Friday, January 22, 2021

"Aum Dakshinamurthaye Namaha" - (By Dr.Usha Garu)

I had been to Coimbatore to Nannagaru during the third year of college during which other devotees (from Hyderabad, Vizag & Bhimvaram) also came to spend a few days with him. All of us got accommodated in the same hotel as his. The days we stayed with him he would give discourses for almost 6-8 hours. Most times he would give discourses on Adwaita of Adi Shankaracharya. On one of those days after Nanna went to rest, we had a discussion among our devotees on those topics and contemplation of the same. In one of such discussions, I expressed the view that if only we experienced oneness or had complete faith that oneness is the Truth, we wouldn’t have so many distractions, wavering in the mind or confusion., for which one of the senior devotees expressed her understanding of the subject. She said since we are with the notion of having a body, when there is a hurt or wound on our arm, we apply ointment or take medication if the infection is more. Similarly, if we do sadhana to remove this false notion that I am this body, we shall gradually lose the wrong identification, that was indeed a beautiful way of presentation. Then we all agreed that sadhana is a necessity to get rid of the false identity.

That afternoon we hired a van to go to Dayananda Ashram with Nannagaru after his tea time. As per plan, we started our travel with him at noon. It was pleasant, beautiful & full of greenery on either side during our journey. So watching the beauty of nature and looking at Nanna who was seated in front beside the van driver, I started contemplating on the morning discussion that we had amongst devotees. The notion of body, body getting hurt or wounded, and taking medication to cure the same...why all this? Aren’t we healthy to start with? Why should we give scope for being infected! Isn’t all this an illusion?!

As Bhagavan sings in Aksharamanamala,

(108 hymns in praise of Arunachala)

When you are one and one alone., who is it that deludes you and appears apart? Is it not but your veil of illusion?!

Is there any existence apart from oneness? Can anything detach itself from you and have separate existence and entity? Whatever appears to have originated, isn’t that also a part of your Leela (Play). So when all is one, where is the scope of being separate or losing health or developing an infection? As I was enquiring in this manner, all of a sudden all that seemed separate disappeared and complete experience of oneness dawned upon me. In that experience, there wasn’t any duality., opposites or separateness. There was a flow of unalloyed happiness and peace and tears started flowing unaware. With tremendous gratitude, I looked at Nanna sitting in the front seat. The same time Nanna looked back at me and flashed a bright smile as if in approval of that state! I haven’t said a word to anyone nor anyone knows of my experience within. When God decides to bless you, he does so in silence without even the person next to you being aware of the same.

The state of complete peace and happiness is a true state and it remained for a long time. Tears flowed incessantly. It took a while to come back to body consciousness. After reaching Dayananda Ashram, Nannagaru first took us to Dakshinamurthy idol. All of us were watching from a distance.

Nannagaru asked me, “Do you know who this is? When I replied “Dakshinamurty!”, he said, “Yes, he is Daksinamurthy. He did not preach to Sanat kumaras through words. He imparted self-knowledge in silence, and in his very presence they attained the experience of True self”. I could relate it to my experience in the van in his presence without any words or speech. Nanna also said that Dakshinamurthy incarnated himself only for a short time (few minutes), unlike Rama and Krishna who were incarnations that came to destroy demons. He took incarnation for a few mins just to impart the knowledge in silence to his 4 disciples.

Though I had been listening to Nannagaru discourses for many years by then, that day what I have experienced was unique. Though I had experienced glimpses of truth on many occasions, this was the time Nanna gave more clarity with example. He said listening to True knowledge is one thing & experiencing it is something else. It happens in silence!

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