#309 The Life and Teachings of Swami Tapovan Maharaj
There is a significant saying that while Teerthas or sacred places purify all people, the sacred places and teerthas are more sanctified and divinized by the holy people and saints who grace them with their passing footprints or prolonged presence.
When Rishi Narada one day visited Dwaraka, he found Sri Krishna absorbed in deep meditation. Narada marveled at the sight, for it was beyond his comprehension to imagine why or on what Bhagavan Krishna would meditate, for was he not the Lord Himself, the object of a man’s meditation?
When asked, Shri Krishna replied, I was meditating upon the lotus feet of the rishis and sadhus. Thus, Shri Krishna sought to give some idea of the greatness of saints and mahatmas.
Swami Tapovan Maharaj (1889–1957) was a renowned Vedanta scholar and one of the most respected saints of the 20th century. He was a contemporary of Swami Sivananda, a great yogi and founder of the Divine Life society. Swami Tapovan Maharaj was the Guru of Swami Chinmayananda ji who was the guru of our beloved guru, Pujya Swami Dayananda ji.
As we stand in this lineage and it was his birthday in December on Shuklapaksha Ekadashi day of Margashirsha, it felt so right to visit glimpses of his life and his teachings, which I share with you today.
Swami Sivananda writes about him – His name ‘Tapovanam’ is a veritable forest of austerity and penance. He lived a life of intense tapas for several years in the region of the Himalayas, just as the twin Makarakundala earrings adorn the divine years of Lord Vishnu, austerity and penance adorn this unique combination of Vedanta and Sanyasa.
As Tapovanam, he is not a wild forest with rough growth of dry austerity and cynical seclusion. Rather, he is an upavanam full of fragrance of the flowering of Vedanta and filled with the fruits of its mature realization. He is an upavanam wherein countless bees in the form of seekers and sannyasis, crowd to drink of the honey of true wisdom. Simultaneously with his great Vedantic knowledge, he is mellow with para bhakti. He is a bhakta jnani. He never divorces bhakti from knowledge. His Sanskrit books, Saumya Kasisha Stotram, Badareesha Stotram and others are all best examples of this. He always emphasizes that Abheda bhakti, Bhakti that is non separate from Bhagavan, is conducive to the attainment of knowledge. Thus, in himself, he combined the highest elements of Adhyatmic life and the Nivritti Marga of Sannyasa.
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Besides the extensive teaching on Vedanta that he did, he had a deep love for nature and travel and authored two books on his travels through the Himalayas: “Wanderings in the Himalayas” (Himagiri Viharam) and “Kailasa Yatra.” Tapovan Maharaj ‘s autobiography, written in Sanskrit was titled “Ishvara Darshana” which was translated into Malayalam which was translated into English from which I will share some excerpts.
Swami Tapovan Maharaj begins the book that is seemingly his autobiography- Ishvara Darshanam. How else will he begin it except for starting with Ishvara?.
Chapter One
There is one God who is the ultimate cause, responsible for the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe. Without him, there could be no universe. There cannot be effect without cause. Can a barren woman bring forth a child?
How can this world, with its method of creation, beautiful beyond the conception of the human mind be the haphazard product of inert matter? Matter is inert like a piece of stone.
So, we should believe in a God at whose bidding the air strives and the sun, moon and the stars shine, he cannot but be who is present in everything and shines through all things.
It may be that you do not see the powerful king in person, yet you cannot but recognize his presence when you see his authority operating all around you. Similarly, though we do not see God with our own eyes, we can believe in His presence because we find his power in operation all over the universe.
Is God corporeal or incorporeal? If he has a body, He must be an individual like any of us. If he hasn’t, he cannot be credited with the creation of the universe. Such doubts may assail the mind of the perverted but the good, pure in mind and rich in faith, fully believe that there is God. That He shines everywhere indirectly and indirectly determining the presence of God, the Supreme evidence is thus the pure and alert mind of the good. Their minds cannot be happy without believing in the existence of an omnipotent and omniscient father of the universe, all objects great and small, the little grass and the tiny flowers, as well as the Mighty Sun, the planets and the stars all proclaim the presence and the Glory of God through the Vedas, the Brahma sutras.
He goes on to quote this Sanskrit verse, the translation of which is –
Life alone is life which is devoted to God and is centered on him.
That which is given to the pursuit of ephemeral objects is no life at all. It is as good as lost.
Swami Tapovan Maharaj was born in 1886 in Kerala in a small village near Palkhat, as a result of years of devout Prayer. His parents belonged to the aristocratic class of Nairs, particularly the shatra-nayakas. They named their son Subramanya. They occupied an honorable position in society, as they were scrupulously clean in their life and conscientious in the performance of their household duties. In his eagerness to know the child, Subramanya’s future, his father engaged famous astrologers to draw up his horoscope. Subramanya was born under the constellation of Revati on Shukla paksha Ekadashi Day, which we also celebrate as Gita Jayanti. There were several signs of extraordinary prosperity, like the Kesari yoga coupled with Kemadruma yoga, indicative of extreme poverty. This seemed like a contradiction to the wise people.
In any case, Subramanya as a child, mastered the language of Malayalam quite quickly. He began to learn the hymns to Ganapati, Shiva, Krishna, Rama and other gods by heart. It was a pleasant exercise for him every day to recite the hymns again and again, to memorize them. He used to sink into deep thought as he listened to the stotras describing the forms of various gods and goddesses. Even as a child, he loved to spend his time in solitude. He was fond of visiting holy temples and worshiping gods. He felt deep delight in meeting holy people. It was his custom to visit temples in the company of relatives and worship the images with tears in his eyes.
He plied his parents and other elders with questions on the mystery of creation, and felt delighted when he received appropriate answers for them. At such moments, he literally forgot even hunger and thirst. Besides, with great devotion, he set up a beautiful piece of stone as Shiva Linga for daily worship in one of the rooms of his father’s house. With the assistance of his friends, he conducted daily pujas offering fresh flowers and sweets to the Deity in his father’s home. It was a daily custom to read the sacred books like Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavatam. Once, as he was listening to to an exaggerated description of the wealth and splendor of Ravana, he suddenly burst out in derision. “What?! Was Ravana daily, filling his stomach with gold and precious stones, or was he just eating rice, like every one of us. If Rice was his food, of what use were all those hoarded stones and gold to him?”. Hearing these scornful words uttered in such a tone, all who were present at the recital appreciated the boy’s cleverness as well as his total disregard of material riches. The boy studied Malayalam up to the ninth year and then joined a school at some distance from home to study English.
Subramanya spent a few years in the study of English at home and then lost all zest for it. This sort of education in English is as dry as a skeleton. What am I going to gain thereby? I seek no job. I want no wealth. What is money for? All I want is a morsel of food once a day to keep this body together. It being so, what can this education give me, except some pain? Should I push forward with such education, or should I put an end to it? Such thoughts harassed the mind of his son for a long time.
By then Subramanya’s, loving mother had passed away and his father was filled with the sorrow of bereavement. Subramanya’s father advised his son to resume his studies, but Subramanya, who was 16, replied to his Father with respect and humility. “The truth is, I don’t like school life. That is why I gave it up. There is no other reason. It doesn’t mean that I have put an end to my studies. In fact, I love the learned books written by English scientists and the noble poems composed by English poets, they are most dear to me. I continue to study them with the help of various scholars, but I long to study Sanskrit also in this birth, the course of my life is naturally determined by the tendencies inherited from my previous lives, nobody needs to entertain any materially high hopes about my future. “
His father refused to let him go abroad, and so Subramanya continued to stay at home studying Sanskrit. He learnt with local Sanskrit scholars, and also read through a number of English books on Eastern philosophy. The marvelous lives of ancient acharyas like Sri Shankara and Ramanuja, and of the modern ones like Ram Mohan, Roy, Sri, Ramakrishna, Rama Teertha, Vivekanananda and Dayananda Saraswati greatly interested him. He also studied the teachings of Buddha, Christ and Muhammad. In short, he read through all the religious books he could lay hands on. As extensive as his reading was, it did not satisfy him, not content with a mere understanding of words. He tried to get at their significance through tireless meditation.
His regular routine was every day, he would get up early, bathe, meditate on Shiva and chant some sacred hymns to his favorite deity. Next, he would go through some scientific treatise and the Upanishads only then he would have his breakfast both in the morning and the evening, he would several times repeat the panchakshari mantra, which his father had taught him. Of all gods, Shiva was his favorite deity. A man or God can become dear to a person only, according to that person’s samskara. In the case of Subramanya, it were these peculiar qualities and habits of Shiva that fascinated him- staying in the cremation ground, smearing the entire body with sacred ashes, residing on Mount Kailas, the use of animal hide for clothing, severe penance, burning Kama Deva for sport, quick and easy gratification, easy eating of poison, etc, which are the causes of destruction of the superimposition on the body, and which are the acme of knowledge, detachment, physical and mental control, and which were most dear to Subramanya’s mind, were the topics of his meditation.
The identification of the worshiper and the worship is the end aim of worship. He who meditates on renunciation becomes a man of renunciation. He who meditates on worldly pleasures becomes a worldling. Some become great, some become mean, all according to each one’s contemplation.
Subramanya did not get addicted to the habit of drinking tea or coffee early in the morning. Nor did he get used to eating any food early, as he had already mastered his senses. No thought of taking forbidden food entered his mind. In the neighborhood of his father’s home, there was a small but beautiful wood where solitude reigned supreme. On evenings, he would retreat into the forest, lovely with trees and flowers and resounding with the melodious songs of birds, and spend hours and hours meditating on the greatness of God’s creation. Steeped in these reflections he lost all count of time. Day passed into night and night passed into day. He was altogether unaware of such changes. Wonderful indeed is the glory O Lord who has created this world so full of variety and novelty. In every charming sight around there is but an infinitesimal manifestation of thy glory and greatness. May you give me, O Lord, in this very life, the capacity to enjoy the charm of your matchless beauty just as people enjoy the sight of the lovely moon, So he used to Pray in all sincerity.
In the meanwhile, Subramanya continued his studies in Sanskrit and nyaya. And He started to write poems which were extremely appreciated. It is no wonder that he, so gifted with a sense of natural beauty, took delight in literary appreciation as he went through many Sanskrit works like Bhagavatam, Ramayana and dramas like Hanuman and Nataka. After all, are not literature and beauty inextricably connected? Subsequently, he turned to the study of Vedanta and the various commentaries on the Gita and the Upanishads.
Of course, Subramanya knew that formless Brahman alone is true, yet he persisted in the japa of the Panchakshari mantra and the contemplation of Bhagawan in the form of Shiva. He had already learned the whole of the Bhagavad Gita by heart. Every day he recited all the 18 chapters. He visited many holy temples thus deriving immense pleasure. He was a bachelor, eligible in every way, rich, handsome, learned, yet young. If parents with girls of marriageable age wished to get him for a son in law, it was of no interest to him. He listened to them deferentially, but as one listens to fairy tales narrated by old nurses.
By the age of 21 his father had passed away, leaving behind all his riches. Subramanya performed all the funeral ceremonies in strict accordance with the customs of the community. As the eldest son, he performed a vrata for 41 days and performed the shraddha. He composed a beautiful hymn called Vishnu Yamakom, to lift his mind from the depth of sorrow, offering to the feet of Bhagwan. For a person harassed by the three sorrows connected with his own body, other beings and elements, there is no refuge other than the thought of Bhagwan, the singing of His glories and the complete surrender to His will. They are like the gentle rain from heavens which saves the poor Wild Animals fleeing in fear of life from a spreading forest fire by putting it out.
The practice of bhakti requires no material wealth like cow and gold, no stupendous effort to control the activity of the mind, no exceptional powers of discrimination. Without a touch of devotion, karma, Dhyana and jnana become dry, dull, insipid and vain. Bhakti alone is charming. Love of holy pleasures is charming too, but it is fleeting, like lightning, and it is a root of sorrow. So, it is to be avoided.
On the contrary, love of God is untouched by sorrow. It is eternal, most desirable and acceptable. Bhakti is of two types, sadhana bhakti and Sadhya bhakti. Of these, sadhana bhakti is dvaita in form. It recognizes two entities, but Sadhya bhakti is monistic. It’s also called para bhakti, between para bhakti and Advaita. Therefore there is no difference. There is no question of one being superior or inferior to the other because they are identical. In the light of this truth, it looks childish and meaningless for bhaktas and advaitins to argue about the superiority of the one to the other. Those who know the truth through rich experience laugh at those heated debates.
The best way to generate True Devotion is through the association with knowers of truth, satsanga. He who secures the grace of the good and the wise and has firm faith in them and their conduct will gradually contract a liking to hear the story of the Lord and his glorious attributes.
Subramanya did not require to pass through the several stages of devotion detailed in the Bhagavatam – sravanam, kirtanam etc.
His mind experienced deep delight in the contemplation of Bhagawan that required no external aids and therefore specially suited his taste. Of the five recognized states of devotion, namely sakhyam (friendship), dasyam (Service), vatsalyam (Affection), shantam (Tranquility) and Madhuram (love). What he liked most was shantam. His devotion was characterized by deep meditation.
As a result of constant meditation, he could see the beloved form of the Lord in dreams and enjoy great delight. He saw even other forms he had not worshiped in this life. Perhaps those visions were the result of his worship in previous lives. However, he made no special effort to get such visions repeated in waking hours, or to have them at his command, aware, as he was, of the importance and path of devotion, it was the path of knowledge that cleaned his regard and esteem. Gradually, he cut down his activities in other fields and began to devote himself more and more to the practice of contemplation. Pranayama and other processes of Hatha Yoga were popular in Kerala, but having understood how helpless yoga was in the realization of the truth, he paid little attention to it. Yet he did practice asanas and kumbhaka, which were conducive to the concentration of the mind.
After the demise of his dear mother, the fire of dispassion had been smouldering in his mind. With his father’s death, it blazed up into a flame. Till now he was obeying the wish of his father, and had suppressed his desire to take to sannyasa, but with his beloved father gone, the old desire acquired an irresistible force, but his younger brother was still a student in school, so he decided to stay on until his brother’s education was finished and his duty to him was fulfilled.
He thought – I should spend here a few more years in meditation, study and tapas. After all, the Rishis have not imposed any ban on spiritual practices at home. The devotee who has his mind and senses under control is not enslaved by pleasure or pain. For him, his home is as good as a cave in the Himalayas.
He visited educational institutions and continued to contribute articles to Sanskrit journals and papers. He heard about a Vedanta scholar in Gujarat and wrote to him about wanting to study with him. He then spent many happy days in Bhavanagar studying Samshepa Sharirakam and the Shaastras, associating himself with other Sanyasis and enjoying himself. He received a letter from home urging him to return. His relatives and friends tried to convince him to marry. Even one of his scholarly friends Kavya Vachaspati wrote him letters, of which there is a sample here – Think of Kalidasa ‘s writings. Marry two girls of sweet seventeen. Bring them home, enjoy them according to the teachings of Kamashastra and make your life purposeful. Why shun the highest pleasure that man can enjoy in his life? Youth, you know is like running water. It flows away never to return. Yet, you procrastinate. How unreasonable. Why delay?
He thought, ‘ Food is for the hungry. He who has no hunger, does not require food. Ony those who long for worldly welfare need the performance of worldly duties. The man who has no desires does not require it. Convinced of the triviality of earthly love and aware of its painful conseqeunces he stuck to his ideal of Brahmacharya.
One day he called his brother and said to him that he would leave home after spending thirty three years of his life at home. He desired to be a sannyasi. After visiting a few temples he reached Nasik and had discussions with Paramhamsa Swami Hridayananda ji and also did intensive study of Mandukya Karika with bhashya. Convinced that Sannyasa alone would give him eternal peace he proceeded towards Narmada river as eagerly as a lover goes to his love’s home. Or arriving near Narmada he danced with joy.
The very next day he went to the Narmada daughter of Soma, did a namaskar like a child saluting his mother and bathed in her sacred waters which washes away all papas. He performed all the necessary acts of worship in due form and then according to the rules of Vidvat Sannyasa keeping the visible God, the Sun, his witness and initiating guru and repeating the praisha mantra he put on the ochre colored robe with trembling hands but deep feelings of satisfaction. Havign assumed the garb of a Paramahamsa he called himself Tyagananda for all practical purposes.
He once went to Ayodhya and says, ‘That holy city surrounded by the river Sarayu had once been rendered holier by the sacred dust from the lotus feet of Sri Ramachandra and Sita Devi. Who will not be exhilarated on recollecting the history of that matchlessly beautiful city? Every morning he bathed in the Sarayu, worshipped at several temples and spent time in the company of other sadhus.
He spent many years studying with different Mahatmas, debating with other scholars and visiting many sacred temples as well as remote places in the Himalayas. He spent five to six years in Rishikesh and read extensively spending time with other sadhus.
After his return from Mount Kailas which was a deeply fulfilling and yet arduous yatra, he went to Kailas Ashram and began to study Brihadaranyaka Bhashya with Vartika. During this time his Sannyasi friends advised him to formally take Sannyasa from a guru, he rebutted them initially. He said ‘ Whether these traditional rites are performed or not, what an aspirant has to do is to become good and get established in Truth, if on the contrary, he feels proud belonging to some particular Order, the result is isolation and littleness of mind. Later he yielded to the pressure of his well wishers and said,’ A custom may be logical or illogical, but when it is honored by a long tradition by immemorial practice, it becomes a bounden duty. There is much to learn by association with society. Without becoming a member of a particular society, it will not be possible to come into intimate relation with the society itself. Even though formal acceptance of Sannyasa is superfluous, it is better to become a member of the Order of the Dasanami Sanyasins’.
Having arrived at this conclusion he consulted many elderly sannyasis about who was the proper person to accept sannyasa from and finally he decided to approach H.HSrimad Janardanagiri Swami who was then Head of Kailash Matha who was equally well versed in Karma as well as Brahma Vidya. The formal rites were completed on Mahashivaratri day with the help of the loving Sri Vishnudevananda ji and others. Subramanya ‘s name was changed into Tapovan.
His book describes the many places he visited interwoven with teachings of Vedanta.
In Chapter 4 he writes –
Of all objects of veneration, the Atma is the most venerable. It is the noblest. Tirtha, the holiest of holies, the fairest of the fair, the dearest among the dear, priceless, unsurpassed. It is of the nature of Sat, existence, chit, knowledge, Ananda, fullness. It is to be sought after by everybody. It shines by itself like the sun in every heart and at all times. Then why seek other tirthas? Where shall a person go to purify his self? Why rush here or there to enjoy the beauty of beautiful objects.
Immerse yourself in happiness in this Atma. Purify yourself, keep it in view every moment of your life. Find joy in this Atma. In the corner of his room is a hive full of honey, but the fool rushes about the world frantically for a drop of it. He does not see the hoarded gold in his house, and goes about begging for pieces of copper. To search for peace and happiness in external objects Is in no way different from this. He who seeks happiness outside himself will never find satisfaction. That person alone is truly happy, who finds joy in his own self. The Enlightened sannyasi finds the joy of Atma when he goes about on pilgrimage, visiting teeth and mountains. The Atma itself is the world. When one has realized that there is not an atom apart from the self, how can he find himself in a foreign land? He is ever moving about in the self, finding his joy, even in inaccessible regions, he rejoices like a child to the left or to the right, in front or behind, above or below, he perceives only the self. For him, everything that comes or goes, sees or hears, takes or gives or speaks, is Brahman. As in the waters of the deluge he sports about in the all-pervading satchidanda, whether that body is engaged in action, according to the samskaras inherited from previous lives, or whether he sits silently in meditation, it is all the same.
Until 1948 till when he wrote the book, Swami Tapovan Maharaj continued to teach various books on Vedanta and give darshan to all who came to see him.
Swami Tapovan virtually accepted the sacred The Himalayas as his father and the holy Ganges as his mother. His total identification with his holy surroundings was such and the spiritual transformation that was brought about in him was so complete, that he was adored as the Himayat vibhuti – the glory of the Himalayas.
True Vedantin till His Last Breath
When ill health began to ravage Swamiji’s physical state, appeals by his disciples to obtain expert medical help were to no avail. Swamiji laughed and said, “So this is the Vedanta that you have studied in me? What is death? Death is only one of the experiences, which the Atman (the Self) illumines. We are not of that dying stuff. We are the Self.” The courage and mental poise of a man who can thus embrace death as a long-awaited guest cannot be had unless one has come to live the truths indicated in the Upanishads.
On the 16th of January 1957, Swamiji gained his Mahasamadhi.
When asked “But who was Swami Tapovan Maharaj?” Swami Chinmayananda, his foremost disciple replied:
“Masters cannot be comprehended by the intellect. They are deeper than that.
It was in the utter detachment that Swami Tapovanji Maharaj lived every moment and this is how we saw him from the outside. But that was not he, he was pure Brahman itself…at least to me, he was. How to explain to you all, that what I saw in him was what I saw in the Upanishads and in the Bhagavad Geeta!
The work of spreading the Geeta and the Upanishads was to unveil Him and His Glory, His vibhuti, Tapovan Mahima in the hearts of all. He lived a life of his own, chaste and pure, far and high. His gates were never closed though he never came out of them. A God without a temple, a Veda without a language was this. He lived for sixty-eight years, as a monumental expression of an ideal Vedantic teacher.
Swami Tapovan Maharaj was not a person. He was not just any historical entity, he was not a saint of the ordinary order, he was indeed a miracle and a great blessing for the society that he lived in our times. The glory of what the Chinmaya Mission is doing is all his glory. He sat down in the verandah of his hut for 45 –50 years, ever established in his own Self and expressing it in his every movement. Everything of his was a glorification and a reflection of the Infinite Self in him. It is this great master who is the grandsire to the Mission, a silent witness of what is going on here. We, his family of disciples, have a great responsibility to see that he finds ample space in our bosoms to express himself.
Swami Tapovanji Maharaj is a presence, a light, a fragrance, a glow. As such, it is impossible to communicate it. A light, a joy is something to be experienced. The only way to communicate about him is to say that you also study the Geeta and learn to live the righteous life and experience what Swami Tapovanam is. Invoke His grace, a very powerful one, to make you an Adhikari for the study of the Upanishads and for help in meditation. Make use of him – if you can.”
Swami Tapovan Maharaj concludes his book, Ishvara Darshan by the following paragraph – It is the Vision of God, Ishvara Darshan that brings all worldly sorrow to this end and it is therefore the holiest of the holy experiences. He who has seen God and has thus once and for ever put an end to the sorrows and tribulations of worldly existence is the one who has fulfilled the purpose of human life. Sooner or later all creatures will certainly reach that goal, It may take ages and ages but it is bound to happen. Even as all water ultimately reaches the ocean the individual self must reach the Supreme Self. It is the final resting place.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.
