Swami Krishnananda Shashtyabdapurti Mahotsava Commemoration Volume

A Souvenir released on Swami Krishnananda's 60th Birthday

A Taste of God-love

by Radha Rao

The life of a saint cannot be described easily. The biographic landmarks as are seen in the case of great men in this mundane world are not found in a saint's life. The saint's life is an inner life and this inner life is a closed book and is not open to the public. The outward symbols associated with saints, their behaviour and the way they live are all that we can look into. Generally, even the messages of saints are not understood well, as their real purport or significance is lost or missed. And it is only very rarely that we can get a glimpse into the recesses of the inner depths of saints and that is when we can commune with their real being.

It was indeed a rare opportunity, a real blessing that I had, to hear Sri Swami Krishnanandaji's discourse on the 26th January, 1976. Even now, sitting here in my room, I can visualise with deep feeling the way in which Swamiji expounded the three states of Bhakti (in Raja Yoga philosophy) on that particular Republic Day. About that time he had been giving a series of discourses on the Raja Yoga philosophy in his own room. The small room was invariably fully crowded with listeners with quite a spill-over outside the room also. That day Swamiji was describing the three states of Samvega—mild, middling and intense. The first two states, viz., mild and middling, he just mentioned in passing, but when he came to intense Bhakti, he began painting a picture with a very deep and intense feeling. That day Swamiji transmitted to the audience his hidden love, something unusual with him, because his hidden love is usually coated over or covered up by his Jnana. Swamiji's explanation of intense Bhakti or "Tivra Samvega" was so very emotional that day that for me, it was difficult to resist the profusely flowing tears.

Usually, our love of God only a fraction of our mind is given over to Him. The other portion is reserved for the world, where the mind sees personal, social and other values. Only when a man is hit by resentment, due to some strong shake-up in his worldly life, does his life really change direction and move towards God. From that point in life onwards, the different powers that God has endowed him with (viz., physical, vital, mental, intellectual, moral and emotional) begin to be utilized in one channel for the highest purpose of attaining God. All the feelings towards the world begin to be withdrawn and made to return to the real Source. This pushing back of the main current towards the Source intensifies the thrust of the current, the potentiality of the current, which is otherwise used to getting scattered and diluted in diverse worldly directions. If this spiritual pressure is sustained for a long time, at one time or the other, the worldly barrier between God and devotee is broken and the devotee's mind runs automatically towards God. And the devotee surrenders himself completely to God with all that he has and all that he is.

Here Swamiji gave many examples of how love for God arose. God, when He wants to call you to Him, often brings about cataclysmic changes in your life, gives you frustration, bereavement, losses, a sense of helplessness and so on. He does not call you always with an embrace or a smile. Sama, Dana, Bheda and Danda—all four methods are employed by Him to wean the mind of people away from the and towards Him.

Then Swami Krishnanandaji explained what was meant by intense feeling or “Tivra Samvega". Tivra Samvega is the same as the Ananya Bhakti of the Bhagavad Gita (Ananya Chetah Satatam Yo Mam Smarati Nityasah) and the Kathopanishad (Ananya Prokte Gatiratra Nasti). Ananya Bhakti is purest love and also intense. This intense love has only one object before it and it does not demand any return either. When one is intensely attached to anything, he has no time even for sleep. There hunger also is absent. To be "Ananya", Bhakti must not merely be one-pointed, but be present always, all the twenty-four hours. It is difficult for the mind to conceive this single-minded love for God.

Swamiji then proceeded to describe two types of Bhakti. One is Apara or Gauna Bhakti; the other is Para Bhakti or Ragatmika Bhakti. In the first instance, certain accessories are necessary to strengthen the love for God; but, for the second type of Bhakti, there is no need for any accessory. Even social restrictions on individual behaviour have no relevance here. We may say that Para Bhakti is, in a sense, shameless Bhakti. It is whole-souled love. Taste inundates the personality of the devotee who is under the spell of Ragatmika Bhakti or Para Bhakti. He becomes the same thing as his Beloved. Here, as Swamiji described the love of the Gopis for Lord Krishna, feelings rose to a climax. The Gopis themselves were the lovers and they also became the Beloved. Lover and Beloved became one! Two became one! Swamiji described how, even in recent times, many Bhaktas like Mirabai, Tukaram and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave up their everything for the sake of this God-love.

In the Bhagavad Gita, at the end of the Eleventh Chapter, the Lord says that nothing, except Bhakti, can enable one to see Him. Even Sankara has written many verses explaining this love for God. This love for God also is due to His Grace only. "Isvaranugrahad-eva pumsam-advaita vasana." On the one hand, there must be active love of God, and on the other, passive submission to allow ingress of that love. By whatever means, this God-love must come about. This is the surest way to reach God. No other way exists. This is the glorious consummation of Yoga. Swami Krishnanandaji expressed all this that day with so much emotion that the whole atmosphere was surcharged and transfigured. All in the audience were taken to the portals of Divinity Itself. For a time there seemed to be none but God only! Swamiji's intense love for the all-pervading God was tangibly felt at that time.

Swami Krishnanandaji is outwardly a rough and blunt personage, but with a heart which wrings with compassion at the slightest sorrow of others. He does everything for those who are in need or distress, without ever caring for his own physical condition, which is very precarious, going out of the way to help and serve them immediately. To put it in his own words, "The voice of the heart is the final decision". He is like Swami Vivekananda, who was a Jnani in his outward behaviour, but who was immersed in the sweetness of the intense love for God bubbling within. Swami Vivekananda said, "Where there is a conflict between the head and the heart, give way always to the heart".

May God grant Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj sound health.