31/05/2025
SANNYASA DIKSHYA DAY OF GURUDEV SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA (1st of June 1924)
— Sri Swami Chidananda
May this be your special gift on this day, June 1, the anniversary of Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda's Sannyasa Dikshya.
O' Beloved Gurudev !
In 1924 you came here as a lone wanderer, not knowing the language of this part of the land, not knowing the customs prevailing here and unfamiliar with the experiences of extreme heat and extreme cold. You had but one thought, to be in seclusion, in silence, and to chant the Name of God, pray to Him and attain realisation.
Blessed is that day, for out of that renunciation of yours, out of your embracing the monastic order, has sprung up a monastic family of effulgent tyagis, effulgent monks filled with a light of a higher awareness, a higher consciousness, benefiting others by this inner light that they have acquired by their contact with you. Blessed is that day, for it has given rise to this great, noble edifice of Divine Life, of Yoga-Vedanta, of practical spiritual sadhana, in this age of materialism, scepticism, atheism and hedonism.
We have considered how samskaras and vasanas, impressions and latent tendencies, will ever lie latent and dormant, without effectively making their appearance felt as part of our life, without becoming dynamically active, vigorously expressed and manifested in our own nature, until and unless they are made to sprout forth, awaken, put forth their fruits, by bringing to bear upon them a keen aspiration, a great desire, an intense longing, a fervent yearning for spiritual unfoldment, spiritual growth, spiritual realisation—subheccha, mumukshutva and jijnasa.
Such was the intensity of aspiration that burned in the heart of young Dr. Kuppuswami when he turned his face north towards the Himalayas and the Ganga and walked the length of India, arriving here towards the end of 1923. He had an intense longing, an all-consuming desire in the heart, a desire implanted by God, which is part of God’s nature, vidya maya. Dharmaviruddho bhuteshu kamo’smi bharatarshabha (In all beings I am desire unopposed to dharma, O Arjuna)
It is such desire that liberates. It is such desire that awakens. It is such desire that brings into dynamism latent tendencies and dormant spiritual samskaras. It is like a flame being applied to a combustible material which will otherwise ever remain dull and cold like any other thing around it. It is only when a flame is applied to it that it immediately bursts forth into a blaze full of radiance, full of heat, full of the power to consume, to reduce to ash anything that comes into contact with it. That power comes when it is awakened, made to manifest in an active way.
That was what happened. Dr. Kuppuswami’s heart was afire for Self-realisation, for brahma-jnana, to become a jivanmukta, to have the peace that passeth understanding, to have the sukham-atyantikam yattad-buddhigrahyam-atindriyam (endless bliss beyond the senses that may only be grasped by the pure intellect), paramananda (supreme bliss) which gives nityatripti (eternal satisfaction). And he kept this longing ever clean, ever ablaze, ever fiery; he never allowed it to die down or become dull or become mediocre. It was kept to a high intensity of heat through his fervour through his zeal, through his enthusiasm, through his keen longing and eagerness.
It was this that was the key to the Self-realisation, sainthood and sagehood of beloved and worshipful Guru Maharaj Swami Sivanandaji. This is the factor that causes a latent force, a spiritual force and power, to make itself actively manifest, to be dynamically expressed in our life as a transforming power, an uplifting force. If it is kept us to the very last, it takes us to the supreme state of blessedness and crowns our life with the glory of God-realisation.
And Guru Maharaj was that awakening and sparking factor who ignited within you the dormant and latent spiritual tendencies through his wisdom teachings. It is when you opened a book of his and your eyes alighted upon some page. That is what caused the miracle. That became the tuning point. Immediately the latent and dormant spiritual samskaras and vasanas sprang forth into dynamism. For innumerable souls all over the world in this twentieth century, the wisdom teachings of Gurudev have acted as a sparking factor, as that sudden, awakening touch, transforming force. Thousands and thousands of lives all over the world have been transformed by his power of grace, by the power of his wisdom teachings.
But then, sparks are to be fanned. Flames are to be fed with fuel. If the fuel that is there is burned up, then the fire dies out and it becomes ash. It has to be stoked; it has to be fed with fresh fuel, and it is an ongoing, continuous process. It is not as though if you put some burning material into the fireplace that it will go on burning forever. No, it does not happen that way. It is not so.
This being Gurudev’s sannyasa day, let us consider what sannyasa is, what constitutes sannyasa. Guru Maharaj was very specific about it. He said that merely shaving the head and putting on coloured cloth does not make you a sannyasin. A change of location does not make you a sannyasin. Coming away into seclusion or sitting on a mountain top or inside a cave in the forest does not constitute sannyasa, if together with this outer giving-up or renunciation, you have not simultaneously also kept up a process of a constant and a continuous inner giving up, an inner renunciation of the false ideas that “I am this body, I am a human individual, I am a physical being, I am a psychological being, I am mind, I am emotion, I am sentiment, I am thought, I am desire, I am memory, I am longing, I am imagination.”
God bless you to ponder these truths that have been shared with you this morning by the prompting of Guru Maharaj. May the grace of the Almighty make you a true sadhaka, a real devotee of the Lord, a real renunciate and a real walker upon the path of spirituality and spiritual life!
God bless you all!
