THE PATH OF YOGA
LOVING CORRECTION
When the Master reached the office it was 10 a.m. Sri X. appeared with letters for his signature.
“Ohji, whenever you write letters, write sweetly. Do not give a cut and dry reply.” the Master advised him. “Yes, Swamiji, I will do so.”
“You will do so? How many times have I not told you about this? Still you don’t try to correct yourself. Very well, take this sweetmeat.”
Sri X. took a piece of the sweetmeat and tasted it.
“How is it? Very sweet?”
“Yes, Swamiji, it is very sweet.”
“After all, this sweetmeat is insentient. Yet see how much happiness it gives to man. You are a human being with an intellect. How much more happiness should you not give to others through your words and actions!” the Master mildly reproached him.
Sri X. felt a little hurt.
Immediately the Master turned to a visitor. “You know, this Swamiji translates all my articles and sends them to various vernacular magazines. He is very energetic and sincere.”
Sri X.’s face again became normal!
“All right, take one more sweetmeat. Your next letter must be sweeter than this sweetmeat. You can go now. Om Namah Shivaya.”
WHEN GOD’S GRACE COMES
A blind man who was sitting in a corner approached the Master and prostrated to him.
“Swamiji, by your Grace I am able to sing and play the violin also. I have none in this world to look after me. You are my only solace now. I pray for thy blessings,” the blind man politely requested the Master with folded hands.
Immediately he was admitted as an inmate of the Ashram.
Someone remarked that he knew by heart all the ten Upanishads and the whole of the Bhagavad Gita.
“Is it not a blessing, Swamiji, that he has such talents even though he is blind?” asked Sri Rejomal, a devotee from Indonesia.
“Yes, it is God’s Grace. When you get quite helpless, God’s Grace comes to your rescue, the Master replied.
FOLLOW THE GOLDEN MEAN
At the night Satsanga, Sri Franz Von Poncet, an aspirant from South Africa, who had been staying at the Ashram for the past five months, came to the Master to get some Prasad from his hands.
He looked so lean that one could even count his ribs. He avoided taking even the necessary food, and meditated all the time.
Noticing his poor health the Master advised him, “Ohji, you must take care of your health. You should eat well. Torturing the body is not Yoga. You will become so weak that you will not be able to sit for meditation. The Gita says that Yoga is not for one who eats too much, nor for one who does not eat at all. So do not go to extremes. Be moderate. Follow the golden mean. Eat well. Do some exercise both morning and evening. In no way is this going to obstruct your meditation. Asanas and exercise, on the other hand, will help your meditation.”
TRUE SILENCE
A young Sannyasin came to the Master and received some books. He pointed to a particular book and made some signs with his hands. Nobody understood what he meant. Then he took a slate and wrote that he was observing silence and wanted the Master’s autograph in the book.
The Master turned to him, “Ohji, leave off this kind of silence. Silence the mind. That is more important.”
Suddenly the Master started showing some signs and gestures with his hands and acted like one who was observing silence!
All enjoyed the joke and burst into laughter but no one could understand what he meant.
Then the Master himself explained, “A Sadhu who was observing silence stood in front of a house. He wanted a cup of milk, and for this purpose made all kinds of signs as I showed you just now. What a waste of energy! What is the use of observing this kind of silence? Instead of saying in just one word that he wanted milk, he would struggle for several minutes to make someone understand what he wanted, thus wasting his own time and energy as well as that of the other person.
“One should silence the mind and thoughts, silence the bubbling emotions. This is real observance of silence.”
A LESSON IN VEDANTA
The Master was going through a manuscript. Suddenly he turned to Swami Lalitananda, an American disciple.
“Can you doubt the doubter?” he asked her.
“Yes ... Swamiji,” she replied hesitatingly.
“You have failed. Now the next question. I will see whether you get pass marks now. They say that everything is an illusion, that this whole world is unreal, a mere illusion. If everything is an illusion, Brahman also is an illusion. How can you say that Brahman alone is real? Is this correct?”
“Brahman is beyond illusion.” Lalitananda replied.
“No, that is not the correct answer. There must be a substratum for an illusory snake. That substratum is the rope. So the rope cannot be an illusion. So also, Brahman is the substratum for this illusory world. The world alone is an illusion and not the substratum, Brahman. Brahman is real. Moreover, the one who denies everything else as an illusion cannot himself be denied: he exists. Therefore, Brahman is real and this world is unreal. It is superimposed on Brahman. Understood, Swami Lalitanandaji?”
THE MASTER’S TEST!
A Sadhu came and stood before the Master with a Kamandalu, (water-pot) in his hand. He went on repeating. “Shivoham, Shivoham.”
Whenever he repeated “Shivoham” (I am Shiva), the Master said, “Dasoham” (I am the servant).
The Sadhu continued his repetition.
The Master called to Satyagyanam and ordered him, “Ohji, take away the water-pot from that Sadhu!”
Satyagyanam approached the Sadhu, but he at once said, holding the water-pot with a firm grasp, “Maharaj, this water-pot is my life. I cannot part with it!”
“See! The true colour of ‘Shivoham’ has now come out! Ohji, don’t say ‘Shivoham.’ say ‘kamandaluham’!” the Master smilingly said.
All burst into laughter!
THE MIND EXPLAINED
“Krishna, today you prepared the dishes very well. Oh! What wonderful curd preparation you provided! Krishna, how do I know the taste of this curd preparation? Can you tell me?”
“Through your tongue, Swamiji.”
“No, listen to what happens. See, first I take a little and put it on the tip of my tongue. The tongue conveys this news to the mind. The mind is the lawyer: it takes the information to the intellect. The intellect is the judge. Behind the intellect there is the supreme court judge—the Lord—who is existence, bliss and knowledge. He gives the power to the intellect, the mind and the tongue to decide the taste of anything.
“Therefore, the Lord gives to the tongue the power of tasting, to the mind the power of thinking, and to the intellect the power of determining. Have you heard this before? Have you understood now?”
“Swamiji, this is the first time I have understood it in this manner.”
NATURE OF THE SELF
“Shantanandaji, come here!
What is the universal disease?” the Master asked, and himself answered, “Jealousy and envy.”
“How can we infer that the Self is an embodiment of bliss?”
And again he himself answered. “You like a mango because it gives you pleasure when you eat it. Beyond everything else in this world, everyone loves himself most. Therefore, the Self must be happiness, that is. It must be an embodiment of eternal bliss. Om Namah Shivaya! Take this mango. You can go now.”
TRUTH IS ONE
Sri Nagarajan from Dehra Dun came with his family for the Master’s Darshan. A young boy, a relative of Sri Nagarajan, who played the mridangam well, was in the group.
“Who is this young boy?” the Master enquired of Sri Nagarajan.
“He is the brother of Shyama, Swamiji, who came here and gave a dance performance last year.”
Then Nagarajan introduced an old man as his father-in-law, and said that the latter was the grandfather of this young boy.
“The same person that you call father-in-law the boy calls grandfather, and to your wife he is a father. Similarly, the one omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient Lord is called Hari by one, Brahman by another, Father in Heaven by a third person, and Allah by a fourth. The person is the same, but the names are different: God is one, Truth is one, but He is called by so many Names.”
HARD AND SOFT HEART
The Master said to Sri Nitya Kumari Rani of Nepal, “An aspirant should develop his heart in two ways. He should be hard-hearted as well as soft-hearted. He should be hard heart when he has to stick to his principles, when he has to stick to a particular aim; but the same hard heart should melt in compassion when he sees the suffering of a poor man on the roadside.”
THE MASTER’S WIT
Professor Sahanani of Delhi came to have the Master’s Darshan in the office. He took his seat after prostrating to the Master.
“Sri Sahanani Maharaj, this is Pushpa Anand, Vice-Principal of a college at Dehra Dun; this is Savitri, M.A.; this is Principal Killo of Delhi; that is Kusum, another professor from Delhi.”
The Master introduced them all to Sri Sahanani.
“Full of educationists but ignorance only everywhere!” the Master remarked significantly.
REMEDY FOR DISEASE
A middle-aged person came to the Master.
“Swamiji, I wish to return home.”
“What! Yesterday you told me you wanted to stay here, now you tell me you want to go back. What has happened to you?”
“Swamiji, I often fall ill. I am a diseased man.”
“Ohji, think that you will die at any moment, then no disease will come to you. Further, if you possess a bank balance, you will get disease. If you are penniless no disease will come to you.”
ATTAINING THE NATURAL STATE
“Swamiji, when a man realises God, how long can he keep that realisation?” An old man approached the Master with a question.
After a little while the Master replied. “First there will be a glimpse. This will last for a short while. Gradually the person will get established in that state. Eventually it will become Sahaja Avastha or the ‘natural state’.”
The old man went back to his seat.
VERY COMFORTABLE VEDANTA!
The Master graciously turned to the devotees and jovially remarked. “See, today is the first day of the New Year. If each one of you gives me something, yours will multiply like anything. Come on, who comes first?”
Sri Pushpaji of Dehra Dun came forward and offered twenty rupees.
“What about you?” the Master pointed to a devotee. “These are all Anitya Vastu (temporal), Swamiji. Why give all these things?” she replied.
“Very comfortable Vedanta indeed! If you really feel that they are Anitya, why don’t you throw them away?” the Master remarked.
All had a hearty laugh!
HOW TO REACH THE GOAL
“Why do you see diversity when there is really unity?” the Master posed a question.
“It is all due to the illusory power of God, Swamiji,” someone replied.
“Wonderful! Now tell me in one word the way to reach the goal.”
Each one gathered there gave a different answer.
Ramesh: “Faith.”
Gyanchand: “Grace.”
Vedantananda: “Jnana.”
Kalyani: “Renunciation.”
Anasuya: “Devotion.”
Master: “Wonderful! All are correct.”
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