This was one of the
most inspiring aspects of my years living close to such an accomplished yogi. I was able to observe him as he aged through
the years of his very arduous and wholehearted dedication to the awakening of
spiritual energy in tens of thousands of
people as he traveled throughout a
large part of the world and the tolls that work took on his physical body. I witnessed
the extraordinary ways in which he responded to physical illness and at the
time was aware that this was one evident sign of his yogic power over his body
and mind
As I myself am aging and facing
challenges of health, I am able to draw inspiration from his example and hope
this helps to inspire others as well.
When you live close to a Guru there are many
methods through which he/she can teach,
guide and inspire us. Those include
through the discipline he may require as
part of living near him; formal teachings and answering the questions put to
him about the spiritual journey; and very personal situations where the Guru
finds the opportunity to give very direct teaching, usually to fast-track our
development in meditation and also to break through stubborn negative habits.
All of these are valuable means. But what I absorbed most directly living with
Baba were his own attitudes and behaviors
in living his life, day in and day
out. From those examples I came to understand
his ability to bring his meditative and yogic states of transcendent consciousness into daily
life. The way he handled certain
situations and many of the challenges that arose over the period of years I lived with him, clearly illustrated to
me that his relationship with his physical body was not like that of most of
us. His yogic lifestyle and practices
awarded him extraordinary equanimity that enabled him to overcome conditions
that are generally debilitating and overwhelming for most of us as we age.
When I met him in San Francisco in l970 he was 60 years
old. He had an extraordinary amount of
life force, joyful enthusiasm and seemed tireless in approaching his work.
Through the l2 years I lived with him he faced multiple health challenges from
being diabetic and having an enlarged heart, heart attacks, and eventually he succumbed to a heart attack in October
l982.
Initially when I went to India in l971 he was celebrating his 62nd
birthday in the ashram. During those
celebrations with thousands of people visiting him he was indefatigable, it
seemed to take several young attendants
through the day to keep up with him, assisting him in various activities. He
was like a lion, filled with yogic vitality, joy and gusto meeting each person and situation with direct dynamic engagement.
He seemed to be much younger than his years.
I lived in the ashram with him for three years from 1971-1973,
prior to his second World Tour. During
the week days in the ashram life was relatively quiet, with the gentle flow of the daily routine he had set for all
residents. There were between 20-30
westerners living there during those periods, and approximately the same amount
of Indians , some young boys he was educating, retired Indians who came to
spend their vanaprashtra[i] phase
of life in the ashram, and Indian and foreign people who would come and
stay for periods of school breaks or work holidays.
Ashram life had a rhythm punctuated by the unique characteristics of the different seasons: monsoon rains with the glorious fragrant blossoms that came to life with the rains: the
stultifying heat of summer days where the earth cracked open from dryness; and cool
winter mornings where a hot cup of chai helped to warm hand and tummy.
Without fail Baba rose early for his own meditations and
visited the temple where he paid respects to his Guru by doing a full length
prostration. During the morning Guru Gita chant he generally
participated , often correcting the postures and inattentiveness of the
chanters with flying objects, or sharp words. Nothing seemed to escape his
attention, as throughout the day he oversaw work in the kitchen, in the gardens, on-going construction projects, fed and
trained his elephant Viju and played
with his dogs.
Then there was the greeting of visitors who came in endless queues for his
darshan – the Indians have a strong faith that just the sight or glance of one of their great saints can sanctify their lives, no matter how dismal their
conditions. The poor villagers, the
powerful politicians, the office clerks,
the film stars-- all lined up to see
Baba. Those exchanges were often very personal and
engaging. Each individual departed
feeling blessed through their contact. Baba in no way filled any stereotype
ideal one could have about how a saint behaved.
His language could at times be rough, harsh if the occasion called for
it, often loving, lively and humorous
and his behavior always unpredictable and spontaneous. There was never a dull
moment around him, it sometimes felt like a three-ring circus where multiple
events were happening simultaneously and he was orchestrating them all. He could take different roles as required-- one minute disciplining an errant young boy with a stick; the next
caressing and blessing a new-born brought by his parents; teasing one of
the local village women who daily brought
vegetables from her garden--to giving warm hearted words of encouragement and
upliftment to a man who having lost his legs came into the courtyard on a wooden platform
with wheels.
On Saturday afternoons, the buses from Bombay
would arrive, with devotees laden with baskets of food carried into the
kitchen, and lining up to greet Baba with colorful flower garlands and offerings of
fruit.
At different times of the year daily life was
enhanced with extraordinary activities: 7 day 24 hour chants, sometimes with ecstatic dancing; celebrations
of Guru Purnima and Baba’s Birthday and Divya Diksha days, where thousands of people came
by the busloads. They were accommodated on the roof tops of the buildings and
even in large tents. Huge bandharas – delicious feasts- were prepared and distributed
for hours. Brahmin priests came to perform yajnas, fire
pujas often for seven days. For
these occasions Baba manifested his kingly manner as he officiated and orchestrated each one of these activities, with his extraordinary level of enthusiasm and
vigour. Every participant was uplifted by his magnificent generosity of spirit
and joyful nature.
Life as an
ashramite with him in those years had several constant themes. First was a mandatory and intense level of discipline
which entailed participating in every chant throughout the day and doing our
seva—assigned work chores. Secondly, being
trained in various aspects of yogic life including an ayurvedic approach to
diet and living with the seasons. And
individually each ashramite received very
personal on-going attention to their
progress in meditation practice.
He emphasized the discipline for seemingly
different reasons: firstly it eliminated ambivalent visitors to the ashram,
only the truly committed could bear the intense heat (tapasya as they call it
in the Yoga Sutras ) of the rigorous lifestyle he demanded. He would
occasionally roar through the courtyard with a stick in hand, shouting in a
most terrifying manner. We tended to
call it his “Rudra Bhav” [ii][1] Later
during the afternoon question and answer session which was translated for the
westerners he would giggle and say “Did
you see, it worked, those hippies rolled up their sleeping bags and sneaked out
the gate.” Ganeshpuri ashram in those
days was not a place for spiritual
dilatants or those just looking for a comfortable place to hang out.
He also
told us that if a serious meditator committed themselves to a daily routine, as one went on into deeper
states of meditation, that routine required much less mental effort, one did not have to think about what to
do. It was evident that he himself maintained an
unvarying daily routine of practices.
Regarding
diet and food, he also always emphasized the health benefits of eating only
what and how much the body required according to the season and one’s
ayurvedic constitution and again it was obvious that he himself
followed a very strict dietary discipline in spite of the fact that visitors
were always bringing food offerings to him. In every aspect of his lifestyle Baba was an exemplary yogi – his
example was truly inspiring and his energy levels were such that anyone
observing him could only feel admiration and awe.
He also took great care in watching over the
spiritual development of each individual who had made the commitment to live in
his Guru Kula. This activity generally was centered in the meditation verandah
adjacent to his room. In the center of
this verandah was the locked small room which was his original residence when
the land was given to him by his Guru Bhagawan Nityananda. He had lived and meditated in that room for
many years before the ashram developed
and occasionally he would place a meditator in that room for a very special initiation .
(A very poignant point that cannot be overlooked is that ultimately the
earth below that one small room became the chamber for his samadhi shrine.
Prior to his death he emphasized that
room was his one sole property,
everything else belonged to the trustees of the ashram.)
Ashramites and regular visitors would sit for
meditation in that verandah, and Baba would come out of his room and observe
people meditating. He spontaneously gave
shaktipat , a transmission of meditative experience, in a
very individual manner on those occasions. At other times, he would speak with
someone in the darshan line, give them the mantra or a pat on the head or
cheeks and tell them to go sit for meditation. The transmission of shaktipat,
or awakening of meditation in his tradition was
informal and unstructured,
according to the individual. The volumes
of the GurudeVani Magazine edited by Amma (Swami Prajnananda) were filled with
the accounts of the extraordinary experiences people had on such occasions.
Baba had the remarkable capacity to transmit a direct experience of the highest
consciousness to individuals who were ready for it. It was then up to the student to honour and
preserve that awakened energy through
leading a pure lifestyle and doing sadhana practices until such time as it could
be stabilized through meditation. He
said that one was ready for spiritual awakening when one’s positive and
negative energies had become equally balanced.
One can find a description of this experience given by Krishna
to Arjuna in Chapter 12 of the
Bhagavad Gita.
He said that even sometimes this transmission
would occur spontaneously, he would feel a certain vibration in his heart, look
around and could see by the expression on some seeker’s face that they were
experiencing an awakening of the powerful Kundalini energy that had flowed from him into them.
He also observed our health and lifestyle habits quite carefully. He was
very opposed to us taking food from outside of the ashram or loading up on
sweets when we visited Bombay for any reason as such food was likely to disturb
our health. If one approached him with any kind of
ailment or injury one had to be brave and accept his favorite remedies,
drinking cows urine or peeing on a wound.
When I
arrived in the ashram he wanted to know all about my previous lifestyle. I had been living a yogic lifestyle for about
one year, being vegetarian and practicing the asanas and shatkarmas, cleansing
practices of classical hatha yoga. One
day in conversation in Amma’s room he pointed out, “You must have had many
boyfriends, I can see you have lost your vital fluids, your cheeks are sunken
and your skin pallid.” This was quite
embarrassing to say the least, but I was a product of the sexual revolution of
the late sixties in California!
“This girl has had 80 boyfriends,” he said,
pointing to another American woman from New York who was working nearby. “ You
will get your radiance back soon living here with this pure environment, pure food,
maintaining celibacy and chanting and
meditating.”
He seemed
to be quite fascinated by the histories of the western girls who came there, as
sexual freedom was not at all an acceptable behavior in India at that
time. Women’s purity was protected and
preserved until the time of marriage. At
that time in India, unfortunately western women were portrayed in Indian films
as being extremely promiscuous to the point of being depicted as sexual
predators. It’s no wonder that western
women found themselves the target of sexual harassment when they travelled through
India. But then they themselves were not
conscious to observe the modest dress codes that were observed by Indian women.
In their hot pants and halter tops men
felt they were just asking for sex and were more than eager to oblige. This
dichotomy between cultural attitudes towards sexual behavior provoked many misunderstandings
in interactions between western women and men, including some of the spiritual
teachers. [2]
As part of the emphasis on discipline and health,
Baba very much emphasized the preservation of sexual energy as being the fuel
for spiritual practice. It was not a
question of morality generally in spite of the different cultural
attitudes. In the same way that he
emphasized purity in vegetarian food for the effects if had on the energies of
the body and mind, he emphasized preservation of sexual fluids as essential for
developing the subtle strength necessary
for the more refined practices of yoga
and meditation.
We were encouraged to read various texts that had
been translated into English. One particularly interesting one was Devatma
Shakti which described the subtle and intricate process whereby the
sexual fluids of a meditator are refined through pure diet, yogic lifestyle,
pranayama and meditation practices. In the case of the Siddha yogis such as
Baba and his Guru who were described as urdvarehtas [3] that
fluid became a conscious dynamic force
that was able to be controlled by concentration and will as a vehicle for the
transmission of Kundalini energy, known as shaktipat. That transmission could be given in the form
of a physical touch; a word, usually a mantra whispered in the ear; or a look, whereby the force of the energy
radiated out of the eyes of the master into the eyes of the ready
disciple.
Baba was
invited to tour the world again in l974, invited by Werner Erhard to
participate in a series of EST Presents seminars. I left earlier from India to assist with
preparations and met him and his party when he arrived in Oakland. I had some trepidations about this tour, as I
knew that Ganeshpuri ashram would never be the same pristine sanctuary of
meditation once people met Baba and received the spiritual awakening that was
so uniquely his work. I also wondered in my mind how people would understand
what kind of yogi he was and what he was
doing when he gave shaktipat , with such vastly different cultural conditioning.
[1]
Rudra is the destroyer manifestation of the Trinity Brahma Vishnu Shiva, seen
as the creator, sustainer and destroyer functions of the universe.
[2]
See Alex Berzin, “how to have a healthy guru Disciple Relationship the Berzin archives
[3]
One in whom the sexual fluid flows upwards and is not emitted in any sexual
encounter.
[i]
Forest-dweller fase according to the varnas, when one sees their childrens
children, or their hair turning grey they should retire to the forest and
contemplate the highest truths as laid out by the sages.
[ii]
Rudra is the destroyer manifestation of Shiva in the trinity of Creator,
Sustainer and destroyer.
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