The Greatness of a Real Sannyasi

A real Sannyasi is one who is established in the experience of the inner Self. He enjoys the inner happiness, peace, each of these qualities in their absoluteness, in their infinitude: infinite happiness, infinite peace, infinite consciousness. These are the objects of his inner experience.

A real Sannyasi is one who has attained Siddhi in Brahmacharya, Siddhi in Satyam, Siddhi in Ahimsa, Siddhi in Brahmajnana.

A real Sannyasi is constantly rooted in the consciousness of the Divine, in the same way as a person in the deep-sleep-state is rooted in the Self without knowing that he is rooted in the Self. The person in deep-sleep-state enjoys the same Self, enjoys timeless peace. There is no time in deep-sleep-state, no space, no second object, no object of experience outside the Self or the Atman, the Brahman.

A real Sannyasi is indeed a seer, always a seer, a seer without something seen. He is a witness whom none witnesses. He is an observer, a transcendental observer, detached from all that is observed. All that is seen by us, experienced by us, that is, by our senses, by our mind, by our internal and external organs of knowledge and perception, is an illusion, is an appearance, is seen. A Sannyasi transcends the seen, the world of the seen in the same way as a person in deep-sleep-state transcends the world of the seen. A person in deep-sleep-state does not see his body, does not see anything in the room in which he sleeps. He sees nothing, hears nothing, knows nothing, feels nothing. He is in a transcendental state. He is beyond time and space, beyond the physical universe. He is in another dimension. In the same way, a real Sannyasi is established in another dimension. From there begins his real life. He has the grace of the Divine. Without the grace of the Divine no one can become a Sannyasi, no one can know God, no one can experience the Self. Grace is the first and fundamental requisite and grace comes with the growing inner purity. Grace comes with the development of devotion to the Infinite and the Eternal, the Omnipresent and Omnipotent, the Omniscient. Grace comes through selfless actions. Grace comes through universal love, grace comes through hard self-discipline, through yoga, through meditation, through jnana.

Some are born with the Jnana of God, with the wisdom of God, with the knowledge of God, with the awareness of God. To them to be aware of God is more natural than to be aware of their own body, or their environment. Nothing like being a Sannyasi, a real Sannyasi.

Even Lord Narayana and Mahavishnu (who are one and the same) and Lord Shiva, all pay homage to such a Sannyasi. Divine Mother Parameshwari, Mahatripurasundari, Maheshwari is always attending services to such real Sannyasis. She lives in them. She delights in them. She is Brahmajnanaswarupini. Without Her grace no one can experience the Divine Self. Her grace is essential.

The greatest Brahmajnanis are those who are deeply rooted in the Siddhi of Brahmavidya, Brahmanubhava. And this Brahmavidya and this Brahmanubhava are nothing but the Divine Mother Herself. She is Brahmajnanaswarupini, Brahmavidyaswarupini. She is Parabrahmarupini. She is Herself the Parabrahman. She is Mahatripurasundari. She is Rajarajeshwari. She is Vishalakshi, Kamakshi, Meenakshi, Sarvasakshi. Her grace is essential for being a real Sannyasi.

Real Sannyasi means a real son of God. He gives up in fact nothing, because the Truth and its infinite riches, the whole kingdom of God is added unto him. He has every kind of riches. His desires are fulfilled totally. A man in deep-sleep-state does not desire anything, because he has attained a state where he feels supremely satisfied. There is no dual consciousness, nothing desiring, nothing wanting, nothing willing. Here one is rooted in the experience of the infinite and absolute perfection. It is boundless and indescribable peace, joy, freedom, fullness, wisdom. Blessed are those who walk this path of the Sannyasin, a real Sannyasin.

OM

Divine Mother Vishnurupini and Vishnu and Surya and Agni and Rudra, all these are one and the same. Now you feel the heat of the sun, the brilliance of the sun. You experience it here and now. In this experience is Lord Vishnu present. Surya is present in this experience. Surya is Mahavishnu, Rudra, Agni, Durga. All these are one and the same infinite Divine Reality. In the same manner as we are now experiencing the heat and the brilliance of the sun, the true Sannyasi experiences the Divine presence. The pressure of the presence is always there in his heart, a happy pressure, a wonderful pressure of indescribable quality. The Divinity is more real than the heat that you feel now, the brilliance of the sun that you experience now, the pysical sun. In the physical sun is the soul of the Divine Surya, his consciousness, his whole being is present. He is not affected by the conditions of the sun.

Every minute the sun is dying, that is, loosing its tremendous energy in tremendous quantities. It may take millions of years till the sun stays extinguished. These changes in the sun, the physical body of the sun, do not affect, do not influence, do not touch the Surya, Lord Surya, though he resides in the outer sun, and also in all the stars, each of which is a sun in itself. He is not affected by their conditions.

In the time-space-world these shining bodies are luminous representations of the omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient Divinity, Vishnurupini, Vishnu, Surya, Rudra, Agni, Durga. All these are fires, tremendous fire, fire of consciousness. It is a luminous fire. It is light. It is beauty. It is love. It is wisdom. It is perfection.

The sincere seeker of the Divine and lover of the Divine always feels the presence of the Divine, experiences Him in a more dynamic way than your skin, your bodily skin is experiencing the sun now, the physical sun.

Our Surya-mantras are directly addressed to Lord Surya, who resides in the sun, in the physical sun, in the fire of the sun. Fire does not touch Him, nor water touches Him, wets Him, no element can touch Him. He is in all elements, and none of the elements know anything about Him, at least seem not to know anything about Him. He dwells in them. He rules them from within. He maintains them and yet he is beyond His activity of ruling, maintaining them. He is eternal witness, all-perfect, all-wonderful. This knowledge is a great redeemer of life, which is hedged in limitations of every kind.

OM

If Gitaprakash Maharaj takes Sannyasa, automatically his life will be extended - not ten years as the astrologer says, but he will experience immortality here and now, and also he will live in the physical body for more than what the astrologer can ever predict.

OM

No mystic has an experience of himself as a person. He is not a person. He is one with the infinite Divine Self in all beings. He sees himself in all and he finds all in himself and he transcends this experience too.There is something in him which transcends this experience while he is conscious of this experience, that all is in him and he is in all. He still transcends his experience, stands above this experience as absolute perfection and fullness where there is no dual experience possible, no speaking possible, but where there is such happiness as is indescribable, such peace as is transcendental, such perfection as is absolute and eternal. Eternity and infinity are its characteristics, his nature, his being.

Omkarananda is not a person. He is the light in the hearts of all beings. He is the eternal perfection, already present and latent in every breathing being. Omkarananda means the same as Brahmananda, Paramananda. All these are refering to the same reality.

OM is the supreme Reality. Brahman is the supreme Reality. The Brahman alone is Paramananda, transcendental happiness, supreme happiness, absolute happiness, eternal happiness. Omkarananda is the Self in all beings, the light of existence in the whole creation, yet it transcends this light in the whole creation. It is transcendental. Both aspects are there present.

The infinite absolute Reality is not bound to its own supreme perfection. It has the freedom to express itself in any manner it likes, wills, though it stands above all willing, all liking, for it is perfection in itself.

Omkarananda is the Self in all, God in all, the supreme Reality in all.

OM is the supreme Reality in all.

No mystic, no Guru has ever the thought that He is a person. All this praise given to Him is nothing but a recitation of the Vedas. He constitutes as a recitation of the Vedas, for praise is so couched, in such a language that it refers merely to the Absolute and Infinite. And He is the Absolute and the Infinite, the Guru is the Absolute and the Infinite. If the supreme Divine Mother Parameshwari, Tripurasundari is Brahmaswarupini, Brahmajnanaswarupini, Brahmajnanapradayini, the Guru is the living embodiment of this Jnana. He is the illustration of this Jnana. He is a demonstration in physical life, in space-time-world of the supreme Brahmajnana, that the Divine Mother is. He is always a transcendental being. He has no little self there operating in Him. Even if such a little self is visible to others who are not in a position to exceed their own little self and cannot therefore be in a position to see that he has no little self. Here in the physical form, He is nothing but a direct manifestation of the supreme Divine Mother Herself. He is the whole of the Upanishads and the Veda in living life, a living demonstration, a demonstration, an illustration in space-time-world, in human society.

Of course it needs great purity of heart to understand what a Guru is. Well, there can be no better and perfect description of Guru than that what you have just now recited:

Brahmanandam parama-sukhadam kevalam jnana-murtim

That is His nature. Tattvam-asyadi-lakshyam. That is the Mantra of the Sannyasi. "Tat tvam asi." "Aham brahmasmi." Both mean the same, "Tat tvam asi" and "aham brahmasmi" mean both the same. "Thou are that", "I am that", mean the same. It is the Sannyasi's Mantra. His Mantra is not something external, a sound, a formula, but it is His experience. His experience, when formulated in words, becomes "Aham brahmasmi. Tat tvam asi." "Aham brahmasmi" is this experience. That experience is infinitely greater than that what is formulated. "Aham brahmasmi" is a formulation. A Guru is not only Brahman, but He is something transcendent of Brahman all the time, because Brahman is a description. Again it falls into the world of expression. Guru is beyond expression. He is expression and at the same time beyond expression. He is inside the expression. It is true, He is Brahman, He is conscious that He is Brahman, but He is beyond even the consciousness that He is Brahman, for even the consciousness that He is Brahman can be a limitation.

This is possible when the Reality begins to self-perceive, make of itself an object of its own experience. It is a duality at the supreme level. Even this duality, He transcends in His consciousness. He remains the transcendent, while being the transcendent, and yet sinks into a portion of Him, a part of Him, sinks into this experience of the Brahman.

You have the same expression in this Mantra "Sahasra-shirsha-purushah-sahasrakshah-sahasrapat sabhumim..." above the earth He is, dashangulam, ten fingers above the earth, that is to say, ten fingers above such self-expressions as: "I am Brahma", or ten fingers above His own creation, the whole universe. He is in universe, yet He transcends the universe. He maintains the universe, sustains the universe, dissolves the universe. He is in the universe, at the same time He is not in the universe. He is transcendent of the universe, that is to say: Even if a portion of Him is in the universe, He is the transcendental being, and the transcendental being is not caught up in the creation, in the cosmos. Cosmos is something illusory, something that is not there. How can you be in that which is not there? Yet, He is there so long as that illusion is being experienced by someone, or by the many, or by all, or by every living being in creation. So long as the universe is being experienced it is a reality to beings, conscious beings in the universe.

Supreme OM, Lord Shiva, Mahavishnu, Durga, Maheshwari is transcendent of this universe, transcendent of manifestation and at the same time He is in the universe, He is in the manifestation.

So, Omkarananda, He is not a person. No Guru is really a person. He is one with the Reality. He lives as the Reality. The notion of Guru-shishya-relationship is also not with Him. Well, He is always ready to help everyone, also permits this statement of a relationship, Guru-shishya-relationship or so, but Himself is transcendent of this relationship, not aware of this relationship as normal human being would be aware of some relation that he has established in life. He is transcendent of all this. He is one with the supreme Divine Mother always in His inner consciousness.

This Mantra, Guru-Stotram, "Brahmanandam" and so on, is an excellent Stotram for meditation on the real nature of the Guru. Real Guru is subsistent in every living being as the supreme perfection latent. Latent you call it, because the person in whom He is present does not know of this supreme perfection, does not experience it. Therefore we call it latent.

But the moment He experiences it, it becomes patent. It becomes His whole being, not only experience as such, but His entire being.

Glory to great Acharyas like Shankaracharya and greater Glory to the supreme Divine Mother who is the Mother of millions of such Shankaracharyas, millions of these universes.
Endless are the universes of the past and of the future. All these universes are already present around the neck of the Divine Mother as a beautiful garland of beautiful flowers. She is the wearer of all that was past and all that is and all that will be. She is the Perfection of perfections. And that is the Guru, for Guru becomes one with Her and She becomes one with the Guru. And the Guru is Guru by virtue of His absolute purity, a purity which cannot be sullied, which cannot be affected, cannot be led into some temptation, into some trap. It is a purity that will be sustained constantly by the Divine Mother Herself. The supreme delight of the Divine Mother is the Guru. She finds Herself in the Guru, works through the Guru, lives and breathes through the Guru.

OM

Real Lakshmi dwells in the hearts of the real Sannyasis. Her dwelling-place, temple, is in the heart of the Sannyasi. He alone possesses shashvata aishvarya, lasting wealth, Lakshmi, eternal wealth, inexhaustible wealth, absolute wealth, a wealth which cannot be robbed, a wealth which cannot be diminished, absolute wealth. That is Lakshmi. Such a Lakshmi is inseparable from a real Sannyasi. He enjoys real heaven, absolute and infinite happiness, peace, wealth, wisdom, beauty, perfection.

The Lakshmi that you see in the world, in the banks, in the rich people's homes is a false Lakshmi. It comes and it goes. And it is a cause of so many disasters and problems. This temporary Lakshmi, though related to the Divine Lakshmi, is a chaos-bringer. You never see a very rich family being rich also in the coming generations. For one generation or two generations or three generations it is rich and thereafter it is poor. Empires break down. Kingdoms change. Mountains are pulverized, oceans shift their dwelling-place. Everything is changing, everything is perishing, everything is being reborn. In this change there can be no real Lakshmi.

Real Lakshmi is shashvata aishvarya, inexhaustible, indestructible, eternal wealth. It is Truth. Truth is real Lakshmi, and it is in the Truth-experience that the Sannyasi is rooted, having given up everything against everything.

What is it that the world is seeking? Wealth? Yes. Peace? Yes. Happiness? Yes. Beauty? Yes. More life? Yes. But do they find all this? No. These turn out, the moment we possess these, these turn out to be illusions. They disappear. New desires arise. Beauty does not last. Life does not last. Wealth does not last. The man who possesses wealth is overcome by every kind of anxiety, fear. It is difficult to get wealth and it is more difficult to maintain it, to keep it.

In real life, in daily life you don't find all that you seek for, in a measure, that would give you real satisfaction and in a way that would provide you real satisfaction. That is not possible.

But a Sannyasi, a real Sannyasi enjoys Lakshmi. He has inexhaustible wealth. Internal wealth is accompanied also by external wealth, if and where His mission requires it. He alone is the dwelling-place for Mahalakshmi, the Truth of truths, the Wealth of wealths, the Kingdom of kingdoms, the real Kingdom of God. That is She, Maheshwari, Sarweshwari, Parameshwari, Paramatmaswarupini.

This Lakshmi is to be attained by supreme wisdom, supreme purity. Supreme purity and supreme wisdom are the same as Sannyasa. Only in the heart of a real Sannyasi the supreme peace and the supreme wisdom dwell. Where there is the consciousness of the other, there is imperfection, there is darkness of some kind or the other. That is to be avoided. In the life of the real Sannyasi this is absent. The real Sannyasi is a dead person, that is to say, He dies to live.

Look at the sleeping person. He has a peace which no one in the waking life has. He has a happiness which no one in the waking life has, no matter what a person possesses in the waking life, or enjoys in the waking life, he has not that much of stillness, that much of peace, that much of happiness which a person in deep-sleep has. The person in deep-sleep can be said to be a dead person. He is indeed a dead person. He does not react to your call. He is altogether in another dimension. He is in a timeless world, a timeless dimension, the sleeping man. Is he alive to the pleasures that you enjoy? No. Is he alive to the light that is burning the sleeping man? Is he alive to the light that is burning in the room in which he sleeps? No. He is dead to the whole world, even to his own body. But he alone lives really, for he alone has what everybody is seeking - peace. He alone has what everybody is seeking - stillness. No mountain cave can afford the stillness that man obtains in deep-sleep-state. Over the mountains fly the airplanes, creating big noise.

Die to live - that is Sannyasa. That is to say, only a living person is a real Sannyasi. All these people in the world with their pleasures, with their advantages, keeps, capacities, abilities, possessions, values, riches and so forth, are not so happy as a person who is dead, that is, one who is sleeping. But this sleeping-condition merely provides you a comparison, an analogy. It is not the blessed state. The blessed state is Samadhi. In Samadhi we are fully conscious of the happiness we are enjoying, of the stillness, we are enjoying, we are not here sleeping. One is sunk in a timeless experience and has the wealth of the Truth, the wealth of real Life, eternal Life, immortal Life, absolute Life.

There is no way to possess real Lakshmi except through Sannyasa. A real Sannyasi is also the biggest familyman. The whole universe belongs to Him. Whole mankind is His family, yet, He is no familyman. He has endless desires, endless problems, endless goals to realize, because of his Divine work, yet, He is involved in none of these. He is desireless. He is all-perfect, all-detached and sunk in the consciousness of the absolute Truth. Yet, with this consciousness of the absolute Truth, He executes His functions in daily life as a normal person. He seems to be one normal person among many normal persons. Every detail seems to fit in, but yet, He is not a normal person.

Real life begins with real Sannyasa. Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati are standing attendance of the real Sannyasi. When He speaks, it is the Mahasaraswati that speaks. In His life it is the Mahalakshmi that is His cashier and accountant. Real blessedness lies in the experience of the Truth and experience of the Truth is possible through purity and supreme devotion.

OM

OM is the soul of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion of the sages and saints of the Himalayas and Bharat Mata.
OM is the whole soul of Lord Vishnu.
OM is the entire soul of Lord Shiva.
OM is Ganapati, Pranava.
OM is the Divine Mother Maheshwari, Durga, Parameshwari.
She is Omkareshwari, Vishnu, Krishna is Omkaraswarupa.
Also Shiva is Omkaraswarupa. Ganapati is Omkar.
OM is the soul of the Indian religion, Sanatana Dharma,
the religion of Bharat Mata.
OM is the life-breath of a Sannyasi.
OM is Sannyasi, Sannyasi is OM, Sannyasi is the Father of the whole universe and is established in the wealth of the Mahalakshmi, the wealth of Mahasaraswati, the strength of Maheshwari.

The only richest man is the Sannyasi. Without impurities, without limitations, His consciousness is established in endless, eternal light.

Many animals see at night. Everything is daylight for them at night. That is something not imaginable for human beings. It is the very nature of the Sannyasi, a mystic, a sage, a saint, to experience the whole world, day and night as Light of God. Through every wall the Divine speaks to Him, through every tree, through grass, through wind, through water, through clouds, through things and persons the Divine speaks to Him. He sees them completely differently, the structures of wonderful Light of Divine consciousness. In every living being He sees the Light of the Divine. The soul is of the nature of light. In good people this light, this flame of light is a little bigger, in bad people it is smaller. In saints and sages it is very big, the light of the soul, the flame of the soul. This light can be seen.

OM is the beginning and end of everything and at the same time it is beginningless and endless Reality. It has transcendental aspects and also phenomenal aspects. The whole universe has come from OM, is sustained by OM, will be dissolved into the endless consciousness of the Divine OM. OM is the Energy of energy, Intelligence of intelligence, Soul of soul, Light of lights. It is everywhere operative. OM dhvani is in the whole cosmos. OM dhvani is the natural language of the Sannyasi.

OM

Narayana is the Mantra of the Sannyasis. They greet each other with Narayana. Mahavishnu is the center and source of infinite wealth, and infinite wealth belongs to a Sannyasi, a selfless man, a person of purity, absolute purity. He is Nityashuddha, Nityashuddha - always pure, in all conditions, in all states, in all stages, in all situations. He is Nirmala. He cannot be sullied, tainted, affected. He is Nityabuddha. He is always established in pure intelligence. His Mantra for greeting others is "OM Namo Narayanaya". This Mantra has granted God-experience to hundreds and thousands.

OM

Where is that which you experience in deep-sleep-state? It is inside you. What is that which you experience in your deep-sleep-state? It is peace, stillness, happiness, timelessness, spacelessness, absolute fulfilment. In this state you have no desires, no longings, no wishes. You transcend all desires, longings, wishes and so on. It is God N!r!ya[a. He dwells in all. It is inside everyone. He is inside everyone. It is Divinity. It is absolute Perfection, absolute Light, absolute Consciousness. Narayana is in everyone. It is inside. Even as that which you experience in deep-sleep-state is inside, even as that which you experience in deep-sleep-state is transcendental, timeless, spaceless, Narayana is timeless, spaceless, transcendental, all-perfect. In deep-sleep-state you have an experience without light, without consciousness. Through repetition of the Mantra "OM Namo Narayanaya, Narayana, Narayana", you have a conscious experience of that which you experience in deep-sleep unconsciously.

Constant repetition of the Mantra "OM Namo Narayanaya OM" leads to experience of the Divine within. Is there an outside, when you are in deep-sleep-state? There is no such thing as outside and inside in deep-sleep-state. In deep-sleep-state there is absoluteness, infinitude, no borders, no limitations. There is no such thing as inside and outside. It is experience of the ONE, by the ONE, through the ONE. It is perfect experience, where the seer, the seen and the process of seeing are all measured into ONE. You could say, that which you experience in deep-sleep-state is also outside. That would be true, because the same Self is outside, inside, above, below, everywhere. That which you experience in deep-sleep-state is also in the trees, in the stones, in the seas and in the oceans, in the sky, in everything and in everyone. It is the Absolute, all-embracing, all-including, indwelling in all and yet transcendent.

This Narayana becomes the object of experience through constant repetition of "OM Namo Narayanaya OM". When we are repeating the word Narayana, we are one with this inner consciousness. Everything else disappears. What remains is that which you experience in deep-sleep-state, a timeless being. It results in union with Narayana. Therefore it is a Oneness-experience, Unitary-experience, absolute and perfect experience.

Narayana is God within, the indweller, the ONE who dwells in the heart and soul of every man. Through this Mantra-repetition one attains the grace of Narayana which is the same as the grace of the Divine Mother Narayani. Narayana and Narayani are not two different things. They are the same one Reality.

The purpose of such a repetition is to have our intelligence, consciousness sink into this experience of the immediate presence of the Divine within and without, above, below. Our intelligence becomes of the form of Narayana Himself. The Bhakta reaches a stage where Bhagawan and Bhakta are identical. The purpose of all these repetitions is to achieve this experience, and when we rise up from this experience and plunge in activities of the world, we do so with the full consciousness in memory of what we have experienced and that determines every thought, every feeling, every action, the character, the conduct and so on.

OM

Here, on Hirschberg, we have given, and it is all recorded, over 200 meanings of this Mantra "Sahasra-shirsha-purushah-sahasrakshah-sahasrapat..."

No one can repeat this Mantra who knows the meaning without experiencing the Divine in every face. No one can look at any face without at the same time recognizing the face of the Divine therein. No one can look at any pair of eyes without finding these eyes to be eyes of God, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient Shiva. No one can look at the pair of feet anywhere without recognizing this pair of feet as Lord's own feet. Through recitation of this Mantra one is established in the consciousness of the omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience of the Divine and meets and greets God in every form, in every pair of eyes, in every face, in every pair of feet. Everywhere one encounters the Divine and is established in the Divine consciousness, adores the Divine, mentally rains fragrant flowers at the feet of every breathing being and lights millions of candles for the Glory of the Divine mentally. This Mantra is therefore a valuable Mantra for daily meditation. After repeating the Mantra it is impossible not to see the face of the Divine in every face. All human complexes disappear, human standpoint disappears, human vision disappears, human behaviour disappears. In our behaviour the Divine wisdom, the Divine vision, the Divine experience take their residence.

- Swami Omkarananda