Life History of H.H. Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji The fire suddenly grew up to four times its size. There was a sudden flash of brilliant light in the room. It lasted only a fraction of a second but for Satyam it felt like hours of peaceful rest. The brilliant light was like a small lamp to his eyes. In the shadow of that light, he saw a massive form. In it he could see the entire universe, the 14 worlds, the moving and unmoving and the seen and unseen worlds as its parts. It was a wonderful sight to see. It gave him the experience of "The Bliss". He had seen it once with Amma. The difference was that when it became smaller with Amma he had seen the small "Kodanda Rama". This time when it became small he could see the head of the elephant. Those in the room experienced only momentary flash of light and were stunned by the experience. They were speechless. After two minutes Satyam reminded them to proceed with the rest of the ritual. Uncle Sastry thought that there must be something special with Satyam. "He must have learnt some special Mantras somewhere. He insisted on the ceremony. Something special was noticeable in the fire today. I do not think he is practicing the worship of the evil forces," he thought to himself. Similar thoughts went through the minds of others in the room. But, the power of Maya being so great, they all forgot about it immediately. The Upanayanam was completed. Satyam took up the Gayatri mentally and sat quiet for a while. His mind was immersed in the inner vision. He could still hear some Mantras. He heard them repeatedly three times. The meaning of the Mantra was, "The one who blesses with the fulfillment of the sadhana, who illumines the buddhi, who fills the heart of the yogis, that Ganapathi, I worship with single minded concentration." After that he heard a number of slokas. At the end when the Mantras stopped being heard by him, Satyam checked if he had got them inside his mind. After leaving Proddatur, this was the first time he had such experience. He thought that he had completed "Dharana(29)". Meanwhile, he realised that what he heard was from Mudgala Purana, which he had already read before. He had heard three chapters from it. "Why did I hear it?" he asked himself. For the next forty days, he continued to hear the Purana and on the 40th day he heard "The entire universe of moving and the unmoving is to be known as the form of Ganesha. Everyone should worship that Ganesha for the welfare of all". After listening to it Satyam understood that it was the true form of Ganesha. That was why Ganesha had given him the darshana during Upanayanam. Satyam also realised that Ganesha had given him the duties to be conducted. After the ceremony the family thought that Satyam would show more interest in the work at the temple. Instead, he shifted totally to auntie's house at Kesere. This was taken as a sign of improvement and they hoped he would show interest in his studies. But this did not happen and as a matter of fact, it hindered his education. The elders were disappointed. Somehow Satyam managed to find a bell and a conch. Linganna had a Shiva Lingam and few idols for archana. Satyam conducted the pooja to all of them early in the morning. He was not bothered about his personal appearance. He was untidy and his hair was unkempt. He would, on the other hand, put on the mark of vibhuti first thing in the morning and make sure it remained on him till he went to bed at 10 pm. If it started fading away, he would smear extra vibhuti on it. That year he started giving discourses at school. He used to elaborate on the funny situations in the stories and enjoyed doing so. He was also keen to stress on the philosophical side of the subject. His friends therefore started calling him "Swamy, Sanyasi." Satyam lagged behind in his studies. More people started coming to the house to get his assistance. Many of them were senior to him by age and some were even of higher educational qualifications. This was surprising to note by the elders. There was another aspect of Satyam, which surprised Parvathamma. Every year she conducted the nursery school anniversary function. Satyam used to get great scholars to preside over on those functions. Prior to his arrival, those scholars had refused to come to preside over when Parvathamma had gone to invite them. Sometimes Parvathamma wondered how she was not aware of the existence of some scholars in their locality whom Satyam had managed to find. Dwaraka assisted Satyam in the school celebrations. Dwaraka had a group of followers for dramas, games and also for many mischievous acts in the locality. The group used to get into the houses at night times and steal cocoanut and papaya fruit. During Sanskranti(30) the group would collect dry wood planks from all the houses and conduct a bonfire. If anyone tried to catch them, the group would revolt and hit back. The residents of the estate were getting fed up with the problems created by Dwaraka and his friends. It became a routine that the residents would complain to Dwaraka's father about his son's mischief and Dwaraka to receive the belt from his father. Satyam tried to make Dwaraka not to be so mischievous but failed in his efforts. "We have some more time from bringing the change in him. Let us not hurry," Satyam thought and decided to keep quiet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Explanations: 29. Stage in the "Patanjali ashtanga yoga." 30. A festival in January.
This is lunar month of Margashirsa. It is the month that Lord Krishna declared as Him. December 15th is the Purnima and Datta Jayanthi celebrating the appearance of Lord Dattatreya. It is my intention to post an excerpt from the Life History of Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji each day through the 16th. These episodes I will post begin while Sri Swamiji was in high school during 1950's and are taken from the complete work which is posted at Yahoo Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sacredlifeofswamiji/ This Yahoo group contains the complete story from the beginning . Satyam, or Satyanarayana referred to here was Sri Swamiji's name as a child. Later references to Swamy are to Him as well. It describes in detail Sri Swamiji's relationship with Ganapathi, His upanayanam, great compassion, commitment to Dharma, His actions demonstrating and other miraculous incidents. In Datta Seva Hanuman ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
