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‘Meditate on your Self. Kneel to your Self. Remember your Self. Whatever is yours is in you.’
‘Om Namo Bhagavate Nityanandaya’
On August 8th, 1961, precisely at 10:40 am, this world lost one of the greatest Masters of all time, the incredible and impossible to describe and define Bhagavan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. Whatever is born on this planet is bound by its laws of duration in linear time, and it must die at some point in that duration, including our physical body. In this worldly plane of existence, time is ruthless, unkind, it has no compassion, and it dissolves everything. It is said that time even dissolves itself in the end.
For worldly people, on August 8th, 1961, Bhagavan Nityananda has left forever. Death is perceived as final and total for many. But little is known that existence knows no birth and death for our essence; the True Self is immortal, infinite, and beyond any dimension. In reality, Nityananda never left. He is still here and everywhere, dissolved into Oneness and Totality, beyond the body and any form in time and space. How can Nityananda, who was never born and thus could never die – how can eternal bliss be extinguished? Nityananda is all-encompassing, all-permeating, with and without everything that is. There is never a question of Him taking a new body and new rebirth. He is complete. On August 8th, 1961, precisely at 10:40, the world witnessed The Greatest Liberation.
Nityananda gave His darshan to so many people. As a True Master, it was enough for Him to glance at someone or give someone His prasad, or smallest touch, and that was for the entire eternity. But to receive His real darshan, one must search for Him within, make the life full of love, renunciation, and non-attachment. One must purify the mind and not search for faults in others. Only then will one become Nityananda.
Usually, when we read about someone, we follow the timeline from birth to death. In Nityananda’s case, it is necessary to start at the end of His earthly life to fully understand the ‘what’ rather than the ‘who’ of Nityananda. His end on this planet marks an enormity of our Being and our infinite potentiality as we are all Nityananda in our essence. Nityananda is not just a person. He can be considered the inner Self who activates our Prana, who digests and assimilates everything we eat and drink and thus sustains us. He is the inner inspiration of the Kundalini energy, our very Prana, our very life. As the source of our vitality, He is the very source of our essence. He is that which is fully conscious, which is perfect. His name is very significant because it comprises two words, nitya, and nanda. Nitya means eternal, everlasting, permanent. That which always remains the same beyond all dimensions is Nitya. Ananda means supremely blissful. So His name Nityananda means infinite, eternal bliss, the one who delivers His disciples from darkness of bondage, affliction, and suffering to light, the True Self.
The place, time, and conditions of Nityananda’s birth are a mystery. Nobody knows when and where Nityananda was born. Mohanji says that Nityananda was first found as an abandoned baby on a village pathway, with snakes protecting his body. Nobody knew His birth parents, but his direct disciples’ stories say that His foster parents adopted him, foster mother Uniamma Nair, and foster father Chathu Nair. His foster parents gave him the name Raman.
His early life saw Him traveling across the Himalayas and undertaking yogic studies. Even from early childhood, he displayed his unusual and advanced spiritual state. He was performing spontaneous miracles, for which he was saying that they were just an act of all-pervading God. By 1923 He settled in Tansa Valley in Maharashtra. In 1936 he went to the village of Ganeshpuri and settled there permanently. He developed schools and contributed to society to a great extent. An Ashram was built around the place where he was staying. His Samadhi Mandir in Ganeshpuri has become a great place of worship and pilgrimage, and visitors still report miracles happening to them.
As well as being born a Siddha from Siddha Loka, Nityananda is also from Naga Loka, whose purpose was to bring rekindled wisdom of Naga’s (serpents) to people on this planet. Such people are capable of performing spontaneous miracles. On one occasion, a police officer put him in jail, thinking that He was a felon. Shortly after, the police officer saw Him standing inside the prison and outside on the street at the same time. He then released Him immediately, realising His unique powers to awaken ordinary people. This illustrates that we too are Nityananda inside ourselves, capable of reaching the highest when we release our ego’s shackles and embrace our subtle energy dimension. Often underrated and misunderstood, such Masters contribute immensely to humanity in bringing down the supreme knowledge of Para Brahman or the Absolute to human understanding levels.
Nityananda’s words and wisdom are concise, precise, and razor-sharp. One sentence, one word, even one letter from His wisdom are so powerful that if one imbibes his teachings fully, and lets them permeate every cell of one’s body, then Jiva (an ordinary person) becomes Shiva (one with the universe). Such was the immense power of Nityananda. He was always having all of His fingers straight, never bent, to emphasize that He is free from all worldly possessions and that one can not take nor retain anything from this world.
‘Only one principle pervades the entire world.
It is indestructible and beyond decay.
That essential principle is our inner Self.
It is neither near nor far because it is everywhere.
For Nityananda, neither the knowledge of the world
nor the world itself nor the body has any significance.
Nityananda is that principle which perceives the Self in everything.‘
According to Bhagavan Nityananda’s biographers, the identity of Nityananda’s Guru is a mystery. According to Healy, Nityananda did not have a Guru. In one of his talks, his student Swami Muktananda said Nityananda’s Guru was an unknown Siddha Purusha from Kerala.
Nityananda never spoke a lot. His mere presence and energy were enough to transform someone’s life. But when he did speak, it was as if the universe itself spoke, in few precise words crossing this world with the simplicity of His teachings. His core teachings are Purity of mind, Purity of feelings, and Faith in God.
Purity of Mind
The mind is the primary cause of all our sorrows, unhappiness, suffering, and, in the end, all disease. Right actions purify the mind; a pure mind leads to knowledge of God, leading to Liberation. ‘When the mind is there, a person is an ordinary human being. By transcending the mind, a person becomes a great being, a saint.‘ When the mind is still, the one Supreme Being is known as the Self. When the mind is still, without malice, without expectations of worldly pleasures, when the mind is like the Guru, like Nityananda, then Liberation is obtained. The world then appears as the Self, and Love arises for all life, all creatures, and all forms of life. The realization that Nityananda as pure bliss awareness is in me, and I am in Nityananda constitutes Liberation itself.
Purity of Feelings
From negative and impure attitudes come feelings which produce impure thoughts and emotions. Purity means the absence of any pollutants, thus maintaining equality of vision and innocence of heart. Feelings shape a person. Impure feelings give rise to anger, hatred, ignorance, infatuation, laziness, carelessness, to name a few. They further give rise to all sorts of anomalies of human behavior and conduct, thus creating a life of sheer misery.
Faith in God
God is all and in all. Faith is at the root of all religions. The essence of this is to believe that the unseen is as real as the seen. To have complete trust in God, and surrendering your life at the feet of the Lord is the first and foremost way of attaining devotion. By looking for Him in everything, contemplating and following Him, Love will arise in our hearts. Faith creates amazing miracles; it makes the earth turn; it makes the impossible possible; it turns the bad into good, and poison into nectar. With faith, a person can overcome any adversity in life, and as Nityananda said, with faith, a man can cross the ocean of worldliness.
Meditation
Nityananda used to say to people to stop complicating things and meditate. Everything can be obtained through meditation. Nityananda asked, why not seek God within yourself, why wander from one place to another, why practise austerities without seeking the One in the heart? Only through meditation, the Self, subtlest of the subtle, reveals itself. Meditation stills thoughts and stabilises the mind. All our suffering is the result of mind-driven ups and downs. It is not an easy task to still the mind, and for some time, the person may need external support to become established in the Self. Through meditation, one becomes that on which the mind dwells intensely and with firm resolve. When meditating on God, one becomes God; when meditating on his Guru, one becomes like his Guru.
Knowledge
Nityananda was a lover of Advaita Vedanta [non-duality], even though he appeared to strangers as if he knew nothing of it. He fully manifested non-duality. Nityananda always urged seekers to ponder the differences between inside and outside and understand the world through meditation and knowledge. That way, the underlying Reality is reached, and Darshan received of the Lord within and without.
Quotes From Nityananda – Chidaksha Gita
The following selected verses and teachings from Nityananda were recorded by Tulsi Amma (a devotee) from 1920 through 1927 and published as Chidaksha Gita. As the Truth is the same, timeless, and applicable to any era of our humanity, below are Nityananda’s quotes, which offer answers to our modern time and ego-driven world. His words are a sure opportunity for personal transformation and evolution. The messages are razor-sharp and suited for deep contemplation.
56. In Pranayama, Pooraka is drawing up the breath, Kumbhaka is retaining the breath, Rechaka is exhaling the breath. These three kinds of breath occur within. Nothing is from outside. While the practice is going on, Prana will move only in one nerve [sushumna], and we then feel the internal joy. Who can describe this Brahmananda? The outside world will be forgotten. We will then be in the world beyond.
157. On a mango tree, not all fruits grow simultaneously and ripen at the same time. First, we have tender fruit; by and by, the fruit ripens. Finally, the ripe fruit is edible. So, also, men must be like mangoes. In every respect, we must cultivate peace.
80. However wicked a man may be, his wickedness may be changed into goodness within five minutes. So long as there are clouds, the sun’s rays are not visible. As soon as the clouds scatter in all directions, the sun becomes visible. OM ‘the tower of peace’! OM ‘the form of peace’! OM! Salutation to OMKAR!
3. Where these three nerves meet is the heart space. As we continue practicing yoga, the Bindu-sound (like that of harmonium, or a drum or a fiddle, the ten sounds) is heard in the head. This sound is one, indivisible.
261. If you have ‘Manas,’ [are living in the mind], you want everything. If you do not have ‘Manas,’ you do not want anything. If you have ‘Manas,’ God becomes a separate being for you. When you have merged ‘Manas’ in ‘Budhi,’ God is not separate from you. All then appears as one. If you have desires, you want a separate God because God’s help is necessary to accomplish your desires. Then the ‘Manas’ goes after the various objects of the senses and causes doubt about various matters. Then one feels the necessity of an idol or image. Cause and effect appear to be two separate categories. Image worship is due to Maya or ignorance.
276. Various kinds of articles are brought to a fair. Similarly, peace should be practised in multiple ways. When we are in the midst of thousands of people, we should have a firm will. When you think (wrongly) that you are in the midst of thousands, the idea of duality arises in you. Just as an airplane moves without the help of the earth, so also, one must learn to act without the body’s support. The pinnacle of belief, ‘I am not this body,’ should be firmly planted in the heart. After being in the sun for a long time, feeling tired, a traveler seeks the shelter of the shade of a tree on a hillside and forgets his fatigue. So too, those whose minds are absorbed in search of God forget all their worldly anxieties. Just as in the shade one forgets the sun’s heat, the sense of ego is forgotten by the absorption in God. When we are inside the house, we do not want an umbrella; we need an umbrella only when we go outside. Just as you do not want an umbrella inside the house, when you are in the Great House called God, you do not feel any necessity of worldly enjoyment (found in human dwellings). When a man shuts the door of a house, he sees only things inside the house. Let him open the door and come out; then he will see what is outside. Similarly, you must learn how to shut the doors of the ‘five senses.’ When the doors of a warehouse are locked, buying and selling cease. When doors of the senses are shut, the difference between the external world and ‘I’ will vanish. Therefore, always be careful about the senses. Like a horse is controlled with the help of reins, you must control the senses by discrimination. Fix your attention like a nail on a wall. Budhi (intelligence) should be concentrated in the head. Your attention should always be above the neck, never below.
Last Message from Nityananda
In the last messages that Nityananda left to our world and mankind, He emphasises that we are already pure souls and that our perfection lies within us, and as such, we are the flame of that pure Self. Nityananda says, ‘you are me, and I am you,‘ which is the vision of Siddha Yoga and the knowledge given by Him. He further says, ‘not only am I your Self, but you are also my Self, your Prana is my Prana, and your life is my life.‘ His teachings as devotional non-duality tell us not to fall victim to ego and its pride of ‘mine and thine, small and big, yours and mine.’ If we fall victim to the desire to rise above someone or make that person small, then that is a sure sign of us falling. He instructs us to keep with regular meditation practice, our daily Sadhana, keep pouring love on each other as we are all brothers and sisters of the same Nityananda family. Love is the Self; Love is religion, Love is God, love is the path; love is the only thing of great value to acquire.
Let us never forget Nityananda’s final message: Meditate on your Self. Kneel to your Self. Remember your Self. Whatever is yours is in you.
‘Om Namo Bhagavate Nityanadaya’
Meditate on your Self. Kneel to your Self. Remember your Self. Whatever is yours is in you.
Nityananda taught that ‘The attention towards the visible should be lessened. The love towards the invisible should be increased.‘
The core of his teachings is, ‘The Heart is the hub of all sacred places. Go there and roam.‘
Nityananda was always encouraging his disciples to meditate on the Self.
Once when He traveled towards the north until he came to Bombay. On the way, he settled in a place called Kanhangad and was meditating there. As there was no water in that area, he said, ‘Why should the Ganga only flow in the north? The Ganga should flow here!‘ Immediately water started flowing. That water is still there even today.
Not Bound by Time and Place
One day, he was standing at the bus stop. He was trying to go somewhere. He never used to wear any clothes. He only wore underwear, that’s all. A bus was coming, and he waved at the bus to stop. The bus driver looked at him and thought, ‘This man is not wearing any clothes,’ and decided against stopping the bus. When the bus reached the next stop, the driver found Nityananda was standing there as well. When the bus came to the third stop, again, the driver found Nityananda standing there the same way. Finally, the driver stopped, and Nityananda got on.
Healing
Another time, he was again standing at the bus stop. He saw one woman walking. He went ahead and caught her dress. People were angry. They were chasing him. He was shouting, ‘She’s healed! She’s healed!‘ Nobody understood what he was saying. Then they asked this lady, ‘What was wrong?’ She said she had been suffering from breast cancer in both breasts. When Nityananda caught her dress, she was healed.
Manifesting Train Tickets
Once he was traveling by train but did not buy a ticket. When the ticket checker came, he asked him, ‘Where is your ticket?’
Nityananda said, ‘What ticket?’
The ticket checker said, ‘If you want to travel by this train, you must have a ticket. Can you show me a ticket?’
The ticket checker showed Nityananda a ticket and said, ‘It should look like this.’
Then Nityananda took a ticket from his underwear and gave it to the ticket checker.
The ticket checker asked him, ‘So you’re going from this particular stop to that particular stop?’
‘No, I want to go further,’ he said and took another one.
Finally, he gave the ticket checker all the tickets – about fifty tickets in all – right from where the train started to its final destination. The ticket checker was surprised, ‘How can this man produce all these tickets and he’s only wearing underwear? There’s no way he can hide these tickets. And the tickets were all for that day, not a collection of the old tickets from the past!’
Manifesting Source of Income
There is always a group of people who talks badly about any Master. The same thing was happening with Nityananda, too. Some people went and told the income tax authorities, the people who collect tax, saying, ‘This man is financing schools and so many institutions, and he doesn’t have any income. How does he get this money!?’ So they said, ‘He is probably doing something illegal. Maybe he is printing money, or maybe he is an agent laundering people’s black money.’ So the income tax people came to Nityananda and asked him, ‘What’s your source of income? Show us where you got this money.’
Nityananda asked, ‘Who are you?’
They said, ‘We’re from the government. We’re income tax people. We want to know where you are getting the money.’
Then he said, ‘I pick it up from that pond,‘ pointing to a water basin, ‘Whenever I need money, I pick it up from there.‘
‘Are you playing with us? Are you joking? We can arrest you. We’re powerful.’
Nityananda said, ‘I’m not joking. I’ll show you. Come with me.‘
He took them to the pond. He jumped into the water and brought out a pot of gold. He said, ‘Whenever I need money, I go down, I pick one piece of gold, and that is what I use.‘
They could not do anything
Although He did not establish any formal organisation and did not leave behind any successor, Bhagavan Nityananda did cause a great, living lineage of Maha Yogis to manifest on this Earth plane. On this page are listed some of His direct disciples. We list them here to honor and glorify their service to Bhagavan Nityananda.
Swami Janananda, the elder disciple of Bhagavan Nityananda, and under the direct orders of Bhagavan, looked after the Swami Nityananda Ashram at Kanhangad. Bhagavan Nityananda described him as ‘Dattatreya Avatar.’ Swami Janananda Baba looked after the Kanhangad ashram as his Master’s Temple and never tried to propagate his image. He attributed everything to Bhagavan Nityananda and became a true Karma Yogi.
Swami Janananda took birth to set an example of devotion through Seva, as described in the Bhagavad Gita. All his life, he worked hard with total dedication to his Master. He also kept all his spiritual power subdued and never tried to make a name for himself. He always kept the name of Bhagavan Nityananda in the forefront of whatever he did. Janananda Baba had no attachment to name, fame, or worldly possessions. He lived his entire life saying, ‘Thy will be done.’
Paramahamsa Muktananda received Shaktipat Diksha from Bhagavan Nityananda and became one of his foremost disciples. When the Gavdevi temple was built, devotees approached Bhagavan to ask which deity statue should be placed in the temple. Bade Baba told them to install Muktananda instead.
Bhagavan Nityananda had three rooms built for Paramahamsa Muktananda in Ganeshpuri, India (originally the Gavdevi Ashram, now Gurudev Siddha Peeth) and told him to stay in those three rooms. That is where Paramahamsa Muktananda began his world-wide mission before establishing ashrams and centres across the globe.
Muktananda became world-renowned through his work in the U.S. and Europe. He also established a Foundation to continue his work after taking Mahasamadhi. Muktananda always spoke of Gurudev Nityananda Bhagavan and wrote books and articles about his life with Gurudev, which have since become widely-read.
Before taking Mahasamadhi in 1982, Paramahamsa Muktananda made a profound and everlasting impact on the lives of millions of Sadakhas across the globe through the bestowal of Shaktipat Diksha. The global impact of His Grace-bestowing power is widely recognised.
Shaligram Swami took the vow of monkhood in the Narayana Ashram in South India. At that time, he was named Dayanand Saraswati. After he met Bhagavan Nityananda, he was renamed Shaligram Swami when Bade Baba took him as His disciple. The shaligram is a dark black oval-shaped pebble found on the banks of the river Ganges. The shaligram stone is considered to be infused with the power of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. Shaligrams are often offered in temples where they are placed on the Puja. Even if there is a statue of a deity in the temple, it is the shaligram, which is said to attract the Shakti of Shiva and Vishnu to that place. For this reason, people have come to worship the shaligram stone. Swamiji once said, ‘The name Shaligram is not my surname; it is a responsibility bestowed on me by Bhagavan Nityananda. The Shakti of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu fuse in Shaligram.‘
Tulsi Amma recorded Bhagavan Nityananda’s words whenever he spoke while in a deep trance. These utterances were compiled in a book called the Chidakasha Gita. The name ‘Chidakasha Gita” was approved by Bade Baba, and the book was originally written in Kannada. Of all the disciples of Bhagavan Nityananda, Tulsi Amma was a class apart. Bhagavan Nityananda himself declared her to be ‘One who has seen the Sun,’ meaning that she had realised the eternal Bliss of the Absolute that she had gone across. It is because of Tulsi Amma that we have the teachings of Bhagavan Nityananda available to us. The original Chidakasha Gita was translated into English, unedited, by Mr. Mangalore Sanjeeva Kamath of Mahim, Mumbai, who was a great devotee of Baba.
Very little is known about Tulsi Amma, and those who know about her are no more. Although she wrote several books, she never mentioned her name as the author of those books, nor did she reveal anything about herself. Tulsi Amma was from Mangalore in South India and must have met Bhagavan Nityananda in early 1920. She was a young widow at the time. In those days, life for a widow in India was tough and painful. In that pain, she turned to God. She belonged to the community of Gowda Saraswati Brahmins and took to monkhood. This enabled her to wear janava (holy thread) and perform Sandhya Vandana, the ritual usually only performed by Brahmin men. She wore a white sari as a widow is supposed to wear and kept her head covered. She was fluent in the Konkani, Kannada, and Marathi dialects.
Gopal Anna was a full-time attendant of Bhagavan Nityananda, who dedicated his entire life in service to Shri Nityananda. There is none to measure up to his dedication. He used to get up at 3:30 in the morning and have his bath. Initially, he lived in Kailas Ashram. From there, he used to come to the Samadhi Shrine and help in performing the puja. He performed every activity with a feeling of deep servitude, respect, and love. He also supervised Balbhojan (the feeding of children while chanting God’s name). In the early days, he used to make weekly visits to Mumbai to make purchases for the Balbhojan. He personally looked after Balbhojan because Bade Baba was always very particular about it being conducted properly. He was always surrounded by children, young adults, and ladies asking for his guidance. While doing this service whole-heartedly, he always remained unattached.
Padiyar Swami (Swami Sadananda of Kanhangad) had come to Mumbai from Karnataka. Since he was from the community called Gowda Saraswat Brahmins (G.S.B.) and knew Sitaram Shenoy, he checked in at Sitaram’s hotel in Mumbai. All youth from the G.S.B. community who came to Mumbai in search of work were welcomed at Sitaram’s place. They slept in his gymnasium at night and went searching for jobs during the day. They were fed all their meals in the hotel until they found a job.
Padiyar was one such youth to whom Sitaram took a liking. It was obvious to Sitaram that Padiyar had to be introduced to Baba Nityananda. Mr. Padiyar made repeated visits to Bhagavan Nityananda during Baba’s stay in Mumbai (the early 1930s) and later at Baba’s Ganeshpuri ashram. These visits slowly transformed Padiyar into a devoted disciple. Later, Bhagavan Nityananda sent him to Kushal Nagar and told him to settle down there. Today, there is a Mahasamadhi shrine erected there in his honor.
Brahmarishi Mohanji and Nityananda are connected through Avadhoota Nadananda and his Guru, Sadhguru Avadhoota Tara Mayee, which makes Avadhoota Nityananda the Paramaguru of Nadananda. Avadhoota Nadananda transferred his spiritual powers to Mohanji, thereby connecting Mohanji to the Nityananda lineage.
Bhagavan Nityananda’s Samadhi is located in Ganeshpuri at the Samadhi Mandir. There is also a shrine dedicated to him in the Gurudev Siddha Peeth ashram at Ganeshpuri. His ashram, tourist hostel, and other buildings associated with his life in Ganeshpuri are preserved by the Shree Bhimeshwar Sadguru Nityanand Sanstha Ganeshpuri. This Trust is also responsible for his Samadhi shrine in Ganeshpuri, which is a pilgrimage site.
A Trust at Kanhangad looks after the Ashram and temples located there. The Trust also runs a few educational institutions and a Dharamsala.
Mohanji talks on Bhagawan Nityananda:
Mohanji’s personal blogs on Bhagawan Nityananda:
© MyDattatreya 2021 All rights reserved
Designed by Tamara Lj.