Why Are We Here?
Would I be any better If only I knew who I am? Sun still rises in East
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that meeting him is never an accident. We, his followers, know that only too well. I am clear about the purpose that was served in my life when I met him. Yet I do not know what the background to my meeting him was; what, if any, were the karmic connections that led to that meeting; not yet anyhow. So it is with many of my fellow travelers following our Master.
I guess I am in many ways no different from the vast majority of educated modern mass, whether in Bharat or the USA; the class, which THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says suffers from the malaise o f 'depression o f success'. Many of us in professional careers achieved most of what we set out to do materially and then wondered why we wanted all that in the first place. Acquisition brought only a very momentary pleasure. As that pleasure ceased we needed to begin the next chase to keep ourselves occupied in the pursuit of what we imagined to be our next port of call of happiness. What next was almost always the question, even before one had had time to absorb and reflect upon what we had achieved and acquired.
My own quest for something deeper, than matters merely material, perhaps started earlier than for some. I was born and raised in a middle class Tamil Brahmin family that couldn't quite decide whether it wanted to be conservative or modern. My search took many decades; each step in the path was an improvement, each providing its own benefit.
People look for many things from a Guru, especially in the Hindu context. 90% of people we meet are in search of material benefits from the spiritual Guru, the same way as they are in a temple praying before the idol promising a percentage of benefits in return. The material benefits may vary from direct financial gains to improvements in health to providing a child to the childless and to working limbs to the disabled. We are all beggars one way or the other, in front of a Master and God. Only too often, we do not even realize what we are begging for. When we do get what we beg for, we realize too late that the wish contained baggage that we could have done without. The circle goes on.
Less than 10% in Bharat approach the Guru from any kind of a learning perspective, either intellectual or spiritual. This percentage is probably vastly different in the West. There the search is really a cure for the 'depression of success' borne out of a surfeit of material success that is in imbalance with one's spiritual needs. In Bharat, people come to a Guru out of 'depression of failure'; they seek mostly in material terms.
There is perhaps a need to measure people in terms of a Spiritual Quotient or SQ, the same way as one's Intelligence is sought to be measured in IQ or Intelligence Quotient terms, and one's maturity through EQ or Emotional Quotient terms. What this SQ would perhaps measure is the active dissatisfaction level with what ever one finds around oneself in terms of ethics and morality that prompts one into positive action of one kind or another. I am not referring to religious value systems of ethics and morality, which are created by society. These are as crassly commercial as the worst business practices, designed solely to benefit corrupt societal, political and religious leadership. The values I refer to are the values of one's own Consciousness that place the needs of others before our own.
Having been a corporate animal most of my waking life, I have witnessed both the best and the worst of what corporate success can offer. Usually the take away is negative, to a large extent caused by the ego of individuals fawned upon by those who seek favors of one kind or another. Like balloons pressured beyond what they can bear most such corporate leaders burst, in the process damaging others around them. Yet, there are a few who I have met who maintain their balance despite all the pressures to elevate them into unstable postures. Like the proverbial reeds in Tao that bend with the water and getting back to position once the pressure recedes.
It helps when one has a balanced perspective of one's own capabilities against what one has been able to achieve. Whatever success we manage to achieve has little to do with our own abilities. There were and are many others who are more intelligent than we are, more decisive, more caring and more dynamic, who probably did not reach the same levels of material success as we measure them to be capable of. Contrarily, we see around us intellectual, emotional and spiritual midgets who are far more successful materially and professionally. There is a factor that goes beyond one's inherited powers, education, innate capabilities, DNA and whatever else that one can measure within oneself that contributes to what one achieves in life, both materially and spiritually. Is that karma, fate, destiny or the Spiritual Quotient? Why am I what I am? Who am I? Where are we headed? What is our Purpose in Life?
This desire to move beyond and also to understand who I am still drives me, as I am sure it is with many of you. It is this creative tension that brought me to hear Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. In him, I found a spiritual Guru who was truly irreverent of religious hypocrisy; one who addressed practical issues of how to live one's life day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute and second to second; one who stayed away from convincing others through scriptural or religious sanctioned lore; one who brought to bear his experiential wisdom that transcended his youthful years; far more importantly who through his sheer grace and energy brought to me a warmth and brightness I had never before experienced. He lit a lamp within that dispelled all the darkness of ignorance I had learnt through my entire life.
The presence of a living Master is the ultimate that there is. God to most of us is a concept; for some to ridicule; for many to worship. There is no common understanding of what one needs to do to approach God. Religions, rather religious leaders, who are supposed to guide us to God, are the biggest sinners in this regard. They divide and rule. They fight and destroy. To one, an idol is essential to reach God; to another, idols are blasphemous; to each his scripture and his brand of God is the only path to salvation. No conniving marketer, no deceptive advertiser can do as good a job of branding God as our religious leaders do; all for their own material benefit. No such problem arises in front of a realized Master. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM declares that he is not a Hindu; once realized the shackles of religion drop off. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has no issues with how many gurus one has, or what religion one belongs to; if one's gurus are truly realized they will only work together to help our own realization, and not fight amongst themselves as to who should be our savior. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says often: When Jesus and Krishna meet each other, they will hug each other, as they are both enlightened Masters. However, the sheep that follow Jesus and the cows that follow Krishna will always end up fighting as to whose Master was greater!
The message of this book is inspirational and transformational. It is an account of how the Master was inspired and transformed, which in turn would help the reader to be inspired for his and her own transformation.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Appears
Truth and Facts:
Sukha Brahma, the great sage and the young son of Vyasa, author of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, was narrating to many great rishis (sages) far older than him the story of Bhagavatam, story of the ten incarnations of Vishnu and specifically that of Krishna. Moved to tears, one of the assembled rishis fell at Sukha's feet and said passionately: Please do not put any of this in writing. No one will then know really what happened here. It will all be untrue. Sukha said: I agree with you; but we need to write all this down, however untruthful it may be, so that future generations are inspired.
As I write this biography as my Master's scribe, I write both about Truth and about facts. Facts are chronological details as in History. The West is interested only in facts. Western science finds it difficult to move beyond the trees to perceive the woods. Truth, however, is puranic, and like the puranas, the great Hindu epics it is metaphorical, not factual; it transcends time and space. The East is more focused on Truth.
Valmiki was a robber who became a saint. Narada, the wandering minstrel saint and trouble maker, who forever traveled the skies chanting the name of 'Narayana' (one of Vishnu's 1008 names) happened to cross Valmiki's path. Narada was promptly stopped by Valmiki who demanded money. Narada had none. This made Valmiki furious. He threatened Narada that he would kill him if he did not come up with something valuable. Narada said that the only thing valuable he had was the mantra 'Narayana' that he constantly uttered. Narada offered to teach the robber this mantra which would lead him to salvation. Narada said, when you die, you will not die alone; the Lord will be with you. The robber was not impressed. He said: I have my entire family who will readily join me; I live for them. I rob for them. Narada said: please go and ask your family members which one of them will walk with you to Death's door?
Valmiki proudly strutted off, extracting Narada's word that he would not run away. Valmiki asked his son who he dearly loved and who loved him in turn: Son, when death beckons, will you join me? The son was shocked. He said: no, of course not. You are old and it is time for you to go. I have a life. Let me be!
Valmiki was shattered. Yet, without showing any emotion, he accosted his wife who he was sure would be with him always, and asked her whether she would accompany him at death. His wife hesitated and told him tenderly: We need one of us to stay to look after our children. If you go, and I go with you, who will take care of them? I shall stay. Even Valmiki's old parents refused to go with him; they wanted to live still.
Valmiki tottered back to Narada and cried piteously. Narada comforted him and said: no one will come with you, nothing will come with you; none of your relatives, none of your possessions. You will go alone when death calls you. The only thing that can go with you is the name of the Lord. Saying this, he initiated him into the mantra of 'Narayana'.
As soon as the robber uttered the word 'Narayana' he sank into a deep meditative state, a Samadhi, and stayed on in that Samadhi state for hundreds of years. An ant hill grew on top of him, and no one knew there was someone under the anthill. When he finally emerged from his Samadhi from inside the ant hill Valmiki was an enlightened sage. In Sanskrit, Valmiki means an ant hill, and he was called by that name ever since. Valmiki wrote the great epic Ramayana, arguably the most popular Hindu epic that is read not only in Bharat but in many parts of South East Asia as well.
Ramayana is the purana, the epic story of a great King Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, whose wife Sita is kidnapped by a demon king Ravana. Rama while on his pursuit of Ravana seeks the help of the monkeys who live in the forest kingdom of Kishkinda, ruled by the brothers Vali and Sugriva assisted by the redoubtable Hanuman, who is worshipped as the monkey god all over Bharat. When Valmiki describes Kishkinda, he provides a number for the monkey population. If literally taken that number Valmiki provides may not at all match the size of Kishkinda as he has described. Kishkinda can not hold that many millions of monkeys. When Valmiki refers to such a number, it is in a puranic sense of Truth. Valmiki visualizes the power of the monkeys; number connotes strength; Valmiki's visualization is truth oriented. Valmiki refers to the energy of the monkeys through the number, not by the number. Valmiki's focus is on Truth o f energy rather than the factual representation of numbers.
Science would like everything verified and quantified. This does not mean that what Science has not verified and quantified is not true. The law of gravity operated ever since creation; it was in existence since Existence; otherwise the Suns and the planets would not move as they have done always. Yet, Science in the form Newton 'discovered' gravity only a few centuries ago. Earth has always been round; that has been the truth; yet this truth was bitterly contested and finally agreed only in the last millennium. People over the centuries have been burnt at the stake and tortured because the Truth they saw within their Beings did not correspond to the truth as accepted by society and organized religion. That did not mean that what society and religions forced upon the masses was the Truth.
Our faith in Science is highly misplaced and over valued. There is more superstition created by Science than by all mythologies. More scientific discoveries have been overthrown by newer discoveries, as we continue to understand nature better. Mystics have always understood nature better than scientists. Their understanding of truth in their inner space has been far better than the limited understanding that the intellects of scientists have been able to achieve in the outer space.
When an enlightened Master is asked how old he is, his chronological, factually correct answer would be far different from the Truth of his timeless existence. In this book we attempt to bring both facts and truth together. Facts are limited by the 120 degrees vision that we are normally capable of. Truth is a spiritual 360 degree vision that only enlightened Masters have. We present in this book the enlightened Master's 360 degree vision that we need to see within the limits of the factual 120 degrees perspective that you and I possess, with as little distortion as possible. This book is factually fact, and truthfully Truth. It is East meeting West in coexistence.
Fact and truth do not always go together; truth is space and time as well; it is multidimensional. Where there is a problem between the two, my focus will be on Truth. We will not compromise on Truth, nor will we alter facts; we shall present both together so that you, the reader, can decide.