saint guru chod (1900-1988)

Is there not a higher mission in life than the daily round of official duties, eating and drinking? Is there not any higher form of happiness than these transitory and illusory pleasures? How uncertain life is here! How insecure existence is on this earth-plane, with various diseases, anxieties, worries, fears and disappointments! The world of names and forms is constantly changing. Time is fleeting. All hopes of happiness in this world terminate in pain, despair and sorrow[6].

It was sometime in the very early 1920's that the doctor put an end to his 'life of ease and money-making' and returned to India by steamer. He immediately traveled to the city of Benares and took to the life of a mendicant. For a year he wandered the length and breadth of India, visiting many saints and places of pilgrimage.

In June of 1922, the doctor came to his journey's end. This was at Rishikesh, the holy town on the banks of the Ganges with the stunning Himalayan Mountains as a backdrop. He found the scenery of Rishikesh charming, the atmosphere spiritually pure and enabling. There were almshouses offering free food to ascetics and medical facilities to attend the sick. He therefore found the area around Rishikesh to be an ideal place for intensive practice. Two years later, he received initiation into the sacred order of sannyasin as Swami Sivananda Sarasvati.

For the next twelve years, from 1924 to 1936, Swami Sivananda lived as an incognito ascetic with no disciples. "He had neither associates, nor friends," reports Swami Krishnananda. "What we hear from people who had seen him in those days amounts to this,

...[H]e wore little clothing and ate no delicious diet, which, of course, was not available at all even if he wanted... During the nearly 26 years of life that we led physically with him, I did not get even an inkling as to what sort of meditation he practiced...and what was the purpose for which he meditated. He would never say anything about these things, nor were we in a position to get any information about these. This is all we knew, that he was staying on the sand bank [of the Ganges] during the larger part of the day and night on the other side of the Laxmanjhula [rope] bridge and would come to the Svargashram for his bhiksha [alms food] during the appointed time[7].

Meeting Sivananda

The ailing journalist was very much inspired when he learned that Swami Sivananda had now founded his own religious community in Rishikesh. Of special interest was the therapeutic yoga that Swami Sivananda had begun to pioneer. It was a natural approach to the treatment of disease that did not resort to chemical means. It was a simple method of vegetarian diet, exercise, breathing and positive thinking. "All of this greatly impressed me," said the Master "and I decided to go there and see for myself."

The pilgrim was in awe as the six-hour bus from Delhi entered the majestic highlands. He stepped off the bus in the rustic town and walked the final mile up-stream along the river. As he passed through the gate of the tidy ashram, Swami Sivananda was standing right there.

Concerning this first meeting, Guru Chod related to the present writer,

The first thing Swami Sivananda asked me was, "What religion do you profess?" "I'm a Buddhist," I said. And then he clapped his hands loudly and proclaimed – "We're the same!"

Kailash

Nine years before this eventful meeting Sivananda had made the most difficult of pilgrimages to sacred Mount Kailas in western Tibet. It was the summer of 1931 when with royal entourage he began the arduous 72 day trek from the Almora region of the Indian Himalayas, walking the entire distance of 460 miles. Wrote Sivananda,

There is no place on all this fair earth which can compare with Kailas for the marvellous beauty and everlasting snows. We all had a dip in Lake Manasarovar and went around Mount Kailas...It is also called Mount Meru, meaning "the axis of mountains"[8].

In the mystical teachings of the yogis, the human body is viewed as a microcosmos and the spinal column is identified with Mount Kailas, the center of the universe. In the symbolism of Buddhist Tantra the historical Buddha, Gautama himself, is macanthropically identified with the totality of the cosmic universe. His spinal column, called the merudanda, is said to be of a single bone representing ultimate reality beyond time and space, "a withdrawn, autonomous zone of non-differential Void" called sunya in the Sanskrit language. This mystical backbone is therefore depicted as a 'secret cavern within the Mountain' where Supreme Mystical Truth is revealed to yogis during intense meditative absorption. This also explains why, according to an ancient legend, the Buddha was unable to turn his head, but had to turn the whole of his body because his spinal column was fixed motionless like 'the axis of the universe.'

Ascetic Life, Knowledge, and Healing

Chod had found a sanctuary, indeed, he found a master that far surpassed his highest expectations. He soon gained dīkśā or "initiation" to order of sannyasin and donned the saffron robe, or kavi, as is typically worn by ascetics throughout the Orient. He received a sacred title and name as well, Svāmin Satyānanta. He took to a life of ascetic endeavors in the surrounding Himalayan forests. Having made of India a veritable home since his prep-school days, the journalist had naturally gained extensive knowledge of India's India's religious and cultural traditions. But it was not until he actually became an ascetic that he learned first hand the esoteric knowledge that yogīs had protected for thousands of years. Yogins after all do not invent their knowledge but receive it through the grace of their living who is linked himself in a long succession of spiritual masters. The ultimate source is said to be the Sun God, Hiranyagarbha "the golden womb"[10]. In this way, the esoteric science of yoga is legendarily connected to a long unbroken line of sages. It is due to these veritable doctors of the church that the knowledge of yoga is faithfully maintained.

This all became evident to the neophyte yogi as he studied in the Himalayan forests around Rishikesh; especially as he advanced in the practice of prānāyāma[11].

The Theos Bernard Affair

The Master was in India throughout most of the 1940's. He was there when the writer Theos Bernard was presumably killed during communal rioting in September 1947. The death, however, was not officially reported until more than a month after the purported incident. What is more, the body was never recovered.

After attending the World Congress of Faiths in London where Chod first met him in 1936, Bernard returned to his native America and successfully published his first book Land of a Thousand Buddhas (1940)[12]. He then began a lecture tour that was aided by the semi-edited film footage he shot while touring India and Tibet. Overall, Bernard's writing was favourably received, and when the war finally ended, he was eager to return to Tibet for further research and to obtain certain rare Tantric texts. His candidly written book, however, was found to be offensive to many Tibetans and the government refused to grant him a second visa.

Bernard was undaunted and set off for India again determined to find a way to slip back into Tibet. To this end, he sought advice from the German born author Lama Govinda at his Himalayan retreat in Almora. But the Lama stressed the need of official protection and bluntly warned Bernard not to try it[13].

According to the preface by Theos' father that appeared in his son's posthumously printed books,

...Bernard was traveling with a native boy guide en route to Kye Monastery, near the Tibetan border of Northern India, when he was ironically killed in a riot that broke out between Hindus and Muslims.

Now Guru Chod held a different view altogether. And why should Guru Chod's view be considered? Chod was an member of the foreign-yogī community living in India at the time of Bernard's reported death, and as a seasoned reporter he would have certainly made himself privy to the circulating rumours concerning the American's tragic disappearance.

Here are the words from the Master's mouth:

Theos Bernard was caught in a riot between Hindus and Muslims in the city of Delhi. He was on the Muslim side when the Hindus attacked them and killed everybody.

By way of conclusion, I shall only add further that Guru Chod did not need to show me the photograph of Theos Bernard performing mayūrāsana. For I often witnessed the Master himself perform this strenuous peacock-pose, even three weeks before his 88th birthday.

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