Swami Krishnananda Shashtyabdapurti Mahotsava Commemoration Volume
A Souvenir released on Swami Krishnananda's 60th Birthday
Divine Life in Action
by Prof. T.K. Narayanan
Gita is our scripture. Gurudev is our Master.
As we contemplate over Gita and our Gurudev, who lived it in his daily life, the dedicated personality of revered Sri Swami Krishnanandaji, the dynamic General Secretary of our Ashram for the past many decades, comes before our mind. In Swami Krishnananda we see an ideal Karma Yogin and a great Jnani, as portrayed by Bhagavan Sri Krishna in the Gita.
Swami Krishnanandaji is an embodiment of sincerity and simplicity. Any visitor to our Ashram, new or old, can have firsthand experience about this. Anybody can have easy access to Swamiji, simply because of the fact that there is none to prevent one from entering his room. There one can see Swamiji working busily amidst a heap of files and letters. Even in the midst of heavy work, inclement weather, or himself feeling not well physically, one can see Swamiji always in a humorous state, bubbling with energy, enthusiasm and inspiration. A variety of visitors will be seen squatting on the floor before Swamiji. It is an enjoyable experience indeed to see how Swamiji educates and inspires each one according to one's taste and temperament.
To Swami Krishnananda, Gurudev is all and Sivanandashram is the whole world. When devotees invite him affectionately to visit their places at least once, quick will come the reply from Swamiji : "Why should I come to different places, when I have got so much work of Gurudev to do here? This is my Vaikuntha or Kailasa". In this respect, Swamiji resembles our Sad-gurudev, who never moved out of the Ashram throughout his life, except during All-India Tour in 1950.
The following inspiring words of Swami Krishnanandaji spoken on the inaugural day of the 30th All India Divine Life Conference held at Shivananda Nagar during September 1976, convey his concept Divine Life and true service:
"The Divine Life Society is not any kind of social organisation: it is not a show of buildings, gardens or motor cars, equipments and flying planes. It is an ardent fervour that you feel within you; I have heard with my own ears Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj telling us in a small Satsang that every devotee of God is a Branch of the Divine Life Society It is not in Orissa, it is not in Lucknow it is not in New York. It is in the heart of every searcher or seeker of the truth of things. A person, who really leads a truly religious life, is a Branch of the Divine Life Society, which does not mean Hinduism or any kind of religion in the commonly accepted character of denomination. It was the imperative emphasis of the Founder of the Divine Life Society that Divine Life is not Hinduism; and in a sense, it is not even religion, if you are associating religion with a cult or a creed or a faith or anything that has to abrogate something other than itself. It is an all-embracing, absorbing, oceanic parent which is ready to redeem anything that requires succour and which establishes a friendship with creation as a whole. The life of Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj himself was an ostensible commentary on the gospel of Divine Life".
What Swamiji means by this is that Divine Life is something to be lived and not merely to be talked about, and Swamiji himself is the best exemplar of Divine Life before us.
Our life in general will be more peaceful and blissful than what it is now, if there is a better coordination between our words and deeds, are public utterances and private life. The more the gulf between what we talk and what we do, the more restless and peace less are life becomes. It is because of the splitting of our inner personality that we are peace less and restless. In other words, we become the 'hollow-men' of T.S. Eliot, while holy men like our Swamiji remained the same both internally and externally, ever calm, serene and peaceful. We say that we are all disciples of our holy Satgurudev. Alright. But are we his true disciples? Says Swami Krishnanandaji: “To be true disciples of this great Miracle of this Modern Age, revered Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, would be to live as he lived and to think as he thought”. This is the definition of a true disciple of a great Master. Now let us ask ourselves a simple question: do we think as our Gurudev thought? Do we live as our Gurudev lived?”
When one part of our mind things like this, another part will immediately – against it by raising a voice of doubt: “where is our Gurudev on top of the Himalayas, and where am I at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean? Can I ever live as he lived? Can I ever think as he thought? Practically impossible. He was a Jivanmukta a liberated soul, while I am a Baddha Jiva, of soul in bondage”. Like this, our own mind will start pulling us down by its perverted arguments. At such times, we must remember that we are in the pitiable and pathetic position of Arjuna of the First Chapter of the Gita, who put forward seemingly plausible arguments before the Lord, in order to desist from war, shirking from his duty, and supporting his weakness and dejection. But what did the Lord do? He simply smiled at his ignorance and infatuation, turned down his arguments, bestowed upon him true knowledge, and enabled him to fight and win the battle and thereby perform his Svadharma successfully.
In the same way, Swami Krishnanandaji reminds us of our first and foremost duty, in the following words:
"We really feel like shedding tears, if we even think of him, not because he gave us bread and butter and jam to eat or gave us anything comfortable in the material sense of the term, but because he demonstrated before us a possibility of living in the presence of God by an example which he set before himself—an art which human beings are not usually acquainted with. God is the greatest giver. He takes the least, perhaps He takes nothing. And in my humble opinion, Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj was a replica of this oceanic flood of giving. Again let each one of you think for yourself, within yourself, dive into yourself, go into your feelings, your souls and see to what extent you have been able to appreciate and live by this great gospel and the practical living of Sri Gurudev. If your soul turns a deaf ear to this inward spiritual gospel of the great Founder, you would not be a true disciple or even a devotee of God. If this gospel can be planted in our hearts, even in the heart of a single person, God will be immensely satisfied and the blessings of Sri Gurudev will be abundant".
Let us all listen to these inspiring words of Sri Swami Krishnanandaji, understand their meaning and try to live accordingly in order to justify that we are true disciples of our great Master.