Paramahansa Nityananda's Chidakasha Gita

Introduction

Paramhansa Nityananda was born in India sometime around 1896. He was found as an infant in a jungle by a woman collecting firewood. She had her own family, so she gave the infant to a friend who had a barren daughter, who named the baby Ram. A well known astrologer concluded that he was a Siddha Purusha, a perfectly enlightened being. From the age of ten to sixteen, he wandered in the Himalayas, where he was renowned as a great yogi. At this time he was given the name Nityananda by a devotee.

After this, Nityananda wandered far and wide and is said to have been in Ceylon, Rangoon, Singapore, and Burma before returning to spend time in the south of India. During World War I he was forcibly drafted into the army. He later laughed as he told of being examined for his physical. The doctor could not hear any heartbeat nor find any pulse and so rejected him as unfit.

At this period of his life, Nityananda was in his early twenties. He traveled in southwestern India and lived quite simply. He had no possessions or home and wore either a simple loincloth or nothing at all. His presence was unpredictable and he had an uncanny knack of turning up unexpectedly somewhere whenever people in the area would gather and express the desire to see him. Often he would disappear in one place and appear up to fifty miles away and nobody could explain how he had covered the distance so quickly. In time Nityananda had a very large following of devotees and people whose lives he had touched in some way.

In 1936 he moved to the Ganeshpuri area outside Bombay. For the most part his travels were behind him, and was to remain there until leaving the body.

Nityananda was renowned for two outstanding traits: his utterly miraculous way of life and his great compassion on all suffering humanity, especially the poor and helpless. Even today, nearly fifty years after his leaving the body, hundreds are fed daily in his name.

Once a long-time devotee asked Nityananda if he could see God. He replied: “More clearly than you can be seen.” Another time a Swami came to the ashram to ask Nityananda some questions. He said: “Why do they call you God?” and Nityananda replied: “Everyone is a God here including yourself and all the ones who are seated here.”

Late in the evening of August 7, 1961, Nityananda was alone with one devotee, and he told him that he would be leaving the body the next day. The next day towards noon he took a few deep breaths and then one very deep breath so that his chest was fully expanded. He straightened his legs, put his hands over the abdomen, and then was not seen to move anymore. Though he had shed the body and the point of contact on the physical plane was no more, his devotees continue to have experiences that he is still looking out for them.

The Chidakasha Gita is a transcription of random teachings of Nityananda, given when he would walk unannounced into a house, sit down, and begin speaking. Though the devotees did the best they could, writing frantically in hope of keeping up with his words, the resulting records are often disjointed and sometimes make no sense since something is missing. This of course is a defect of the transcribers and not of Nityananda who was speaking spontaneously in spirit consciousness without interest in polished expression. Nevertheless, a devotee collected these fragments and had them printed under the title of Chidakasha Gita. They have been translated into several Indian languages as well as English.

At first I attempted to separate the text into subjects and comment on it, but it proved to be less frustrating to go through the text “as is.” However some things I will skip over because of the obscurity of the text.

May Sri Nityananda be aware of and approve and bless my efforts.

– Swami Nirmalananda Giri