Of Swami Chinmayananda

´ÉÏ ÍcÉlqÉrÉÉlÉlS A¹Éå¨ÉU zÉiÉlÉÉqÉÉuÉÍsÉ

SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA’S ASHTOTTARA-SHATA NAMAVALI

The 108 Names of Swami Chinmayananda

“THE SANDEEPANY EXPERIENCE”

Reflections by TEXT SWAMI GURUBHAKTANANDA

Sandeepany’s Vedanta Course

List of All the Course Texts in Chronological Sequence:

Text TITLE OF TEXT Text TITLE OF TEXT No. No. 1 Sadhana Panchakam 24 Hanuman Chalisa 2 Tattwa Bodha 25 Vakya Vritti 3 Atma Bodha 26 Advaita Makaranda 4 Bhaja Govindam 27 Kaivalya Upanishad 5 Manisha Panchakam 28 Bhagavad Geeta (Discourse -- ) 6 Forgive Me 29 Mundaka Upanishad 7 Upadesha Sara 30 Amritabindu Upanishad 8 Prashna Upanishad 31 Mukunda Mala (Bhakti Text) 9 Dhanyashtakam 32 Tapovan Shatkam 10 Bodha Sara 33 The Mahavakyas, Panchadasi 5 11 Viveka Choodamani 34 Aitareya Upanishad 12 Jnana Sara 35 Narada Bhakti Sutras 13 Drig-Drishya Viveka 36 Taittiriya Upanishad 14 “Tat Twam Asi” – Chand Up 6 37 Jivan Sutrani (Tips for Happy Living) 15 Dhyana Swaroopam 38 Kena Upanishad 16 “Bhoomaiva Sukham” Chand Up 7 39 Aparoksha Anubhuti (Meditation) 17 Manah Shodhanam 40 108 Names of Chinmayananda 18 “Nataka Deepa” – Panchadasi 10 41 Mandukya Upanishad 19 Isavasya Upanishad 42 Dakshinamurty Ashtakam 20 Katha Upanishad 43 Shad Darshanaah 21 “Sara Sangrah” – Yoga Vasishtha 44 Brahma Sootras 22 Vedanta Sara 45 Jivanmuktananda Lahari 23 Mahabharata + Geeta Dhyanam 46 Chinmaya Pledge

A NOTE ABOUT SANDEEPANY Sandeepany Sadhanalaya is an institution run by the Chinmaya Mission in Powai, Mumbai, teaching a 2-year Vedanta Course. It has a very balanced daily programme of basic Samskrit, Vedic chanting, Vedanta study, Bhagavatam, Ramacharitmanas, Bhajans, meditation, sports and fitness exercises, team-building outings, games and drama, celebration of all Hindu festivals, weekly Gayatri Havan and Guru Paduka Pooja, and Karma Yoga activities. This series is an effort to promote the learning of Vedanta; it does not replace the Course, but hopes to inspire young people to spend two years of their life for an experience that is sure to make a far-reaching spiritual impact on their personal lives. Sandeepany is an all-round spiritual course that gives proper direction to the youth and to those approaching retirement. Hinduism is in dire need of a band of systematically trained teachers or Acharyas who can serve this Eternal Religion.

– The Author, 21st February, the Sacred Maha Shivaratri Day

Om Namah Shivaaya!

Text 40

´ÉÏ ÍcÉlqÉrÉÉlÉlS A¹Éå¨ÉU zÉiÉlÉÉqÉÉuÉÍsÉ SRI SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA’S ASHTOTTARA-SHATA NAMAVALI “The 108 Names of Chinmayananda” Composed by Sri Swami Tejomayanandaji

These Notes Compiled by Swami Gurubhaktananda on the Series of 7 Lectures by Swami Mitranandaji Director of Chinmaya Mission, Chennai; Delivered at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, Powai, Mumbai from April 24th to April 27th, 2013

Adi Shankaracharya Swami Sivananda Swami Tapovanji Swami Chinmayananda SERVE  LOVE  GIVE  PURIFY  MEDITATE  REALISE

Author: Swami Gurubhaktananda (ex Krishna Chaitanya, born Bipin R. Kapitan in Durban, South Africa) Email: [email protected]

About This Edition: Web Edition: 21st February 2020, the Sacred Mahashivaratri Day Website: Chinmaya International Foundation: www.chinfo.org Series Title : The Sandeepany Experience Series Subject: Vedanta & Supportive Subsidiary Texts

Declaration by the Author: The material in this series is under inspiration of the Sandeepany Vedanta Course, but largely consists of the Author’s reflections on the Course. He is deeply indebted to the Chinmaya Mission for its excellent presentation of the Course by their renowned and dedicated Acharyas.

Personal Dedication

1. To my Late Parents, Smt Sharadaben & Sri Ratilalbhai Kapitan who inspired me to study in life, to stick to the path of Dharma and pursue the highest ideals; and swamped me with their abundant Love;

2. To Pujya Sri Swami Vimalanandaji Maharaj (1932-2019) the Late President of the Divine Life Society of Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India, who constantly encouraged and supported this effort;

3. To Pujya Sri Swami Tejomayanandaji (Guruji) for his boundless vision and inspiration to create a vibrant organisation;

4. To Sri Swami Advayanandaji and Sri Swami Sharadanandaji my Acharyaji and Upa-Acharyaji at Sandeepany, who imparted their bountiful knowledge and wisdom with rare selfless Divine Love, just as the Rishis of yore would wish to see them do.

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SRI SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA’S ASHTOTTARA-SHATA NAMAVALI

“108 Names of Chinmayananda”

SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA PUJYA GURUDEV (1916 – 1993)

CHINMAYA ASHTOTTARA-SHATA NAMAVALI “The 108 Names of Chinmayananda”

CONTENTS

General Introduction to the Namavali 2

The 108 Names of Swami Chinmayananda 03 Commentary on Selected Names 11

Short Background of this Namavali 11 Name 01: Salutations to the Unborn 13 Name 02: To the Imperishable 14 Name 03: To the Indestructible 15 Name 05: To the Immeasurable 16 Name 07: To One who has no Limited Abode 18 Name 08: To One who Loved Discipline 20 Name 09: To the Inner Witness 25 Name 13: To One who is Most Eloquent in English 28 Name 16: To One who Encourages & Inspires All 34 Name 19: To the Ocean of Compassion 39 Name 21: To the One who is Beyond Time 42 Name 23: To the “Self-Made” One 47 Name 25: To the Propagator of Knowledge of the Geeta 51 Name 37: To the Restorer of Dilapidated Temples 56 Name 45: To One who is Resolute & Firm 59 Name 46: To One who Re-established Dharma 63 Name 49: To the Instiller of Patience & Courage 66

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GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE NAMAVALI

AN ASHTOTTARA SHATA NAMAVALi is written by devotees to honour a great spiritual personage who has made a significant impact on their lives. Ashtottara may be split into two words, ‘Ashta’ meaning “eight” and ‘Uttara’ meaning “above”. Shata is one word which means “hundred”. The two words together mean “eight above one hundred”, i.e. “108”. Namavali (pronounced Naamaavali) means “a string of names”. This is very common in Hinduism, and the Hindu religion has as many Namavalis as there are sacred Mantras in the religion for various Deities and purposes. An Ashtottara Shata Namavali is “a garland of 108 Names” composed for each Deity in the Hindu pantheon. In addition there are Namavalis composed for every major scripture in the religion. Then there are Namavalis for every well-known saint dating far back into history. Such is the trend that has been set, that today we have an Ashtottara Shata Namavali for every great saint in whose name an organisation has been started. The Namavali forms the focal point for the devotees of different religious organisations to offer their worship to their particular founder-saint or the spiritual guiding light of their lives. The Namavali is chanted regularly, for instance once a month or once a week, at formal occasions specially arranged for the purpose, at which all devotees of the organisation assemble and perform the Puja of their respective saint. In addition, the chanting of the Namavali is an invariable part of observing any major celebration observed by any particular organisation. At every Birth Anniversary of the saint, or on Guru Purnima Day, or the Mahasamadhi Day, or on the auspicious anniversary of any specific milestone in the organisation such as the Founding Day, we see that it is a common item to include the formal chanting of the Namavali on that day. With this background of the importance attached to a Deity’s or a saint’s Namavali, we will appreciate why a whole text was devoted to this theme at the Sandeepany Course. It encapsulates an essential part of the proceedings of every spiritual organisation.

The Swami Chinmayananda Ashtottara Shata Namavali This text centres around the Namavali that is chanted by devotees of the Chinmaya Mission, a worldwide organisation whose central world body is named as “Central Chinmaya Mission Trust” or CCMT for short. It has well over 300 active centres in India itself, and a vast network of organisations has developed under the name of Chinmaya Mission West, with its Headquarters in the United States of America at Langhorne, Pennsylvania. The magnitude of the organisation is being mentioned here because it indicates how significant the Namavali has become to the vast network of organisations that fall under the CCMT banner, and serves the needs of spiritual seekers at various levels in the practice of spirituality. No Jnana Yajna event takes place without the Namavali being chanted daily by all the assembled participants of the Yajna.

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Hari Om ´ÉÏ ÍcÉlqÉrÉÉlÉlS A¹Éå¨ÉU zÉiÉlÉÉqÉÉuÉÍsÉ ¾r§ chinmay¡nanda a½¿µttara ¾atan¡m¡vali SRI SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA’S ASHTOTTARA SHATA NAMAVALI 108 Names in Praise of Sri Swami Chinmayanandaji Maharaj (The 17 Names highlighted in Yellow are discussed in detail in the Commentary that follows)

No. SAMSKRIT NAME ENGLISH NAME ENGLISH MEANING 1 Á AeÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° aj¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the Unborn

2 Á AurÉrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° avyay¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the Imperishable

3 Á AÌuÉlÉÉÍzÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° avin¡¾in£ nama¦ Salutations to the Indestructible

4 Á AÍcÉlirÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° acinty¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the Unthinkable

5 Á AmÉëqÉårÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° apram£y¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the Immeasurable

6 Á AÌ²iÉÏrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° advit§y¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the One without a second

7 Á AÌlÉMåüiÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° anik£t¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who has no abode

8 Á AlÉÑzÉÉxÉlÉ-ÌmÉërÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° anu¾¡sana-priy¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who loves discipline

9 Á AliÉÈxÉÉÍ¤ÉhÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° anta¦s¡k½i³£ nama¦ Salutations to the inner Witness

10 Á AliÉrÉÉïÍqÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° antary¡min£ nama¦ Salutations to the inner Controller

No. SAMSKRIT NAME ENGLISH NAME ENGLISH MEANING 11 Á AÉlÉlSÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ¡nand¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the All-blissful one

12 Á AÉiqÉ-xuÉÃmÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ¡tma-svarÀp¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is the nature of the Self (Atman) Á AÉÇasÉ-pÉÉzÉÉ- µ° ¡¯gla-bh¡¾¡-viduttam¡ya 13 Salutations to he who is most eloquent in English ÌuÉSÒ¨ÉqÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ nama¦ 14 Á DµÉUÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° §¾var¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is the Supreme Lord

15 Á ESÉU-™SrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ud¡ra-h»day¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the large-hearted one

16 Á EixÉÉWû-uÉkÉïMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° uts¡ha-vardhak¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who Encourages & Inspires All

17 Á LMüxqÉæ lÉqÉÈ µ° £kasmai nama¦ Salutations to the (supreme) One

18 Á AÉåƒ¡ûÉUÌuÉSå lÉqÉÈ µ° µ±k¡ravid£ nama¦ Salutations to the knower of Om

19 Á MüÂhÉÉ-xÉÉaÉUÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° karu³¡-s¡gar¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the ocean of compassion

20 Á MüqÉï-mÉUÉrÉhÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° karma-par¡ya³¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the one engaged in action (service)

21 Á MüÉsÉÉiÉÏiÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° k¡l¡t§t¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is beyond time

22 Á MæüuÉsrÉ-xuÉÃmÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° kaivalya-svarÀp¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he whose nature is Absolute Oneness

23 Á M×üiÉÉiqÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° k»t¡tman£ nama¦ Salutations to the self-made one

24 Á M×üiÉ-M×üirÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° k»ta-k»ty¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the ever-fulfilled (content) one

No. SAMSKRIT NAME ENGLISH NAME ENGLISH MEANING

Á aÉÏiÉÉ-¥ÉÉlÉ-rÉ¥É- µ° g§t¡-j²¡na-yaj²a-prac¡rak¡ya Salutations to the propagator of the knowledge of Shrimad 25 mÉëcÉÉUMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ nama¦ Bhagavad Gita 26 Á aÉÑUuÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° gurav£ nama¦ Salutations to he who is a guru

27 Á aÉÑhÉÉÌiÉiÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° gu³¡tit¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is beyond all attributes

28 Á aÉëljÉ-M×üiÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° grantha-k»t£ nama¦ Salutations to the author of commentaries on scriptures

29 Á ÍcÉlqÉrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° cinmay¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is Pure Consciousness

30 Á ÍNûû³É-xÉÇzÉrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° chinna-sa¯¾ay¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who has cut asunder all doubts

31 Á eÉaÉSè-AÉiqÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° jagad-¡tman£ nama¦ Salutations to he for whom the world is the Self

32 Á eÉaÉiÉç-xÉÉÍ¤ÉhÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° jagat-s¡k½i³£ nama¦ Salutations to the witness of (all happenings in) the world

33 Á eÉlÉ-ÌmÉërÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° jana-priy¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is loved by all people

34 Á ÎeÉiÉåÎlSìrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° jit£ndriy¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who conquered all the sense organs

35 Á eÉÏuÉ-oÉë¼æYrÉ-ÌuÉSå lÉqÉÈ µ° j§va-brahmaikya-vid£ nama¦ Salutations to the knower of oneness of Jeeva & Brahman

36 Á eÉÏuÉlÉç-qÉÑ£üÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° j§van-mukt¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is liberated µ° j§r³a-mandirµddh¡rak¡ya 37 Á eÉÏhÉï-qÉÎlSUÉå®ÉUMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Salutations to the rejuvenator of Hindu Culture nama¦ 38 Á iÉmÉÉåuÉlÉ-ÍzÉwrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° tapµvana-¾i½y¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the disciple of Swami Tapovanji Maharaj

No. SAMSKRIT NAME ENGLISH NAME ENGLISH MEANING 39 Á iÉmÉÎxuÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° tapasvin£ nama¦ Salutations to the austere ascetic

40 Á iÉÉmÉ-lÉÉzÉlÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° t¡pa-n¡¾an¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the destroyer of sorrows

41 Á iÉÏjÉï-xuÉÃmÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° t§rtha-svarÀp¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is a place of pilgrimage in himself

42 Á iÉåeÉÎxuÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° t£jasvin£ nama¦ Salutations to the brilliant one

43 Á SåWûÉiÉÏiÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° d£h¡t§t¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is beyond the body

44 Á ²l²ÉiÉÏiÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° dvandv¡t§t¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is beyond the pairs of opposites

45 Á SØRû-ÌlÉ¶ÉrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° d»¢ha-ni¾cay¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the firm and determined one µ° dharma-sa¯sth¡pak¡ya 46 Á kÉqÉï-xÉÇxjÉÉmÉMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Salutations to he who establishes Dharma (righteousness) nama¦ 47 Á kÉÏqÉiÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° dh§mat£ nama¦ Salutations to the intelligent and discriminate one Salutations to the courageous (righteous) one 48 Á kÉÏUÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° dh§r¡ya nama¦ 49 Á kÉærÉï-mÉëSÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° dhairya-prad¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who instills courage

50 Á lÉÉUÉrÉhÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° n¡r¡ya³¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is Lord Vishnu

51 Á ÌlÉeÉÉlÉlSÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° nij¡nand¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is innate Bliss Salutations to he who does not depend on anything or 52 Á ÌlÉUmÉå¤ÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° nirap£k½¡ya nama¦ anyone

No. SAMSKRIT NAME ENGLISH NAME ENGLISH MEANING 53 Á ÌlÉÈxmÉ×WûÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ni¦sp»h¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is without desires

54 Á ÌlÉÂmÉqÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° nirupam¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is unmatched

55 Á ÌlÉÌuÉïMüsmÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° nirvikalp¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is ever undisturbed (unagitated)

56 Á ÌlÉirÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° nity¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the eternal one

57 Á ÌlÉUgeÉlÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° nira²jan¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the taintless one

58 Á mÉUqÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° param¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is the highest (the Supreme)

59 Á mÉU-oÉë¼hÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° para-brahma³£ nama¦ Salutations to the Ultimate Reality

60 Á mÉÉuÉlÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° p¡van¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is pure

61 Á mÉÉuÉMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° p¡vak¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who purifies (all)

62 Á mÉÑÂwÉÉåå¨ÉqÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° puru½µttam¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is Supreme Being

63 Á mÉëxÉ³ÉÉiqÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° prasann¡tman£ nama¦ Salutations to the joyous (cheerful) one

64 Á TüsÉÉxÉÌ£ü-UÌWûiÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° phal¡sakti-rahit¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is unattached to the fruits of actions

65 Á oÉWÒû-pÉ£üÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° bahu-bhakt¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the one with many devotees

66 Á oÉlkÉ-qÉÉåcÉMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° bandha-mµcak¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is liberated from bondage

67 Á oÉë¼-ÌlÉ¸ÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° brahma-ni½¿h¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is firmly established in Brahman

No. SAMSKRIT NAME ENGLISH NAME ENGLISH MEANING 68 Á oÉë¼-mÉUÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° brahma-par¡ya nama¦ Salutations to him for whom Brahman is the supreme goal

69 Á pÉrÉ-lÉÉzÉlÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° bhaya-n¡¾an¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is the destroyer of fear

70 Á pÉÉUiÉ-aÉÉæUuÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° bh¡rata-gaurav¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is the pride of Bharatavarsha (India)

71 Á pÉÔqlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° bhÀmn£ nama¦ Salutations to he who is the Infinite

72 Á qÉWûÉuÉÉYrÉÉåmÉSåzÉMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° mah¡v¡kyµpad£¾ak¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the teacher of the great statements of Truth

73 Á qÉWwÉïïrÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° mahar½ay£ nama¦ Salutations to he who is a great sage

74 Á qÉkÉÑU-xuÉpÉÉuÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° madhura-svabh¡v¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who has a sweet nature

75 Á qÉlÉÉåWûUÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° manµhar¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who has a charming personality

76 Á qÉWûÉiqÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° mah¡tman£ nama¦ Salutations to he who is a great soul

77 Á qÉåkÉÉÌuÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° m£dh¡vin£ nama¦ Salutations to he who is a scholar

78 Á rÉiÉÉiqÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° yat¡tman£ nama¦ Salutations to he who is self-controlled

79 Á rÉ¥É-M×üiÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° yaj²a-k»t£ nama¦ Salutations to he who has performed Jnāna Yajnas

80 Á sÉÉåMü-mÉëÍxÉ®ÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° lµka-prasiddh¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is world-renowned

81 Á uÉÉÎaqÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° v¡gmin£ nama¦ Salutations to the eloquent one

82 Á ÌuÉpÉuÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° vibhav£ nama¦ Salutations to the all-pervading one

No. SAMSKRIT NAME ENGLISH NAME ENGLISH MEANING 83 Á ÌuÉlÉÉåS-ÌmÉërÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° vinµda-priy¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who loves humour

84 Á ÌuÉlÉrÉ-zÉÏsÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° vinaya-¾§l¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is humble

85 Á uÉÏiÉ-UÉaÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° v§ta-r¡g¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is free from all attachments

86 Á uÉåSÉliÉ-uÉå±ÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° v£d¡nta-v£dy¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is to be known through Vedanta

87 Á zÉÉliÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ¾¡nt¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is peace (peaceful)

88 Á zÉÉÎliÉ-mÉëSÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ¾¡nti-prad¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who gives peace (to all)

89 Á zÉÉx§ÉÉå-®ÉUMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ¾¡strµ-ddh¡rak¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who upholds the scriptural teachings

90 Á zÉÑ®-xÉ¨uÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ¾uddha-sattv¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the immaculate (pure) one

91 Á ´ÉÑÌiÉ-mÉÉUaÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ¾ruti-p¡rag¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who sings the praises of the scriptures

92 Á ´ÉÉåÌ§ÉrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° ¾rµtriy¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who has studied and knows the Vedas

93 Á xÉÇlrÉÉÍxÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° sa¯ny¡sin£ nama¦ Salutations to he who is a renunciate

94 Á xÉqÉ-oÉÑ®rÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° sama-buddhay£ nama¦ Salutations to the well-composed and equanimous one

95 Á xÉcÉç-ÍcÉSè-AÉlÉlSÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° sac-cid-¡nand¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is pure existence, consciousness, bliss

96 Á xÉuÉï-ÌWûiÉ-ÍcÉliÉMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° sarva-hita-cintak¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who wishes for the welfare of all

97 Á xÉirÉ-xÉƒ¡ûsmÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° satya-sa±kalp¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is of true resolve

No. SAMSKRIT NAME ENGLISH NAME ENGLISH MEANING 98 Á xÉliÉÑ¹ûÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° santu½¿¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the contented one

99 Á xÉÉkÉuÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° s¡dhav£ nama¦ Salutations to the pious one

100 Á xÉÑqÉlÉxÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° sumanas£ nama¦ Salutations to he who has a good mind

101 Á xÉÑ™Så lÉqÉÈ µ° suh»d£ nama¦ Salutations to he who has a good heart

102 Á xuÉrÉÇ-erÉÉåÌiÉwÉåå lÉqÉÈ µ° svaya¯-jyµti½£ nama¦ Salutations to the self-effulgent one

103 Á ÎxjÉiÉ-mÉë¥ÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° sthita-praj²¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is established in the highest wisdom

104 Á ¤ÉqÉÉ-zÉÏsÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° k½am¡-¾§l¡ya nama¦ Salutations to the forgiving one

105 Á ¥ÉÉlÉ-qÉÔiÉïrÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° j²¡na-mÀrtay£ nama¦ Salutations to he who is the embodiment of knowledge

106 Á ¥ÉÉlÉ-rÉÉåÌaÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° j²¡na-yµgin£ nama¦ Salutations to he who treads the path of Self-knowledge

107 Á ¥ÉÉlÉ-iÉ×miÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ µ° j²¡na-t»pt¡ya nama¦ Salutations to he who is content in Self-knowledge Á ÌlÉirÉ-zÉÑ®-oÉÑ®-qÉÑ£ü- µ° nitya-¾uddha-buddha- 108 Salutations to he who is ever pure, wise and liberated xuÉÂmÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ mukta- svarup¡ya nama¦ Á ÍcÉlqÉrÉ xÉªÒuuÉå lÉqÉÈ µ° cinmaya sadguvv£ nama¦ Salutations to Sadguru Chinmayanandaji

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|| ´ÉÏ ÍcÉlqÉrÉ A¹Éå¨ÉU zÉiÉlÉÉqÉÉuÉÍsÉ || SRI CHINMAYA Ashtottara Shata Namavali

The 108 Names of Swami Chinmayananda

Commentary on Selected Names

SHORT BACKGROUND OF THIS NAMAVALI

THE TEXT IS ALL about the qualities of Pujya Gurudev, Sri Swami Chinmayanandaji Maharaj. They tell us how he responded in various situations in his life. Why are his qualities so important to us? The qualities of a Mahatma, which are expressed in him naturally, are what we have to gain through Tapas or austere spiritual practices. The way that a sage established in the Supreme Reality responds so effortlessly and spontaneously is what we have to cultivate through diligent Sadhana. That is our Tapas. Since there are only going to be four days for these talks, we will not be able to cover all the 108 Names, but we will take a selection of them and expound on them by seeing how Pujya Gurudev expressed those qualities.

The Authors of the Chinmaya Namavali These Names were written primarily by Pujya Guruji Sri Swami Tejomayanandaji, assisted by Sri Swami Shantanandaji. Both of them were very young at the time. They were attending a Yajna of Gurudev at Lucknow in the early 1980’s. They wished to chant the Names at a Paduka Puja on the next day of the Yajna. Both were seated in the Hall where the Yajna was taking place. They quietly shifted to seats at the back of the Hall. While the Yajna was going on, they began composing the Namavali. Sometimes just to write one sentence we try to ‘squeeze’ the words out of our mind, and even then they just do not come out. On this occasion both of them realised that they were just instruments and the writer was the Lord within. Things started coming out of them. It was spontaneous from both. It was a stunning achievement, if you think of it. The thoughts just flowed through them like how Sage Vyasa was dictating and Ganesha was simultaneously writing down the whole Mahabharata without a break. As the Yajna got over, these two instruments, or call them ‘conduits’, had finished the writing. That they could do it in such a short time is itself a wonder. The Names written down on that historic day were so filled with deep meaning that they have inspired thousands of people for over three decades since then. They are chanted widely at all the Chinmaya Mission functions. And so, the mere process of writing these 108 Names teaches us a great lesson in life – to open ourselves to the Lord within and let Him act through us as instruments. That is a great blessing, a great benediction – to let Him express His will through us!

The Benefits of Chanting the Namavali The Namavali has done a major work over the last three decades. It has anchored many people to stay focussed. The process is quite straightforward: It connects us with the Guru. We get rooted in him. It becomes a great Sadhana for each person. Many have testified to the truth of this benefit in their spiritual unfoldment.

The Greatness of Sri Swami Chinmayananda Acharyaji now explained to us something about the greatness of Pujya Gurudev to give us some idea of how relevant all this glorification of his life is. If we know what Gurudev stood for, we may feel it is not enough to have just 108 Names; it should be 1008 Names! Acharyaji then referred to a journalist in the early 1980’s, named Sri Prateesh Nandi. This man, like Pujya Gurudev himself, was an ‘educated non-believer’. He represented the typical educated Indian of his day. The situation prevailing among such people was quite stereotyped: A well-educated Hindu generally considered rituals to be meaningless, and the Sadhu fraternity to be ‘a bunch of quack merchants’ out to make a ‘fast buck’ by trading on the ignorance of the public. They held the impression that Sannyasis were good-for-nothing fellows who took to religion because they were failures in society. This man, Prateesh Nandi, one day attended one of Gurudev’s Jnana Yajnas. He, of his own admission, went to see “how this young Swami would trick the public.” He did not go to learn from him, but to criticise him. But one visit was sufficient to drive away his scepticism. He became an admirer and wrote an article to mark that occasion. It read:

“The Swami has long tresses of black hair over his shoulders; he wears special wooden sandals which adds three inches to his height; he has an intelligent-looking face.” This covered the physical appearance of Gurudev. Gurudev was 65 years at the time. Then came the scholarship details: “He is a distinguished scholar, an ardent teacher, and a compulsive globe-trotter. He is modest, intelligent and accessible. The Swami is held today to be one of the few serious, credible missionaries that Hinduism has to offer. In the field of religion there are many, but few are seen to be credible. In many ways this is the best that could have happened to Hinduism. Till now, a person was not there who could explain to the masses in a way that they can understand the Shastras. “He offers no miracle to loot the gullible public; he reads no fortune; he makes no predictions; sings praises to no politicians; makes no claim to being a god, except for argument’s sake; nor does he offer for a fee a quick route to Nirvana. He simply teaches!”

Clearly, this is the type of teacher people want – an honest person, who has studied the Shastras well, who can go out and just teach people without any gimmick. Most people saw Hinduism as an old faith, outmoded, unscientific, ridden with rituals, having no relevance today. The people that thronged to his lectures were not all learned people. They were worldly people who came inquisitive to see how he would defend an antiquated faith. Sri Prateesh Nandi took an interview of Swamiji. While interviewing him, he saw Swamiji’s host persistently bring some beverage or other at half-an-hour intervals. He asked Swamiji, “It must be tough to be a Guru.” Swamiji replied, “Not tough, just lonely.” This is how Swamiji met the needs of the sceptics of his day. They were his first students. He won their hearts with patience and the clarity of his intellect.

COMMENTARY ON SELECTED NAMES

NAME 01: Á AeÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Ajaaya Namah Salutations to the Unborn

UNDER A NAME like this, his birth is the first thought that comes to our mind! Gurudev did not give much information about himself. There are people who love to celebrate their birthdays. They will choose several days to do so; the English calendar date, 13 the Indian calendar date; the lunar calendar date, the Nakshatra date, and so on. Gurudev was just the opposite. Most people never knew when was his birthday. Some thought that it was 19th April 1916, others took it as 8th May 1916. The first fell on Pooshya Nakshatra, the second on Punarvasu Nakshatra. This mattered little to Gurudev. In an old letter, Gurudev had written: “The very idea of celebrating the birthday of a Swami is ridiculous. And to celebrate it three times is even more ridiculous!” There was one time when he wrote: “I am Unborn; if at all I exist, it is in your imagination only!” How do we react to such a person? As he did not care what day was chosen for his birthday, the name Ajaaya suits him very well. The Immortal Self stays immortal always. The manifestation is only an appearance for a short while.

NAME 02: Á AurÉrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Avyayaaya Namah Salutations to the Imperishable

A YOUNGSTER CAME to Gurudev once, with chewing gum in his mouth, and asked, “How could you have renounced, Swamiji? You are so intelligent, you have a good family, good education, everything was going right for you, you were in great demand as a journalist. You would have made many a young girl very happy. Yet, why should you of all people have renounced?” Gurudev asked him a counter-question, “When will you spit out the gum you are chewing?” To this the young man boldly gave the reply, “When there is no more flavour in it.” At once Gurudev responded, “I have chewed this life of pleasure, and I have spat it out!” To a question like this, many may have gone to great lengths to explain how the change came about, but Gurudev’s reply was to the point and very appropriate.

We are yet to see how this relates to the name, “Imperishable”. A small child asked Gurudev just a few days before he passed away, “When will I see you again?” It was in San Jose or San Diego, Acharyaji could not remember exactly where. Gurudev replied to the child, “Close your eyes and look within. You will see me there.” In these words, Gurudev spoke of himself as the Pure Atman. As Atman, he is Avyayaaya, truly Imperishable.

That is from a physical aspect. There is another way of looking at Imperishability. It is the imperishability of one’s work, mission, actions. They never die. People will always remember the deeds of a Vivekananda, of a Sage Vyasa or a Shankaracharya, even centuries after they have left the scene on earth. In that sense, Sri Swami Chinmayananda also will ever be remembered for what he has achieved for mankind. His memory will always be cherished by those who knew him as well as those who hear of him after his death. He remains Imperishable in the mind of mankind!

*****

NAME 03: Á AÌuÉlÉÉÍzÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ Om Avinaashine Namah Salutations to the Indestructible

THAT WHICH CANNOT be destoryed is Avinaashine. Nothing can destroy what has come out from Truth. Anything that is performed with utmost sincerity, never dies – it is connected with Truth. With these words, Acharyaji opened the discussion on this Name. The Atman as being Indestructible, can be easily understood. But Truth and sincerity as being indestructible is more subtle to grasp. At this point, Acharyaji narrated an incident that involved himself: Acharyaji was doing talks in Madurai and was staying at a Dharmashala, an alms- house. It was after Gurudev’s Mahasamadhi, perhaps in the mid 1990’s. Every morning he used to go to a tea-stall outside the alms-house, have some coffee, and then go to the venue of the talks. The tea-stall owner one day picked a conversation with Acharyaji. “Where are you from?” he asked. Acharyaji told him he was from the Chinmaya Mission and what he was doing in Madurai. On hearing this, the owner took Acharyaji inside the stall. The stall itself was so small, and inside it there was a partition, a make-do curtain made of sacking. The owner pulled aside the curtain and showed his visitor a photograph on the wall above a small shrine area. It was the photo of Pujya Gurudev. Acharyaji became curious to know more. The owner said that around the year 1953 or 1954, Gurudev had come to Madurai to give talks. He used to sprinkle Ganges water where he spoke, and the owner used to carry the water bottle for Gurudev. Then, 35 years later, around 1988, there was a grand programme at the Chinmaya centre, and Gurudev came again. All the top officials, government officers, business magnates – everybody was there. The tea-stall owner felt too small to go and meet Gurudev, whom he remembered from his first visit. On this latest occasion, many people who attended the function, also came to the stall to have something to drink. People now knew Gurudev very well as he had beccome world famous. They saw the photo in the stall and offered the owner large sums of money to buy it. But he refused to sell it. There was something in it which money could not buy. There was an “Indestructible memory” behind it that the owner clung onto. He did not want to give it away for anything in the world. What was the connection between the tea-seller and the world-famous Vedanta Teacher? Here was an uneducated man who had hardly spent a few minutes with Gurudev 35 years ago. Gurudev was not known to him, and for that matter not known to India! Yet, a bond was built between the two of them that remained Indestructible! Acharyaji remarked that if such was the case for an uneducated, ordinary man, how much more would be the connection, the bonding with the people who came to Gurudev thirsting for the knowledge he gave out, and with the added reason of knowing that he was a world famous Teacher! Indeed, there is a greater indestructibility than just the physical one. That comes from the man at his core, his vision, his work, and his connection with people – they are what make him Indestructible!

NAME 05: Á AmÉëqÉårÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Aprameyaaya Namah Salutations to the Immeasurable

FROM THE VEDANTIC point of view, the Self has no beginning and no end. So it is very easy to see that it is immeasurable. But how are we to measure this quality in a human being? That is the aspect discussed here. One individual, Pujya Gurudev, had this vision to share the Knowledge of the scriptures. He came out with the initiative to teach every member in a family in a way that all of them could understand it. Of course, that meant children, teens, youth, parents and grandparents. That itself is such a grand vision, let alone the knowledge that has to go out. Acharyaji then asked the class, “Now you think. You have been studying Vedanta for 20 months now, You have seen for yourself how difficult the subject can get. How much more difficult would it be to transmit this message to children?” Gurudev pioneered the move to bring Vedanta to the level of children. He brought out a book named “Vedanta for Children”. Bal Vihar was started by him in an organised manner, and seeing its success, other organisations followed suit. In the 50’s there was no Yuvak Kendra; it only began in 1975. Although they had no organised activity of their own, many youth came to Gurudev to be inspired by him. In the 50’s and 60’s, not many girls were educated; it was only the boys that went out to study. Now that has changed. Gurudev had the vision of a “Devi Group” for the girls and young mothers. And thus did he begin to bring his vision to materialise slowly.

Pujya Gurudev’s “Immeasurable” Outreach Programme How many could Gurudev have reached? Can it be measured? Well, he inspired 4-5 people in his first Jnana Yajna in Pune. That started a ripple effect. Those few inspired a further few, and so it went on. His influence began penetrating the society. Bal Vihar for children was set up. People who were in the Bal Vihar classes soon became competent teachers of little children. Seeing the success of this programme, Gurudev visualised the opening of Chinmaya Vidyalayas (schools) for these growing children. Schooling was an effective way to influence a whole community. It started in a small way in the big cities, but today we have around 90 Vidyalayas all over India. Each year about 150-200 new children are admitted to each school. The arithmetic can start to measure his influence. Today over 20,000 new children are admitted to the Vidyalayas each year. The families they belong to get to know about the higher purpose of education. Then there are the Acharyas of the Mission who go about conducting Jnana Yajnas. At present (2013), there are about 300 of them in India and in the West. At an average attendance of 200 per Yajna, it is at least 20 to 30 thousand people at the Jnana Yajnas every day. What are we trying to show here? We are trying to measure the Immeasurable number of people he reached out to! Traditionally in India, Vedanta classes were restricted to a few people in society only. It was considered too difficult to simplify for the common man. Only serious students were admitted, and the conditions were stringently applied. The fraternity that developed from those institutions could not believe that Swami Chinmayananda would succeed in bringing this knowledge to every level in society, but that is exactly what happened right before their very eyes!

The vision was immeasurable; the inspiration received by the masses was also immeasurable; Gurudev’s love for the people was immeasurable; and his influence within the community was immeasurable. The load of responsibility he took upon his shoulders is immeasurable. It is not easy to organise these activities and find the people to run them. The infrastructure had to be developed; the people who would drive it had to be motivated; the listeners and learners had to be encouraged to attend. The funding of such programmes was in itself a mammoth undertaking. How does one measure all this? This gives us some idea of what Aprameyaaya really means – it is just awesome! Even today, 20 years after his Samadhi, people come forward to tell us how they remember him so vividly. They recollect when and where they met him, what he said to them, and how he said it – all in detail! He lives even now in people’s memories. They may not be ardent followers, but the few moments they spent with him are indelible in their minds. Like this there were thousands on whom he made an impact. None of that is measurable. In the Bhagavad Geeta we read of the Stithaprajna who cannot be measured. Acharyaji quoted verse 2.70: Aapooryamaanam achalapratishtham, samudram aapah pravishantiyadvat. Meaning: “As the waters of different rivers enter the ocean, which, though full on all sides, remains undisturbed . . .” So much goes into the ocean and yet the ocean is able to take the load without complaining. Gurudev was like that ocean. Saints cannot come under any classification of time and space. They are rare human beings who have transcended the realms of matter.

A flower arrangement of Gurudev’s Signature

NAME 07: Á AÌlÉMåüiÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Aniketaaya Namah Salutations to the One who has no Limited Abode

AGAIN, IN THE GEETA 12.19, we hear Lord Krishna say of an enlightened person, that he does not have one particular place; he roams about freely: Aniketah sthiramatih – “entertaining no ownership with regard to a dwelling.” In Gurudev’s life we see this. Acharyaji asked us to go to the Sandeepany Library in the Ashram and ask to see samples of Gurudev’s itineraries during all the 40 years of his travels. That would give us direct proof of what this name meant in his case. We will be simply amazed to know how continuous were his travels, without a single break. It was not just over a short period of a few months, but went on for 15-20 years together! It may look very rosy and exciting to travel like he did, going to different places and enjoying the hospitality of hosts everywhere. It appears like a perpetual holiday! But do it year after year without getting tired, and see if you can survive. It requires a special characteristic to live like that year after year. Then, even if we do travel so much continuously, there will be a feeling of being at home in some particular place or other. One yearns to go there just to relax and say, “Ah, this is where I belong.” But the saints did not have even that so-called resting place. They just kept going year in and year out, without any attachment whatsoever. The only option for them was to be comfortable in every place – which they did succeed in doing! It was always new people, new places, new foods, new water, etc, all the time, around the clock. With it was new concerns, new members. Most people in this situation would be tempted to call it a day after a few years of living like that. “I am tired of running about. I am staying in one place henceforth. If they are interested, they can come here. But I am not going out from here any more.” A world figure can easily say that, and people will accept it and say he is entitled to it; and they will still come to him for the knowledge they thirst for. But this is not how Gurudev thought; not how he was built. In his view, if he did that, that would restrict his visitors to those who could afford to take long leave at will; to those who are retired and have nothing else to do; to those who can travel without any health issues; who have none to look after at home, etc. He felt it is easier for one person – himself – to do the travelling, than for thousands to travel to him. This is how considerate he was. And this made it impossible even to consider having a place of rest all to himself. He just went on travelling and made himself at home wherever he went. He did have a kutia at Powai Headquarters, a very comfortable kutia, too; and he had a cottage at Sidhabadi which was equally comfortable according to the wishes of others. But how much time did he spend in them? One can get the answer by looking at his itineraries!

The Sadhana of Living “Aniketa” This Aniketa-hood is itself a great Tapas, a Sadhana. If the attitude is not right, it can drive a person mad. But Gurudev did it year after year without complaint. And Guruji does it even now year after year without complaint. Gurudev wrote about this once: “I have travelled for some six months now, living on Bhiksha, living in Ashrams, temples, almshouses, and under wayside trees. When people do not know who you are, they consider you as an inconvenient beggar, a worthless monk, an unproductive member of the community, and they insult you with looks

of abhorrence, as if you were something the cat dragged in! If you ask me, this kind of lifestyle is the best cure for the ‘Ego Disease’.” Just think of Gurudev’s situation. He goes to a new place. He is told by the organisers, “Right, this year your host will be So-and-so.” There is no choice in the matter. He has no idea sometimes who the person is. It may be that only the host is a devotee, and the rest of his family don’t take easily to wandering monks. He has overheard sometimes people say, “Why did you bring him here. And give him my room! Look how many people he is bringing in every day. All our privacy is gone now for one or two weeks.” Now what would we say about it being very pleasant to be always in a new home? One experience like that would be enough to make a person give up the idea of travelling altogether. It is so easy for a world figure to do that, and none would mind. There is much significance in the words Gurudev has written. He must have experienced every word of it, that is why he wrote it: “. . . they insult you with looks of abhorrence, as if you were something the cat dragged in!” How hurtful must it be to go through that! Gurudev travelled in trains, in rickshaws where nobody knew him. People looked at him and must have thought, “Who is this guy? – this good-for-nothing fellow?” Yet, in spite of such experiences, Gurudev kept going to city after city, town after town, village after village. He never gave up, no matter what the difficulties. To him, he was solely interested in those who thirsted for the knowledge. No difficulties were insurmountable when weighed against that heartfelt desire. One may add to all this inconvenience, the hype of the media. That helped little; it only worsened things for Gurudev. They were merciless, and only waited for opportunities to let themselves loose on some unsuspecting wandering mendicant who may have only been perceived to be “unmannerly” in their prim and proper eyes. Today anyone can jump into an orange garb and cause untold damage to the holy Sannyas Order, parading themselves in public wishing for an easy road to comfort. The media were fully alert to find such people, not for the sake of bringing them to justice, but for the sake of bringing disgrace to the whole Sannyas fraternity, for ripping up all they stood for, and damning the whole of the Himalayas in the process. We read of scandal after scandal, report after report – and the media just thrives on it. They keep their ugly picture before the public. If things cool down after one scandal, they go about sniffing for the next to keep the “scandal-fire” burning in the minds of the public. Gurudev ever remained undeterred by all this amazing press artillery lined up against him. He just carried on and on – for forty-two long years, until nature called him up for another mission, perhaps from another ‘more comfortable’ plane!

NAME 08: Á AlÉÑzÉÉxÉlÉ-ÌmÉërÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Anushasana Priyaaya Namah Salutations to the One who Loved Discipline

ACHARYAJI BEGAN BY asking the question uppermost in every student’s mind: Question: “Why do we need Discipline in our lives?” Answer: “Because discipline is the only way to master our mind.” Thus began the following self-generating dialogue, all coming from Acharyaji: Question: “Why do we need to master the mind?” Answer: “Because without mastery over the mind, you cannot sit for meditation. The mind will just run wild. The mind that is untamed has to be tamed.” Question: “What is the way to discipline the mind?” Answer: “The mind wants to run in a hundred different directions all at once. You just have to stop it. Put up the barriers to stop it, at least to limit its movements. That is a step in the right direction to achieve some success in disciplining the mind.” Question: “What barriers are you talking of?” Answer: “Tell the mind, ‘You are not going anywhere. Sit down as if you are in jail.’ For example, you can do Japa daily. It requires great discipline to do that. The mind does not want to do that; you want it to do that. So the mind will make a big fuss. That is its nature. There are days when it will just refuse to do any Japa; there are days when it will take it easy when it comes to Japa. That nature has to be changed. On this path, discipline is required because you want to reap the fruit of Consistency in your Sadhana.” Question: “How do you train the mind to be consistent?” Answer: “The mind has to be made to do a thing regularly. It must be trained to become consistent. Without disciplining, it will never be consistent. Sometimes it will do; sometimes it will refuse to do. That is inconsistency. It must do every day, even if a little. It is better to do a little every day, than to do a lot on one day and nothing the next.”

Gurudev’s Standard of Discipline To begin with Gurudev himself would not draw any distinction between seekers and ordinary devotees or people in general for that matter. He saw everyone as a potential seeker of God, and tried to help them to rise to their highest potential. Gurudev disciplined others not for his sake but for our sake. We needed it, not him. He was already disciplined, else he could not have run a big institution as he did. He knew the value of discipline, and wanted us to know it as well. Let us look at the nuts and bolts of his discipline requirement: We take an example which predominated in his life – Correspondence. This gives us a good glimpse of his standard of discipline. Some of the disciplines he practised would be impossible for most people, and in correspondence he excelled because of his discipline. One who is a ‘little’ well-known, as he was, receives a volume of correspondence that is not easy to handle. Many letters are received, an enormous number. Ordinarily, one cannot answer all, unless one is disciplined. Gurudev had set himself a rule: “To everybody who writes to me, I will reply.” That was his rule on himself, and it was a non-negotiable rule. He never tried to bend it to suit him. Every mail had to be replied.

Sometimes, those who wrote to him and were also close to him to know his commitment to correspondence, would realise that they are taking up too much of his time, and would apologetically say, “Swamiji, this is only for your information. You need not reply to this.” It did not matter how apologetic they were, his rule was for him and it was fixed: every letter had to be replied. That was nobody else’s business but his. We cannot gauge his commitment by today’s standards. Today computers and cellphones have made communication multitudes of times easier and faster. There are features on our phones where you can type two letters and the whole word comes up on its own. At the press of a button we can send mails to any part of the world and get a reply within minutes. We are talking of a period in recent history when these electronic gadgets were not there. Correspondence was done through handwritten letters. Gurudev would spend long hours writing these letters himself and then seeing that they are properly addressed and physically posted into a letter box, not just sent at the touch of a button. People today may not even be able to imagine how correspondence had to be handled only a couple of decades ago. With all that, Gurudev knew that excellence was possible only if there was discipline. He achieved that excellence in the field of correspondence because he was disciplined and stuck to his rule.

Excellence & Discipline Go Hand in Hand Now the question to be asked is, not so much “How he disciplined others?” but “Why he disciplined others?” The reason for discipline is more important, not the method. The reason for discipline is to achieve Excellence. Discipline is needed in order to achieve Excellence. If excellence is not seen in a piece of work, then Gurudev knew that it was because there was no discipline. He could know our mind by the way we excelled or otherwise in our work. He saw that in his own life, and he worked hard to see it in our lives, too. He had ‘Zero Tolerance’ for indiscipline in himself, and therefore he had the right to demand ‘Zero Tolerance’ from those who worked closely with him. He worked hard to bring out the best in all his co-workers. Indiscipline, to Gurudev, was a Tamasic projection, plain and simple, without question. In a spiritual seeker, this is not acceptable; in an organisation this is intolerable. That was his guiding rule. A seeker in Tamo Guna cannot grow; and a worker in Tamo Guna cannot perform. For both aspects, Tamas had to be kept to the bare minimum – just enough for ‘activities’ such as sleep, etc. We cannot permit ourselves to remain too long in a Tamasic mode. The implication of this in Gurudev’s eyes was a mathematical correlation between Tamas, Indiscipline and absence of Excellence. He knew exactly when these were present, and reacted in a manner to correct the imbalance.

An Example on Discipline Gurudev had not a bit of excess Tamas. So he could rightfully not tolerate it in others. He used to demand discipline in order to raise our standard to his level. He would push us to the limit to see how much we could handle. Here is an example of how he did it: Swami Dheerananda is one of the Chinmaya Mission Acharyas living in Washington D.C. His father narrated this story to Acharyaji. In the previous Sandeepany batch, Swami Dheerananda had shared this experience himself to the students. Here is the gist of the experience as it came to us from Acharyaji:

There was a family with whom Gurudev stayed in Hyderabad. In the mornings, the host regularly brought a cup of tea or coffee for Gurudev. She would invariably ask Gurudev for some instruction or other on meditation. She was very anxious to start meditation. One day, a drop, just a drop, spilled from the cup to the saucer. Gurudev reacted in a most unusual manner. He said, “Do you think I am in a railway station?” As if that was not bad enough, he added, “I won’t take it!” What could be his intention in reacting this way? Gurudev wished to tell his host that when she was doing this action, her mind was not there. If it was there, this would not have happened. Our whole mind had to be on what we are doing, otherwise it was not accepted by him. That was his teaching. He explained, “If you are not focussed, you will have a wandering mind. It will go everywhere. And such a mind cannot meditate.” The lady, who appeared disturbed by the reaction at first, smiled as she understood the answer to her daily questions, and thanked Gurudev for teaching her the lesson. The above teaching was to a Grihastha with whom Gurudev was staying, and this is the discipline he demanded. What would it have been for those who were Brahmacharis and Sannyasis in the organisation who had come to him as disciples? The disciplinary standard was the same, but it needed more force to convey. That force can only be left to the reader’s imagination, it cannot be spelt out! All that one can say is Gurudev must have had an extremely sharp mind to be able to pick the slightest trace of indiscipline in his disciples. True, Gurudev loved discipline, but he loved disciples more!

Self-Discipline Gurudev practised discipline on himself, and then demanded it from others. He was not asking them to do something which he did not do himself. The discipline he taught us to do was self-discipline. We were not doing it in order to get any appreciation for it, such as “Look, how disciplined he is!” We do it because we personally benefit from it. Discipline is for self-improvement, for self-growth, not a show to serve one’s ego. For this reason, discipline is not something that can be enforced. When we realise the benefits of discipline, we will practise it willingly, not grudgingly, and certainly not to please someone else. Gurudev expected that even in small matters that appeared insignificant, people should follow the discipline, and thereby use the occasion to improve themselves. If we do not do that we are losing opportunities to improve. We are wasting our time and wasting opportunities to grow. The best, most effective discipline is that which we impose on ourselves. We have to always urge ourselves to do it for our own growth. In that way we improve constantly. Constant growth is important for us as seekers, else we will feel discouraged, frustrated and lose confidence and faith in ourselves. Constant assessment of our own progress becomes a great source of encouragement to work. When we know the value of discipline, we will also begin to love it and welcome it, and thank others who remind us of it, whether they do that with courtesy or harshly. Here is an example to show how Gurudev reminded people to strive for excellence in their performance:

Kambha Ramayana Drama in Chennai Once in Chennai we had a show. It was called Kambha Ramayana and was a lengthy, live drama performance. The performance was intended to be done annually on a particular occasion. The first two shows were arrnged in the open air, using seven stages. There was no problem of space in the open air theatre. Gurudev attended one of them. Thereafter, it was decided to perform it indoors. For this only a single stage was possible. Gurudev came again to see this to note the difference in how it affected the show. He was very interested in using theatre as a medium to promote the mission and its message. If it could be done on a single stage, it would be easier to produce at different centres, as it would be less cumbersome. However, there would also be several practical difficulties in shifting from seven stages to a single stage. The advantage of seven stages is that the producer could pre-set the backdrop for different scenes. The stage, too, could be pre-set for the requirement of each scene. This makes scene changes very quick, which is a big advantage for a lengthy production where time is of the essence. Lighting is swiched on only for the stage being currently used. There also there is an advantage. The disadvantage is that it requires much more space, and is feasible only in the open air, and that makes it weather-dependent. The single stage overcame the disadvantages easily, but the time for scene change became critical to the success of the performance. The producer has to rethink his entire strategy on how to go about doing scene changes. Stage settings have to be speeded up between closing and opening of curtains, and one has to find ways of doing that. More backdrops are needed, and more people are needed to make the scene changes quick. Coming to the point of the example, there was one scene where Ravana had to go to war, dressed up in full armour. Just before the war begins, he has to offer prayer to Lord Shiva. Some quick-thinking was needed to make this happen with the least disruption on stage. A temple was rigged up for the prayer scene, and quickly taken off stage with a new backdrop for the war scene that followed. Ravana would have no time to change his outfit, so he had to appear in his armour at the temple! With good co-ordination from everyone concerned, the scene went off without a hitch. At the end of the performance, the actors were granted the opportunity to do obeisance to Pujya Gurudev who sat in the front row in the audience. They came past him one by one and prostrated. When ‘Ravana’ came, Gurudev called him aside and said to him, “You are a great Shiva Bhakta. Why did you go to the temple with your shoes on? It was a bad example for others.” Let alone ‘Ravana’, but everyone else present nearby were quite startled by this observation by Gurudev. The producers in particular were quick to realize their oversight. They had known that Ravana would be with his shoes during the prayer, but they hoped it would not be noticed as time had to be saved by skipping such formalities. They took the responsibility for the error and apologised, and Gurudev accepted their apology. The point to be noted was how observant Gurudev was and what his level of perfection was. Also, he had noted the error some two hours before, and it did not slip from his mind when it came to the moment for it to be corrected. The above incident demonstrated the degree of observation that Gurudev developed due to his discipline and desire to be perfect in all that he did, down to the smallest detail.

Organisational Discipline Acharyaji switched now to the topic of organisational discipline. He read out a short passage from one of Gurudev’s letters which concerned a key principle formulated by him which was essential for the smooth functioning of the organisation. A complaint letter was received by Gurudev against the rule that there should be no welcome address extended to anyone at certain functions of the organisation. Gurudev’s reply to the letter was as follows: “If I say no address to anyone, it is as an organisational instruction for everyone; you, too, will have to respect it. It is not right for any member of the organisation to grumble, murmur and complain about this instruction. These decisions are agreed by everyone at meetings. An organisation forms certain rules and these rules are set by common consensus. If we are a part of the organisation then we must follow them. If the rules are not followed, this means that such members are not fit for the organisation, and I have no compunction to rip such people away to keep the organisation trim and disciplined. The members must learn to live in the discipline of an organisation, or else work cannot proceed smoothly and efficiently.” This is a management principle to deal with murmurs and complaints. Acharyaji explained: We have work, loads of work; we have a vision to fulfil; our time is little to accomplish the work to be done. It should be done smoothly and efficiently. In an organisation, rules are made to ensure smoothness and efficiency. If people are not willing to follow a decision taken in the organisation, that would only create unpleasantness and bring down the efficiency. That applies for any team. The team has decided something, and once the team has decided, then it is all teamwork – we have to follow it. A person who has a management vision will know the value of discipline most. What happens is that I follow what is told in the organisation; my individual will becomes part of the organisational will, and we work so that our own likes and dislikes are transcended. Any differences in opinions can be brought up before the decision is made. Differences in opinion can be aired before a decision is made. But once the decision is made, thereafter there cannot be any differences. All have to follow it. Then, holding on to differences is not good for the organisation. Murmuring and grumbling will not help the organisation. These are essential points in running an organisation smoothly and efficiently. Any discipline that we take upon ourselves is voluntary because it helps us to improve our performance and excel in our work, It helps us to bring out our best, and to make us progress. It is for this reason that Gurudev loved discipline. If this understanding is there, then we, too, will soon learn to love discipline.

NAME 09: Á AliÉÈxÉÉÍ¤ÉhÉå lÉqÉÈ Om Antah Saakshine Namah Salutations to the Inner Witness

FOR STUDENTS OF Vedanta walking this Path, the practice of being a Witness is an important Sadhana that should be done regularly, as much as possible. This alone can help us to break the identification with body, mind and intellect. Gurudev lived a life of remaining as the inner Witness. You can see it in the videos that even as he was talking, he will say every now and then, “Just flowing in!” You can see that he is talking from deep inside, not identifying with anything ‘outside’, including his mind and intellect. What could be the key to such an indrawn state, to establishing oneself as one’s Witness. The number one preparation for it is Detachment, which is the same thing as Vairagya or Dispassion. Too much attachment does not go hand in hand with being a Witness. Witness-ship becomes easy as we become more detached from the externals. Gurudev had that detachment, and so it was very easy for him go to the Witness level.

Example: Meeting With a Film Actor Gurudev was travelling in a train once, and a very famous actor from Andhra Pradesh was also in the train with him sharing the same compartment. He saw Gurudev, so he came and did Namaskar. Gurudev did not know that this man was an actor, and a famous one at that. People around Gurudev informed him, “Swamiji, he is a big film star in Andhra Pradesh.” What Gurudev told him was something very beautiful: Gurudev said, “When you are acting on the screen, do it as if it is real; and in real life, act well!” What an appropriate response from Gurudev! Firstly, it must require a great level of detachment to practice what Gurudev had just advised the actor. That means that Gurudev was asking him to be a Witness of himself while acting and while in real life. And secondly, Gurudev had conveyed a fitting message to a fellow traveller on a train journey, when both of them had enough time to ponder over such things. The actor had something to chew on for the rest of his journey. Gurudev made this comment effortlessly. It was completely unpremeditated. This was because he had already developed in himself the detachment and always stayed as a Witness. For us to reach that same stage would require Tapas or intense effort. In the spontaneous remark of Gurudev, there was both professional and spiritual advice. The first part, “Act as if it is real life,” was for his professional life to improve. And the second part, “In real life, act well,” was for his spiritual life to start blossoming. Perhaps the actor may never meet Gurudev again, but in that short space of a few minutes interaction in the train, he got something for life. The contact was minimal, but the message was profound. Anything that comes from deep down makes a deep impression. This message is equally applicable to us who are undergoing a spiritual preparation for a particular role in society. Whatever it may be, we should do it with awareness that it is our role and we should play it well.

An Antidote for Disturbance As Gurudev always lived at this deep level inside, he was never disturbed. When he had to reprimand people, it may sound harsh to our ears, but he was only playing his role, 25 and playing it well for those few moments. Immediately after that, he was back to ‘real life’, which for him was to go back deep inside himself. If we only learn to develop this quality of being a Witness of our mind, how much closer will it take us to our goal! Our whole Sadhana lies in constantly working towards this state of “No Disturbance”.

An Example: The Meditator Who Took Down Notes Here is an actual incident which happened at the Sidhabadi Ashram in Himachal Pradesh. Gurudev was taking a guided meditation class. This must be a very rare experience for most people. For one thing, it is rare to be in the presence of a God-realised saint. Secondly, it is also difficult though not as rare to find a teacher who is skilled in explaining the scriptures. But, to find someone who is both of these rolled into one, is unimaginably rare. This was the context of the meditation class being described here. Another point about the class. It was at a time when we did not have facilities as we have today to video every session, live stream it, and make it available to the whole world. At this class, nearly 400 aspirants had gathered and were sitting silently to be guided in their meditation. One person in this group, who was seated at the rear end of the class, decided he would take down notes as the session could not be recorded. No one would doubt his good intention and even sincerity in this activity. But . . . Gurudev suddenly stopped his instructions and announced, “Stop writing. Someone is guiding you in meditation. This is a rare opportunity to go within, not to write notes.” Saying that, Gurudev continued as before. The man at the back thought that this remark must have been for someone sitting in the front rows, whom Gurudev could see. Thus, ignoring the announcement, he continued taking down his notes as before. Then came a second announcement, more firmly, which was more like an order: “The one who is writing, please leave the hall now.” This time the man had no option but to get up and leave. He went out and sat, waiting for the class to finish, so that he can apologise to Gurudev. Gurudev explained, “I could feel the paper and the pen.” What does that imply? As we practise being Witness, our awareness increases to a heightened level. The practitioner reaches that centre of stillness in himself where he can be sensitive even to the kind of activity which Gurudev sensed – “I feel the paper and the pen.” One person at the back writing in the midst of 400 people could be sensed by the sensitivity developed by one who was always dwelling in his centre. This is only a small glimpse, a kind of demonstration of what Gurudev’s actual life experience was like. Acharyaji said he was there at the Camp when this incident happened. He and a few others went up to that man who was writing notes and thanked him profusely, saying, “You took the brunt of it, but we all learnt something from it which we would not have if this incident had not taken place. We learnt that Gurudev was trying to raise us to a certain level during the meditation, and that writing down anything was bringing down that level for the whole group. He was sensitive to that; we cannot understand that at our limited level.” These experiences of Gurudev come only because of his being in touch with his Antaryamin, the Indwelling Spirit. We are the fortunate benefactors of this contact. We are always working from the outside, while he works from the inside. These incidents inspire us to be like him, and start living more from the inside.

What is being inside and outside? Forgetting our true nature and always identifying ourselves with the externals, the action , the drama, etc, is living outside. And what is living inside? Acharyaji read to us another quote from Gurudev that explained this: “As I am writing these words, a certain part in me can stand apart and visualize how my fingers, constuituted of mere minerals, can hold the pen at the right slant and carry it along the paper so that words may be spelt properly thereon. As I am writing this, a part of me remains a Witness of that action.” This is living from the inside! We skip a few Names due to time restraints, and go to Name 13.

SWAMI MITRANANDAJI Acharya for this Text, at “Z-Bac Outdoors” where the class went for a 3-day Excursion.

NAME 13: Á AÉÇasÉ-pÉÉzÉÉ-ÌuÉSÒ¨ÉqÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Angla Bhaashaa Vidduttamaaya Namah Salutations to one who is Most Eloquent in English

GURUDEV KNEW THE English language very well. He was a master of it, and he could bring out the scriptural message in that language in a way which today’s generation can understand well. Gurudev had a passion for excellence, and in the expression of his English we saw him at his best. He used to say, “Whatever you do, do your best.” It should not be in a mediocre or slip-shod manner. Because of this passion, he brought out something beautiful from himself for us to emulate. “Do things well. Why should it be slip-shod, clumsy, unrefined – why can’t it be the best. If you have the potential, why go for something lower than it?” In these words Acharyaji echoed Gurudev’s attitude. The fundamental question asked is: Why was there such a desperate need for English to feature in Gurudev’s Master Plan of action? The need was certainly there, and two distinct modern threats may be identified, each requiring its own remedy. Before we explain these threats, let us look at the historical past and see how Samskrit survived the last big threat it had to face about 1,500 years ago. Then, in the light of that, the modern threat and remedy can have something to compare it to.

Sage Vyasa’s Contribution to Preserve Samskrit Samskrit is a language which takes a person within himself. It is the “Language of the Gods.” Indian society had once protected Samskrit by memorising the whole of the Vedas. They had a structure within their society by which different sections of the society were tasked to memorise different portions of the sacred texts. Samskrit was protected by the memory power of society. Very little Samskrit needed to be written down in that era of Samskrit. The oral format required people to have prodigious memories to ensure the survival of Samskrit. However, from around 2,000 to 1,500 years ago, humanity was becoming more and more extroverted. As the nation became more engrossed in outer things, there began a pull and a push away from Samskrit. When outer things occupy the mind, the memory of that society suffers. Around the period 500-700 AD there arose Sage Vyasa who was alert to realise how damaging this could be for the survival of Samskrit. He began to systematically write down all that previously depended only on the memory of people for its survival. People criticised Vyasa for doing this. “Why are you changing the sacred tradition of this land which preserves the Vedas my memorising them?” Anything new in society generally faces such conservative resistance, and Vyasa was no exception. But he did not stop his campaign. He stepped up his programme of converting the wealth of ancient knowledge into properly written texts. He systematically classified all the Vedas into four parts, and then he also systematically presented the Puranic lore into voluminous Samskrit literature. This was Sage Vyasa’s contribution towards the preservation of the language. If Vyasa had not done what he did, in another few more centuries, all the Vedas would have been lost to mankind.

The Modern Threats Facing Samskrit Recent efforts to preserve Samskrit wisdom have the same aim that Sage Vyasa had to preserve Samskrit writings. The threats are different so the strategy has to be different – that is the only difference. In the modern era the new overall threat was that Samskrit was no longer the spoken language of the nation. Its significance as a spoken language had dwindled considerably until it did not feature at all in the mainstrem of the nation’s spoken languages. This is the overview of the threat. When we look closer at the overall threat to see what caused it, we identify two distinct causes for the removal of Samskrit from the mainstream. As already mentioned, one force was the pull away from Samskrit, and the other a push away from Samskrit:

1. The “Pull” Threat: The “pull” was mainly due to the foreign domination over India. This was due mainly to colonial mischief, particularly British colonialism in India. The British tried their best to undermine the Samskrit educational institutions and rip the nation’s strength from the intelligentsia. They played their monstrous strategy with meticulous precision – and to a large extent it worked in their favour. They made concerted efforts to break up the indigenous educational establishments. Samskrit became the main target of this strategy.

2. The “Push” Threat: The “push” was due to internal vested interests. This was mischief from within the people of India. A section of people tried to restrict Samskrit literature to a select group of people, and keep the rest of the people in ignorance of it, in order that they could exert their domination over them. It was well-known that at one time Samskrit was the language of the common man in India. But slowly it moved away from him and became the preserve of a learned few. The learned ones knew that Samskrit texts contained pearls of wisdom. Due to their vested interests, they suppressed its learning to a select group only. By such hold over knowledge they sought to exert their domination over those who were compelled to remain illiterate in Samskrit. It is very easy for the learned to dominate the ignorant. Such domination threatened to make Indians a nation of slaves. It made people lose their humanity, their manliness and become docile and gullible.

The Defence Strategy to Protect Samskrit Samskrit . . . we know how perfect a language it is for the expression of scriptural ideas and truths too subtle for ordinary languages. Its description as the “language of the Gods” is justified due to its power to accurately expound scriptural ideas. Yet, the threats were real, and Samskrit appeared in danger of extinction. It seemed that it would not be long before it crumbles and disappears from the scene in the face of the new civilisation. This made Gurudev all the more determined to do something drastic to save the ancient wisdom. He resorted to a two-pronged attack. The first dealt with the “Pull” threat; the second with the “Push” threat. The first answered the external critics in their own coin; the second answered the internal critics, also in their own coin. Consciously or unconsciously, he showed that he was a Master Strategist:

1. Translation into English: The first strategy was to bring out the message of the scriptures in English so that it could reach the multitudes of people, and the domination

29 over them would cease to some extent. He wanted to introduce the scriptures to the wider community and help them to regain pride in their culture and tradition. Gurudev’s mastery over the English language enabled him to come very close to the original meanings locked in Samskrit. He expressed the Upanishadic wisdom brilliantly in this language of India’s erstwhile colonisers. The colonialists had used English to its utmost to destroy the indigenous educational system; Gurudev’s reply to this was to use the very same language to restore the structure of India’s glorious educational system, and resurrect it from extinction.

2. Widespread Samskrit Education: The second strategy was a positive campaign to revive the learning of Samskrit. Samskrit was made compulsory in Gurudev’s training programmes for the young Brahmacharis and Sannyasis. There was a growing campaign to intensify the programmes to impart Samskrit education at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya. The Chinmaya International Foundation became an organ which was dedicated to research of ancient Samskrit documents, as well as starting the Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyalaya (equivalent to a University) to teach the sacred language on a large scale.

In the first strategy Gurudev faced the stiffest opposition from Indians themselves. But his response was to intensify the Jnana Yajna programmes rather than reduce them. Gurudev was fearless in promoting both strategies. The English medium was used in the main training programmes; and Samskrit studies were also included as the primary means to acquire knowledge of Vedanta. Gurudev had lit the candle at both ends!

The Role of Swami Vivekananda Lest it be said that too much credit is given to Swami Chinmayanandaji, it has to be acknowledged that there were many other key players who came to the defence of Samskrit and the Hindu scriptures and culture as a whole. Among them, Swami Vivekananda had set the ball rolling. He, too, brought forth his message in English; it was the only option to prick the ears of the West. He laid the foundation stone for the renaissance. Acharyaji acknowledged this in the class. Swami Vivekanandaji had to speak at a general level to awaken the interest in a sleeping India and a sceptic West. The work remained half-done, but it was a crucial half. Swami Chinmayanandaji began with the other half of the work. He went deep into the scriptures themselves and brought out the pearls from all the major texts in English. He wrote commentaries on the original texts, verse by verse. This was a major breakthrough and it was a solid contribution towards the Samskrit cause. While Swami Vivekananda raised the awareness of the great religious and cultural heritage of India, Swami Chinmayananda took the other big stride in bringing it in neat packages to every home in the form of his numerous exhaustive commentaries on the Upanishads and other ancient texts. The latter was a novel method that was introduced into contemporary Hinduism to revive Vedic culture.

Importance of Original Thinking & Courage The above efforts were the major streams of the Master Plan. An enormous amount of original thinking was required to achieve it. In addition there had to be great courage to put the Plan into action. Acharyaji took a lot of time to explain these requirements and inspire in us zeal to become part of the whole process. The following are the details:

Gurudev was an original thinker, without doubt. He was very innovative. He did things that had not been done before. In this way, he helped to stabilise the boat of Vedic culture which was floundering in the rough seas of modern materialistic culture. This originality was accompanied by courage that was unprecedented. Gurudev faced the toughest challenges one could think of, not the least of which was from his own countrymen. He faced stiff opposition from existing vested interests. There were many who criticised Gurudev for teaching in a foreign language, but he faced them all bravely. Then there was the section of conservatives who were bound to oppose him. He knew this would come, and was ready to face it with brilliant oratory and sound logic combined. We have seen that Sage Vyasaji had his fair share of critics, too, who ran him down for overthrowing the oral tradition. But Vyasa was very practical. He could see the trend and rose to meet the threat courageously. Similarly, Gurudev also rose to the threat of his time. Acharyaji now spoke with great fervour to a class that was attentively listening to every word that he uttered. Below is a near word-to-word record of what Acharyaji spoke from the depth of his heart . . . “When we want to do something creative to help mankind, there is bound to be some opposition from certain quarters. Such challenges that come our way are important. They need to be faced and overcome. But for them, you will not improve! “Please remember you should have tough people around you. You should not have ‘Yes’ people around you. You should have people who can question you and challenge you. Then only will you grow. You should not encourage the types who just say, ‘Yes, Swamiji’, who will simply obey, and not think. “If, in the face of challenges, you still have courage to continue, then it is you who will improve, not those who are a challenge to you. You cannot make them improve; they will improve in the same way that you do – when they face challenges. If you have sheep-like people ready to do whatever you say, you will never improve, nor will they. You will stagnate at one point, and make everyone else stagnate with you. People beyond that point will not associate with you; only people below that point will hang about all around you! “So, when people opposed Gurudev for introducing everything in English, he did not stop. He just carried on doing it. Slowly, those who just criticised him, started coming regularly to his Yajnas just to watch how he conducted them. Then, slowly they went further and followed him wherever he went. And then, they went even further and started applauding him!”

Team-Building: “Tough People will Help you to Grow” Acharyaji had by now warmed up on the topic and was firing on all cylinders, as it were. He extrapolated the above bit of history into our lives as future leaders. He said: “Suppose you are put in charge of building a team. How would you go about it? Honestly speaking, if you want to improve yourself, keep people who will criticise you more, not people who go on praising you. I am not joking – you will see how quickly you will grow. You have just heard how Vyasa, Vivekananda, Shankaracharya, Gurudev, all of them had their challenges. None of them fought

shy of them. They faced them and continued their work non-stop. That is how they succeeded. The challenges made them better. “On the other hand, you can easily go in for this philosophy: ‘This person will glorify me, keep him in the team; this one will always speak well of me, keep him in the team; this one will never criticise me, keep him in the team; this person is going to be a thorn, leave him out; that person, if I have him in the team, is going to be a pain, I know it, leave him out.’ If you do that, you will never get beyond a point. “Here is a true incident from Gurudev’s life on how he went about team- building. There was one very tough character, really tough . . . I mean, you will wonder why on earth God placed you in front of him – that’s the kind of toughness he had. Gurudev took him into the committee, and gave him a position also in the committee. “People went to Gurudev and said, ‘Why this person on the committee, and in this position?’ Look at the answer that Gurudev gave. He said, ‘Do you know why Shiva wears a snake around His neck? If the snake were outside, it could be dangerous. He let it be around Him, then He can control it!’ “My question to you is this: How many will take such people, work with them, work through them, and control them? Do you mean Gurudev would not have thought of the difficulties of having this tough fellow in the team? What is it to him to have one tough person in his team? When you have such difficult people in your team, they are an opportunity for you to grow. Believe me, I am speaking from experience. If growth means anything to you, then the people who oppose you will help you to grow more than the people who are with you. Don’t choose an easy way out; for growth is difficult. If you have all light people around you, you will do nothing worthwhile.” In the team let there be variety, let there be tough people, let there be challenges. Gurudev was ready for the toughest road ahead, for which you need guts of a different level altogether. It is said in the Geeta that one of the qualities in a Stithaprajna is fearlessness. Tough people will help you to grow.

In Truth Lies Power & Strength What made Gurudev continue his mission in the face of the stiffest opposition? His answer: “Because Truth is Power. Truth is Strength, not the people around you; not your degrees and qualifications; not your income. Strength lies in Truth, in how truthful you are.” It was Vivekananda who said, “If you have Truth on your side, even if the whole world opposes you, you will have the strength to face them.” Gurudev was always ready for any eventuality. He knew the opposition will come when he starts talking in English because no one had done it before. Many texts were never spoken in English. You were permitted to speak only in Samskrit or in the vernacular. Why in the language of a foreigner? Gurudev knew this and was not afraid of it. We close this theme with what Gurudev himself had said on it: “The Lord has made this instrument for English-speaking seekers. He has a variety of Astras (weapons). He uses them according to the necessity of time and place. Sometimes what a sword cannot do, a needle can!”

Samskrit . . . it is like a sword. We know how powerful it is! But sometimes it cannot do what a needle can. The needle can do something for the good of the sword. It can make a leather scabbard for the sword and protect it from heavy torrents of criticism as well as the drought of isolation. That is what Gurudev achieved through his humble mission. The language had already fallen into neglect. He raised it from the drought of extinction and began a vigorous campaign to popularise it once again.

Reaching the “Opinion Makers” Through the English language, Gurudev reached a very important sector of the Indian nation – the influential sector: the educated class, the opinion makers, the ones who create opinions which are followed by the rest of the community. He brought to this influential group that which is the most influential part of Hinduism – its philosophy, its Vedanta, its ultimate purpose or goal. That is what matters in Hinduism.

Gurudev struck his spade, as it were, exactly where the water lay underneath! Gurudev gave that science which vitalises the whole religion to those people of society who vitalise the whole society!

He shaped the opinion of the “opinion makers” of his time on the most important aspect of the religion. Take away Vedanta from Hinduism, what is left? Will Hinduism make sense if Vedanta is taken out of it? It would become meaningless, and not many would follow it. All the festivals make sense because of the Vedanta philosophy. Rituals lift us up only when we have the understanding of them which Vedanta gives. Our cultural values, the sacred heritage of arts as expressed in our music, sculpture and dance, all make sense because of Vedanta only. Herein lies the big contribution made by Gurudev. The Chinmaya Mission serves the most crucial part of Hinduism – its philosophy. And it is vital to take this message to the most crucial part of Hindu society, the sector which influences it most, the educated “opinion makers”.

THE GAYATRI HAVAN AT SANDEEPANY EVERY SUNDAY 33

NAME 16: Á EixÉÉWû-uÉkÉïMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Utsaaha Vardhakaaya Namah Salutations to the one who Encourages & Inspires All

GURUDEV WAS HIMSELF very enthusiastic, and he sought to infect others also with his enthuasism. The spiritual path needs lots of inspiration and encouragement, and Gurudev gave it in abundant measure. Once a person is encouraged on this difficult path, he feels like walking further, and then further still. Gurudev did this to all people. He kept pushing them forward, onward and Godward. He served as a rearguard who watches over to see if there are any stragglers in the group who are slackening their effort.

How Did He Encourage? Essentially, Gurudev’s method of encouraging was to give more and more opportunities to serve within the society. You could go to him with a very modest, simple looking project, saying, “Swamiji, this is what I am planning to do.” He would look at it and say, “Okay, very good. You may do it.” That start he would give to a project was itself a very beautiful quality. But the vision he had was very wide and very vast. The encouragement he gave to people was to think bigger than what they were already thinking. Invariably he would add, “You may also wish to improve upon it by doing ‘this, that and the other’ along with it.” That improvement would make the small project into a large-scale project. A ‘David’ of a project would become a Goliath! And, what is more, he would make you feel that you can do it. When we do not have a good opinion of others; when we have an inferior self- worth; when we don’t believe in ourselves that we have an infinite potential, then it is not possible for us to have such a wide and deep vision. Such a person cannot think beyond himself. He will always think in a narrow way of small things. “This is all I can do” – that is the usual route taken by most people. Enter Gurudev. He would step in, if you let him, and encourage you to think big. Once you start thinking big, you expand. Once you expand, you catch the fever of thinking big. Then no one in the world can stop you. That is what Gurudev loved to see in people. Gurudev formulated the Mission Statement of the organisation. It says it all: “Maximum happiness to the maximum people for the maximum time.” The statement itself is highly motivating. Gurudev himself lived this statement, and continuously encouraged others to do the same. What is maximum? Can a line be drawn for maximum? Maximum means “Keep expanding”, like the compound interest on the principal sum of an investment. Keep reaching out for more and more. Linked to wealth, this would lead to greed; but linked to selfless service, this led to spiritual growth. Growth is unlimited.

The “Bike Ride” to Cochin Here is a true-life example of how Gurudev encouraged: As Yuvak Kendra members (known as CHYKs – Chinmaya Yuvak Kendra), we went to Gurudev one day and placed before him our plan: “Swamiji, please give us permission. We would like to attend the 3rd International Camp in Cochin, Kerala (this was in 1988), and we would like to go there on motor-bikes.” This is all we asked him. Our Vasana was only that much – to take a bike and go across from the east coast to the west coast. We were a group of four youngsters from Chennai. That was the adventure we wanted to have. 34

Gurudev’s response was just incredible to our ears, but very inspiring to us: He said, “Okay, you can go. But, if I were you, I would make it a National Rally.” He had immediately shifted in his thinking. Our plan was quite narrow; he accepted it and gave his permission. For us that would have been enough. But – to make it a national rally? We were young. All of us were university students at that time. To think nationally was a big jump from our own little plan. It took us by surprise for a while. We were in a state of “thought-shock”. He did not just leave it at that. He guided us on how to go about it. He told us whom to contact; which are the centres where we have a good number of CHYKs; which route to take, and at which places different streams of cyclists could meet and join the mainstream. He said the youth from Andhra could ride to Salem via Bangalore. Those from Chennai and the rest of Tamilnadu would assemble at Salem. Those from Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra could come along the west coast and link up with us at Trissur. In fact, he had spontaneously started working out the whole plan in his mind on the spur of the moment. It is not that we had given him time to think over it. Like a bucket of water from above, down came the ideas falling on his head! He went on; we stood dumbfounded without interrupting his thoughts. “At Salem, so-and-so is there, one of our devotees. They have a hospital. You people can stay there comfortably as patients in the hospital! From there you travel to Palakkad in a large convoy. You know Palakkad is Swami Tapovanji Maharaj’s birthplace. You go and visit that place and have a program there. You can stay in Trissur where we have a college and better facilities, and it is near the coast. “The other groups from Maharashtra and northern Kerala can meet up with you at Trissur. From there all can start together the next morning and travel to Cochin. It’s a short distance; you can make it a grand parade by travelling slowly in small clusters. Get the traffic police to escort you through traffic on this part of the journey. On the way, you will pass near Kaladi. You can visit Shankaracharyaji’s paternal home, and have lunch there. “Then you do the final lap of the journey to the Cochin Camp venue in grand style. It will be a 3-4 day journey in all, may be a little more for those from further away. Salem and Trissur are your meeting points.” Finally, he asked us, “How would you like this option?” We had to take a deep breath before giving our reply. From where to where Gurudev had taken the project! We were thinking only of taking a day’s bike ride from Chennai to Cochin, 800 km maximum. Each of the four of us were to outlay a few hundred rupees for the day’s expenses and make it a simple journey from A to B. That is all we had in mind. And look what Gurudev had envisaged in its place! We see in this simple example the scale on which Gurudev thought. Our thoughts were on the local axes system; his was on the global axes system. For us x and y were sufficient parameters; he needed latitude and longitude to work from. In a matter of minutes literally he had turned a local project into a national one. Perhaps, had we given him a night to sleep over it, he may well have made it an International Rally! We were like frogs in a well; Gurudev took us out and placed us into the ocean!

Integrated & Comprehensive Thinking How his thoughts integrated all the CHYK groups is just amazing to see. He stood head and shoulders above our narrow thinking. We were like a village group, and he was like the Prime Minister of the country! Thinking big had become his nature; we were no match for him. But, most important of all, he believed in us, he encouraged us, and guided us to believe in ourselves, our own potential. And he continued his guidance until we were convinced that we will succeed! Then came all the ancillary arrangements. This showed how complete he was in all he did. He told us what letters to start sending out and to whom; how to raise the funds for the rally; how to manage the whole project by delegating duties; which places to visit en route, where to make overnight stops; how to go about the publicity campaign; to print a large number of flyers and pamphlets to announce the project and spread the teachings. All this came to his mind in the same ‘bucket of water’ which poured over him from above! Then came the programmes on the way. It was not going to be just riding and riding all the time. There would be a programme of events on the way. Satsangs of Bhajans and Kirtans were to be arranged along the way at selected stops and selected venues. What amazed us was the continuous stream of ideas that poured out of his mind – all because a group of four boys wanted to go on a day’s bike ride! Were it not for Gurudev’s intervention, we would have just had a road trip, burning rubber on the highway! But, no, it was richly enhanced and meaningfully integrated with all CHYK groups. Gurudev had added a totally different dimension to it.

What We Learnt from the Rally Young as we were at the time, we had learnt so much just from that one project: 1. We started thinking nationally, not just locally. Gurudev made us start thinking beyond the scope of our mind-set. 2. We learnt how to plan things beyond our original scope. We had to work out itineraries, from time to time and point to point. 3. We learnt how to plan the distribution of free literature along the way. 4. We learnt how to be ambassadors of the organisation and of Indian culture. 5. We learnt how to prepare a Souvenir to commemorate the occasion. 6. We learnt about funding such a big project. 7. We learnt how to give thanks to people who made even the slightest contribution to the project. Gratitude became part of our personality due to this project. 8. We learnt how to take risks, how to reduce the risk level by taking calculated risks.

Handling the Risk Element The National Rally project involved the element of risk. Were we prepared to take that risk? Would we cow out of the project simply because it was risky? How many spiritual leaders would take the risk to arrange a project on this scale? Even if they managed to conceive of it, when it comes to executing it most would retreat out of fear of failure or fear of accidents. But Gurudev had made an allowance for even that. We had to take precautions while on the road, and Gurudev guided us on the points to take particular note of: “Travel in clusters; allow traffic to pass safely, keep a good distance between riders for overtaking traffic; set your own safe speed limits, especially 36 when passing through built up areas; wear crash helmets and safety clothing. All these precautions will greatly reduce the level of risk.” The bikers may be prepared to take some risk, but would their parents permit them to? The most common reaction would be, “You will get killed on the road,” or “You will kill someone on the road.” How was that to be handled? We took Gurudev’s name for this problem. As he had given the consent, such objections never arose. Divine protection was invoked. The Rally also taught us of the limitless confidence that Gurudev had in us on that occasion, and in general in all who associated with him. He did not raise the safety issue and cancel the rally. He looked at the whole thing with reason and made everyone pledge the necessary precautions. He had full trust in the sense of responsibility with which all would participate in the rally. There was, of course, the risk of being over-enthusiastic. We were young after all, and sometimes some youths may want to use the occasion to show their muscle. Gurudev had to monitor his encouragement and give the right dosage of it. Over-encouragement could lead to over-enthusiasm or over-confidence, and even to ego boosting. Gurudev had to push just the right amount to enable us to explore our abilities, but to stop at the right point not to raise our egos too high. Only a Master like him was able to do that. He knew how far he could push people, and when to pull them back if they get carried away. This was also part of the learning he put us through. If Gurudev saw over-enthusiasm in a person, he withdrew his help by not even looking at that person. People became aware of this and learnt to balance their enthusiasm with maturity. Here is another facet of Gurudev’s encouragement: The encouragement was not given to make you a superhuman performer; it was given to make you a perfect instrument for service in the mission. It was crucial for the seeker to know this and always remain humble when he gave you wide scope or greater responsibility to grow.

Example: The Chinmaya Vidyalaya Function To illustrate the above, there is this example. In Tirunelveli in 1993, the last year of his life, Gurudev was not well. This was in February. All his itineraries had been stamped with “If Health Permits”, because it was clear that he was in a serious condition. Gurudev wanted to go and visit some of the rural areas. The Chinmaya Vidyalaya students had prepared a show for this round of visits. The students were from different schools of Chinmaya Vidyalaya. A good programme had been set up. Gurudev knew what it took to prepare a show like that. The doctors had permitted Gurudev to speak, but not for more than an hour. He did his one hour, and then went behind the screen. Acharyaji and two others were there, ready with the ventilators. Gurudev took in the extra oxygen he needed for about 10-15 minutes. And then went to sit for the cultural programme. Nobody in the hall, neither the performers nor the audience, knew about the ventilator treatment, as it was done behind a screen. When Gurudev sat down in the hall, the performing children as well as others came to him for his blessing in the usual way. He encouraged people all the time. No one was aware that he was doing this at the expense of his strength. The encouragement was universal, not partial. It was not that he did it only for those whom he knew, and not others. He did not know the children who performed, but he gave them all encouragement one by 37 one. All likes and dislikes must have gone away for him to do this service for so long. It was for this sincerity in him that people remembered him, even when they had only spent a few minutes in their company.

Some Parting Quotes from Gurudev Acharyaji now read a few selected quotes which Gurudev made during his last year:

“Remember every saint had a past; and every sinner has a future.”

Gurudev added with a chuckle, “And if I, being the kind of fellow I used to be in the past, can make it, then anyone can!” It does not matter how much time we have lost already, the moment we decide to change, we can get there. Another quote:

“The journey is long, and alone you have to walk. With love and devotion, serve all along the way, and you will meet me one day. For that blissful moment, I shall wait.”

First we have to be ready for the journey, ready to walk it alone. We have chosen this path not for companionship, so be alone. People may be around us, but they may not be with us. With all the people around us, we can still be alone (a positive), or we can be lonely (a negative), too. From Falsity to Truth is a long journey to walk alone. Whose ‘blissful moment’ was Gurudev speaking about? Was it his? No, it would be blissful for us. He was already in bliss; we needed to join him there. The corollary to that is that until that moment, we may be in pain. What pain? That long wait to get there may be painful, sometimes hurting. But if we ‘serve all along the way’, it will be quite pleasant. Acharyaji here warned us: “Never serve with arrogance; no, never. Don’t ever serve people with a motive which benefits you. Whoever does this service with Love & Devotion, will not find the path lonely or hard. They will sail through it. It makes the path comfortable. Otherwise it can be very hard and long and tiresome – and also hurting! That will not be there if you have ‘Love & Devotion’.”

Diwali Cultural programme at Sandeepany 38

NAME 19: Á MüÂhÉÉ-xÉÉaÉUÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Karuna Saagaraaya Namah Salutations to him who is the Ocean of Compassion

A MOTHER HAS compassion for her child. We call it compassion. But compassion, by definition, cannot be person specific. There cannot be compassion for one and no compassion for another. “These people have been very nice to me so I am compassionate towards them.” No, that cannot be called compassion. Compassion is like sunlight – it reaches out to all universally and uniformly. That is what we are going to speaking about under this heading. That is what Gurudev expressed in his life – a universal Compassion, and he expressed it all the time, uniformly. Very similar to compassion, and often confused with it, is Responsibility. Yes, responsibilities can and mostly are person specific. For example, a nurse has the responsibility of looking after the patients in a hospital. She may have compassion also for the patients, but that should not be confused with her responsibility to the patient, for which she gets paid. Compassion is a feeling that extends naturally to all. That differentiates compassion from responsibility. Gurudev was very, very compassionate. If we go back to the incident about the children who prepared a performance for him, we see that Gurudev showed them love, encouragement and compassion, in addition to the responsibility he held for their education under Chinmaya Vidyalaya.

Divine Attributes are All Linked This is the beauty of any one of the many divine attributes which have been given 108 different Names in the Namavali. If we hold on to just one of them, the others will naturally come and join it of their own accord. For example, let us choose fearlessness as a practice. In order to succeed in it, we will have to have clarity in our identification with our Self. We also have to feel the same Self is in the other person, even if he is about to harm us in some way. Then we will be fearless with respect to him. Then, detachment is also needed to be fearless. If we are attached to something or someone, then we will always have fear of being dispossessed of it, or having he or she separated from us. Here is another example. Acharyaji had heard Gurudev take Sri Shankaracharyaji’s text, Sadhana Panchakam. It described 40 steps in Sadhana in a sequence that follows one after the other. People see the 40 and get put off by the difficulty of having to cultivate so many. But Gurudev was a compassionate teacher. He told them that the 40 steps were like coaches of a train attached together in a line. You can choose to sit in any coach, it will take you to the destination. All the other coaches will go with you. For instance, start with the first one and then see what happens: 1. Vedo nityam adheeyataam – “Study the Vedas regularly”. You will find that slowly the others will join it and follow you. 2. Taduditam karma svanushtheeyataam – “Perform perfectly the duties ordained by them”. Perfection will come in everything. 3. Tene shasya vidheeyataam apachitih – “Dedicate all those actions as worship unto the Lord”. Then devotion will follow it. 4. Kaamye matih tyajyataam – “Renounce all desires in the mind.” Then renunciation will follow devotion.

In this way all the 40 ‘coaches’ will follow one after the other, as they are all attached to the first coach. How compassionate it was of Gurudev to explain it this way and make students believe that they can succeed in developing all 40 steps.

Heavy Responsibility Taken by Gurudev Gurudev took upon his shoulders the burden of heavy responsibility. For whom? For people of any background who wanted to grow. That purpose made it compassion. Gurudev tried to make people interested in seeking God. In order to do that, he provided them with all the facilities to come and receive the knowledge at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, and start their seeking. Is that not an act of compassion? The responsibility is taken up because of compassion in the heart of Gurudev to see people grow. Acharya said that in his experience, he saw in Gurudev someone who was more interested in his development than he himself. That was compassion. This kind of love and compassion is very rare. It made Gurudev take responsibility towards people whom he had never met. He built up the Sadhanalaya at Powai to teach Vedanta to those whom he did not even know.

Weighing Gurudev in Gold For Gurudev’s 75th Birth Anniversary in 1991, devotees decided that they had to do something which will reduce his travelling and enable him to give his body much-needed rest. Gurudev’s health was distinctly failing more often. How to achieve this? They came up with the idea of raising a Corpus Fund, the interest from which will be sufficient to run the Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, and Gurudev would not have to go out and raise the funds through Jnana Yajnas. How to raise the money for the fund? They came up with another idea of weighing Gurudev in gold. He will be placed on a scale on one pan, and on the other will be placed an amount of gold equal to his weight! This is termed Swarna Tulabharam, and has been done previously to heads of great organisations in order to raise funds. People from all over the world will be asked to contribute the required amount of gold. It was estimated that about 75 kg of gold will be needed. When the plan was ready, the Trustees approached Gurudev for approval of their plan. They said to him, “Swamiji, you stay in one place now, don’t travel, your health is not good enough to travel any longer.” Gurudev gave the permission. The next problem was to set an early date for the Tulabharam so that Gurudev could start resting as soon as possible. The 500th Yajna was due in October 1991 in Mumbai, exactly 40 years since the first Yajna, making the average just about one Yajna every month. It had started as 100-day Yajnas, and later became 21-day Yajnas, and then 7-day Yajnas. In October, the full amount of gold needed was not raised. Acharyaji was fortunate to be spending this period with Gurudev; he was a Brahmachari and had just taken Deeksha. He was an eye-witness to all these events. One of the Trustees, Sri Jamnadas by name, came to Gurudev and reported that they had not raised the full amount of 75 kilograms of gold. It was still around 40 kg. Sri Jamnadas asked to postpone the Yajna by 2 months, promising that by then the rest of the gold would be raised. Gurudev responded, half in jest and half in indifference: “For the rest you can keep stones, it doesn’t matter. No one will know. Whether it is gold or stone, the scale will tilt all the same! What does it matter?” This was the Stithaprajna in Gurudev speaking. 40

The suggestion brought laughter, but there was a great spiritual lesson in what he said. He was equal-minded whether it was gold or stone against which he was being weighed. Of course, nobody would agree to the idea. Stones will not run Sandeepany! So a call went to the rest of the world to raise the balance. It came, and the Tulabharam happened in December 1991 at the 500th Yajna. Now the idea was that he should rest. The plan worked well – for two months. Gurudev went to Sidhabadi in January and February 1992 and took his rest. From March onwards, it was ‘business as usual’ for him, in spite of all the objections from the Trustees. Gurudev’s feet began ‘itching’ to make a move. The reason he gave was, “All cannot come to Sidhabadi. How many can afford the time to come to Sidhabadi? It’s impractical. I will have go to them.” That was his feeling of compassion coming forward, despite his poor health. He felt a commitment to seekers, both far and near. At this time, he picked up the level of urgency to continue the mission’s work: “We are creating an array of workers for the protection of Hinduism and for the development of it to rediscover the heart of the country for the people. I don’t want you to ever have any sleep or rest in this regard. No sympathies for your overworking. Nobody sympathises when I am working. Let us go and continue the work.” For whom was the work, and why? He answered: “If we serve in this spirit of urgency, how quickly will that Antahkarana Shuddhi come, which will enable us to evolve faster? Without Antahkarana Shuddhi nothing can happen. It has to happen.” Gurudev has shown us the way how to make it happen: we should sincerely serve in order to quickly purify ourselves. “For that Blissful moment, I shall wait” – That is what will happen!

During Shivaratri outside Jagadeeshwara Temple, crowds queueing up from 5.00 am for Darshan of Lord Jagadeeshwara, 2012 February.

VALUE OF MEMORISING QUOTATIONS

Before continuing with the next Name of Gurudev, Acharyaji took some time to stress the value of memorising certain selected quotations, like the ones he gave in class in the previous talk. He asked the class what was the quote on saints done in the previous class. The answers came. “Every saint had a past; every sinner has a future”. Acharyaji then spoke of the value of memorising quotes like the above. When we go through difficult patches in life, then it is quotes like this in our memory that can put us back on track and help us recover from the temporary setback. We can draw on the strength of our memory at times when we feel low and unmotivated. Then books will not help, but what is memorised will come immediately to our aid and pick us up. He said, “You should remember important sayings and key ideas. What is relevant to you, you should immediately commit to memory. That is how a student should be. That definition of a saint is our destination. You should always remember your destination. That is why you have chosen to come to this Course. “There was another beautiful quotation from Gurudev that I told you yesterday. Can anyone tell me what it is without looking in the book? One alert student at once said, ‘The journey is long and alone you have to walk. With love and devotion serve all along the way, and you will meet me one day.’ “Excellent, these are quotes worth memorising. It is not only Samskrit Slokas that need to be memorised; even these quotations can be very useful on your journey. In times of frustration you will not have the book to refer to. Your memory will carry you through, not the book.”

NAME 21: Á MüÉsÉÉiÉÏiÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Kaalaateetaaya Namah Salutations to the one who is Beyond Time

“Swami Advayananda and I once lived in a colony called Chinmaya Nagar in Chennai. There are two temples there: a Ganesha temple and a Hari-Hara temple. The Ganesha temple freed you from troublesome obstacles; the Hari- Hara temple put you into more troubles! Hari and Hara are Deities, but their devotees cannot come together in harmony. They are like arch rivals . . .”

WITH THIS INTRODUCTION began a most interesting discussion to introduce the “One who is Beyond Time.” Every ten or twelve years it was traditional to do a Kumbha Abhishekam for the Deities at a temple. They are taken out in a palanquin around the temple area, and when they return, a grand welcome is given to them which is known as the Kumbha Abhishekam. This is even done at certain Ashrams when great saints come to visit the place. The traditional welcome is accorded to them. Now, for the Hari-Hara temple, as usual a problem arose! It happened like this: The committee members came to Gurudev to ask for a date for the Abhishekam. They knew that Gurudev would be visiting their area and wished to do the Abhishekam while he was there. Gurudev looked into his diary and gave a date when he was going to be

42 at Tirupati. He said the place was not far from Tirupati; he will take a day off and come for the Abhishekam. The committee members were very pleased and went back to report to the others. The date selected by Gurudev happened to be auspicious for Saivites, but inauspicious for the Vaishnavites. On these matters, the people of the south are very rigid in their thinking. That is why Hari-Hara together meant problems always. Again the committee went back to Gurudev to ask him to choose another date. Gurudev had no time for such quibbles. He knew that if he gave another date which suited the Vaishnavites, then the Saivites may be displeased with it. So he said to them, “The day that I am free in my schedule is the auspicious date. The Lord has reserved it for you – just take it.” To make such a response is possible only when there is purity. Gurudev was not conditioned by auspicious and inauspicious dates. His decision was not based on such complications. There was some grumbling over the issue among the temple members, but Gurudev did not change the date given. On the day of the Kumbha Abhishekam, Gurudev addressed the people and told them frankly: “Why do you succumb to these things? Think correctly and move on. What do you think the younger generation is going to learn from you if you behave in this way? Two communities always fighting with each other – where are we heading this way? How are we going to represent Hindu culture this way? Both the Saivites and the Vaishnavites say they are Hindus. Whenever you are divided, remember you are weak. It’s a curse on us, isn’t it? The present state of Hinduism in our country is divided. How many divisions! Togetherness is a rare thing. To get people together is itself so difficult. “A common vision we do not have. Undoubtedly the majority community is suffering in this country – no privileges, nothing. Do you get any subsidy to go to Kailas-Mansarovar? For Haj, the Government has to give subsidy. So where are the rights, even if you take religious rights? The collection that you get when devotees make their offerings to the Lord goes to the Government. But the collections that are given at churches, mosques and other places go to the promotion of their work. If the money from here went to the promotion of Hinduism, imagine what all we can do for the religion! There is no common civil code in our country, and we are not able to demand because we are divided, we don’t come together. “The point about these matters is that Time does not determine what is right or what is wrong. We have to depend not on auspicious times but on our Atma Bal, our ‘soul strength’, the strength of our character. The strength of the Self is much stronger than the strength of the planets! The planets are inert, moving around rotating in space. The strength of the Self is Chaitanya – it is in one place, i.e. everywhere. How much stronger it must be? Believe in its strength, not on the planets anymore.”

Foundation Ceremony for Vivekananda Kendra School On another occasion, the Vivekananda Kendra approached Gurudev to lay a foundation stone for a school in Annanagar in Chennai. Gurudev’s talks were at 6.30 pm daily and were also in Annanagar. The day he had less commitment was a Sunday. So he said to the organisers, “We will have the programme from 5-6 pm and I will leave at 6 pm sharp to go to my talk at 6.30 pm.”

The organisers were very happy that Gurudev gave the date and time for the talk. But again a similar problem as the previous one arose. In the South, people believe very strongly in Rahu Kala, etc. They checked out in their Almanac that from 4.30 to 6 pm on that day it would be Rahu Kala, an inauspicious period. The main organiser knew the value of having Gurudev as their guest, and tried to make them understand, but the objecting Pundits were too strong. They said, “How can the foundation stone ceremony of a religious school be done in Rahu Kala? No, it cannot. You will have to change the time of the visit. The organisers tried to pacify them, saying that the word of a saint carries more weight than Rahu Kala, or any other Kala. They managed to sway the objectors’ minds. A Brahmanishtha like Gurudev is fearless. At the appointed hour, Gurudev began: “Don’t worry. I have asked Rahu to wait outside the gate. He will not bother us, we can have our programme in peace. You are Pure Consciousness. The Planets are Inert balls of matter. How can you let them dictate to you? “Most people underestimate their own strength. Individual strength is under-estimated. We live as though we are helpless in life. We allow all other forces to walk all over us, and keep our inner strength locked and tied up like a prisoner. How sad! We are all-powerful but live as if helpless. The idea ‘I am a weakling; I can’t do anything’ has gone in so deep! With all the knowledge, still the tension, still the anxiety, still the fear. The knowledge should have made us fearless by now. Don’t live in fear. Why do you need to fear? Whatever is due to come by Prarabdha, say, ‘I will face it. Why should I fear it?’ We can’t live by trembling all our lives in fear.” By Gurudev’s Sankalpa, that school is doing very well. Almost 30-35 years have past since the foundation day, and Vivekananda Vidyalaya in Annanagar has done extremely well. That is the result of a single pure thought from a pure thinker. The lesson is simple: Time should not be differentiated into auspicious and inauspicious categories. We should believe more in our purity and sincerity. If we speak from the level of the Atman, then there is no Time even, but there is no need to invoke that. Even from this transactional level, we do not need to look at Time as though it can rule us. We should have enough purity to decide the value of our own time. There have to be two events to measure time. From the absolute standpoint there is no time, because there is no second there, there is only one. So, time can apply only to transactional reality. That is already unreal. How can there be any talk of the unreal being auspicious or inauspicious? It is like saying good crime and bad crime!

The “Right” Time for Everything! This is a humorous incident from Gurudev’s life. In 1951, when the first Yajna began in Pune, there was no organisation. Gurudev was working as an individual. The Chinmaya Mission started in 1953 in Chennai, due to the growth in the number of people attending the Yajnas. The first secretary of the Chinmaya Mission himself narrated the following story to Acharyaji: It was his task as secretary to arrange all the functions well. He had to make sure that everything was provided for the function so that it ran smoothly. For Gurudev’s functions at that time, the job was not easy, because audiences kept on increasing from day

44 to day. The secretary had provided two speakers for the Yajna when it started. By the third day, he had to get another four speakers, due to the larger crowd. By the sixth day he had decided to obtain another ten speakers, as so many more people gathered each day from the vicinity. In Gurudev’s view, the secretary was doing a remarkable job to see to it that everyone in the packed hall could hear his talks. At the end of the Yajna, it was time to do the thanksgiving. Gurudev presented the secretary with a watch, and jokingly said, “You must wear it on your right hand.” Now right- handed people never wear watches on their right hand because it becomes a nuisance when they are working; it is more prone to get scratched or damaged. So the secretary looked doubtfully at Gurudev. Gurudev immediately relieved his doubt, saying: “You are the secretary and you control the whole function. Every time you look at your watch, make sure that the time is right! This means not only for functions but also Sadhana. Everything should start at the right time. There is a time for Japa; for doing introspection; for doing meditation; and there is a time for relaxing as well. There is a right time to do everything.” The secretary was thankful for the thoughtfulness behind Gurudev’s light-hearted remark, and to remind him of this advice, he always wore the watch on his right hand!

Gurudev’s 55th Birthday On another occasion, on his 55th Birthday in 1971, he joked when he spoke at the celebration. Fifty-five was the age which was considered the transition from young to old. He said, “I am a young 55, not an old 55. Age has no meaning for a seeker. You must diligently learn to put your mind where your heart is, not where your body is. You can be young at heart, while being old in body. It is never late to start seeking. Once you start seeking, you are laying the foundation for the temple of your spiritual life. “Actions must always be done with the mind involved, never without it. Doing an action without involving the mind is of no use. The mind must be present, too. Then it becomes a Sadhana. When we are doing something at the physical level, the mind also must be there. Mind and body should be aligned together in every action, not just body doing and mind wandering elsewhere. “In this way we can lay a strong foundation for our spiritual life. We can’t walk this path without a foundation. If the basics are not firm and strong, the journey would be slow, walking difficult, and time will be wasted.”

Attentiveness & Gracefulness in Action Gurudev always did everything with great care and attention. A mind that is not harnessed to one’s actions, becomes uncontrollable. Actions are helpful to us only because they help to harness the mind. They can keep the mind in check. Once the mind learns to be checked, then the harness can be changed to something internal such as writing or meditation. Until then, one will not be prepared for these internal activities. If we do acts with attention, we will soon find that they become quite graceful. Attentive people are always very graceful in their movements. Here is an example: Acharyaji spoke at length of Gurudev’s action of taking snuff as we see it so many times in the videos of his talks. This was because in the left side of his nostril the bone was slightly deviated. Surgery could have helped, but Gurudev chose not to go for it. He felt 45 snuff would be the easiest and cheapest way to clear his nose. For a speaker, a blocked nasal passage can be a serious irritant, if not a hindrance. Breathing and the mind are inter- connected. If the breathing gets blocked, then the mind also momentarily stops its functioning. When, as during speaking, you want the thoughts to come out efficiently, blocked breathing can seriously affect one’s performance as the flow of thoughts gets interrupted. At such times Gurudev would need to take a little dose of snuff. His action of taking snuff was so graceful. He had to do it in the presence of the audience, but he did not mind it at all. One may think he made it as graceful as possible so that it would not offend anybody. But, knowing Gurudev’s personality, that is hardly likely. The reason for his graceful movement was the attention he gave to every action of his, not just taking of snuff. He did things with poise, calmness, without hurry, and with his whole mind fixed on what he was doing. There is another example of the graceful action of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. It is narrated in the book “Gospel of Ramakrishna” by Sri Mahendranath, a householder disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Sri ‘M’, as he was known, describes at one point how the Master was folding a shawl. He was watching every detail of it with rapt attention. Seeing the grace with which the Master did this simple act, made Sri M go into a trance. The point here is about what could have been the state of Sri M’s mind. Gurudev once gave a talk on this point and gave the following glowing insight into the incident: “Sri M was only watching his Guru fold a shawl. It was not a very significant act. But what made it significant was that he did it with such grace. This means he did it with such care and attention, so much awareness and consciousness, that as a result of it Sri M was transported into another plane of consciousness. This can happen only when Sri M’s mind and body were in complete alignment. When the alignment is there, in that moment – Now – one goes ‘beyond time’. The mind then is 100% in the present moment, not looking back in the past, nor ahead into the future. “Try to bring the mind to the present, and let it stay there as long as possible, and you will notice that there is no such thing as Time, no such thing as Mind! When you do things with that extraordinary amount of attention, you are curtailing the space in which the mind will wander. You give it no space to wander. When concentration is 100%, you give it no space at all to drift about! “When the mind does wander, it can only wander away from Now, into the past or into the future. When that happens, then we become aware of Time. While we are in the Now, there is no awareness of Time. If you bring your mind to the present, the wandering space of the mind is cut off, wandering becomes impossible; you have clipped off the space for wandering to happen.” We were hardly aware of our breathing while this talk was in progress! It was just an amazing testimony, engrossing every student in a class which was in perfect attention!

NAME 23: Á M×üiÉÉiqÉlÉå lÉqÉÈ Om Kritaatmane Namah Salutations to the Self-made One

GURUDEV SAID, “Thought by thought, action by action, we sculpt our future.” There is a beautiful book called “The Art of Contemplation” by Gurudev on the subject of meditation. He gives six or seven instructions on meditation, ranging from posture onwards to silence and stillness. In the 6th step of the book, Gurudev says, “Know what to do, and do it yourself.” This is his formula for making one self-made. What an instruction in a book that is meant for meditation! The message it sends to us is: If you believe strongly in something, then do it, even if you are alone; just do it. Don’t worry about who follows you; just go on doing it.

Example: Gandhiji’s Salt Strike Gandhiji had made a determination to go on the Salt strike in 1931. He was not going to buy salt that was taxed by the British. He will make his own salt at the sea in Dandi, even at the cost of his arrest. He was going to do it alone. It was to be his personal protest against the unjust laws of the British Empire. The point is that he was ready to carry out all alone what he was convinced was the right thing to do. As it turned out, his Samkalpa was so strong that thousands joined him. He organised the effort into a dramatic march to the sea, where they were to reach on the 12th anniversary of the Jalianwalabagh massacre. In drama none could match Gandhiji. The great salt strike went into the history book as the day when India’s freedom was inevitable. The march was like an army – a peaceful army – that marched all the way to the sea and made salt. The British shook at the very idea, totally bewildered by the Mahatma’s way of protesting. They did not know how to reply to it. The origin? – Gandhi believed in what he was doing, and went ahead and did it, ignoring all opposition. Gandhi also launched a protest against the silk export from India to England. Indian silk was sent to England to be manufactured into costly garments and brought back to be sold in India at high profits. Silk was light, it did not provide the stability that a ship needed to carry it. To add stability to the ship, the British filled it first with a layer of salt as a ballast, above which the silk was loaded. Who will pay for the salt? The people, of course, was the idea the British Government had. They would slap a heavy tax on all salt sales. Gandhiji brought this act of exploitation to the notice of the world. The Salt Strike underlined the injustice and greed of the British Government, and their total disregard for the welfare of the Indians. The strike was a huge political success and made the Indians believe their freedom from foreign domination was a certainty. It gave a huge impetus to the freedom struggle.

Gurudev Plunged in Mission Work In the 1980’s, when the Chinmaya Mission’s work had become very intense, and needed Gurudev to keep a close eye on every activity of the organisation, someone wrote to him the following letter of complaint: “Swamiji, we remember your wonderful visits to us in the 1950’s so well. You always made yourself available to us for long hours. You don’t give us that time anymore as you used to. ”

In the 50’s, may be such visits were possible. There were not many projects taking place as in the present period, and Gurudev was not so busy. Now it was a totally different situation, and Gurudev could not please everybody in the manner that he used to. Here is what Gurudev wrote in reply to the complaint: “I am also tired of that wretched Swami, who has taken upon himself so much work, that the fool has no time for me and you! But let us excuse him; after all, he is working out all alone a great mission.” What a beautiful reply! When you have a great vision, do not wait for the masses to follow; they will not. When you become great, then many will follow! This is human nature.

Gurudev at the “Coal-face” “Do-it-Yourself” – this was literally true in the case of Gurudev in the early years of the Mission. It meant do not rely on anyone, and also, do not refuse anyone’s help. The first Jnana Yajnas were hard work, for Gurudev and for those few people who volunteered themselves to help him. There was one Swami Jyotirmayananda who worked for a time in Delhi; he was with Gurudev in the early 1950’s. A few other young men who were uneducated came along to offer their free services. Those were the days when easy large-scale publicity instruments like TV and internet were not around. Radios were not affordable by all. TV only came to India in 1975. By the late 80’s satellite TV came, and by the late 90’s cell phones had started in a small way. Only in the new millenium the electronic revolution in communications took place. It was then that India turned rapidly towards professionalism in all publicity campaigns which could reach millions of people instantly. The publicity campaigns were all along the lines of the ‘old style’, i.e. “Chalte he – do what you can and somehow carry on.” When Yajnas were to be launched in a particular town, Gurudev himself used to go around sticking posters and even doing the announcements. He and his helpers used to go around on bicycles to do the publicity. They used to first go around and look for strategic sites to stick the posters. A cycle rikshaw, going around with speakers rigged up on it, was a common way of announcing public meetings up to the mid 70’s. New film releases, political meetings, drama, the circus, etc, all used to use the same system. Gurudev, too, used it. Sometimes Gurudev used to sit in the vehicle that was announcing, and take turns to do the announcing: “Swami Chinmayananda of Uttarkashi is in town, and will be holding a series of lectures at the maidan from this evening onwards . . .”! What must be the passion for someone to go around like that to do his work! It showed his humility in all that he did. He was what we may call a ‘foot-slogger’. We as workers in the organisation should remember those early days always. A great man like Gurudev had no qualms about appearing small. That is true greatness. It is those who are not great who will be scared to appear small in public. The great ones know their inner strength and are not afraid. Under these conditions, can we imagine what kind of team Gurudev had to work with? None of them were professionals like those we have today – they didn’t have to be. They were simple people – mostly office clerks, teachers, some housewives, part-time stall- holders, and so on. Whoever offered himself became part of the team. That is the beauty of

48 his leadership. He was able to work with everyone and anyone. It was not corporate people in those days. If we picture to ourselves all this activity, we will begin to understand what it really means to be ‘self-made’. He worked hard himself, and others around him worked just as hard. There were no airs about the team. They were simple, jolly, cheerful and full of enthusiasm and fun, and most of them were uneducated.

Gurudev’s Originality Gurudev was truly a very original person. There was no example before him from whom he could take inspiration, none whom he could copy. He was the first in this field of work. It was ground-breaking work. Apart from looking at Gurudev as a Teacher and a Jnani, we should also learn to look at him as an expert in management skills. Even the name ‘Jnana Yajna’ was not there. He coined it himself. Previously, the terms were Saptah, Katha, etc. This was the first time when knowledge of the scriptures was being systematically presented to the public, and not exclusively to Sannyasis and Brahmacharis in their hermitages. Gurudev originated the Guru Dakshina method of handing out envelopes with the full name and address of the organisation and a request for information of each person who gave a Dakshina. This was needed to contact the person again for the next Yajna, in the town or in a nearby town. This system made people feel wanted by the organisation. It gave them a sense of belonging to the organisation. All this showed the kind of drive he had to take his knowledge to the people. And with what simplicity and humility! This was not anything he inherited and was just continuing. It was something that was never done before. It was like cutting a new road. All the bulldozing to clear the bushes and scrub had to be done to make way for the new road. Today it is hard for us to imagine that phase, when the road is already there. All we are doing now is just widening it and improving it to the standard of a freeway all over India! But Gurudev was the one who had built the road from scratch, when nothing was there.

“What Seva Work are you Doing?” Acharyaji gave an example from his own experience. Somebody, a big business tycoon, came up to him one day and asked, “What Seva projects are you doing? I wish to donate some money. Please tell me what I can donate for.” Acharyaji found that to be a rather insulting statement. Could the person not see all the Jnana Yajna activities taking place right before his eyes? Are they not Seva activities? It points to the general perception in people that Seva activities must be something they can see, such as building a temple, or building a cancer research hospital, or an orphanage, or feeding the poor. That is the gross service that most people regard as services. The subtle service is not seen and, therefore, not appreciated. Jnana Yajna caters for the subtle (educational) needs of people. People cannot see how minds can be moulded, how they can be made to think in better ways, how the intellect can be trained to differentiate better. They can’t see that. They cannot see how one can gain independence by receiving knowledge, by holding higher values, by building their character, by being a worthy citizen. All that is not visible to them and, therefore, not counted under “Seva Projects”.

The truth is that gross people will see only gross things. It requires subtle people to appreciate subtle things. If funds are requested for knowledge projects, not many are interested in donating towards them. But for gross, visible projects which they can see, they are ready to donate. The difference is a sense of maturity by which subtle things may also be appreciated. Now we can understand why Gurudev said, “Do it alone; don’t wait for a following.” This is the stuff of which ‘self-made’ persons are made!

Above: Sandeepany class preparing to sit for Samskrit examinations Below: Inauguration Day of Sandeepany, 15th Batch, 1st September 2011.

NAME 25: Á aÉÏiÉÉ-¥ÉÉlÉ-rÉ¥É-mÉëcÉÉUMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Geeta-Jnana-Yajna-Prachaarakaaya Namah Salutations to the Propagator of Knowledge of the Geeta

A FILM ENTITLED “On a Quest” was being prepared (in 2013) by the Mission on the life of Gurudev. It was hoped to finish the project for Gurudev’s Centenary in 2016. It will be similar to the life of Adi Shankaracharyaji which was also completed recently. About 60% of the script and screenplay have been written. One of the questions discussed for the film is “What did Gurudev do?” An interesting answer came from one of the team members: “He has taken the Bhagavad Geeta out from the ‘Puja room’ and placed it in the ‘Living room’!” What does that mean? It is a very symbolic sentence and has very deep meaning. In most homes, a daily Arati is conducted, sometimes the Geeta Arati, waving lights to the book. If at all, a few verses of it may be chanted. But, thinking of its message, reflecting upon it and then practising the Sadhana which it advocates is not done. In other words, the book is simply being worshipped. People revere it, and therefore, the book is commonly kept in the Puja room in one’s home. This tells us from which height we have slipped down. Ponder for a moment of our great cultural glory of the past, where we were at one time, and to where we have descended; what the greatness of the knowledge of the Geeta is and to what level of ignorance of it we have slipped; what inspiration the Geeta contains to transform lives and make heroes and to where we have relegated that message! This is the sad but true tale of India’s descent over the last just over one thousand years. Gurudev has brought about some change to that. The Geeta is now seen in the Board rooms of big businesses, where it is used for discussions; it has reached scientific circles among the people of science; it has reached corporate houses where it has become a manual for management; it has reached schools, both secondary as well as primary, where it is now used for reference by youth; and it is used more and more by seekers of Truth to give them guidance on the spiritual path. How has this change come about? The most significant reason is the consistent effort of Gurudev over four decades in preaching and teaching the Geeta widely to audiences throughout the country. Gurudev has been teaching the Geeta tirelessly almost every evening at Jnana Yajnas in many cities and towns of India. It has given a new life and vision to the people. Symbolically, he has moved the Geeta from the Puja room to the living room!

The Spiritual Legacy of Swami Sivananda Acharyaji made some poignant observations about modern Indian religious history. He spoke with great passion on the major influential people who are leading Hinduism forward in modern times: If a religious history of India today were to be written, definitely there would be one chapter for Swami Sivanandaji of Rishikesh. He was one person who inspired many who were themselves institution-builders by nature. Just think of it:

1. We have had Swami Satyananda who started the Bihar School of Yoga; 2. Swami Vishnudevananda started the Sivananda Yoga-Vedanta Centres in U.S.A.; 3. Swami Chidananda has taken the Divine Life Society message across the world; 4. Swami Satchidananda has started Integral Yoga Centre in Yogaville, U.S.A.; 51

5. Swami Jyotirmayananda has started the Yoga Research Foundation in Florida; 6. Swami Sivapremananda has started Divine Life centres in South America; 7. Swami Venkatesananda has started the Divine Life Society in Mauritius and worked extensively in Africa. 8. Swami Sahajananda started a large Divine Life Society organisation in Durban, South Africa; 9. Swami Pranavananda started many branches of Divine Life Society in Malaysia, where Swami Sivananda had served as a doctor for 10 years. 10. Swami Shantananda started the Temple of Fine Arts in Singapore-Malaysia. 11. And last but not least, Swami Chinmayananda started the dynamic Chinmaya Mission in India and the Chinmaya West in U.S.A.

These dynamic saints started institutions of their own after being inspired by Sri Swami Sivananda. They were all his disciples. They have all done amazing work. What a giant personality must Swami Sivananda have been to have had such giants as his disciples! Therefore, Swami Sivananda’s name will most certainly be in the forefront of a history book on Hinduism in modern India. Today we are concerned with the work of Swami Chinmayananda, our beloved Gurudev, the inspiration behind this text studied at the Sandeepany Sadhanalaya which he founded for the training of young Brahmacharis in the Chinmaya Mission.

The Situation that Faced Gurudev India has been a victim of a dark age of colonial oppression. More than a thousand years of invaders and oppressors preceded India’s freedom. Imagine – a land which has produced such stalwarts and such brilliance, went into a kind of ignorance, a stupor, for over a thousand years. Swami Vivekananda set up the great Ramakrishna Mission and brought about a renaissance in modern India. The message he instilled in the country’s youth ultimately bore fruit in bringing India its freedom. We have come out of that dark age in 1947, the year when India became free from foreign domination. We are still recovering from the after-effects of political servitude. Self- respect is gradually returning to the nation. Gurudev, Sri Swami Chinmayananda, who began his work of reviving Hinduism virtually from the time India became free, has made a deep impact in the field of spreading the wealth of knowledge contained in the ancient Hindu scriptures of India, notably the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Geeta. Gurudev went as a young journalist to the Himalayas just after India’s freedom struggle had ended. He took Sannyasa from Swami Sivananda in 1949, and was sent by his Guru to Swami Tapovanji in Uttarkashi to fulfil his desire to study Vedanta. In 1951 he went to Pune where he began his first Jnana Yajna on the Geeta for 100 days. By 1954, he had brought out a book on the Geeta, named “Holy Geeta”. This is an amazing record of how much depth he saw in the Geeta and how much he was inspired by the book on which he had written his commentary. If you just page through this book, you will see how much work Gurudev has put into it in dissecting and classifying it. He has identified verses which contain messages for leaders, teenagers, and for politicians (Raj Neeti); for self-control, for how the morally fallen can bounce back; for how the bereaved can be consoled. The classification is done in so many ways – for different age groups, for different problems and for different professions. The analysis he has put into it is a great contribution. It shows his mastery over the subject. 52

Talks on All-India Radio In the late 1950’s, Gurudev began a series of radio talks on the Geeta for the youth. They were intended to inspire the nation to greater levels of excellence and self-sacrifice. The series was called “The Art of Man-making”, and were broadcast by All-India Radio. In 114 editions of the talks, Gurudev had covered the first nine discourses and the the first two verses of the 10th Discourse. At that point something tragic happened. The bureaucracy in India, questioned the continuation of the broadcast. All of them said, “Why should a Hindu Swami be on the radio for so long?” There was a general uproar, and the talks were discontinued, due to pressure on the Radio station from the Government of India. There could not have been anything more short-sighted. The talks were raising the level of morality among the people. They were inspiring people to lead righteous and honest lives. That would have only benefited the nation. And each talk was not longer than 10 minutes, and it was one talk a day. It would have finished well under a year, had they allowed it. Gurudev was willing to finish it, but the voice of the politicians proved too powerful to protest against. A book was brought out from those 114 talks. Each talk occupied only three to four pages at most. The publication was named “The Art of Man-Making”. Much recently, a few editors got together and, drawing material from Gurudev’s talks on the remaining chapters, they compiled what they figured Gurudev would have said under different headings, each one being of the same length as the previous talks. This was done to complete the book and bring it out as a two-part series. Volume 1 is testimony of the simplicity with which Gurudev expounded the message of the first half of the Geeta. It was prepared in such a way that young India could imbibe it and the material could be used to teach the Geeta at schools throughout India. The book is ideal as a first reading prior to a serious in-depth study of the Geeta. It lays the foundation for the thoughts of the Geeta, so that a deeper study could be undertaken afterwards. This is one example, where the politicians won their way, but lost on the bargain!

Some Statistics on the Jnana Yajnas Acharyaji then gave us some idea of the exhaustive preaching done by Gurudev during his four decades of preaching of the Geeta. From data gathered from 1951 up to 1993, a team of researchers worked in 2011 to cull the following figures:

8,279 lectures on the Bhagavad Geeta by Gurudev, duration of 12,41,854 minutes. 6,787 lectures on Vedantic texts in general, mainly the Upanishads.

To go straight to the Upanishads is not possible for the average student. The Upanishads are too metaphysical, too abstract to be studied without any preparation of the intellect. The Bhagavad Geeta is a perfect platform to launch oneself into the study of the Upanishadic ideas. It is easier to learn the Upanishads after understanding the Geeta.

Message More Important than Messenger The point about these talks was that Gurudev made the listeners depend on the text for answers rather than on him as their instructor. The talks did not stress any person or organisation, but gave all the authority to the original book. Acharyaji stressed that the Chinmaya Mission was not a person-based organisation, but a study-based organisation.

The Shastras were held aloft as the authority, not the person who gave the lectures. This is why the organisation is flourishing even twenty years after the founder’s passing away. It is common to see many organisations that are person-based slowly taper off and run at a greatly reduced pace after the founder leaves the scene. Hindu culture itself was never person-based, but always took its authority from the scriptures. Many of the scriptures have an unknown author. The messenger is not as important as the message he gives out. Even the Vedas are a collection of the thoughts of various Rishis, not just one Rishi. Gurudev always sought to push us back to the original writings, and not to depend on his interpretation of it. He encouraged people to access the original texts which is our heritage. By doing so he gave prominence to the texts than to the teacher of the texts. Once, in Sidhabadi, someone asked why so many of our teachers went abroad to teach. Gurudev’s reply was as witty as it was helpful to the questioner. He said: “In a developing country, only that which is the best is exported!” What Gurudev did was, no doubt, legendary. It was a legend, indeed, for him to bring the book “out of the Puja room and into the living room”! But Gurudev always recognised the efforts of all those who served the Geeta before him, and all who were serving the Geeta along with him. The next sub-heading takes us more into this theme.

Lord Krishna’s Promise Sri Krishna says, “There is nothing more sacred in this world than this knowledge.” 1. How many people are there who read the Geeta? 2. How many are there who read and then practise the Geeta? 3. How many are there who read, practise and then preach the Geeta? Jnana Yajna is the primary field that the Chinmaya Mission is committed to serving. In this connection, Acharyaji quoted two important promises made in the Geeta:

1. From the 4th Chapter: The chapter speaks of 12 different Yajnas. In 4.33, the Lord says, “Sacrifice through knowledge (Jnana Yajna) is superior to sacrifice performed with material things. For all actions without exception culminate in knowledge.”

2. From the 18th Chapter: Lord Krishna says in 18.68 & 69: “Among men there is none who does Me a more loving service than he who preaches the gospel of the Geeta; nor shall anyone be dearer to Me on the entire globe than he.”

Acharyaji said: “Now you can understand how fortunate you are (as students of Sandeepany). Think of what has brought you here for these two years. “That is the opportunity you are getting here over this two-year period. If you take up this opportunity, you come into that category of devotees who are extremely dear to the Lord. When you see the total human population on earth, and then see where you are placed, you have to truly consider yourself to be very fortunate.” Indeed, we have been well placed by good fortune and good Karma to receive this invaluable knowledge. At Sandeepany, the Bhagavad Geeta text was studied in 226 lectures that took just under 10 months during the second year of the two-year Course.

***** 54

LORD KRISHNA as Arjuna’s Charioteer on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra

NAME 37: Á eÉÏhÉï-qÉÎlSUÉå®ÉUMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Jeerna-mandir-oddhaarakaaya Namah Salutations to the Restorer of Dilapidated Temples (Reviver of Hindu Heritage)

IN HINDU SOCIETIES there will always be a shrine or temple with murtis of a Deity or Deities such as Sri Rama, or Sr Krishna or Lord Ganesa, etc. This is very much part of Hindu culture. We find that people are anchored in their Ishtha Devata, their favourite Deity. It becomes a habit for people to go to the local Mandir regularly, daily or weekly. If we draw a comparison of Hinduism with Science, the science that comes closest to Vedanta is Quantum Physics. Vedanta lies beyond Quantum Physics. Now consider how many people understand Quantum Physics. About 10-15% of people may have just heard about it; about 3% may have read something about it; and just a fraction of a % may have studied it. In the same way and for the same reason, not all people can connect with Vedanta. Counting only religious people, about the same percentages apply to Vedanta also. Promoters of Vedanta philosophy have to understand very clearly that not all people take to this philosophy, to the study of Vedanta. As precious and beautiful as this knowledge is, not all are inclined towards its study. Gurudev understood this better than most others.

The “Accommodative-ness” of Hindu Culture The most beautiful and striking part of the Hindu religion is that it is able to connect to all people in some way or other. It is elastic enough to stretch and accommodate all tastes and temperaments. Hindu culture is such a wonderful accommodative culture, that it can make everyone comfortable in some way. It has something for the beginner, something for the primitive person, something for the young, something for the old, something for the intellectually inclined, and something even for the few who are absolutely sublime. It caters for people who may be at any point within the full wide spectrum of types. If you read books like Ashtavakra Geeta, a high level Vedantic text, Ashtavakra tells Sage Janaka, “You are in bondage because you meditate; drop all this.” For someone like Janaka, who was ready for the sublimest flights, Hindu culture has a specific message: “Drop all this.” But that cannot apply to all. To someone who is just beginning, the Shastras say, “Go and break a coconut daily and do this Puja. It will help you to make your mind still, so that you can then meditate.” Thus from one end of the spectrum to the other; from the threshold of realisation to the early beginnings of religious life, the Hindu religion provides some practice, some food. The whole spectrum is provided for. That is the beauty of Hindu culture. This beauty is criticised by some people alien to the religion as being confusing. If you talk of Ashtavakra Geeta, it will sound very ‘scientific’, of course, but it will not have many takers. This is what Buddhism caters for – only one type, the one who wants to meditate. Hinduism caters for all the different levels, from class 1 to PhD. That is the motherliness of Hinduism. Gurudev saw this breadth in Hinduism, and approved of it. Thus you will find in the Chinmaya Mission, Gurudev always made space for temples. The mission’s main work may be to spread Vedanta, but temples were not ignored for that reason. In fact, many of the

Vedanta classes and Yajnas took place in temple premises – in the temple if the group is small, or in the temple hall, or in a marquee built within the temple grounds.

The Needs of the Common Man There will always be people who are content just to pray to their Deity. They need an anchor in their life, a routine round of visiting the temple, offering some flowers and water to the Deity, reciting a small prayer, saying the Arati, and so on. This is what holds their lives and families together. This is the case for the majority of people. Gurudev saw this need, and came forward to meet it. In the Chinmaya Mission, there are about 50 to 60 large temples in all the major centres. At Sandeepany there is the Jagadeeshwara Temple where the students attend daily Arati and conduct daily Bhajans and Bhagavatam talks. At the Chinmaya Vibhooti, there is the Hanuman Temple at the entrance and the new Ganesha Temple on the hill. Every mission centre will have at least a small shrine for daily worship, depending on the number of people the centre serves.

Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Birth Centenary, 2013 On 12th January 2013 it was the 150th Birth Anniversary of the legendary saint and Hindu missionary, Swami Vivekananda. There were many large projects all over the country to celebrate it. In 1963, during the Centenary year, the celebrations were not on a scale as large as the one in 2013. We cannot say what this could be due to, but that is not the point. For the Centenary, one Ekanath Ranade took the initiative to build a Rock Memorial at Kanya Kumari where Vivekananda had jumped into the ocean and swam across a good distance to a large rock protruding from the ocean. He spent some days there in seclusion and meditation. The Rock Memorial was the biggest project undertaken for the Centenary. At that time, Gurudev gave the first donation of One Lakh rupees for the Memorial Fund. In today’s money that would be the equivalent of 3-4 crores rupees. In addition, Gurudev started a publicity campaign to spread awareness of the project by spreading knowledge of Swami Vivekananda’s contribution to Indian culture and its fredom struggle. At these campaigns he would raise funds for the Memorial.

Gurudev’s Vision Beyond Chinmaya Mission Gurudev was absolutely certain that a memorial to Vivekananda would inspire many people towards spiritual thinking and spiritual culture. That is what made him work hard for the success of the Rock Memorial. Gurudev was not narrow-minded to think only of the Chinmaya Mission’s growth. To him the greater Indian community was more important. The Chinmaya Mission’s success is linked to the success of the spiritual awakening of every person in India. He was not just a Chinmaya Mission man. His vision was far beyond his own organisation. The Rock Memorial project was also very good from a strategic point of view. Kanya Kumari is a tourist attraction, as well as pilgrimage centre, drawing lakhs of people each year. All those people would definitely go to the Memorial by boat and spend time there to contemplate on Vivekananda’s contribution to India. It is now a Teertha Kshetra (place of pilgrimage) throughout the year for pilgrims to visit. When Gurudev supported the project, it was a great boost for the organisers. They could now go around and rally the business community for funds to follow Gurudev’s example. And that is exactly what happened. Gurudev’s donation had served as a catalyst.

Other Temple Projects Supported by Gurudev Gurudev supported many other temple projects in the community. At the other end of the country, in Badrinath, deep in the snowbound section of the Himalayan range, there was the famous Shree Badrinarayan Temple. There, too, Gurudev gave generously to get the renovations started to the old temple. The committee at Badrinath wanted him to head the Trust but he turned it down because of his own load of work. He gave it his full support. In this way, whether inside or outside the Chinmaya Mission, he was always happy to support a temple project. Gurudev recognised that temples play a vital role in upholding Hindu culture. He acknowledged that Vedanta was not for the masses. He encouraged the common man to take up good values, gave him some do’s and don’ts that were within his reach, knowing that Vedanta was too high for him yet. In this way, Gurudev provided for those who found Vedanta beyond their reach. All the while, he continued his vigorous campaign to teach Vedanta. Vedanta was his calling, but it did not stop him from seeing the bigger picture, and helping where he could.

Fostering the Spirit of Integration There was also a spirit of integration which Gurudev fostered. Where temples were being assisted, he would always ask for some service activity to go with it. Examples of such activities would be a health clinic to provide free medicines for the poor, a little school to start primary education for the poor, or a little place where the sick could be cared for, a small hospital. To Gurudev all such service activities were seen in a positive light. He encouraged them all, but never lost sight of his own calling to spread Vedanta wherever he went. That always remained his top priority. Gurudev gave the following advice to those running such services. He advised, “When people come for free medical services, or for educational facilities for their children, or for food hampers, ask them to go first to the Temple, offer worship there, and then come for the other facilities.” In that way Gurudev tried to teach people to place their trust first and foremost on God, and then the humanitarian help they were to receive. Gurudev would himself tell the people at the hospital: “Here we treat; but He cures!” This was a way in which he always integrated everything to build the faith of a person in God. He did not wish to just treat the physical condition, but also the spiritual condition. In helping to build temples and service activities, what Gurudev really sought to do was build people’s Faith. It is Faith that will take people forward.

NAME 45: Á SØRû-ÌlÉ¶ÉrÉÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Drudhanischayaaya Namah Salutations to the Resolute & Firm One

TO BE FIRM IN what we do is an excellent value to develop. Acharyaji began the discussion by drawing the boundaries around the topic: There are people across all age groups, who are very enthusiastic about something at one time, but at another time, they become uninterested in it. That enthusiasm is unsteady, wavering, not firm. They have it for a while, but at a later stage it disappears. Why should this be so? Perhaps they are not seeing the results of what they are doing. That is the most common reason. Gurudev was firm and resolute. When he took up a task, he continued it till the very end. For example, his love for the country was there all his life. There was never a moment when it became eclipsed by anything else. Secondly, his passion to serve the knowledge was there in him for over four decades, till his last day. Such is the firmness and strength of his resolutions.

Firmness in Service & Sadhana Firmness in serving and also when doing Sadhana, both go together. How one serves, tells us how one seeks. The first is external and seen by others; the second is internal and seen only by oneself. In Sadhana it is especially important to be firm and resolute. Consistency in Sadhana is what we came across earlier under “One who loves Discipline”. There are days when we are very enthusiastic about Sadhana, our Japa or meditation; other days when we just do them as a routine with no feeling; and still other days when we just ignore them altogether. Results are seen, both in service and in Sadhana, only when we are resolute till the very end. This fits in with the “self-made one”, where we said we should be ready to go it alone if necessary. If we wait for support to come, we will never make a start, and never be ‘self-made’, and never become firm. This is a good example of how one quality leads to another, like a train whose coaches are all linked together. The quality of being firm is not only supported by many other qualities, but also supports every other quality. In that sense it is a leading quality, among the first to be developed. In the matter of our quest for God, it is the primary quality that ensures success. For there are innumerable setbacks and disappointments that we face when we seek God.

“Hasten Slowly” Gurudev has written a book called “Hasten Slowly”. It is like saying, “Hurry up, but do it slowly.” On one occasion Gurudev remarked, “I walk perhaps slowly, but I never back step.” To that he added, “This is the secret of my success. Follow this one quality and you, too, shall become me.” Hasten slowly – this literally captures the heart of firmness. That is exactly what firmness is made of. It implies that when we apply ourselves to something long enough, it becomes so much a part of us, that we do not even notice we are doing it. Consistency then becomes effortless. That is the point we should try and reach in all that we do.

The idea is not to go into anything in a mad rush. When there is something important that we think of doing, we should sit on it for a few days. Allow it to gel properly in our being, to get ‘metabolised’ into our system, until we feel so strongly about it, that we automatically begin doing it. That is the sort of action that will last the distance; other actions will just fizzle out in a short time, like an effervescent drink.

Example: The “Sponsored Yajna” A big temple organisation, one of the biggest in the country, once came forward to sponsor a whole Yajna. Whatever the expenses, it was prepared to pay for it. Three to four days before the start of the Yajna they put in a condition: “Since we are sponsoring the entire Yajna, there should be no Guru Dakshina at the end of the Yajna.” Now the context of this request has to be noted. The town was a small town of about 1,000 families. The maximum Guru Dakshina in the 1980’s would be about 25 to 30 thousand rupees. The cost of staging the Yajna was always much more, about 150 to 200 thousand rupees. This will include putting up the stage, the pandal, the lighting, etc. This suggestion had come from somebody influential in the group, and the other committee members simply agreed without giving it any thought. No enquiry was made as to what the Guru Dakshina meant. It was also a very petty request from such a big sponsor. Gurudev’s reply to the request was thought-provoking and adhered to principles: “This is Indian tradition and it is a great tradition. When a student benefits from the talks, he wants to give back something. He gives with great joy back to the teacher from whom he benefitted. He has no other way of showing his gratitude to the teacher. That is a tradition we have to keep up. Guru Dakshina is not a business. It is an act of love and reverence. It is a joy to give Guru Dakshina, after receiving the benefit of the knowledge. By giving the Dakshina, the student is supporting similar efforts that will help other students in the future, and will also support the teacher. This joy, we cannot deny. “The persons giving the Dakshina is not paying for anything they are receiving. They are not paying for the tent, not paying for the lighting, not paying for the sound system, not paying for the Yajna expenses. They are not paying for anything, they are merely showing how grateful they are to the teaccher. That cannot be stopped. “They cannot interfere in our tradition. We will collect the Dakshina. We owe it to the people to do so, and we owe it to the tradition which sustains us.” Having stated his opinion, he remained firm in his resolve. He was not afraid of facing a displeased sponsor, even if it be one of the most powerful Board in the country, managing a very rich temple. As expected, the Board replied, “In that case we withdraw our sponsorship. We do not associate with this Yajna any more.” Acharyaji now became very eloquent as he defended Gurudev’s stand: “What kind of thinking prevailed in the Board of that organisation? Are they interested in Hindu Culture? Hindu tradition? promoting the knowledge? Not at all. They are only interested in something that the sponsorship would bring them, whatever that might be. It is hard to see what is their reason. There was no logical or even financial reason for such a request from the sponsors. They were not going to lose anything, or not going to gain anything less!”

When the sponsors withdrew, Devotion took over the entire Sponsorship! The first thing the people were anxious about was whether the Chinmaya Mission was going to be forced to cancel the Yajna. Gurudev came forward with great resilience: “We are doing this for the love of the knowledge, not for any gain. Even if we now face a huge loss, we are going to hold this Yajna. That is our firm commitment to the knowledge and to the people. No back-tracking on this.” Gurudev then called up a meeting of all Mission workers who were engaged on the project and discussed it with them. Support came from the Chennai Branch which was nearby. Acharyaji was there at the time to witness everything first-hand. He saw how the Branch rallied to Gurudev’s call. They had just three days to re-organise themselves. They worked round the clock to make the Yajna materialise. With love in their hearts, what could they not achieve? It was just amazing to see how help came from all directions. The publicity for the Yajna was not a problem, because it was a small town, and the word was already buzzing that the sponsors had withdrawn and why. From their side, they became even more determined to make the event a success, and so they all turned up! One of the traditional ways of showing honour to the guest is to bring an elephant to receive the guest. The sponsors had a horde of elephants at their command, but they were not available. The Mission brought an elephant from another village nearby. It was already trained. It lowered itself for Gurudev to sit on it. When Gurudev mounted it, it shuddered and made its trumpeting call which all cheered with great gusto. Everyone was happy. Acharyaji was standing next to the elephant and was very close to Gurudev. He asked Gurudev, “How is it from up there?” As the elephant gave a shake when it stood up, Gurudev said, “Terrible!” Then, more seriously, he followed by saying, “Very, lonely!” This ‘lonely’ could not have meant the usual loneliness that people suffer from; he was far above that sort of feeling. Acharyaji threw light on this ‘loneliness’. It referred directly to the would-be sponsors of the event. Such a big Trust, so influential, like a small government in itself, but yet how distanced from the culture of India! Gurudev, who represented that culture to the bone, felt ‘lonely’ when such a big group withdrew and showed no love for it. It was with a heart filled with deep sadness that he uttered, “Lonely!” The Rishis have felt that loneliness for over a millenium and a half! Alas, Hindu culture has been all alone for a long, long time! How much longer it will remain lonely, none can predict. But on that day, the ‘lonely’ Swami tried his best to make it a little less lonely for the Rishis of yore! Leaving aside the Rishis, looking just at Gurudev’s loneliness, it still persists. He has served that culture for more than forty years, and still giant groups hold reservations about him. Why? When will India be reinstated to her former glory? One big hint came his way that day – to restore that glory, people need to look away from those with power. They will not come to the nation’s aid. There is no hope of that. He will have to look at poor and downtrodden India. There he will see who loves India’s culture, and from whom the power will surely awaken to restore India to her former glory. Lonely! – it was a one word commentary on his remark, “I may walk slow, but never will I back step!” The rhetoric was too overpowering for Acharyaji. He said spontaneously, “Let’s be firm, let’s do that in our Sadhana, let’s do that in our study, let’s do that in our Yajnas – let’s be firm and consistent. Then we will close in on the goal.”

The Sacred “ARUNACHALA” Mountain at Tiruvannamalai. Sri Ramanashram lies at the foothills of this mountain.

Auroville, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry The Golden Sphere of the MATRI MANDIR represents the Universal Soul.

NAME 46: Á kÉqÉï-xÉÇxjÉÉmÉMüÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Dharma-Samsthaapakaaya Namah Salutations to the one who Re-established Dharma

Hindu Renaissance the Goal

GURUDEV’S INTEREST was to see human beings evolving to the Divine. That was his foremost aim. Secondly, the culture that India developed to achieve this is so beautiful, so universal, so scientific, so aesthetic, and has produced from time to time such great masters – one wonders how great must such a culture be. It must be some kind of a scientific process which just goes on producing saint after saint at regular intervals! In this culture, no limitation is placed on how many times prophets of God can descend to earth to raise the consciousness of man. If He is limitless, then limitless must be His saints and prophets. Time to time, time and again, the spiritual culture of India has been producing brilliant people, saintly people, men of compassion and wisdom unsurpassed. Let us just go back in time to see how this “cultural machine” has been producing the goods at such regular intervals. How far back do we need to go? We have to go back to Sadaa Shiva samaarambhaam – “Lord Shiva Himself at the very beginning of Time”! Gurudev’s vision was to bring about Hindu renaissance, not to see to the expansion of the Chinmaya Mission. His sight was beyond the Mission named after him. If Chinmaya Mission expanded, it was only for the cause of Hindu Renaissance, and in particular for the cause of the Upanishadic wisdom. His gaze stretched far, at the whole of Hinduism. He had his sights only to glorify and perpetuate this glorious culture, not any organisation.

Example: Policy on Expansionism There was a case in the late 1960’s or early 70’s when a wealthy landowner-devotee came forward to offer Gurudev a piece of land in Tiruvannamalai, the sacred town where Sri Ramana Maharshi had built up the Ramanashram. Gurudev declined the offer. Reason? . . . “No, that place is already well catered for. God is already doing His work there through the Ramanashram. There is no need to have another mission started there. You can donate that piece of land to them, not to Chinmaya Mission. They will need it to broaden their work.” He did the same thing at Pondicherry. Sri Aurobindo Ashram was already there, so he turned down any plans of starting up Chinmaya centres there. He preferred to go where the established movements were not there so that they are not adversely affected by a new mission being set up close to it. It was not because he was avoiding a clash with another organisation; no, it was because he saw them as his own organisation! Only much later, when Pondicherry had grown considerably, and it was seen that Sri Aurobindo Ashram caters for a particular kind of devotee, that Gurudev said, “Okay, now I think we can start a centre in Pondicherry to teach Vedanta.” This was a decision that was made after reassessing the need. We see in these two examples that Gurudev’s vision went beyond organisational boundaries. He worked for the good of Hindu renaissance, not the Chinmaya Mission. Chinmaya Mission was a boundary or a fence that the devotees had put up around him because they needed it; Gurudev continued to live beyond it, looking at the broader picture.

We need to understand this subtle point, to see what the man stood for. Gurudev stood for national integration, not expansion of Chinmaya Mission.

“Third-rate Commonplace Stuff” Here is a quotation from some article or letter Gurudev had written. Acharyaji read it out to us, saying that it may be quite painful to hear it: “I am drowned with third-rate commonplace stuff, glorifying the Swami, his physique, his voice, his movements, delivery, works and speech ad nausea. [This phrase means ‘you can add whatever else you wish to add, it is all irritating to me’.] They don’t speak even a little about renaissance, they just go on glorifying me. I don’t know when the Hindus will rise above their hero-worshipping attitude and take their life seriously, and incidents critically.” Acharyaji helped us through this quote: Is it not sad in India today to see this hero- worshipping taken to the extreme. What is hero-worshipping in Gurudev’s words? – “Third- rate commonplace stuff!”, below average. Worshipping the master and forgetting the ideal – how sad! What the pointer is pointing to is missed by the glorification of the pointer. Gurudev says he does not know when Hindus will get out of this habit. This attitude has led to so much suffering in the Hindu race. The whole race has suffered because of this.

Hero-Worship at its Extreme Acharyaji continued: People of glamour are hero-worshipped to the extreme. Film- stars, footballers, cricketers – in all these sectors of the community we see some extraordinary hero-worshipping. What have these stars done for us personally? Yet we go out and worship them. There was one very popular movie star in Tamilnadu. He drew crowds wherever he went. The producer of his films said he could not shoot films in Tamilnadu because the mobs would just come flocking in to see him. He had to go to some other State where the star was less known in order to shoot his film. Take the example of another star whom we will not name for courtesy. Wherever he walked, women would take the dust behind him and rub it on their foreheads. What kind of hero-worshipping is this? Is it not demeaning to say the least, and disgusting and shameful at worst? Look to what level we have slipped down! In one place, when the hero’s car was passing by, people who were having milk poured their milk over both sides of the car as an act of Abhishekam or worship. Where has our self-respect gone, where is our dignity! Acharyaji now described what is very likely to be our own experience when we leave Sandeepany and start teaching: When you go out to the field, this is one type of mind you will be encountering. It is from that level that you will have to lift them and help them regain their self-respect. Very few people will get irritated if you glorify them. Most people love it. But Gurudev thought of the bigger picture and saw that this was demeaning to both the worshipper and the worshipped, the glorifier and the glorified. Remember Gurudev’s words, “Third-rate commonplace stuff”.

When you go out and lecture, people will say, “What a fine lecture that was! What choice of words!” Let that not go to your head. Understand what Gurudev said about it. If film stars get so much adoration, he who gives knowledge is likely to be hailed as immortal! At such times you should not get carried away. Our vision should be much deeper than their glorification. The glorifiers care little about the renaissance or what is actually being done. They are carried away by the hype, they do not see the truth. The truth goes unnoticed by them. The transformation you may wrought in some people goes unnoticed by most people. It is that majority who do the hero-worshipping.

The Bhagavad Geeta spells out the situation in verse 9.12: Moghaashaa mogha-karmaano mogha-jnaanaa vichetasah – “With vain hopes, futile actions and fruitless knowledge are the bewildered ones.”

People of True Substance Few people noticed Gurudev’s vision beyond Chinmaya Mission, having Hindu Dharma in view. He was very careful not to let the glorification go to his head. People of real substance are hardly recognised. They do not lead lavish lives, but are simple, humble and keep themselves well occupied in their work. The great poets, the brilliant scientists – do they ever get hero-worshipped? People of substance do not look for that. They plunge themselves in their work and are satisfied. India has a vey serious disease to cure: Glamour is being worshipped and substance is ignored. We can’t afford to get carried away by glamour; we need to recognise substance. When Gurudev passed away in 1993, a group that included Acharyaji were travelling from Chennai to Delhi and then to Sidhabadi. On the way, they collected newspapers just to see what the national Press was saying about Gurudev. In the Times of India, the front article was about some movie star; Gurudev’s Samadhi news was on the 4th or 5th page. This tells us where the values of the newspapers are. Acharyaji repeated what he had mentioned earlier: “The field in which we are going to work is very challenging. But it is the challenges that will make you better. The work is going to be tough and challenging because people have stooped to such low levels, to ‘third-rate commonplace stuff’. That is the kind of people whom we have to uplift. At present all the non-essentials are occupying people’s minds, and the substance is relegated to the side. In upliftment work, one of our tasks is to show people what is Substance, what is Dharma, what is real greatness.” Gurudev established Dharma by first defining what it was and clearing all the wrong notions about it. Then he brought back to the people the Geeta, and he revived the ancient culture which was lying in the dust for such a long time. He gave himself utterly to raise the awareness of Dharma among the people of India.

NAME 49: Á kÉærÉï-mÉëSÉrÉ lÉqÉÈ Om Dhairya Pradaaya Namah Salutations to the Instiller of Patience & Courage

WHEN WE TAKE THE name of a person, immediately a few of his outstanding qualities come to our mind. For example: ‘Vivekananda’ – dynamic, fearless, orator, man of iron determination. ‘Gautam Buddha’ – man of compassion, the meditating sage. ‘Swami Chinmayananda’ – amazing vision, complete detachment, fearless. There was one Govinda Giri who had studied with Gurudev at Uttarkashi under Swami Tapovan. When asked about Swami Chinmayananda, he would say, “The uppermost quality that comes to mind when I think of him is that I have never seen him scared.” How can a Brahma Jnani be scared – scared of whom? He who is one with everything and sees nothing other than him – of whom has he to be afraid? This quality in Gurudev enabled him to inspire others to strive for the same degree of fearlessness as in him.

Fearlessness Before Brahma Vidya Fear can actually kill us, ruin our lives. We can be dead while still with a living body! If we hold on to a greater vision, then a degree of detachment is developed. That detachment frees us from all fear. Gurudev had that detachment from all the lower things. His mind was therefore free from all fear. Even before Gurudev took to Brahma Vidya, he was a fearless person. He was involved in the freedom movement. The British wanted to arrest him, so he went to Kashmir where he was not known. He spent 10 months there. What did he do there? He knew the British were after him. Where did he choose to work? – Right under the nose of the British, in the British Intelligence office! Imagine the courage of such a man. You can call that guts! His job was to decode wireless messages because he was good in English. He chose to hide from the British by working in the very office that was looking for him! It must have been embarrasing for the British when the fact was discovered. It is no wonder that they do not talk about a man called ‘Balan Menon’ – he was struck off their records because it was too embarrassing for them. Only when Gurudev came out from that job did he get arrested.

Fearlessness After Brahma Vidya If with such a fearless mind, he took up the study of Brahma Vidya, think of what should be the transformation in him? How much more fearless can fearlessness get! As Govinda Giri put it, “Nothing in the world could scare him.” Gurudev strove to inspire others to become fearless. Those who associated with him even for a short while, found that quality developing in them. It would rub onto them whether they knew it or not. It was too contagious. One could not resist it. This was the one quality by which his closest associates knew him.

Om Tat Sat! *****

A Note on the Full Text of 108 Names

In a previous Sandeepany Course, Swami Mitrananda was able to complete all the 108 Names. In that Course he had 31 sessions to finish them without having to resort to condensing any of it. The recorded version of those talks is now an invaluable reference for Mission workers. In this Course, there were only 7 sessions available to him, and he completed only 17 of the 108 names, without sacrificing any detail. – The Editor

GEETA CHANTING During Geeta Jayanti Day, at Sandeepany, 15th Batch, 2011-2013.