Mother Krishnabai and
Swami Ramdas
If anyone wants me to tell them
something about Beloved Papa, I ask
them to visualise what it would be like if, by some divine alchemy, Love and
Bliss were to coalesce and stand before them as one luminous entity. That is
how Papa can be seen with the naked
eye.
Papa
was indeed the very image of Love and Bliss divine. What was the source of that
Love? When he opened out his heart to Ram, his eternal Beloved, Ram flooded his
heart with never-ending, never-fading Love. This happened when Papa turned to his beloved Ram with pure devotion
and utter self-surrender, turning his back on the world and the attractions it
might hold for him. It was born of the realisation of his oneness with the
Infinite and the Eternal Self. Every fibre of his being then thrilled to the
sweet rhythm of Love. Bliss ineffable flowed over and saturated him, rising
like an artesian spring from the heart's core when Papa
realised the entire universe of name and form as the vibhuti or manifestation
of the Self.
In the state of pure
Bliss-consciousness he carried on his spiritual ministry till his last day on
earth. Through his talks and actions he gave those who sought him a taste of
the love and bliss divine. The purest pearls of wisdom that fell from his tips
spread sweetness and light all round, dispelling gloom, fear and anxiety that
held the people in a tight grip. Earnest seekers were lifted up to higher
levels of consciousness, getting a glimpse of the true life of the Spirit, with
the result that a deep yearning for that life was kindled in them. Papa's talks were often punctuated with jokes and
laughter. The total impression left on the mind of the listener was never to be
forgotten.
Once, to illustrate the futility
of empty, theoretical advaitic knowledge, Papa
narrated the following story. He was staying in a small mandir in Jhansi when a man
approached him and asked, "Who are you?"
"I am Ramdas," he
replied simply.
"No, you speak a lie
there," returned his visitor. "You are Ram Himself. When you declare
you are Ramdas, you do not know what you say. God is everything and in
everything. He is in you and so you are He. Confess it right away.
"True, dear friend,"
Ramdas replied, "God is everything. But at the same time, it must be noted
God is one, and when He is in you and everywhere around you, may I humbly ask
to whom you are putting this question?"
After a little reflection, the
man could only answer, "Well, I have put the question to myself ".
Papa
always stressed the necessity of absolute honesty and sincerity as essential in
the great Quest. Better an honest, dualistic bhakti than a hypocritical
advaita. Whereas bhakti, however dualistic, will lead ultimately to jnana as
jnana mata, the mother of jnana, advaita practised only with the head leads
merely to confusion and hypocrisy.
Another incident illustrates this
point well. When Papa was staying at
Mount Abu he was taken to meet a "great
saint", Swami Kaivalyananda, a young sannyasin living in a cave, his body
completely shaved, but surrounded by a number of books.
Papa
approached him and prostrated.
With a look of surprise, the
sannyasin asked, "To whom are you offering this salutation?"
"To Ram," Papa replied.
"Who are you?"
"Ramdas. "
"Ramdas. Ramdas, funny,
isn't it? There is only one Truth. Why do you assume this false duality?"
"It is Ram Himself, being
One, who has chosen to be many. "
"Wrong," retorted the
advaitin. "He is always One; many is false, illusion."
"Truth has become God and
His devotee for the sake of lila, the divine play," Papa
responded.
"Why play?"
"For love and bliss; so when
Ramdas prostrates before you, it is yourself who do it in the form of
Ramdas," Papa went on.
"Bosh!" cut in the
sannyasin. "There is only one, never two." "Then to whom are you
talking, dear Swamiji," asked Papa,
pulling out his brahmastra.
The sannyasin reflected a while
and had to reply, "To myself".
"Exactly. You assume there
are two although in the light of absolute Truth there is only one."
"No, no--no realised person
believes in duality," maintained the advaitin, getting jumpy. "Here,
take this book and read it. You will understand things more clearly, I assure
you. It is written by me." He pressed Papa
to accept it. Noticing the author's name on the cover, Papa
noted that he referred to himself as "Swami Kaivalyananda, M.A."!
Papa,
known as Vittal Rao in his purvasrama days, was born in 1884 at Hosdrug,
Kerala, to Sri Balakrishna Rao and Smt. Lalita Bai, a devout Saraswat couple. Papa lived the ordinary life of a householder until
he was thirty-six. During that time he experienced many trials and tribulations
from the worldly point of view, but in his case they caused him to enquire
deeply into the true meaning of life. A wonderful transformation was wrought in
him of which nobody had any inkling until he was suddenly fired with an intense
wave of dispassion. He came to realise the futility of worldly pursuits, and
the need for real, everlasting peace and happiness. Inspired by the teachings
of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Swami Ram Tirtha, Papa became thoroughly convinced that God alone can
give one eternal peace and happiness. The path of pure devotion and
self-surrender shone forth for him with an irresistible appeal. All attachments
to family, friends and business dropped away just as a fully ripened fruit
falls from the tree. He was inwardly ready to give himself up wholly and
unreservedly to God.
At that critical time, his
father, noticing his son's waning interest in secular pursuits and his waxing
love for and devotion to God, initiated him into the Ram mantram and assured
him that by repeating it unstintingly he would, in due time, find the true
peace and happiness he was thirsting for. As the mantram took hold of him, Papa found his life filled with Ram. It was then
that he renounced the samsaric life and went forth in quest of God as a
mendicant sadhu. This first year of Papa's
new life is described by him in his autobiography, In Quest of God.
It was thus on one morning in
December 1922 that Papa left hearth
and home by train from Mangalore. He did not know where he was going, nor was
he anxious about it. He only knew that he was obeying the divine command of his
beloved Ram, and was therefore sure that He would guide him unerringly. The
mantram "OM SRI RAM JAI RAM JAI JAI RAM" was ever on his lips and in
his heart. Besides chanting the divine Name, Papa's
practice was to look upon everything in the world as forms of Ram--God--and to
accept everything that happened as happening by the will of Ram alone.
Papa
was thus directed to Srirangam. Here he bathed in the holy Cauvery and, after
offering up his old white clothes to the sacred river, he donned the ochre
robes of a sannyasin and underwent spiritual rebirth. As prompted by Ram
Himself, Papa assumed the new name
of Ramdas (servant of Ram) and took the inviolable vows of sannyasa,
renunciation. Papa never referred to
himself in the first person ever again.
With the name of God constantly
on his lips, Papa continued his
travels in the company of itinerant sadhus. The journey took him to
Tiruvannamalai, where he stood in front of Bhagavan Ramana and prayed for his
grace.
About this experience Papa himself has said, "The Maharshi, turning
his beautiful eyes towards Ramdas, and looking intently for a few minutes into
his eyes as though he was pouring into Ramdas his blessings through those orbs,
nodded his head to say he had blessed. A thrill of inexpressible joy coursed
through the frame of Ramdas, his whole body quivering like a leaf in the
breeze."
In that ecstatic state he left
Maharshi's presence and went to spend nearly a month in a cave on the slopes of
Arunachala in constant chanting of Ramnam. This was the first occasion that he
went into solitude. After twenty-one days, when he came out of the cave he saw
a strange, all-pervasive light: everything was Ram and only Ram.
Papa
continued his travels, which took him to many parts of India, including the sacred shrines in the
Himalayas, and then on to Bombay
and finally back to Mangalore, where he spent three months in the Panch-Pandava
cave at Kadri. It was here that he had his first experience of nirvikalpa
samadhi. About this experience he writes: "For some days his meditation
consisted of only the mental repetition of the Ram-mantram. Then, the mantram
having stopped automatically, he beheld a small circular light before his
mental vision which yielded him thrills of delight. This experience having
continued for some days, he felt a dazzling light like lightning flashing
before his eyes, which ultimately permeated and absorbed him. Now an
inexpressible bliss filled every pore of his physical frame. When this state
was coming on, he would at the outset become oblivious of his hands and feet
and gradually his entire body. Lost in this trance-state he would sit for two
or three hours. Still, a subtle awareness of external objects was maintained in
this state.
"For two years from the time
of the significant change which had come over him, Ramdas had been prepared to
enter into the very depths of his being for the realisation of the immutable,
calm and eternal spirit of God. Here he had to transcend name, form, thought
and will--every feeling of the heart and faculty of the mind. The world had
then appeared to him as a dim shadow--a dreamy nothing. The vision then was
mainly internal. It was only for the glory of the Atman in His pristine purity,
peace and joy as an all-pervading, immanent, immortal and glowing spirit.
"In the earlier stages this
vision was occasionally lost, pulling him down to the old life of diversity
with its turmoil of like and dislike, joy and grief. But he would be drawn in
again into the silence and calmness of the spirit. A stage was soon reached
when this dwelling in the spirit became a permanent and unvarying experience
with no more failing off from it, and then the still more exalted state came
on: his hither inner vision projected outwards. First a glimpse of this new
vision dazzled him off and on. This was the working of divine love. He would
feel as though his very soul had expanded like the blossoming of a flower and
by a flash, as it were, enveloped the whole universe, embracing all in a subtle
halo of love and light. This experience granted him a bliss infinitely greater
than he had in the previous state. Now it was that Ramdas began to cry out,
'Ram is all. It is He as everybody and everything!' This condition was for some
months coming on and vanishing. When it wore away, he would instinctively go
into solitude. When it was present, he freely mixed in the world, preaching the
glory of divine love and bliss. With this externalised vision Ramdas' mission
began. Its fullness and magnificence was revealed to him during his stay in the
Kadri cave, and here the experience became more sustained and continuous. The
vision of God shone in his eyes and he would see none but Him in all objects.
Now wave after wave of joy arose in him. He realised that he had attained to a
consciousness full of splendour, power and bliss."
In his accounts of his travels
and dealings with devotees, humour was never far from Papa's
lips. Always a keen sense of proportion levelled the absurd to the mundane and
raised the mundane to the sublime.
Once Papa
was rambling aimlessly through a bazaar, not begging, indeed indifferent to
food, as he was on a water fast.
"Who is that man?" a
passer-by enquired of a merchant, pointing at Papa.
The merchant replied, tapping his temple, "He is a half-cracked".
Papa,
overhearing the remark, went up to them to correct the merchant's words.
"No, brother, not merely half-cracked. Why not say full-cracked, which is
the truth?" So saying, Papa
passed on his way.
Any doubt about Papa's sense of proportion is washed away completely
by the "Boot-kick Puja" episode. Papa
had been staying at Limbdi, where he was being sumptuously looked after and
treated with the utmost respect. Every day more than a hundred people came for
his darshan and satsang. Never attached to such externalities, as soon as Papa received the inner command of Ram to quit the
place, he left. The tedious train-ride was broken at several places by a change
in trains. One occurred at about ten at night.
Entering a third-class carriage, Papa found that it was very full, and everyone was
lying down at full length on their bedding, leaving no room for any other
passenger. Somehow, however, Papa
found a perch at the feet of a particularly short passenger. At the next
station, a number of new passengers poured into the carriage. These had to
stand in the narrow passage between the seats, while not a single sleeping
passenger made room for them. Papa
felt that he should give up his seat for one of them and so quietly slipped
down to the floor and stayed there. His former perch was, of course,
immediately taken.
At the next station, a fresh set
of passengers came in. The rush was now so great that they began tramping
through the passage with their heavy boots, searching for some available place
to sit. Papa, crouching on the floor
like a rabbit, received their kicks with no small delight. He rolled himself
down and twisted his body into a figure 8 in order to take up the least amount
of room. Station after station new passengers came in. They crowded the passage
to well-nigh suffocation point. Some of the sleeping passengers were even
forced to sit up. So Papa was
treated with boot-kicks from all four sides. Seated passengers had to knock
against him when changing the position of their legs. The ones standing in the
passage added their share whenever they were shoved. Papa's
only covering was a single cloth from head to foot. He looked not unlike a
cloth bag on the floor. Reflecting upon the situation, Papa
said to himself:
"Ramdas, only a few hours
ago you were receiving puja (worship) at the houses of several devotees with
flower garlands, sandal paste and arati (waving of lights). That was one kind
of puja. Now here you are, immediately afterwards, getting another kind, with
boot-kicks! Where is the difference? Is there any less Ram in the one than in
the other?"
And so Papa
went on chuckling to himself throughout the rest of the journey.
He travelled all over India many
times during the next few years and finally settled down in a small ashram
built by one of his devotees at Kasaragod, Kerala. It was here that Mother
Krishnabai had his darshan and decided to dedicate her life to his service.
Mother Krishnabai tells of her own life and realisation in her autobiography,
Guru's Grace. By God's will, circumstances caused them to leave Kasaragod and
settle down in Kanhangad, where the present Anandashram was founded in the year
1931. This Ashram became a field for them to put into practice the universal
love they had gained as a result of their universal vision. Although Papa attained mahasamadhi in 1963 and Mataji
Krishnabai in 1989, the motto of the Ashram continues to be Universal Love and
Service.
About man's relationship with
God, Papa says, "Man is God
playing the fool," meaning that man is essentially divine, but that Divine
has put a mask of ignorance on Himself and pretends individuality. When He is
ready to tear off the mask, the individual gets tired of worldly life and seeks
peace and everlasting happiness. He then goes to a wise man, accepts him as his
Guru, does sadhana as prescribed by him, and by virtue of sadhana and the
Guru's grace, all the vasanas accumulated over lifetimes are washed away and
the mind is made pure. Thereupon the mask is torn off and the individual
realises "I AM BRAHMAN". When and in whom He chooses to reveal
Himself is a mystery. Papa
emphasised the need of absolute surrender to the Divine Will. He would say,
"His will is supreme. If we are conscious of this always, there is no
struggle in life at all. When we surrender to God's will, we put all our
burdens on Him. He is only too willing to carry everything. Surrender means
strength, peace, bliss and wisdom. But when the ego raises its head, all these
disappear and man becomes a puny, care-worn creature. God has made man a
blissful being."
"What is meant by surrender?
Surrender means to know and feel that all our actions are God's actions; all
our movements are His movements. If we live our life with this attitude, our
ego-sense will gradually disappear. The whole universe is the play and form of
God's sakti. When once we know that all are forms of the one Divine, all
separateness will be lost in the great realisation."
Papa
acknowledged himself as a visishtadvaitin:
Papa:
Ramdas is not a pure advaitin. He believes in the co-existence of dvaita and
advaita. The jivanmukta retains a higher subtle individuality; he moves about
and acts in the world realising that he and God are one. Ramdas in this body is
active in doing things. Whatever he may do, he is at the same time conscious
that he is the eternal and all-pervading Reality. So, in that state there is
separation and unity simultaneously.
S.: Is there no state when the
jivanmukta can lose his individuality in the One and be free of birth?
Papa:
That is possible. That is what the jnanis do. They do not believe in the
existence of a higher individuality at all. As soon as the lower individuality
is dissolved, they cease to exist as separate entities. There cannot be any
rebirth for them. Adi Sankaracharya was one of that type.
Having realised his oneness with
the Absolute, Papa maintained a
subtle individuality to enjoy his relationship with the Divine as a child
towards its mother or a servant towards its master. He had great reverence for
all saints and sages. Whenever he referred to them, he would say that he was
only a child of all saints. He had great respect and reverence for Bhagavan Sri
Ramana. Of him he has said, "Sri Ramana Maharshi was in all respects a
remarkable saint. After realising the Eternal, he lived in the Eternal. His
advent was a veritable blessing on this earth. By his contact thousands were
saved from the clutches of doubt and sorrow. He lived what he preached and
preached what he lived. He exerted a wonderful influence and created in the
hearts of ignorant men and women a consciousness of their inherent Divinity. He
awakened the sleeping soul to the awareness of its immortal and all-blissful
nature. By his very presence he rid the hearts of people of their base and
unbridled passions. The faithful derived the greatest benefit by communion with
him."
As Papa
had attained realisation by taking to uninterrupted chanting of the divine name
Ram, coupled with contemplation of the attributes of God, he always extolled
the virtue of nama-japa in sadhana. Based upon his personal experience, Papa assured all seekers that nama-japa would lead
them to the supreme heights of realisation of one's oneness with the Almighty.
On the power of the Divine Name he has this to say: "The Divine Name is
pregnant with a great power to transform the world. It can create light where
there is darkness, love where there is hate, order where there is chaos, and
happiness where there is misery. The Name can change the entire atmosphere of
the world from one of bitterness, illwill and fear to that of mutual love,
goodwill and trust. For the Name is God Himself. To bring nearer the day of
human liberation from the sway of hatred and misery, the way is the recognition
of the supremacy of God over all things and keeping the mind in tune with the
Universal by the chanting of the Divine Name."
May Beloved Papa, who is everything and beyond everything,
continue to bless and lead all to the supreme goal!
OM
SRI RAM JAI RAM JAI JAI RAM
