Satsang by Swami Niranjananda: Guru Poornima 2011
Welcome to this event of Guru Poornima which is being held in Paduka Darshan, the seat of Sannyasa Peeth, which is the third vision and mandate of Sri Swamiji, our guru. This place has a historical connection with our Guru, Sri Swamiji. In the early days, when he was wandering throughout the Indian subcontinent, he came to Munger in 1956. Although he had met many people, and people in other places had offered him support, resources and land to establish an ashram, he had declined all their offers because the establishment of an Ashram was not his purpose, and he continued wandering.
When he came to Bihar, the energy of the land, the spirit of the land, the spiritual nature of the land attracted him. He came to Munger, and spent time in the round- house which is here. He lived here for many months every year, performing his own sadhanas and passing the period of Chaturmas, the four months of rainy season during which a sannyasin is supposed to stay in one place.
So, this place where we are, Paduka Darshan, has been associated with Sri Swamiji since 1956. This is the place where he initially performed his own sadhanas and established himself in higher spiritual realisation. It was in Munger that many of his spiritual realisations revealed themselves to him. And it was in Munger that he had the vision of his guru, Sri Swami Sivanandji crossing the river Ganga on the day he had taken Mahasamadhi in Rishikesh. At that point of time, Sri Swamiji was sitting here where I am sitting today.
Sri Swamiji says in his memoirs, that he was meditating and he knew that his Guru had left his body because in that meditation while he was facing the Ganga he had the vision of a boat crossing the river with his guru standing in the boat. At one point his Guru turned around and raised his arms in blessing, and Sri Swamiji said he knew that he had received the blessings and the grace of his Guru. Furthermore, from one of the oars of the boat, water splashed on his face, and when Sri Swamiji opened his eyes he found his body drenched in water, although anybody trying to throw water from the Ganga from that distance is not going to get easy action. This was the real vision that Sri Swamiji had when he came to Munger, and it was in Munger that he proclaimed that yoga will be the culture of tomorrow.
In the course of time, in 1963, Sri Swamiji established the Bihar School of Yoga, to fulfil the mandate of his Guru to propagate yoga from door to door and shore to shore. And from 1963 to 1983 Sri Swamiji worked tirelessly to fulfil that mandate of his Guru, and to bring the message of yoga to every nook and corner of the world.
Sri Swamiji made yoga popular, globally. Then in 1983, when he knew that he had fulfilled the mandate of his Guru, he had another revelation, and following the call of that revelation he went from Munger and eventually settled in Rikhia. At that time, before the subdivision of Bihar, Rikhia was in Bihar not Jharkhand. He started to perform his own higher sadhanas, and while performing those sadhanas, he also inspired and guided the establishment, the vision and the mission of Rikhiapeeth to propagate the three cardinal teachings of spiritual life. They were the three cardinal teachings of his Guru, Sri Swami Sivananda, whose purpose it is to uplift and help the society and the community, and more specifically, the deprived sections of society to give them hope vision for their life.
For twenty years Sri Swamiji guided the activities at Rikhiapeeth, just as he had guided the activities at Munger. Then there came a time in his life in Rikhia when he knew his involvement with Rikhia was over, and that his work was completed. Then he gave the indication that he would be moving on. We thought he meant that he would be moving out of Rikhia; little did we realise that he would be moving to another dimension.
While this was happening in Rikhia, I was looking after the yoga movement, travelling in the country, travelling outside the country, going to different places, propagating yoga. In 2008 I handed over the responsibility of the administration of the Bihar School of Yoga (BSY) to the third generation, headed by Swami Suryaprakash, and withdrew myself to devote my efforts exclusively to yoga propagation.
In 2009, Sri Swamiji called me in the month of July and said, “I have another revelation, another mission and that I’m handing over to you, and that is the establishment of Sannyasa Peeth. Stop your wanderings throughout the world that you have been doing for the last forty years as a Parivrajak, moving from town to town, city to city, country to country, and continent to continent, and settle in one place for some time, like a paramahamsa sannyasin. Perfect your own sannyasa life, and establish Sannyasa Peeth”. And that is my third mission!
Then in December 2009 he wilfully attained Mahasamadhi. For one year I did not do anything but be occupied with the rituals and ceremonies that, in our tradition, we have to perform for a person of the calibre of Swamiji. For one year I was completely engaged in that.
When that one year was over, on the 6 December, 2010, Sannyasa Peeth was officially established, created and signed. On that day, the day we formalised the documents of Sannyasa Peeth and it was officially created, Sri Swamiji materialised physically in Guru Peeth, Ganga Darshan. His physical materialisation was witnessed by sannyasins, who were there at that time. We were in Rikhia participating in the first day of Chandhi Maha Yajna, but while we were performing the celebrations in Rikhia and remembering Sri Swamiji, he materialised physically at Ganga Darshan, at Yogpeeth and his physical body was seen by those Swamis.
That gave me the indication that Swamiji has approved the effort and the work that we are doing, to propagate his own teachings and the teachings of the tradition. So, I made the decision that since he has appeared physically to indicate that he is very much with us and continues to guide us and inspire us, I should seriously consider, without wasting any time, my role in sannyasa and in the establishment and the formation of Sannyasa Peeth.
So, I undertook a sadhana, which was started on 2 January 2011. That sadhana is the worship of the cosmic mother Durga, to invoke her grace, and to invoke her blessing for the work that is going to happen in the coming twenty years. Sri Swamiji had not only told me to establish Sannyasa Peeth, but he actually defined a twenty year plan for me: how I need to live, how I need to act, how I need to behave over the next twenty years of my life.
Following this mandate, in order to seek the divine grace and blessings, we started the Durga Yajna with the sankalpa of one year. And it will culminate on 1 January 2012. During this period, I have been engaging myself in many different other anushthanas and sadhanas and I am proud to say that by engaging myself in these sadhanas and practices, I am beginning to get glimpses of the things that our ancestors, our rishis, our saints and our tradition have spoken about. And today, six months after the start of my sadhana I have come to realise that, sannyasa is not an easy path, and none of us are sannyasins, none of you are sannyasins.
All of you who have been initiated, have been given robes, given a name, given a mantra, and have shaved your head, but you do not have the training or the mentality or the inspiration of a sannyasin. I am very frank and clear about this.
After you were initiated, you were given a mandate by your Guru, “Go and teach yoga.” That is your mandate. Teaching yoga is your mandate, given to you by your Guru, Sri Swamiji, and if you flirt with other things, you are breaking that mandate and you cannot call yourself a disciple. So please remember that your Guru has given you the mandate of yoga, and therefore you must live yoga, propagate yoga, think yoga, and be in yoga.
Sri Swamiji released me from that mandate of teaching yoga. He said, “Now you focus on sannyasa”, and since I have started to do that, many revelations have come to me; many experiences have come, similar to experiences of samadhi. There are many things that I only spoke about in the beginning, without any further experience, but today I have that experience. This is my personal journey, because before I can bring the teachings of sannyasa to other people, I have to live and realise what sannyasa is. And until and unless I do live and realise what sannyasa is, I cannot teach others the precepts of sannyasa.
Therefore, that is my journey which has started now, and in the course of time other people will also join in the training. Whether you are a part of that, is your choice. But if you decide to become part of that training, that journey, then you have to be willing to sacrifice many things. These three aspects: yoga, seva and sannyasa constitute Satyananda Yoga or the Bihar Yoga tradition. I have always said, in my travels, that Satyananda Yoga integrates the faculties of head, heart and hands.
Ganga Darshan is the seat of yoga as defined by Swamiji for all time to come and this cannot change. Here in this seat of yoga, we learn the techniques and the methods, and we receive the ideals to improve the quality of our life and mind. A personal effort is made; a personal attempt is made to improve one’s own qualities. How far we succeed is determined by our limitations. The systems are definitely in place, the practices are there, the teachings have been given. We only have to understand them, apply them, and march forward.
The purpose of yoga is to improve the quality of the mind, to improve the quality of life, to open the mind, to cleanse the mind, to make the mind pure. This is also what many thousands of years ago the sage Patanjali wrote. He defined yoga as a process of cleansing the mind “Yogashchitta vritti nirodhah”. After all, what is the management of chitta vritti? It is the cleansing of the mental dimension. Cleansing the mind from its external associations which cause grief, pride, pain, suffering and disturbance, and to find one’s own peace and happiness and contentment. So yoga is for the head.
With the other establishment, Rikhiapeeth, the focus is seva, to open your heart. The focus is connection; connecting with other people in need and helping them come out of their need, to find their own security and happiness in life. The three cardinal teachings of Rikhiapeeth, serve, love and give, represent this aspect of opening our heart. When you love, you open your heart, when you serve, you open your heart, and when you give you open your heart. A heart connection takes place with people around us.
Through yoga we gain management of the head, through seva, opening of the heart, and thirdly, through sannyasa, we develop creativity; the inherent creativity in every individual.
This is what sannyasa is. Sannyasa is not shaving the head, wearing the robe, changing the name and saying, “From today I have become different.” The ignorant people can say that. But a sannyasin knows that it is a responsibility, it is a commitment to Guru and to God. Not to reverse all ambitions but to dedicate their totality to Guru and God, in the service of Guru and God.
I am sorry to say that many sannyasins live their own ambitions in the guise of offering everything to their Guru. Today I am telling you this very frankly because now I have left diplomacy aside, and I am speaking the truth, whether you like it or you do not like it.
Sannyasa in itself is a philosophy. Sannyasa in itself is a sadhana. Sannyasa in itself is a lifestyle. Sannyasa in itself is a mentality. Sannyasa in itself is a samskara. Sannyasa in itself is a culture. When we are able to understand all these things, in the right sequence and the right manner, then we can become sannyasins, otherwise not; we do not have samskaras of sannyasins. I have seen many people who in a wave of emotion decide to take sannyasa and after that they say, “OK, now that I’ve become a sannyasin, I’m going back to my home to live with my family.”
Where is the samskara of a sannyasin? Nobody has the samskara of a sannyasin. This has to be cultivated through sadhana, effort, awareness and through the realisation of how we can live our spiritual aspirations. If we have to live out our spiritual aspirations, many times we have to engage the material aspirations as well, because they are directly opposite to one another, therefore, sannyasa has a philosophy.
And what is this philosophy of sannyasa? Since ancient times the Rishis, the first seers said that the philosophy of a sannyasin is Advaita philosophy. Advaita thought says that there is only one supreme self, and nothing more than that. There is only Supreme Self, which is all pervasive in this creation, just as air is all pervasive around this earth. Air does not have any boundaries; continents have boundaries, nations can have boundaries, societies can have boundaries, houses can have boundaries, but air has no boundaries. It goes throughout the world, continuously, all the time, without any barriers. You cannot say that this is American air, this is Indian air, this is Ethiopian air, this is Australian air; you cannot distinguish between them. No, air moves continuously around the planet. It is one element that connects every life form on this planet.
In the same manner, in this entire creation, one tattwa is predominant and that element has been called God, not a manifest God, but an impersonal God; G standing for generation, the quality of Brahma, O for organization, the quality of Narayana, and D, destruction, the quality of Shiva. So in this word God, the three qualities are defined, of the Higher Supreme itself. This Supreme Self is one, inherent in each and every being, inherent in each and every object, in each and every element, in each and every tattwa, and in each and every life form. Just as air is all-pervasive, the Supreme Self is all-pervasive in creation.
The realization of that oneness is the Advaita thought, and it is that one Supreme Self which, according to the Vedic thought, manifests in different forms, in myriads of forms, and becomes many. Then the essence of that cosmic tattwa is also contained in all these myriads of forms, like water is one tattwa, water is one element. The essence of water is H2O, two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen, H2O. And that water can be seen in the ocean, it can be seen in the lake, it can be seen in the river, it can be seen in your kitchen tap, it can be seen in your bathroom, it can be seen in a flood, and it is also throughout your body.
The essence of all these different bodies of water is still the same, H2O. When I sweat, it is H2O, when I drink water it is H2O, when I swim in the river it is H2O, when I swim in the ocean it is H2O. The names are different, the identities are different, and the locations are different, but the essence is the same. In the same manner, the Cosmic Self is one tattwa, and that Cosmic Self in the form of tattwa is contained in each and every particle of creation. A speck of dust and a human being have that tattwa in them. This tattwa was called Brahman by the Rishis; it is the Supreme Being, the Supreme Self.
The philosophy of a sannyasin is the realization of this Supreme Self, without any distinction, without any division and without any category. If you have heard Sri Swamiji, in his satsangs, he has also mentioned many times that you should cultivate atma bhava, see yourself in others, see your reflection in others, let others see their reflection in you, be one with them. He is indicating the idea and process of Advaita.
This has been the philosophy of Advaita: the Supreme Self is omnipresent. This thought of omnipresence is blended with ethical matter which is entered in cosmic order, and regulates the conduct of the whole universe. The sannyasins have maintained that one has to come to the realisation of this higher nature.
But the realisation of the higher nature does not come through meditation. It comes when you live the life of a sannyasin. After all, you also meditate. Tell me, in twelve hours of your waking time, you meditate maybe half an hour or one hour, in twelve hours of your waking time you waste eleven hours. You are taking in things from your society, your environment, your own mind, and from your own emotions and ambitions. You are connecting things in your mind for eleven hours and in one hour you want to clear everything. It never happens! Therefore, meditation is unsuccessful. You can find a momentary relief. Fine, I accept that. You can discard some of the tensions from the mind. I accept that. But if you compare the volume of information that you receive in eleven hours with just one hour of meditation practice, there is a big imbalance in mental behaviour. With that one hour of meditation you expect to have the final spiritual experiences without even cleaning the mind, without even removing the excess baggage from yourself? It will never happen. You can hypnotise yourself, you can definitely do that – “I’m having this experience, I’m feeling light, I’m seeing light”. You can hypnotize yourself, but that is not an actual attainment, nor an actual realisation.
Now I see the validity of why (for those of you who remember), in the early days of Rikhia, Swamiji had placed a notice there “Do not come again.” He had to disconnect with everything. He had to clear his mind from everything, from all connections. I am applying the same principle regularly here as well. Of course, I am not telling you, “Don’t come again.” You are welcome to come, but I will not see you because I am living here in isolation. In this isolation I can see the usefulness and the need to disconnect from things to which I was connected before, and to cultivate a new set of samskaras, a new set of thoughts, a new mentality and a new culture within myself. When that has happened, I will meet all of you again.
I am only giving you an indication that it is important in the life of a sannyasin to discover your own nature within, by cutting off completely from everything that you’ve held dear in your life, and from everything that is near to you in your life including your bread and butter, wife and child, home and comfort. This is the philosophy of sannyasa; that in order to connect with the higher nature, you have to gradually remove the dross of maya. When we are born in this life, we become subjects of maya, illusion, delusion. Because of maya, the mind is deluded all the time.
We do not know what we want, we do not know what we can do, or what we should do, and we keep asking everybody “Do you think this would be good for me? Do you think that would be good for me? Do you think this would be good for me?” We don’t know what we want so we ask other person “Do you think this would be good for me?” The other person also does not know whether it would be good for you or not; an idiot asking another idiot for a solution. Those who claim to give solutions are greater idiots, because they are bound by their egos. An ego says, “Yes, I can give solutions to their problems. I can help them.” And you get involved yourself in those head trips and hassles. Again this play, the master and victim game, you know that game … Well, that is another subject for another time.
But it is for the discovery of that supreme quality within ourselves that we have to make the effort. The Upanishads give a very clear indication of the subject that I will be covering from tomorrow. The Upanishads say first know the description of the Higher Self, what it is and what it is not, secondly, make the effort to discover the Higher Self, and thirdly to realise the Higher Self.
First is the description, second is the sadhana and third is the realisation. Before undertaking these three steps, define the purpose of your life. What is the purpose of your life? What do you want from your life? Just to have a good time, or is there some inclination, determination and focus to improve yourself?
The Upanishads clarify this idea very well. They say that if you are a spiritual aspirant, and the focus and purpose of your life is to discover the spirituality within you, then first know the description of the Higher Self, what the Higher Self can be and what it cannot be. They describe it, the theory, the philosophy of paramatma – the higher nature. They describe the theory and the philosophy of atma – the individual self. They give you practices to do to discover your own atma, to realise your own inner self, and after realising the inner self, to realise the Higher Self, and then to see the cosmic essence in each and everyone.
In history, there have been many upheavals, ideological upheavals and ideological changes. These upheavals over the course of time interfered with the Advaita philosophy, so many people misinterpreted the Advaita philosophy. Because of interpretations and misinterpretations of the Advaita thought, the spiritual realisation was put together with religious rituals. When spiritual realisation was given place along with religious rituals, then that was the time when many different schools of thought and religions came to the forefront, and the Advaita concept was lost.
Religions say that if you want to have spiritual realisation follow these religious precepts, but Advaita thought says “no”. Through sanyam and shraddha one can cultivate these qualities, one can cultivate the mind and one can attain this realisation, not necessarily by following a religious ritual, but through sanyam (restraint and discipline) and, through shraddha (faith) one can acquire this realisation.
But in our history there have been many gurus who were the propagators of this Advaita thought, who have come from time to time, and we remember even today. We divide the lineage of the gurus into two groups: one pre-Shankaracharya and the other, post-Shankaracharya. The gurus before Shankaracharya, we name in our vedic shanti mantras. Narayanam (Narayana is Lord Vishnu), Padmabhavam (Padmabhavan is Brahma), “Narayanam padmabhavam vashishtam, shaktim cha tat putra parasharam cha”. Then Vashista, Shakti, Parasha “Vyaasam, shukam.” Vyaasil, Shuktil “Gaurapadam mahaantam.” Gaurapad “Govinda yogeendram athaasya shishyam” Govindapad.
These are acharyas who have propagated and given the knowledge of Advaitic thought. This lineage starts with Narayana and Brahma and it is very peculiar too. The essence of Advaita thought lies in understanding why Narayana and Brahma have been the first gurus. According to the mythological stories, Narayana was born from the left side of Shiva, and Brahma was born from the right side of Shiva. Shiva represents the un-manifest self, and Narayana takes birth from that un-manifest self, so Narayana is manifest. Brahma takes birth from that un-manifest self, so Brahma is also manifest. These two become the first forms in creation, and as they take form they come in the ambit of maya, delusion.
Every country has its laws. When you come to India from abroad you are subject to Indian laws, and when we travel from here abroad, we are subject to the laws of that country. In the same manner, when the individual self comes into this life the laws of his life are governed by maya, not by God. The laws in creation are governed by maya, not by the Supreme Self.
So we become subjects of maya and maya makes us dance to likes and dislikes, to passions and dis-passions, through love and hate, through peace and strife. We are dancing between the two poles; happiness and unhappiness and this is the law of maya. So in the life of a sannyasin, disconnection has to take place from maya, not from the society, not from world, not from the family, not from friends, not from associates, but from maya.
How can one disconnect from maya and connect with Higher Self? Those people Narayana and Brahma, when they were born out of Shiva’s body, were also deluded by the power of maya. They started fighting with each other. “I’m superior to you, I am superior to you, I am superior to you.” As soon as we come in the realm of maya, ego becomes predominant. Even Narayana and Brahma fought with each other because of their egos. They were born out of divinity and they are part of that divine self, but maya deluded them and ego controlled them.
In our life too, maya deludes us and ego controls us. So to reduce this gap, to reduce the separation, the Advaita thought comes in and it says, “Look, you may be different, but remember that it is the same tattwa, the cosmic tattwa, that is the invisible and all-pervasive, omnipotent and omniscient which is in you in the form of spirit. Realize that.” Identify with spirit, not with the mind. Yogis, siddhas, sannyasins identify with their inner spirit, atma.
You have seen it in the life of Sri Swamiji, and you have read about other people. You have heard about Swami Sivananda, and you have heard about other saints and sages, from time immemorial, from different traditions, from different cultures and from different religions. What is the uniqueness in their life? Whether it is Saint Francis of Assisi, or whether it is any other such person or sannyasin. All these people connected with the spirit, while the normal beings connect with the mind.
When you connect with spirit, there’s nothing good, nothing bad. Everything is an expression according to circumstances and situations, but when you are connected with the mind, mind determines what is good and what is bad, because mind is subject to circumstances and situations and is not beyond them. That is the main difference. Sannyasa identifies with spirit and life identifies with mind. A sannyasin identifies with atma and a normal person identifies with mind.
And in the coming days we shall see what the Parampara – the order, the tradition – has said about how we can manage the influences of the mind and connect with the spirit. It will also give an understanding of how the Sannyasa Peeth will help to bring about the creative nature, to bring forth the creative nature of every individual. The creative nature of every individual is not intellectual, and it is not artistic or mathematical. The creative nature is a very simple nature in which everything that happens is auspicious and right. Whatever you ‘touch’ turns into ‘gold’, not into ‘dust’. It is that ability, that quality of life, which we need to develop, not only as a sannyasin but also as mortal people so that we can experience the true spirituality in our life.
