Swami Krishnananda Shashtyabdapurti Mahotsava Commemoration Volume

A Souvenir released on Swami Krishnananda's 60th Birthday

An Outstanding Son of India

by Clara De Bercovich

I will not speak of Shri Swami Krishnananda Maharaj, since I know little about him as a human being. As for his being a philosopher and a saint, I would not be able to measure his dimension. But, I believe the words of his holy and beloved master Sri Swami Sivananda Maharaj to be true when he says that Swami Krishnananda is “Sankaracharya redividus”; and so are the words of his beloved spiritual brother Sri Swami Chidananda Maharaj.

I will only refer to the benefits I have received from this great Being when I awakened to a conception of the spiritual life I had never imagined before, free from fantasies or almost childish games that, as a sort of extraordinary magic, hinder the earnest spiritual applicant search. I mean, the psychic phenomenon.

Through this great Being, I was able to understand the depth and seriousness of spiritual life, and the reason why sanctification proves to be so difficult.

In 1969 I met Swami Chidanandaji in my country, and a short time thereafter, I travelled to India.

In those days, and for a long time before, I wondered why so many sincere spiritual seekers would not attain holiness. What was the reason for this? They were persons of austere life and regular Sadhana, but among them, there were no saints. My intuitions were confirmed when I met Swami Chidanandaji.

Something else increased my queries, since a lot of the spiritual seeker is frequently spoke of their perceptions and visions which they called “spiritual experiences”, but even so, they were still ordinary people like myself.

Where was the fault? It was then that I met this outstanding son of India, Sri Swami Krishnananda Maharaj, who by means of his wise words enlightened my confused conception of spiritual life, which at the beginning of my search, was nothing but an emotional attitude, lacking in depth and real knowledge. Very often Swamiji's words or isolated sentences came to my mind, got riveted there, and I extracted each day a new deeper meaning. It was then that I was able to understand how contact with these great Beings can help us shed that emotional attitude we call "spiritual life", without the danger of its becoming a cold intellectualisation, or, in Swamiji's words, "just another way of expression of our personality". I might say that the impression produced on us by these great Beings, who are manifestations of the Divine, as contrasted with our own common nature, is essential for the growth of our aspiration. Moreover, they enable us to be more objective towards our own selves, since they are tangible reference points that awaken us from our illusory state, showing us our true reality and destiny as spiritual beings: it is as if we are shaken off a drowsy attitude where we might consider what is false or ephemeral to be true.

On other occasions, that confrontation with them makes us see or feel our nature not transformed yet. In those moments, we are able to grasp Swamiji's teachings better, and understand how there can be no real spiritual life, no real "getting into the stream", as he says, without a profound transformation.

In order to understand Swami Krishnanandaji's definition of "Divine Life", I have developed it thus:

"Life is service": Without pretending to achieve through it self-eminence, but soaking oneself down to the deepest strata of one's personality with the attitude of a real servant in order to weaken the de¬mands of the ego.

"Life is a sacrifice": Without either resistance or aversion, without self-pity and without expecting honours for it.

"Life is duty": Without resisting its performance, knowing this is a fundamental step in spiritual life.

"Life is will": Without dismay, in all levels of existence.

"Life is action": Without anxiety, with a serene and positive outlook.

"Life is a battle": Without getting involved in it, with objectivity.

"Life is a voyage": Without fear and with trust, in the face of storms, knowing we cannot sink.

"Life is a pilgrimage": Without ceasing to feel that life is walking towards conscious plenitude and eternity.

"Life is aspiration": Without forgetting that this passionate yearning must grow until our thirst for eternity can be quenched.

"Life is renunciation": Without hesitating to relinquish even our own self.

"Life is meditation": With the conviction that we must overcome the outward appearance of things, whose unreal crust can only be seen, to be able to attain the unity and lose the sense of division. "DIVINE LIFE is not a rejection of normal life and its activities: it is, in fact, the normal life."

May the glory, perfect harmony and protection of Lord Narayana become manifest in all the spheres of Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj's life and my gratitude to God for being among those who were born in his time.