Swami Satyananda Saraswati

When I came to Rishikesh I went to stay with the people of Kalikamli. Once Swamiji came for satsang there. He saw me and called out, `come here my boy.' He called me to his side and continued gazing at me for two minutes and said `Come and meet me in the morning in Sivananda ashram'. I was drawn to him immediately and went to see him in the morning and he instructed me to sing bhajans beside him. At that time continuously twenty-four hours Kirtan Bhavan was newly constructed. I was the first one to be given duty over there.

I met Swamiji at 8:30 in the morning, 19 April, 1943. I asked him, "If one has a spiritual experience spontaneously, how can one become a master of that experience and have it at will?"

He said, "Live here, practice karma yoga, purify yourself and have absolute faith in God."

Throughout my life I have met very great people. I have respect for everybody, and I never criticized anyone for any reason, but surely nobody has been able to make me surrender. My surrender to Swamiji was complete and unconditional. Every action that he did was divinely contemplated and calculated. Even though he lived in a physical body he was not a physical soul, and his presence developed that inner awareness without any difficulty.

In 1956 he called me, and he just asked, " What sadhana are you doing?" For twelve years he did not ask me a question like this. I did practise asanas, pranayama, etc., but not at the command of Guru, but as a matter of personal, sensual will. I practised a mantra, a very great quantity, you know, just as you have great quantities of money, twenty four million times and at the same time practised karma yoga, day and night, like a bull, like a donkey. After a period of twelve years he asked me "What sadhana are you doing?"

I told him I do asanas, pranayama, mantra japa and a few more things that I did.

He said, "You don't practise kriya yoga?"

I said, "No". I had heard of it but I did not do it.

He took me to his room and in ten minutes he taught me kriya yoga - or your may put it another way - in ten minutes I learned kriya yoga. He gave me 108 Rupees and he said, "Now you can go." This ashram is not the place for you. Keep moving, and the word yoga, take it from door to door and from shore to shore and from home to home. And I left that place, the Ashram and kept moving. I was very young at the time. It was very difficult to go out because there are so many movements of Gurus that a man like myself could hardly survive, could never tell lies, could never complicate the matters, so I kept moving for many years.

On the sixth day of our visit ArdhKumbhi Mela was to start in Haridwar. On the fifth day many of our colleagues had made a programme for the 5th day to leave for Haridwar at 3 a.m. in the morning. I asked Swamiji ``Swamiji will you go?'' He said that previously he use to visit many of these places, but his Guruji Sivananda disapproved of the idea of his going.

On that day Guruji gave me special work to do, but I use to write in the night, make prasad on any type of work, I completed it and went early in the morning. I got trapped in a crowd and disappeared eastwards. I found my way in the thronging crowds to the Ganges, but while I was bathing my dhoti got stuck in somebody's feet and was washed away. In such an enormous crowd, how long could I remain in the water? I thought of joining the group of Naga sadhus passing by, one Naga will increase in number, but I was mentally disturbed. Somehow I met somebody known to me and got clothes for myself

When I reached the ashram my Guruji was standing at the gate? Seeing me he asked, `Satyam shall I give you some clothes?' I caught his feet, begged for clemency and told him I had learnt my lesson by disobeying, since then I never went to Kumbh.

Swamiji was innocent like Shiva. I was the secretary. Anyone would come to Swamiji and say he wanted to go to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and does not have money to return home or needs sixty rupees and two blankets. Swamiji used to reply, `It is fine with me, go and take from Swami Satyananda.'

I got angry, they got to eat, drink, dhoti, blanket and they ask for money. I use to ask them their destination, and say come I will purchase your ticket. When they would not receive the money from me, they complained and Swamiji called me to say, why is this person not given money, give him the money.

Before I could say something he said O- - M. I use to be silent when he said OM, then he said `he is a young boy, go and at least give money for his ticket.'

Three to four hundred people ate food often at the ashram. Groceries use to come by truck or carts, but sometimes we did not have money nor a bank balance. We use to be concerned as to what arrangements should be made for the morning meal so we went to Swamiji.

He would say, `Do not worry, the giver will give, He is worried about everyone's meal, not you and me,' and he would start singing kirtan, suddenly ration and money came from somewhere.

Once it so happened that there was absolutely nothing, so we were concerned about the evening meal. Eventually we went to Swamiji, he said, `You do not have faith in Ram? Do bhajans, strengthen your self-confidence.'

At about 6 o'clock one lady came in a car. She expressed her desire to have Swamiji's darshan. I said, `Mataji, it is not possible to meet Swamiji now, you rest and at seven o'clock you can meet him for satsang.

She said in a pathetic voice, `Swamiji I will return after his darshan. I am pleading you with folded hands.

I was pained by her pathetic voice and tears. I went and knocked on Swamiji's door and requested him to see her. He then closed his eyes for 1 minute and said, `Let her in.' I called Mataji.

As she entered she fell at his feet and laid a cheque for ten thousand rupees on his feet. Wiping her tears she said, `Swamiji , I am coming from Delhi. Captain . . . my husband's last wish before his demise was to lay ten thousand Rupees at your feet, then start my other expenses. Please give me your blessings for the solace and peace of the soul. I have to return now, everyone will be expecting me,' and she went away.

Swamiji continued his kirtan in deep ecstasy. Then he gave me the cheque and said `Go and prepare halwa as prasad, and Maharaj secretary have strong self-confidence. God above knows everything.'

In the evening we went to Rishikesh to buy rations and a meal was prepared for everyone.

Kriya yoga, which is a secret sadhana, Swamiji Satyananda has taught it easily to many people. The sadhana which was practised by sannyasins (renunciates) imprisoning themselves in caves, the same sadhana (Kriya yoga) was taught by Swamiji to hundreds of people sitting before the lamp in the hall. I remember in the year 1965 Swamiji gave Kriya yoga diksha in Yoga Kutir (Kutir made of grass). After teaching the practices, Swamiji instructions were not to tell anyone about the kriya and if unable to be in solitude then cover your face and practise. He was asked why this was so and he answered that, `this is the rule of this kriya. As long as Swami Sivananda was alive, I did not tell anyone. On the 14th July Swamiji attained Nirvana, after that I started teaching Kriya.'

Swamiji said, `Few Sadhanas I have snatched from my Guru.' Some practices we were never taught by Guruji, but he use to do sadhana in his Kutir, I use to practise sadhana in my Kutir. I learnt his secret sadhana by being one with him.'

Guruji knew everything. If he did not want to part with secret knowledge, he would not let my connection meet his. Maybe with his inspiration I could be one with him or he must have joined the current with his energy of medium. Just as the sadhana of a disciple is deep, he moves nearer towards his Guru. The Guru and disciple are two physically, but their soul is one. In this day and age there are few authentic Gurus and disciples. Swamiji started a great mission with peace and left, but see I have to run around here and there.'

In 1963 on July 14^th I suddenly woke up within myself. I was in Munger at that time. I just woke up within myself, not outside and a vision crossed across my mind. I was in Rishikesh, there was the Ganges, the beautiful Ganges, and on the Ganges a beautiful ship was sailing. On the ship trumpets and conches were being blown and drums beaten and bells ringing. I was not on the ship, I was on the bank of the Ganges, and the ship was sailing to the other side. As you know the ship has a flywheel. At one moment the ship made such movement that the flywheel threw sprinkles of water on me. My entire head and my body and my clothes were wet, and I came out, the inner vision was finished. I understood his blessings to me. Because Guruji loved the Ganga very much.

I can not tell you how much he loved the Ganga. During the rainy season, when the water of Ganga becomes so muddy, still he used to drink the same water. When Ganga used to rise high in the rain and floods and he was going to be flooded out, he would never leave his room; he would stay there and did not shift himself to any building.

Immediately I took my bag and went to the railway station, purchased a ticket and went to Rishikesh, and was told he had already left.

So therefore my interaction and my life with Swami Sivananda, was a life where the discovery of self was a primary relationship between himself and myself. And for me the period of 12 years or so that I lived with him, was also a period where I was polishing my mirror. The ego had to be erased, the passions had to be settled, the desire had to be properly fixed and ignorance had to be erased. How can one do it unless one serves his guru?

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