The Stature of the Spirit of Swami
Sivananda
Worshipful Sri Gurudev Swami
Sivanandaji Maharaj, was a great combination, a great blending of apparent
contradictions. On the one hand, He was a
renunciate par excellence, and on the other hand, He was rooted in God and
thought of nothing else. He was a lover of all, but a friend of none. The world
and the spirit came together in his personality. Such great souls are described
in the scriptures as Mahakartas, Mahabhoktas, and Mahatyagis.
Mahakartas are stationed in
the spirit of God and can do anything, in any manner they like, without
adhering to the common norms of human conduct and thinking. Mahabhoktas can
enjoy anything, and Mahatyagis can renounce anything in utter abandonment; even
relinquishment of the notion of belonging to anything is abandoned. We cannot
conceive such persons in our stereotyped human minds.
He maintained no connection
with anybody in this Ashram, though he maintained an intimate connection with
everybody and looked after everyone, as his own children. But it took only a
moment for him to renounce everybody and to consider that he had nothing to do
with any person.
His meditations were his
strength and were based on the great Vedic cosmological hymn known as the
Purusha Sukta.
In the morning he used to
place a few flowers on the head of each of his attendants, one by one, with a
mantra meaning, “One of the heads of the Cosmic Being has come.” It is difficult for untrained minds to imagine
that the heads of everyone are the heads of God only and all the eyes are His
eyes. These ears with which we are listening now, this mind with which we are
able to think, these feet with which we have walked up to this place and these
hands of ours are the ears, mind, feet and hands of God, respectively. It is God that pulsates in our hearts,
breathes through our lungs, speaks through our mouths, and understands through
our intelligence.
But this will never enter the
mind of any person. The ego, the human nature does not permit the entry of any
nobility or greatness that is external to itself. Everywhere this “I am” comes
in and because of that affirmation which is so very unfortunate, the great ‘I’
of the Absolute God does not enter us.
We are told that there are
three kinds of disciples. Even before the Guru speaks, the first type of
disciple knows what the Guru is intending in his mind; the Guru’s very
existence, being and demeanor become an instruction. The second type of
disciple is one who has to be told, “Do this.” If he is not told anything, he
will not do anything. The third kind of disciple will not do anything even if
he is told to do something. He will have his own way. This is the attitude we
develop towards God also. Even if instructions come that this has to be done,
we shall not follow them because we believe that our way of living will
continue for a long time, and we can easily be comfortable with all the
mechanisms that we have created for prolonging our life and keeping ourselves
happy.
Does it even matter when some just
follow the letter of the instruction as given in the scriptures like the Gita,
the Bible and the Upanishad, when the import has not been comprehended
properly?
Gurudev was a Godman, and some
call such great beings Mangods. All the gods are within them. Sri Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa Deva was also called a Mangod. Sri Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji
Maharaj used to say, “Do you know who I am? I can be Vishnu, and I can be
Rudra, both. Lovingly I will take care of all of you, protect you, love you,
and caress you as your father and mother. But I can be Rudra and I will not even
look at your face.” He could be highly creative like Brahma, protective like
Vishnu, and dispassionate like Rudra.
Many years have passed since
he became invisible to this world, and he is remembered more now. His work
seems to be getting more and more accelerated, much more than when he was physically
available to us. The discarnate spirit of his universal presence seems to be
operating in a more vigorous and expanded manner than the comparatively limited
way that the work was going on earlier.
The liberated soul, a
Jivanmukta, even while living, can maintain the connection with this world and
with God, the Ultimate Reality, simultaneously. There are others who can be
discarnate Jivanmuktas and yet maintain this relationship between the higher
and the lower. The incarnate ones are usually called the Jivanmukta Purushas.
There are seven stages of
knowledge and Self-realization. The first three stages are the stages of
aspiration, spiritual effort and struggle in Sadhana, to which category the
people of the world may be said to belong. But there is a fourth stage where
the spirit ascends above the world and attains a state called sattvapatti. Flashes of the light
of God become the light of day for that perception. This flash illuminates
their own vision as well as the world below, so they can see themselves
clearly, as well as the Reality that flashes the light, and the world below.
That is the condition where we can contact them directly, even in our
meditations. They will descend into our hearts, into our work life, and operate
by their very thought. Such great Masters are many who can act for us and work
for us, and do things for us by the very thought of them. Swami Sivanandaji
Maharaj has been operating in this way.
This Purusha, the great mighty
Being, is connected with this world, as well as not connected with this world.
So are the great Masters, having enveloped the whole world of perceptibility,
they stand above it to a large extent, uncontaminated, untouched, unrelated in
any manner whatsoever. The greatest service that one can do is, to contemplate
and meditate in this manner and to invoke them in their true spirit into our
own hearts.
True service arises from the
thought of the mind. We are told that there were great Masters who came to this
world whose names are not known to everybody. They leave their thoughts behind
when they go. These thoughts that they leave are the protective forces of this
world. They are energies operating in the form of what we may call invisible
incarnations of divinity.
Do not say, “I have done so
much. I have been serving so much.” This counts little in the eyes of the
higher values of life. Tell me what you are thinking in your mind. The whole
day, from morning to night, what have you been thinking? What are the ideas
that arose in your mind? That is the service that you have done, not the running
about here and there, and seeing and doing many things.
Such is the series of thoughts
that occur to my mind at this moment when I recollect my association with the
great Master, Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. I offer my humble
obeisance to him, and request you to offer your obeisance to him in his great
masterly stature of spirit.
Excerpts from:
The Stature of the
Spirit of Swami Sivananda by Swami Krishnananda
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