Sivananda's Personality-86

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09/11/2017

The real Sivananda was inscrutable. He was a marvellous person, with his head in the heavens and his feet on the ground. He believed that the world was God writ large, and saw His manifestation in nature, in everything. He saw the world charged with the splendour, glory and grandeur of God. He took the universe as a dream, yet appeared to evince keen interest in the activities of the dreamland.

The Master always eluded the reach of the human mind. Sometimes the devotees felt he was their most intimate friend; at other times, the same devotees feared that their Guru was beyond their reach.

"He is so like us, but a little beyond us. But when we reach that little beyond, again we find that he is still a little beyond, said Tunhla, a journalist from Burma, in a speech at the Ashram on September 26, 1955.

Omkarananda, a disciple of the Master, characterised him as "an impersonal personality", "a transcendental individual". The human and the Divine were so inextricably mixed up in the personality of the Master. He was verily a divinised human being.

That was why people by the thousands venerated him. They visited him from far and near just to have his Darshan. Strangers from distant lands wept like children in his presence. Young men and women deserted their kith and kin and gave themselves up entirely to him.

Those who were not very fortunate to see the Master personally, treasured a letter or a book, a rosary or a photo received from him. The photo was an inspiration to many.

Sri N. Ananthanarayanan

To be continued ...

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