A BRUSH WITH EXISTENCE...🔗

“As long as your hands are open, you can feel the river flowing through it. When you try to hold it, you miss it!”

- Paramahamsa

One day when he was about 12, Paramahamsa was sitting on a rock in the Arunachala hill and meditating; he was actually playing with the technique given to him by Annamalai Swamigal - to watch the source from where thoughts arose.

As he sat, slowly he felt himself dissolve. In his own words, 'Suddenly, I felt an opening in the inner space. Even with closed eyes I was able to see all 360 degrees! I felt the same life force not only inside my skin, but outside in other things also. I felt that I am alive in the rocks, in the plants, in the flowers in all the animate and inanimate things around me.

Paramahamsa meditating in Arunachala

That was my first profound experience. It opened a deep compassion and love for everything. Great reverence for life happened through that experience. Acceptance of every being, as he is, entered my being, That experience was the first glimpse which happened in me which led to enlightenment. With just one such experience, one will see that all religious fanaticism, communal or linguistic fanaticism simply disappears from the system.”

Paramahamsa's first spiritual experience was at sunset on Buddha Purnima day, the full moon day in the month of Vaikasi (May-June as per the Tamil calendar).

Paramahamsa used to walk around the Arunachala mountain everyday. He would start very early in the morning, at around 4 am, and walk for three to four hours around the hill, chanting songs while walking. He was totally in the present, least bothered about what was going to happen the next moment - like an innocent child playing in the lap of his mother; an innocent child delighting in the ambience of his beloved Arunachala!

One morning he started very early, soon after midnight. In those days there was no road or lights on the path around the hill. It was just a jungle, a dense forest all the way. As he walked on, at a spot near a rivulet, a herd of hyenas approached him. He had been walking with his eyes cast downwards singing devotional songs. He was totally immersed in singing and did not notice the hyenas till he was very close to them. When he lifted his head and saw them, the animals were very close to him. From deep down his hara, from the swadhishtana chakra or spleen energy center point, he let out a loud scream. It was a scream of pure fear that he had experienced neither earlier nor after. Along with the scream he felt a total surrender to Arunachala and a deep trust that Arunachala would take care of him.

With that primal scream, Paramahamsa found that his body had suddenly turned much lighter; he started walking, almost floating as if the frequency of his being had increased.

(Primal Scream therapy is a modern psychological treatment in which patients scream from deep down their hara, to relieve fear and other suppressed negative emotions in catharsis).

Record notebooks and mantra diaries

Schooling was a mere incident in Paramahamsa's life. At school, he wrote his record books at the chemistry and physics laboratories as a chore, but with more zest he chanted mantras and performed rituals.

Seen here are records that stand testimony to his fervor - a page from the mantra diary, a complete pictorial guide to doing puja (ritual deity worship) written by him. This book guides his disciples and public in puja practices today! His passion for ritual worship and the planning that came naturally with it at that tender age was amazing.

Paramahamsa's friends often teased him about his spiritual inclinations. One of them asked him what he was going to achieve with such long wasteful hours of meditation. He replied, 'When the time comes, you will know.'

During a recent tour of Tamilnadu, after Paramahamsa had delivered a discourse and meditation in his hometown of Tiruvannamalai, he called his disciples to the stage of the packed hall and pointed to a few boys waiting in queue to take his blessings; these were the same ones who had questioned him earlier! They could be seen choking with emotion and shaking uncontrollably as they bowed down to touch the feet of the master. The disciples looked on, caught in their own emotions, as he took the boys in his arms with mischievous laughter and ardent compassion.

Paramahamsa obtained a diploma in Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic in Gudiyatham, Tamilnadu. With just the attention he gave in classes, Paramahamsa breezed through his diploma course with flying colors. His teacher who taught him at college was his first initiated healer in his mission, just a few years later!

Cremation grounds of the holy town of Tiruvannamalai were serene places of meditation for Paramahamsa. He would return home only in the wee hours of the morning unlocking the house with the key given to him. His parents never uttered a word of disapproval at his unusual timings

Nithyananda Gurukul

Life Bliss Technology

“An ashram is an energy field where every path is a journey inwards.”

- Paramahamsa

Leaving home

The urge to leave home became stronger. One evening, the urge was so strong that Paramahamsa felt the need to act immediately. He felt he had to leave the life he was leading and enter into the life he was seeking without further delay. He could not bear to continue living the way he did any longer. Paramahamsa wanted to tell his mother his decision first. He loved her deeply and wanted to make sure that her suffering was as little as possible. That night he went to his mother at around 10 pm and asked her, 'What will you do if I died?' His mother asked, 'Why do you ask me such an inauspicious question? What is wrong?' Paramahamsa said, 'Nothing, no particular reason, I just need to know.' His mother said resignedly, 'What can I do? I need to accept it if it happens.' He then told her that he wanted to leave home. His mother burst into tears. Her body shook in sorrow uncontrollably. 'I knew that you would go away one day,' she said. He asked her whether she did not want him to leave. She said, 'No, I know that you want to go and I want you to do what you have always wanted to do in your life. I cannot stop you from that; but I cannot bear to see you go. That is why I am crying.'

Paramahamsa felt overwhelmed at the unconditional love of his mother. She was in deep sorrow and yet she wanted for her son what he wanted. She did not wish to be in his way. Her innocence and selfless love touched him deeply. She was innocent of her own innocence.

"All great shrines are resonant with the Existential energy. Just being in them is a profound meditation."

Paramahamsa's deep yearning took him across India and Nepal, from Tapovan in the Himalayas to Kanyakumari in the South, and from Dwaraka in the West to Calcutta in the East. His parivarajaka (monastic wandering) lasted 9 years, preparing his whole being to experience the ultimate merger. Covering over 70, 000 miles, many thousands of miles, he covered by foot.

Mahavtar Babaji is a living Himalayan Master. He gave darshan to Paramahamsa during his monastic wandering days in the Himalayas. It was Babaji who during this meeting called him as 'Paramahamsa Nithyananda', the name he is known by today!

Mahavtar Babaji

Paramahamsa leads disciples to the Himalayan ranges and other high energy centers from time to time. Through the steps of spiritual wandering, he creates the space for the deep yearning in every being to fulfill.

Himalayan Trip 2007

While returning from Tapovan, 17000 feet in the Himalayan range, Paramahamsa hitched a ride in an army truck. As the truck went over a ditch, he was thrown up and he landed on a metal piece that pierced and fractured his spine. The army doctor he was taken to wanted him to rest for 15 days. Paramahamsa paid no heed to him. Instead, he placed his own palm upon the injured area and moved on. When he was X-rayed at Haridwar everyone but him was stunned. The fracture had healed perfectly. Little did Paramahamsa realize that the healing touch upon his own body would one day benefit millions of people around the world!

This cremation area on the steps of the sacred river Ganga is considered to be the most sacred in Benares. It is said to be the point where Lord Shiva created the Universe.

Here, Paramahamsa had a conscious experience of death itself while in deep meditation. After the profound experience, he became aware that he had conquered the greatest and all pervading fear for every human being on planet Earth - the fear of death.

Manikarnika Ghat, Benares

Continuing his monastic wandering, Paramahamsa finally attained inner bliss at the age of 22. This is the first picture of him taken after his enlightenment. The fire in the eyes has gone; only supreme tranquility remains. Rajasekaran became Paramahamsa Nithyananda.

Paramahamsa says, 'Spiritual wandering is a great technique and process for spiritual growth.' During the brahmacharyam training program, Paramahamsa sent out participants as wandering monks, to beg and receive alms! He said, 'Monastic begging is a technique to get detached from emotional fluctuations. When you beg for alms, you should be neither happy about what you get nor sad about what you miss!'