Swami Sivananda – The Fire of Sannyasa
Celebrating the glorious Sannyasa
Diksha Anniversary of Gurudev Swami Sivananda Maharaj
Divine Life
Society Publication: Swami Sivananda
by Swami Krishnananda
Swami Sivanandaji was known as
Dr. Kuppuswamy in his purvashrama. He
arrived in Rishikesh in the year 1922. Two years afterwards, in the year 1924,
he came across a great saintly person known as Swami Visvananda Saraswati, whom
he met, as it is said, only for a few minutes, and from whom he received
initiation into the sacred order of Sannyasa as Swami Sivananda Saraswati. This
was on the 1st of June. This Swami Visvananda Saraswati is little known to the
public and, perhaps, personally he was not even acquainted to Swami Sivanandaji
Maharaj. It was a unique coming together of two personalities, as if ordained
by God Himself, and Jnana Sannyasa, as it is known, was offered to Swami
Sivanandaji Maharaj. Jnana Sannyasa implies Sannyasa without ritual. The
ritualistic confirmation of this Jnana Sannyasa was subsequently performed by
the great Sri Swami Vishnudevanandaji Maharaj of Kailas Ashram. Thus, Swami
Visvanandaji Maharaj was his Diksha Guru, while Swami Vishnudevanandaji Maharaj
was his Sannyasa Kriya Guru. But Swami Sivanandaji had equal regard for both.
From the year 1924, after he
received Sannyasa, Swami Sivanandaji started a rigorous life of tapas, or austerity. People who had
the blessedness to see him in those days described him as a fire of
renunciation. From the year 1924 till the year 1936—for 12 years—he was an
incognito mahatma doing his own tapasya for a
purpose which he alone knew. None of us were there, and no disciples were
there. He had neither associates nor friends. What we hear from people who had
seen him in those days amounts to this: that he wore little clothing and ate no
delicious diet—which, of course, was not available at all even if he wanted.
Swami Sivananda was then known
as the great mahatma of Swargashram. There was neither The Divine Life Society
nor the Sivananda Ashram, even to dream of. He was familiarly known as the
great saint of Swargashram—the Virakta Mahatma of Swargashram.
He used to define tapas as “flaming like fire by
sense-control”. Tapas is the heat that is produced
in our spiritual body by the control of the senses, as their outward movement
depletes our energy and makes us the weaklings that we are. All success is the
result of tapas. This is his teaching. There
cannot be a saint without tapas. There is
no spirituality without tapas. And tapas is the same as Sannyasa. It
is not wearing an ochre-coloured robe. It is neither an order of life, nor a
stage into which one enters socially. But, it is an entry into the dedicated
life of austerity and control of oneself.
Today, being Sri Gurudev’s
Sannyasa anniversary, we should contemplate on the spiritual spark that blazed
itself forth as the great Swami Sivananda Saraswati whose presence and tapas, whose spirituality, goodness
and large-heartedness became the nucleus and the seed for this large
institution which vibrates today in the hearts of many people in the world as
spiritual aspirations, noble longings for God-realisation.
He would commence his work—be
it a book, or an essay, or a message, or even a lecture—with this proclamation:
“The goal of life is God-realisation.” This was, is and will forever be the
teaching of this saint. When we say that the goal of life is God-realisation,
we have said everything that needs to be said. Vairagya,
renunciation or sannyasa, spontaneously flows from
the acceptance, from the heart, of the fact that the goal of life is
God-realisation.
The Sannyasa of Satgurudev
Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj was an inner spiritual fire which burnt forth in his
practical life and in his teachings, and in the instructions which he gave to
his disciples. He was the same Swami Sivananda who came to Rishikesh in the
year 1922 under the name of Kuppuswamy, the same Swami Sivananda who lived
through the life of Sannyasa and spirituality and service to mankind, and it
was the same Swami Sivananda who attained Mahasamadhi in the year 1963 without
any change in his attitude to this world.
Such are the sparkling ideals
that he set forth before us. Every first of June, we celebrate and observe the
anniversary of this momentous event of his entering into Sannyasa, many years
back. And no greater homage could be conceived to this saint than a sincere
determination to lead the life that he himself intensely led, and to develop a
similar attitude towards life as a whole: that the whole world is enveloped by
the Presence of God. The Isavasya
Upanishad says, “Renounce and enjoy.” Enjoy by renunciation, not by possession.
Here is the seed of vairagya and sannyas.
The enjoyment that comes by
renunciation is more intense than the enjoyment that comes by possession of the
things of the world. That satisfaction or pleasure or enjoyment which seems to
come to us by the acquisition of the objects of sense is a pain that comes to
us in the guise of satisfaction. But that joy which comes to us by renunciation
is a real and permanent joy.
Renounce the false values of
the world on account of which you have a craving to come in contact with the
transitory values, and enjoy the bliss of that union with Reality, the Supreme
God indwelling all things. The Isavasya Upanishad adds: “Ma gridhah kasya svid-dhanam.”
Covet not the things of the world. Do not ask for things which do not really
belong to you. The things of the world do not belong to you, because they are
unreal. How can unreality belong to you? Therefore, do not ask for the things
of the world, which are untrue. Renounce all false values with this awareness
that God indwells all creation, both movable and immovable. This is, in some
way, the quintessence of the gospel of Divine Life which inspired the teachings
and the writings of Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj.
To him we pay our obeisance by
directing our thoughts and contemplating on these eternal values, and by
proclaiming once again, in the same tone and intensity of feeling and fervour,
that the goal of life is God-realisation. Everything else follows in the wake
of this acceptance, as a shadow follows the substance. All the things of the
world and all values that are regarded as covetable in life will come in
abundance and in plenty, if we accept from the bottom of our hearts that the
goal of life is God-realisation, for which ideal Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj
lived and sacrificed all his life. Such is his Sannyasa, such is his Vedanta,
and such is his teaching for our practice. May his Grace be upon us all!
Continue to read:
Swami Sivananda – The
Fire of Sannyasa by Swami Krishnananda
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