Sunday, August 23, 2009

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.”

Sunday, August 16, 2009

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.”

Sunday, August 9, 2009

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).