One Of The Good Ones Moves On
File under: Final Samadhi
Guru Maharaj H.H. Swami Chidananda Saraswati of the Divine Life Society has passed away:
Various religious heads from Ahmedabad and nearby temples paid homage to Swami Chidanandji Saraswati, head of Divine Life Society, Hrishikesh, who expired on August 29 in Hrishikesh.In other words, nothing like any of the big-time gurus, whom we are unfortunately still left with.
Chidanandji had worked extensively in Gujarat and has helped many disciples achieve spiritual heights through service to the society. Swami Ishwarcharandasji... said Chidanandji was a living example of humility, simplicity and divinity.
Update: Even in death, Chidananda inspires like no big-time guru alive. From a reader just now:
I deeply touched by the news of Chidananda's passing and the brilliant way he instructed his students for the final rites. No meddling from ashram superiors, and no invasion of govt, Bollywood types, or other gurus (like Sri Sri) who would pose next to the body. He seemed to know how much it would hurt his students and he kept it in the family of monks. He also seemed to know what a circus it would be if he didn't limit his presence, but 3 hours was just brilliant. One of the last of the old guard. God help us!
Labels: Final Samadhi
posted by guruphiliac @ 12:17 AM
18 Comments:
I am not a disciple of Sw. Chidananda but I had the good fortune to stay in one of his ashrams near Rishikesh for five weeks. They were happy to accept a donation but if someone didn't have any money, that was okay too. Everyone was treated equally and I might add, very well too. No pressure to do seva or attend their programs. The purpose of the ashram was solely to provide a place for people to do their spiritual practices, no matter what it was.
God bless Swami Chidanandaji. He certainly blessed us.
Jody, it would be nice to post the good ones before they move on.
I have seen enough of the big time greedy egomaniac avatard scamis. I was very sad when I learned that young Nithyananda is but another SSRS in the making.
Please help post some good ones who are still living.
Jody, it would be nice to post the good ones before they move on.
:::dearie, go to dimebox on any sunshine day, with total surrender and you would find a shed owned by a little huge, red necked, cowboy minus horse texan, cant miss him really, cuz he is a landmark in dimebox, and with his permission you may enter the shed with eyes shut in total reverence, then you will have direct darasshan of the noble and holy.
Semblance, my friend, thanks for the plug but I must set the record straight! Da Free Jack has also fallen from his throne. In his haste to shoot blanks into a shetland pony in the next pasture, the boy has tore down a perfectly good fence that I myself, Chuckji, had to pay for! So for the time bein, I have had to move Da to my cousin Luther's back pasture over in Point Blank, Texas. Some folks who went there for Da's darshan have reported back to me that they had a hard time because of havin to see Luther's golf ball sized goiter and facial moles which are the size of wild grapes! Still, Luther is the gate keeper and you must go through the fire to get to the kingdom!
hi jody, i was wondering what you thought of sadhguru jaggi vasudev and his isha organisation. his book mystic musings is widely respected in the educated spiritual circles in india and so is his other book 'encounter the enlightened'. i suggest you check the former in amazon . ill get back to ya..
i was wondering what you thought of sadhguru jaggi vasudev and his isha organisation. his book mystic musings is widely respected in the educated spiritual circles in india and so is his other book 'encounter the enlightened'.
:: IMO jaggi is another control freak who keeps claiming the number of volunteers all the time. He'd goto manasarovar and show people 'angels' playing on the surface of the water. The whole crowd watches with mouth shut though no one could actually see anything. On top of it hed go on to say that he only left those angels there because if they come down to plains it can cause harm to people. There are many more stories of this kind that goes around him. Only that he is clever to keep them only to the close(d) people surrounding him and he knows how to pretend to the media very well ! He still remains as the suspect in the murder case of his previous wife, though he paid off the necessary people.
about jaggi, he was invited to the world economic forum for the third year in a row this year and a jewish synagogue in u.s hosted him for an evening talk which i think is interesting. and he comes across as a very logical guru who doesnt talk about total surender and all that.
http://waternoice.com/2007/08/02/interview-with-sadhguru-jaggi-vasudev/
Just a word to say that my silly comments below are not meant to say anything about Sw. Chidananda, who I have never heard a word against! From everything I know of him, he seemed a good man doi good work in the world. I wish we had more like him! Since I was a young man I have seen pphotos of him and read that he said he didn't eat more food than was needed to keep the body healthy and movin! I always admired him for that!
A lot of people meditate for years. This is possible because people go off into different kinds of samadhis. These samadhis, by themselves have no great significance in terms of Realization. Experiencing a certain type of samadhi, doesn’t mean you are released from Existence. It is just a new level of experience.
It is like when you were a child, you had one level of experience, once you moved into your adulthood, you have another level of experience. The same things that you have experienced at a particular point in your life, after a few years, you experience them in a totally different way. So, you have moved from one level of experience to another level of experience.
Samadhis are just like this. You are moving from one level of experience to another level of experience in a much more significant and deeper sense. Still, it is just another level of experience.
Somebody may go into a certain level of samadhi and stay there for years because it is enjoyable. There is no space or time. There are no bodily problems. He has broken the physical and psychological barriers to some extent. But this is only temporary. The moment he comes out, again he gets hungry, he has to sleep, and again everything comes back.
Samadhi definitely has its benefits. There are many things it has to offer for an individual, but this doesn’t really take you any closer to Realization, as such. Compared to a man who is sober, a man who is slightly drunk, has a different level of experience, but he has to come down at some point. All samadhis, I would say, are a way of getting high without any external chemicals. Now, by going into these states, it opens up a new dimension for you, but it doesn’t leave any great transformation behind. It doesn’t leave you permanently transformed.
You have not moved into another reality. In the same reality, your level of experiences has deepened. You have experienced the same things in a little deeper sense. You have not become free from the mind.
Now, somebody meditates for 12 years and comes out. Even after 12 years, he may not be a realized being, but, maybe he is a little closer. When you go into another reality and stay there for long hours or long years, the grip of this reality is broken on you. Now, you have come to a experiential understanding that, this is not it. Not just an intellectual understanding, you have seen experientially that this is not it. That is the whole purpose of long meditations, staying there for very long. But most realized beings never went into samadhi states.
Gautama never sat for 12 years in one place, you know. Many of his disciples, many Buddhist monks went off into very long meditations. They never came out for years together, but Gautama himself never went, because he saw it is not necessary.
He practiced and experienced all the eight kinds of samadhis before his enlightenment and he discarded them. He said, “This is not it”. This is not going to take you any closer to realization. It is just moving into a higher level of experience and probably you will get more caught up, because it is more beautiful than the current reality.
If the goal is set, if you’ve made realization the top priority in your life, then every thing else which doesn’t take you one step closer is meaningless. Isn’t it? Let’s say you are climbing the Mount Everest, you will not take one step sideways, because every ounce of energy is needed. Now, if you have to transcend your own consciousness, you need every ounce of what you have and it’s not enough. So, any action that we perform, we don’t want it to be a sidewinder.
i have copy pasted this from one of jaggi's books. since you people are better aware of the dynamics and statics of samadhi i was wonderin if you had anything to say on the above..
also, if it is possible for people to go into prolonged(for weeks) samadhis wouldnt it be a matter of great scientific interest ? has anybody done that in the modern times..?
i was wonderin if you had anything to say on the above..
also, if it is possible for people to go into prolonged(for weeks) samadhis wouldnt it be a matter of great scientific interest ? has anybody done that in the modern times..?
Now, I am no authority on samadhi, but I see that word bandied about and used pretty loosely in our times. A little peace and bliss and silence and dissolution of the mind (mano laya) is equated with samadhi. It's ridiculous. If that is what samadhi is, then I am a Maharishi : )
I liked one "experiment" the inimitable Vimalananda of Aghora fame performed to out a fraud Swami who would zone out in public pretending to be in "samadhi" (à la SSRS in his mega satsangs): when he reached the "Guru" for "blessings", he jabbed the fellow in the foot with a sharp instrument, only to have the guy howl in pain : )
True samadhi renders the body insentient. I am sure such adepts exist. Not so sure they care to be poked and prodded in the name of "research".
Anywhoo, even in the Yoga sutras, samadhi is simply described as one accomplishment possible through sadhana. Ramana Maharshi in modern times didn't give much importance to such fleeting states of absorption, despite himself being absorbed in sahaj samadhi at all times. Ramakrishna didn't wax eloquent about samadhi either, despite falling down in ecstatic trance and knocking himself on the head : ) Instead, RK praised Bhakti as the key to Realization.
vikram, let alone pricking and prodding if people going into samadhis(without food and water) for weeks together can be observed and verrified scientifically it would sure be great matter of interest for mankind as awhole and would do a great deal to convince the skeptics....hope you get what im hinting at..
if people going into samadhis(without food and water) for weeks together can be observed and verrified scientifically...
It would become clear that none of that has anything more to do with the truth of the Self than my dog's ass.
About Isha...
I have done 3 of the Isha programs over the past 3 or so years. It wasn't until I went to India for the advanced program that I realized there was something amiss. I'll have to agree with Jody about the control freak comment, and I'll add that there is a rock star complex as well. There seems to be such reverence that no one ever questions him or the process. If you do, you're ousted. But it seems that this is a common occurrence in the guru world. Sadhguru is a magnetic, intelligent, good-humored and likeable guy. No doubt. But the deeper you get, and as long as you keep your eyes open, you start noticing things. I'd love to hear from any ex-Isha meditators. I find it odd that people are 'afraid' of talking about Sadhguru in an open and questioning manner. Oh...and about the money through Isha. There's millions! Check out the construction in the Tenn ashram. No, they don't charge much for the programs (IMO), but yes, donations are requested (and given) all the time.
Hello! I am Isha Meditator, Sadhguru in one of his discourses said that only 10% of people can go in to actual meditation!
Jaggi is for sure a learned person,with good PR and marketing skills, who sells spirutiality to public. Btw yoga existed for aeons, if the current Gurus are going to take credit for yoga's benefits its laughable. Did anyone else get realization following this 'masters steps' ? Points to ponder...
To Know The Real Truth of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev Please read this post Where All His Lies, Contradictions, Money Making Schemes Have Been Ripped Open
http://zaysen.blogspot.com/2011/04/sadhguru-jaggi-vasudev-his.html
Jaggi is a clever and scheming man who knows how o exploit the gullible people who follow him.Is this the reason why he never comments about corruption in India?
I was blessed enough to sit in satsang with Swami Chidananda and he was amazingly graceful and extremely intuitive and wise. I'm not sure if you're aware, but he and Andrew Cohen were friends and would give satsang together when Andrew was in town. Andrew spent time here at the Divine Life Society when he was a young seeker. I know you've written some critiques of Andrew so I'm curious what you make of their relationship.
Anyhow, much love to Chidananda, my brief encounter with him was quite amazing and for that I'm eternally grateful.
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