As if by chance, I had found a piece of paper that intrigued me. One night when I was working late and was searching for a misplaced paper, I found a small pamphlet in the trash basket. It was called SADHANA TATTVA and was by Swami Shivananda of Rishikesh.
As soon as I read it, my body began to shake. It began with, "An ounce of practice is worth tons of theory" Here was a teacher who was down-to-earth and practical. There was nothing mysterious about his teachings; I felt that I had to meet him for myself. I got a few days leave from the army.
I was an arrogant boy on leave from the army. It meant that I had to travel a day and a night from my army base in Jullunder. I would have only a few hours at the Ashram - just to see the Master and then go right back.
The first time I saw Swami Shivananda he was sitting with about 30 or 40 people around him. He looked like an ordinary man among them. The look on his face and manner of speech were simple and straightforward. Each word came from his heart. There was no kind of religious hypocrisy, no sitting on a tiger skin with ashes smeared all over his body. He had an extraordinary spiritual glow.
The second time, I saw him Swami Shivananda was coming up the stairs in my direction. I did not want to bow my head to him. I was young and arrogant and never wanted to bow my head to anybody - Swami, God-realized soul or whoever,I did not care. Nevertheless, it is the tradition in India that you should bow your head to a holy man. To avoid the situation I just moved out of his path.
The Master saw me and headed in my direction. He asked me who I was and where I was coming from. Then he bowed down and touched my feet!
My whole body began to shake violently. With all my heart, with all my life and love, I learned to bow without any type of reservation. He touched my heart not with miracles or shows of holiness, but with his perfect egoless nature.
He didn't consider that I was just a stupid boy standing there, though I was just that. He touched my heart and broke the ego. That was my first lesson, and if I could attain one millionth of the state of egolessness of the Master, it is His Grace.
Before leaving, I went down the Ganga where it was the custom of the Ashram to do Arati (waving of lights) every evening. All the devotees and inmates of the Ashram assembled by the banks of the Ganga to watch Master perform this evening worship. I was skeptical. I was of a scientific temperament and knew that a river is only water, H2O-imagine worshipping H2O!
But as I stood there and watched Master waving the lights, I saw the river become a mass of flowing lights. At that instant, the river assumed a divine flow, a manifestation of the Grace of the Lord. Master turned and looked at me and in my mind I heard his message, God pervades everything; this too is His Special Form. This entirely changed my outlook on life.That was Shivananda - humble to the core!
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| Agathiyar on completion. Location: The Bronze Creative Studios. Courtesy of Varadaraj |
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| Agathiyar and Varadaraj's many creations of bronze statues of Gods and Goddesses |
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| Agathiyar on Wikipedia |
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| Agathiyar on Wikipedia |
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| Agathiyar in a blog |
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| Agathiyar carried on another blog |
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| Agathiyar carried by organizations |
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| Agathiyar adorns my daughter's blog |
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| Agathiyar on book covers |
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| Agathiyar on invitations |
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| Agathiyar on leaflets |
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| Agathiyar adorns book covers |
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| Agathiyar graces yet another book |
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| Agathiyar raised on a billboard at Vaitheeswarankoil. Photo courtesy of Bala Chandran Gunasekaran |
