Nithyananda
(Glimpses from the biography of Paramhamsa Nithyananda) Vol 1
Review :
This is a biography of a contemporary spiritual teacher, Swami Nithyananda. It spans the period between his birth to when he was seventeen years old and left his home to take up the wondering life. In today’s age, seventeen is a time when youngsters are all geared up to study for a lucrative career. But Nithyananda took the vow of not touching money and embarked alone on the coolest trip possible, a barefoot pilgrimage across India.
We all know the value and the power of money. It is the one thing we strive for, almost all our life. In all honesty, education and choice of career, has but one guiding spirit: the goddess of wealth. And not without reason, it is money that comes in handy, it is the obvious solution for most of life’s struggles.
Then why and how do some people consciously give it all up, where does the trust in existence, the sheer guts to face hunger day in and day out, stem from? The most hyped example of running away for enlightenment is of course that of the Buddha. He made the mistake of marrying and then the seeking took over.
Closer home, we have life-stories of masters like Shirdi Sai Baba, but his pre-Shirdi days are shrouded in mystery. Ramana Maharishi, while giving us a sketch of the events that led up to his death experience (read enlightenment), was too silent a sage to provide us with juicy details. Which is why, a childhood re-lived, of a popular enlightened master is a rare treat.
The smartest move this soul made was to be born in a place so holy, that no one interfered with his spiritual progress: Tiruvannamalai, the town in Tamil Nadu which has the biggest temple in Asia, and lies in the shadow of the mountain, Arunachala. The mountain is referred to as a spiritual incubator.
When he was a child, Nithyananda began as an artist. He sculpted idols of gods and goddesses with clay. And, like the other saints of yesterday, the child insisted that his clay idols eat the food he offered them. After three days of fasting, one idol compiled!
How does a three year old boy get a Guru? The Guru seeks the evolved soul and bribes him with candies. Nithyanandas parents are the coolest couple one can hope to parent a weird child. When the neighbor complains that she saw the kid sitting in the graveyard, the mother nonchalantly says, ‘So what? He is not disturbing you, is he?’
Somehow the boy goes through school and enrolls into a mechanical college. Unlike other youngsters, his favorite pastime is meditation, pranayama, all that. When a roommate asks him why he is wasting his time, Nithyananda replies, ‘You will know when you stand in line for my darshan one day.’
The climax of the narrative is when he asks his mother if he can leave home, without any plans to return.
The flow is deep and reflective; the book seems to be written by a devotee of the Swami.
What I didn’t like about the book:
At each stage, there is an explanation and a justification about that which is not scientifically accepted, which was not really necessary. A straight account of the story, I feel, might have made a bigger impact.
What I liked about the book:
The book ends rather abruptly, when the seventeen year old leaves his home town. Somehow this serves as an ignition point that awakens a keen interest in the wondering life. In your imagination, the book doesn’t end, because a journey has just begun…
{ Published by Life Bliss Foundation, ISBN 193436414-2 }
