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Divya darshanam of Sadguru to Swami

   Divya darshanam of Sadguru to Swami

   As said earlier, in normal course, it is we who go in search of a guru. But Swami is not you and me, and the circumstances surrounding his life are anything but ordinary.

   Sri Sadguru Gnananandar himself came in search of Swami, taught him all the Vedic religious rites and initiated him in the yogic siddhis. It might seem strange at the outset — a guru going out in search of a chosen disciple. How and why this happened is probably a burning guestion in the reader's mind. To those who may not be aware of the life and legacy of the great sage Sri Sadguru Gnananandar, I feel it necessary to give a brief description of this great saint in a separate chapter. The merger of Gnananandar in Swami and the divine experiences of devotees who had realized that gurunathar was in Swami are elaborated on at a later stage of this book. Let me now narrate to you the incident of Swami's merger with his guru.

   On one Thursday, as usual, when Swami was meditating on Devi in front of a lit lamp, he suddenly noticed the doors of the room opening on their own. Suddenly, he saw the shadow of a short and fat man, cloaked around his waist in a piece of raw cloth, approaches him. Swami was frightened and asked the shadow to identify itself. A voice replied — "you will find the answer from the Devi you worship". Since this occurred during his Devi worship, Swami immediately asked his divine mother about what he had seen and heard. Devi immediately replied and ordered Swami to implicitly obey the voice of the shadowy soul with no further question. After that, Swami would only hear this voice and start following its instructions.

   As per instructions, Swami went to the Mariamman Devi temple (his family deity). From there, he proceeded to Chidambaram, a town in south India where there is a famous temple for Nataraja (lord Siva in the dancing posture). After worship there, Swami proceeded to Thirukoviloor. A friend of Swami's mother, who happened to run into him in the bus, purchased Swami's ticket. With the help of a local acquaintance, Swami left for Tapovanam from Thirukoviloor. What was surprising was that Swami had never heard of Tapovanam earlier. He was merely following his guru's voice.

   When Swami reached Tapovanam, preparations were going on to build a samadhi for a dead sanyasi. The body was covered with flowers and a huge crowd milled around. Swami went closer and peered. When he was next to the body, to his amazement, he saw that the face on the dead body was the very same as that of the shadowy figure that he had come to accept as his guide. He drew closer to the body and noticed that the right foot toe had started shaking. No one else noticed this. Swami was terrified and hopelessly perplexed. At this time, the divine voice said to him - "Sarvam Gnanananda Mayam. My mortal body has perished. My soul will merge with you and I'll always be with you from this time on. Do not mention to anyone about my twiddling toe. If you do, you will be branded mad. Realize that I am within you and pursue your life of spirituality with confidence". Saying this, the voice stopped. Immediately, Swami paid obeisance to the lotus feet of his new-found guru and headed back home.

   Thus, Sri Gnananandar Swami began to appear in divine visions to Swami, the Wednesday of every week. Swami had been instructed not to reveal this divine guru-shishya relationship to the world for ten years. Once, Swami was beside himself and asked why he was the chosen one — he who was never devoted, never even heard of the Sadguru, when there were so many dedicated disciples of many years. To this, the benevolent Sadguru Gnananandar replied — the divine mother has already merged in you — then why not me?

   Thereupon, with the grace of guru and goddess, Swami started his life mission of selfless service to humanity. In the early stages, he used to suggest remedial measures to all those that approached him in need. Swami has never studied astrology but the astonishing fact is that he could glance at horoscopes and advice with a degree of precision that would make a professional astrologer green with envy.

   At a time, an old kerala brahmin lady and her daughter stayed in a house adjacent to Swami. they used to ridicule and verbally abuse him. This old lady was very upset over the fact that her daughter had not found a suitable groom for a long time. One day, Swami went to their house and told the old lady that her daughter would get married on the twenty-sixth of May of that year, 1976. Hearing this, the old lady let out a wry, haughty laugh. She did not believe a word Swami said, let alone recognize the divinity within him. Mockingly, she asked him to give details about her future son-in-law. Swami remained silent and went home. He meditated on Devi and asked her for the details. The following day, he returned to the old lady's house and said that her son-in-law would be an engineer, working in Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited in Trichi, and that his name was Jayaraman. He also added that the day of the marriage would be witness to heavy rains.

   Hearing this, the old lady and her daughter were beside themselves in laughter. They wasted no time mocking Swami. But to their great astonishment, the daughter Rajni's marriage proceeded to occur exactly as outlined by Swami — same boy, same place, even the heavy downpour, bang in the middle of summer!!

   This was the first marriage in a very long list of marriages that have taken place to date as per Swami's words. Rajni, her husband and her children are ardently devoted to Swami even today. This was the beginning of Swami's divinity becoming known to the world. Naturally, news of Swami's prediction spread like wildfire across town. From that time onwards, Swami as per the instructions of Devi took upon himself the task of facilitating marriages, predicting matters of matrimony with astounding accuracy.

   In the meantime, back at Swami's home, his sister's engagement took place. The groom had two sisters and it was decided that Swami's sister wedding would be conducted only after the groom's eldest sister was betrothed. Eighteen months passed without any success and Swami's parents were getting to be extremely concerned about the delay in their daughter's marriage. The groom's uncle then approached Swami's mother with the suggestion that Swami marry his niece, thereby putting an end to the worry of both families. He also was of the opinion that marital responsibility would help curb Swami s growing eccentric behavior and brazen practices such as the midnight baths, prayers etc. These seemed like words of wisdom to the very vexed parents. It seemed to them that this solution would be like making two fruits fall with one stone see their daughter happily married, and at the same time, try and control their son's ever-increasing abnormal behavior.

   Swami's mother summoned up all her resolve and spoke to Swami, emphasizing the fact that he would be putting to rest the grievances of two families by agreeing to this proposal. Naturally, the suggestion disturbed Swami and he was in a great dilemma. One day, his anxious mother asked him to find out what his Devi thought about all this. She questioned his ability to predict others' marriages when he was struggling so much to put to rest the issue of his own marriage. Swami was in a fix. Since the incident at the temple, he had never asked Devi anything regarding matters of his life.

   Preoccupied with all these thoughts, the next Thursday morning, Swami woke up at 2 am as usual and headed to the village pond for his bath. As he stepped into the water, the temple priest had come to the pond to dump the flowers of the previous day that had adorned the temple idol, and take his morning bath. Noticing Swami, the priest ordered him to take the garland home and put it on the deity.

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