It would be easy to dismiss the question by saying: “Yes, after a prolonged period of intense austerities and meditation, while I was living in Swargashram and when I had the Darshan of a number of Maharishis and their blessings, the lord appeared in the form of SHRI KRISHNA.”
But that would not be the whole truth, nor a sufficient answer to a question related to God, who is infinite, unlimited and beyond the reach of speech and mind.
Cosmic consciousness is not an accident or a chance. It is the summit, accessible by a thorny path that has steps, slippery steps. I have ascended them step by step, the hard way; but at every step I experienced God coming into my life and lifting me easily to the next step.
My father was fond of ceremonial worship {puja} in which he was very regular. To my child mind, the image he worshiped was God, and I delighted in helping father in the worship, by bringing him flowers and other articles of worship. The deep inner satisfaction that he had and I derived from such worship implanted in my heart the deep conviction that God is in such images devoutly worshipped by his devotees. Thus did God come into my life first and placed my foot on the first rung of ladder.
As an adult, I was fond of gymnastics and vigorous exercises. I learnt fencing from a teacher which belonged to a low caste; he was a Harijan. I could go to him only for a few days before I was made to understand that it was unbecoming of a caste Brahman to play the student to an untouchable. I thought deeply over the matter. One moment I felt that the God whom we all worshiped in the image in my father’s puja room jumped over to the heart of this untouchable. He was my Guru!! So I immediately went to him with flowers. Sweets and cloth, and garlanded him, placed flowers at his feet and prostrated myself before him. Thus did God come into my life to remove the veil of caste distinction.
How very valuable this step was I could realize very soon after this: for I was to enter the medical profession and serve all, and the persistence of caste distinction would have made that service a mockery. With this mist cleared by the light of the God, it was easy and natural for me to serve everyone. I took very keen delight in every kind of service connected with healing and alleviation of human misery. If there was a good prescription for malaria, I felt that the whole world should know it the next moment. Any knowledge about the prevention of the disease, promotion of health and healing of disease, I was eager to acquire and share with all.
Then God came into my life in the form of a sick in Malaya . It is difficult for me to single out any instance; and perhaps it is unnecessary. Time and space are concepts of mind and have no meaning in God. I can look back now upon the whole period of my stay in Malaya as a single event in which God came to me in the form of the sick and suffering. People are sick physically and mentally. To some life is lingering death; and to some others, death is more welcome than life. Some had a miserable life unable to face death; some invite death and commit suicide unable to face life. The aspiration grew within me that if God had not made this world nearly as a hell where wicked people would be thrown to suffer, and if there is ( as I intuitively felt there should be ) something other than this misery and this helpless existence it should be known and experienced.
It was at this crucial point in my life that God came to me as a religious mendicant who gave me the first lesson in Vedanta. The positive aspect of the life here, and real end and aim of human life were made apparent. This drew me from Malaya to Himalaya . God came to me in the form of all consuming aspiration to release him as the self of all.
Meditation and service went on apace; and with them came various spiritual experiences. The body, mind and intellect as the limited adjuncts, vanished and the whole universe shone as his light. God then came in the form of this light in which every thing assumed a Divine shape; and the pain and suffering, that seem to haunt everybody, appeared to be mirage, the illusion that ignorance creates, on account of low sensual appetites that lurk in man.
One more milestone had to be passed in order to know “ SARVAM KHALVIDAM BRAHMA ” early in 1950 {on the 8th Jan} God came to me in the form of half demented assailant who disturbed the night Satsanga at Ashram. His attempt to assault me failed; I bowed to him, worshipped him and sent him home. Evil exists to glorify the good! Evil is a superficial appearance, beneath its veil, the one self shines in all.
A noteworthy fact to be mentioned here. In this evolution nothing gained previously is entirely discarded at any later stage. One coalesced into the next; the Yoga of synthesis was the fruit. Murti-Puja, selfless service of the sick, meditation and cultivation of cosmic love that transcended the barrier of caste, creed and religion, with the ultimate aim of attaining cosmic consciousness, was revealed. This knowledge had immediately to be shared. All this had immediately to be shared. All this had become an integral part of my being.
The mission had been gathering strength and spreading. It was in 1950, that I undertook the All India Tour. Then God came to me in this Virat Swarupa; multitudes of devotees, eager to listen to the tenets of divine life. At every center I felt that God spoke through me and he himself in this Virat form spread out before me as the multitude, listened to me, he sang with me, he prayed with me, he spoke and listened Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma.
SERVE - LOVE – GIVE – PURIFY – MEDITATE – REALISE – BE GOOD – DO GOOD – BE KIND – BE COMPASSIONATE
Swami Sivananda
- A book extract
But that would not be the whole truth, nor a sufficient answer to a question related to God, who is infinite, unlimited and beyond the reach of speech and mind.
Cosmic consciousness is not an accident or a chance. It is the summit, accessible by a thorny path that has steps, slippery steps. I have ascended them step by step, the hard way; but at every step I experienced God coming into my life and lifting me easily to the next step.
My father was fond of ceremonial worship {puja} in which he was very regular. To my child mind, the image he worshiped was God, and I delighted in helping father in the worship, by bringing him flowers and other articles of worship. The deep inner satisfaction that he had and I derived from such worship implanted in my heart the deep conviction that God is in such images devoutly worshipped by his devotees. Thus did God come into my life first and placed my foot on the first rung of ladder.
As an adult, I was fond of gymnastics and vigorous exercises. I learnt fencing from a teacher which belonged to a low caste; he was a Harijan. I could go to him only for a few days before I was made to understand that it was unbecoming of a caste Brahman to play the student to an untouchable. I thought deeply over the matter. One moment I felt that the God whom we all worshiped in the image in my father’s puja room jumped over to the heart of this untouchable. He was my Guru!! So I immediately went to him with flowers. Sweets and cloth, and garlanded him, placed flowers at his feet and prostrated myself before him. Thus did God come into my life to remove the veil of caste distinction.
How very valuable this step was I could realize very soon after this: for I was to enter the medical profession and serve all, and the persistence of caste distinction would have made that service a mockery. With this mist cleared by the light of the God, it was easy and natural for me to serve everyone. I took very keen delight in every kind of service connected with healing and alleviation of human misery. If there was a good prescription for malaria, I felt that the whole world should know it the next moment. Any knowledge about the prevention of the disease, promotion of health and healing of disease, I was eager to acquire and share with all.
Then God came into my life in the form of a sick in Malaya . It is difficult for me to single out any instance; and perhaps it is unnecessary. Time and space are concepts of mind and have no meaning in God. I can look back now upon the whole period of my stay in Malaya as a single event in which God came to me in the form of the sick and suffering. People are sick physically and mentally. To some life is lingering death; and to some others, death is more welcome than life. Some had a miserable life unable to face death; some invite death and commit suicide unable to face life. The aspiration grew within me that if God had not made this world nearly as a hell where wicked people would be thrown to suffer, and if there is ( as I intuitively felt there should be ) something other than this misery and this helpless existence it should be known and experienced.
It was at this crucial point in my life that God came to me as a religious mendicant who gave me the first lesson in Vedanta. The positive aspect of the life here, and real end and aim of human life were made apparent. This drew me from Malaya to Himalaya . God came to me in the form of all consuming aspiration to release him as the self of all.
Meditation and service went on apace; and with them came various spiritual experiences. The body, mind and intellect as the limited adjuncts, vanished and the whole universe shone as his light. God then came in the form of this light in which every thing assumed a Divine shape; and the pain and suffering, that seem to haunt everybody, appeared to be mirage, the illusion that ignorance creates, on account of low sensual appetites that lurk in man.
One more milestone had to be passed in order to know “ SARVAM KHALVIDAM BRAHMA ” early in 1950 {on the 8th Jan} God came to me in the form of half demented assailant who disturbed the night Satsanga at Ashram. His attempt to assault me failed; I bowed to him, worshipped him and sent him home. Evil exists to glorify the good! Evil is a superficial appearance, beneath its veil, the one self shines in all.
A noteworthy fact to be mentioned here. In this evolution nothing gained previously is entirely discarded at any later stage. One coalesced into the next; the Yoga of synthesis was the fruit. Murti-Puja, selfless service of the sick, meditation and cultivation of cosmic love that transcended the barrier of caste, creed and religion, with the ultimate aim of attaining cosmic consciousness, was revealed. This knowledge had immediately to be shared. All this had immediately to be shared. All this had become an integral part of my being.
The mission had been gathering strength and spreading. It was in 1950, that I undertook the All India Tour. Then God came to me in this Virat Swarupa; multitudes of devotees, eager to listen to the tenets of divine life. At every center I felt that God spoke through me and he himself in this Virat form spread out before me as the multitude, listened to me, he sang with me, he prayed with me, he spoke and listened Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma.
SERVE - LOVE – GIVE – PURIFY – MEDITATE – REALISE – BE GOOD – DO GOOD – BE KIND – BE COMPASSIONATE
Swami Sivananda
- A book extract
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