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Swamiji as I Knew Him
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Swamiji as I Knew Him
(part 2)
by D. S. Rao
God and Guru
God the absolute, out of His infinite compassion for His devotees, comes as their Guru. Whenever He descends he comes with a message and goes away after delivering the message, much like the postman. He will live in our midst but has no attachments whatsoever. He loves us—that is his inborn nature — but he has no attachments. It is for God to recall his Messenger the moment the mission is fulfilled. God knows and the Guru also knows when he is to go. Guru is everything for us. He is father, mother, brother, relative, friend, God — everything. He is the one to whom we cling because he is everything to us all.
Like God recalls the Guru, the Guru can also recall any of us anytime. If he thinks a new body is better for our progress, he will do so. In fact, many of the devotees and disciples who have died over the last thirty years have all come back to Swamiji as little children around him today. According to the Bhagavad Gita (VI:42), only exceptional yogis will be born in his family. Children born into the members of his family are all highly evolved yogis who are in the last leg of their sadhana spiritual practice. For the next seven generations the only yogis will be born in these families. Swamiji is perhaps the only Living Yogi who can bestow liberation in just one lifetime. We must have that mental resolve and work for it.
Swamiji has left just enough hints that His mission was coming to a close. Kuwait was the first hint that more difficult assignments are falling into his lap. Then comes the illness. He never falls ill a hundred times like us. If he is ill it means he is packing up. When Sri Ramakrishna was ill he complained to the Divine Mother that he was not able to swallow food. The Divine Mother asked him, was it not a fact that he was eating through millions of mouths? After that he never recovered from that illness. During the last two or three functions there were two more indications, the kumbabhishekam and garlanding of all devotees at the time of the kalyanam wedding of Shiva and Parvati. These are all unmistakable indications of the mahatma’s departure. The only thing we can do is to meditate and carry on His mission further.
Death Wish
When Swamiji became ill in August and September of 1991, I was in deep anguish. How can Swamiji, who is the embodiment of the Highest for all of us, be ill? I was very deeply pained and upset. Then the message came that Swamiji is preparing for his departure. He only needs a cause to go, much like Ramakrishna Paramahansa or Lahiri Mahasaya. Once I had a strong sankalpa [intent] to take a new body. Swamiji came in a dream a bit puzzled but approved it. Immediately thereafter I got a strong message that sadhakas, those on the spiritual path, should never make a sankalpa and they should ever be alert to avoid such situations. So I retreated from my earlier sankalpa. Swamiji used this opportunity to teach me the process of body separation. That is a unique lesson which I will never forget. It has developed in me spiritual boldness. Thanks to Swamiji, today I can smile at Yama, the God of Death, without fear. We all have to go one day. If I have to go now, I am ready; no regrets, no fear, no anxieties.
All this was happening when he was sick. After that incident also quite a number of times I had suggested to myself that if this body could save Swamiji’s body then I am prepared to go. Generally Swamiji responds to such suggestions, but on this point he was ever silent. Then a new set of lessons came. These are in the form of stories but behind every story there is a spiritual principle.
A Yogi’s Family. Bhagavad Gita VI:42: “Otherwise one surely takes birth in a family endowed with wisdom in the science of uniting the individual consciousness with the Ultimate Consciousness; certainly such a birth as this is vary rare in this world.”
Shivabalayogi explained that for a great soul to incarnate, the parents must also be great souls. It does not follow that all of a yogi’s family members must also be great souls. History shows they aren’t.
Kumbabhishekam; kalyanam.
During Swamiji’s birthday celebrations in Bangalore, the last before his
mahasamadhi, devotees ritually bathed him with 108 pots of water (kumbabhishekam).
That evening, during the ritual wedding (kalyanam) of Shiva and Parvati, Swamiji has all the flower garlands that had been given to him that day distributed and worn by the devotees, something he had not done previously.
Kuwait. When the Iraqis invaded Kuwait in August of 1990, Shivabalayogi was there. He was one of the passengers on the British Airways flight from London to India that landed in Kuwait City for refueling as Iraqi soldiers were capturing the airfield. The Iraqis held him captive with the other passengers in a Kuwait hotel.
After Swamiji escaped, he told an interviewer for Hinduism Today:
“Earlier I declared that I shall be personally present at the place where the war would break out. It happened. Even now after I have left that place, I shall be careful to see that it does not.”
God the Giver
On a rainy day it was all dark. We search for a candle and light it. Then we tell the Sun God, “Here is a candle, keep it with you and be cheerful. Henceforth there will be no darkness for you.” How silly! The Sun God is ever shining. Does he need a candle? All the candles put together, will they equal his light?
Guru is God and God is Guru. Swamiji only knows how to give health, wealth, prosperity, or whatever. You ask and He gives. He is a kalpataru wish-fulfilling tree, a kamadhenu cow of plenty, a chintamani wish-fulfilling jewel. Does he need anything from us? When he lives as one among us we treat Him as one among us. But is he not different? We only ask him for all and sundry but do we ever say, “O God, here is my health. Take it, be healthy and cheerful!” After all, what is health to God? Does he need us to give him his health?
After Swamiji’s mahasamadhi I went to Bangalore for his darshan. I was still feeling guilty. The thought that perhaps my body could have perhaps saved his life still persisted in me. So I prayed to Swamiji to forgive me for any of my faults. Doubt haunts you like a shadow. When we get drowned in it and when we come out of it only he knows. When Sri Ramakrishna transferred all his powers to Swami Vivekananda, he still had doubts in his Guru. Faith and doubt are the two sides of the same coin. He willing, doubt haunts us. He willing, faith may be firmly entrenched in us. He gives us just enough faith to enable us to pursue our sadhana.
Swamiji’s Message
Swamiji is repeatedly saying please meditate, please meditate, please meditate. We are doing anything but that. All of us ought to meditate more and those who have not yet started meditation should make a beginning. The best way to serve Swamiji is to meditate. Earlier we take to it the better. Those who are initiated but unable to meditate, pray to him to give you strength to meditate. He will grant it. Those who want to meditate more but are unable to do so, pray to him to give you strength to do more of meditation. He will grant it. So far we have identified Swamiji with his body. Now we must identify Swamiji with Parabrahma, the Supreme Soul, and work diligently for him. Remember, the only way we can serve him is through meditation and spreading His message of meditation.
It is something like this. There is a great cook highly skilled and highly reputed. He has a number of assistants who help him. They are all buy serving his needs. They are content more as the errand boys bringing provisions. But the master always told them to learn cooking. They were busy with their own chores and never had the time even to go to the kitchen. Occasionally when they would walk in they are happy to cut the vegetables or to carry the vessels. Their attention was never on the cooking. Suddenly the master goes. Now should his attendants learn cooking or not? The onus to spread his message is on them but they have not learned cooking. Should they now learn cooking and then spread the message?
Those who have served him in the inner quarters are indeed very blessed. What if they have not done any sadhana in this life? They have all done intense sadhana spanning many lives. That is what has brought them so close to Swamiji. They were not keen to do sadhana lest their attention to him might suffer. Look at Sri Krishna’s parents. They have done intense sadhana in many lives spanning over 10,000 years. The Lord was so much pleased with their devotion he has decided to be born to them. That is Love, pure Love. Swamiji’s parents also belong to this category of devotees. Because of their intense devotion to the Lord in many lives, Swamiji was born to them. Those in the personal service of Swamiji also belong to this category.