(First printed in The Divine Life Magazine in 1948)
I am fond of listening to anecdotes concerning Swamiji Maharaj from his older disciples. The other day, during a conversation with one such disciple, I learned that some time back an admirer of Swamiji – an M.A., Ph.D., came here for a permanent stay, but after a short period found nothing impressive or solemn in the Kutir or in Swamiji Maharaj. He returned home. Previously, Swamiji never used to allow anybody near him, even for any kind of service to be rendered, as he is now doing, and formerly he had fixed specific hours of the day for visitors to see him in his Kutir. He was very reticent, very grave, and none dared to be too familiar with him. Everyone felt odd. But, nowadays he is free with everybody and all feel at home in his presence. Perhaps this made the professor find nothing flashy about Swamiji, and that disappointed him.
This made me think what I should find in Mahatmas.
Swamiji is always at work with either his writings, conducting kirtans or supervising the correspondence or other work of the Ashram daily, like any other ordinary landlord. When such is the case, how can I distinguish him from an ordinary man? He’s taking the same food as any other – rice, curry, fruit, milk and dhal-roti, without resorting to the practices obtaining in olden times, viz., living on air, water, dried leaves or in a mountain cave all by himself. Let us see what Lord Krishna says about realised persons and find out for ourselves what we have to find in Siva, the distinguishing characteristic of a Mahatma.
“He should be known as a perpetual sannyasin who neither hates nor desires” (Gita V. 3). “Devoted to the Path of action, a man of purified mind, one who has conquered the self, one who has subdued his senses, one who realises his Self as the Self of all beings, through acting, he is not tainted” (Gita V. 7). “I do nothing at all – thus would the knower of Truth think; seeing, hearing, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, breathing, speaking, letting go, seizing, opening the eyes, and closing them – convinced that the senses move among the sense-objects” (Gita V. 8-9). Again in Sloka 10 of the same chapter, the Lord lays down, “He who does actions, offering them to Brahman, abandoning attachment, is not tainted by sin, as a lotus leaf by water.” “Yogis, having abandoned attachment, perform actions only by the body, by the mind, by the intellect and even by the senses for the purification of Self” (Gita V. 11). Sloka 12 of the same chapter: “The harmonised, having abandoned the fruit of action, attains to the Eternal Peace….” “Mentally renouncing all actions, and self-controlled, the embodied one rests happily in the nine-gated city, neither acting nor causing body and senses to act” (Gita V. 13).
In the slokas quoted above, the Lord defines the nature and ways of a jivanmukta in a clear and direct way. We shall apply this standard for judging the distinguishing features of Swamiji. I have a strong conviction that Swamiji has moulded himself in the very model of the above slokas. Even though he is taking the same kind of food as others, talking and behaving as a very ordinary man, a keen observer will certainly notice that Swamiji’s mind betrays no signs of annoyance, anger, discomfiture or any kind of change at such times when one would reasonably expect him to react in such a way. This shows clearly that his mind rests in the Supreme Self quite unaffected by the dealings in the outside world. When he has attained the highest Realisation, why should he bother himself with the multifarious duties which he is shouldering? It is out of Pure Love for the struggling humanity, to open their eyes by his powerful and simple methods of teaching. As he has realised the Supreme Self, the buddhi will again and again try to be near the Supreme Self, as it has tasted the Bliss arising out of its proximity with the Atman. But, Swamiji did not choose to shut himself out, to enjoy that state of Bliss which he could have done very easily; he chose to be of constant and unceasing service to the humanity at large, without any consideration of what others estimate him to be!