Chapter - 2: Arunachala:🔗

The Spiritual Incubator

In the song ‘Akshara manamaalai’, the great enlightened Master, Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi sings thus towards Arunachala, the Divine Hillock which is a manifestation of the Shiva Energy:

Oh Arunachala! Tell me, who is more intelligent between the two of us? I gave myself to you, a being without any earthly gain or heavenly value, and got you, the Divine in return!

As snow in water, dissolve me in your form, which is pure love.

Tiruvannamalai is a small town in South India in the state of Tamil Nadu.

‘Thiru Anna Malai’ as it should be termed in chaste Tamil, means ‘Revered Inaccessible Mountain’. This name was given to this town not because it was the location of a tall and mighty mountain, being more a medium sized hillock, but because of the spiritual connotation that the place had for believers and spiritual seekers. The entire township has evolved around the mountain and a ‘girivalam’ or walking around the mountain on foot, is considered to be holy and spiritually value-enhancing.

In Sanskrit, this mountain is termed ‘Arunachala’, literally meaning the ‘Unmoving Morning Star’, simplified as the ‘Red Mountain’, possibly with reference to its reddish hue. Aruna, the morning star, is the charioteer of the Sun God Surya. Aruna drives Surya’s magnificent chariot that is yoked to seven white horses.

Sages from time immemorial are reputed to have lived in the caves and slopes of the Arunachala hill, sanctified by it and sanctifying it in turn. Adi Sankara, the great Hindu reformer saint, had described Arunachala as Mount Meru, the inaccessible heart center of Lord Shiva. Arunachala reveals itself as no ordinary mountain.

In its timeless majesty, wrapped in a shroud of mystery that centuries of legend have only deepened, Arunachala has a presence that is more spiritual than physical. The great enlightened Master Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi calls Arunachala 'the spiritual center of the world.'

It is not for nothing that Arunachala is known as 'the hill that beckons'. Even the ordinary traveler, once having set his eyes upon Arunachala, is inexplicably drawn to dwell upon its sacred presence again and again. Seekers commonly feel this strange experience, known as 'the call of Arunachala', even today.

The legend of Arunachala, and the story behind the temple of Arunachaleshwara which is the central point of the town of Tiruvannamalai, reads thus:

In ancient Hindu mythology, there is a story of an argument between Lord Brahma the Creator and Lord Vishnu the Sustainer, as to which of them was greater. (Brahma and Vishnu are two of the three Gods who comprise the Trinity of the Hindu pantheon of divinity.) They were unable to resolve the dispute between themselves. There was no one to resolve the fight except Shiva, the Rejuvenator, and the third member of this Divine Trinity.

Shiva appeared before them in his Vishwaroopa - his Cosmic form – as an endless shaft of light. The two ends of the shaft that were his head and feet could not be seen. He looked at them and said: whoever can find either of my ends is the greater of the two of you.

So Brahma took the form of a swan and flew up towards Shiva's head, and Vishnu went downwards as a boar, burrowing into the earth to find Shiva's feet. They searched for many yugas (ages). After much effort, Vishnu realized that he could not find what he sought and decided to surrender his ego to Shiva. He told Shiva to forgive his arrogance in trying to find the limits of the Divine form. Shiva blessed him for his honesty. Brahma, however, could not accept his failure. On his way up, he saw a flower (screwpine or taazham poo in Tamil) falling down and asked the flower where it was coming from. The flower said it had fallen from behind Shiva's ear. Brahma asked, 'How long have you been traveling?' The flower replied, 'I have been falling for four ages (lifetimes) of Brahma!' Brahma was shocked and realized he had no hopes of finding Shiva's head, but he still did not want to accept his failure.

Brahma decided that he would tell Shiva a lie about finding this flower on his ear. He then asked the flower to bear witness that he had brought it down from Shiva's head. The flower hesitated, but Brahma persuaded it to tell this lie, saying that in any case Shiva would not know. The flower, having little choice, and afraid to refuse Brahma – the Lord of all Creation, agreed. Returning to Shiva, who again assumed his normal form, Brahma announced that he had seen Shiva's head and had brought back this flower as his witness.

Shiva instantly knew what had happened and was angry at the lie told to him. He punished Brahma saying, 'For the lie that you have uttered, you will be never again be worshipped by the people.' He punished the screwpine flower saying, 'You will never ever be used as an offering to me in worship.' To this day, there are no major temples dedicated to Brahma, the Creator; and the screwpine flower is never offered to Shiva in worship. Brahma realized his mistake and sought Shiva's forgiveness. Both Vishnu and Brahma requested Shiva to retain his form as that shaft of light to bless the Universe.

At their request, Shiva in that form of Divine Light became Arunachala, the glowing mountain, and assumed the form of the Shiva linga called Arunachaleshwara, at the temple in Tiruvannamalai.

Shiva is traditionally worshipped by Hindus in the form of the linga, which literally means gender or sex, and by extension refers to the male sexual organ, specifically by religious connotation to Siva. In truth, the linga refers to the act of creation as well as that of rejuvenation, which is the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The linga therefore is an integration of the male and female, Shiva and Shakti, nature and energy.

In construction, the linga idol is a combination of the male and female sexual organs, with esoteric integration with the other two members of the Hindu mythological Trinity, that are Brahma - the Creator, and Vishnu - the Sustainer. In a few places, Shiva, in the form of the linga, is visualized as the elemental energy such as light or fire.

The temple of Arunachaleshwara in Tiruvannamalai is the biggest temple of Shiva in India. It is one of the five sacred linga sites of Shiva in South India. Here Shiva is worshipped in his elemental form of fire, as one of the pancha bhutas - the five elements of nature. These five elemental energies are: earth, water, fire, air and ether.

The other Shiva temple sites where he is worshipped in elemental form are: Chidambaram where Shiva is worshipped as ether or space, Kalahasti where he is worshipped as air, Kanchipuram where he is worshipped as earth, and Tiruvanaikkaval where he is worshipped as water. It is also believed that Shiva appeared to his consort Parvati here in Arunachala as a column of fire on the day of Karthikai Pournami (Karthikai is the Tamil month of November-December and Pournami is the full moon day), when she prayed to unite with him.

The temple of Arunachala has been sung about in Tamil in the 7th century by the Tamil Saint Thirugnana Sambandar, and is believed to have existed since long before. It is built in a combination of three distinct architectural styles:

The inner sanctum and inner courtyard are built in the style of the Chola kings of the 9^th century. The Chola kings of the 11^th century added an additional prakara (courtyard) and gopuram (entrance tower) with grand carvings. The third prakara and the massive fourteen-storey tower are from the Vijayanagaram style of the 16^th century, begun by the king Krishna Devaraya. The later day extensions (there are seven courtyards in all) have been carried out in total harmony with the original Chola structure that makes this temple one of the finest examples of Dravidian architecture. This temple of Arunachala has nine towers in all, the eastern and largest gopuram being 72 meters tall.

In the traditional style of town planning in the Southern parts of India, the temple is the centerpiece, much as a church is in many older towns or town halls in newer ones in the West. Almost always, temples were square or rectangular structures in plan, with many such squares and rectangles built one within the other depending on the size. Many of the great temples in South India are many acres in size, the Tiruvannamalai temple being nearly 20 acres in size.

At the centre of the temple structure is the altar to the ruling Divinity, God or Goddess, the sanctum sanctorum, called garba graham, or womb space. All temples have high walls, tall towers on each of the four sides and spacious roads that border the temple on all four sides. As the town grew, it developed around these four main roads, once again in a parallel path, square within a square, much as New York was planned in a grid-like fashion!

Some of us had the opportunity to visit Tiruvannamalai along with Nithyananda late in December 2005, on his star birthday based on the Hindu Vedic calendar. We walked around the temple early in the morning, as the town was still waking up. As the Master had asked us to, and in accordance with the Hindu custom of not wearing footwear inside any holy location such as a temple, we went without footwear, and basked in the sanctity of this holy space in the presence of the Master. Later that day, we had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be with the Master in the temple that he loved and grew up in.

In recent times, Tiruvannamalai has been best known for Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, one of the greatest saints and enlightened Masters of modern India. Ramana came to Tiruvannamalai when he was sixteen and lived in the sacred presence of Arunachala for the rest of his mortal life. Known as the Silent Sage, Ramana communicated his message of enlightenment through the process of self-enquiry. Though he never traveled out of Arunachala and spoke little, the sheer energy that he radiated along with his personal grace and charisma, attracted thousands to Tiruvannamalai. Many spiritual centers propagating Ramana's ideas have been set up in different parts of the world. A number of Western writers, including Somerset Maugham, visited Ramana and wrote about him. Ramana called Arunachala 'the spiritual center of the world'.

Ramana's process of self-enquiry leads one to the source of one's thoughts. Ramana says to keep asking: Who Am I? This enquiry peels away layers of the mind and body and leads ultimately to the realization of what one truly is, that one is not the body and not the mind, or anything material, but that one is the inner spirit and the inner divinity. This process when carried out experientially and not as an intellectual exercise leads to Self Realization. More than the process, it was the grace, the presence of Ramana the Master that enlightened the disciples who were gathered around him.

Ramana's philosophy of self-enquiry has inspired many present day thinkers including Eckhart Tolle, whose brilliant and seminal book 'The Power of Now' has part of its roots in Ramana's philisophy.

Arunachala is a spiritual incubator. When a Master enters this world in a human body, his state is too pure to withstand the rigors of daily life upon this planet. His purity has to be alloyed, as it were, with human attributes, so that the physical form can survive upon planet Earth.

Just like how a clinical incubator preserves a baby, a spiritual incubator is needed to provide these enlightened beings with the right ambience to shield them, so to speak, from any disruption to their highly evolved state. This incubator ensures that the spirit is sustained as close to the purest, attributeless levels as is possible in the human form, so that the enlightened being can live within its human form, yet retaining most of its pure quality. Arunachala serves as a spiritual incubator to enlightened beings that descend upon planet Earth.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says, 'Dozens of flies crowd around a cow all day, but they only drink its blood; it is only the calf that comes in, perhaps twice a day, that goes straight to its mother's udder and drinks milk and returns.' Enlightened Masters are like the calf that comes to imbibe the milk of spirituality that Arunachala holds.

Time and again, Tiruvannamalai has given birth to enlightened Masters who have touched and transformed millions of seekers in the world.

Arunachala has been the spiritual incubator that has nurtured many enlightened Masters over thousands of years. It has the lineage of a great enlightened Master Arunagiri Yogishwara, embodiment of Lord Shiva Himself. The massive temple of Tiruvannamalai is built on the jiva samadhi (burial place of the body and living spirit of an enlightened Master) of Arunagiri Yogishwara. Prayers are offered to Yogishwara first in this temple, even before the presiding deity that is Arunachaleshwara. Ramana refers to Yogishwara, the great Master, as a young sage sitting under a banyan tree teaching many older persons seated around him.

In the Hindu tradition, enlightened Masters are always buried, whereas the bodies of others are always burnt. There is a scientific background to this practice. Bodies are the receptacle of our desires and our embedded memories, called samskara. Samskara is the collection of emotional experiences that build themselves into value systems and beliefs that drive our lives, often unconsciously. Collection of these memories begin well before our birth and last even after our death.

Studies by Dr. Bruce Lipton, the eminent cellular biologist, have now shown that at the cellular level the embryo in the mother's womb retains memories of what transpires in the outer world. Interaction between the parents and the emotional state of the parents, especially the mother, are carried viscerally into the infant through its cellular structure.

Similarly, memories live on after we die, and these memories are embedded in the body. If the body is buried, these memories stay on at the place of burial and remain intangibly present. It is possible that in cultures where the dead are buried, the process included purification rituals that ensured the removal of memories from the bodies being buried. In the absence of such practices, which may no longer be followed, there is a possibility that the memories would stay on even as the body decomposes. The intangible presence of these memories is what one might perceive as ghosts and spirits. The feelings of some people who are sensitive to these supernatural sensations are very real; the experience is not hallucination. Whether we believe it or not, understand it or not, accept it or not, memories survive our death and linger on.

In the case of enlightened Masters, their memories are very powerful and value enhancing. What they leave behind in their bodies are enormous amounts of energy. Hindus believe that burying their bodies under the right conditions in a living tomb, called the jiva samadhi, can preserve this energy of enlightened Masters. Jiva samadhis of great Masters are spiritually enormously powerful; they are pure energy; they are the equivalent of nuclear reactors.

Nithyananda says that in his personal experience he has seen five such jiva samadhis of Masters who lived in India until recently: Raghavendra Swami in Mantralaya, Sai Baba at Shirdi, Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi at Tiruvannamalai, Sadashiva Brahmendra at Nerur and Paramahamsa Yogananda near LA in USA.

Arunachala Purana - the legend of Arunachala - says that Lord Shiva made a promise that He will always be available in Arunachala in three forms: As the hill Arunachala; as the jyotirlingam Arunachaleshwara in the temple; and in the form of living incarnations in this holy town of Tiruvannamalai; this truth has been reaffirmed by Ramana Maharishi.

The hill Arunachala lives on. Geologically this hill is considered older than the Himalayan range. Millions worship the Shiva linga in the temple of Arunachaleshwara. Each full moon day, a million people gather at Tiruvannamalai to visit the temple and to walk around the hill. The living Masters of Arunachala come here as incarnations to fulfill their cosmic missions and depart when their mission is accomplished. This great temple town, by being the planet's spiritual incubator, ensures the continued presence of spirituality on planet Earth through the promise made by Shiva.

Tiruvannamalai is a town that celebrates each day of the year as a temple festival day. In this town, every household takes pride in looking after ascetics and mendicants, just as they would sages and saints. Beggars are not looked down upon in this holy place. They are seen to provide an opportunity for people to be charitable. In this holy town, it is not easy to distinguish between a great Master who has given up all, including his followers, and a beggar, because both wear the same minimal attire! Such is the greatness of simplicity of the Masters dwelling here.

The great temple here provides its people with an introduction to the Hindu religion with its elaborately carved surfaces and towers, featuring mythological stories and the legends that have grown around the town and the temple. The hill Arunachala radiates energy continuously and provides spiritual fulfillment. Living Masters who are always present here are like the bridge between the temple and the hill.

The theory of the inner science, the application of this inner science and the scientist who practices in this inner space - all three happen here together at the same time and place! The hill represents the theory of the inner science - the Shaastra or sacred scriptures that cater to the intellect. The temple represents the application of it– the Stotra or devotional verses that sing the praise of the Lord, catering to the devotionally inclined, who follow their emotions. The living Masters are the scientists who provide the Sutra or mystical techniques presented in epigram form, that directly work at the level of the Being; they are the scientists who lead us to an understanding of the wisdom behind the theory, the timeless knowledge of which the Arunachala hill is a repository; and the path that they lead us through is the path of devotion to Arunachaleshwara, to the Divine that is Existence itself.

Shiva continues to radiate His energy in Tiruvannamalai in all these three forms, blessing the world, and thus fulfilling His promise.

The vast majority of Hindus have simple faith in their gods and goddesses. They believe with their hearts and with deep emotion that these forms are real and are living forces. They also believe that gods whom they visualize in various forms arrive on planet Earth as incarnations, or avatars, in human form from time to time. One could envision these incarnations as somewhat similar to what prophets are in Western religions. Real life stories, legends and epics are presented on these incarnations.

Lord Vishnu, the Preserver of the Universe in the Hindu Trinity, is said to assume ten forms or avatars at periodic intervals during the evolution of the universe. These are chronicled in the epic Bhagavatam, told partly by the great sage Vyasa as a biographical account of the incarnations of Vishnu.

In a metaphorical sense, the legend of the ten incarnations of Vishnu (Dashavatar) speaks of the creation and ending of the Universe. The sequence of the incarnations matches the evolution of life upon planet Earth. The first incarnation is the fish incarnation - the matsya avatar, depicting the origin of life in the form of aquatic creatures. This is followed by the kurma avatar - the tortoise incarnation, representing the next stage as an amphibian. The third is the varaha avatar - the boar incarnation, representing the mammal. The fourth is the Narasimha avatar - half human and half lion form, a half-way point to human form. The fifth incarnation is that of the dwarf - the Vamana avatar. The remaining five incarnations are in human form: Parashurama (the social crusader), Rama (the peak of moral perfection), Krishna (the ultimate spiritual consciousness), and the Buddha (the Master who brought spirituality to the masses). The tenth avatar Kalki, the warrior destroyer who creates the space for a new cycle of time to begin, is yet to arrive upon planet Earth.

Of the avatars who assumed human form, Lord Krishna is considered to be the perfect incarnation or the Purna avatar. He is best remembered for the Divine revelation of the Bhagavad Gita. Hindus consider the Mahabharata as the fifth Veda, the scriptural work that is on par with the four Vedas - books of knowledge that were revealed to enlightened sages. The Bhagavad Gita, which is part of the Mahabharata, is the dialogue between Lord Krishna or the superconscious Divine Energy, and the Pandava prince Arjuna, whom Lord Krishna considers his friend and disciple. In this dialogue, Krishna delivers to Arjuna the Bhagavad Gita, as answers to his questions on worldly dilemma.

Arjuna's dilemma was in the middle of the battlefield, where he was about to engage in a destructive war against his own cousins and teachers. Arjuna was in doubt as to whether it was right to battle against those whom he had loved and respected, or better to walk away in surrender and apparent defeat. Krishna explains to Arjuna what he should do and why he should do it. Krishna's timeless response to Arjuna is the substance of the Gita, as this book is popularly known. Krishna's message to Arjuna resonates till date with millions of people who read it, and is used by them as a guide in their day-to-day life.

At one level, as the superconscious energy behind the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is the supreme Lord and God. At other levels, he is the beautiful and naughty child every mother loves to adore; the dashing graceful youth that every damsel dreams of being in love with; the perfect friend whom one can turn to at any time of need; the sagacious counselor that kings and saints seek advice from; Krishna is all this and more. Krishna is not a moral beacon as Rama or Parashurama, as two of the other incarnations were, or the dispassionate sage that Buddha was. Krishna was, is and will be human, so very easy to identify with, so easy to love, so easy to be devoted to.

Speaking from the Divine Consciouness, and defining the true mission of every avatar, Krishna declares in the Bhagavad Gita:

According to the Hindu calendar, there are four ages in each cycle of the Universe, and each age is many thousands of years long. (We are now in Kali Yuga – the fourth quarter of this cycle of the Universe.) The concept of dashavatar is part of the Hindu Puranic lore, and we do not have sound historical proof of anyone except the Buddha. Krishna and Parashurama are supposed to have lived 5000 years ago in the Dwapara Yuga and Rama lived much earlier in the Treta Yuga. However, there are many other great souls about whom we do have historical proof, who are also revered as incarnations in the Hindu belief system. In more recent times, Mahavira, the founder of the religion of Jainism, Adi Sankara, the Hindu reformer saint who propounded the concept of advaita or non-duality, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a saint steeped in devotion to Lord Krishna, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, an enlightened Master of recent times who lived near Calcutta, his disciple Vivekananda who spread his message overseas, Shirdi Sai Baba, a saint of Muslim origin who is revered by Muslims and Hindus alike, and Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi of Tiruvannamalai of whom we have spoken earlier, are among many who are worshipped as incarnations in India.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa tells us this story:

Three men were strolling aimlessly together, when they reached a garden surrounded by a high wall. One of them jumped over the wall and saw a beautiful orchard with many fruit trees. He jumped in without further ado to enjoy what the orchard had in store. He never even thought about telling his friends about what he saw; so focused he was upon his own pleasures, as most of us are in this mode of living. The second man then peeped over the wall. He too saw the bountiful orchard. He called out to his friend below, told him what he saw and jumped over to enjoy himself. He had no patience to wait for his friend, but decided to at least let his friend know about it. There are many preachers who are in this mode of living; they can talk and inform, but have no experience to share.

The third person looked over the wall and saw the fruit trees. He had already tasted these fruits and knew how delicious they were. Yet, instead of jumping over the wall and enjoying them by himself, he turned around, walked back to the village where he came from and told the entire community about the wondrous orchard and how to reach it.

Says Ramakrishna: This man is a true incarnation.

Incarnations are beings that have seen the wonder of the ultimate spiritual truth, experienced the bliss of the universal energy and have the freedom to stay on in that bliss for ever. Yet they come back to planet Earth to tell others about the glory of what they themselves have experienced. They are on a mission that Existence has sent them for, which they execute with the compassion that only an enlightened Master can possess; the compassion to make others see in their own selves, and in every other being, the divinity that lies within.

In every generation, there are incarnations that descend on Earth to share with others the bliss that they themselves experience continually. Their mission is to help all others reach the same blissful state. It is this infinite and unconditional compassion that sets an incarnation apart from other beings, however evolved they may be spiritually.

Nithyananda explains simply.

Take a clean white board. The white background is the universal energy. Draw circles on it with a blue marker pen. These circles represent the living beings; the blue lines you have drawn are the bodies. Now erase the circle. That is what happens at death. The body gets erased and the spirit merges back into the universal energy.

In the case of ordinary human beings, their desires, the vasana, creates a tinge inside the circle. It is then difficult for the spirit to merge into the background energy. The spirit leaving the body at death needs another body that is capable of fulfilling its carried-over desires, the vasana.

In the case of enlightened Masters, they have no desires; they are in the no-mind state; they have no vasana. Their spirits, untinged by vasana, effortlessly merge into the universal energy. Whenever a need is felt on Planet Earth, the energy of the enlightened Masters is sent back to Earth with a mission to fulfill. These energies are the incarnations. Each incarnation has a mission as defined by the need expressed, and as decided by Parashakti, the universal energy.

In Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's biography by his disciple Saradananda, the biographer discusses why and how incarnations arrive upon planet Earth. Saradananda traces the origin of such incarnations to Vedic times when sages of divine consciousness started being revered as incarnations. In India, the spiritual legacy of the Vedic and Puranic times still lives on as a palpable energy. People accept and believe in the truth of conscious births of incarnations.

As Krishna proclaimed in the Gita, these incarnations arrive upon planet Earth with a clear mission. Existence, the Cosmic Energy, provides these incarnations the necessary energy to fulfill their mission in a choiceless manner. Each incarnation is unique and the mission of each incarnation is also unique.

Saradananda talks about various levels of spiritual evolution from within and outside of the definition of incarnations. He also tells us as to how these people can be identified, based on the natural characteristics they are endowed with from birth.

Each incarnation differs from the other in the way he performs his mission. Each one has his own path, though the goal is the same. Their goal is to teach the rest of humanity that each one is divine and that all humans, with some effort, can be liberated into that divinity from the bondages of the world. Each incarnation may express the same experience differently.

In the human form that they have assumed, these living incarnations are subject to the same physical laws of existence as all of us human beings are. It is easy to visualize and accept the divinity of a Krishna whom none of us has seen. When we live around a living incarnation, however, whose physical functions are no different from ours, whom we can see eating and sleeping, questions naturally arise in many minds about the truth of their divinity.

Rarely, an incarnation may make use of a so-called 'miracle' simply to dispel these initial doubts and help individuals make faster spiritual progress. It is easy for the average human to be impressed by what may be called the supernatural feats of spiritual beings; very often these feats seem unbelievable, irrational and contradictory to all known laws of nature. Because we do not understand the laws working behind such feats such as teleportation or materialization of objects, we tend to classify them as miracles and consider those who perform such feats as divine beings. There are no miracles in nature; such miracles operate upon natural laws that our scientists are yet to uncover and understand. And most certainly, these are not the scale to identify and recognize incarnations.

In the case of materialization of objects, which is considered as an essential part of the tool kit of an enlightened Master by many Hindus, its underlying science is simple enough. No material is created in these 'miracles'. Material is transported or teleported from one point to another. Matter dissolves into energy at one point and the energy that is teleported is reconverted into matter in the hands of one who is performing this 'miracle'. It is just the same way as voice is converted to digital waves when we speak on a mobile phone, which are again reconverted into voice at the receiver's end. Telephony is understood; teleportation is yet to be understood; that's all. Those who perform these 'miracles' have acquired the skill to convert matter into energy and energy back into matter through their powers of meditation.

Tools of modern technology such as Kirlian photography that can capture energy patterns can follow the path of a teleported object and show that there is no miracle involved here; just a process whose scientific basis is yet to be understood.

Coming to energy healing, even a high school student today is aware that there is intelligence residing in each cell of our body. Mind is not a vague entity that is to be found somewhere in the brain. It is a life force that is spread all over the body. Every part of our body is mind as well. Mind and body are not two separate terms; it should be termed mind-body.

When this is understood, spiritual or energy healing, viewed suspiciously by many, begins to make sense. All illnesses are psychosomatic in one manner or another; they can be traced to disturbances and energy blockages in the mind-body system caused by emotional or physiological trauma. Diseases do not happen to mind and body separately. Therefore healing the mind can cure the illness of the mind-body. Unlike the body (as we understand it), the mind is not matter; it is energy. Body and mind, like matter and energy, are interchangeable; in fact they are the same. Healing a sick person through energy healing of the mind seems unscientific only because this truth is not understood. If we have been following recent advances in science, we can understand how scientific this process is.

Dr. Bruce Lipton offers a lucid description of his experiments at the single cell level in his milestone book, The Biology of Belief. In this book, he explains mind-body behavior through the functionality of cells. Through a simple experiment with a single cell, he shows how the cell is attracted by nutrients so that it establishes itself in a growth mode and how it is repelled by toxins, and sets itself up in a protection mode. He then goes on to show how the cell cannot at the same time be in a growth mode and a protective mode; it has to be in one or the other. Using this basic behavior, he logically shows how continuous stress in today’s world, affects the mind-body, causing depression and leading to serious illnesses.

A spiritual healer who cures chronic and fatal diseases uses his energy at the cellular level to redress damage caused to the mind-body. His performance is miraculous only to the gullible. It appears laughable only to those who do not understand the underlying science. When we understand the working of the cell at the molecular level as explained by scientists like Bruce Lipton, spiritual healing becomes extremely scientific and rational.

Fire walking is no miracle; there need be no hypnosis involved. With Nithyananda, many of us have walked over burning coal. All that we shed was the fear that fire would burn. When one walks over fire with wet feet, the conversion of water to steam takes care of the heat of the fire up to a reasonable distance. There is scientific evidence to show that anyone can walk on fire; all we need to do is let go of our belief that fire will burn.

True incarnations go beyond the display of such seemingly extraordinary powers. Their mission is to help mankind, not to work miracles to impress other humans. Having experienced the divinity of their own beings, incarnations are focused on assisting the rest of mankind in experiencing the same divinity within them. Just the same way as a scientist develops formulae and techniques to reproduce various phenomena in the outer world, mystics develop formulae and techniques to reproduce their own experiences in the inner world.

While a Master is able to apply these formulae so that others can experience what he has experienced, a true incarnation is able to transfer such experiences directly without the need for techniques or formulae. An incarnation liberates through his grace alone.

Over time in the Hindu tradition, great Masters have illumined various path and techniques to liberate us from the illusion that we are not divine. In his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali, an enlightened Master and the father of the Yoga system, specified a path of eight practices that leads to yoga or the union of the individual with the Divine. These eight practices are: yama (virtues), niyama (rules of conduct), asana (body postures), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (detachment from sensory inputs), dharana (focused awareness), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (state of being one with Existence). These are valid today, even after thousands of years, as techniques for spiritual evolution. Few people are aware today that globally popular yoga practices, such as asana and pranayama, have their origins in the ancient teachings of Patanjali.

Other great Masters communicated and communed differently. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa initiated his disciples into enlightenment by a touch. Ramana Maharishi liberated his disciples through silent communion. The process of deeksha, which is the transfer of the Master's grace to his disciple through a look, a touch or a word, is well documented in Hindu scriptures.

The greatest blessing that Existence can bestow upon a person is the opportunity to live with and around an incarnation as his disciple. The Master who is the divine incarnate, can and will elevate one into enlightenment, just by his sheer presence. Nothing else is needed but surrender to the Master.

Hindu epics talk in wonder about a mythical bird that never touches the earth from birth to death. These birds soar high above the ground, far higher than any normal bird would. When this bird lays an egg, the egg hatches even as it falls towards the ground. The fledgling starts flying as soon as it comes out of the shell, still in mid-air, and soars into the sky. When these birds die, they die while in flight and merge into space. Never once in its life does the bird touch the ground.

These birds are called Paramahamsa or Supreme Swans. Ramakrishna, one of the greatest saints of modern India, talks of these birds in adoration. Ramakrishna himself is aptly called Paramahamsa, a spirit who always soared without ever touching the ground. An enlightened being is called a Paramahamsa, when his spiritual awakening leading to enlightenment occurs before adolescence. Such a being never touches the ground; his spirit soars high well before it is enmeshed in the web of worldly reality. Paramahamsa are rare beings whose innocent wisdom pierces even the most hardened heart and mind.

In such beings, the kundalini energy, which is the universal energy that flows through every individual and is stored in the muladhara chakra (the energy center at the base of the spine) never moves downwards as it does with normal beings at adolescence.

The chakras are virtual energy centers within our mind-body system that control our emotions and thus influence our actions. There are seven major chakras, starting from the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine to the sahasrara chakra at the crown of the head. Normally, the kundalini energy moves downwards at adolescence, leading to sexual awakening and the desire to fulfill the need for procreation. In the case of the Paramahamsa, the spiritual awakening occurs before puberty, ensuring that the kundalini energy moves steadily upwards instead of downwards. The desire for sexual pleasure is replaced by the thirst for liberation. The energy within the Paramahamsa stays pure, uncorrupted, and exceptional.

Paramahamsa are spirits who have realized the supreme and eternal truth of the Universe very early in life. Their purpose in life is to communicate the truth the rest of humanity and help others glimpse it for themselves.

Each Paramahamsa communicates this message in his own inimitable style. Ramakrishna, forever in divine ecstasy, inspired others through devotion or bhakti. Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, another great Paramahamsa, communicated his message mainly in silence, through a process of discrimination or viveka. There are others who by their touch, and at times by a mere glance, imparted their wisdom to disciples who were ready to receive the truth. Even these great Paramahamsas had trouble convincing the rest of humanity to follow the path that they had traveled, and which they were keen to show to them. In his lifetime, Ramakrishna initiated only about a dozen disciples into enlightenment, and it is only after his leaving the body that his message spread worldwide, mainly through the efforts of his wife Sarada Devi and disciple Vivekananda,.

During his lifetime, Bhagavan Ramana too initiated only a few deserving disciples. However, over time, their message spread, and more people were awakened to the possibility that there was divinity latent in them. The mission of these Masters was not wasted. It is a continuum of enlightened Masters who serve this planet, each taking over from where the earlier Master had left off. All Paramahamsas are one and the same energy, each performing in his unique way the mission that Existence has defined for him.

Since Paramahamsas are already realized beings, why do they struggle and undergo intense penance during their 'pre-enlightenment' period? The same question arises in our minds in the context of the life of Nithyananda. If he was enlightened from birth, what was the need for him to go through such intense tapas (spiritual penance) such as wandering on foot, eating minimal food, and enduring many a test?

Nithyananda says that from his point of view, there was no suffering involved at all! It is only to the onlooker that it appears as if he had to undergo great suffering, and we may see his process of enlightenment as extremely difficult. We need to understand that

an incarnation appears on this earth fully enlightened. He has no qualities or attributes, called guna in Sanskrit, that define his behavior. The three gunas or attributes with which we lead our lives are: sattva guna - the highest state of calmness and detachment denoting a state of spiritual evolution, rajas - a state of active aggression that is focused on achievement of material goals, and tamas - a state of inertia, passivity, sloth and negativity that leads to ineffective functioning as an individual.

An enlightened being is beyond these three attributes. However, in order to function in the human body, he is infused with a little bit of the sattva attribute. Over a period of time, through his own spiritual practices, he burns off this satvic guna also.

Normally, the seeds of unfulfilled desires or vasana of a previous life are carried over into the next birth, and the soul takes a new body suitable for fulfilling these desires. This constitutes the prarabdha karma of the individual, which broadly shapes the course of his life. In the case of an incarnation, however, there is no vasana remaining to create prarabdha karma. It is the sattva attribute that causes the incarnation’s ‘hangover’ of desires which are necessary for performing any action in this world.

It is like this: You cannot make anything out of pure unalloyed 24 carat gold. It is too pure and too fragile to be of any practical purpose. So you need to mix it with copper or some other impurity. That’s the way it is with an incarnation, a Paramahamsa. He is born with some satvic attributes, as an alloying attribute, so that he can live and survive on this planet Earth.

Lives of all great incarnations follow a similar path. In almost all cases, these beings are born in a middle class environment, in not too luxurious a lifestyle that may divert their minds and in not too harsh an environment that may limit their potential. By and large, these beings choose a parental environment conducive to their spiritual evolution. Their parents in most cases are of a religious bent of mind, though perhaps not fully open to the child taking to an ascetic life.

All incarnate beings grow up with an explicit interest in spiritual matters. They are devotional. They are very curious about spiritual truths even at an early age and go to great lengths to seek the mission they are sent down for. However, the consciousness of their own enlightened state seems to be hidden from them till the point of their re-enlightenment, so to speak, until the remainder of the satvic guna is also fully burnt off.

In a Paramahamsa, actions arise out of thoughts and desires spontaneously, as seeds of desires (known as bija karmas) from their Causal energy layer. We all have seven layers of energy in our mind-body system. The first is the gross Physical body layer; the second is the Breath layer or Pranic layer; the third is the Mental or emotional layer; the fourth is the Etheric or Subtle layer that houses the energy centers that are the chakras; the fifth is the Causal body layer, which once crossed by the spirit does not allow it to return to the body. The final two layers are the Cosmic and Nirvanic layers. The Nirvanic layer is the state that enlightened beings reach.

In ordinary humans, desires arise from the lower layers, from Physical to Etheric; some of these desires are carried over from previous births as vasanas and most other desires are developed through actions during the present birth. By and large, desires that one is born with are one's natural desires, which one has been bestowed with all the energy to fulfill. That is why Mahavira (founder of the religion known as Jainism) says, 'Every human being is born on this planet Earth with sufficient resources to meet all his needs; no one will be deprived of whatever he really needs, if he trusts the Universe.'

Vasana is the mental attitude that creates desires, samskaras are the developed desires that prompt fulfillment and karmas are the actual deeds of action. We can liken vasana to a seed, samskara to a small plant and karma to a fully-grown tree, in their order of development. What is carried over from birth to birth is the vasana, the mental attitude.

Paramahamsas have none of these residual desires, memories, and actions (vasana, samskara and karma), as all these have already been destroyed at the time of their enlightenment in a previous birth. However, as we saw earlier, their beings are infused with some minimal desires at birth to allow them to be reborn in human form. These desires arise from the causal layer, which is the 'point of no return' for the spirit. The causal layer is the state of coma, where the body can stay for long periods of time. Until the spirit leaves this layer, it has the option of returning to the body. Near-death-experiences are based on the journey of the spirit up to this point.

Arising from the causal energy layer, any desire of a Paramahamsa carries its own energy for fulfillment. Therefore, as soon as these desires and thoughts arise, they get fulfilled. And once they are fulfilled, these thoughts drop completely; the desires die out; there is no hangover.

For instance, let us say a thought arises in a Paramahamsa to eat. That thought brings with it the energy required for the appropriate action. He then eats. Then the thought disappears. Next, the thought arises to walk. He walks. That is how it was with nithyananda's wanderings, the parivrajaka and his spiritual penance, tapas. Thoughts and actions happened on their own, with the thoughts bringing their own energy for fulfillment and getting extinguished completely upon fulfillment.

Paramahamsas do not have borrowed and acquired desires. Their needs and desires are limited to the very basic needs that their beings have been sent with. That's why they stay pure. They have no attachment to material pleasures, as they come with the realization that all material and sensory pleasures are illusionary and impermanent. They neither seek, nor are they tempted, by these diversions. They merely witness what transpires around them and carry on.

During his wanderings and spiritual practices, nithyananda was just a witness to his thoughts and actions. He just watched as the thoughts came up to his mind-body and got fulfilled. Imagine that you are used to eating at noon. Hunger appears at noon. Then you eat and let go the hunger. Your samskara gets fulfilled; it will be burnt out. Most often with us, thoughts are induced by others; desires are not our own, but borrowed from others. We eat because we are told to eat or because it is time to eat. Therefore, these thoughts and desires do not carry the energy needed for fulfillment. We partially fulfill these desires and they linger as a hangover.

In an enlightened being, only when the body really requires food is hunger experienced, and as soon as the desire is expressed, it is fulfilled. The food will appear from somewhere. The desire is born of an inherent need, not a want that is simply created by the mind.

All our sufferings are due to this fact of created desires alone. These sufferings are due to our inability to fulfill our desires, because our desires are not our own. This is what the Buddha meant when he talked about the fact that desires lead to suffering. There are desires that we allow others to force upon us, and desires that we pick up from them unknowingly. The Buddha was referring to those desires born out of human greed and jealousy; desires that have nothing to do with one's needs but are wants born out of greed.

For nithyananda, the entire parivrajaka life, the wandering all over India was much less an outer journey than an inner one. He traveled about 30,000 kilometers in all. If one had taken a train or bus, this distance could have been covered in a few months at the most. But he kept going up and down; north and south; east and west; he went forward and backtracked. He had no plan. As the thought arose to go to some place, he went there by whatever means was available. If the thought was to take a train, he took a train. He never bought a ticket. He had no money. When he had left home, he had vowed not to touch money.

Once in a train near Kolkata (known earlier as Calcutta), a ticket examiner asked nithyananda for his ticket. In broken Bengali, mixed with equally broken Hindi, nithyananda asked him, 'What ticket? I am Brahman (the universal energy), you are Brahman, this train is Brahman, and the ticket is also Brahman. Why then a ticket?!

The Master laughs uproariously when relating the incident to us; everyone is in splits as he recalls how he asked the bewildered ticket examiner: Ki ticket? Aham brahman! Aap brahman! Gadi brahman! Parchi brahman! Ki ticket? The ticket examiner was totally confused. However, he was a good man. He never asked him for the ticket again. In fact, he even bought him some food at the next station!

Nithyananda says that in most of Northern India the saffron cloth is truly respected; people consider it a privilege and merit to feed and take care of the saffron-clad. No doubt, there is the logical argument that beggars could also wear the saffron cloth and try to pass off as ascetics. But the attitude is, so what? If someone is needy, and if we have the wherewithal, let us feed them. This is true charity that flows from the being, with no expectation of anything in return.

During his parivrajaka days, nithyananda's body moved wherever his thoughts took him. The energy of his thoughts led him to action. There was never any un-fulfillment.

You may ask: What do you mean by un-fulfillment?

When a desire is fulfilled completely, and no trace of that desire lingers, all the samskara associated with that desire and experience are dissolved or burnt out and eliminated. Nothing remains inside; no baggage, no leftover desires, there is no hangover.

Imagine that your being is a bean bag. All the beans inside are the bija karma, seeds of desire and vasana, essence of mental attitudes. When they drop, the bag starts collapsing.

In our case, if we feel hungry, we eat without even being aware of what we eat. Most often we eat not because there is a need to eat or because the body is hungry, but because it is time to eat or because our friends or family want us to eat. The eating happens unconsciously, with no awareness, often without a need. It is no wonder that we usually feel drowsy after eating, while ideally we should be feeling more vigorous and energetic!

When we do eat, we rarely focus on the eating. We do everything else; we talk; we watch TV; we read newspapers. If nothing else, we replay what we have done earlier in the day on our mental screen. Whatever we eat, however much we eat, when we eat with no awareness, we remain unfulfilled. We keep eating without satisfaction, without fulfillment; without dissolving the samskara.

Practically every other activity that we indulge in happens the same way. Even as we are executing one task, our mind is busy doing something else. Often we multitask, with no focus on any one activity.

An enlightened Zen Master was once asked what the difference between him, an enlightened being, and an ordinary being is. He said simply, ‘I eat when I eat; I sleep when I sleep. That is the difference.’

Our body is such a beautiful organism that it is able to perform many complex actions without our even being aware of these activities. Why does a body that can digest the food we eat without us being aware, need our attention to prompt it through external stimuli? We bring about this situation by ignoring our body, by remaining unconscious of its needs and forcing into it our desires borrowed from others. As a consequence we suffer.

However small they may be, even in an incarnation, gunas remain till enlightenment. The satva guna still remains as the alloy element in the gold. At the point of enlightenment, this satva guna too burns off completely leaving just pure gold behind.

You can see the difference in Nithyananda’s photographs before and after enlightenment. Grace simply happened at the point of enlightenment and it is visible. Nithyananda says that after his enlightenment everything that he did had been directed by Existence. Thoughts arose and were fulfilled. He just went along without resisting.

Someone asked Nithyananda what would have happened had he resisted the thoughts as they arose in him. He said that the situation did not arise, as he seemed to have no choice. The spirit of the witnessing consciousness within him led him to following the thoughts as they arose, and witnessing them as they were fulfilled. It was choicelessness. It was Existence that propelled his actions.