Rajni during the launch of the book "Deiviga Kaathal", a Tamil version of Yogananda Paramahansa's "Divine Romance - Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life", delivered a wonderful speech and several great messages for us besides sharing his life experiences.
He begins his speech with a line from Saint Purandaradasar's song. The saint sings that human birth is to be treasured for it is rare. One has to take several thousand births before reaching the present human birth. We have come a long way from being a bacteria to a human. But alas we only delve in the everyday routine of life, seeking new relationships and material comforts.
Rare is this birth.
Rare it is to come to a stage where we question our own existence, from whence we came and where we are heading and ponder over questions about the creator and the soul.
Rare it is for us to come by a guru who has the answers to all these questions and clears the doubts in us.
Finally having a guru as company, it is rare for the guru to dispense his grace and teachings on us.
Rajni reminds us that if we already have all these four, not to waste this life and rare opportunity.
He goes on to narrate a story about a minister who opted to leave all the comforts of the court and his job as adviser to the king wanting to become a hermit. As the king could not convince him to stay, he let him go. After some time the king received news of his minister having returned as a sadhu. The king visited him and questioned his ex-minister about what he had achieved during that time he was out of the palace. The sadhu answered that if he the minister used to stand in front of the king awaiting his orders before, now he was seated and having an audience with the king who stood before him.
There is a network that establishes who shall be a disciple and to whom. The relationship between a guru and shishya or disciple is determined and written beforehand. Hence the guru only appears when a student is ready.
Rajni list several gurus he had and explains how each saint has molded him along the spiritual path. His first guru was his brother Satyanarayana Gaekwad, who used to bring him along as a kid to all the spiritual discourses, lectures, bhajans and devotional programs.
His brother then enrolled him at the Ramakrishna Math where he learnt moral, history, tradition, custom, learnt about the Rishis and the Vedas.
Then it was devotion to Saint Raghavendra from where he learnt rituals and bhakti or devotion.
With Ramana Maharshi the search went within.
With Swami Dayananda Saraswati he learnt to address social problems and polished his understanding of the Vedas and Upanishads.
He received mantra upadesam through Swami Satchidananda Saraswati of Lotus, USA.
In 1978, when he was already in the film industry, he saw the book "An Autobiography of a Yogi" at the airport bookstore. He bought it but could not understand it completely as it was in English. After making the movie Padaiyappa he wanted to end his cinema career. The book was with him all these years, unread until he took it with him and left India to be with Swami Satchidananda Saraswati for 25 days in 2008. He began to read it once there and could not bring himself to lay it down. The chapters on Mahavatar Babaji affected him a lot. While with Swami Satchidananda Saraswathi, the Swami encouraged him to continue making movies for it was an excellent medium to bring devotion to the masses. Rajni was back in Bangalore, pondering over this thought when he read and re-read the book again and again.
That's when one day at 9.45am he felt a spark from the picture of Mahavatar Babaji in the book, work within him, in him. Thinking he could be hallucinating, or seeing things, he brushed it aside and laid the book down. But he became restless and picked up the book. Again the spark in the picture from the book was felt in him. The spark was not visually seen or visible but felt within. Rajni felt as if someone was instructing him to lie down. He could not resist and began to follow the instructions that came from within. He laid down for about 40 seconds. He was perspiring. He got up to look at the picture. There was no more the feeling of seeing the spark. That evening he received the full script for his next movie from within and was asked to title it as Baba. Scene by scene it was shown to him. Scene by scene it came to him. He canceled all prior appointments in Bangalore and headed for Chennai where he completed the movie. After this movie was released he came into Kriya Yoga.
Rajni says that there are many divine secrets hidden in the Himalayas waiting to be discovered. The Siddhas' Yoga teachings and meditation techniques are being brought out into the open to the common man through great spiritual personalities like Lahiri Mahasaya.
Rajni reminds us that just as we find such complexities in the appliances and gadgets, the body too is a great mechanism and a very complex one. To plant a seed one has to prepare the land and soil to receive the seed so that it can germinate in a conducive environment. Just as we dust, sweep and clean the home in event a visitor comes over to our home, imagine how clean your heart should be if God is coming into it to reside. When Krishna was asked to give upadesa to Duryodhana and Arjuna, Krishna went to Duryodhana first. But Duryodhana said that he already knew what was right and what was wrong and anyway would not want to listen. Instead he pointed Krishna to Arjuna saying that Arjuna would not know the difference between right and wrong. "Go preach to him, teach him your upadesam", saying thus Duryodhana sent Krishna to Arjuna. Since Arjuna had surrendered and his heart and head was clear, Krishna could easily relate the Gita to him. Rajni only wishes that we be like Arjuna too, empty to receive God's word.
Similarly we need to prepare this body to receive the cosmos and consciousness. For this the chakras, occult power centres in the spinal cord with their respective elements of nature, need to be cleared and activated. Kriya Yoga brings this cosmic power into the body. It is a great art that brings peace within us.
Rajni also narrates one of Ramakrishna Paramahansa's interesting story. A huge wall stood in the way of several gurus and students. Many tried to climb the wall. Some reached the top and seeing over the wall exclaimed in excitement and amazement and jumped over the other side. Others who reached the top exclaimed in wonder and began to describe what they saw over on the other side. Some came back to lead the remaining over the wall.
This beautiful story categories the gurus into three divisions; those who don't utter a word upon reaching the destination and merge with the other side; those who begin to preach and explain what and how it was over there from their standpoint; and the third category who come back for us, train and lead us back over the wall. Rajni equates Paramahansa with the third category.