Tiger, Tiger
From the early days this incident had been part of Nithyananda's Ananda Spurana Programs. Today, thanks to the Nithya Acharyas, thousands across the world are familiar with this incident as a part of the Vishuddhi chakra background.
Nithyananda stayed with a group of sanyasis in a remote location in the Almora section of the Himalayas. They all lived in simple huts made of thatch material. The sanyasis stayed in the various huts and had a common kitchen in a central hut. Wild animals were quite common in this area. If a tiger or leopard was spotted a bell would be rung to alert all those who were working in the fields so that they could run back into their huts to safeguard themselves. When it was considered safe an all-clear bell would be rung for them to venture out.
On one occasion after a tiger warning and the all clear had been sounded one elderly sanyasi was found missing. After searching for him high and low, some of them heard a feeble cry from one of the huts near the kitchen and went to investigate. When they tried to open the door of the hut it would not budge. One person went around the hut and entered the hut by removing one of the thatch panels at the rear. Inside he found the elderly monk safe and sound and the door blocked by a huge grinding stone. It took four young able bodied monks to lift and return that stone to the kitchen, from where the old monk had grabbed it and brought it single handedly to block his door.
Nithyananda explains in the Ananda Spurana Program that on certain occasions when our lives or lives of our loved ones are threatened we develop an extraordinary second level of energy that allows us to carry out tasks that we are normally incapable of executing. What the old monk displayed was this level second level energy.
Nithyananda teaches us how to access a far more powerful third level energy through the Vishuddhi meditation. This energy connects us to the cosmic energy when we transcend our minds and drop our identity.
Paramaguru Mahavatar Baba
Nithyananda says that out of the few thousand enlightened beings who occupy Planet Earth at any point in time, there are several hundred enlightened masters who live in the Himalayan Mountains. Nithyananda had traveled through this entire region right up to Tibet. Of all the locations in the Himalayas, the one place that Nithyananda is most connected to is Kedarnath.
Legend has it that at the end of the Mahabharata War Krishna advised the Pandava Princes to seek Shiva's blessings so that they can shed their sins of having killed their kith and kin. When the Pandavas came in search of Shiva to the Himalayan region, Shiva disguised himself as a bull. Pandavas chased the bull and at one point Bheema caught hold of the bull by its tail. Shiva, in the form of the bull, dived into earth. All that could be seen of him was the rump of the bull. The location where Shiva's rump is today worshipped is the Kedarnath temple. Pleased by the efforts of the Pandavas Shiva blessed them. It is believed that Yudhishtra and other Pandava Princes ascended to heaven from here. Adi Sankara is also believed to have left his body at Kedarnath.
Each year, a group of devotees trek or ride the fourteen kilometer distance from Gaurikund to the Kedarnath temple with the Master. It is a beautiful landscape with deep gorges where the river Mandakini flows down below before she merges into Alaknanada at Rudraprayag. Further south Alaknanada merges with the river Bhagirathi at Devprayag to form the river Ganga. Kedarnath is one of the four holiest pilgrimage spots for Hindus, the other three being Gangotri, Yamunotri and Badrinath. Nithyananda's Himalayan Yatra covers all these four locations.
When he visits Kedarnath, Nithyananda conducts a traditional fire ritual, a homa, near the temple as a thanksgiving practice. He has said that Kedarnath is the temple of his lineage as part of the Puri parampara and Mahavatar Baba to be his guru in this lineage. This makes Mahavatar Baba the Paramaguru to all disciples of Nithyananda. Nithyananda had not met Mahavatar Baba in the normal physical form. Yet his encounter with Mahavatar Baba near Kedarnath is an inspiring one.
Mahavatar Baba was spoken of in detail by Paramahamsa Yogananda in his Autobiography of a Yogi. Mahavatar Baba was Yogananda's paramaguru in his lineage through Yukteshwar and Lahiri Mahasay. Mahavatar Baba is reputed to be a chiranjeevi, an immortal being and an incarnation of Shiva. His presence has been seen and felt by many over the years, especially in the region of Kedarnath.
Nithyananda talked to us many time about his meeting with Mahavatar Baba which happened around 1997, about three years before his enlightenment.
This is the place where I had the darshan of Mahavatar Babaji. Once, for 45 minutes he walked in the market place at Gaurikund and people saw him when he had reduced the intensity of his frequency, so that people could see him without being affected by his energy field. This news was published in the newspapers.
Above Gaurikund, I had his darshan. Among sanyasis, for every parampara, there is one temple which the whole community should visit, at least once in a lifetime, like Mecca is for the Muslims. For the Puri parampara, Kedarnath is the temple. We belong to the Nirvana Akhada and Puri parampara, and so Kedarnath is the temple for us.
Whoever is initiated by me, who ever has taken the healing initiation from me, should visit Kedarnath at least once. This is our kshetra devata, deity of the chosen location. It is a beautiful place and the route is safe, so there is no difficulty. All of you can come tomorrow to the Kedarnath temple, no problem. The route is completely controlled by the army. They assist well. There is light and water available just like on town roads. You can stop in between wherever you want and travel easily. It is a total of 9 miles by pony or dholi (chair).
We will start at 5 am and have darshan of Kedarnath. We will return tomorrow night itself to Gaurikund. This is the highest altitude we are going to cover in our entire trip. It is the place where Sankara left his body. His Energy is there. All the five Pandavas also left their bodies here. This is the only stone temple amongst the four chardham kshetras (sacred locations) that we cover in this trip: Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. This temple is built of stone like South Indian temples. Amongst the jyotirlingas, where Siva is worshipped as Light, this is the northernmost one and Rameshwaram is the southernmost.
Kedarnath is a powerful energy center. If you are courageous and healthy, you can walk the distance. It will help. Many masters have lived and left their body here. Many siddhas (mystics), masters and rishis (sages) still live here. There is every chance that you may have the darshan of Mahavatar Babaji. He is very casual and gives darshan to a lot of people. Amongst the departed masters, he has appeared more often to people than anyone else. Eleven people vs. one million people would be the ratio of having seen other masters and Babaji. A simple prayer and he will come down and bless you. That is why he appeared for all in the marketplace. Good people, bad people, and sinners, all of them saw him. Pray intensely, he may give you darshan.
He will appear to be around twenty five years of age. His feet will not touch the ground. He will wear only one orange towel like cloth around his waist. There are records that he wears a white towel also. Paramahamsa Yogananda also writes that he wears an orange towel. If he feels that somebody is a seeker, he immediately appears voluntarily.
Babaji gave me my name when I met him a few kilometers above Gaurikund, near a cave away from the road. I was staying there and had his darshan. This was near the Kala Bhairava temple, about 3 miles from Gaurikund on the way up. Of course, I was a real intellectual hard nut and I didn't believe it was him when I saw him. I had read that he has been living for 2500 years. I caught hold of his hand to see if I was hallucinating or really seeing him. I poked his other hand. He laughed. I could see him very clearly. I understood that he is laughing because I was testing him.
He laughed and said to me 'Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda.' I didn't understand what he meant at that time. I thought he was asking me to go and see someone by that name, because at that time, that was not my name. I had not become enlightened. I was only an ascetic, a sanyasi, not
even a formally ordained one. A Paramahamsa, the great swan, is the title given to a highly evolved and enlightened Master. It is also a title that one can assume by one's own declaration as an enlightened Master.
I wanted to ask him the next question like where that person was, what to do with him etc, but he smiled and walked into my body. I was scared. I moved and gave way for him but he entered into me and didn't come out the other side. I turned and saw but he wasn't there. It was as though he had merged into me.
I was in search of an enlightened Master during that period of my life. I was intensely praying for one. I had never prayed to Babaji. I didn't even know that he was in Gaurikund. I knew he was in the Himalayas. When I read Paramahamsa Yogananda's autobiography, I learnt that he lives here. Any person clad in kavi whom I saw, I would have a desire that he might be my master. When he said, 'Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda,' I thought he was guiding me to see a person by that name. When I tried to enquire with the people around if they saw him, they said no. His age was around 25-30. In the Pictorial biography, 'Formless in Form', the photo of Babaji is there – a little chubby, clean-shaven face and hair untied.
Mahavatar Baba and Bogar (the saint who built the Palani temple in South India) have a common Guru, Dandapani. Dandapani is not Siva's son Muruga. He is a sage who was enshrined in Palani. People later added a spear and all that to the deity. They both also had Agastya, who is considered a direct disciple of Siva himself, and the father of the Tamil race, as their Guru.
Bogar created a statue of Dandapani out of navabashanam, a mixture of nine elements including the metal mercury and poisons, and installed it in Palani. It is a very high energy installation; like an atomic power station. Though the navabashanam is wearing off due to abishekam (ritual bathing of the deity), the energy is not reduced.
Someone asked: Why does Mahavatar Babaji stay here Master?
'I don't know. Maybe he likes the weather! But most records say that he gives darshan in this area only. I don't know if he stays physically in one place and gives darshan, or he simply reduces his frequency and gives darshan.
Usually, disciples themselves ask a master for sanyas, the initiation into asceticism. But in my case, a Sadhu forced me to take sanyas. He was 96 years old and lived in Calcutta. I was staying at his place for 6 months. Every morning I used to bathe in the Ganges at 4 am and meditate till 7pm. I never used to move from that place of meditation. When he saw me doing this day in and day out, he was impressed and said that I must take sanyas. I told him that I did not want sanyas and that I only wanted enlightenment. He said that he was going to die soon anyway, and that this would be the last thing that he would want to happily do. I then thought that the divine was arranging something for me and I agreed. He was not enlightened but he was a great tapasvi, someone who had practiced spiritual penance. He gave the name Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda to me suddenly.
Usually, according to the Sanyasi rule, the person initiating a person as a monk, a sanyasi, has to go through a few prescribed steps. He would first have to give what is termed the brahmacharya deeksha, the first step in four evolutionary stages of first as a student, then a householder, after that renunciate and finally an ascetic. Only three days later initiation into being a brahmachari at the very least, sanyas deeksha is given. Normally it is much longer. Three days after that the special initiation of Paramahamsa lineage would be given. There would have been three stages. So, it should have first been Brahmachari Nithyananda, then initiated as Swami Nithyananda provided with the stick, danda, water pot and such accessories, then finally Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda after dropping the danda. He somehow directly gave me the Paramahamsa title straight away!
When I asked him about it he said that it simply came out of him. I then I realized with shock that he gave me the very name that Babaji had called me by. So I feel that Babaji is the one who actually gave me Sanyas. He is our Guru Parampara. It traces to him in a way!'
(This incident of sanyas was in 1999, a year before Master's enlightenment and two years after he met Baba)
Another person asked: Master, is there a blessing that has been given to Baba to remain young always?
No, not just to Baba alone. Enlightened masters can stay young forever. He just reduces his frequency when he wants to give darshan and then increases the frequency and disappears. Unless you are sincere, even if you see him, what will you do? I give thousands of instructions, but you don't follow them. If he gives you darshan, it will be one more thing for you, that is all. Unless you follow his instructions, what is the use?
I used to feel deeply connected to Kedarnath before sanyas. At that time, I didn't know which lineage or parampara I would get my initiation, sanyas, from. I thought I was an attribute from Shiva, or Shiva's Energy. But later on, I understood when I had sanyas from the Puri parampara that Kedarnath is the sacred location of my lineage or kshetra, and that Lord Dakshinamurthy is our Guru, Ganga is our river; God Chandramouleeshwara our deity; Goddess Kamakshi at Kanchipuram is our Devi, Tatvamasi (Thou art That) and Aham Brahmasmi ( I am divine) our maha vakyas (scriptural principles), Paramahamsa is our Upanishad, and Rig Veda is our scripture.
The summary of our lineage is Dakshinamurthy Kamakshi Ganga Nadi Rig Veda Paramahamsa Upanishad- tat tvam asi- aham Brahmasmi.
Actually, a Paramahamsa is supposed to be naked. Only if you enter the city to preach after enlightenment, you can wear clothes. Else you cannot wear clothes. We don't follow these things since we all the time live in the city. Akasita vastra, digambara, sky is the cloth, no clothes. If you wear clothes, you should wear rainbow colors. Like Jain monks. Jainism is actually a very highly evolved philosophy. People will run away if I talk about Jain philosophy. Akasa, the sky, is the cloth they wear. Rainbow is the color for the cloth if you enter the city. These were all designed in those days. If you wear a single color, people will respect you. If you radiate spirituality without wearing any single color, you are a Paramahamsa. You should radiate the color. So, they will remove all identification. Paramahamsa is not supposed to wear kavi. But maintenance for kavi is easy and cheap. Who will wash my clothes? I am lazy! Whether you believe it or not, throughout a large part of my life, I have used the same 3 pieces of clothing. 2 kavi pieces and one kavi shawl. Even if it gets dirty, it will not be seen!'
On this Himalayan yatra in 2005, one of the disciples, a lady from USA had been asking Nithyananda to help her have a darshan of Mahavatar Baba. Nithyananda told her that if her desire was sincere Baba would certainly appear to her. It so happened that we were both in the same bus and sitting next to each other in that leg of the Himalayan trip. During the climb to Kedarnath from Gaurikund both of us were on ponies next to each other. Often one man would handle a pair of ponies, so we traveled practically together, one behind the other.
That night when we reached Gaurikund this lady asked me, 'Did you see him?' I asked her, 'Who?' and she replied 'Mahavatar Baba'. I said 'No way. I was not even looking for his darshan.' She said, 'He passed between you and I this morning, between our ponies. You must have seen him. It was near the Kalabhairava temple. He was exactly like what he is describes as, as Swami told us.' Sad to say, all I had seen was the rump of the pony she was riding ahead of me. It was not my time to see Baba yet!
The next morning Master was in our bus and I mentioned to him that this lady had seen Baba. He called her to him, felt her wrist and said, 'Yes, Ma. You did see Baba'. He then said to her that she would feel the effects of Baba's energy and her body would not be able to take it so well. As a matter of fact, this lady was quite ill for the rest of the trip and also for a few months after. It was only when Nithyananda visited USA after about four months and healed her that she became normal.
An average intellectual, as I was till a few years ago, and as Nithyananda says that he himself was when he left home, would find all these incidents unbelievable. How can anyone live indefinitely or for 2500 years? How he can anyone walk without feet touching the ground?
Nithyananda has talked many times about matter and energy. In Newtonian Physics there was no concept of energy being related to matter. It took a few hundred years for Einstein to establish the connection between matter and energy. Still, many scientists believed that matter and energy were separated in time and space. They believed that some thing can exist as matter or as energy. Nithyananda says that the Vedic scriptures clearly state that matter and energy can exist in the same time frame and space frame. In recent years scientists have been able to understand this. They have been able to show that a particle can be in form and be formless simultaneously, or in multiple forms, or be matter and release energy.
The greatness of Nithyananda has been that he has been able to transmit that ability to feel the energy in matter to many of his disciples. His meditation techniques create within us the ability to experience the energy around us. They allow us to open up and receive the energy that is present all around us. As this ability develops it leads to the realization that we too are an integral part of that energy. It is not necessary that one be in the same state as Nithyananda to experience this. Any one can with deep trust in his teachings, in him and through a practice of what he teaches.
In the past great masters have had only a handful of disciples to whom they have been able to transmit such experiences. Enlightened masters such as Ramana, Ramakrishna, Yogananda and others initiated a dedicated group of disciples into such experiences. In the case of Nithyananda we can see that happening with far larger numbers.
Nithyananda once said: Buddha is said to have enlightened ten thousand disciples. This was two thousand years ago. Today I have at my disposal far more powerful tools of modern science to communicate and spread my teachings that Buddha never had. I should be able to help at least a million people to have the ultimate experience. Otherwise I have wasted my time here on this planet!