Penance

Param Poojya Swami Chetanananda Saraswati gives us some glimpses of HIS years of sadhana (penance):

"During MY sadhana, I had darshan of Nava Durga. This normally requires nine bodies (births). My guru for this sadhana who lived in the forests of Katni (near Jabalapur) took nine lives to have this darshan, but I saw them in just nine months. The sadhana involves prayers to Ma Kali in the cremation ground between 12 and 3 AM every night, for 21 days. A recently buried dead body of a 14-year old low-caste girl is made as the asana. With full concentration, you continuously chant the chaitanya mantra. The eyes of the dead body open and the tongue hangs out. Maintain full concentration on the eyes, or your own life may be lost. Continue similarly for 21 days. On the final night, Ma Durga appears and asks what you wish for. You say: “Only Your darshan”, or else the other Shaktis will not appear. The entire sadhana is then repeated for the nine forms of Durga. This sadhana is very frightening, with lots of happenings all around, but you should not get scared and maintain your concentration. After one sees all this, there is no rebirth. This sadhana is necessary for those who become Gurus. (Ramakrishna Paramhansa did it, Vivekananda did not). Then I went to Abu, and then to the Himalayas.

"While in Abu, I was staying on a hill top, keeping cow for milk. The devotees were visiting with their gunmen for security. One day a wild tiger came there and all of them ran off. I held Ganga, the cow, on one side and the tiger on the other, and remarked, “Different beings joined by the same aatma”. I even made them drink water from the same bowl. Then, I asked the tiger to leave and he went peacefully.

"Even during MY sadhana, I always led a very disciplined life. I used to eat regularly and never went without food. I put MY knowledge of Ayurveda to good use and MY diet was always controlled and restricted."

Travel and Service

Param Poojya Swami Chetanananda Saraswati on HIS travels and serving HIS Guru...

"As a boy of twelve or so, I visited Tibet and had darshan of Mount Kailash. I met a Tibetan monk named Bhaskarananda, who showed ME Tibetan manuscripts describing the experiences that I had after meeting Baba Nityananda. Bhaskarananda used to stay just 5 kilometres from Kailash. He carried ME around the holy mountain on his shoulders. I had darshan of Lord Shiva and Parvati. All the fabled places described in the scriptures are on this earth itself. Mount Kailash in Tibet is the Kailash of the scriptures. Kshirsagar and Vaikuntha are also on this earth. Amravati is near the present-day Nagpur. The tapobhoomi of Vyasa was in Punjab. But the paths of rivers change every few hundred years. The Ayodhya and Mathura of today are not the same as those in the Puranas.

"Baba Muktananda was staying at Trayambakeshwar near Nasik for several years after some unpleasant incidents with the devotees of Bhagwan Nityananda at Ganeshpuri. He was observing silence. When I was staying with Bhagwan in 1959, He called Swami Muktananda back to come and stay at Gavadevi Ashram at Ganeshpuri.

"Bhagwan introduced Muktananda Baba to ME and said, "He is a Paramahansa. You should serve Him after You return from the Himalayas." This was MY first meeting with Baba Mukatananda. As per these instructions, I subsequently joined Baba Muktananda on 9 June 1973 and served as Administrator in the then Sri Gurudev Ashram of Ganeshpuri.

"Muktananda Baba used to set timings for job completion, one after another. I was thus engaged from 1959 to 1971. I drew up plans for all His ashrams and got them built all over the country and the world. During all this, I found time to go to Mt. Abu, Girnar and other places for sadhana."

Serving the Nation

Swamiji remembers:

“After spending 15 days at Baba Nityananda’s ashram, which was the longest He had ever kept anyone with Him, He told ME to go and serve the country. In 1962, during the war with China, I was the first to contribute to the Defence Fund. The then President, Dr. Radhakrishnan called ME to meet him. I did relief work as a social worker after the Koyna earthquake and the Andhra cyclone in 1960s and participated in the wars of 1965 and 1971. I built the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari, overcoming great odds.

"Between 1959 and 1969, I was studying, but not much in school. Later, on MY own, I studied the works of Vivekananda, Ramtirtha and others. I gained general knowledge from plays, etc. At one stage, I got saturated with knowledge. For a stretch of 45 days, I was only reading and listening to lectures. Without food, water, or any action, I was just lying down, but without sleep. Psychologists were engaged, but to no avail. Finally after long walks in mountains, the spell passed. "

At Baba Nityananda’s Ashram

Does renunciation come from knowledge or does knowledge come after renunciation?

Param Poojya Swamiji remembers:
“I experienced everything in this world as a child. After my experience of self-realisation, I understood that there is nothing else in this world to know and there is no one in this world who can teach ME anything else.

“Yet, when I was taken to Baba Nityananda, the experience of meeting Him was extremely powerful. At Baba’s ashram, I was scared of a big snake, and used to implicitly follow Baba in all His activities, right from getting up at 3 AM and bathing in the hot springs there. Had I been older than the 11 year-old I was when I met Baba, He would have sent ME away. He showed ME how I had been following Him over MY last sixteen births. MY experiences staying with Him at His ashram for the next 15 days were numerous. The gist of them all is described in ‘Reminiscences’.

“That is how, from knowledge (gyan), I achieved renunciation (vairagya). People ask ME why I took sanyas at such a young age. I had realized that I could not afford to lose the Guru’s grace in this birth, since there never would be another chance.”

Meeting Baba Nityananda

Param Poojya Swamiji was born into a royal family in southern India. But HE says that HIS childhood was more like that of Lord Krishna, surrounded by enemies and dangers. Brought up in the opulence of palaces, HE used to be served with an array of dishes and sweets every day. Yet, out of utensils made of gold and silver, HE would prefer to eat just boiled gram, the diet of the poorest of people.

Swamiji remembers:

“I never fell in doubt as to what to do, what not to do; what was right and what was not. Parties used to be held at the palace, and wine used to come in crates. I never looked upon them as evil, but just ignored it all. Having experienced self-realisation as a child, I used to just climb up to the third floor of the palace and meditate, even though I did not know what the word ‘meditation’ meant. I started writing and organizing plays with other children. MY parents were increasingly concerned about MY ‘unusual’ activities.

“As a school-going child, I could play all musical instruments, and was the leader of the Musical Band. Once, after returning from a long march heading the Band, wielding a massive baton, I forgot to take off MY heavy boots before stepping into the house. Seeing this, MY grandmother rebuked ME very strongly. In a fit of anger, I took off the boots and threw them at her face (breaking a couple of teeth!). Disturbed by such acts of MINE, MY parents decided to send ME to the family Guru, Baba Nityananda. This was in 1959, and I was eleven.

“Baba Nityananda’s ashram (‘Guruvanam’) at Kanhangad in Kerala was in a dense forest, which had been developed over the years of Baba’s stay there. When I was taken in MY princely clothes to Baba Nityananda, He said, “Send that beggar here”. I guessed that He meant ME, so I jumped up and sat on His lap. I felt great happiness, sitting there in Baba’s lap, before a crowd of 12,000 people, which included MY parents. But the very next moment, Baba threw ME off saying, “Do you think this is your throne?” In just one moment, MY utter joy was transformed to utter shame and sorrow. Such is the Guru’s drama! He then called ME and soothed ME (since I was crying) and gave ME a sweet. Even though I used to be served eight kinds of sweets daily in the palace, I went wild on tasting the one Baba gave ME, and I started running after Him, asking for more. He had hidden the box of sweets behind Him. Finally, He threw the box at ME, saying, “Take it, you beggar!” Though I felt slighted, I couldn’t resist the sweets. I finished off those sweets and went into a trance.

“People say that Baba murmured, “He has begging for it for sixteen births!” In that trance I had a vision of MY past sixteen births. I regained my senses after two hours, and by then the crowds had dispersed. I kept on crying, sad that Baba had to come to this earth so many times to redeem a sinner like ME. Over the next 15 days of MY stay at Baba's ashram, I had experiences that could fill volumes. Guru mila to sab mila, Na to mila na koi : If you find the Guru, you have found everything, else you have nothing.”

Self - Realisation At Five

The Guru is not a person: the Guru is Shakti personified. Param Poojya Swamiji’s life is filled with an amazing range of experiences. HE traveled far and wide, all over India and visited 52 countries around the world. HE is an expert in every task, because HE has not only worked but excelled in a variety of occupations.

Swamiji says that HE was born by the grace of Baba Nityananda, who brought HIM to HIS parents just as Krishna was brought to Gokul.

At the age of five, HE experienced Self-Realisation, which HE describes thus:

"I saw an ocean, on which thousands of little Krishnas were dancing, telling ME that this entire world is just a drama created by God. I cried for a whole day and a night, sad that all these relations of father, mother and so on, really meant nothing.

"In the morning, I saw a large, round, luminous yellow light outside my window. I could see two myna birds and one of them asked the other, "What is this?” The male bird replied, "This is the 'Sarva Vyapta Aatma Jyoti' (the light of the Self that pervades everywhere). And both of them flew off. This was liberation, and much later I would find its proof in the scriptures."


This momentous event took place almost sixty years ago, on the full moon night of the month of Shravan, the day Raksha Bandhan is celebrated (usually in August).

Siddha Guru and the Siddha Path

Swami Chetanananda Saraswati:
"In the Siddha path, knowledge passes through the Guru’s grace, transmitted by the Guru to the disciple. The Siddhas are an ancient lineage of direct descent from Guru Dattatreya. The Nath panth (Matsyendranath etc.) are a branch of the Siddha lineage, which also includes the Alvars and Nayanars, Sant Jnaneshwar and in the recent past, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Lahiri Mahashaya and Yukteshwar Giri. The Siddhas are Perfect Masters, and there is no 'sadhana' as such in this path . Self-Realisation takes place solely by the Guru’s grace. Baba Muktananda was the first to begin a mass movement of 'Shaktipat' in Kaliyug. Earlier, Shaktipat used to be from Guru to individual disciple.


"The philosophy of Siddhas is practical. A life of austerity is a must in the Siddha path. Only one who resides in the ultimate state of self-realisation for 24 hours a day can pass on the grace to another. There is no individual effort required: the only effort required is to please the Guru by doing Guru seva. Individual prayers are limited. Only remembrance is necessary: for 24 hours a day. There is no restriction, no technique and no bondage. Daily practice is by living your life with the awareness that “My Guru’s power is there to protect and to watch over me”. That awareness is a must. ‘Liberation’ does not mean that you are free from all laws and rules. You must lead a pure life with this awareness. There is no ban on mundane activities of the world, but you should not lose your happiness.

"The Siddha Guru gives some ideas or hints as to what is suitable for you. The main thing is that guidelines should be followed, because HE is aware of your capability and your destiny ('prarabdha'). In Siddha Yoga, Siddhas will give you the solution from time to time. So this is Siddha Yoga: you follow the guidelines of the Guru. That is all the practice required in this path. Asanas, pranayam and various other practices are not possible to complete in one lifetime. Siddha Yoga says: Be natural and let the 'Shakti' (power) do everything. Surrender to the Shakti.

"Faith is most important. If you lose faith, you will attain nothing. Guru Gita says that Guru is the living God. Before accepting someone as your Guru, you should check if he is capable of transmitting spiritual power. This you can realize only by ‘sannidhya’, by staying near the Guru and serving him. Experience it yourself. ‘Deeksha’ (initiation) actually means “Diyate Shivasayujyam, Kshayate Paparashinaam”, that is: 'Oneness with Shiva and destruction of accumulated sins'. That is the grace of the Guru. Experience the ultimate within yourself. That is enough. You do not need any God outside."

Guru Almighty ... Towards Joy and Peace

In the wild ocean of this wide world, tossed around by turbulent waves, the Guru's grace protects, guides and steers the way to the ultimate goal of human life, happiness. The true Guru's boundless love and blessings, oblivious of man-made divisions, are like cool showers in the midst of a burning summer. Glowing with the radiance of self-realization, the Guru cuts through the individual's ego and ignites the very same glow residing within each and every person.

Blessed am I to have such a divine Guru in Param Poojya (His Holiness) Swami Chetanananda Saraswati.

Here I intend to share a few glimpses of my Guru, and some of the drops of nectar gathered over the years in HIS blissful presence, while seated at HIS lotus feet. Through pictures, incidents of HIS life, quotations, extracts from HIS lectures and memories of moments spent with HIM, hopefully you will experience some of the joy and peace that one feels when actually in HIS presence.


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