Remembering Vivekananda - Baba

July 1, 2004

Remembering Swami Vivekananda - Baba

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA had said:

"The world is going to be revived soon. An enormous light will engulf the world. That enormous light will originate from Chennai in India."

On this 102 years of Swami Vivekananda's death anniversary( July 04), remembering Swami Vivekananda.

Basically I am a management man, whereas most of the spiritual leaders did/do not have any worldly exposure. Even saints like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who attained high levels of spirituality were ignorant in worldly ways. It is recorded that Kali (A Hindu deity; pronounced Kaali) told Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, ‘Son, you are spiritually evolved, no doubt. But these worldly people are cleverer than you are. They will trick you into conferring on them your grace. Transfer your powers to Vivekananda who is shrewder than you.’

Assume an illiterate person bags a lottery prize of ten crores. His lack of knowledge will prevent him from using that money wisely. Sycophants can easily fool a gullible person. In fact, by the time that ten crores reach him, he will be taken for a ride. This is how society is.

Penance yields grace. Grace by itself can achieve nothing. One must have the worldly knowledge to manage it. Grace is the language of the skies. Management is related to the world. Arunagirinatha (a Saivite saint) sang, ‘Muruga, you granted me rich knowledge. And then, you granted me the bliss of Your Love.’ It is God who mellows us enough to love Him.

This stage is relevant to all Mahaans. But there is one aspect beyond that.

The knowledge we have acquired must be used in the service of the Lord who granted it to us

Paramacharya explains in his book ‘Deivathin Kural’(God’s Voice): ‘Veda Ratchanam (preserving the Vedas) is an arduous task. I have devoted my entire lifetime to it’. His main portfolio was VedaRatchanam. Towards this, he motivated people to adopt the lifestyle of their ancestors, study Vedas and bequeath that experience to posterity.

I have often asked Ram Surat Kumar (a yogi who lived in Thiruvannamalai hills near Chennai) what his task was. He used to reply, ‘My father (Lord Annamalaiyar) has not given this beggar (he would always refer to himself that way) any work. He has asked me to sit here’. And that is what the yogi did for thirty-five years. Some rich people built an Ashram for him; else he was happy with chanting ‘Sri Rama Jayam’ (Victory to Sri Rama)

A switch on the Main board controls the flow of electric current. A transformer elsewhere supplies power to this switchboard. This transformer gets its supply from electricity projects like SriPerumbudur, Neyveli Lignite or Kundha Hydroelectric project. But all we see is the glowing light, the working microphone. We do not see the process.

Mahaans like Ram Surat Kumar are passive energy (matter, Shiva principle). God does not give them active roles. He occupies them in penance. I am dynamic energy (Shakthi). God engages us to accomplish His task. He has equipped me with the power of penance. I store it like generator fuel and use it for my portfolio management.

If you observe the lives of Mahaan, you will understand each one has his way of working.

Vivekananda asked the Mahaan Bhavahari Baba, “I am rendering service to mankind. You are idle. Can you not do some service or start a movement?” to which Bhavahari Baba replied, “Let me relate a story. A thief was caught red-handed. The public cut his nose. Ashamed of his disfigurement, he hid himself in a forest.

A group of woodcutters, taking him to be some saint, started glorifying him. In course of time, the congregation grew in numbers. One of them started imploring ‘the saint’ to accept him as his disciple. His pleas for a mantra intensified until one day the ‘saint’ took him aside, cut off his nose and said, ‘This is how I became a saint’. Narrating this story, Bhavahari Baba told Vivekananda, ‘Do you want me to lead one such group?’ ”

Swami Vivekananda was travelling in a train, tired and famished. When the train stopped at the station in Ayodhya, a stranger came running to the compartment with sweets, to offer it to Swami. He told him that Lord Rama appeared in his dream yesterday and had asked him to take care of you and had given a description of Vivekananda’s idenitity. This happened 100 years back.

Swami Vivekananda suffered so much before he was recognised to the world, after speaking at the World Religions Conference at Chicago in 1893.

Read about all Mahaans and their life histories and you will learn a lot.

Baba loves you and cares for you. I am always with you. You can always speak to me. Replies are from within.

Love - Baba

Shankaram Shiva Shankaram

Chant and be happy

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