Take It Easy: Experiential Validation for Spiritual Transformation

Note From The Publisher

This compilation is a selection of interactions that appeared between November 2008 and February 2013 in the Experiential Guidance section of Swami Sri Atmananda’s website, where yogic wisdom and bare truth are conveyed with intense sincerity. Here, Swamiji’s realization radiates through every word as he shares the journey of his own sadhana and transmits the state of a liberated being. This guidance has been available to anyone who makes an offering of any amount at Swamiji’s website, and for the first time it is now offered in book format. To get a glimpse inside the sadhana process and observe the role of the sadguru is the rarest gift. It cannot even be categorized as a gift, but simply the purest sacrifice and deepest love a living being can offer.

Table of Contents

Glossary

Preface


My Life is an Open Book but It Has A Cover Page.

(From my personal sadhana journal)

Blessed Yogis,

I know that some of you are determined to reach the goal during this lifetime, and that some of you are even more determined than I am that you should reach it. There are also some who are as determined as I was during the time when I was consciously doing yoga sadhana. Since I am going to share my life’s experience with you, I want to first assure you of one thing, that I will speak the truth, and will relate only things that I have truly experienced. I am going to open up everything and share all. I believe that sharing is true guiding.

My life is an open book, but please remember it has a cover page, too.

This is how I begin.

What was my goal when I consciously began my journey?

I cannot be sure when I began my journey. Maybe it started from my last life because I easily achieved many things I attempted. In yoga you cannot achieve easy victory unless you have really put in a lot of practice before. This is the reason I feel my journey began long ago, before I knew it.

However when I consciously began my journey in this life, the goal I fixed was to triumph over the six enemies in the yoga path: kama, desire; krodha, anger; lobha, greed; moha, attachment; mada, egoism or I-ness; and mascharya, gossip and negative discussion about others.

To be very frank, in those initial years I did not care about God, nor did I care for any realization. To me the world was beautiful, family was joyful and life was challenging. I wanted to see this beautiful world, experience the joys of family surroundings, and be successful in everything I sought to do. Thus, life for me was just common. I did not see myself as uncommon but I was feeling something different from other children of my age.

When did I start my journey?

I would say my conscious sadhana began around my eighth standard in school, when I was fourteen years old. Perhaps it began in the summer vacation of my seventh standard. Exams were over and I was waiting for my results and thinking a lot about high school.

How did it begin?

A sadhu had come and was staying in our guest house at the end of the village. My father built that house just for visiting saints and sadhus. I noticed that the sadhu was receiving royal treatment from all the villagers, especially my mother. I felt she was paying much more importance to this old man with his long beard and ochre robe than she paid to me or to my father. She insisted that all food must first be offered to this sadhu. Then only we were allowed to eat it. She also made it compulsory for me to go and serve the sadhu, clean his house, wash his clothes, and even massage his feet, which were definitely dirty and ugly. I thought, what is this old man having that everybody gives him so much importance?

One day I asked the sadhu, Do you know algebra?

He looked at me and had a big laugh. I have no need for it, he said, while handing over his dirty clothes to wash.

As I was washing them, I thought, let me find out what he knows. I brought the clothes and asked, Do you know English?

He again laughed and said, I have no compulsion to know that.

I asked, Do you have money? How much do you earn every month?

This question made him laugh and laugh. I felt as if he was not going to stop. Suddenly he became serious and said, All money of all people belongs to me. I have no need to earn it or keep it. I have everything.

This answer made me angry and I asked, Then why do you beg for food? Why do you not have enough clothes? Why do you sleep on the floor? You poor man. You do not know algebra or English. You have no money but receive the attention of all? What is it you have that I do not have and my parents do not have? Why should you be served food first, even before my father? You old lazy man, I am not going to serve you.

After vomiting these words, I felt very uncomfortable and I was almost crying. I did not know why, but I felt as if I had made a big mistake. The sadhu not only remained calm, he was smiling.

He came towards me, lifted me in his arms and said in a most loving voice, Dear child of God! Your words have not in any way hurt me. I do not need your services. I also do not need to eat first. From today, I will ensure that you are eating before me.

Instantly I realized that the sadhu had something extra that I did not. What it was, I could not determine.

I was afraid that my mother would shout at me. I thought, if the sadhu reports to her, then she will not only rebuke me, she will immediately stop eating for several days to neutralize my sinful act. It was not my mother’s anger, but her penance that frightened me. On several occasions I had seen her stop eating in order to neutralize bad karmas of her children. As a child I was disciplined, not by fear of punishment, but by the fear of being the cause of my mother's fasting. Naturally at that stage of life, eating delicious food was the most attractive reward for me and being denied it was the worst punishment. From this I can safely conclude that I was an ordinary child, like many of my age group.

One day, long after the sadhu had gone from our village, when my mother was in a good mood, I asked, What is the specialty of that sadhu to whom you gave so much importance? In what way is he superior to you, Mother, and also in what way is he more knowledgeable than me? He does not know algebra and cannot speak even one English word. Why should he receive so much importance?

I told her how the sadhu did not have a single penny with him but was boasting that he is the owner of all wealth.

My mother looked at me in disbelief. She could not imagine that I had asked these questions to the sadhu. She told me in a serious tone, First, go and eat tulsi leaves. Your mouth is spoiled from criticizing the sadhu. Now cleanse it. She was demanding and I had to obey lest she would declare a two-day fast.

Immediately I ran to the back yard and brought several tulsi leaves and ate them in front of my mother to make sure that my bad karma was neutralized. Then she became relaxed, although not comfortable, and said, "The sadhu has six great siddhis which none of us have. That is why he is receiving everything without asking for anything. To have attained those siddhis, he must have done severe tapas, austerity. He has divine powers and he talks with God directly every day."

With a sense of disbelief, I asked, Then why is he not asking God for food, and to teach him algebra and English?

My mother laughed at my foolish question, but because she was in a good mood, she did not shout at me. She simply said, Sadhus have no need to ask anything of God. God ensures everything for them. They also have no need to study algebra or speak English. Those who cannot talk to God need to earn money, study algebra and speak English.

My mother looked at me and said with a commanding voice, Don’t you see? Even if you demand, you do not get everything, and the sadhu gets everything even if he never asks.

In a penetrating voice I asked, What is it that this sadhu has attained? Please tell me and I will attain that.

My mother was stunned. She said, He has conquered kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada and mascharya. Can you conquer these six enemies?

I told her, Definitely in this life I will do it. I swear in your name, my loving mother, I will conquer these six enemies before you leave your body.

She simply looked at me in disbelief. She was moved. Tears started flowing from her eyes. She put her hand on my head, took me to her lap and said, I believe you can.

Table of Contents

Glossary

Introduction

My path is the path of Gita, and I guide on the yoga of Gita. My guidance is always based on my realization. It is never based on my understanding.

A yogi begins to receive experience as soon as there is a little sense control and mind control. But these experiences are not permanent. Experiences come and go, and the intensity of the experience varies with the intensity of realization. This is why it is always safe to be guided by someone who has reached realization. Those who have experience but have not attained realization may also carry the force and have conceptual clarity, but these guides cannot always take a seeker to the last stage of the journey. This is the difference between a guru and a sadguru.

My realizational guidance has been verified repeatedly by my own life situations and also applied in the lives of many seekers. If you sincerely strive and apply these principles and techniques to your life, you can transcend prakriti’s veil.

Table of Contents

Glossary

I. The Pathless Path

Realization or Manifestation?

For realization, life is a challenge; for manifestation, life is a play.

Since launching my website, I have received many email inquiries from seekers concerning their inner struggle in sadhana. To answer them, I can begin with the first verse of Gita. This is how they can relate it to their lives.

Gita begins with Dhritarashtra’s question. Two things should always be remembered: Dhritarashtra was blind and Arjuna asked to be guided in the battlefield. Blind Dhritarashtra refers to a seeker who is blind to the path and the process. The majority of seekers know fully well that they are blind, but actually they do not want to be guided. A seeker may try his best, but he cannot cheat a true seer. A seer can see through the veil and know that the seeker, although asking questions, really is not ready to accept advice. This is the reason guidance is not given.

Arjuna asked for and received guidance, and is also a symbol. Why did he never ask Krishna for guidance on the yoga path prior to this point? Arjuna had met Krishna many times, but until now he never uttered these words, I am Thy disciple, please guide me on the correct path.

By the time Arjuna asked for guidance, he had gone through all the stages and experiences of life. He was a brother, son, friend, enemy, husband, lover and beloved. He had fame, defamation, abundance, hardship, and every other conceivable experience, prior to asking Krishna, What is the right action for me?

Dhritarashtra is not interested in action. He is asking Sanjaya just to tell him what happened. He simply wants to know, whereas Arjuna wants to be guided on how to perform the action. Both heard Gita, but one received, while the other one only listened. Gita can enter into the system of one who is receiving. It is a yoga path that is meant to be received, not merely heard. I am giving my personal guidance only to those who are ready to receive it, never to those who are interested to listen to it, because I am not a Sanjaya.

The journey of Gita, or the yoga of Gita, will begin only when a person has gone through all the experiences of life, like pain and