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Swamiji’s Agenda
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Only the immortals on their deathless heights,
Dwelling beyond the walls of time and space,
Masters of living free from the bonds of thought,
Who are overseers of Fate and Chance and Will
And experts of theorem of world need
Can see the Idea, the Might that changes Time’s course
Come maned with Light from undiscovered worlds
Hear, while the world toils on with blind heart,
The galloping hooves of the unforeseen event
Bearing the superhuman rider near
And impassive to earth’s din and startled cry
Return to silence of the hills of God.
Sri Aurobindo, Book of Beginnings, Canto 4
Secret Knowledge, p. 53 (Centenary Editions)
Swamiji’s Agenda
Part 1
by Prof. P. N. Murthy
The ideal and goal of every great man, a mahapurusha, is to bring peace and stability to this troubled world and turn it to the path of knowledge. The program and agenda will follow this great mission and idea. They also are dedicated according to the nature of the avatar. It is, therefore, necessary to know the nature of Swamiji’s avatar to understand his agenda. This is no easy task. The avatar himself has to reveal his nature and mission. This is precisely the importance of Swamiji’s conversations.
The process of creation is a long, ardent and intensive tapas. It is a great sacrifice (mahayagna) through which the Lord manifests Himself and enjoys. It is the Dance of Bliss and Ecstasy. It is a churning of the great Sea of Bliss. It is the way God discharges His debt to man who is born of His aspect. Similarly, the sacrifice made by man to reach his origin, the Truth, the Lord, is also a great tapas. During this tapas great heat will be generated. A great agni [fire] will flare. A lotus will blossom. Nectar will spill. Bliss will flow. This is a great play, a leela. The Lord blesses and nourishes the great, enormous desire of man to become God. To that end the Parameshwara takes birth as man. This is an unending cycle and series of sacrifices and tapas.
Taking birth as a mortal, living like a mahatapasvin (great yogi), and to make maharishis out of men is the grand play of tapas called the life of Sri Sri Sri Shivabalayogi Maharaj. This play started in a hamlet in Andhra Pradesh.
Every man goes through some kind of askesis [the mental, philosophical and moral training of an athlete] all the time. The end of that may be the life of this world. It may be full of personal desires and fulfillments, and may be the impermanent and temporary. Whatever it may be, the nature of man is to engage in action all the time. That is his dharma. To enlighten the dharma of action and guide it into an aspiration for Truth is the mission of the God born into men. This restless play is the tapoleela. A guru worth the name engages himself in askesis and induces his followers and disciples to engage in askesis. While his tapas cleanses them like fire (agni) and inspires them, the tapas of disciples drives him into a dance of ecstasy. This is the binding principle between the Teacher and the taught, the Guru and shishya [disciple]. The disciples wait with anxious expectation for the birth and appearance of Guru. The Guru awaits ardently the arrival of the disciple. This is the quintessence of the Vedic mantra:
sahanavavatu, sahanau bhunaktu sahaveeryam karavavahai tejasvinavadheethamastu ma vidvishavahai
Taittireya Upanishad, Sikshavalli
It is said in our Puranas that when Goddess Earth, Gaia, feels overburdened she goes to Lord Vishnu and weeps and pleads for relief and redemption. According to Sri Aurobindo this is the great tapas performed by Earth consciousness for a new emergence. And so, whenever one looks, wherever one turns, this world is full of tapas. This world is a play of tapas. Bliss is at the root of this play. Bliss is the goal and mission of this play. Only in the middle of the journey is there a distortion.
Swamiji’s conversations deal with this play, its beginnings and ends.
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