In Reply to: Re: YOGA IN BROOKLYN NY posted by dina on August 29, 2003 at 08:26:53:
The Living Shiva of Varanasi
Swami Kritarthananda
India, the Land of Sages ,if you wants to know more about sibram you may write,dharamrajx@sify.com
From time immemorial India has been known to the rest of the world as a land of
sages. According to Swami Vivekananda, all sincere seekers of God must take
birth here in order to attain their final destination in life. Again, in his
opinion, this is the land where humanity has attained its highest towards such
higher values of life as gentleness, generosity, purity, calmness, chastity,
liberal mentality, and so on. India is the land of renunciation, spirituality,
meditation. Her geographical position, temperate climate, and above all, her
great regard and sympathy for spiritual life naturally draw the soul within.
The
snow-clad Himalayas in the north, the Sahyadri range in the west, and the
Vindhya and other ranges in the south, the rivers coming out of the mountain
ranges with musical sounds and reaching the roaring seas of the south, east and
west, the deep forest range with its flora and faunaall these will raise one's
mind to a high level automatically. Standing in the wilderness one will start
asking oneself in the same tune with the Upanishadic sage`To which deity shall
my offering go?'1
Nowhere else in the world is renunciation held in such high esteem as in India.
It is but natural. We owe our allegiance to our ancestors who were not kings or
barons but renouncing sages. This is our heritage. When people in other parts
of
the globe were engaged in looting and ransacking each other just to continue
the
principle of `survival of the fittest', India went on producing sages with
positive outlook, sublime thoughts. Such spiritual gems of India silently
contributed to the well-being of the whole world. They did not do it with war
trumpets, they simply lived their authentic lives. They can be likened to the
`gentle dew that falls unheard and unseen at night, and brings into blossom the
fairest of roses' according to Swami Vivekananda.2 He threw down the gauntlet
saying, `I challenge anybody to show one single period of her national life
when
India was lacking in spiritual giants.'3
We shall discuss in this article one such authentic life that was dedicated to
the well-being of one and all.
A Great Sage is Born
It was the first decade of the seventeenth century. Vijayanagaram is a renowned
city in Andhra Pradesh. There was a small village named Holiya in the territory
of Vijayanagaram. Narasimha Rao, an honest and pious landlord of Holiya, lived
there with his wife Vidyavati, who was also a highly devout aspirant of God.
Both of them lived according to scriptural injunctions. As they did not see the
face of a child long after their marriage, Narasimha became worried about the
continuity of the family line and married a second time. From now on, Vidyavati
started spending most of her time in worshipping their family deity Shiva and
praying to Him for a son.
At last the Lord was pleased, and in the year 1607 Vidyavati gave birth to a
son. He was born out of Shiva's graceso he was named Shivaram. This is the way
a
child is born in Indianot as a result of lust, but as the effect of long term
prayer which brings down God's grace. According to the Hindu law-giver Manu, a
child who is born of lust is not an Aryan. The child, whose very conception and
whose birth is according to the rules of the Vedas, alone is an Aryan.4 In fact
the birth history of all the great souls of India corroborate this truth.
Let us take up the thread again. A few years later, the second wife of
Narasimha
Rao also gave birth to a son and he was named Sreedhar. This child was born as
if to fulfil Narasimha's desire of perpetuating the family lineage. He was born
with worldly propensities.
The Divine Play of the Child
When great souls take human birth, they give at times a glimpse of their
supernatural powers to their parents or intimate ones. Sometimes such
miraculous
powers come out spontaneously in spite of themselves. Sri Krishna playfully
displayed the whole universe within his mouth to mother Yashoda, Jesus Christ's
parents were awe-struck to see the flash of light falling from a star upon
their
beloved son and to hear the divine voice hailing the new-born babe as the King
of mankind, Sri Ramakrishna also gave many such evidences as a new-born babe to
his devout parents to show that a great power had descended on earth.
This is one aspect of the divine play of great ones. In our scriptures such
superhuman or divine qualities are known as bhagas, which are broadly
classified
into six items. These are: 1) the splendour of supernatural power, 2) piety, 3)
fame, 4) prosperity, 5) dispassion, 6) liberation at will. The verse runs as
follows:
Aishvaryasya samagrasya
dharmasya yashasah shriyah
vairagyasyatha mokshasya
shannam bhaga itirana
All divine incarnations are seen to evince one or the other, or all these
qualities at different times of their life. Here also a similar event took
place. Such events unmistakably pointed to the fact that the new-born was no
ordinary being. Mother Vidyavati one day saw that a huge stream of light came
out of the Shiva-linga and merged in her sleeping child. And in this case also,
like all other earthly mothers, Vidyavati was fraught with fear and left the
place in a hurry with her child in her arms.
Youth and Dispassion
The little Shivaram grew up as a quiet-natured, otherworldly boy full of love,
sympathy and dispassion. He inherited these qualities from his pious and devout
mother who took the role of his first teacher in spiritual life.
But on the other hand such burning example of dispassion did not go unnoticed
by
his father who now became anxious to find a suitable bride for his son.
Otherwise how could the family line be kept unbroken? However, with all his
sincerity of purpose Narasimha failed to convince his son about the
indispensability of a worldly life. What is more, his devout wife also
supported
her beloved son in preferring a life of renunciation and austerity. Who has
ever
grown in religious life without a blessing from the mother? The scripture says
that the mother is even superior to everything else on earth and in
heaven`janani janmabhumishcha svargadapi gariyasi.'
So when the mother clearly expressed her opinion and gave her consent for her
son's leading a spiritual life, Narasimha Rao did not press him any more.
Narasimha Rao passed away when Shivaram was not more than forty. Twelve years
after that, mother Vidyavati too passed away, thus cutting the last vestige of
all family entanglements for Shivaram. He gave away all his inherited earthly
properties
to his stepbrother Sreedhar and embarked upon an unknown and new spiritual
adventure. In his village he built a small hermitage on the bank of a river at
the edge of a cremation ground and dived headlong into the quest of God.
At last, at the will of Providence, there came his much-awaited spiritual
master. He was Swami Bhagirathananda Saraswati of the Punjab province. At his
behest Shivaram left his native village Holiya for ever. After travelling to
many holy places of pilgrimage in India both master and disciple reached
Pushkar. Here Shivaram was dedicated to the lifelong vow of monasticism known
as
sannyasa. His guru named him Ganapati Saraswati. But as he hailed from the
Telengana province (now Andhra Pradesh) he became more popular by the sobriquet
`Telenga Swami' (or Trailanga Swami). By this time he was about 78.
Little is known of his life of sadhana, which was carried out totally behind
human gaze. This much only can be said that he specialised in the difficult
practices of Hathayoga and Rajayoga disciplines under the able guidance of his
guru. Ten years of rigorous spiritual practice transformed him into an
illumined
great soul. Thereafter his guru passed away handing over his great legacy to
the
disciple. Having attained perfection in Hathayoga, Telenga Swami, even at the
age of 88, looked like a young man full of vigour and devoid of even a wrinkle
on the skin.
Expressions of His Benevolent Nature
The great swami, by dint of his attaining perfection in Hathayoga, became the
master of tremendous supernatural powers called `spiritual glories'
(aishvarya).
These became natural and spontaneous in him like breathing. But he rarely made
use of these and would move about incognito wishing the welfare of the whole
world in general. He even gave up his loin cloth, the last sign of his worldly
possession, and moved about stark naked with the simplicity and purity of a
five-year-old. His face glowed like one rich with all divine traits. In the
Viveka-chudamani of Shankaracharya we come across a beautiful verse depicting
the nature of such an enlightened soul, who is called `liberated in this very
life'. There it is said that the man of realisation moves about ever happy with
supreme bliss, sometimes like a fool, or a sage, now possessed of regal
splendour, next moment lying motionless like a python, here he wanders like one
who has lost his way in wilderness, again he appears with a benign look,
sometimes honoured, sometimes insulted, yet at other times unrecognised in this
world.5 The case was literally so with Telenga Swami. One day at Rameswar, the
sight of the bereaving relatives of a poor, young Brahmin boy who met with
sudden immature death touched him to the quick, he took a little water in his
hand from the water-pot, uttered some mystic syllables, and sprinkled the water
over the dead body. At once the dead corpse came to life. The relatives, after
overcoming their first spell of surprise, turned to see who the stranger was.
But lo, they could not trace him. The life-giver had disappeared into thin air!
In Patanjali's Yoga aphorisms it is mentioned that if one has perfect mastery
over the quality of harmlessness to other beings (ahimsa), even wild animals
forget their ferocity in his company (ahimsa-pratish-thayam tat-sannidhau
vairatyagah).6 Once the swami was practising penance in the deep woods of
Nepal.
One day the king of Nepal came to that place on a hunting spree. Noticing a
tiger he shot at it four times, but every time the bullet missed the target.
The
king became more stubborn and chased the tiger into deep forest. Suddenly he
stood aghast before an unexpected sight. He could not believe his eyes. He saw
a
great Yogi sitting under a tree and the runaway tiger lying prostrate before
him, roaring and wailing in a spirit of surrender. The great Yogi, Telenga
Swami, was moving his hand up and down the tiger's body as if to console and
alleviate the latter's pain. The king remained pivoted to the place in mute
wonder, when the Yogi beckoned him and said, `My son, remove the thought of
hating others from your mind, and this tiger will do no harm to you. All of us
are God's creation. You give him love and he will also love you.' He uttered
these words with such a deep feeling that the king was overwhelmed. He went
back
to his kingdom and told this story to one and all so much so that people
started
flocking round the swami. At last the swami, just to avoid this unwanted
disturbance by people, again left for an unknown destination.
There are instances of many such Indian Yogis with miraculous supernatural
powers. But all of them do not necessarily apply their powers to the well-being
of mankind. Here lies the difference between an ordinary soul and a realised
soul. Telenga Swami used his inherent powers only as an expression of his
infinite compassion for all beings, and not to gain name and fame.
After leaving Nepal the swami visited Tibet, Manasarovar, the Himalayan range,
and the Uttarakhand. Then he came to Markandeya ashrama on the bank of Narmada.
Here he spent eight long years in spiritual practice and then left for Prayag.
From Prayag he went to Varanasi in 1844. His advent raised a great stir in the
minds of the public there. He would move about stark naked, totally indifferent
to temporal life. It was here that the expressions of his yogic powers assumed
the peak form. His heart bled for the afflicted, and whoever would take the
name
of Shiva in straitened circumstances would get the swami by his side
immediately. It was here that people started calling him as the `moving
Viswanath'.
Strange was his way of conveying sublime messages. Once the king of Ujjain came
to Varanasi. He happened to meet Telenga Swami in a boat on the Jahnavi river.
The swami was then observing the vow of silence. With a childish curiosity he
looked at the sword hanging from the king's waist, took it in his hand, and the
next moment threw it in the river. This displeased the king beyond measure. But
the next moment the swami stretched out his hand into the water and took out
not
one but two exactly identical swords. Then he asked the king to choose his own
sword that he loved so much. But the king failed to recognise his sword. At
this
the swami said, `How do you claim that as yours when you cannot single it out?
Remember, man possesses only that which accompanies him even after death. How
can you own a thing that does not endure hereafter? Does it become of you to
give vent to your anger on such a trifling issue?' And the swami threw away the
fake sword in the water keeping the actual one in front of the awe-struck king
and disappeared in the wavy waters. Such was his typical way of teaching
mankind.
Meeting with Sri Ramakrishna
Only a great soul can recognise another great soul in right estimation. And a
true knower of God knows another knower merely by a glance. This happened when
Sri Ramakrishna came to Varanasi on a pilgrimage tour with Mathuranath and a
big
entourage in the year 1868. Immediately after paying a visit to Lord Viswanath,
Sri Ramakrishna went to see the great swami who was under a vow of silence at
that time. The swami's joy knew no bounds and as a token of his mute
recognition
he presented a small snuff box to Sri Ramakrishna. The latter, on examining the
swami, found signs of a perfect yogi in his bearing and expressed his opinion
that in Telenga Swami all the marks of a Paramahamsa were present. Both of them
met a number of times and Sri Ramakrishna asked a number of questions about
higher truths. He asked whether God is one or many. To this the swami showed by
sign that when experienced in Samadhi God is one, otherwise, so long as there
is
the sense of this world and its manifestations, He seems to be of many forms.
Sri Ramakrishna one day fed the swami with a huge quantity of highly thickened
milk with his own hand. He got it prepared by a special cook under the
supervision of Mathuranath and felt immense satisfaction after feeding a great
yogi like Telenga Swami with the whole quantity (about 18-19 kgs.)
Towards the End
Thus, like many other great souls of India, this living embodiment of goodness
and benevolence spent his long span of life (280 years) on this earth doing and
thinking only of the well-being of others. He would convey his spiritual
message
mostly in silence but those who came to his holy presence would have their
doubts dispelled. This is graphically expressed in the famous Dakshinamurthy
stotram: `gurostu maunam vyakhyanam shishyastu chhinnasamshayah'.
He did not create any sect or monastery. He just gave his message
spontaneously,
out of the fullness of his heart. People in
his presence used to feel that the Lord of Varanasi had really assumed a human
body out of deep compassion for mankind. Blessed were those who came to his
close proximity!
One day, the swami suddenly expressed to his admirers and devotees his
readiness
to leave the mortal body. It came like a bolt from the blue to all the devotees
present there. But he knew it to be a divine dispensation and consoled all his
children. At last, at their importunity, he agreed to the proposal of building
a
stone image of himself in his own presence. Accordingly a sculptor was called
in, and the same was made. One day the swami, out of his own whim, carried
single-handed, from the bank of the Ganga, a huge stone with signs of a
Shiva-linga, that could not be lifted by a dozen strong men together. This is
still kept at Varanasi along with the other mementoes of the swami.
He chose the auspicious day of shukla ekadashi in the month of Poush in the
year
1887 (December) as his day of final departure. At his instance a sandalwood
coffin box was made, which was to be consigned to the waters of the holy Ganga
after the age-old tradition. On that appointed day the great Yogi gave up his
body through yoga.
References
1. Rig Veda 10:121.
2. CW 3:274.
3. CW 4:315.
4. Manusmriti 2:16.
5. Vivekachudamani 542.
6. Patanjali's Yoga aphorisms, 2.31.