#287 Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati and His Guru-s
As we approach Guru Purnima, it has been very moving for me again to read and remember how Pujya Swami Dayananda ji looked upon his gurus. So, sharing it with you here. You will have to put up with my non-baritone voice.
I quote from the book, ‘Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Contributions and Writings by Sheela Balaji.
Pujya Swamiji’s reverence for Mahatmas in general, and the guru-sisya, teacher-student relationship in particular, is evident in the articles he wrote on the saints of India. After the passing away of Sri Swami Sivananda, founder of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh, he wrote a tribute in the July 1963 issue of the Tapovan Prasad. It was fitting that Swamiji should write the condolence message as a member of the Chinmaya Mission.
Titled, ‘The Saint of Rishikesh, Pujya Swami Dayananda ji wrote –
A void in the Himalayas. His Holiness Sri Swami Sivananda attained mahasamadhi on the 14th. Indeed a full life, in all fullness, was his. He had achieved and contributed more than a mortal’s share. No, he has joined the glorious galaxy of the immortals of Bharat.
As a doctor, he served well. As a seeker, he struggled hard. As a saint, he lived in fullness. As a master, he excelled all. As a prophet, he fulfilled his life.
True – all in one. That was the Saint of Rishikesh!
A mahatma of great zeal and natural compassion, of wide learning and long vision. Bharat found in him the fittest to initiate the renascent movement of her Sanatana Dharma. And he did more than deserve her choice.
His messengers are many all over the world and here is one in Swami Chinmaya. Yes, Swami Sivananda was his diksa guru. The message of this master will ring forever. The spirit of his work, we will never let die.
Yes – Sivananda is with us – shall be ever with us!”
Sheela Balaji, the author and the interviewer asks Pujya Swamiji – It takes special grace to be as you are, does it not?
Pujya Swamiji replied – You see, I am an ordinary person with an ordinary upbringing. So I cannot claim I had anything special about myself. Nothing but some grace I have. I did a lot of seva to my guru, and that has blessed me. From the beginning. I had that kind of grace, sub special grace of the guru and the grace of the other gurus, Sri Pranavananda ji and Sri Tarananda ji.
Even when I came out of Chinmaya Mission, I never came out of Swamiji. Once I met him in Delhi, I said, ‘Swamiji I am doing your work. I continue to do the same work. And I am never away from you. I have your blessings. He said, ‘Yes. True. You continue doing that. What you do is also my work. Never stop working.” This is what he said. I told him, “I will not.”
Early morning I went to his place and I talked to him. He was very happy.
Question – Was Sri Swami Chinmayananda ji your first guru?
Pujya Swamiji – Yes. First and last, because he made me as a person. I received the message. And I received that insight from him. He encouraged me all the way. I did a lot of work for him. For him, means it is not for his personal glory. He was doing something for our Dharma. I was with him all through. It was very good. In fact, the seva helped me grow.
Question – What did you learn from him, Swamiji?
Pujya Swamiji Everything, what is Upanishad. I didn’t even hear the word Upanishad until then. I had heard Gita and had read some verses of Gita at school in my Sanskrit class. But I had never heard the word Upanishad. First time I heard was when he came to Chennai to talk on Mundakopanishad.
Mundaka is special to me. It always looked to me that I seem to have read it before, a kind of déjà vu. Even when we started publishing books by our publication, Mundaka was the first one.
Question – Swami Chinmayananda ji also gave you a lot of exposure moving with people and different kinds of people.
Pujya Swamiji – Yes, through him was the exposure. I had certain issues, conflicts which Sri Pranavananda ji resolved. I told Sri Swamiji and then took permission to study further and went to Rishikesh. There I met Shri Swami Tarananda ji with whom I studied sutra bhashya. So all the three played their roles. It is their grace. I served them and they were very happy with me. So I got that grace. I believe in seva like that.
Sheela Balaji writes about Swamiji – From a childhood in a village, losing his father at an early age and later moving to Chennai for employment, the path of Pujya Swami ji has not been smooth. Inspired by the talks of Sri Swami Chinmayananda ji from 1953 onwards by his powerful personality Swamiji opted for a life of renunciate. Despite opposition from his family, he persisted and continued to serve his guru.
The years of study, searching for answers to life’s questions, were years of struggle, at times of frustration. Unable to find resolution for the fundamental questions of life he spent sleepless months wondering if he had chosen rightly.
It was Swami Pranavananda ji of Gudivada who finally resolved his doubts by pointing out that the Vedas were means of knowing the ultimate truth and not theory that had to be practiced.
In the June 1969 issue of Tapovan Prasad, when Swami Pranavananda ji passed away on 15th of May 1969, Swamiji pointed out clearly the impact that Pranavananda ji ‘s teaching and vision had on Swamiji ‘s understanding of what is pramana.
Pujya Swami Dayananda ji wrote –
“His holiness Swami Pranavananda Gudivada attained Maha Samadhi on the 15th of May 1969. He was in his seventies. At the insistence of Sri Swami ji, I lived with Sri Swami Pranavananda in his ashram for a few months in 1961 – 1962 and from then on, I was in contact with him.
In teaching Atma vidya, there is a tradition in our country. If that is not known to a teacher, he can never impart the knowledge of the shruti to a seeker. Just as the eyes are the pramana for all perceptions of forms, Sruti through a living teacher becomes the pramana for self knowledge. And therefore the method of teaching is important. If there is no traditional method in teaching this video, there is no necessity for a guru: one can read the books with some preliminary general qualifications necessary to read and understand.
Very few know the importance of this method, let alone the method. Because of this omission, the entire vidya proves to be meaningless in as much as it becomes objective. The teacher through the traditional method of the Sruti puts the student in actual experience, as the former teaches in a peculiar way that is tradition, the nature of the self, the ‘I’. Swami Pranavananda was one such master teacher. His deft handling of the scripture frame paradoxes used to, as even the Zen Masters’ Koans, disentangle the student’s reason from its relative concepts and thereby brings in the sudden recognition or Satori.
I discovered in his classes the main aspect of our traditional teaching. When I met him a couple of months ago, he was laid up in bed. But he was clear in his thinking and happy as usual. He knew that there was no cure for the disease he was suffering from. As I took leave of him after two day stay in the ashram, I requested him to give a message to the seekers. He dictated immediately in Telugu to one of the inmates of the ashram a few lines, indeed the essence of our scriptures.
I translate the same hereunder:
The disease that has come upon this body is too serious for any cure. It will disappear only at the cost of this body. Therefore, the medicines or doctors are not to blame, if they fail to be effective. Due to this helplessness, my mind is in no way affected. I consider that it is all for good.
Freedom is the nature of the self, the ‘I’, and the self is identical with Brahman, which is non dual. Therefore, the Self as even Brahman is free from all modes of duality, such as sajatiya, vijatiya, svagata.
In the last verse of the Bhagavad Gita, it is said that the brahmi sthiti is the lot of this life and therefore, death cannot be a travel with prana.
Karma and Upasana are pursued by the people only because of their identification with the body, dehatma buddhi. The body which is not the self. The ‘I’ is taken for the self and it is because of this reason, there is a pursuit of Karma and Upasana. Therefore, this pursuit cannot be held as Moksha.
Suppose a person by name Rama is asleep, if he is called by someone ‘Rama’, he wakes up. Similarly, with profound words of the Sruti, if the master reveals to the student, the identity of the Self with the Absolute, the student wakes up to discover his identity with Brahman. Therefore Moksha is only through the teaching of the Master and the Sruti. It is this that is meant by Sankara in his famous verse,
Brahma satyam, Jagat Mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah.
Brahman the Absolute is reality; the world is apparent; Jiva the knower is not different from Brahman, the Absolute.
This, and this alone is the message of Adi Shankara.
All others take after this teaching. Therefore, they have no original content.
‘That you are’ is a profound statement of truth revealed to Svetaketu, as we find in the Sama Veda. The Tat tvam asi mahavakya, known as upadesa vakya is the foremost among all other statements in the Sruti. All other statements are centred on this alone.
Karma and Upasana are performed retaining the ahankara. This enjoyment of fruits of action is only when the ‘I’ is taken for the ego. And liberation and bondage also, while they belong to the ego appear as though they are belonging to the ‘I’.
This lack of discrimination which is something natural to the intellect that is extroverted will not easily go unless one listens for a good length of time from the Master, the scriptures and reflects and contemplates over what he has heard. Therefore, living with the Master, gurukula-vasa is imperative. It is because of this only, sannyasa ashram is in vogue. This is the essence of all the shastras.
Keep this always in your heart. The notion that the world is real, has got to be dispelled. This is practice, contemplation.
The Swami dictated all of this in his usual clarity of expression. He was clear that there was no death for a sadhu, nor do I feel he ever died.
End of quote.
Pujya Swami Dayananda ji speaks of Arsha Vidya – Arsha Vidya is a communicable vision that can be shared by a person who has been exposed to the methodology of teaching Sampradaya. This methodology is so thorough that it does not leave anything to be desired. It is a Sampradaya of immediate blessing and that is why it works.
His commitment to the knowledge earned the respect of his guru, Swami Tarananda ji while he was at Rishikesh.
To quote Sri Swami Tarananda ji, “Swamiji was a very serious student. He had all the laksanas of a Vidyarthi. He observed meticulously the prescribed disciplines of a student. He never missed a class, was never late for a class. If there was something unforeseen to make him miss a class he would take care to send word to me. He would not talk apart from studying. We started the lesson and ended the lesson. There was no other talk between us. He was very attentive and alert and studied with concentration. Though he had not undergone a formal study of the Upanisad Bhasyam with a teacher, he was able to follow my teaching of the Brahmasutra easily. I came to know that he had studied the Upanisad bhasyas on his own after meeting Swami Pranavananda ji of Gudivada.
We completed the Brahmasutra with Ratnaprabha commentary from the beginning till the end in two years. Not one sentence was missed. The study was complete, thorough, sampurna.
While I was teaching Swami Dayananda ji, I was blessed to study under the great teacher, Swami Vishnudevananda ji. Whatever I learned from this master, I would immediately teach in my classes. So, there was no question of any doubts or weakness. Swami Dayananda ji in turn would teach this to the students who came to him. Thus, the teaching flowed from the great master Swami Vishnudevananda ji himself, who was unrivalled for his exposition of the sastra.
Swami Dayananda ji was able to understand the subtle passages of the sastra with ease. It is the Lord’s grace and the Guru’ grace, which helps the student to gain an insight. Many of his other qualities impressed me – his humility, his inability to see others in distress, his eagerness to serve the needy. He has spent his life serving others, revealing to them the message of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. Today also his perennial flow of knowledge continues. He is what his name indicates. an abode of compassion, joy and learning.”
It would be appropriate to conclude this episode with our beloved Guru, Pujya Swami ji’s words as they echo the reverence and devotion of each seeker, be he or she a student, disciple or devotee, to the guru and the parampara.
“The Indian spiritual tradition is not centred on any given person. Even Krishna and Rama, who are worshipped as gods were not the authors of this tradition. On the other hand, they were born in this tradition, they upheld the tradition. Vyasa and Shankara were beneficiaries of this tradition, and many such masters in every generation proved in their lives, the worth, the truth of this tradition.
The intrinsic worth of this tradition is this: freedom from limitation, moksha is the only end that the human is struggling for in life, for it is identical to, and not different from, the seeker. Therefore, knowledge, self-knowledge is freedom, and the spiritual tradition is one of teaching. It is a live tradition, because there is always a seeker gaining knowledge from a teacher.
Every teacher was a student and every student becomes a teacher. The circuit of knowledge is never broken; it flows and keeps flowing.
In this unbroken flow, there were always masters who did more than teach a few students. They found time to educate and guide the people at large to this freedom. If the flow is to be unbroken, there should be a steady flow of people seeking this freedom, and they have to come from society. For such people to be there, an atmosphere of learning in society is a necessity, an atmosphere that values knowledge more than power and freedom more than security. It takes a spiritual master, a guru, to educate them and inspire them.
My personal relationship with my guru is too sacred for any lengthy writing. Whatever I have accomplished is due to his love, guidance and encouragement. I did study with other teachers, but always with his permission and encouragement. Fortunately, from the beginning, I had no personal ambition, save knowledge. I could therefore offer all the energies and power in my possession for whatever they are worth to him and to the cause.
It is a joy to work for one’s guru who makes one discover that one is joy, with or without work”.
Prayers and blessings for all as we approach Guru Purnima.
ll Om shree gurubhyo namah ll
