The Paramahamsa
Sages talk about a mythical bird that never touches the earth from birth to death. These birds soar high above the ground, far higher than any normal bird would. When this bird lays an egg the egg hatches even as it falls to the ground. The fledgling infant bird starts flying as it comes of the shell, still in mid air, and soars into the sky. When these birds die they merge into space. Never once in its life does the bird touch ground.
These birds are called Paramahamsa or supreme Swans. Ramakrishna, one of the greatest saints of modern Bharat talks of these birds in adoration. Ramakrishna himself is aptly called Paramahamsa, a spirit that always soared without ever touching ground.
An enlightened being is called a Paramahamsa, when his spiritual awakening leading to enlightenment occurs before adolescence. Such a being never touches ground, his spirit soaring high well before it is enmeshed in the web of worldly reality. Paramahamsas are rare beings whose innocent wisdom pierces even the most hardened heart and mind. In such beings the divine Kundalini energy that is stored in the muladhara chakra never moves down as it does with normal beings at adolescence. In all humans this energy moves down leading to the desire and energy for procreation, the sexual awakening. In the case of Paramahamsas the kundalini energy is awakened before puberty and it moves up at the time of spiritual awakening, without causing any desire of sexual pleasure. The energy within the Paramahamsas stays pure, uncorrupted, and exceptional.
Paramahamsas are spirits who have realized the supreme and eternal Truth of the Universe. Their purpose in life is to communicate this Truth that has been gifted to them, to the rest of humanity in the hope that at least some would glimpse the Truth for themselves. Each Paramahamsa communicates this message in his own inimitable style. Ramakrishna, for ever in divine ecstasy, inspired others through devotion or Bhakti. Ramana, another great Paramahamsa, communicated his message mainly in silence, through a process of discrimination or Viveka. There are others who by their touch and at times by a mere glance imparted their wisdom to disciples who were ready to receive the Truth.
Even these great Paramahamsas had trouble convincing the rest of humanity to follow the path that they had traversed, and which they were keen to show. In his lifetime Ramakrishna initiated about a dozen disciples into enlightenment, and it is after his death through the efforts of Sarada Devi and Vivekananda that his message spread worldwide. During his lifetime Ramana probably initiated a few more, not many more. However, over time, their message spread, more people were awakened to the possibility that they too had divinity in them. The mission of these Masters was not wasted. It is a continuum of enlightened Masters who serve this Planet, each taking off from where the earlier Master had left. All Paramahamsas are one and the same energy, all performing the same mission with a uniqueness that Existence has defined for them.
The Process of Tapas for a Paramahamsa
Since THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM was already enlightened what was the need for him to go through such intense tapas (penance) by wandering on foot, begging for food, suffering for so long. Why?
There was no suffering involved in his case. Looking at him as an onlooker we feel he must have gone through great sufferings and we may see his process of enlightenment as difficult. We must understand that an incarnation appears on this earth fully enlightened. He has no attributes. He is a triguna rahita, beyond the three gunas (mental attributes) of satva (calmness), rajas (aggression) and tamas (laziness). However, in order to function on earth, in the human body, he is infused with a little bit of satvic attribute. Over a period of time, through his won sadhanas, he burns this satvic guna also off.
This satvic attribute is the incarnation's prarapta karma (desire needed for action that comes along with the spirit as it enters the body). It is like this. You can not make anything out of 24 carat gold. It is too pure and too fragile to be of any practical purpose. So, you need to alloy it with copper or some other impurity. That's the way it is with an incarnation, a Paramahamsa. He is born with some satvic attributes, as an alloying attribute, so that he can live and survive on this planet Earth.
Lives of all great incarnations follow a similar path. In almost all cases these beings are born in a middle class environment; not too luxurious to divert their minds and not too harsh to limit their potential. By and large these beings choose a conducive parental environment. Their parents in most cases are of a religious bent of mind, though perhaps not fully open to the child taking to an ascetic life. All incarnate beings grow up with an explicit interest in spiritual matters. They are devotional, they are very curious about spiritual truths even at an early age and go to great lengths to seek the mission they are sent down for. However, the consciousness of their enlightened being seems to be hidden from them till the point of their re-enlightenment, so to speak, until the reminder of the satvic guna too is fully burnt off.
In a Paramahamsa actions arise out of thoughts and desires as bija karmas (seeds of desires) from the causal layer. We all have seven layers of energy around our mind body. The first is the gross physical body layer; the second is the pranic body, or breath layer; the third is the mental or emotional layer; the fourth is the etheric or subtle layer that houses the energy centers, chakras; the fifth is the causal body layer, which once crossed by the spirit does not allow it to return to the body. The final two layers are the cosmic and nirvanic layers. Nirvanic layer is the state that enlightened beings reach. In ordinary humans desires arise in the lower layers, from physical to etheric; some of these desires are carried over from previous births as prarapta karma desires; most are developed during their present birth. By and large desires that one is born with carry their own energy for fulfillment. That is why Mahavira says: every human being is born into this Planet Earth with all that is needed to meet its needs.
In an incarnation or Paramahamsa there are no prarapta karmas since at enlightenment all their karmas, samskaras and vasanas have been burnt away. Vasanas are the mental attitude that creates desires, samskaras are the developed desires that prompt fulfillment and karmas are the actual deeds of action. Paramahamsas have none of these. However, as we saw earlier their beings are infused with some minimal prarapta karma to allow them to be reborn in human form.
In a Paramahamsa these desires arise from the causal layer, which is the transition point of no return for the spirit. These desires carry their own energy for fulfillment. Therefore as soon as these desires and thoughts arise they get fulfilled. As they are fulfilled, these thoughts drop completely; desires die out; there is no hangover. For instance, let us say a thought arises in a Paramahamsa to eat. That thought in him brings with it the food. There is energy in his thought; that energy behind that thought brings in its own fulfillment of that thought or desire. He then eats. Then the thought disappears. The thought arises to walk. He walks. That is how it was with THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's parivrajaka, the wanderings and his tapas, the penance. Thoughts and actions happened on their own, with the thoughts bringing their own energy for fulfillment and they were extinguished completely upon fulfillment.
Paramahamsas do not have borrowed and acquired desires. Their needs and desires are limited to the very basic needs that their beings have been sent with. That's why they stay pure. They have no attachment to material pleasures as they come with the realization that all material and sensory pleasures are illusionary and impermanent. They neither seek nor are they tempted by these diversions. They merely witness what transpires around them and carry on.
nithyananda was just a witness of his thoughts and actions. He just watched as the thoughts came up to his mind body and got fulfilled. Imagine that you are used to eating at noon. Hunger appears at noon. Then you eat and let go the hunger. Your samskara will be fulfilled; it will be burnt out. With us most often thoughts are induced by others; desires are not our own but borrowed from others. Therefore, these thoughts and desires do not carry the energy needed for fulfillment. We partially fulfill these desires and they linger as a hangover. All our sufferings are due to this fact alone; of our inability to fulfill our desires; because our desires are not our own. This is what Buddha meant when he talked about the fact that desires lead to suffering; he was referring to those desires borne out of human greed and jealousy; desires that have nothing to do with one's needs but are covetous.
The entire parivrajaka, the wandering all across Bharat was an inner journey for THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. It was much less of an outer journey. He had traveled about 30,000 kilometers over 8 to 10 years. If one had taken a train or bus this distance could have been covered in a few months at the most. He kept going up and down; north and south; east and west; he backtracked and went back. He had no plan. As the thought arose to walk to some place or go to some place, he went there by whatever means was available. If the thought was to take a train, he took a train. He never bought a ticket. He had no money. When he had left home he had vowed not to touch money.
Once in a train near Kolkata, a ticket examiner asked THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM for his ticket. In his broken Bengali mixed with broken Hindi he told him: What ticket? I am Brahman, you are Brahman, this train is Brahman, and the ticket is also Brahman. Why then a ticket?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM laughs uproariously when recalling the incident to us; everyone is in splits at his imitation and language. Ki ticket? aham brahman! Aap brahman! Gadi brahman! Parchi brahman! Ki ticket!!
The ticket examiner was totally confused. He was a good man. He never asked THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM for the ticket again. In fact he bought some food for him at the next station and gave him to eat.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's body moved wherever his thoughts took him. The energy of his thoughts led him to action. There was never any unfulfillment.
You may ask: What do you mean by unfulfillment?
When all the samskaras are worked out there is no furniture inside; no baggage; there is no hangover. Imagine that your being is a bean bag. All the beans inside are the bija karmas, seeds of desires, vasanas. When they drop, the bag starts collapsing. In your case, if you feel hungry, you eat without even being aware of what you eat. Most often you eat not because there is a need to eat or that the body is hungry, but because it is to time to eat or because your friends or family want you to eat. The eating happens unconsciously, with no awareness, often without a need, It is no wonder we feel tired after eating, whereas the energy of the food should make us vigorous.
In THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM the eating happened consciously, when the body needed sustenance. The thought arose as part of a body need and not because of other external stimuli. Our body is such a beautiful organism that it is able to perform many complex actions without even us being aware of these activities. Why does a body that can digest the food we eat without us being aware, need us to prompt it through external stimuli? We bring about this situation by ignoring or body, by remaining unconscious of its needs and forcing into it our desires borrowed from others. As a consequence we suffer.
However small they may be, even in an incarnation there are still samskaras till enlightenment; the alloy element is still in the gold. All the samskaras burn off at enlightenment leaving just pure gold behind. You can see the difference in THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's photographs before and after enlightenment. Grace happened at enlightenment and it is visible.
Some one asked THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM as to what would have happened had he resisted the thoughts as they arose in him. He said the situation did not arise as he seemed to have no choice. However, as a hypothetical query, the answer is not clear. Perhaps he may have had to do something else. The spirit of witnessing consciousness within him led him to following the thoughts as they arose, and witness them as they were fulfilled. It was choicelessness. It was Existence which propelled his actions.