Nithyanandam and Jayanthi Celebrations
Swamiji offered the first enlightenment intensive, Nithyanandam in December 2005. He warned all participants that he does not know what he may put them through during this intensive course. He told us it is possible that he may send us out to beg, as a technique to shed the ego. He also said that unless people were prepared to anything and everything the master instructs, they should not attend this program. Nithyanandam was held for 18 days, where over 200 people from all over the world came and sat with the master. There were large contingents from France, USA and Bharat.
Throughout this program, Swamiji worked directly upon the cancerous tumors of ego in each and every participant, making them intensely aware of the various forms of ego deeply hidden in them. Swamiji continuously put the participants through various activities including subtle meditations, Ananda Seva (blissful service), or simply sitting with the master (called Upanishad in Sanskrit). He used every occasion to churn our beings and to help purify us.
The core message of the program in Swamiji's words was: Man is by nature made up of un-clutched, abstract, unconnected, irrational and illogical thoughts. Each thought arises in him and dies before the next thought comes. But he tries to connect similar thoughts and form shafts of either pain or pleasure and because of this he suffers. Clutching into this shaft is the Original Sin. This clutching is the root cause that is preventing man from experiencing the liberated or enlightened state while living on planet Earth. To be un-clutched from this shaft at all times is the greatest liberation for man.
The Nithyanandam program was really all Master's esoteric work. All we did was a little bit of Seva in the morning and we sat with him for hours together. He would joke and laugh so that our mind eases up and drops its constant analytical nature so that he can allow the super conscious state He lives in radiate and grace us. There were several energy darshans he gave to us to transmit the energy of enlightenment. Several meditations and discourses were conducted under the banyan tree.
During one of the meditations where Swamiji was giving us a technique to feel our presence beyond our body, I had this intense feeling of being there in a state beyond my skin. It is quite difficult to describe this state, but a sense that you exist beyond this body was quite clear and profound. Whatever needed to get done was getting done at Nithyanandam. For me there was this feeling of lifting of heaviness. Since this experience, there has always been a sense of lightness in me; there is no feeling of any pressure whatsoever.
Nithyanandam program ended into Jayanthi celebrations. All of us went to Thiruvannamalai where the temple authorities honored Swamiji. Thiruvannamalai boasts an unbroken lineage of living stream of enlightened masters for the last 2,000 years. In recent years, Seshadri Swamigal, followed by Ramana Maharishi, Visiri Swamigal (Yogi Ram Surat Kumar) and now our beloved Master, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is recognized as the living master. Every year on his birthday, the temple authorities invite him and pay respects. We then go to Swamiji's first Samadhi experience site where Swamiji typically addresses us and puts us into meditation. I will discuss more on experiences at the first Samadhi experience place including the darshan of Arunachala in the next chapter.