Chapter Twenty-Six
Standing Strong for Hinduism
As though operated by unseen stagehands in a cosmic play, doors began to open in the early 1980s for Gurudeva’s mission to expand powerfully beyond American shores. After an initial visit to Malaysia with two swamis, a twenty-something group of Master Course students in Kuala Lumpur urged him to visit their country again. This journey was arranged as part of the 1981 Indian Odyssey to Malaysia, Sri Lanka and India. Thirty-three devotees, accompanying Gurudeva as Innersearchers, became witness to what was unfolding in Malaysia—something historic, the introduction of an American guru to a country that had over a million Hindus desperately seeking spiritual guidance while living in the midst of twenty million Muslims. §
Gurudeva’s visit was widely publicized as he met with the Hindu leaders of the nation and spoke to tens of thousands of Hindus in a dozen temples in and around Kuala Lumpur. Gurudeva’s Western origins and ways of expressing Saiva Siddhanta, which is the major tradition followed by Hindus in Malaysia, made it easy for them to relate to him. It galvanized especially the youth, woke them from a kind of hibernation and brought them together in a spiritual fellowship that would help shape the next few decades of Saivism in their nation. In the years to follow, Gurudeva returned again and again to personally direct their spiritual progress. §
Everywhere Gurudeva was greeted and honored with elaborate receptions by local religious groups and societies. At all public gatherings he would introduce the Catechism and Creed to cheering crowds. He spoke with pride of the Saivite religion, telling them they were the inheritors of the most profound religion on the planet. They were accustomed to something different, to having their ancestral faith demeaned and belittled. Here was a guru from the West, tall, leonine, hazel-eyed and wearing hand-woven swami robes telling them the opposite, telling them they could—no, must—be proud of their religion and shout its virtues from the rooftops. At public meetings Gurudeva gave such assurances they would never forget, gave them a new vision of themselves and a new courage to express that vision. §
How startlingly new this was to the Malaysians, who lived in the shadow of Muslim and Christian influence, is hard to imagine, but they caught his spirit, and their lives, and those around them, changed forever. §
Again and again Gurudeva traveled to India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, giving outspoken discourses in hundreds of temples. In every talk he called for Saivites to rediscover their ancient faith, to be strong in the face of opposition, to realize the profundity of Siva’s path to liberation.
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“Hinduism is the greatest religion in the world!” Gurudeva thundered from podium after podium during three consecutive annual pilgrimage tours to India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia in 1981, 1982 and 1983. “Stand strong for Hinduism! Be proud to be a Hindu!” he commanded to applauding audiences. All along the way he would speak to standing-room-only gatherings at temples, ashrams and public halls, each pilgrimage carrying a specific message. It was a mission to “convert Hindus to Hinduism,” as described by Gurudeva’s spiritual brother and fellow worker for the Hindu renaissance, Swami Chinmayananda, characterizing his own aims. §
A Hindu Renaissance
Historically, the modern renaissance of Hinduism began in the 1800s with the missions of Dayananda Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj; Ramakrishna and his disciple Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Ramakrishna Mission; Kadaitswami of Jaffna, in Gurudeva’s own lineage; Sivadayal of the Radhasoami Vaishnava sect; Arumuga Navalar of Jaffna and Ramalingaswami of Tamil Nadu. It included Eknath Ranade, whose social reform thinking inspired Gandhi; Sri Aurobindo, who sought to advance the evolution of human consciousness; Swami Rama Tirtha, who lectured extensively in America; Sadhu Vaswani, Ramana Maharshi and many more. They were dedicated to bringing Hinduism out of centuries of oppression into its rightful place in the modern era. §
For all the progress made by these great men, and dozens more since, there remained in the 1980s serious obstacles to a true Hindu renaissance. At a time when the “brain drain” was drawing India’s best and brightest to America, perhaps it required Gurudeva—one of America’s best and brightest—to travel the other way and remind Indians that they had something money couldn’t buy: Hinduism, the greatest religion in the world. It was to be a tough mission. First, many Hindus wouldn’t even admit they were Hindus. In a lecture in Sri Lanka, he described the problem:§
Today there are many Hindus who when asked, “Are you a Hindu?” reply, “No, I’m not really a Hindu. I’m nonsectarian, universal, a follower of all religions. I’m a little bit of everything, and a little bit of everybody. Please don’t classify me in any particular way.” Are these the words of a strong person? No. Too much of this kind of thinking makes the individual weak-minded. They are disclaiming their own sacred heritage for the sake of money and social or intellectual acceptance. How deceptive! How shallow! The word should go out loud and strong: “Stand strong for Hinduism, and when you do, you will be strong yourself.” §
Closely related to this lack of self-identity as a Hindu was the popular notion that “All religions are one.” Hindus don’t need to claim to be Hindus, went this line of thought, because it doesn’t really matter what religion you follow, since all are the same. This Hindu universalism was rampant, and its followers took every opportunity to deprecate traditional Hinduism as unnecessarily narrow. Furthermore, they argued, Hinduism is more lifestyle than religion. Gurudeva countered:§
All religions are not one. They are very, very different. They all worship and talk about God, yes, but they do not all lead their followers to the same spiritual goal. The Christians are not seeking God within themselves. They do not see God as all-pervasive. Jews, Christians and Muslims do not believe that there is more than one life or that there is such a thing as karma. They simply do not accept these beliefs. They are heresy to them.§
Going against a common trend, he preached the merits of sectarianism, of each of the great traditions of Hinduism—Saivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism—retaining and valuing their unique features. The watered-down, homogenized Hinduism which some were advocating, he warned, would not sustain the individual sampradayas, spiritual teaching traditions, which are Hinduism’s core strengths.§
One of India’s leading thinkers, Sita Ram Goel, wrote, “Gurudeva’s greatest contribution has been to rescue the word Hinduism from being a dirty word and restore it to its age-old glory. He made Hindus everywhere to see themselves as a world community and as inheritors of a great civilization and culture.” Swami Advaitananda of the Brahma Vidya Ashrama in India put it this way: “In the present days, when Hindus are ashamed to call themselves so, it has been his work and teachings that have propelled faith and infused dynamism among the millions who lovingly addressed him as Gurudeva.” §
When speaking to Saivites, Gurudeva would extol the greatness of their denomination and declare that Saivism is the religion of the New Age: §
Here in Sri Lanka and India there is some misconception that in order to progress, in order to move into the age of technology, we have to abandon our religion, give up our culture. This is a false concept. Religion does not conflict with technology. It enhances it, gives it balance and purpose. Our religious teachers are beginning to teach the fact that Saivism is the one religion on the planet best suited to this great age, which agrees most closely with the most advanced postulations of modern science, yet is itself even more advanced.§
Speaking at receptions in Saivism’s most venerated temples, in assembly halls and at village podiums throughout Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka, Gurudeva stirred his fellow Saivites into action. Newspaper coverage of the tour was extensive, and in the South of India a taped radio program of his talks was broadcast on All India Radio.§
What to Do About Christian Infiltration?
Gurudeva was astonished at the pervasive Christian influence in India, even though just two percent of Indians were Christians and even though the British had left fifty years earlier. He found those in India educated in Christian schools to be anemic Hindus, their faith undermined by the years of study under nuns and teachers propounding an alien faith. One Catholic priest in Colombo told him straight out, “The Hindu children that pass through my school may never become Catholics, but they certainly will never be good Hindus.” §
Gurudeva had nothing against Christianity, or any other religion. He came, after all, from a country where Christians are in the majority. Only rarely in his years of ministry in America did he experience any Christian interference. In his early years, he studied with deeply mystical teachers of several religions, including Buddhists, Muslims and Christians. He knew the finer side of each faith. §
What he saw at the Christian schools was bad enough, but the methods of Christian missionaries—trickery, enticement, intimidation—incensed him. He opposed this devious side of Christianity wherever he found it and told Hindus worldwide to stand by their religious rights as Hindus. “When an elephant is young,” he said time and again, “the mahout, trainer, can control it with a small stick, and the elephant learns to fear that stick. When the elephant is big, he still fears the stick, even though he could pick it up and the mahout, too, and toss them far away.”§
By this same psychology, Gurudeva said, Hindus had become meek and submissive under years of Christian rule and unwilling now to mount serious protest to continued Christian oppression, even when the political power which made it possible in the first place was gone. His advice was not to attack the Christians, but to disengage from and ignore them. He told crowds of thousands of Hindus to take their children out of Christian schools and to close their doors on Christian missionaries who came to their homes to proselytize. §
You can remember this when a missionary comes to your door: Welcome him with “Namaste.” Tell him that we have a Catechism of our own. We have a Creed and an Affirmation of Faith in our religion, too. We have our scriptures—our Holy Bible of Saivite Hinduism—the Vedas, Agamas, Tirukural, Tirumantiram and so many sacred texts. We have religious leaders and a tradition that is vastly more ancient than any other. We have our holy temples and our great Gods. We are proud to worship God and the Gods. We have all this and more. Thank you very much. And then close the door!§
As Gurudeva ended each section of his talk to a crowd, there would be a soft murmuring of acknowledgement from those few who spoke English fluently enough to follow his complex thoughts. A translator would then come to the microphone to repeat it all in Tamil, and, when he finished, a roar would fill the temple or hall chambers—sustained cheers of appreciation, joyful applause as the crowd experienced the presence of an eloquent spiritual leader whose courageous words, especially about conversion and anti-Hindu campaigns, had often been whispered among them but never thundered from a public podium. §
Doubtless, few had the courage to follow his advice. A handful of Hindus opposed him, unsure of what he was trying to do, or feeling perhaps that their turf was being encroached upon by an outsider. In 1999, he told his monks on a cruise ship during the Alaska Innersearch program about this time: “We did not fight them—‘them’ is ‘us’—but let them find out that we were all working for the same thing, the upliftment of Hinduism.” And over the years they did, ultimately causing Gurudeva to humorously lament, “I am so disappointed in my enemies. Not one has ever been able to stay mad at me.”§
Gurudeva’s renaissance message to the Saivites of Malaysia, Sri Lanka and India included Hindu pride, clear and public religious identity, correct religious understanding, reverence for scripture, respect for religious leaders, home worship, opposition to conversion, preservation of traditions, harmonious working together, interfaith harmony, Lord Siva as the God of Love and Hinduism as best suited of all religious for the modern, technological age. He dispelled many myths and misunderstandings about Hindus among Hindus and non-Hindus alike. He advocated a strong and loving Hindu home, encouraging mothers to not work but raise their children full-time and for parents to not use corporal punishment on children. He projected this message with clarity, boldness, love and humor, and he made a difference, redefining our modern Hindu world. Here is an excerpt from those talks:§
In looking back on all the wonderful aspects of Hinduism that have been spoken of tonight on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, it is clear that Hinduism is the answer for the future generations on this planet. It is the answer for the New Age, for the dawning Sat Yuga. The gracious Sanatana Dharma, our great religion, has all the answers. It has always had all of the answers in every age, for there was never an age when it did not exist. The time has now passed for many and is quickly passing for everyone when they can deny their Hindu heritage, when they can be afraid to admit their belief in Hinduism or even the simple fact that they are a Hindu. The time has come for Hindus of all races, all nations, of all cultures, of all sects to stand up and let the peoples of the world know of the great religion of which they are one of the staunch adherents. Take courage, courage, courage into your own hands and proceed with confidence. Stand strong for Hinduism.§
It had been four years since Gurudeva had announced that he had settled his debt to his countrymen by teaching the truths of advaita to non-Hindus, and henceforth was turning his attention toward the Hindu community and to non-Hindus who wished to follow him fully into the depths of the world’s most ancient faith. When speaking from podiums throughout South India and Sri Lanka, he urged devotees to not allow their practice to be diluted by putting the icons of other faiths on their altars, a puzzling phenomenon he encountered in home shrines and even recently established temples. §
In order to really meditate to the depth of contemplation, and not merely to quiet mind and emotion and feel a little serenity, you have to be a member of a religion that gives the hope of nondual union with God, that teaches that God is within man, only to be realized. Meditation, if it is to lead to jnana, must begin with a belief that there is no intrinsic evil and encompass the truth of karma, that we are responsible for our own actions. Such meditation must be undertaken by a member of a religion that gives a hope of a future life and does not threaten failure with eternal suffering should failure be the result. Such meditation is possible, in fact required, of those who follow the Hindu Dharma. Hence, the practice of yoga is the highest pinnacle within our most ancient faith.§
If you go through the entire holy scriptures of Saivism, you will not find our saints singing hymns to Adonai-Yahweh, Buddha or Jesus. Our saints told us to worship God Siva, the Supreme God, to worship Ganesha first before worshiping Siva, to worship Lord Murugan. In the old days, there were millions of Siva temples, from the Himalayan peaks of Nepal, through North and South India, Sri Lanka and what is now Malaysia and Indonesia. Everyone was of one mind, worshiping Siva together, singing His praises with a one voice. As a result, India was spiritually unified. It was then the wealthiest country in the world. The worship of Siva will give you wealth. The worship of Siva will give you health. The worship of Siva will give you knowledge. The worship of Siva will fill your heart with love and compassion.§
The Saiva Samayam is the greatest religion in the world. The Saiva Samayam is the oldest religion in the world. The Saiva Samayam has yoga. It has great temples, great pandits, rishis and scriptures. All the saints who sang the songs of Siva told us how to worship Siva and how we should live our Saivite lives. We must all follow those instructions. In singing those songs to Siva, Siva will give you everything that you ask for. He will give you everything that you ask for, because Siva is the God of Love. Our saints have sung that Siva is within us, and we are within Siva. Knowing that, fear and worry and doubt are forever gone from our mind.§
When the mind has resolved all of its differences through worship, penance, dharana, dhyana, then the inner, which is stillness itself, is known. Then the inner is stronger than the outer. It is then easy to see every other person going through what has to be gone through during his or her particular stage on the path. Opposites are there, but no opposites are seen. This is why it is easy for the wise—made wise through spiritual unfoldment—to say, “There is no injustice in the world. There is no evil, no sin.”§
We only see opposites when our vision is limited, when we have not experienced totally. There is a point of view which resolves all contradictions and answers all questions. Yet to be experienced is yet to be understood. Once experienced and understood, the quiet comes. The karmas are quiet. This is the arduous path of charya, kriya and yoga resulting in jnana. This is the path of not only endeavoring to unfold the higher nature but, at the same time and toward the same end, dealing positively and consciously with the remnants of the lower nature. Following this spiritual path, we find ourselves effortlessly replacing charity for greed and dealing with, rather than merely suppressing, the instinctive feelings of jealousy, hatred, desire and anger.§
The Primacy of Initiation
Continuing his stress on bringing souls deeper into the Saivite religion, Gurudeva made arrangements to give Saiva diksha in the 1,000-pillared hall of Chidambaram Temple, initiating fifteen men and women as members of Saiva Siddhanta Church. As all the Saiva gurus before him had done, Gurudeva gave pride of place to diksha, initiation. He wrote:§
Initiation is the goal of all Hindus, and an absolute must for all Saiva souls. This is why they seek out a guru. This is why they manifest in their lives all the good that he would approve. This is why they strive and strive and strive to fulfill, even better than he would expect, all of his expectations. Diksha from a satguru is nothing that can be erased, nothing that can be altered, nothing that can be described. This is why initiation is given—at an auspicious time, in a spiritual mood, at the right moment in the karma of the soul’s long journey from conception in Siva’s all-pervasive shakti to manifestation in the current incarnation. Diksha is a pathway to moksha in this life or a future life. There is no alternative way. There is none. There is none.§
Diksha provides the spark to clear barriers. It is the satguru’s blessing and inner sanction for further sadhana. Giving diksha may be likened to planting a seed. Fruition, growth and ripening come with time and naturally depend on the shishya’s sincerity and personal effort to perform the sadhana given with the diksha, or to fulfill the assigned prayashchitta [penance] to compensate if the sadhana is not performed. The fellowship of initiates are the core of the Hindu Church of the noble Kailasa Parampara. They are truly stalwart and dedicated, having carried the banner of dharma through the thick and thin of their many lives. §
Samaya diksha, also called mantra diksha, is the fundamental Saiva initiation, for through it the devotee is formally connected to a particular lineage by virtue of the preceptor’s spiritual power and authority. All initiates instruct newcomers, not just intellectually but more by example. Novitiates are instructed in how to transform themselves by themselves through daily puja, temple worship, attending festivals, tithing, vegetarianism, pilgrimage, scriptural reading, Ganga sadhana and more. Samaya diksha is the blessing and empowering to enter the kriya pada and perform certain daily sadhanas, including chanting the Panchakshara Mantra, “Aum Namasivaya,” each day at least 108 times on a mala of rudraksha japa beads. §
Nothing is more important than initiation, rites whereby the power is passed from guru to disciple. Here a guru has brought young seekers to the banks of a river, blessing one by holding both hands on his head. The Vedic homa ritual has been completed, and two assistants hold the orange robes and rudraksha malas that will be given to the new swami following the sannyasa diksha.
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This mantra quiets the mind, harmonizes the nerve system, bringing forth knowledge from within, reminding the shishya of his purpose in life and relationship with Lord Siva. Namasivaya literally means “adoration to God Siva.” The symbolism of each of the five letters is: Si is Siva; Va is His revealing grace, Ya is the soul, Na is His concealing grace and Ma is the world. Namasivaya is the gateway to yoga. The secret of Namasivaya is to hear it from the right lips at the right time. Then, and only then, is it the most powerful mantra of Saivism for you.§
Dr. Anandanatarajah Deekshidar, a senior priest at Chidambaram Temple who Gurudeva had been close to for decades, related the following story:§
There was one time Gurudeva came to Chidambaram with a group of pilgrims. I was waiting for him at the hotel entrance with a man who is a millionaire. Gurudeva got off the bus and we greeted him and started to talk to him. A few minutes later an old beggar lady came up to us asking for money. Gurudeva turned to her and gave her some money and started to talk to her. He made her feel welcome and did not chase her away. I have seen so many swamis and other people who would have ignored the poor lady and entertained the wealthy man. Gurudeva is the only person I know who truly saw Siva in everyone. He treated everybody the same. §
Gurudeva was faithfully following the Natha way, mixing freely with all castes, all social strata, all races, seeing no differences and showing no preferences. §
Deekshidar had brought Gurudeva to his humble home a number of times for tea or lunch, and they knew each other well. The priest shared another story with one of Gurudeva’s monks:§
In every nation, city and village he visited, Gurudeva met with priests and pandits, aadheenakarthars, yogis, philosophers and theologians, sharing the principles of Advaita Siddhanta and urging them to work as one spiritual family.
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Whenever a puja is performed to Lord Nataraja in the Chidambaram temple, it is traditional that the priest who is doing the Siva puja makes the naivedyam [food offering] and brings it to the shrine himself. All my life I have been on time in preparing the naivedyam at home and have brought it to the shrine before I begin my puja. But once, on my birthday, I was late. I started preparing the naivedyam but could not get it ready in time for the puja. I had to begin the puja; then half way through I stopped to go get the naivedyam. I felt bad about this and never told anyone about it. §
Some years later, when Gurudeva came to Chidambaram, I was talking to him, and he suddenly said to me, “So, on your birthday you didn’t get the naivedyam ready in time for your Siva puja.” It always amazed me how he knew about it when I had never told anyone.§
A Flood of Inspired Talks
During the late 1970s and early 80s Gurudeva gave a steady stream of talks, urging Hindus to stand strong for their faith, expounding the glories of Hindu culture and elucidating the subtleties of Saiva Siddhanta philosophy. In speaking of the mystical within, Gurudeva was precise and explicit, able to speak of the ineffable, to make the deepest truths meaningful to others. On May 18, 1981, he spoke to his monks on the two perfections that lie at the core of every soul:§
Gurudeva loved a procession, and none was so splendid as in Tuticorin. Over 300,000 welcomed him, showering baskets of flowers from the rooftops as they paraded the Hawaiian satguru and his 70 devotees through the streets for three hours.
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Parasiva, the Self God, lies resident at the core of man’s existence, far beyond the reach of the external phases of consciousness; yet these exist only because That exists, the timeless, causeless, spaceless God Siva beyond the mind. §
The other perfection inherent in the soul of man is Satchidananda—Being, Consciousness and Bliss. When mind force, thought force and the vrittis, or waves of the mind, are quiescent, the outer mind subsides and the mind of the soul shines forth. We share the mind of God Siva at this superconscious depth of our being. In entering this quiescence, one first encounters a clear white light within the body, but only after sufficient mastery of the mind has been attained through the disciplined and protracted practices of yoga. §
Hearing the vina, the mridangam, the tambura and all the psychic sounds is the awakening of the inner body, which, if sadhana is pursued, will finally grow and stabilize, opening the mind to the constant state of Satchidananda, where the holy inner mind of God Siva and our soul are one. I hold that Satchidananda—the light and consciousness ever permeating form, God in all things and everywhere—is form, though refined form, to be sure. Satchidananda is pure form, pure consciousness, pure blessedness or bliss, our soul’s perfection in form. Parasiva is formless, timeless, causeless, spaceless, as the perfection of our soul beyond form. §
Though it is supreme consciousness, Satchidananda is not the ultimate realization, which lies beyond consciousness or mind. This differs from popular interpretations of present-day Vedanta, which makes these two perfections virtually synonymous. Modern Vedanta scholars occasionally describe Satchidananda almost as a state of the intellect, as though the perfected intellect, through knowledge, could attain such depths, as though these depths were but a philosophical premise or collection of beliefs and insights. This is what I call “simplistic Vedanta.” §
To understand how these two perfections differ, visualize a vast sheath of light which permeates the walls of this monastery and the countryside around us, seeping in and through all particles of matter. The light could well be called formless, penetrating, as it does, all conceivable forms, never static, always changing. Actually, it is amorphous, not formless. Taking this one step farther, suppose there were a “something” so great, so intense in vibration that it could swallow up light as well as the forms it permeates. This cannot be described, but can be called Parasiva—the greatest of all of God Siva’s perfections to be realized. This, too, can be experienced by the yogi, in nirvikalpa samadhi. §
Thus, we understand Parasiva as the perfection known in nirvikalpa samadhi, and Satchidananda as the perfection experienced in savikalpa samadhi. By the word formless I do not describe that which can take any form or that which is of no definite shape and size. I mean without form altogether, beyond form, beyond the mind which conceives of form and space, for mind and consciousness, too, are form.§
Marching Through Sri Lanka and South India
The 1982 Indian Odyssey and the all-island tour of Sri Lanka that followed had no precedent in history. No one, not even S. Shanmugasundaram, the liason officer for the Church in Sri Lanka who had done the groundwork for the journey, had an inkling of the overall magnitude of the receptions that awaited Gurudeva there. §
It was unprecedented precisely because religious followings in Asia remain exclusive, and the followers of one teacher or guru do not attend the lectures of another. When a Ramakrishna swami travels, for example, his audience is, for the most part, Ramakrishna Mission members, plus a few uncommitted seekers. But here was a rare soul, a guru, not from India, but from the Wild West, from America, who had no local following and posed no threat to any movement. After all, he would soon return to his land and not draw devotees away from the local ashrams. Everyone was, therefore, free to attend his talks, and they did in numbers that had not been seen since the legendary saints of yore walked these same lanes to speak similar thoughts to devotees centuries before. §
In this remote part of the world, the village was still the center of life; and when Gurudeva rode through a village, by car or carriage, it came alive. Thousands of Saivites lined the lanes of Alaveddy, Kopay, Karainagar, Batticaloa, Hatton, Kokuvil and elsewhere to honor and revere the satguru and affectionately greet the Saiva pilgrims from the West. A holiday was declared in Kilinochchi so all the school children of the district could join in the parade, which wound a full sixteen miles through the region and took an entire day. §
From 9am to 5pm Gurudeva was seated on a tall chariot made for the occasion, drawn through the crowded streets by hundreds of men pulling two long, stout ropes. At the gate to each family compound, typically just off the road, nearly every household had set up an elaborately decorated greeting altar, with brass oil lamps called kuttuvilakku and a kumbha. Standing around the altar, the entire family (often three generations) would greet the tall, white-haired, orange-robed, rudraksha-bedecked satguru with flowers, rosewater, holy ash and arati. §
For most, he simply passed by and they rushed forward to throw their garland into his hands. Now and again, the procession halted, and Gurudeva got down, approached the family’s altar and allowed them to pass the lighted lamp before him, to pour water on his dusty feet, place the red pottu on his forehead and garland him. He looked like Siva Himself, they whispered to one another, so divine, so full of light and love. For these families, stories would echo for generations.§
Processions continued for miles and miles in the hot sun, village after village. As he approached the outskirts of a village, you could hear the distant, welcoming roar of hundreds of voices intoning “Aum Namasivaya” with heartfelt fervor. Kids set off firecrackers and lit sparklers. Those with more ingenuity had set nets of flowers high in the trees, and as Gurudeva walked beneath, they tugged on ropes to release showers of blossoms. Each procession had its destination, a temple usually, for this is the common gathering place for Saivites and saints, but sometimes it was a hall or a schoolyard. §
The last few hundred meters, sometimes the last mile, men would scurry in front of him, in teams of eight, to place on the ground newly woven white veshti cloth in ten-meter lengths so the satguru’s feet, bare as he approached the temple, would not have to touch the Earth. Walking before the satguru, there was always a team of nagasvara and tavil musicians and a flock of young girls in white dresses tossing rose petals beneath his feet. §
Arriving, Gurudeva was escorted to the Deity’s shrine for a brief puja, then to the stage for the obligatory oratory by local politicians and village elders, which, if allowed, would eclipse the real purpose of the day. Toward the end Gurudeva decreed that his talk would be first and the introductions would follow. Amazingly, it worked; and his connection with the audience came to life, absent the hour-long soporific speechifying by others. §
It is customary, for guests of such stature, for the community to prepare a beautifully composed and framed document, a kind of certificate of praise, which is read aloud then gifted to the visitor. Hundreds of these were given to Gurudeva, each a work of art which someone spent days writing and typesetting. Some were poems in Tamil and English, some were spiritual manifestos and others were outpourings of love for the swami whose noble presence was a promise that Saivism has a future as grand as its past. §
Here are excerpts from two of dozens of welcome addresses that were lovingly presented to Gurudeva by representatives of Saiva institutions of Malaysia, Sri Lanka and India during the 1982 Innersearch Odyssey. This one is from the Saivaits’ Sabba, Sri Somanatha Swami Temple, Arumuganeri, India:§
The devotees of Sri Somanatha Swami Temple at Arumuganeri deem it a privilege to welcome Your Holiness and the enlightened disciples who accompany Your Holiness in this pilgrimage. The debut of Your Holiness at our village is really a palliative unto the ardent Saivites. Being dedicated to Saiva philosophy and faith, Your Holiness is an exemplar to devotees of this village, who long for a spiritual message. It is a soothing solace to our mind that Your Holiness has been giving bone and flesh to Saiva Siddhanta at the ripe time after becoming a sage in the East. While most of the people in the East have ceased to have the Saiva symbols on their foreheads out of changing fashions and culture, the timely message from Your Holiness to possess them is welcomed and hailed by us. §
The pilgrimage undertaken by Your Holiness and devoted disciples may enlighten the people and help them fasten to the fold of the time-immemorial Saivism. We earnestly beg the blessings of Your Holiness and pray that the endeavors shouldered by Your Holiness in the rejuvenation of Saivism may open a new page in the annals of Hindu religion. Let Saiva dogma flourish bounteously all over the world! §
Sri Subramuniya Ashram, Alaveddy, January 14, 1982: §
Your pilgrimage is unmistakenly a divinely inspired one undertaken to dispel the gathering darkness of intense materialism in this wide world by proclaiming and reaffirming the eternal message of the most ancient faith of Saivism. The origin of Saivism is beyond the ken of historical research, lost in the mists of time. Was it not the omnipresent and omniscient God Himself who assumed the enthralling form of Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Preceptor, and revealed to the four immortal sages the eternal verities of Sanatana Dharma and the luminous path to Reality as enunciated in the Saiva Siddhanta philosophy? Has He not, out of His infinite grace, sent down His emissaries of saints and sages to redeem mankind whenever virtue subsides and vice prevails? It is the appearance of these saints and sages which has illuminated the otherwise dark history of humanity. §
Humanity is now on the brink of cataclysm of war, having forsaken dharma and faith in Providence. It is at this critical moment of history that God has chosen you, Gurudeva, to preach and propagate the endless glories of Saivism and the Vedic religion as the sure means to salvation and unalloyed happiness. Your lucid expositions of the Saiva religion in all its aspects have reawakened the faith of Saivites in their own religion and rekindled in their hearts a burning desire to live more fully the Saivite way of life. You have not only forged a marvelous unity among Hindus all over the world but also won the staunch following of thousands of erudite Americans and created a beautiful array of American monks of unsullied purity. You have thus engendered an infinite spiritual power to liquidate the forces of materialism and reestablish dharma and lasting peace on this Earth. §
You have now come down with a majestic group of pilgrims, like the Great God Siva surrounded by His ganas, to lose yourself in the stillness of communion with God in the grand temples of South India and Sri Lanka, and involve His unfailing grace for the fulfillment of your mission. May the whole world hearken to the voice of God reverberating through you, Gurudeva, and attain the four purusharthas of life. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.§
At each venue, schoolchildren came forward to dance and sing for their guest, then institutions, one by one, approached with offerings of flower garlands. Such garlands they were, giant garlands, some a full foot in diameter and nine feet long, carried by two people to the stage—fragrant garlands, simple and fancy garlands, tens, then scores, then hundreds of garlands. Two men would be fully occupied for thirty minutes removing the flowers from Gurudeva’s neck, always leaving just enough so he could see over and into the crowd. The heat of that burden was only known to those close to Gurudeva, and the monks took turns fanning him when he began to perspire. §
At the end, a pile of garlands four feet tall sagged the plywood stage. Finally, Gurudeva strode to the podium to deliver his talk. Day after day it went thus—morning, afternoon and evening processions, morning, afternoon and evening talks. Gurudeva covered much of the 25,000-square-mile nation, driving the back roads from Jaffna to Kilinochchi, from Kandy to Batticaloa, from Colombo to the mountainous tea country.§
The turnout, in terms of sheer numbers, coupled with the deeply devotional spirit that arose from the hearts of the Sri Lankan Saivites for this occasion, exemplified an abiding reverence for the satguru. It is estimated that during those three weeks, Gurudeva trekked to every major Saivite center in Sri Lanka and over 300,000 came to see and hear him, to touch and be touched by him. S. Shanmugasundaram commented:§
Not since the days of Saint Tirujnanasambandar, 1,200 years ago, has there been such devotion shown, where crowds of thousands would greet, follow and attend the words of a jivanmuktar, a liberated soul. §
During Gurudeva’s many journeys to India and Sri Lanka, hundreds of thousands came forward for blessings. Following a temple talk, he would typically sit for hours as, one by one, people came forward to greet him. Each would receive a smile and a mark of holy ash on the forehead, delivered with his right thumb.
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As one of the Church’s senior swamis observed:§
The state of Saivism in Lanka is like a blazing fire that has burned down to smoldering embers. All that is needed is to fan the embers, put on some wood and the roaring fire is there once again. Gurudeva is simply fanning those embers, and the fire is blazing forth.§
Gurudeva must have stopped four or five hundred times on this trip. Every time he headed toward an event, there was a great jockeying of families and institutions urging him to stop at their place, which was always, they said, on the way: “It’s just for five minutes, Gurudeva, I promise. People have been waiting all day for your blessings. You can spare just five minutes.” This happened so frequently that the monks developed the FMS Theory, the “five-minute-stop theory.” §
During the 1980s Gurudeva visited all of the Saiva mathas of South India, connecting with their abbots. The traditional culture he observed in these ancient monastery-temple complexes guided his development of Kauai Aadheenam.
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A typical FMS began with Gurudeva’s team relenting, “OK, we will stop for just a quick darshan.” Reaching a crossroads, they stepped into a crowd of a thousand people, cheering, elbowing for a view, holding homemade banners aloft welcoming the “Saint of Saivism,” offering arati. Suddenly the mass of people would be on the move, pushing Gurudeva forward, sweeping him into a hall where another twelve hundred people waited, singing and chanting and begging Gurudeva to say a few words. But first, a little introduction by the local elders! Forty-five minutes later, with military precision, the team would forcibly extract Gurudeva, retreat to the white van in which he and his five-man staff (two of his swamis, one sadhaka, a lay minister of the Church and the driver) were traveling, and escape, until the next FMS. In that way, to go twenty miles sometimes took three or four hours—not a happy thing for those waiting for the official event down the road.§
In one place villagers heard that Gurudeva was not stopping, so they felled a large tree and put it across the road. He got down there, so sincere was their devotion, so desperate their tactics. §
Similar receptions happened during the Innersearch in India. In the city of Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, 80,000 people turned out in 1981 for a two-hour welcome parade down the main street, with joyous citizens showering Gurudeva with baskets of flower petals from rooftops as he and his followers rode by in decorated rickshaws and horse-drawn carriages. The sight of Western marching bands next to tavil and nagasvara players drove home the cultural interplay. The only parallel, one Innersearcher offered, was a ticker-tape parade down New York’s Fifth Avenue for returning astronauts. From the temples of downtown Kuala Lumpur, to school assembly halls in Jaffna, to the aadheenams of South India, these gatherings of Western and Eastern Saivites set new patterns and established connections that would span generations.§
Somehow Gurudeva had been warned that an ethnic war would break out the following year in Sri Lanka, a war that didn’t end until 2009 and ultimately killed as many as 100,000 and drove hundreds of thousands of Tamils from their beloved homeland. His message to the people was a preparation for the worst: “Hold tight to Siva’s Feet and don’t be afraid.” Two and a half million Tamil Hindus lived in the Jaffna area at that time. They were afraid of the future, and Gurudeva was working hard to quell their fear, telling them to have courage and not forget God and guru. §
He also spoke boldly about another battle that was being waged, the battle for their souls, driven by the armies of Christian conversion:§
If you love Siva, you don’t fear death—and you don’t fear those who live in fear, be they a Christian missionary or anyone else. In Hatton, I saw posters on the walls of buildings offering one hundred rupees to anyone who converts a Hindu to Christianity. How disgusting that all of the Tamils have bounty money on their heads. That means if you convert somebody, the Christians will pay you one hundred rupees, just as in the old, Wild West days the sheriff would pay a bounty for bringing in a bank robber. §
These conversions are all very shallow. They do not change anybody’s belief structure or anything of that nature. They are just promising worldly benefits, you know: “You can get medical attention if you convert; otherwise, just go over there and die.” Such cruel tactics—probably very much unbeknownst to the headquarters in the United States, because it is being done by Tamils who have converted to Christianity. There are no governing rules, and that’s how the local missionaries get money from the United States, by giving a list of names of those they have “saved.”§
Saiva Siddhanta Finds a Hero
From his days with Satguru Yogaswami, Gurudeva held and taught that Saiva Siddhanta is essentially monistic, though of a different breed than the well-known monism of Adi Shankara. But there was another, quite prominent Saiva Siddhanta view that he learned of in Sri Lanka in the late 40s and was now about to face in a personal way. §
I first became aware of this perennial debate in 1948 while performing sadhana, living in little mud huts with cow dung floors, in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, prior to my initiation from my satguru, Siva Yogaswami. I learned that various pluralist adherents in the area were not pleased with this modern mystic’s monistic statements and conclusions. §
In Malaysia, Fiji, Trinidad, Europe, Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius and more, devotees took special joy in receiving the tall satguru who looked like Siva, spoke like Siva and radiated a palpable love that transformed their lives. During grand processions, they placed white cotton cloth on the ground for him to walk on.
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Siva Yogaswami asked me which of these schools of thought was the right one. I told him that both were right in their own way. It all depends on whether you are on top of the mountain looking down or at the bottom of it looking up. He smiled and nodded. Jnanaguru Yogaswami taught that monistic theism is the highest vision of truth. §
In my life, the issue again came into prominence in the early 80s after my recognition by the world community of Saivites as Guru Mahasannidhanam of Kauai Aadheenam and Jagadacharya of the Natha Sampradaya’s Kailasa Parampara. §
While visiting the 1,400-year-old Dharmapura Aadheenam, Gurudeva made note of the abbot’s massive earrings. The monastery head called for two gold earrings and ceremonially fit them on his guest.
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In the early 1980s Gurudeva produced hundreds of thousands of pamphlets that circled the globe, proclaiming the oneness and ultimate unity of God and soul. These provoked some interesting responses from those who hold that God and soul are eternally separate and who refer to themselves as pluralists. He described the fundamental difference between the two views:§
In the monistic view, God Siva is everything; even this physical universe is a part of Him, though He transcends it as well. In the pluralistic view, God Siva animates and guides the universe, but it is not a part of Him. The crux of the difference, then, is whether there is one eternal reality in the universe or three, whether the soul is eternally separate or is, in essence, one with Siva.§
For the most part, monists and pluralists within Saiva Siddhanta are of one mind. These are not diametrically opposing philosophies. They share more in common than they disagree about. In fact, between these two schools there is ninety-five percent agreement and only five percent dissidence.§
At first, letters from the pluralists were tame and kindly, if a bit patronizing. They softly reminded the satguru in Hawaii, as an adult might correct an unknowing child, of the eternal, separate existence of God, soul and world, and hinted he might want to revise his books, and his creed, to accommodate this truth. Back went the responses, assuring the concerned elders that he had it right, that his teachings were in concert with Yogaswami’s and Saint Tirumular’s, and the other form of Saiva Siddhanta was a modern divergence from that tradition.§
That did it. Off went the gloves as pandits and swamis from several nations barraged the little Kauai monastery with ontological assaults, tendentious arguments and petty criticisms. It was important for them to sway the guru in Hawaii, for he had a presence on the global stage that they did not enjoy; and just as they had embraced him for bringing Saivism back to life in the modern age, they were now compelled to distance themselves from his errant beliefs. §
All efforts to persuade Gurudeva only elicited affection from him, and support for his position from authentic sources, not the least of which was Justice Maharajan of Madras, regarded as the world’s foremost authority on the Tirumantiram and an avid supporter of Gurudeva’s views. §
The pluralists grew insolent and mean, launching a campaign of name-calling and put-downs, all couched in the subtle slurs that only well-read men are capable of. They thought to isolate Gurudeva from the Saiva Siddhanta mainstream by suggesting he had formed an aberrant, contemporary Siddhanta. Disparagingly, they called it “Hawaii Saivism.” §
To no avail. Gurudeva would not budge. Instead he reached out to them and invited a debate of sorts, through the mail. He traveled to the Saiva centers, where he made the case for monistic Saiva Siddhanta, drawing deeply from the Tirumantiram, the spiritual well of Tamil scripture that had fed Saiva mysticism for centuries. At first, the pandits cried foul, accusing Gurudeva of having his translators skew the English to support his interpretation. But when other equally competent Tamil translators were marshalled to the task, the pluralists saw that Gurudeva was right: the great Tirumantiram indeed spoke boldly of a monistic view. The pandits did what any desperate debator does; they tossed out their own sacred text, averring, “We have been drinking at a poisoned well.” A shocking gesture, but their only viable tactic, since their own scripture indicted their cause.§
In July of 1983 a conference on the issue, which had spread to every learned Siddhantin in the world, was convened in Kuala Lumpur. Six hundred attended the two-day event, during which both sides presented their views. Between the plenaries, tedious sessions were held in the library as text after text was marched onto the battlefield of belief. It was an historic two days, and if anyone left with a single impression it was this: Gurudeva stood staunchly for monistic Saiva Siddhanta, and no one was going to change his mind.§
Seeing this, and no doubt partially persuaded by the mountain of evidence that Gurudeva and his monks presented, the opposition softened, concluding finally something Gurudeva had offered as the solution months before: that there are indeed two schools of Saiva Siddhanta, the original monistic school of Rishi Tirumular and the subsequent pluralistic school founded by Saint Meykandar. This brought peace to a tense situation and allowed both sides to work again together for the future of Saivism. Gurudeva later recollected the resolution:§
The monism/pluralism debate, rekindled by our statement that there can be only one final conclusion, was resolved in the understanding that within Saiva Siddhanta there is one final conclusion for pluralists and one final conclusion for monistic theists. This occurred in February of 1984 at the South Indian monastery of Sri la Sri Shanmuga Desika Gnanasambandha Paramacharya Swamigal, 26th Guru Mahasannidhanam of the Dharmapura Aadheenam, at a meeting of professors, advocates, theologians, academicians and pandits on the issue. §
Thus the spirit of Sanatana Dharma that is modern Hinduism bound the monistic school and the pluralistic school into a productive partnership for the good of all, working together in the great Hindu renaissance, which is surging forward as a result of the global Hindu diaspora, and spawning an indomitable Hindu front. We are happy to say that peace, tolerance, forbearance and mutual respect now exist between these two schools. §
We feel that the foundation for this coexistence of love and trust was made on January 30, 1981, when we met with His Holiness for the first time. I was on a holy pilgrimage to Saivism’s most sacred sites with my entourage of forty Eastern and Western devotees when messengers from His Holiness invited us to visit his ancient Dharmapura Aadheenam. §
Together we sat in the inner chambers of his palatial spiritual refuge, built by maharajas in the sixteenth century. It was quite a spectacle—Eastern pandits with their guru, and Western mystics with theirs, discussing the philosophical enigmas that have perplexed the mind of man from the dawn of history. Through our translators, we spoke of God, of the soul and the world, and of the dire need for Saivite schools in South India, and around the world, to pass this great knowledge on to the next generation.§
After our lively discussion, a special lunch was served. Later, one of our swamis casually inquired of His Holiness about his large golden earrings, wondering where such a pair might be obtained for myself. Without hesitation, the guru summoned an aide and whispered some instructions. Moments later, a pair of earrings identical to those he was wearing were placed in his hands. His Holiness indicated that these were for me. Joyfully shrugging off our objections that he was being too generous, he immediately set about placing them in my ears with his own hands, enlarging the existing holes to accept these massive gold rings which are the traditional insignia of a paramacharya guru mahasannidhanam aadheenakarthar. Then he presented new orange kavi cloth to me and to my accompanying swamis.§
We gratefully accepted the sannidhanam’s unexpected and generous gift as a gesture of goodwill to help us on our way of spreading the message of Saiva Siddhanta. Perhaps even more importantly, it was to us a sign of cooperative efforts between two great monasteries, one firmly teaching pluralistic Saiva Siddhanta in the East, and the other boldly promulgating monistic Saiva Siddhanta in the West. We thought to ourself that all that transpired after this would be for the best. To the onlooking pandits, this presentation of the acharya earrings meant that all knowledgeable Hindus would know that the Guru Mahasannidhanam of Dharmapura Aadheenam and the Guru Mahasannidhanam of Kauai Aadheenam would work together for the future of Saiva Siddhanta. §
Later the same day, Mahasannidhanam asked me to address several thousand people who were seated in the giant inner hall overlooking the large temple tank. I spoke of the greatness of Saivism and Saiva Siddhanta and the effects of its spreading into the Western world. The day culminated when His Holiness handed me an ornate silver casket, in which was kept a precious scroll honoring our work in spreading Saiva Siddhanta.§
Later, after being engraved with words of acknowledgement, the casket was officially presented to me at the 1,000-pillared hall in Chidambaram Temple just before the sacred Bharatanatyam performance by premier dancer Kumari Swarnamukhi, a state treasure of Tamil Nadu, which we arranged as part of our Innersearch Travel-Study Program. This was the first dance performance within the temple’s precincts in over fifty years, since the Anglican British outlawed the dancing of devadasis in temples. More than 15,000 devotees were packed into the viewing area while 300,000 more, we were told, filled the 40-acre temple complex. The entire city of Chidambaram came forward, as well as neighboring villages, for this historic presentation of all 108 tandava poses, a magnificent event held on the temple’s most popular evening, establishing once and for all that, yes, dance could again be held in Chidambaram. This tradition, once banned, now continues at Siva’s most hallowed sanctuary. §
So, dancing with Siva began again on that historic day—a dance that never ends. We look forward to the day when dance in each and every Saiva temple in South India and around the world is a vital part of worship. That day is not far off, for temple congregations in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States already take great joy when their girls and boys dance for God and the Gods. That dance is the perfect metaphor of Siva’s gracious presence in the world He created!§