Sessions with Ashram Residents

by Swami Krishnananda

Session 15: Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji's Blessings

You can go to Uttarkashi; you can go to Rameswaram. Anywhere you go, the mind will be a little calm temporarily. You will forget all your sorrows, but the sorrows will not leave you permanently. They are sitting inside in the form of a dislocated type of psychological consciousness which cannot be set right. It requires svadhyaya of holy scriptures. When you read the Srimad Bhagavata, you are thinking of Vyasa Bhagavan. You are not reading stories when you are reading the Bhagavata, you are reading the great mighty brain and personality of Bhagavan Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa. When you read the Bhagavadgita, you are not reading some instruction “Do this”, “Do this”, and so on. The mighty personality of Sri Krishna is there. The author is present in the book. In any book that you read, you are actually reading the mind of the author. It is not a printed matter that you are reading; you are remembering the author. That is why even when you chant a mantra it is said you must remember the source of it: rishi, chandan, devata. You should not forget the author. When you read a book, you must know who the author is.

If you remember an author such as Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa or Vasishtha, their blessings are there. The moment you think of such mighty beings, an energy flows into you. They are not like human beings. They are a pervading influence. Honestly pray: “Mighty Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, incomparable in power, omnipotent, I am studying your great teaching in the form of the Srimad Bhagavata.”

Vyasa had very great power. He was born on an island; that is why he was called Dvaipayana. He told his mother, “When you remember me, I shall be there.” After his birth, he simply vanished from that place. Many times she remembered him, and he was there. You establish a mighty telepathic communication with these people when you intently pray. These people are wonderful. They are not human beings. Vasishtha, Vyasa, Suka Maharishi, Janaka, Bhagavan Sri Krishna—what power, what strength, what infinite capacity! The moment you think of them, you establish a connection. You can think anything, and you establish a connection with it.

One lady is doing pranic healing here. It is a kind of psychological process. Her mind is concentrating on something. If the mind is not operating, it will not work. “I am drawing energy from mahatmas,” she told me. There are Masters who are moving in space. Angels are there. Your guardian angels are sitting here now: one here, one here. They are guarding you. Angels are everywhere, and they are with you. You have only to think of them, and they will come. If the mind is not working, the healing cannot take place. It is not a physical act; she concentrates energy. She says, “Energy is coming from somewhere, whom I am invoking and feel.” Energy is coming from the sun, for instance, and then you feel the energy entering into you.

I am coming to the point of satsanga. You must be very friendly, cooperative, loving. Here we are, children of Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. Freely we get food here, freely we get treatment and medicine, freely we have got wonderful books to read. You will not get this in any other ashram. If someone comes here, they are told to go and take food. Here, everything is given. There is nothing that is not given. The Ashram management, which is following the footsteps of Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, is so generous. Any genuine request is not denied. If someone has an urge from inside to go somewhere, we do not deny that. We give the travelling allowance and tell them to go and come.

There are ashrams in Haridwar and in Karnataka which have much wealth, but people who come from there have no money in their hand. They came and asked me, “I want to go to Badrinath.”

I said, “You are coming from such a big ashram, and they won't give you any travelling allowance?”

“No, no. They won't give. When we sit there, they give food. They won't give even clothing.”

It is very difficult to be so very generous and charitable as we are here. We give things as if it is water that we are giving. We don't deny anything. Anybody comes and eats food here. Would you give food if anybody comes to your house and sits there and asks for food? Sometimes they go on eating for days together, and we don't even know that they are here.

The person who serves food is a god himself. With love you have to give. Swami Sivanandaji used to say, “Roti Bhagavan, Dahl Bhagavan, Sabji Bhagavan, Kheer Bhagavan, Laddu Bhagavan, take, take.” Gurudev used to say, “You should not simply give. You should not give food with disrespect. Then it is equal to not giving at all. You should give with loving care, giving sufficient time for them to eat and not telling them to go.”

If you take the essence of the whole thing, all is well here. We are blessed with security. We have hundreds of people staying here, and they are all secure due to some grace operating. Gratitude is the greatest virtue. If you have received some blessing in whatever way, some gift or charity, and some comfort has been given to you, you must be grateful. You must be grateful to God Himself that He has brought you under the umbrella of a great saint like Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj.

Even now Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji is very kind. Whenever we have some problem, Gurudev solves it in some mysterious manner. I myself had all kinds of management problems, sometimes unsolvable. I used to simply sit and wonder what to do, and I would pray, and some mysterious operation would take place and the problem would be solved. So all is well with you. Be happy. Om Namo Narayanaya. God bless you all.