September 03, 2008

Remembering Swami Chidananda

I received news this week that the saint and spiritual master H.H. Swami Chidananda Saraswati Maharaj died at the age of 92 on August 28. He was the chosen successor to the renowned Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, India, and the president of the Divine Life Society, the worldwide organization founded by Swami Sivananda. Its headquarters is the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh, and all spiritual seekers who made their pilgrimage to Mother India in the sixties, seventies, and eighties, and had any interest in yoga and Vedanta, passed through its hallowed gates.

Swami Chidananda in Rishikesh,
by the Ganges river

I saw Swami Chidananda for the first time around 1978, shortly after I became a dedicated seeker at the age of twenty-two. One of his inspired Western devotees was a meditation partner of mine and she repeatedly told me about this extraordinary man who was her beloved Guru. She said that he was a saint and that I absolutely had to meet him. Months later, the opportunity came when she told me he was on tour and would be giving a lecture at a yoga school on Long Island. So I made the pilgrimage with her from Manhattan, where I lived, with much anticipation and excitement. I had never met a saint before. I remember upon seeing him for the first time being instantly struck by his countenance. He was a tall man but very thin, almost frighteningly so, with a beautiful face and delicate features. He exuded a natural air of dignity that was commanding and made me sit up straight. He also radiated a rare quality that I had never seen before in any human being: purity. In the presence of such a being, one becomes instantly aware of one’s own lack of development and of how far there is to go. One understands for the first time what unselfish love, spiritual freedom, and pure motivation look like. He was gentle yet strong, and in every word he spoke and every gesture he made he seemed to be bearing witness to the presence of a higher and deeper dimension of reality that he was constantly referring to as the “Divine.” It was impossible not to take him deadly seriously and difficult not to be deeply moved by his powerful transparency and authenticity. It’s only in the presence of such a being that the very notion of shadow, of human darkness, disappears as a reference point, inspiring a quality that is generally unknown in postmodernity—humility.

With Swami Krishnananda
at the Divine Life Society

I was fresh on the Path and full of energy for spiritual practice, but I’ll never forget the effect that the Swami’s words had on my understanding of the place that meditation should take in one’s life. In the talk that day, he made it absolutely clear that when one engages in spiritual practice in earnest, one’s entire day revolves not around outer duties and concerns but around the commitment to interior development—one’s daily effort to become more conscious. First he quoted one of the great English poets: “Some may come and some may go, but I’ll go on forever. Step by step. Step by step.” Then to my surprise, he boldly declared, “When someone asks you what you do, you should say,” and he raised his voice, “I MEDITATE!” Then lowering his voice to a whisper, he continued, “And . . . I also live.” I’ll always remember that moment, because it felt as if he was giving me permission to wholeheartedly give myself to my own growing passion for spiritual enlightenment in a culture that doesn’t admit that such a thing really exists. Even though he was never my Guru, as a seeker I made the effort to spend time in his company whenever I could. It always had the effect of humbling me deeply and inspiring me to have courage and be willing to take risks in order to make real progress.

Swami Krishnananda

In his own life, Swami Chidananda had first been awakened to the spiritual dimension of life when he read the classic autobiography In Quest of God by the revered South Indian bhakta Papa Ramdas at age nine. He eventually traveled to meet the Great Realizer when he was sixteen. Deeply inspired not only by Ramdas but also by the life stories, philosophies, and living examples of the great enlightened sages Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramana Maharshi, and Swami Sivananda, he was, as a young man, slowly but surely overcome by a desire to renounce the world completely to live the spiritual life. He wrote, “Sometimes I would suddenly wake up from sleep after midnight and find myself shaking with fear with the thought that I may never be able to take to the life of total renunciation.” When he was twenty-six he left home without telling his family that he was not coming back and went on a spiritual pilgrimage for some time before ending up in Brindavan, where he wrote the following letter to Swami Sivananda: “I’m coming to Rishikesh to surrender myself at your feet and to serve you.” Some time after his arrival, Sivananda declared to a confidant, “My successor has come.”

Swami Chidananda was known fondly as Saint Francis of the Himalayas, not only because of his love for the revered Christian saint but also because of his life of selfless service and devotion to his Guru. He ran a leper colony for many years, among his many other duties, which included traveling constantly throughout India and around the world carrying the message of Yoga and Vedanta to the masses. He has been loved and revered by millions of people.

Swami Sivananda with his disciples (from left)
Swami Venkatesananda, Swami Krishnananda,
Swami Chidananda and Swami Satchidananda.

I became a spiritual teacher myself in 1986, being initiated by the grace and will of the master Advaitin and disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi H.W.L Poonja of Lucknow. But I have also had a very deep and mysterious connection to this illustrious lineage, to Swami Chidananda and to his yogic brother and disciple of Sivananda, the great, irascible, contentious, brilliant, enlightened philosopher-monk Swami Krishnananda. They both have supported me and my work not only directly and explicitly but even more importantly and more mysteriously in ways that are difficult to describe in words. When I was a young teacher, their presence in my life was one I can only describe as father-like guardian angels. When I received the news of Swami Chidananda’s passing, even though it was not unexpected my soul was shaken. It’s in moments like these that one feels one’s love for God even more strongly. I remember being surprised at the depth of emotion I felt but was even more surprised to recognize that this was the same kind of unique emotion I have felt only in relationship to my own Guru or to the soul-bond I have with my own students. In India they say “the Guru is God,” and that is because those rare individuals who embody the absolute principle and are able to transmit its living reality to us become, at a soul level, human representatives of the Divine. Swami Chidananda was such a rare being and his presence will be deeply missed.

Here are a few beautiful quotes from Swami Chidananda:

The whole of the spiritual life is a gradual refinement or purification and education of the entire human nature so that it loses its movement in all other directions and starts taking on an ascending vertical direction. Once the human nature is given an upward turn, one simultaneously starts awakening the sleeping Divinity with the help of all one's spiritual practices.

In Impersonal Absolute meditation, there is no form, only the visualisation of Parabrahman as a state of light, of existence in infinity, of eternal being, of luminous consciousness, boundless; an ocean of consciousness. A state of impersonal bliss where once and for all you drop all thoughts of name and form and dwell upon the nameless, formless Reality, by affirming it as your true Self, your essential, real Being, which has neither birth nor death.

This is Vedantic meditation upon the Impersonal Absolute. This is not the meditation of devotees, who prefer to keep a dualist consciousness of worshipper and the worshipped, of lover and beloved, adorer and adored object. This is a different type of meditation altogether. It is called the pure Advaitic meditation, and it goes a step beyond the nameless and formless Being, beyond a ray meditating upon the sun. Here, there is no ray, no drop, no individual being, no meditator and meditated object, only One beyond all distinctions. “Aham Brahma Asmi.” I am the Supreme Reality. And thus meditating upon oneself as infinite eternal being, one seeks to enter into a consciousness of non-dual, pure identity with the Supreme Being.

“I and my Father are One.” “Aham Brahma Asmi”, “Soham, Sivoham.”

100 Gurus cannot help unless the disciple has a great desire for liberation and is seeking to get rid of that which stands in the way.

Negative conditions like dejection, depression, despair, melancholy, inferiority feelings, self condemnation, and pessimism are all UNSPIRITUAL and UNDIVINE. They are regarded as the DEVIL’S tools. But of them all, the first place is taken by discouragement. If you lose heart and get discouraged, a downward plunge commences.
It was once announced that the Devil was going out of business and would offer all his tools for sale to whomsoever would pay his price. On the night of the sale, they were all attractively displayed—a bad lot. Malice, hatred, envy, jealousy, sensuality, deceit, and all the other implements of evil were spread out, each marked with its price.
Apart from the rest lay a harmless-looking, wedge-shaped tool, much worn and priced higher than any of them. Someone asked the devil what it was.

“That’s discouragement,” was the reply.

“Why do you have it priced so high?”

“Because,” replied the devil, “it is more useful to me than any of the others. I can pry open and get inside a man’s conscience with that when I could not get near him with any of the others. And when once inside, I can use him in whatever way suits me best. It is so much worn out because I use it with everybody, and very few people know it belongs to me.”

It hardly need be added that the Devils price for Discouragement was so high that it was never sold. He still owns it and is using it.

Life is meant for God-realization. The goal of life is God-realization. If you die without attaining God-realization, your life is in vain. You have wasted this precious gift of human birth given by God.
— Swami Chidananda

Comments

Quynh Hoa — September 04, 2008

Dear Andrew ,
First thank you for sharing so many things to us and also your deepest feelings. I wholeheartedly share them .
It is true that such enlightened sentient beings are a blessing to human nature and potential. I soulfully respect their heroic courage, selfless love, purity and humility.
But my fundamental question is “ is it that kind of highest form of attainment in consciousness that the world desperately needs right now to meet its difficult , challenging and threatening future ? “ . Do we have time and enough ready souls to go for this high attainment ,to impact the evolution of the world?
As you said us at the last day of the Tuscany retreat, you have somehow realized , through somebody’ s remark, that “unless the middle of the pyramid moves ‘ there would be no real positive change in the world.
I would like to contribute to the movement of the middle part in whichever way. I am contemplating about it.
And last but not least , your deep love for God resonates in me and have me felt the immensity of God’s love for the Creation of which humanity is a part.
I feel His or Her Love expressing Itself through a matrix of relationships going (at a human level) from his many Messengers, Prophets , Saints, Gurus to the humblest selfless act unrecognized by the world.

Yours faithfully
Qhoa

Will Hewson — September 04, 2008

It’s so critical what you say about being given permission to seek enlightenment. Without a guru to offer this permission it is unlikely that anyone would ever stick to the path for long enough to see results. I love hearing stories about these Eastern Gurus. My path was so infrequently influenced by them, being nearly 100% influenced by you, Andrew. But it’s amazing how if one understands the basics of your teachings, the quotes from the East make sense in a startling way. For example, your WIE article about Ajja had enormous effects on me as it allowed me to to wonder what it would be like to completely surrender from the world to the unkown. Sometimes I wish I were more in touch with Eastern paths, but then that doesn’t make any sense because one can only be the best example of living enlightenment in their own lifetime; to live a life of bringing the timeless to time, one must let go of all notions of an already defined path. Thank you for sharing this.

Moo Briddell — September 05, 2008

Dear Andrew,
You have written a wonderful tribute to Sri Swami Chidanandaji and to the lineage of Sri Swami Sivananda. Swami Chidanandaji was truly an embodiment of purity and humility and all the divine qualities that this world so desperately needs. In his presence our own inadequacies became glaringly obvious, without his ever having to point them out. As you describe, his words carried a power that could change lives, but even more powerful was his teaching by simply being who he was, a saint, a sage and a great yogi.
His example of how to live on this earth is forever etched in my soul. I once asked him if the guru was human or divine, to which he replied: �100% human and also 100% divine��a tender human heart, an unshakable adherence to truth, always expressing itself through undivided, non-dual consciousness.
I am so touched by your referring to Swami Chidananda and Swami Krishnananda as �father-like guardian angels�. That is what they were�emissaries sent from God, to support, inspire and protect sincere seeking souls and to challenge them to take to the spiritual path and never, ever give up. Swami Chidananda used to refer to God-realization as �the pearl of surpassing price� besides which all other achievements and goals paled in comparison and for which any sacrifice was worth making.
What a great privilege to have known such an exquisite being, who turned so many lives toward God, yet once said �a spiritual life should be like the flight of a bird at night�, so that no one would know you had ever been there. �Always wanting to be nobody�� he changed the world.
In His Light and Love,
Moo

4	Alemenia Mclean — September 05, 2008 I have always thought that once you get so old that you scare children it’s about time for you life experience to end. He was a great man. we are all the better those who knew him and others who will learn of him and his life experience.

5	Christos Sophia — September 05, 2008 Life is meant for God-realization. The goal of life is God-realization. If you die without attaining God-realization, your life is in vain. You have wasted this precious gift of human birth given by God � Swami Chidananda Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes.

Andrea Eagles — September 06, 2008

Thank you, Andrew, for such a moving, touching, beautiful tribute to Swami Chidananda. He is such an amazing expression of the legacy of Swami Sivananda of Divine Life Fellowship. I have never forgotten the gift of being there in Rishikesh with Swami Krishnananda and feeling deeply the effect of their lives on everyone who visited there.

7	Jesper — September 06, 2008 "I MEDITATE!, And . . . I also live.” With this - we can create the future...and change the culture.

8	Charles Kangai — September 07, 2008 What wonderful words! Our Gurudev Swamiji’s words have an even greater meaning for us now that we are no longer spoilt by His physical presence. Thank you for writing this article.

9	Tara — September 07, 2008 Andrew, Thanks for sharing this with us. I am deeply moved.Swami Chidananda I have not heard of before. His quote"If you die without attaining God-realization, your life is in vain” leaves me speechless. Tara

10	sridharmurthy — September 07, 2008 Dear Brother Andrew, i read your words and cried.. Yes swami chidananda was all that to you as well as to the rest of us.. May God grant you greater spiritual strength to realise your innermost desires.. Love & pranams, Hari Om!

Pallavi — September 07, 2008

I have had the good fortune of meeting Swamiji on various occasions in India. My parents were initiated by him and I still remember the day he visited our home in India. I was too young to know exactly what was going on but I didi know our guest was very very special. To my parents it was nothing short of God visiting home.
My mother had prepared an elaborate meal for Swamiji that day and we were all looking forward to his visit. He visited. He spent time with us too. Although he would not have anything to eat because he eats little and mostly food that he carries but he was kind to taste something from the kitchen when he was told mum had prepared food especially for him. This was a first we were told. He had never eaten anything from anyone’s kitchen ever. It was heartening. My mother was blessed.
He then visited the school my parents had started in the name of Guruji Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. We had prayer session and he mingled lovingly with us students and I recall how much in awe we all were. I was in grade 6 then. I t was in the year of 1985 (I think). After that I went to almost all the ‘pravachan’ (spiritual discourses) sessions held by Swamiji in my state or around.
I was with my parents when they got their initiation from Swamiji in Rishikesh.
I have had an early introduction to spirituality thanks for my parents.
Your article brought back memories of all my personal encounters with the Guru. I have always felt small and insignificant in his sublime presence.
I loved your article. I almost went on a small journey with you as I read along, reliving my memories from time to time. I do not have a guru yet and I am still hopeful my guru finds me this lifetime.
I wish you well in your spiritual pursuits.
Warm Regards.

12	Durwin Foster — September 08, 2008 Thank you for your heartfelt remembrance. I found the entire thing very inspiring, but the quote from Swami on the topic of discouragement to particularly strike right to the heart of the matter, in terms of the feelings I struggle with today. Yours, Durwin

13	laxmikanta — September 09, 2008 om santi om

14	Neena — September 09, 2008 I MEDITATE , and ...... I ALSO LIVE !!!!!! Absolutely Inspiring !!!! Thanks Andrew , for sharing from the deep within ! In Joy , luv n Gartitude !

T . GOPAL RAO — September 09, 2008

Dear ANDREW
Namaskar,
Really it is a shocking news for me to hear from my brother Sri T.KONDAL RAO that SWAMI CHIDANANDA is no more...! I pray GOD his soul may rest in peace in “SWARGA LOKA “. My brother T. KONDAL RAO is in constant touch with the DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY of HYDERABAD br, and he is translating some of books and articles in to TELUGU language of SWAMY SHIVANANDA and also SWAMY CHIDANANDA.A great job he is doing.

16	Alan Neachell — September 10, 2008 Dear Andrew, just a simple but heartfelt thank you for your tribute to Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj. Hari Om Alan

Maxim Kramer — September 11, 2008

Andrew, your words reminded me of my own early days when i too was spiritually nourished by the presence of saint-yogis like Swami Chidananda and Swami Satchidananda. I was merely 17 in 1969 when I first had contact with Chidanandaji, and also experienced him as the embodiment of purity. As a “re-fined” soul, his presence did indeed highlight the dross of more ordinary body-minds (like myself!). Swamiji will be recalled by us spiritually seeking baby boomers as an authentic example of the traditional yogi-sadhak-saint, that is a rare sight indeed, in these days of over-night professional gurus. Perhaps also a reminder that true spiritual genius is both rare and real, and, in essence, humble.

18	Oliver — September 12, 2008 One of the great spiritual lights of our time has gone to his rest. He inspired and guided so many. Carry on the journey to the goal. We no longer have the Swami, but we have within us what he embodied.

19	Trinadha Rudraraju — September 16, 2008 Dear Andrew, Your narration of Swami is candid and reflected my experince with the great soul. Hari Om. Trinadha

N S Rao — September 17, 2008

Dear brother Andrew
Om Namo Narayanaya ! Jai Sadgurudev !
Thanks to my daughter PArimala, asst editor of The Hindu Business Line, I have just seen and read your beautiful, moving and sincere tribute to my Holy Master, whom I have had the privilege to serve for over 46 years. Parimala and I are putting together a comprehensive tribute. Can we use parts of your contribution?
Much love and regards. from e n e s r a o
When/If you are in Chennai, please let us meet.

C.Krishnan Nair — September 20, 2008

Puja Swamiji,
I was shocked to read that Swami Chidananda Maharaj attained Mahasamadhi. I had a good fortune to have HIS darshan
Swamiji on many occasions during his Visit at Anandasdhram, Kanhangad in the year 1963 where I had worked for 5 years in the Office under the guidance of Swami Satchidanandaji. I had an occasion to have HIS darshan at Hyderabad in Shri AniRudh Guptas Residence at Musheerabad(Hyd) also in the year 1980(Exact date do not remember) alongwith Swami Satchidanandaji.
The Spiritual Teacher/Guruji Andrew Cohen has written a wonderful Tribute to Swami Chidandaji. It is encouraging me read again and again.
Hari OM

Sonu Malkani — September 26, 2008

i do not wail but my tears have not dried…
will they ever?
i smile but there is a void
i am happy or am i truly?
i miss him…
i am now incomplete without him.....
i seek for him to complete me......
and that can be only
when he is with me…
where do i search for him…
these human eyes hunger for his form
this head longs for his hand upon it
this head long to pay homage at his feet…
futile is this human body in seeking him.....
where and how....i wonder....
my mind is only on those few moments we spent together.......
i am greatful for those moments which made me realise
that i am complete only when i am with him
in thought…
that reflects right unto my very heart
right into my very soul…
where i hope to find him....one day!

Shivani Ganesh — September 21, 2009

My husband and I got mantradiksha from Swami Chidananda but we never got to meet him. He passed away a couple of months later and I am really amazed spiritual neophytes like us got such a giant guru, I am touched to learn about this pure guru I never met but who guides us everyday on the spiritual path, thank you so much.

24	bipin chandra padhy — May 24, 2010 he only sees whom He chooses.so candid.Hari om Lving Pranams.

Remembering Swami Chidananda

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