Swami Krishnananda Shashtyabdapurti Mahotsava Commemoration Volume
A Souvenir released on Swami Krishnananda's 60th Birthday
Swami Krishnananda—As I Know Him to Be
by Savitri Asopa
“I was a gem concealed,
Me, my burning ray revealed.” - The Koran.
How true of Shri Swami Krishnananda! Him, his burning ray reveals. It is indeed very difficult to be able to assess fully the glory and greatness of a saint like Krishnananda. A saint alone can know and understand a saint. We, writing of him, is as good as a military man writing about Socrates and Russell scoffing at the adventure! It is like a molehill surveying the summit. Still, on this blessed occasion of Swamiji's Diamond Jubilee, we can offer him a few flowers of prayerful good wishes and a basket full of fruits and gratitude.
I shall begin by narrating, as I know him. My first contact with him was way back in 1953 when we went to Rishikesh. I had not met or seen him but had only heard of him, many times, from my Guru, the Master Sivananda. The way in which Sivananda referred to him often, I could infer he must be an important functionary and a great personality in the Ashram. One day Gurudeva gave me a book to read. It was “The Realisation of the Absolute” by Swami Krishnananda. I went through the book, found it terse and difficult. I was hardly halfway through it and gave up blissfully. I felt it was difficult to understand the book and perhaps much more difficult to know the author. Although I was an M.A. in Philosophy, I felt I could not keep pace with him in the book. That was my first encounter with him. Thereafter, I had many opportunities to see him, but every time I thought I could neither approach him nor understand him. But, when I heard his lectures, I was thrilled, and thrilled so intensely that I felt being an M.A. in Philosophy was no good. For the first time in life did I feel, I knew nothing, next to nothing. I discovered myself to be small, too too small.
One day, when we were returning from the Satsang with Gurudev, he said, "Swami Krishnananda is a very brilliant person, a perfect Jnani, Vedanta Master. He can thrill the world. But I feel sorry for him. His health is no good".
We then had an opportunity to attend a series of Swami Krishnanandaji's lectures. One day, after the lecture I went to him and posed a problem. I said, "Why should I surrender to God? Surrender shall make me lazy and fate-oriented". He said, "No. Surrender is the highest and most difficult human effort, and a great achievement on the part of a Sadhak".
Once, we had some difficulty in our working field. We consulted him. He just smiled and said, "I never react. For I know, God can take better action. If you react, then, God need not take any action".
On another occasion, a man approached him for Mantra Diksha. The man said that he had been to many saints, that all had refused him Diksha. He knew not why. The man was very depressed. Three of his fingers were missing too. Swami Krishnananda said, "You do not know the meaning of Diksha. It means the transference of your Karmas on my head. I will not give you Diksha, for I am already suffering. I can no more increase the load of my suffering". However, that man used to be always present in Swamiji's office. One day, we were all sitting with Swamiji in his office. That day he was holding a rosary in his hand. He was talking to us, yet he was rolling the beads. For at least half an hour, it was in his hand. Then suddenly, he called the man to him and in his immense love and mercy gave him Mantra Diksha. And the rosary too.
In the office, Swamiji would discuss with great humour many a thing. From man to moon and kings to cabbages. One day, he said, "I have to eat very little food from the Langar (Ashram kitchen). If I eat more, then I have to work more". Why? Perhaps it is the clearance of a debt.
Once we had the opportunity to attend his noon lectures for quite some time. In one of these he stressed something of great importance and interest. What is happiness, after all? We all want it. Then he gave the answer himself—Balance is happiness. Imbalance is sorrow. One has to maintain a balance between the inner world and the outer world. I asked him how to maintain this balance. He replied, "Meditation makes the balance easy".
With utter simplicity and great clarity he can discuss and describe the most difficult of spiritual concepts and experiences. As he once said, "At the height of your meditation, the experience (or existence!) of matter disappears. You will actually behold every object disintegrating itself into a spiritual light, just as ice melts away into water". Once, in the course of a lecture, he explained the meaning of 'OM'. He said, "Om is the truth and essence of everything, of the visible and the invisible". One day, a family was sitting in his office and discussing with him many a thing. They told him: "We chant Om, sing Om, do Japa of Om". Swami Krishnananda said, "You know not. Om is a very big thing meant for Japa by Sannyasins only, and that too by those Sannyasins who want nothing from this world. Do not use it for the fulfilment of worldly desires". Then he said, "When you go to a Maharaja, do not ask for pebbles. You should ask for gems. But the highest gain is yours if the Maharaja becomes yours. You own everything. Therefore, do not go to God for anything but for love and devotion and mercy".
Once, a young couple was staying at the Ashram. The husband became a mental case. He had to be shut up in a room. The condition of his wife became pitiable. Swami Krishnananda, in a mother-like manner, calmed and consoled the man and stored him to health. He regained the balance of his personality, became normal and cheerful again. I was myself once caught up in an intense eddy of fear helplessness. In spite of my best efforts, I could not come out of it. I cannot forget how from his spiritual height, Swamiji just lifted me out of the whirlpool of anxiety and nervousness.
Now, from his book, "The Realisation of the Absolute", I come to his recent books. There is a complete change in the writing to suit the temper and ability the modern lay-man. Swamiji's present-day writings are very simple, interesting and thoroughly psychological. Truly it said, as you ascend, you become simple and simple. Clarity, and not ambiguity, is mark of wisdom. When we read his books like "Kathopanishad", "The Ascent of the Spirit" or "The Philosophy of the Bhagavata Gita", we feel that he is first leading us through psychological planes. When sufficient of these planes are traversed, we come to moral cliffs, and then to moral mountains. Suddenly he begins the actual ascent. Like an aeroplane we take off. Joy begins here. We start enjoying the book at this point.
Since I have known him these many years, I find him to be a living Gita. A Jnana Yogi, rigourous like Kant, and yet mystical like Sankara. Ever cheerful, witty, gay. Ever ready to discuss the most difficult things in the world, always lovingly and equally easily. Swami Krishnananda presents an admirable study in the excellence of asceticism and the rigours of renunciation interspersed with peals of laughter to banish a while the woes of the world. Glory to the great! Glory to Sri Swami Krishnananda!