In spiritual life there is a very important relationship that exists between guru and disciple. Even as you have the relationship between parent and child, husband and wife, in the same way, there is an important relationship between guru and disciple.

Guru is not merely a teacher. In yoga, guru is known as master, one who is able to give knowledge and dispel the inner darkness. Therefore, guru should not be interpreted as professor or teacher. There are two channels of acquiring knowledge- one is through the intellect and the other is through enlightenment. A professor or a teacher can give intellectual instructions and knowledge to a student, but he cannot give enlightenment.

Guru is able to give intellectual and intuitive knowledge to his disciple. The word disciple means a person who follows a discipline. In yoga, he is known as chela or shishya, meaning ‘one who is eager to learn’. If you come to the guru to learn, you are a chela or shishya. But when you follow a certain discipline, then you are a disciple.

Even as a guru is able to give intellectual knowledge and enlightenment, in the same way, a chela should be able to learn intellectually as well as assimilate enlightenment. The most important point to remember here is that everybody is not a chela. Because most people want to have intellectual knowledge only, they do not understand enlightenment. Also their consciousness and their spirit may not be ready for enlightenment.

The relationship between guru and chela is like the relationship between electrical cable and light. Guru is the energy or the spiritual shakti, and chela is the revealer of that shakti. Therefore every chela must develop his spirit and his consciousness. When the spirit and consciousness become deep, the disciple realizes himself. The spirit unfolds within him, find, then there is enlightenment.

Guru and disciple are essentially one and not two. Tits consciousness of disciple is always plugged with guru. This is called devotion or bhakti. On that plane they are one and totally united. By constant spiritual practice, purity is attained, the dross of the mind is removed, and then the disciple can realize his guru within him.

For a disciple the guru exists outside as well as inside. The external guru is one aspect of his devotion and the inner guru is another aspect of his realization. When he meditates on his guru, he tries to communicate with his inner guru. Therefore, in yoga, it is said that guru is the most important aspect in spiritual life. But it should be remembered that the disciple has to belong to a higher category. The higher the disciple’s spirit, the quicker will be the enlightenment.

Even as the pure water in the pond can reflect the moon in the sky, in the same way, the purity of heart of the disciple can reflect the glory of his guru. There are three important steps in deeper relationships. The highest relationship is between man and God. The empirical relationship is between child and parent, brother and sister, man and woman. But the relationship with guru includes them all. It is at once empirical and transcendental. At one level they move as two individuals, one knows and the other does not, but at a higher level they move as one.

The glory of guru and the greatness of disciple is the first important point in the practice of yoga as well as tantra. The attitude and behaviour of the disciple and the guru are very special. It is an attitude of complete acceptance and an attempt at getting closer and closer to each other. The arrogance of disciple and the egoism of guru will not bring them closer. The disciple is most important for a guru, and the guru is equally important for a disciple.

When you start the practice of yoga and tantra, you begin to become a chela. It is true that in the beginning you learn yoga and tantra from books and by hearing from others. But at a certain point in your practice, there has to be some sort of interaction between you and your guru.

When you begin your journey in spiritual life you are always full of inspiration and enthusiasm, because you begin your journey on the external plane where you live. But when you move further, you come to a land where you have never been. Here there is a feeling of total loneliness, and the experiences are baffling. The visions and the knowledge are so completely astounding that you cannot even understand what you see.

At that point, when a great transformation takes place in the realm of the mind and experience, to whom are you going to ask, ‘What is this?’ When you ask different people, you get different answers and that creates a lot of confusion in your psyche. The persons whom you ask don’t really know you and you don’t know them. Therefore, they cannot properly interpret your experiences. Hence you need a guru with whom you are intimate and who should be intimate with you. You belong to him and he belongs to you. You means the body, mind, emotions and spirit. All of you belongs to him.

It is also most important that the guru be a living guru. Sometimes, due to our personal arrogance, we feel adverse to having a living guru. In many people there is a particular psychological behaviour pattern, and we call that ego or individuality. On account of this we do not want to surrender. But still we live in a world of paradox. We surrender to the senses, to the worldly enjoyments, but when the moment comes to surrender before the guru, our individuality comes up.

I remember a man who was very much attached to a woman. He spent a lot of money on her. He neglected his children and displeased his wife for her. Once he met me in a railway car, and I began to talk to him about guru. He said, ‘But I cannot renounce my individuality. I am me.’ I understood that man very well, and I told him, ‘When it comes to guru, you have an individuality; but in relation to that woman have you any?’

This is the paradox with all of us. When we are talking about the guru, we are very much afraid of losing ourselves. But we are not afraid of losing ourselves in this great wilderness of life. I think there are two important moments of surrender in human life. We surrender ourselves to the lower instincts of life, to our temptations and mental whims. That is one type of surrender which most people make. The other point of surrender is to the guru. The outcome of the first surrender is pain, agony and frustration and the result of the second type of surrender is ananda, bliss. You begin to feel you are no longer alone. There is someone who will love you, not on a temporary basis, but for all time. You begin to feel that he and you are one.

This realization of unity is the consequence of surrender of disciple to guru. Therefore, how should a chela behave? In my opinion there is only one way a chela has to behave. He should live, move and think in the spirit of the guru. You know how the car moves? Whenever you turn the steering wheel to the right, the car goes to the right. If you turn it to the left, the car goes to the left. Suppose you turn the steering wheel to the right and the car moves to the left, what will you do? You will send the car to a mechanic, because there is something wrong with it. Therefore, when the disciple moves with the spirit of guru, he is going alright. But if the disciple moves against the spirit of the guru, then he needs repair. Therefore, it is necessary to have a guru and to follow him.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, July, 1981)

In spiritual life there is a very important relationship that exists between guru and disciple. Even as you have the relationship between parent and child, husband and wife, in the same way, there is an important relationship between guru and disciple.

Guru is not merely a teacher. In yoga, guru is known as master, one who is able to give knowledge and dispel the inner darkness. Therefore, guru should not be interpreted as professor or teacher. There are two channels of acquiring knowledge- one is through the intellect and the other is through enlightenment. A professor or a teacher can give intellectual instructions and knowledge to a student, but he cannot give enlightenment.

Guru is able to give intellectual and intuitive knowledge to his disciple. The word disciple means a person who follows a discipline. In yoga, he is known as chela or shishya, meaning ‘one who is eager to learn’. If you come to the guru to learn, you are a chela or shishya. But when you follow a certain discipline, then you are a disciple.

Even as a guru is able to give intellectual knowledge and enlightenment, in the same way, a chela should be able to learn intellectually as well as assimilate enlightenment. The most important point to remember here is that everybody is not a chela. Because most people want to have intellectual knowledge only, they do not understand enlightenment. Also their consciousness and their spirit may not be ready for enlightenment.

The relationship between guru and chela is like the relationship between electrical cable and light. Guru is the energy or the spiritual shakti, and chela is the revealer of that shakti. Therefore every chela must develop his spirit and his consciousness. When the spirit and consciousness become deep, the disciple realizes himself. The spirit unfolds within him, find, then there is enlightenment.

Guru and disciple are essentially one and not two. Tits consciousness of disciple is always plugged with guru. This is called devotion or bhakti. On that plane they are one and totally united. By constant spiritual practice, purity is attained, the dross of the mind is removed, and then the disciple can realize his guru within him.

For a disciple the guru exists outside as well as inside. The external guru is one aspect of his devotion and the inner guru is another aspect of his realization. When he meditates on his guru, he tries to communicate with his inner guru. Therefore, in yoga, it is said that guru is the most important aspect in spiritual life. But it should be remembered that the disciple has to belong to a higher category. The higher the disciple’s spirit, the quicker will be the enlightenment.

Even as the pure water in the pond can reflect the moon in the sky, in the same way, the purity of heart of the disciple can reflect the glory of his guru. There are three important steps in deeper relationships. The highest relationship is between man and God. The empirical relationship is between child and parent, brother and sister, man and woman. But the relationship with guru includes them all. It is at once empirical and transcendental. At one level they move as two individuals, one knows and the other does not, but at a higher level they move as one.

The glory of guru and the greatness of disciple is the first important point in the practice of yoga as well as tantra. The attitude and behaviour of the disciple and the guru are very special. It is an attitude of complete acceptance and an attempt at getting closer and closer to each other. The arrogance of disciple and the egoism of guru will not bring them closer. The disciple is most important for a guru, and the guru is equally important for a disciple.

When you start the practice of yoga and tantra, you begin to become a chela. It is true that in the beginning you learn yoga and tantra from books and by hearing from others. But at a certain point in your practice, there has to be some sort of interaction between you and your guru.

When you begin your journey in spiritual life you are always full of inspiration and enthusiasm, because you begin your journey on the external plane where you live. But when you move further, you come to a land where you have never been. Here there is a feeling of total loneliness, and the experiences are baffling. The visions and the knowledge are so completely astounding that you cannot even understand what you see.

At that point, when a great transformation takes place in the realm of the mind and experience, to whom are you going to ask, ‘What is this?’ When you ask different people, you get different answers and that creates a lot of confusion in your psyche. The persons whom you ask don’t really know you and you don’t know them. Therefore, they cannot properly interpret your experiences. Hence you need a guru with whom you are intimate and who should be intimate with you. You belong to him and he belongs to you. You means the body, mind, emotions and spirit. All of you belongs to him.

It is also most important that the guru be a living guru. Sometimes, due to our personal arrogance, we feel adverse to having a living guru. In many people there is a particular psychological behaviour pattern, and we call that ego or individuality. On account of this we do not want to surrender. But still we live in a world of paradox. We surrender to the senses, to the worldly enjoyments, but when the moment comes to surrender before the guru, our individuality comes up.

I remember a man who was very much attached to a woman. He spent a lot of money on her. He neglected his children and displeased his wife for her. Once he met me in a railway car, and I began to talk to him about guru. He said, ‘But I cannot renounce my individuality. I am me.’ I understood that man very well, and I told him, ‘When it comes to guru, you have an individuality; but in relation to that woman have you any?’

This is the paradox with all of us. When we are talking about the guru, we are very much afraid of losing ourselves. But we are not afraid of losing ourselves in this great wilderness of life. I think there are two important moments of surrender in human life. We surrender ourselves to the lower instincts of life, to our temptations and mental whims. That is one type of surrender which most people make. The other point of surrender is to the guru. The outcome of the first surrender is pain, agony and frustration and the result of the second type of surrender is ananda, bliss. You begin to feel you are no longer alone. There is someone who will love you, not on a temporary basis, but for all time. You begin to feel that he and you are one.

This realization of unity is the consequence of surrender of disciple to guru. Therefore, how should a chela behave? In my opinion there is only one way a chela has to behave. He should live, move and think in the spirit of the guru. You know how the car moves? Whenever you turn the steering wheel to the right, the car goes to the right. If you turn it to the left, the car goes to the left. Suppose you turn the steering wheel to the right and the car moves to the left, what will you do? You will send the car to a mechanic, because there is something wrong with it. Therefore, when the disciple moves with the spirit of guru, he is going alright. But if the disciple moves against the spirit of the guru, then he needs repair. Therefore, it is necessary to have a guru and to follow him.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, July, 1981)

Common sense comes when the mind is sufficiently clear of debris to see what is needed in a particular situation, at a particular time. Some people seem to possess a reasonable level of common sense during everyday life but are totally devoid of it when it comes to spiritual matters. They usually feel that spirituality is something to be practiced separately, something alien to their normal behavioural pattern. One reason for this is the presence of social and religious conditioning which often leads people to believe that spiritual life is separate from day to day life. It is not separate, however, and it should not to be thought of in that way. If one’s spiritual development program does not extend into one’s day to day life, then it is not spirituality that is being practiced. Spiritual living is practical living. If one’s mind is trained properly, one cannot avoid moving more efficiently through life. Efficiency in living means doing what has to be done in the right way at the right time. Efficiency evolves with the mind as it matures and clears. This is the beginning of spirituality. Spiritual life is not just seeing visions and being wafted off on the gentle airs of mind. Rather it is jumping down into life itself and seeing it as it really is. One might entertain certain ideals to strive for, but unless they are practically interwoven with one’s daily life, these ideals are unreal. One must make no bones about it – spirituality is a real thing, and it can be experienced by any person possessing a certain amount of common sense.

When sickness arises and one is unable to heal oneself, the first thing any sensible person does is to visit someone who knows about that particular illness. From there he will gain a method by which the illness can be alleviated. He certainly does not expect to undergo treatment for every disease known to man – he will undergo treatment for the malady he has and no other. Therefore, his main concern is to find out the most efficacious treatment for his particular condition and apply it according to his own needs. This is just common sense.

The same way of thinking also applies to spiritual practice, particularly yoga. Yoga is simply a means by which man can learn to communicate with himself and his environment. Individuals usually have a different concept of the end to which yoga leads, and so they come to yoga for a variety of reasons. This is why yoga has so many physical and mental practices. They exist for the sole purpose of providing each individual with a means by which he can begin to express his own personal traits and qualities. Therefore yoga must be approached sensibly. As with illness, one’s yogic treatment, one’s spiritual treatment should be carried out according to what one is personality-wise, body-wise, mind-wise. Few people realize the full importance of adapting yoga to oneself in this way.

Yoga may be compared with allopathic medicine. Allopathy has a vast system of drugs at its disposal, however, one cannot utilize all of them at one time for just any disease. One has to find which drug suits the case in question. Similarly, yoga’s large number of psycho-physical techniques are not meant to be used by one person, all at one time. As with drugs, these techniques can only be applied in measured quantities to specific needs. After all, if one is sick and feeling pain, he may find that aspirin relieves the pain very nicely. What then is the point of taking a stronger pain killer which might have various side effects, when a simple drug can be used ? If one has certain needs and a simple yogic practice is found which gives satisfaction and good benefits, why waste time running after the secret, esoteric practices? Any spiritual practice, whether simple or secret and advanced can only be performed according to individual capacity. Because of this, what one practices is actually not as important as many would like to believe. One has to exercise common sense in regard to this subject. If one is practicing something simple, and that practice is becoming part of one’s life then nothing more is needed.

Spiritual progress is solely dependent on the individual capacity to adapt perceptually, to assimilate new perceptions of oneself. Thus a complicated abstract meditation given to one whose mind is confused is similar to offering a match to a man whose house is on fire. It has no practical value. As far as yoga is concerned, the simpler the method of maturing the mind and body, the easier and faster the mind and body will be able to assimilate these new perceptions. This is fact, not theory. All men who are established in spiritual life endeavour to present the path to mankind by the simplest possible means. Time is the medium by which that simplicity becomes misunderstood, changing a simple reality into a complicated truth.

One day a man went to visit a swami who was known to be established in wisdom. This man was a famous yoga teacher and upon entering the swami’s room he immediately asked what meditation practice he should do. Before the swami could answer, the man launched into a somewhat lengthy monologue on what he knew. The swami sat quietly and listened as the man described this technique and that technique and all the gurus he had learned from. Finally the man finished with, ‘so, which one should I practice?’ The swami answered, ‘Just sit and be quiet, that is what you should practice’.

This is a true story, and the situation which that man was in is a common one. Most people who practice yoga feel, at one time or another, that their practices are not as beneficial as the more ‘powerful practices’ which they have heard or read about, and so their daily routine falls off through lack of faith. This kind of evaluation arises from the same mental condition which leads us to believe that ‘the grass is greener on the other side of the fence’. Because a technique bears the name ‘kundalini yoga’ and involves visualization of any number of psychic phenomena, surely it must be better than some beginner’s practice.

Of course kundalini yoga and other advanced practices do have their place. Moving one’s awareness along various psychic pathways is of great benefit at certain times, for certain people. But the actual arousal of spiritual energy which most seem to long for is not dependent on these practices. If spiritual energy is going to flow, along with corresponding perceptual changes, then it will do so regardless of what one is doing. Any spiritual experience is always spontaneous in its occurrence, and the arousal of spiritual energies is no exception. One only has to examine the lives of mystics to verify this. Spiritual experience will occur spontaneously when the mind has become open enough to allow it to occur. An open mind arises from ability to communicate with oneself and one’s surroundings.

So why disturb the mind with worry about ‘technique-value’. Remember that in yoga, simplicity of approach has greater value in that it holds less chance of clogging the mind with expectation. The mind can obviously grasp a simple concept more easily and for longer periods than a concept which is more complicated.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, January, 1979)

Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Given at the Zinal Conference, Switzerland in Sept.

In spiritual life it is necessary to know exactly what you are trying to achieve. Whether in tantra or yoga, there is only one thing that man is trying to arrive at, and that is the awakening of his latent forces. These forces are a part of his existence. They are so important for his evolution that by awakening them, man can become superman.

Out of the ten parts of the brain, only one part is now functioning. Our perception, cognition, etc. are the outcome of this one part only. The other nine parts are inactive; they play no part, no role in our life. Men live and die without awakening these areas of the brain. Of course, the natural process of evolution is taking place, but it is going to take millions of years. By that time perhaps the earth might not exist. It is worth an experiment to awaken the totality of human consciousness in this very lifetime. In my opinion that is the ultimate purpose of spiritual life.

These nine areas of the brain contain potential energy, not merely psychic awareness but total knowledge and shakti. The brain is like a big city with beautiful roads, houses and street lights. Inside the houses are televisions, radios and electrical installations. Now this city is desolate and uninhabited because there is no electricity. All we have to do is to connect it with the main generating station and it will become a city of light and life.

The city is here in the brain. Illumining the city is the process for which the whole life has to be properly set. This objective must be very clear and exact in your mind. Now, how are you going to awaken or realise this divine city? Where is the generating station and the connecting cable?

Tantra and kundalini yoga have made it very clear that mooladhara chakra is the generating station, sushumna is the connecting station, and ajna chakra is the local substation. The existing amount of prana and state of mind cannot awaken this silent area. In order to feed that silent city we need an enormous quantity of energy. With the help of prana and mind, the intellect and the different systems of the body may function, but not the silent areas of the brain. In order to have the necessary quantum of energy, mooladhara chakra has to be awakened. Then the energy has to be conducted to ajna chakra via sushumna.

If awakening of the totality of energy and consciousness is the ultimate aim and destiny of man, what are those elements and behaviours which activate and which suppress this awakening? I am not talking in terms of good or bad. For me, there is neither sinner nor puritan. We have to make a clear-cut definition of pro-evolution and pro-awakening. If a certain type of life is able to create awakening, then that is the way we must live.

Transformation or self-punishment

Before an awakening can be brought about, a lot of changes have to take place, not only on the intellectual plane but in the basic structure of consciousness. The entire form must be changed. The very purpose of yoga and spiritual life is to bring about this state of transformation in the structure of the personality. When you accept the process of transformation as a primary hypothesis, then you should also be prepared to experience everything that follows transformation.

Transformation is a Very clear process, and it forms the basis of the guru/disciple relationship. The same process is applied whether the relationship is external, in which case I am guru and you are disciple, or internal when a part of me is guru and a part of me is disciple. In order to clarify this, let us take the example of a carpenter.

A carpenter takes a piece of wood, cuts it into different sizes and then drives nails into it in various places. If only that piece of wood could speak out during this ordeal, it would make a horrible accusation: ‘Look here, I am being misused and abused by this dirty carpenter.’ But ultimately the wood is transformed into a beautiful piece of furniture as an outcome of the carpenter’s cruelty.

Take another example, that of a tailor. A piece of cloth lying in a shop is brought to a tailor to be made into a shirt. First the cloth has to be cut to size. So the tailor cuts it with sharp scissors. Next he stitches it with a sharp needle until finally he pierces each and every part of the cloth. Imagine if you were that piece of cloth and I were the tailor. With every prick, you would say, ‘This swami is so bad.’

Ultimately, however, it is not the cutting and stitching process that is important, but the finished product. The tailor or carpenter must have a very clear vision of this in mind before taking up the work. Otherwise, both time and material will be wasted. For example, if you give a saw and some wood to a person who is not a carpenter, who has no vision, he will cut the wood into many pieces. Finally, he will not know what to do with them, so they will just lie there, poor little bits.

This is what often happens in the life of yoga, whether you are dealing with disciples or your own self. Therefore, when you practise yoga and spiritual life, it is necessary to understand that the purpose is transformation and awakening; it is not self-punishment. There is not something inimical within you which has to be killed. During the process of transformation there are things which are left behind. At the same time, there are elements which come forth spontaneously. The human being throws off scales like a serpent. Therefore, it is very important to know exactly what you are becoming. If your vision is not clear, then whatever process you put yourself through will be one of self-punishment rather than transformation.

New dimension of discipline

Many people undergo strict discipline in life. They fast and meditate, keep silence and practise celibacy. But unless you understand the real purpose for these restraints, they become a type of punishment which you inflict upon yourself. Sometimes you are angry with yourself so you undergo a life of austerity to punish yourself. This unnecessary austerity creates a great division in your personality. One part of you becomes a puritan and another part a sinner. The sinner wants to remain a sinner, while the puritan is always trying to punish and execute the sinner. This division of personality has to be dissolved. Neither puritanism nor licentiousness helps in spiritual life.

There are moments in life when you have to give yourself to the fulfilment of sensory pleasures in order to work out karma. In this particular respect, you should accept one thing without any doubt. The life of the senses and the mind is not anti-evolutionary, it is pro-evolutionary. Fulfilment of desires in life is a part of spiritual illumination. But, at the same time, you have to remember your purpose. It is not for the fulfilment of sensual life, but the fulfilment of your spiritual vision that you are following this pattern of life.

All spiritual practices ultimately lead you to the point of awakening. The life you choose, the religion you follow, all the food you have fixed for yourself, should be in accordance with the fulfilment of this purpose. Now that the objective is clear in your mind, you have to design each and every item of your life. The austerity, control and restraint that you practise must all have a purpose. Only then can you ensure that your life does not become a religious ritual.

Now we are giving a new dimension to this word discipline. Fulfilment of the objective has to be the purpose of discipline. Discipline for the sake of discipline is just abnormal behaviour. But when you are following a certain system of life which has an objective and a purpose, then discipline has some meaning. Discipline is different from individual to individual and from society to society. What is discipline for one may be a punishment for another, according to the level of understanding and the purpose.

Therefore, the aspirant of yoga should formulate the pattern of his life according to this threefold purpose: (i) the awakening of kundalini, (ii) the awakening of sushumna, and (iii) the awakening of the silent areas of the brain. Keeping these threefold aims in view, you have to set your yoga practices and formulate your moral code. Whatever you do for this triple purpose is to be defined as spiritual discipline.

Yogic discipline

For the awakening of kundalini, it is important that sushumna nadi be purified. In order to purify sushumna, you have to practise a lot of pranayama. When you practise a little pranayama only, it doesn’t matter, but when you practise a lot, you have to take care of so many things. You have to know the rules and regulations which control the practices of prana in relation to food and life. This is a form of spiritual discipline, and the person who follows it will never feel any difficulty, sense of punishment or restriction, because the practice of pranayama is very necessary to awaken sushumna.

When you practise pranayama you have to practise kumbhaka as well. In fact, kumbhaka, which means ‘retention of breath’ is the ultimate definition of pranayama. In conjunction with pranayama, you also have to practise bandhas. When you practise moola bandha and other bandhas, naturally your mental and psychic system is affected. If your stomach, mind, or emotions are constipated; if your family or social life are too complicated; and if your mental personality lives like a vagabond dog, you can just imagine what the practice of pranayama with bandhas is going to do.

A strong kumbhaka with jalandhara, uddiyana and moola bandha, creates heat in the body. This heat is known as the fire of yoga. It is not only spiritual or psychic in nature, it is also physical and affects the metabolism as well as the psycho-spiritual system. When enough heat is created, there is a powerful explosion and an awakening takes place. How are you going to maintain a balance in the heat that has been created by the awakening? For this, there are special rules and regulations given in the yogic texts: “Neither too much eating, nor too much fasting; neither too much sleeping, nor too much vigil; neither too much talking, nor too much silence.” Extremes are for from helpful on the path of awakening. The practitioner has to understand the important things: proper food, adequate sleep, and the right kind of social interaction. All these things create a balance, and they also balance the complications that could arise due to the awakening.

Think of yourself as a carpenter. The body, mind, psyche and spirit are your material. With these four materials you are creating a fully evolved being. With the scissors of spiritual discipline, you have to cut everything to size. This means that you have to train the physical and mental systems. Later you have to train the psychic system, and ultimately you will have to train the spiritual system.

In order to train the physical system there are the practices of hatha yoga. When you practise hatha yoga, you know exactly what the rules and regulations are. These are the discipline for the hatha yogi because through them he is able to fulfil his purpose. In order to train the mind, you have to practise raja yoga, and in order to channelize your emotions, you will have to practise bhakti yoga.

The channelization of surplus or unruly emotion is most important, otherwise you will have trouble in the psychic body. In order to train the psychic body, you will have to undergo a lot of difficulties. The psychic body is a wild elephant, or an untamed tiger. Being very powerful, it refuses to be tamed. It is the house of all psychic dreams and experiences. In order to tame this psychic body, the aspirant has to undergo a special type of life. Very few people leading a normal type of life have been able to obtain this psychic power. As you tame the emotions by bhakti yoga, the mind by raja yoga, and the body by hatha yoga, you train the psychic body by ashram yoga.

Mission of man

In order to evolve quickly, we must be prepared to accept any kind of discipline from physical to psychic, and we should not brand it as ‘religious’ or ‘good for swamis but not for me’. If you want to fulfil your destiny, then you should be prepared to accept every discipline. To others, this may seem like a punishment but, in fact, it is not.

You are ready to undergo hardships for whatever you want to accomplish in the material life, not necessarily for the awakening of kundalini or spiritual powers. Many times when you are working on a project in your life, you follow a path of adventure. When you plunge into this adventure for the fulfilment of some material project, your normal life undergoes a total change in so far as programming is concerned. You no longer care for your family, the food you eat, where or how you sleep. The most important point is accomplishment of the project. In order to fulfil that purpose, maybe it is gaining an empire, the establishment of an industry, or the discovery of some medicinal plants, people throughout the ages have made all kinds of sacrifices. They have gone without the necessities of the ordinary life. They have jumped over their personal emotions, passions, ambitions. For an onlooker, it seems horrible, ‘What kind of man is this? He doesn’t eat; he doesn’t sleep; he doesn’t dress like a gentleman. He has no wife and children. Look how dirty he is; his clothes smell.’

A man with a mission does not care for pain and pleasure. Every man has to live with a mission, and the mission of man, the destiny of man, is to awaken the silent city. So the definition of discipline in the light of spiritual life, is that which we do for the fulfilment of this mission.

Satsang on Sannyasa and Gurukul Life

How does the way of a swami differ from the life that we know?

Swami literally means ‘master of one’s own self. Swami does not mean a monk, priest or a religious personality. Swami is a self-master; nobody owns him and he does not own anybody. When you have a house, husband or wife, children, then there is ownership. In the life of a swami, there is no idea of ownership. Even if he is at the head of a large ashram or institution with plenty of money, it doesn’t belong to him, much less to his relatives. It is institutional, not personal. That is the ideal of a swami. For instance, my guru Swami Sivananda left nothing in his personal name when he died. His ability, capacity, and potentials were all used for the welfare of everyone and not for himself personally. This is the spirit of renunciation in sannyasa. In worldly life, however, most people suffer from insecurity. So in order to establish themselves, they have the frame of family, religion, nationality, caste, group, culture or society. They believe in all of these and secure themselves with a house, industries, economic status, property in their name, and a will in the name of their wife and children. They never let go because they are insecure.

But sannyasa is just the opposite. When you have realised that worldly life has not given you satisfaction, then you accept sannyasa, a life of total insecurity. Certain people are qualified for sannyasa and these people do not exist for themselves. A sannyasin may have many capacities, he may be a painter, writer, doctor or engineer, but he never utilises these for personal gain.

There are people who have greater intelligence and competence. They are rich in mind and potential, and need a higher path in life through which to express themselves. If you have an elephant, then where are you going to keep it? If you put it in a small room, either the elephant will die or the room will collapse. The life of a householder is like keeping an elephant confined in a small room.

If you feed a tiger with salad, just imagine what will happen to him. Salad is not the food of a tiger. In the same way, there are people who want to live a different type of life because their heart is not able to accept the slavery of customs. They need to experience life directly and to roam freely through the forest of the mind, without fearing any of its inhabitants.

Whereas most people are the slaves of their mind and senses, a swami is able to control himself. A swami knows how to conduct his emotions, jealousies, prides and prejudices, and how to keep his mind balanced. Even when all appears to be going wrong around him, he is able to maintain tranquillity.

How does one become a swami?

If you want to take sannyasa, you have to prepare your mind first. Then call a barber to shave your head, and live in the most simple and spartan conditions, eating and sleeping less, wearing only two dhotis, and keeping the mind under control through constant activity.

A sannyasin must have a guru. You should not say that the guru is inside. This kind of reasoning is a product of ego. If guru is inside, then wife is also inside. Why do you need her? As a newly initiated sannyasin, you must retire for some years to the peaceful surroundings of the guru’s ashram, live with other swamis, and adjust your ego to theirs.

When your mind is stabilised properly, then you must travel far and wide. As you travel, gaining knowledge and intuition, you must have a clear goal in mind. You must be a clear thinker, saying whatever you think and know about yoga and Vedanta for the benefit and evolution of the whole society.

In order to become a swami, you must know what you really want. The life of a sannyasin is the highest life. Once you have accepted it, you are indeed blessed, and if you are able to live in the spirit of sannyasa, you are one who walks with God.

Could you please clarify why you give the title of swami to people who are not yet masters of their minds?

Most of the people who come to take sannyasa, in this ashram anyway, are very serious minded. They realise that sooner or later they will have to become masters of the mind, but this requires a certain amount of preparation. You know what society is like today. A sannyasin does not drop from heaven; he comes from your society. Even though he may not like to succumb to the temptations of the mind, still he has his own habits, his conditioning. When he comes for sannyasa, he carries these with him. To drop these habits takes a long time and a hard, strict guru is necessary. But, sooner or later, those who are sannyasins should be able to control their mind through their higher self.

Why is it necessary for sannyasins to lead a simple life?

Sannyasins must have a very strong base in life. You know many years ago the saints used to go from village to village with only a shoulder bag. Some of them didn’t even have that: they lived a very poor life. They often had no shoes. Sometimes they didn’t have enough to eat, yet they were still able to give spiritual guidance to the people. Nowadays, life is very complicated, but the swamis have to live a simple life. Mentally they should be simple also, and the ashram should be simple.

Why don’t sannyasins return home and teach their people how to live better lives through yoga?

After one has accepted sannyasa, he belongs to all, not to any particular group or individual. The rishis and sages who made the rules for sannyasa were very much aware of the limitations of the human personality. They knew that a sannyasin has a special role to play in society and that he has a special place in the heart of the people. But if he lives with his own relations, in his own village, the people will always be aware that he is their own son or brother or whatever relationship. Therefore, the moment you take sannyasa, forget that you were born to a family, forget that you were meant to love or be loved. The sannyasin has a twofold duty- to develop self-awareness and to spread the spiritual influence to as many people as possible.

Why must sannyasins leave the city and remain isolated in an ashram?

In the city, weak sannyasins have some difficulties, but in isolation they are helped by the situation. Just as a baby has to have the right conditions around him so he can learn to adjust, similarly, conducive conditions have to be created for the new sannyasins. Of course, these will not continue throughout life, but it takes some time for the mind to become stable and for a sannyasin to become seasoned.

When you season wood, you can even use it on a river bed and it will repel water. It does not rot or get eaten by insects, and it does not expand or contract so much. It is stable. Once the mind, body and emotions are stabilised, you will know where you are going and what you should do. Then you can roam freely like a mendicant and absolutely nothing will affect you. You can also teach yoga and effectively help many people.

You know what happens when you are exposed to society; you are influenced by friends and relatives who come to tell you so and so is married or divorced and this person wants to see you, etc. This may not affect all sannyasins, but it has adverse effects on some. When you are isolated from society, these things do not happen, and during the course of time the sannyasin develops sufficient detachment from these associations.

In the city you are not very far from the old type of life, where there are so many temptations and so much maya. If you are not strong, you succumb to them, but if you are far away, even if the mind is tempted, it is not possible to satisfy it. In this manner the negative aspects of the mind become weaker and weaker. When your mind is isolated like an island, it is able to conserve prana which then becomes your spiritual power.

Will you please tell us about daily life in your ashram?

Ashram life is absolutely different from any other way of life in the world. Just as you don’t require air conditioners in cold countries, or central heating systems in tropical countries such as India, when you live in an ashram, you don’t need to practise any spiritual sadhana. Yoga should be practised where the entire life pattern is un-yogic If you have the right type of ashram life and additionally you do the various yoga practices, you are only exerting yourself.

The ashram wakes up by 3 a.m. and until 5 a.m. all the inmates are busy cleaning and doing a little bit of study or writing work that I personally give them. All day the people in the ashram are engaged in practical, manual work. We have created a lot of work in order to keep the mind properly occupied, and all the inmates of the ashram are busy in those self-created activities. The beauty of ashram life is that since everyone is enthusiastically participating in the activities and trying to enjoy them, work becomes contagious and voluntary.

There is no religious insistence and life is conducted in a very simple way without any moral emphasis. Food, activities and mutual interactions are based on natural things. As I am not a religious person most people who live with me are also not religious. They are a mixture of Hindus, Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims, but most of them are disillusioned by religions. We have no religious celebrations in the ashram.

The thing which people in the ashram like best is singing kirtan at night. Most people participate in that although it is not compulsory. The most compulsory thing in the ashram is getting up at 3 a.m. and retiring to your room at 8 p.m. Even eating is not compulsory; you need not eat if you don’t feel like it.

Ashram life is difficult, but it is certainly worth trying.

Why do men and women stay in the same ashram?

I don’t think men and women should be separated. God has not done it, so why should I? Separate facilities are all that is necessary. At the same time, we do not form attachments and personal relationships, because it is far better to live an independent life within the ashram. We work together, that’s all. We are neither brother nor sister, husband nor wife, parent nor child. We have no relations with each other. I am not half and you are not half. I am one and you are one. I want you to be a complete unit. That is how one has to grow.

This reorientation to one another may take decades or even centuries. The old cultures and religions have not succeeded in changing man’s limited attitudes and views of the opposite sex. Today there are still many weak men and women in the world. In the ashram, therefore, we have to learn to live together with full knowledge and a new awareness, just like a snake charmer.

You know, when you are worried and anxious, you use more energy. But when you carry a big tree with this girl or this boy, you use a lot less energy. Community life with hard work is good, but not two swamis sitting together, talking and talking.

Please tell us something about the children living in the ashram.

I will tell you about the children Jiving in my Australian ashram at Mangrove Mountain. Most of them came to the ashram when their parents took sannyasa. They are very peculiar children, strong in inclination and completely different from their parents.

They have to attend school because it is compulsory by Australian law, but they are sannyasins first. The teachers find them very intelligent, open and disciplined. They never use bad words or talk about TV. Whenever the teachers get angry, the children tell them, ‘Please practise yoga.’

All the children have shaved heads, and as soon as they get back to the ashram in the afternoon, they throw off their shirts and pants and put on geru. One girl of six years said, ‘Oh, we don’t want to read, we prefer to cook food at the ashram.’ All the children are happy on Saturdays and Sundays as they can play all day and help prepare food for the hundred or more people in the ashram. When the children go to the forest to collect firewood, they come back dirty from head to toe. If anyone asks them why they are so dirty, they reply, ‘Naturopathy’.

Indeed, children like the ashram life so much that some of them come to live here before their parents. One little girl stayed in the ashram for two years before her mother and father came to join her.

Why is the ashram so austere?

I have visited some of the ultra modern ashrams in India, but I do not believe in them. Even though I have had opportunities to create a modern ashram, I have purposely not done so. I believe people come to the ashram for a change. When you leave the modern society for a more austere way of life, you undergo a great metamorphosis of body and mind.

We have a very big ashram in Australia, sixty miles out of Sydney. There are no sealed roads for miles around, and there are pythons in the forests. For four years the ashram did not have electricity, and although we can build beautiful houses there, we chose to construct small mud-brick huts. There is no necessity for elaborate living quarters, electricity or septic toilets.

Maybe we live a backward way of life, but perhaps modern culture is also backward. Modern amenities make you dependent and lazy; you don’t even have to think. You use a bathroom without thought or effort. You live like robots. In the ashram you can’t live like robots; you have to think. When you live in luxury, your brain becomes very slow, but an austere life promotes a very active brain. Remember that a great metamorphosis will only take place in the brain if you undergo a major change.

I also think that separate rooms do not give us the opportunity to see where we stand with one another. If a group of people live together, they begin to understand the nature of human psychology. They are able to assess their own minds, their limitations and faults, which is a great change from the modern culture.

What is your idea of a beautiful ashram?

The ashram should be constructed along simple lines by the labour of sannyasins and inmates. It should be situated in an out of the way place where there are many difficulties. At times there should be a cyclone, typhoon, flood, extreme heat or cold. Sometimes it should be pleasant and other times very suffocating. This is my concept of an ashram, and a very beautiful ashram. This is how God has decorated nature.

How can a householder create an ashram atmosphere in the home?

The purpose of household life is not to amass desires and ambitions, but to exhaust them and get rid of the net of maya while performing one’s duties. A greater number of ashrams, monasteries, churches and temples cannot accelerate the pace of human evolution until and unless the spirit of these places is imbibed by the householders as much as possible in their day to day life. If you find a better way of life in the ashram, you have to imbibe that spirit and bring it down into family life. The life of a householder can become sublime if you keep in mind the ultimate purpose of human life. Householders must practise yoga, simplify their lives, and create a system of harmony, orderliness and discipline within the precincts of the family life.

Ashram is not a monastery or nunnery. If one is sincerely following the path and is trying to fulfil the purpose of a swami, then his family environment becomes the ashram. Wherever you live, you will try to create a new system in your family and that will become an ashram. You will become a swami and your children will become your chelas, your disciples. It’s only a transformed or sublimated way of life, a life of continual self-purification, correction and growth into the area of vastness and infinity.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, July,1980)

Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Given at the Zinal Conference in Sept.

Right from the beginning-less ages, the world has been guided by spiritually illumined people who come from time to time to raise man’s consciousness and to remind us of the way we must go. Swami Sivananda was one great soul who was born to give the word of spiritual life to thousands and thousands of people all over the globe. He never came to the west and he never went to the east, but today he is everywhere.

A man who could convince the intellect

Of the many great men who have come in the galaxy of spiritual life in the last thirty to fifty years, I have met most. I have utmost faith, respect, devotion and acceptance for all of them, for their sterling personalities, but I have met practically no one in life who has been able to convince my keen intellect. I have always been critical about everything, including myself. But it was Swami Sivananda whose way of life, whose daily routine, external dealings and expression of personal spiritual power were so convincing and impressive that I made him my guru. I am proud, or rather, I feel I am very fortunate to have Swami Sivananda as my guru.

I do not mean to draw a comparison between others and Swami Sivananda, but definitely, when I was young, and when I grew up as a sannyasin, I had my own doubts about personalities. If I saw a man who could perform miracles, my intellect used to ask: ‘What is the necessity?’ and ‘If he can perform miracles, then why not this one?’ and I would create a particular miracle in my mind. If I heard a person talking about the universality of religions and equality of man, my intellect used to put forth the question: ‘Why don’t you practise it?’ and I used to think, ‘What is the use of talking about it? I can also do that.’ If I came across a great man who had renounced everything and preached detachment, I would look at him and a question would form: ‘Then why don’t you really live it rather than just trying to convince others?’

Like this I went on criticising throughout my life right from the age of ten. My intellect was always unconvinced about some point or other. But when I lived with Swamiji, from 1943 to 1956, I was very keen on observing each and every action he performed and each and every thing that he wrote in his books. I found that there was no gap between his preaching’s, his practices, and his personal life. Therefore, I summed up that when there is absolutely no gap between a man’s thought, speech and action, such a man is a mahatma, one who has universal consciousness.

His inner personality

The life of Swami Sivananda, as I know it, was the life of a simple, innocent child. In fact, he did not have even a trace of the ego of a yogi. When you reach a high point in spiritual evolution, you become a child- not meaning childish, but innocent, like a child. Everything in Swami Sivananda was so natural. He did not have to practise it, nor did he need to think about it. It was as though his personality, mind, body and spirit were all emanating a type of fragrance.

There are two types of people- those who express their nature and those who express their intellect. I have seen many people who are very humble, but that is not their nature. They are shrewd people, but they behave humbly with others. I have seen people with charity and compassion, but I can smell it. That is not their nature; they have faith in it, so they do it. I have seen people with purity, continence, chastity and generosity, but I definitely know these were not part of their nature; they were expressions of their faith.

You may be compassionate, humble, charitable and pure, but is this what you really are, or is it just the way you have trained yourself to be because you know that these are very good qualities? Swami Sivananda was not an artificial good man, he was intrinsically, basically and primarily good because that was the element in him. In my eyes that is the one thing that made Swami Sivananda completely different from all others I have met in my life.

His life

Swami Sivananda was born on 8th September, 1887 in the south of India on the banks of the Tamrapurni River. There were prophesies that the next incarnation of divinity would be born on these banks. In his family, about three centuries back, there was ‘another saint who was highly honoured as a great teacher and devotee of Lord Shiva. So naturally, Swami Sivananda imbibed all the greatness from his family lineage.

He became a doctor, went to Malaysia and served as a medical man up to 1922. When he realised that man’s maladies were deeper in nature, he left the profession, returned to India, and was initiated into sannyasa in 1924. From 1923 he remained in Rishikesh until his death in 1963. He did not mean to develop an ashram, but one grew up around him. He did not intend to make disciples and become a guru, but disciples rallied around him and made him a guru.

The band of disciples grew year by year until finally they had to search for a place where they could all live together. At the site of the present Rishikesh ashram, there was a dilapidated cowshed which Swamiji and his young disciples acquired and occupied. Around this cowshed grew the ashram where the international structure of the Divine Life Society is situated.

My first meeting with Swami Sivananda

I came to Swami Sivananda’s ashram on 19th March, 1943 in the early morning. When I met Swamiji he was sitting in a small room which was his office. As soon as he saw me, he got up and greeted me with ‘Om Namo Narayanaya’ and bowed down at my feet. I was about nineteen then. He made me sit down and asked me what I had come for. I said that I was searching for something. In the first meeting it was not possible for me to tell everything. He said that I should stay there, and so I stayed for twelve years. During these years I lived with a person whose every act was in absolute conformity with what we call God’s behaviour, divine enactment. The more I think about it and compare that with my own life, the more I understand what the word perfection really means. I know that all of you will not have the chance to witness an example of perfection unless, of course, somebody else comes down like him. But surely, in the case of Swami Sivananda, perfection was an absolute expression of the beauty and magnanimity of his personality.

Life in the ashram

During the years with Swami Sivananda, I did not learn hatha yoga, raja yoga, bhakti yoga, tantra, Upanishads, or Gita. Right from dawn to dusk, and sometimes during the night as well, I worked and worked and worked, like a donkey, because he gave me just one command: ‘Work hard, then you will be purified. You don’t have to bring the light; the light is in you.’

It was not intellectually possible for me to understand what he was telling me, but because I had accepted him as my guru, I had accepted his commandment. For twelve years I lived a life above time and space, and worked as though I was having hysteric fits. I did everything from cleaning the toilets to the management of the ashram.

The first years of ashram life were so difficult that if I imagine them now, I think it must have all been a dream. I am sure none of my disciples would have been able to survive there as swamis! Along with many of the other young sannyasins, I helped to build the ashram step by step. In those days we never knew what we were going to eat the next day. Whenever I went to Swamiji he would say, ‘You look so lean and thin; you should eat a lot.’ The only thing I could reply was, ‘Where from?’ Then he would smile and tell me, ‘No matter, prana is inside you and from it you can get the energy you need.’ His smiles were wonderful. I think that if a hundred young women laughed I would not be won over, but one of Swami Sivananda’s smiles was enough to kill me.

As well as having little to eat, we had no place to sleep, no room, no roof and no blankets. I never saw a mosquito net the whole time I was in the ashram; I only saw masses and masses of huge mosquitoes. For drinking water we had to descend 300 steps, and of course we had to ascend them again after we had finished drinking. When I had diarrhoea it was a great problem. Every session involved a one and a half mile walk. By the time I finished one session and came back, I had to go again! Of course there would be no water left in my bucket and I would have to descend 300 steps again, get more water and hurry to the jungle.

Once I had jaundice and I never knew it. I was returning from the market one morning when an elderly swami called out, ‘Hey, you’ve got jaundice!’ I did not know what he meant by jaundice because disease was something I had never experienced before. When I returned to the ashram I asked Swamiji, ‘What is jaundice?’ He said it was some kind of disease in the body. Anyway, I forgot it and nothing happened. Another time I had paratyphoid and, being away from the ashram, I had nobody to look after me. I was unable to cook food for myself and I became so hungry that I went to the garden, picked some green papayas and ate them raw. Next day I had cramps in my stomach. Oh my God, I was in so much pain! But this also passed.

During the difficult periods which were ultimately intended for our evolution, we were unconsciously working day and night in constructing rooms, writing books and printing them. We never knew that we were working. It was a transcendental life and work was relaxation. I can definitely tell you that during those twelve years I did not really have any mental turmoil. Even if there was anything troublesome within me, it never dared to raise its head.

Living in the presence of a saint

To live with Swami Sivananda was to live with a little baby. In his presence you were never aware of your ego. Hold a little baby on your lap, then you will find out where your ego is. Whatever your age, whether you are a big officer or businessman, the president of a large company, the prime minister of a nation, or even a criminal, how do you behave with a baby on your lap? Differences, formalities, personalities, no longer exist. That was the effect of Swami Sivananda’s personality, and this is how a saint lives. It is very difficult to talk of such great men, because what can we say about them? It isn’t easy to fathom the spiritual illumination of a person. The mind and logic are finite, but the spiritual attainments are infinite. So, with the finite scale you cannot fathom the infinity of spiritual life.

Learning at the feet of the master

Swami Sivananda gave us complete freedom of expression. We had to manage all the ashram affairs from building construction and publishing books, to taking care of the guests or finance. Whatever problem the ashram had or whatever things the ashram needed, we had to manage ourselves. If we made a mistake, we were not chastised. Swamiji believed that everybody had come to the ashram with a noble intention, and he had complete faith in the sincerity, purpose and intentions of his disciples. Even if Swamiji heard about the swamis fighting amongst themselves he said, ‘It’s just a momentary diversion, relaxation!’

Many outsiders used to bring complaints to Swamiji about swamis fighting, or abusing each other. He said, ‘They are swamis, sannyasins who have renounced with a purpose and an intention. This is a temporary maya on them. They will be all right soon.’ That is what kept his disciples around him. It was not Swami Sivananda who created the whole illusion, the whole maya, but his disciples, and he was just the seer of that. He gave us plenty of chances to learn things, and that is why his disciples are doing such marvellous work all over the world today in a very sattvic and humane way. They do not work in a rajasic manner, but in a calm, quiet and simple way.

During my stay with Swami Sivananda, people from different ashrams used to come to me because they knew I was a brilliant Sanskrit scholar. ‘What does your guru teach you?’ they asked. ‘Nothing,’ I replied. ‘He doesn’t teach you hatha yoga?’ they pursued. ‘No,’ I said, ‘I type his letters.’ ‘Does he give you shaktipat?’ they inquired further. ‘I don’t know anything about this shaktipat business’, came the reply. ‘Has he given you some siddhis?’ they asked. ‘No’, I answered, ‘nothing’.

Frankly speaking, what I say in lectures, what I have written in books, the hatha yoga I teach, etc. has not come from studies or teachings. I have not read books about all these things, but they are very clear to me, and definitely I am an authority on hatha yoga, tantra and kundalini. You see, the knowledge does not come from outside; it is an unfoldment of what is already within. That which is in me is also in you. The only difference is that I had one watchword in life- service to guru, without any motive, without expectation. This was my passion, my joy and my pleasure.

Once a very powerful leader of politics came to the ashram. He told me: ‘Look here my boy, you are wasting your time in this place. You are so brilliant and such a fine orator, you could influence the whole country. Come with me and I’ll tell you what to do.’ I kept quiet and thought, ‘This is a test my guru has sent to me.’ That was the greatest temptation because he wanted to make me president of a big federation, a leader of thousands of powerful people, but I did not accept that offer. I remembered what Swamiji had told me, ‘Work hard and purify yourself, then the light will unfold from within you.’ And I felt sure it would come true.

Swami Sivananda’s divine charity

I have heard many mythological stories about great men of charity, but I have never seen one except for Swami Sivananda. Nobody went away without taking something. If one asked for money, clothes, blankets, food, shelter, medicine, love, affection, recognition, certificate, recommendation letters, anything one wanted he received. That was the greatness of Swamiji’s heart. It was not that he was rich, in fact, for many years the ashram was under a very heavy debt.

If anyone told Swamiji about the ashram’s financial situation he would say, ‘It’s not me; it is God who gives.’ If something was not available in the ashram, we had to bring it from Rishikesh market. If it was unavailable there, it would be brought from Dehra Dun, (26 miles away), or from Delhi.

Swamiji’s generosity was one of the greatest problems for the institution. His behaviour, attitude and personality became a very big liability, so much so that the moment money was received through the Post Office, it was immediately distributed to different people, leaving nothing in the balance. Then, every time Swamiji asked about money, we would tell him there was none. When he realised what we were doing, he began to directly give away the money that was placed at his feet.

His attitude to criticism

Not everyone in Swami Sivananda’s ashram spoke well about him; some criticised him day in and day out. Some people even came to the ashram to ridicule and mock not only Swamiji, but everything that concerned him. Swami Sivananda knew this very well. When it was brought to his notice, the only thing he said was, ‘God’s creation is beautiful, and we all have to be different from each other. If there is no resistance or criticism, the evolution of man will come to a dead end. If you think, wish or believe that everybody should accept you, your advice, philosophy, way of life, and agree with you totally, then you are hoping for a world which can never be.’

The world is a mixture of the three gunas. As such, you will always find people representing different compositions of these three qualities. If everybody in your institution was like you, it would be like an organ or harmonium with only one note, not seven. In music, as in life, each note is entirely different from the others. If you don’t know how to combine these notes when you play the harmonium, you will only produce a lot of noise and disturbance. But if you can combine the notes well, you will be able to create beautiful music out of the different sounds. In the same way scandal mongers, tale carriers, backbiters and other such people should exist and they always will, so you have to learn to live with them and not let them disturb you.

This is a very difficult philosophy to live by, but it is inevitable that you do. If you cannot live with different types of people in society, in your family, in an institution, then you are doomed to miseries, frustrations and all kinds of mental problems. You know it very well.

An instrument of God

When people came to him with troubles, Swamiji’s attitude was so natural and free from vanity, show and egoism. I have never seen anyone else like this.

Many people who have siddhis make a show and give a type of stage performance, or they credit themselves, but he never did this. Whenever people came to him with a problem, he always said, ‘I will pray for you’ or ‘You should practise this mantra and meditation’ or ‘God is very kind and he will listen to your prayers. You will be all right’.

If anyone told Swamiji they had been helped by his spiritual power, he would immediately reject it. He would say, ‘No, God is great, he has done it. I’ve only helped him.’ Many people have marketed their spiritual power, or they have cashed it in for political influence, or for obtaining disciples. This is still being done in the world today and it has been happening throughout the ages. But Swamiji was never a part of this.

According to Swamiji, spiritual power which comes to you by dint of sadhana is an expression of God’s wish. Therefore, you are only an agent, an instrument. That much credit can go to you. You are the tool, but you are not the maker of miracles. You are not the healer; you are not the prophet, it is he. This is the greatest self-control a sadhu, a sannyasin or a saint must have.

Once a scorpion stung me twice on the toe and it was a very horrible experience. I was actually crying like a child, not from fear, because I do not know fear, but on account of the unbearable pain. It was so great that I wanted to cut off my toe, but before I could do it I met Swamiji. He asked, What happened to you?’ I said, ‘Scorpion.’ ‘Let me see,’ he demanded, and when he touched it, I was all right. Then I asked, ‘How did you do that?’ His reply was, ‘Oh, I happened to remember the right mantra for it’. I know he was reciting mantras, but he would not take the credit upon himself.

His departure from the world

On 13th July 1963 I was at Monghyr, and that night when I was sleeping, I had a very clear vision. I saw Swamiji travelling across the Ganga in Rishikesh on a very big ship. I was standing on the bank of the river while the ship was moving towards the opposite side. The dream was over and I knew that Swamiji had left his body. The physical body of guru leaves at any moment, it is inevitable, but his spirit remains forever if the disciple can remain in tune with him. Then he guides him at all times, in dream, in thought and emotion, and in actual life.

Satsang on Saints

Please explain the difference between mahatmas, munis and saints.

Mahatma means great soul, one with expanded consciousness. Muni means one who has acquired peace, silence within and without. Santa or saint means a spiritual person, a sadhu. Seer means one who is able to see beyond the present times. Siddha means one who is able to control the mind and materialise the thoughts. Avadhoot means one who has entered the unconscious body, who is beyond hatred, jealousy love, compassion, mercy, filth and purity. These are the titles given to great men according to the different spiritual capacities acquired during their sadhana.

Please tell us a little of your own experience and contact with other realised beings.

As a child I was fortunate to have the contact of many swamis and saints who were passing through my place on their way to Mt. Kailash. It was the advice of one of them which ultimately directed me to search for a guru. During my stay with Swami Sivananda, 1 met many mahatmas and saints.

After leaving my guru’s ashram in Rishikesh, I lived for short periods of time with Ramana Maharshi at Tiruvanamalai, Swami Ramdas of Kalhamghat and Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry. It was during this time that I met a saint called Swami Nityananda. He was a person who, in orthodox language, could be said to have been a kundalini yogi. He lived close to Bombay in a place called Bhadreswari. Swami Muktananda is his disciple. Swami Nityananda was not in his normal consciousness. There were many people who wanted to see him, but he didn’t know anyone. He used to talk to himself and was oblivious of everyone else.

When I met him he was very old and only wore a loin cloth. I went up to him and as I came closer, I felt that I was almost touching an electrical cable. He was not even aware of me until I received the shock. Then he said, ‘They can’t carry the burden, yet they want it.’ You see, we want spiritual power but we are not capable of holding it. When I confronted him, he would say, ‘Everything is useless!’ Some people had donated a lot of blankets to the ashram and he said, ‘Why do you throw all these useless things to me? This is all waste paper for me.’ He would say, ‘These idiots are only fit to teach, preach and lecture.’ I am one of those idiots ; he was a kundalini yogi.

Many saints suffer from serious illness and die when they are still quite young. Why is this so?

Most of them were not yogis. They were beyond yoga. A yogi is very aware of his body and he looks after it, but a saint is like a young baby, an innocent child. If there is a cobra, he will just hold it. If he is given dirty food, he will just eat it, because he does not know the difference. He is beyond the three gunas.

When the mind crosses the boundaries of the three gunas- tamas, rajas and sattva, he becomes completely ignorant of the processes taking place in the body. His experiences are something like this: ‘I am not this body; I am not the senses; I am the self, the atma.’

When these people realise the higher being, they transcend the body, mind and senses. So long as you live in the three gunas, you live according to the laws of nature. You rise in the morning, go for a walk, bathe and then practise asanas and pranayama. However, when the mind and senses withdraw completely into the self, and the higher self becomes effulgent, when the inner experience becomes vivid and higher consciousness takes hold of your mind, who cares what happens to the body?

That was exactly the case with Ramana Maharshi. His body was here, but he was in the seventh plane. He was not the body, not even the seer of the body. He had completely divorced himself from bodily affairs. His body was not properly looked after. For days on end he would stay in one posture and practise endless trataka. He did not talk to anyone; it was as though he did not exist. If the laws of the body are ignored one falls ill, and that happened to Ramana Maharshi.

Similarly, if you have a house and abandon it for a better one, the old one remains neglected. Maybe you will visit periodically, but your interest in the old one is finished. You may take care of it while you are temporarily there, but you have little to do with it any longer.

Up to the age of forty five, Swami Sivananda maintained all the rules of health. But after that he transcended these rules; his entire consciousness was switched off. He used to say, ‘This body is perishable. Why do you take so much care of it? Are you a cobbler that shines shoes?’ All his instructions had changed.

It is similar with Swami Vivekananda and others who died early, but their cases are slightly different. These people are born with a mission; they have something to say, to do or accomplish. The moment their work is over, they go away. Swami Vivekananda has clearly written, ‘I have finished my work; there is no reason why I should live any more.’ Another saint, Rama Tirtha, also died before forty saying, ‘My work is finished, now I can go.’

Remember, the practice of yoga is not the end; it is a means. Samadhi is not the end; it is a means. There are very high stages in spiritual life, and the nearer you are to the absolute self, the further you are from the body. As a jumbo jet soars so far from the earth that you are unable to distinguish a house or a garden, similarly, when the consciousness soars high, things on this mundane plane look so insignificant.

It is said when you have that absolute experience in which the identification with the body is eliminated, then wherever you are, you are not there. Wherever you are, you are in samadhi. So, for such a man, it matters little how he dies. Diseases do not matter. Otherwise, we would have to say, if Christ was the son of God, how could he have been crucified? There is a reason, and the reason is that when you go to the supreme spirit, you don’t care for your body.

With so many gurus and saints in India, why is there so much poverty?

Up to the 17th century, India was a very affluent country. It supplied food, navy, men and materials, even gold to many other countries. However, every country has its own political horoscope and none can be spared by nature. So, things went a little bit differently during the British period. Even now, the picture which is being painted is not so grim.

Indians, by nature, live a very simple life, with a few dhotis and not many things. We don’t believe that material advancement is the real advancement. We don’t believe that industrial revolution is a mark of progress. We are not in a hurry to industrialise the country. We like villages very much. We prefer to draw water from the well rather than from the tap. We prefer to go to the toilet in the jungle and bushes rather than in the toilet. We like to take bath outside in a pond, lake or river, and not in the bathroom. Unless it is raining heavily or too cold, we prefer to sleep outside in the courtyard, in the field, or even in the corner of the street. That is the way Indians live.

Therefore, India has produced more gurus, because we respect the people who have deeper wisdom and greater intuition. We know how the rich people live. We know their private, personal and public life, and we don’t want to be proud of having produced a Ford or Rockefeller. Wisdom is the greatest mark of man. If man can develop his mind beyond the non-frontiers, then that is the fulfilment of his humanness. In India, people seek the association of saintly and wise people. So the social and economic situation has been limited to the extent that we get the proper opportunity to open ourselves up to their influence.

Why do saints, sadhus and sannyasins prefer the Himalayas to any other place in the world?

In the Himalayas the earth, water, air, vegetation, people, everything is pure. The atmosphere there contains more ions than anywhere else. There water flowing in the rivers is amrit, ambrosia. The purity that has descended from this holy place in the form of Ganga, the Vedas, yoga and tantra, quenches the spiritual thirst of society.

When kundalini awakens, sadhus need such a place where the atmosphere is pure, and they can meditate all day without being disturbed either emotionally, mentally, psychically or spiritually. This can be found particularly in the areas of Gangotri, Uttarkashi, Bhadrinath and Khedarnath. These are the four places where rishis and gurus live in absolute seclusion for many centuries in quiet samadhi. The spiritual energy generated by them is so powerful that it even affects the physical ecology. It is like going to a place where they have an atomic reactor and there are nuclear radiations all around. Wherever there is a reactor, there is a leakage of energy. In the same way, these mahatmas are powerhouses of spiritual energy, and if you go anywhere near their vicinity, you are going to be affected by their spiritual radiations. Therefore, all aspirants should try to visit these places at least once in their lives.

Please tell us about your experiences when you visited Kailash and Manasarovar.

It is a lovely place There is no temple, idol or pujari; no mantra, ritual or formality; yet everything is there. You never feel that you are in a desolate region. Manasarovar is a crystal clear lake, overshadowed by the snow peak of Mount Kailash. You have nothing to do there, just sit down and close your eyes, like a god. There is no sound, no vibration. When I sat down after taking bath, I saw Lord Shiva in padmasana. I became aware that it was my mind’s creation, that I was visualising it, and shook my mind. But still it was there. With my eyes open or closed, it was so clear, so pressing. Kailash/Manasarovar area is the abode of the gods. It is a place which is so far that now I cannot say whether it was a dream, vision, perception or hallucination.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, July 1980)