Commentary on Paramahansa Nityananda's Chidakasha Gita–Number 10
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

Chidakasha Gita: Verses 28-31

28. People generally think that a teacher’s body is guru. A man does not become a guru by simply wearing sandals and counting beads on a rosary. One who talks Brahmajnana and gives stones to his disciples is not a guru. Whatever a guru speaks in words, he must show it in action. First one must practice and after realization, he must begin to teach others.

More about gurus–and more to come in the next aphorism.

• People generally think that a teacher’s body is guru.

This is really only to be expected, because however philosophical we may think we are, we are very body-identified–it is a matter of conditioning from nearly all our previous lives. So of course we will identify a guru or teacher with his body and become dependent–even obsess–on it. This is not just a serious obstacle to spiritual life, many “disciples” make it a substitute for spiritual life. What we should be intent on is the wisdom teaching of the guru. We need to listen, learn, and apply–and that is all. If the guru’s body is far away or no longer alive, we will be in no way hindered in our progress. That of course is easy to say, but human beings are addicted to attachments of all sorts, including “spiritual” attachments. I will admit to you that I wish with all my heart that I could have even just a few minutes in the presence of the great souls I have known in the past. There is no substitute for the company of the holy, for it can change us in subtle ways we often are not aware of until that company is lost. But since Brahman Itself is “Time, the mighty cause of world destruction” and “all-destroying death” according to the Gita (11:32; 10:34), we shall certainly lose the company of the holy, and it is wisdom of be ready for that. We must strive to embody the wisdom they teach us so at least that wisdom shall live on, and after our death we can ascend to those worlds where such great ones abide until again returning to purify and bless the earth–perhaps with us as their companions in the Great Work.

• A man does not become a guru by simply wearing sandals and counting beads on a rosary.

Certainly no one becomes a real spiritual teacher in such simple ways, but a lot of fakes do–and make money at it.

Nityananda is referring to the wooden sandals with a knob that goes between the big and second toes. Hardly ever worn in modern times, teachers with ostentation and pretension often wear then to demonstrate that they are the very embodiments of ancient religious tradition. (They usually have some absurd pseudo-yogic rationale for the sandals, too.) The clack-clack of those sandals are not unknown to me–and they were only carrying around emptiness of mind, heart, and soul. And O the beads!

The supreme jnani, Swami Sri Yukteswar, detested big beads and big tilaks on the forehead (and often elsewhere). He would reprimand anyone who came to his ashram all decked out in them–yes, and with the clack-clacks, too. If anyone protested his “bad manners,” he would firmly say: “Too much ‘good’ is no longer good.” He was right.

• One who talks Brahmajnana and gives stones to his disciples is not a guru.

Even if I were inclined to make a list of such hypocrites I could not, because I would not know where to start or have the time to do so. I have seen a great deal of people trying to eat and digest rocks, and quite a few were spiritually killed by it. But the gurus just kept on unhindered as their slaves kept hacking away at the rock pile.

• Whatever a guru speaks in words, he must show it in action. First one must practice and after realization, he must begin to teach others.

Indeed! And a true guru is a living example of what he teaches–and he continues to observe all that he teaches to others. You know you are within the gates of a guru-cult when your hear: “Maharaj no longer needs to do all that….” Buddha meditated until the day of his passing from this world, and he followed all the disciplines that even the youngest of the monks observed. He went on the alms-round just like everyone else–no special cook and kitchen for him. Nor did he make his advanced age an excuse for slacking off. The same was true of Swami Sivananda. What he told others to do, he himself did until the last breath.

29. One who has thoroughly wiped off the idea “I am the body” is fit to be called a guru. There is none higher than such a one. There is no god above such a guru. Such a guru is God, and God is such a guru.

Moreover, such a one does not the the idea “I am a guru.” They see divinity within all, equally, and never see them as disciples. Once a vain young Brahmin man went to Rishikesh to see Swami Sivananda. He was one of these “I bow to no one” simplistic “non-dualists.” So he was wondering how he would get out of bowing to Sivanandaji, since all would be doing so. In his egoic dilemma he went into a small alleyway to ponder what to do. In a matter of moments Swami Sivananda entered that place, come up to the young man, and bowed down and touched his feet! He got the message.

It is true, there are a lot of “jewel in the lotus” gurus in India, but there are real gurus that treat everyone like their own family–often to the shock of those that have only been around the “jewel” type. That is why, presumptuous as it is really is, when I speak of Swami Sivananda I can so readily call him “my friend.” One morning in satsang I sat there looking at him and knowing: “If there is anyone in this world who loves me, it is this man”–and I did not mean love in the egoic sense of normal human emotion. He loved ME–my Self, not my masks and labels. Truly: Sivananda was God and God was Sivananda.

30. If you keep sugar apart from us, we cannot have experience of its sweetness. If we eat it, then only we know its taste. A man cannot get mukti if he simply repeats “Rama,” “Krishna,” or “Govinda” for a thousand years. He must repeat it heartily.

The Canadian humorist, Stephen Leacock, wrote a wonderful satire called Sorrows of a Super Soul, in which a complete fool tries to commit suicide by keeping poison and bullets by her bed. Every morning she is astounded to find herself still alive. Silly as that is, this foolishness is a commonplace in human life–especially in the field of religion. Even though religion is the science of the spirit (at least true religion is), people confine it to externals, the result being that people remain in ignorance–and often hypocrisy–all their lives, for religion must be thoroughly internalized to be of any real value and effect. This is the meaning of this aphorism. I will add, myself, that sadhana alone is the process of the necessary internalization. I am sure Nityananda would agree.

31. Cow milk can never be bitter. The stone fixed in the earth cannot speak. By visiting places of pilgrimage like Varanasi [Benares] and Rameshwaram, a man cannot attain mukti. What is essential is keeping the mind steady for a moment by introversion.

• Cow milk can never be bitter.

I confess I have no idea what he means by the first sentence. Perhaps it is an inaccurate translation. I say this because cow’s milk can be horribly bitter. I know, because during the summer between my junior and senior years in high school I traveled to Louisiana. Southern hospitality is very real, and a family we never met afterward invited us for breakfast. I was given a huge glass of milk. I tasted it and UGH! it was the worst-tasting stuff I had ever encountered. I mean TERRIBLE. So I put it down and controlled my disgust. After about ten minutes one of the people I was travelling with said: “Drink your milk!” If I never had will power before, I certainly had it then. I drank the whole thing at once, and sat there feeling sick. Later at our destination I told our hostess. “Oh,” she said, “the cow must have eaten some Bitter Weed. It happens at this time of year if the farmers aren’t careful.” So I know, dear friends, that cow’s milk can for sure be BITTER.

• The stone fixed in the earth cannot speak.

Nityananda is referring to Shiva Lingas being only mute stones, even though many famous pilgrimage shrines house famous Lingas, such as Vishvanath in Kashi (Varanasi) and Rameshwaram–the latter being said to be the linga worshipped by Rama before he crossed over to Lanka.

• By visiting places of pilgrimage like Varanasi [Benares] and Rameshwaram, a man cannot attain mukti. What is essential is keeping the mind steady for a moment by introversion.

Here again we find the necessity for internalization–even if an external object be supremely holy. Consider Krishna, the archetypal Divine Yogi. There were those who did not benefit a bit from being around him, some hated him, a few tried to kill him, but Arjuna was transformed by being with him. Arjuna, you see, was a yogi, and that made all the difference. He internalized and assimilated the wisdom of Krishna, making it his own.

It is in the stillness of meditation that we find the path to liberation (moksha). It can be found nowhere else. As Nityananda says, it is essential.

• Seeing earthen and stone images is not seeing God. It is mind’s hallucination when you regard images as God.

This is one of those principles that is both Is and Is Not. I remember unsettling a Trappist monk who witnessed a special worship (puja). When it was over, he said to me: “But you only worship what the image represents–not the image itself–right?” “No,” I said, “we worship the image because everything is divine. Of course it is our intention to worship the Absolute, but as I say, That is all-embracing. The in/out duality is a favorite playground of Western thinking, but not in the East.” I hope he forgave my cantankerous insistence.

So when Nityananda says that seeing images is not seeing God, he means that it is erroneous to think we are seeing God in his true essence. Sri Ramakrishna said that water is everywhere, but we must go where it is to be found in its complete, liquid form. In the same way we must go to the boundless Ocean of Being–then we will see God truly, but not before. Nevertheless, Nityananda established several temples, including the Vajreshwari temple in Ganeshpuri which is dedicated to three forms of the Goddess. Monks of our ashram who have visited there say that it is a powerhouse of sadhana shakti, and that meditation there for some time would be very fruitful. So again, it is both Is and Is Not.

• Without true jnana, mukti cannot be attained.

That is quite clear–nothing more for me to say, except that we must not mistake intellectuality and philosophizing for jnana, as is commonly done.

• Our taking human birth is the effect. Giving it back is the cause. We must know the cause and effect.

Maybe in the original Malayalam this is clear, but not so in English. He may mean that death is the cause of birth, having in mind the words of the Gita (2:27): “Death is certain for the born. Rebirth is certain for the dead.” So the only way not to be born is not to die–to undergo the process of death helplessly, but to easily and intentionally slip out of the body in full consciousness, not really “dying” at all.

The knowledge of cause and effect is an absolute necessity if we are going to understand anything about our life. See the way those that do not understand about karma and rebirth have no idea why they are here and how they should live. All the religiosity in the world cannot substitute for practical spiritual knowledge. Consider how the “one lifers” lay all the blame for human suffering and misery at God’s door rather than rightly attributing it to human action (karma). So they claim that all this mess is “God’s will” supposedly “for a reason.” What theological precision.

Buddha stated the essence in the Four Aryan Truths: There is suffering. There is a cause of suffering. Suffering can end. There is a way to end suffering. The “power” behind all four of these statements is insight into the Law of Karma. Otherwise we keep whirling and suffering.

• Likewise, we must know the good and the evil, the right and the wrong.

Value judgments, dear friends! They are no bugbear to Nityananda. We must know good, evil, right and wrong. So obviously they exist, and there are definite principles in getting through the maze of this world. There is no place for the ego-myths of “your truth” and “my truth.” This, too, is karma-knowledge, for things are good, evil, right and wrong because of their karmic reactions on us. Patanjali, in enumerating the principles of yogic behavior explains carefully to us what the good–even miraculous–results will be if we are perfect in yama-niyama. We certainly do need to know them. Why?

• Knowing all, peace must be attained.

That is why. If we follow these sacred laws, peace must come to us. There is no doubt or exception.