not affected by them.
The sufferings of
the gross body take the form of disease due to the disequilibrium of the
bodily humours; desire and anger and other passions are the sufferings of
the subtle body; and the source of the sufferings of both the gross and
subtle bodies is the causal body.
When the jiva is
recognised to be identical with the immutable, Kutastha, the sufferings of
the bodies cease to affect him and no experiencer remains.3
And also the
Brihadaranyaka Upanisad states:
`If a man knows
the Self as "I am this (Self)", then desiring what and for whose sake will
he suffer in the wake of the body?'4
One may ask, `If
the sufferings affect the three bodies and not the Self, then is it a matter
of stoically bearing the pains or do the pains actually disappear?' The
answer is that in some cases the pains disappear or are no longer cognised
and in other cases - especially those of the bhaktas whose mind is totally
given up to God - pains may be transformed into joy, as in the instances of
some religious martyrs. For example, Blanche Gamond tells of a torture
experience:
"... I was naked
from the waist up. They brought a cord with which they tied me to a beam in
the kitchen ...then they discharged their fury upon me, exclaiming as they
struck me, `Pray now to your God' ... but at this moment I received the
greatest consolation that I ever received in my life, since I had the honour
of being whipped for the name of Christ, and in addition of being crowned
with his mercy and consolations. Why can I not write down the inconceivable
influences, consolations, and peace which I felt interiorly? To understand
them one must pass through the same trial; they were so great that I was
ravished, for there where afflictions abound grace is given
super-abundantly. In vain the women cried, `We must double our blows; she
does not feel them, for she neither speaks nor cries.' And how should I have
cried, since I was swooning with happiness within?"5
The first method
discussed here - that of the jnani - is illustrated by the case of Swami
Shivananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and the second president of
the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Toward the last years of his life his body
was racked with several kinds of ailments so that he could walk only a few
steps at a time. Yet when he was asked, `How are you Maharaj?' He would
reply, `I am fine'. On being further told that his body seemed to be in bad
condition, he would reply, `Oh, you are asking about the body? The body is
not at all well, but I am fine. Talking about God with people ... I am in
excellent spirits ... pain and anguish belong to the body. He who dwells
within the body is not affected by them - He is Bliss itself. I am not the
body. I am that Eternal Supreme Being, ever pure, illumined and free. The
Master has given me that knowledge in the fullest measure. That is why it
does not make any difference whether the body is well, or sick or old.'6
Thus, any given
experience can be painful to one, indifferent to
another and joyous to a third, depending on how much spiritual knowledge
and/or love of God has been attained. Vrttis - waves in the mind - are like
reflecting surfaces for the soul and are of three kinds: tamasic, rajasic
and sattvic. In the first the reflection is most obscured and the image is
barely seen. In the second the reflection is clearer but the image is
distorted so that we mistake it for what it is not. In the third, the
sattvic, the reflection is clear so that we see the image properly, but it
is at best a reflected image and not the Real thing (svarupa). The wise man
recognises these as reflected images in his mind and is not deceived by
them. He knows that they have no relation to him and belong only to nature.
Therefore, whatever their condition, he is free from their effects. Having
withdrawn his consciousness from all the vrttis, the reflections disappear
and merge into their source, the Divine Self. There remains no one to
experience pain, for the Self is only Joy.
Dehabhimane galite,
vijnate paramatmani
Yatra yatra mano
yati tatra tatra samadhyah.
With the
disappearance of attachment to the body and with the realisation of the
Supreme Self, to whatever object the mind is directed one experiences
samadhi.7 M
Back to contents
The Direct
Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.
Swami Ranganathananda is the
President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna
Mission.
This is the text of his talk, which
first appeared in
`Vedanta Kesari`, January 1998,
given at the
Monks` retreat held at Belur Math
on
Sunday 18 November 1995.
First of all I remember Swami
Shivanandaji Maharaj, the Second President of the Ramakrishna Order, fondly
known as Mahapurush Maharaj. I was living in a village called Trikkur, ten
kilometres away from the town of Trissur in Kerala. My house in Trikkur is
situated on the bank of the river Manali, and to the east of my house is an
ancient rock cave temple of Siva on a hill about half a kilometre away. I
was studying in the 8th class at that time in the high school at Ollur, five
kilometres from Trikkur on the road to Trissur. A classmate brought a book
from the library of the Vivekodayam High School in Trissur. `Would you like
to read this book?` he asked me. `Yes, I would like to read it,` I replied,
not knowing what it was. It was the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, by `M`
published by the Madras Math. He gave it to me. I started reading it. It
gripped my attention, and I could not stop till I had finished one hundred
pages continuously; later I read the whole book. Then other books on Thakur
and Swamiji came from that Trissur library.
That was in 1924. I was only fifteen
and a half years old then, and was waiting for an opportunity to join the
Ramakrishna Order. In 1926, after finishing my school final examination, I
joined a typewriting Institute in Trissur to learn shorthand and
typewriting. Some fees had to be paid. I took three rupees from my house and
came to Trissur. From there I wrote to the Madras Math that I wanted to join
the Ramakrishna Mission. One brahmachari replied: `Here there is not enough
room. There is a new centre in Mysore; it is in need of a brahmachari. So,
please write to the Swami-in-charge, Swami Siddheshwaranandaji.`
So, I wrote to Swami
Siddheshwaranandaji at Mysore. By that time, however, Siddheshwaranandaji
himself came to Trissur to meet his parents; his father was the Second
Prince of the Cochin State. I met Maharaj. He said, `Yes, you can come. Have
you got enough money to go to Mysore via Ooty?` I said, `I have just three
rupees, nothing more.` But I had my earrings; even boys used to wear them in
Kerala. I could sell them in the market; but it was Sunday, no shop was
open. But one person gave me two rupees, and Siddheshwaranandaji gave me two
rupees. So, I had now seven rupees in my pocket. But that was not enough for
the journey to Mysore via Ooty. How was I to go with Siddheshwaranandaji to
Ooty by train at 8.30 p.m. that day? I was greatly disturbed in mind. I was
not fully committed to go, but I also wanted very much to go. Such was my
mental struggle. And I was very young then, only seventeen and a half years
old. I went to the Sri Ramakrishna Shrine in the Trissur Vivekodayam High
School to pray for Thakur's grace. I often used to bring flowers from my
house for worship in that shrine. With tears in my eyes, I prayed to Thakur
to arrange for my renunciation and departure to Mysore with
Siddheshwaranandaji. Even now, after seventy years, the memory of that event
in that shrine stirs me.
Then, at the last minute, I went to
Siddheshwaranandaji's house. He was ready to start for the railway station.
He said, `All right, come with me tonight by the 8.30 train to Ooty.`
I did not know anything about
initiation. I wanted to join the Mission, and I had read some books about
Thakur and Swamiji, and had memorised the `Prakritim Paramam' hymn on Holy
Mother. That was enough to inspire me to dedicate my life to the Mission.
So, at 8.30 pm, we got into the train and it reached Ooty next morning. Ooty
is about six thousand feet above sea level. Siddheshwaranandaji, familiarly
known as Gopal Maharaj, myself, and three students were in the party.
Mahapurush Maharaj was then living in a rented house at Ooty, which he loved
very much. The present Ooty Ashrama was being built on a site nearby, and
was to be opened in 1927. I was allowed to stay in Mahapurush Maharaj`s
house and have breakfast, but was to eat outside in a hotel. There was no
arrangement in the Ashrama then for feeding so many people. So, with the
money I had, I would eat outside. By the time I finished one week in Ooty,
the money I had was exhausted. It was on June 25, 1926, that I left Trissur
for Ooty, and on June 30, my initiation by Mahapurushji took place.
I entered the room in which Mahapurush
Maharaj was sitting for the ceremony. To his left was my seat. I sat down
and looked at the whole scene. A dream I had three or four years earlier
came to my mind then. I used to worship regularly Siva in the village rock
cave temple. In that dream, I was lifted high up in the sky; then I reached
a beautiful place. An old venerable looking person was sitting there; and my
mind recognised him as Siva. He asked me to sit to his left and gave me some
spiritual instructions. That much was the dream, and I found an exact
reproduction of that dream in that particular situation in Ooty. Mahapurush
Maharaj asked me, `Do you worship Sri Ramakrishna?` I said, `No, I don`t
actually worship, but I keep a picture of his, and salute it regularly.` And
he said, `That is all right.` He then gave me the mantra and asked me, `Have
you brought any guru dakshina?` `Nothing,` I said. Only one shirt, one
dhoti, and one towel - that was all I had brought from my house. He took two
or three mangoes from his right side and gave them to me and said, `Now give
them back to me as guru dakshina.` I offered them back to him, made pranams
to him and came out of the room.
After two days, on July 2, we had to
take leave of Mahapurush Maharaj to go to Mysore. Swami Siddheshwarananda
and I went to his room to take leave of him. It was about 5.30 am. He was
sitting there on a chair counting some currency notes. `Gopal, do you want
some money? I can give you,` he said. Gopal Maharaj said, `Not necessary,
Maharaj,` though Mysore Ashrama was very poor at that time. I made pranams
to my guru. `Yes, you go to Mysore. Serve Gopal,` Mahapurushji said to me.
That was the only message he gave me then - `Serve Gopal`. My service of
Gopal Maharaj continued for nine years in Mysore and three years in
Bangalore. He was holy and kind and loving. We parted only when he went to
open the Paris Vedanta Centre in 1938. So, we took leave of Mahapurush
Maharaj and left by bus at 7.00 am, and reached the Mysore Ashrama at 9.00
pm. Later, I saw an entry of Rs.7 spent by the Mysore Ashrama towards my
Ooty-Mysore journey.
For the first time I saw a big town
with electric lights and all that. As a village boy, I did not know about
town life. I did not know even how to post a letter, how to cash a cheque,
etc. That night, at 9 o'clock, for the first time in my life, I got a glass
of milk and two pieces of bread for my supper from a boy who was living in
the Ashrama as a bhikshannam student. I still remember the taste of that
first meal in the Ashrama, of bread and milk, that took place seventy years
ago. That was on July 2, 1926. On July 3, my long hair was cut and my
earrings were removed.
Then, on July 4, I entered the Ashrama
kitchen. There was no paid cook, since the Ashrama income was very little.
Siddheshwaranandaji`s health was poor due to bad food. I was a good cook
with two years` experience of cooking in my house for the whole family even
from the age of twelve to fourteen. So, everybody in Mysore Ashrama began to
get good food from that time. For the next six years, I was a cook,
dish-washer, and house-keeper in the Mysore Ashrama. Collection of monthly
subscription, garden work, and some other things also were added later on.
Whenever I requested people for subscription, I spoke about Swami
Vivekananda. They were happy and used to give me tea and tiffin, and
sometimes something also for taking to the Ashrama. So, in this way, my life
went on, with plenty of study also in between work. In spite of heavy work,
I never complained of want of time for study or japa-dhyana. I was always
happy and cheerful, and enjoyed doing any and every type of work as Thakur`s
service. I never experienced any tiredness. I wrestled with students in the
Ashrama`s akhada and later on played volleyball.
In 1929, time came for my brahmacharya
initiation. So, in March 1929, I came to Belur Math. My brahmacharya was on
Buddha`s birthday, May 23. About four months I stayed in Belur Math at that
time. On the day of brahmacharya diksha, Mahapurush Maharaj came to the room
behind the old shrine, and sat with a smiling face in the veranda, facing
the ceremony going on in the room. We were five or six brahmacharis. He gave
me the name Yati Chaitanya.
The most memorable experiences during
my stay at the Math were the daily morning sessions in Mahapurush Maharaj`s
room after breakfast, lasting sometimes for over an hour. Monks and
probationers would come in batches and prostrate before him and stand aside.
He would be sitting on his bed or in his chair, indrawn, often with the
hookah (hubble-bubble) in front, from which he would draw a puff now and
then, mostly absent-mindedly, and would occasionally exchange courtesies
with the monks and novices present. When the indrawn mood would relax, he
conversed on various topics with those present, interspersing it with humour
and laughter, an endearing trait especially characteristic of Sri
Ramakrishna and his disciples. Sometimes the talk would turn on to deep
spiritual themes, and those present would hang on to every word that then
fell from his lips. In between all these, one heard him utter, in a tone
suffused with deep devotion, such spiritual phrases as: Sat-chit-ananda
Shivam, Jai Guru Maharaj, Jai Ma, etc.
One of my daily duties in Belur Math
then was sweeping the spacious front courtyard. Sometimes, as I swept, the
wind would carry the dirt back, so I had to sweep again. But it did not
bother me; it was a play for me. Washing Thakur`s puja vessels was another
work. Serving tea to members in the tea-stall which was situated to the left
of the present Temple site was yet another duty. Some other duties like
bringing water on my head for Mahapurush Maharaj`s bath from Lilua
tube-well, a small quantity of curd from the Belur market for his dog, and
serving in the dining hall were also there. I was ready for everything. I
was very young then, and full of tireless energy. There was also a kusti
akhada situated near where the dining hall is now. Swami Apurvananda,
Mahapurushji`s sevak, was a good wrestler. I had wrestled with him and with
two or three others also in that akhada. Many people used to gather to see
our wrestling. One cook from Varanasi Sevashrama had come. He was also a
good wrestler. When he gripped my hand, it became powerless; such strength
he had, though he appeared ordinary. Then there was Jnan Maharaj's parallel
bar, fixed where at present the platform is erected during the celebrations.
There I used to do a little bit of bar exercise. I had time for everything.
I was very hungry all the time except after lunch and dinner. Morning
breakfast was tea and a thin slice of bread, as thin as the knife blade,
with a little butter on it. As for tea, there was only one glass of milk for
all the inmates together with plenty of water and sugar. Revered
Suddhanandaji, the then General Secretary, and Revered Swami Virajanandaji,
and other senior swamis also would be present, and I used to serve them. To
satisfy my hunger, I used to take muri, in my shirt end, kept in a big tin
on the Math verandah, and eat a lot of it. Food was very poor due to
financial stringency; dal was watery, but `chachari` and `alu dam` were
tasteful.
I came to know many of our senior
monks at that time. It was also the time when the Ganen trouble took place.
Ganendranath, a brahmachari of Udbodhan, looking after the Jadupati Estate,
challenged the Mission. The Mission was subjected to a serious crisis. He
began to influence various members of the Ramakrishna Mission Association.
He had also great influence over the press in Calcutta. The headquarters
invited swamis from various Ashramas to come to the Belur Math. Every now
and then a bell would ring and sadhus would gather together to discuss some
problem or other. Swami Omkaranandaji would take the lead. Then we would
pass a resolution and go to Mahapurush Maharaj to represent him against
Ganendranath. In this way, there was a crisis period at that time for more
than a month continuously. Eventually, the Mission Association General body
meeting passed off peacefully. Ganen had come to the Math, but he did not
attend the meeting. I saw him walking about in the lawn outside the meeting,
smoking a cigarette. Many swamis were made Mission members. I also was made
a Mission member then. In July 1929, the Ganen problem was settled by paying
him Rs.75,000 for managing the Estate. He left the Order with Chapala, a
lady teacher of the Nivedita School.
The group photo that you find on the
wall in the first floor of the main Math building (above the staircase) was
taken in the lawn between the main Math building and the Ganga ghat, in May
1929, in view of the large assembly of our monks from many branch centres at
that time. Revered Subodhanandaji, Revered Suddhanandaji, Revered
Virajanandaji, Revered Vireswaranandaji, and many other Heads of centres are
there in the photo. I am also there in that photo. Mahapurush Maharaj was
sitting in the easy chair in the upper verandah. But the photo-taking was
getting delayed, and so he left for his room. Swami Vividishanandaji was
going to America; so it was also like a send-off to him on that occasion.
I spent four months very happily in
Belur Math. The then General Secretary, Swami Suddhanandaji, sometimes would
say to me, `How long will you stay here? It is time for you to go to your
centre in Mysore. Belur Math cannot spend much money on so many guests.' `I
shall go soon, I shall go soon,' I would reply. And after four months, I
went back to Mysore.
In 1933, I came to Belur Math again,
this time for sannyasa. It was Swami Vivekananda`s birthday, January 23,
1933. It was a beautiful occasion, but Mahapurush Maharaj was rather weak at
that time and could not come to the ceremony held in the room behind the old
shrine. He was in his room. After the sannyasa havan, we, nine of us,
including the late Swami Hitananda and Swami Krishnatmananda, went to his
room and received sannyasa mantras from him, including the gerua clothes and
our names. It is interesting to mention that with Mahapurush Maharaj`s
permission, I had been wearing gerua cloth since my fourth or fifth month in
the Order, from 1927. I did not know much about sannyasa at that time.
I continued to stay at the Belur Math
for about four months. During that time, a desire arose in my mind to go to
Sargachi and meet Swami Akhandanandaji Maharaj. When I was reading Swamiji`s
works, I had found Swamiji praising Swami Akhandanandaji very much. He was
the first to implement Swamiji's message of service to the poor and the
downtrodden. `You are my man, you are my man!' - Swamiji had praised him.
So, I had nursed a secret desire to meet Swami Akhandanandaji in Sargachi. I
took Mahapurush Maharaj's permission to go to Sargachi to meet him. In those
days, we had weekend return tickets; it was very cheap then - Friday you go
and Sunday you return. So, with Mahapurushji`s blessings, I went to Sargachi.
I had a wonderful weekend there. I met Akhandanandaji, made pranams and
explained my heart`s desire. I was a newcomer from far away Mysore Ashrama,
and I was quite young, hardly twenty-four or twenty-five. But Swami
Akhandanandaji treated me like a VIP guest - special cup, special saucer,
special kettle - everything special for me. And he would ask the hostel
boys, `Go and make pranams to the Swami.` I protested that it should not be
done in his presence. I said, `Maharaj, what are you saying? Should they do
it in your presence?` But he would say, `Hey, you have come from Mysore,`
and turning to the boys would repeat, `Make pranams`. All the boys would
come and make pranams then.
One day he came from the garden late
for lunch and said, `Shankar, I have got pain in my body.` `Why?` I asked.
`I had to bend down and pluck a particular vegetable which had overgrown.`
Maharaj replied. I said, `There are so many brahmacharis and sadhus here,
why did you do it yourself?` He said, `Oh, what do you mean? They are all
fools; they don`t do their work properly. Belur Math sends here only fools!`
(laughter). Maharaj replied, `Yes, you know, I have certain difficulties
...`
In this way, he carried on with me
very humorous talks like a young boy. I found in him this trait along with a
serious mind and compassionate heart. One day he asked me, `How do you find
my Ashrama?` `I find it very fine; I get good sleep here,` I replied. `What?
My Ashrama is meant only for sleep? Swami Paramananda was here. He said that
he got good meditation here,` Maharaj said. I replied, `Well, that is what
he wanted. But I needed good sleep and I got it very well here.`
In this way, two days passed. The day
of departure came. I told him, `Maharaj, you are living in this jungle. So
many devotees come to Belur Math to meet you, a direct disciple of Thakur.
So, if you are in Belur Math, it would be far better. So, please go and stay
in Belur Math.` `Who will look after this centre?` he asked. `Why, Belur
Math will send somebody,` I said. He replied, `Math will send only a fool!`
(laughter). See the fun and frolic of language! `If you come and stay here,
I am prepared to go and live in Belur Math,` he said. I said, `Belur Math
will do the needful; but we want you to be in the Belur Math, so that I and
many others can see you.`
Then the time came for me to take
leave and go to the railway station. One can see the station just a little
away from the Ashrama. I went to his room, made pranams, and said, `Maharaj,
I want your blessings. I am working with the people, especially young
people. Bless me that I become an instrument of Swamiji for inspiring our
young people with Swamiji`s ideas. With your blessing, I am sure, I will get
that capacity. I have not seen Swamiji, but I have met you, and he loved you
very much. Your blessing is for me Swamiji`s blessing.` As soon as I said
it, all that light-heartedness went away from him. He became very grave and
put both his hands on my head and said, `I bless you, I bless you!` I felt a
tremendous feeling of elevation within, some sort of strength arising
within. Then I made pranams and silently came to the verandah, and started
going towards the railway station. And looking back, I saw him standing
there in the verandah, looking towards me, till I disappeared into the
station.
After reaching Calcutta, first I went
to Advaita Ashrama and then reached Belur Math. When I reached the Math, I
found Swami Akhandanandaji had already reached there since he had come
directly, and I, through Advaita Ashrama. He had received a telegram about
Mahapurushji`s cerebral stroke. Seeing me, he said, `Shankar, dekho,
Tarakda`s condition. Is it for this you asked me to come to Belur Math? See
what has happened.` For the first one month, Mahapurush Maharaj was
unconscious and his condition was very serious. But slowly consciousness
returned. Though he was unable to speak, he could smile and move his hands.
Careful nursing had been done. Many packets of ice were kept on the head all
the time, and that made for improvement in his condition.
Swami Akhandanandaji told me, `I have
got some rheumatism. I hear that Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple oil is very
helpful for this.` `I shall send it,` I told him. I then took leave of
Mahapurush Maharaj. He just lifted his hand to bless and indicated by signs
to his dear sevak, Shankar Maharaj (Swami Apurvanandaji), `Give something to
him for Chamundi temple and for Ashrama Thakur offering.` Shankar Maharaj
understood what he meant. He got some money and gave it to me, and I made my
pranams to him and to Akhandanandaji, and left for Mysore. I did the puja in
the Chamundi temple, which Mahapurushji had visited earlier, and in our
Ashrama also, and sent the prasad to him to Belur Math and oil to
Akhandanandaji. Next year, in February 1934, Mahapurush Maharaj passed away
and Akhandanandaji became the President. This was my association with the
President of the Sangha, Mahapurush Maharaj, and the Vice-President, Swami
Akhandananda Maharaj.
When I was in Belur Math as a
brahmachari, Khoka Maharaj, Swami Subodhanandaji, was living in the room
north of Swamiji`s bedroom. I used to spend some time with him. He would be
lying on the verandah facing Ganges, enjoying his hookah like a child. I
would sit by his side. I was very free with him, massaging his belly with my
hand very freely while he would talk to me about various things.
My next visit to the Math was during
Sri Ramakrishna centenary celebrations in 1937 when Swami Vijnananandaji
Maharaj had become the President. He was in far away Allahabad. From Belur
Math, I went to Benaras. I said to myself, `Allahabad is nearby, let me go
to Allahabad and visit Vijnananandaji Maharaj, the present President of our
Sangha.` So, I went to Allahabad from Benaras. I went to the Ashrama, and
made pranams to Vijnananandaji Maharaj on April 1, 1937. A group photo was
taken then with him in the centre and a few devotees and me around. This is
the first photo of his after becoming the President. But that group photo
seems to have been misplaced. That photo is not there in the new album the
Allahabad Ashrama has recently published. That was on April 1. That was also
the day when the Congress Governments assumed power in all the Provinces -
the beginning of Provincial Autonomy under the British.
As usual, I saw that Vijnananandaji`s
pocket was bulging with various things - shaving set, and this and that -
everything was there in that pocket. That was the usual practice of
Vijnananandaji. When I told him, `I have come to receive your blessings,` he
said, `Yes, yes, you have seen me, now go and take drinking water from the
tap and you can go back.` I enjoyed that remark. I had known earlier that he
liked to be alone. But other swamis had arranged my lunch in a Bengali
devotee`s family, and I had the best lunch of my life on that day. Then I
went back to Benaras, and to Calcutta, and from there to Mysore.
Vijnananandaji had earlier visited Madras and Mysore and given initiation to
some devotees in those places.
When I first read the Gospel of Sri
Ramakrishna at the age of fifteen, I developed a great love and respect for
its author `M` or Mahendranath Gupta. So, while at Belur Math for
brahmacharya in 1929, I was happy to get the opportunity to meet him and to
pay my loving respects to him. One day, I went to pay my respects to `M` in
Calcutta, along with two other sadhus. We went upstairs in the evening and
met him and spent nearly three hours, listening to his talk on Sri
Ramakrishna. He spoke about Sri Ramakrishna only, nothing but Sri
Ramakrishna. While taking leave of him, he gave us a basket of fruits and
sweets. As I was taking it, I asked him, `Is it for offering to Thakur?`
`No, no,` he said, `it is for sadhus, sadhus; that is enough. Thakur has
told me to serve the sadhus.` That is the language he used. So, I brought it
and gave it to the Math bhandar for distribution to sadhus.
I had the occasion to meet Swami
Abhedanandaji Maharaj in his Calcutta Ashrama. He talked about his lectures.
I had read his lectures before. I attended his lecture in the Town Hall of
Calcutta during Sri Ramakrishna centenary in 1937. It was a very interesting
lecture. I had also heard Rabindranath Tagore`s lecture in the University
Institute. These are my associations with Thakur`s direct disciples and
Tagore.
So far as Mahapurush Maharaj is
concerned, his guidance has been a tremendous source of spiritual strength
to me. In reply to my letters, he used to write to me, addressing me `My
dear Yati Chaitanya` or `My dear Shankaran`. These letters bear the
handwriting of his secretary, late Swami Gangeshananda or Dvijen Maharaj,
whom once I asked whether these letters contain any lines by him. He
replied, `Never. It was all his (Mahapurushji`s); I only wrote what he
dictated.` From 1927 to 1931, I had written some eight letters to Mahapurush
Maharaj, seeking spiritual guidance; and I used to get suitable replies. I
have given these letters to the Belur Math Ramakrishna Museum. In a letter
written from Benaras in December 1927, Mahapurushji wrote: `I am pleased
with your letter ... If you have faith in yourself and in the grace for Sri
Ramakrishna, you are sure to come out victorious. He helps him who struggles
- that is His nature. Know it always that His helping hand is always guiding
you. Otherwise, you would have been vanquished long ago and become an
ordinary man. So you need not fear ... Through His blessings, the character
of the mind will change and it will be a helping-maid by your side.`
And in another letter of 7-7-1930 from
Belur Math, Mahapurushji wrote to me: `Received your letter and the prasadam
of Sri Chamundi Devi. I am blessing you. You need not come here again so
soon. What is the necessity of spending so much over railway fare? ... Pray
to Sri Guru Maharaj wherever you be, only through His grace you can gain
peace; you need not travel here and there. Do not give up work; try to
combine it with prayer and meditation.`
And so, I never worried about going
here and there for tapasya. I learned to consider that I am in tapasya from
the day I joined the Order and that my life and work in the Order itself is
tapasya. One sentence in one of Swami Vivekananda`s Letters has inspired me
in my personality development: `Learn to combine seriousness with childlike
naivete.` Naivete means saralata.
I shall also mention my contact with
Swami Nirmalanandaji, who, though not recognised as a disciple of Sri
Ramakrishna, I had met him. My first meeting with him was a very sad
experience. In 1927, he came from Bangalore to Mysore en route to Ponnampet.
Swami Siddheshwaranandaji and I went to receive him at the railway station.
The first sentence he uttered on seeing us was, `Belur Math has gone to
dogs`. That was enough for me. I had no more interest in him. I went to
Ponnampet Ashrama a little later and met him once again. Then came, in 1931,
the Bangalore case instituted by Belur Math against his claiming the
Bangalore Math as his personal property. The Math itself did not want to
contest. But eminent lawyers like Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer advised the
Math to contest his claim in the interest of the Organisation as a whole. So
the matter went to the Bangalore Court. And the case was conducted very ably
by the late Swami Amriteswaranandaji (Paresh Maharaj), Assistant Secretary
of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. The case ended in 1935 by the Court
declaring Belur Math as the owner of Bangalore Ashrama. And Swami
Chinmatrananda and I were sent to take initial charge of Bangalore Ashrama.
So, these are my reminiscences of five
of the monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna viz. Swami Shivanandaji,
Akhandanandaji, Subodhanandaji, Abhedanandaji and Vijnananandaji; and Master
Mahashaya.
|
Vedanta
Centre UK
