Sadguru Gnanananda- His Life, Personality and Teachings (An Old and Rare Book)

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SADGURU GNANANANDA is a baffling enigma to the modern intellectual but an open book with the disarming simplicity of a child of God to the common man. Swamiji swore by tradition but went beyond it in his glorious ministry spanning well over a century nobody knows for certain how long. He breathed the essence of God-Knowledge, the para vidya, but amazed everyone with his grasp of the intricacies of the complex texture of the prevailing material civilisation. He would draw himself on to the summits of Brahmic Nirvana and the next moment join hilarious children on their swing. There was hardly a line of Yoga with which he was not acquainted, not a major experience in spiritual life that he had not undergone.

Gnanananda Giri may have belonged to an Advaitic tradition, sampradaya, but his life was a meeting ground for various traditions: Sankhya, Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta. In him fused philosophy, upasana, practical discipline to realise the truth of the philosophy, occultism, gupta vidya, and sound commonsense. He synthesised Jnana, Knowledge, Bhakti, Love, Karma, Action in a unique manner; he related them to the processes of purifying and subtilising the mental body, the vital body and the physical body. He taught how to organise the different vehicles, koshas, around their true Self, dispensing with the pseudo-self-i.e. the ego. He insisted that one learn first to poise oneself in the Witness consciousness before one can hope to move into the station of the Self.

THIS book on Sadguru Swami Gnanananda is based on the ideations of a sannyasin of Tapovanam whose creative thoughts on the Swami's personality and his essential teachings has given us the needed encouragement to embark on this venture. But for his active support and help this book could never have taken shape.

2. Dr. C. T. Indra, Lecturer in English, Madras University has gathered up his valuable ideas and suggestions and with the guidance of Prof. V. S. Sethuraman, Head of the Department of English, Post-Graduate Centre, Sri Venkateswara University, garnished them and presented them in a most readable manner. Some of the inspired writings on the Swami are by Sri N. Gopalakrishnan. Sri A. Vasudevan and Smt. Sudha Rangaswamy helped in finalising some of the important sections in the 'Teachings'.

3. Sri M. P. Pandit of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, found time amidst his busy schedule, to write a foreward for this book. His foreword, which is at once brilliant and succinct, focusses scintillatingly on the Swami's glory in its multiple facets.

4. Dr. T. M. P. Mahadevan readily acceded to our request to give his very valuable introduction to this book within a short period of a week. The erudite, illuminating introduction enhances the value of this work.

5. Justice P. Ramakrishnan's translations of the Swami's speech at Ernakulam, his conversation with a spiritual aspirant from Switzerland and a letter to a devotee are at once very authentic as also lucid and beautiful. These are in Part II of the book.

6. We have reproduced many passages from the books of Sri K. N. Subramaniam. His scholarly translation of the classic, 'Gita Sara Thalattu' is included in the Appendix.

7. Some of the translations of the hymns sung at Tapovanam have been rendered with insight and precision by Dr. C. S. Venkateswaran, (Retd.) Professor of Sanskrit, Annamalai University.

8. Our grateful thanks are due to 'Anna' Subramanyam for his beautiful Tamil interpretation of the Sanskrit sloka translated into English by Sri S. Rajaram, included in the Appendix as 'Idol of Eternal Bliss'.

9. We have also incorporated translations of many pages from the precious compendium of the discourses, letters, apophthegms and writings of the Swami, titled Gnana Inba Veli'. This Tamil book contains the most authentic version of the Swami's teachings.

10. We thought that the perspicacious presentation of the Swami's teachings in the book 'Guru and Disciple' by Swami Abhishiktananda, in a style which is both profound and limpid, would illumine the themes on which we have quoted him, in a way which we could never hope to improve. Extracts from A sage from the East - Sri Gnanananda' published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in the volume 'Guru and Disciple' by Swami Abhishiktananda are reproduced by permission of SPCK. Passages from his book 'Sanyasa', published by the Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in the volume 'Further Shore' are reproduced with the per-mission of the heirs of Swami Abhishiktananda.

It is a privilege to have been asked to contribute an Intro-duction to this book written by some ardent devotees on the life and teachings of their Master, Swami Gnanananda Giri who was a great contemporary jnani belonging to the line of sannyasins instituted by Adi Sankara. Both by precept and practice he taught the truth of non-duality (Advaita). This is the truth proclaimed in the Upanishads as Brahman-Atman.

The well-known definition is that Brahman-Atman is existence (sat), consciousness and bliss (ananda). It is to be noted that such expressions are not to be taken in their ordinary sense. They are to be understood as the highest concepts the human mind has been able to evolve to indicate the nature of Brahman-Atman. In order to make it clear that Brahman is not to be confused with what are existent entities, objective consciousness and finite happiness, it is taught as being unconditioned, unlimited, infinite, impetrate, all-pervading etc.

It is because of maya that the world of plurality appears to be real and that the soul appears as different from the non-dual Self (Brahman-Atman). Maya and its products are extremely wonderful. Although they have no beginning, they are terminated at the rise of knowledge. From the point of view of the sage there is no maya at all and so it is declared that there is the destruction of maya through knowledge. In truth maya is that (ya) which is not (ma). It is only when the world is posited, that a cause for its manifestation is sought, and the cause is said to be maya. Maya cannot be separated from Brahman; nor can it be identical with Brahman. Therefore, it is considered to be indeterminable. From the standpoint of the inquiring intellect maya is neither real, nor unreal, nor both. Wonder is its clothing, inscrutable its nature. Who is it that seeks to go beyond maya? It is the jiva the living soul. The soul is, in essence, the same as Brahman. On account of avidya (ne-science) which is the individual counterpart of maya, it identifies itself with a psychophysical organism and is caught up in the tract of samsara. The souls that are caught in the transmigratory cycle are under the spell of delusion. Fixed to the giant-wheel of maya they revolve in samsara; from birth to death they go and vice-versa. The only cure for this malady is true wisdom. The reason why jnana or wisdom is taught in Advaita as the direct means to release from delusion is that release is not something that is to be newly gained. Release is the eternal nature of the Self. When ignorance is removed, it is realised that the soul is not an isolated individual but the same as the non-dual Self (Brahman).