When the Time Comes
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WHEN THE TIME COMES Conversations with Acharya Chandranath Kumar By The Same Author Felicitavia The Ashram Anandamurti: The Jamalpur Years Devi Song of the Taino WHEN THE TIME COMES Conversations with Acharya Chandranath Kumar Devashish Donald Acosta InnerWorld Publications San Germán, Puerto Rico www.innerworldpublications.com Copyright © 1998 by Devashish Donald Acosta All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by InnerWorld Publications, PO Box 1613, San Germán, Puerto Rico, 00683. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-85902 Cover Design © Lourdes Mukti Sanchez No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. ISBN 978-1-881717-01-0 When the urge for liberation arises, the sadguru appears. — Shrii Shrii Anandamurti PREFACE he ancient discipline known as Yoga encompasses a wide Tvariety of different paths and traditions. The essentials of this dis- cipline are common to them all, but there are differences in vocabu- lary and approach that can cause confusion or make the differences seem greater than they actually are. Acharya Chandranath is the oldest living disciple of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, the guru of Ananda Marga, whom he affectionately refers to as Baba.1 While most of Dada’s teachings will be familiar to readers from other spiritual traditions,2 others are best understood in the context of his relationship with his guru. Hence, wherever necessary I have added footnotes in order to clear up any pos- sible confusion, not only for practitioners from other yogic or meditative traditions, but also for those to whom the basic concepts of yogic practice may appear somewhat alien or unfamiliar. Because the use of certain Sanskrit terms are fundamental to yogic practice, I have retained these words where Dada has used them and either given a translation in square brackets the first time they appear or foot- noted them where a translation would have been unwieldy. As a general 1 Acharya means “teacher” (literally: one who teaches by example). It is a title given in Ananda Marga to those who are trained and authorized to teach the vari- ous meditation lessons and other practices. Ananda Marga (the path of bliss) is the name of the organization founded in January 1955 by Shrii Shrii Anandamurti (1922-1990) for the purposes of propagating his spiritual teachings and establish- ing service projects. Ananda Marga now has yoga centers and service projects in over 180 countries. 2 Dada means “elder brother.” It is a common form of address in northern India and is commonly used to address acharyas in Ananda Marga. 2 when the time comes rule, those Sanskrit words that appear in only one place are italicized and defined only where they appear. All other Sanskrit terms are non-italicized and are included in the glossary at the end of the text. I would like to emphasize to the reader that the conversations recorded here are directed to those who are actively practicing spirituality. In both the yogic and Tantric traditions, it is primarily practice that counts, not philosophy; hence the conversations recorded here, with an adept who has made it to the end of the path that we are all walking, should be of great value to anyone with a sincere interest in spiritual practice. INTRODUCTION here is a saying in India that if you want to see God, then look for Thim in his realized saints.1 Of course, God is everywhere, and nowhere is he closer to us than within our own sense of existence, but the pathways that lead to that realization are long and steep, and there is nothing more helpful to us in our journey toward the Divine than the company of one who has reached there and can show us the way. In the fall of 1993 I moved from California to the Anandanagar Ashram in West Bengal, India,2 and over the next four years I was fortunate enough to be able to pay regular visits to such a man. Whenever I would return home to Anandanagar after one of those visits I would feel that my medi- tation had somehow been raised to another level. Things that had never been clear to me became clear. The Divine Presence was stronger. I would return convinced that the experiences Dada Chandranath talked about, as 1 Throughout these conversations Dada uses the masculine singular pronoun (he) to refer to the Divine. This is traditional practice in Indian English, and I have preserved his original usage rather than attempting to find a usage more in keeping with contemporary efforts to eliminate sexist language from modern English. In Sanskrit and its modern descendants, such as Bengali, a single pronoun is used for both male and female, thus this problem doesn’t arise. 2 Anandanagar is the central headquarters of Ananda Marga. It is a sprawling complex of over two thousand acres located in one of the most backward and undeveloped areas in India — Purulia District in West Bengal. The residents of Anandanagar run over fifty developmental projects, including a hospital, alter- native medicine clinic, several orphanages, reforestation center, infrastructure development, agricultural research institute, and numerous educational institu- tions. Apart from working in the projects, all the residents of Anandanagar are active practitioners of meditation and yoga, making it one of the largest spiritual communities in the world. 4 when the time comes if they were the most natural thing imaginable, were tangible and within reach. Most of all, I found in him someone whom I could emulate in every sphere of life. When I saw his humility, his nobility of mind and character, his moral steadfastness, his human warmth, and the light than came from eyes that were always fixed on God, I felt an unbidden desire spring up inside me to mold myself after him. The path is subtle, so subtle sometimes that we easily lose sight of it beneath our feet. The most important things cannot be learned through words and are difficult to understand even through our own practice. But see them alive in another human being and what was unfathomable and inexplicable becomes an image painted into memory, always there to instruct us where words fail. Whenever I could, I would bring visitors to see Dada. They would bring their questions and with each answer I would learn something new about the spiritual path. One day I was sitting listening to Dada answer a question and I felt a sudden dismay that I didn’t have a tape recorder to preserve what my memory was incapable of preserving. I still remember the question. A friend of mine from England was explaining that whenever she would do intense sadhana for some time it would always be followed by a period of intense clash.3 She would often get overwhelmed or discour- aged at these times and stop doing such intense practice. Then she asked, “Dada, how to manage?” “There is nothing to manage,” he replied. “You will have to accept the suffering.” He paused and looked at her with a compassionate smile. Then he went on to explain that if one does intense sadhana over a period of time, then strong clash is bound to follow because when one’s speed is increased the resistance will always be greater. It is a simple law of nature. But what happens, he said, is that if you can maintain the intensity of your practice, then eventually you get used to that level of resistance and you no longer experience it as suffering. It is like when someone starts running or lifting weights for the first time. After the first workout, their muscles will ache and they will suffer physically for several days. But if they can keep up with their exercise and not be put off by the difficulties it entails, then eventually their muscles get used to that level of strain and they no longer experience it as pain. Rather, after some time they learn to enjoy the effort in itself. But if they give up and abandon the exercise, and then pick it up again after a gap of several weeks, they will have to go through the same process again and suffer the same aches and pains. 3 Sadhana literally means “effort to complete.” It is the most commonly used term for spiritual practice, or more simply, for meditation. conversations with acharya CHANDRANATH 5 By the time Dada had finished talking I had resolved to get hold of a tape recorder and record his answers for the benefit of all the people who would like to come to India and talk to him but who would never get the chance. Soon afterward I prepared a list of questions with the help of a few friends and paid him a visit at his village home in Gadopur. My next visit was couple of months later at the home of his eldest son in Patna, and between the two visits I had enough material for a book. I have a couple of regrets concerning the scope of this book. The first is that the conversations themselves don’t give the reader much of an idea of what it is like to have a chance to spend so much time with such a being. The real communication between a saint and those who go to them to learn about spirituality doesn’t take place at the verbal level.