Primal fear on being attacked by Hyenas
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM started walking around the Arunachala mountain around this time. He would start very early in the morning around 4 am and walk for three to four hours around the hill chanting songs about the hill. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM was totally in the present, least bothered about what happened the next moment; an innocent child playing in the lap of his mother; an innocent child delighting in the ambience of his beloved Arunachala.
One morning he started very early, soon after midnight. In those days there were no roads, nor lights on the path around the hill. It was just a jungle, a dense forest all the way. At a spot near Sona Nadi, a rivulet, a group of hyenas approached him. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM had been walking with his eyes cast downwards singing some stotras (devotional songs) and had not noticed the hyenas till he was very close to them. When he lifted his head and saw them, the animals were ready to pounce on him; waiting for him to lift his head and see them before they pounced on him. From deep down his hara, the Swadishthana spot, in desperate fear the boy let out a scream, a scream of pure fear that he had not experienced neither before nor after. Along with the scream he felt a total surrender to Arunachala, and a deep trust that Arunachala would take care of him. Immediately, an elderly sanyasi appeared in front of him with a big stick, and at the sight of this man the hyenas melted away. As soon as the animals ran away he disappeared. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM did not know where this man came from, nor where he went. With that primal scream THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM found that his body had suddenly turned much lighter; he started walking, almost floating as if the frequency of his Being had increased. (Primal theory is a modern psychological treatment in which patients scream from deep down, their hara, to relieve fear and other suppressed negative emotions in catharsis).
In later days THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM told us often about the need to surrender completely to Existence, without any trace of ego, with the absolute confidence that Existence will take care of us in any eventuality. This incident is another of his own experiences even before his enlightenment when the sheer trust in Existence took care of what needed to be done. We, his followers, have had a number of such experiences with the Master that we shall read about later.