Any life can be an interesting story but as a teenager I was engrossed
with two elements/ ideas: To be a siddha-yogi, and a karma-yogi. Because
of my father’s close friendship with many Yogis who frequented our
residence and enjoyed free hospitality for days while narrating stories
of other “yogis” who had attained Nirvanic siddihis and could fly in the
air with their spiritual prowess, I wanted to be a Siddha-Yogi.
But my father was also actively involved with social reforms and Freedom
Movement against the British Raj. Thrice he was imprisoned for his anti-Raj
activities. Often we sheltered young revolutionaries who would sneak
into our house often at odd hours. But both type of the visitors had
fascinated my young mind and I aspired to be like them one day.
In 1937, I was 7, being the youngest of the three sons when our mother
was 7 months pregnant. My father joined a Guru and left home in search
of the Nirvanic Siddhi. As a disciple (shishya) of a Yogi, he traveled
to a Himalayn yoga center, in a remote place away from human habitation,
beyond the ancient Buddhist monastry Texla, at a distant township of
Rawalpindi ( now in Pakistan).
Being an accomplished scholar my father knew all the Indian
philosophical texts, could recite the Vedas, and read the Patanjal
Yoga-sutra in original Sanskrit text. He did not need any further
instruction from any other source but “you lack sadhana and tapasya,
Surendra-ji,” accosted an ocre robed Yogi. “Remember the call of your
spiritual Guru Shankaracharya- ‘aham brahma-asmi. Tat tvam-asi’ Surendra.”
Provoked the Guru.
“Arise, and awake, realize that you had come to this world for a Great
Spiritual Revolution. But you got involved with this mundane world of
Maya. You are trapped, trapped and confused. You have forgotten the
Divine Mission. Sri Aurobindo’s life is your guide. He gave up the path
of political revolution. But showed the world Spiritual Revolution.
India would be free- that is destined by Brahma’s Cosmic Scheme. But
take care of your mukti, Surendra! I am here to save you from the cycle
of rebirth, if you do not follow the call of Adi Shankara, you are
surely to be condemned in the dark yoni in the next life. But there is a
chance for your Mukti. I have come to take you on the path of Nirvanic
Siddhi, away from all this Maya-jal (mundane-trap).” So provoked by the
Enlightened guru, one early morning Surendra quietly left home.
The Guru had given him a secret mantra which he would not reveal to
anyone. After about two weeks mother received a letter telling her how
and where father had gone, and that he had retired into a cave,
somewhere in the western Himalaya, about 3 days trek from Rawalpindi.
Not sure for how long but in 3-4 months he hoped to have learned the
right ways of doing “sadhana”, and as soon as the guruji decided, father
would return to the mundane world.
Mobile and electronic communication systems had not yet developed and in
the remote resort of the caves, postal or telephone services were
purposefully disallowed. My mother was 40 percent burned in a kitchen
accident in 1933. I was just three years old in her lap when a lantern
lamb burst on the Diwali day. I too had received burns but mother was
hospitalized for four months. She recovered but with a deformed left arm
and her stomach was shrunk. Because of this she could not carry full
pregnancy.
For all practical purposes father was cut-off from the outside world as
he was now directly connected with the Supernatural Prowess in the Yogic
meditation. Extreme regimentation was enforced and he was not allowed to
see the sun light or come into contact with anyone except the persons
assigned to him by the guruji. He was ordered not to think of any female
and when not practicing the pranayam (breathing exercises) only to chant
the secret mantra. Inside the small cave, he was to sleep on a flat
stone-bed that also served him as the cross-legged meditation seat.
One gives up lower- value for higher-value achievements. But one must be
sure that what you give up for is surely of some higher value. There is
nothing as “Spiritual” or “Nirvanic” outside the Time-Space-Energy
virtual Reality. In anyway, what advantage one has by seeking re-birth
and believing that living in Maya is entirely evil-doing. Is there any
Nirvanic existence devoid of Time-Space? Don’t’ cover your ignorance and
inaptitude by claiming mythical spiritual powers – because they are
none.
I read world history and looked into the philosophies of Indian and
western civilizations. There is not a single Yogi who attained Nirvana
or overcome death. But science had made it possible to control suffering
and make death less painful on this planet.
My mother died in the child birth. But the father was in the cave beyond
human communication. However, in a dream he was bitten by a snake (he
must have been frightened living in the cave). But he thought his
bad-karma (or the Satanic forces) had befallen on him. All letters and
telegraphic messages were piling up at the base camp. After three weeks
one messenger collected the mail and delivered to the disciple in the
meditating cave. My father returned home after four weeks of mother’s
death. He never spoke of Nirvana again but remained all his life a
socially active reformer. He died at the full age 99.
