Spiritual Awakening
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM practiced the meditation technique that Annamalai Swamigal had taught him with all seriousness and discipline. Swamigal had told the young lad 'Practice this meditation and you will get your answers', and he was desperate to get to the answers.
A little over a year later, when THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM was about twelve, he was as usual sitting on a rock in the Arunachala Hill and meditating, when a strange experience happened. It was on the Buddha Purnima day in the month of Vaikasi (May-June). In the midst of his meditation, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM felt some thing opening up with in him, something was getting crushed, some thing else was getting created. It was like an vessel inside getting broken and a door opening, both together.
With his eyes closed he could see all around him. He did not need eyes to see; not just that, he had a 360 degree vision. With equal clarity THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM could see the hill in front of him, the temple behind him, the rock below him, the stars above him, the trees to the left, part of the hill to the left, all these were in his visionary filed, without having to open his eyes!
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says: At that moment, I awakened to the realization that I was one with the whole of Existence and everything was I!
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM rushed home in great happiness, drunk with excitement and told Kuppammal about what had happened. Kuppammal immediately knew that the boy had had a very powerful spiritual experience, very unusual for a person of his age and that he needed to be looked after. She took very good care of him. The after effects of this spiritual experience that THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM now calls satori lasted about three days.
This satori experience was the beginning of a new phase of spiritual development in THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's life.
From this point THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM could see all around him when he wished. He called a close friend of his soon after the satori incident, took him inside the temple with him and sat with him with his back to a tree. 'Look here' THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM told his friend, 'something strange has happened to me. I can now see all around me.' Saying this he told his friend, 'look at the tree behind me. Can you see the ant which is moving at this point' and pointed to the spot where an ant was indeed moving. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's friend was frightened at what was happening and ran away on the pretext having to drink some water. This friend later told THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's parents what THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM had shown him.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM now refers to this experience as a glimpse of enlightenment and uses the Japanese Zen word satori to describe it. In the case of persons that we have seen it happen with in the follower group, it is an experience that happens in the presence of the Master with the grace of the Master. In the case of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM it happened on his own, partly out of the tapas he was undergoing, and mainly as a result of his own evolved state.
One of his disciples was once asked by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM as to why he was not doing his sadhanas as rigorously as they should have been practiced. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM said, if I had been lazy like you, I would never have been enlightened. The disciple responded tongue in cheek: That's because you did not have a guru like we have! We are far more fortunate than you!!
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM himself says that had he surrendered to a guru his own spiritual growth may have been faster. He says that he had to experiment with ten thousand keys before he could find the right key that unlocked the mystery of enlightenment. He says that in the case of his disciples he has already given them the keys and all that they have to do is to fit the key to the lock for the Truth to dawn.