Swami Sadananda was a great saint of India who lived in Allahabad. Pandit Rajmani Tigunait -a famous disciple of Swami Rama used to meet him in his college days. Pandit Rajmani Tigunait has written about him in his book,’ Touched by Fire’. Pandit Rajmani Tigunait is spiritual head of The Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, USA. There are many chapters in the book,’ Touched by Fire’ which are devoted to the mysterious spiritual powers of Swami Sadananda. I intend to write gist of these chapters for the benefit of the readers who are interested in spirituality and the mysterious ways in which it works to lessen the suffering of the people.
Swami Sadananda had deep knowledge of palmistry, astrology, spirituality , philosophy and medicines. Once Pandit Rajmani Tigunait received the news that his mother had terrible headaches for more than a month and had recently lost her eyesight. When Pandit Rajmani Tigunait requested Swami Sadananda to give some medicine for her, he replied ,” medicines can help but it will take too long for her to get cured.”
“Then, Swamiji, What can we do to help her get rid of her headaches and regain her eyesight?”
“ Physical medicines are only one way of curing a disease.”, he told Pandit Rajmani Tigunait,” and in fact, such medicines are too weak to change the course of karma, which is actually the root cause of any disease. Forget about such weak medicine. It will be better if you do the recitation of a special set of prayers to the Sun” Then he gave him a prayer known as aditya hridayam stotram to recite.Pandit Rajmani Tigunait recited it regularly and his mother recovered fully after twelve days. Personally I have seen that recitation of chakushi vidya( चाक्षुशी विद्या ) is even more powerful than aditya hridayam stotram to cure eye troubles and eye sight.
When Pandit Rajmani Tigunait asked him about the relation between his prayer and recovery of his mother, Swami Sadananda replied,” Intense austerity, intense meditation, recitation of mantra, grace of God, selfless service, and living in the company of the saints create a positive karma in a short period of time. The energy created by spiritually vibrant actions can neutralize the effect of previous negative karmas. If karmas cannot be changed or modified, then why should anyone bother to do anything good in life.” In above conversation ,Swami Sadnanda has given us six ways to lessen the effect of our bad karmas. In my routine practice of astrology and the feed back given by my clients I have found that all these methods help if done with sincerity and devotion. Please remember that sincerity and devotion are the keywords in all spiritual practices and remedial measures. These practices remove our karmic impurities and enable us to receive and retain divine grace.
On one Sunday , Pandit ji found one gentleman in ashram of Swami Sadnanda who was suffering from epileptic fits so violent and frequent that someone always accompanied him to make sure he did not hurt himself. Swamiji gave him some medicine with following instructions,” Take this medicine every morning, but only after you have fed grains to wild birds. After morning ablutions, get some barley, cracked wheat ,and other grains. Invite the birds to come to you and feed them. Once they have eaten ,take this medicine. Only then may you take your meal.”
While explaining the reasons of feeding the birds before taking meals Swamiji explained to Rajmani ,”Birds are part of nature. Their relations with human beings is not contaminated with selfishness and expectations. They are happy when you serve them, but they do not mind if you don’t. They operate on instinct alone—-they make no personal choices and have no agendas. Serving them is serving nature. Nature is the repository of all of our karmas, the impressions of our past deeds. In our unconscious mind we have seeds of disease as well as its cure. This unconscious mind always works in conformity with nature. By nature, I don’t mean only plants, rivers, and rest of natural environment. What we call nature, in fact encompasses an entire primordial energy field that is the source of , and locus for, this material world. Everything and everyone evolves from this primordial energy field ,including our natural world.
By sacrificing your comforts, and giving away that which you believe to be yours, you payoff your karmic debts in the subtle realm. And it is these karmic debts that are the cause of present misery. Although we do not have access to our own unconscious mind, we can pay off our karmic debts by serving nature, of which we are a part.”
The epileptic patient was cured in six months although frequency of fits had lessened within a month. Swami Sadanada gives hint about two more ways to pay off our karmic debts. One is to serve whole creation of nature especially those who can not speak and the other is charity. By charity I mean giving away to the needy, something that we believe to be ours. He regarded karmic debts the only reason for our present misery and suggested various means to pay off our karmic debts. I have found that efficacy such remedies also depend on the spiritual development of the person prescribing these remedies and also on the sincerity and devotion of the person doing these remedies. Remedies prescribed out of selfless love for the whole humanity and by the persons who are pure in heart work marvellously.
Swami Sadananda had great knowledge about mantras and their uses for the welfare of the humanity. Once Swami Sadananda gave a sabar mantra to Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, with the instructions that it will not be misused, it will not be used for earning money and it will not be used as a show. But Pandit Rajmani Tigunait could not follow the instructions and lost the power of mantra. Swami Sadananda said to him in a sad voice, “You ruined it. Remember, you had promised that you would not misuse it ? That you would not show off ? How childish of you. It was a sabar mantra. It works only if secrecy is maintained. Now it is gone. Even if you teach someone, it will not work.”
Pandit Rajmani Tigunait writes about this experience in the following words,” That day I realised that mantras are living entities. They are not just words and phrases that you can learn from books. They are the focus of intangible yet potent spiritual powers that exert their effects on our body and mind provided we use them appropriately.”
About spiritual practices Swami Sadananda always insisted that only authentic writings should be consulted that address the nature and possible outcomes of such practices. He said,” Practice and master the aspect of yoga that helps you keep moving. Practice such disciplines of yoga that enable you to come in touch with your inner self and allow you to understand the relationship between the individual self and Supreme Being. Once you know your true nature, the charms and temptations of the world have no power to influence your mind. Through meditation you start your inward journey; through meditation, you become established within yourself. The practices of yoga that prepare the mind for meditation are the only valid practices.”
Such a great yogi left his body in 1976.In ancient India and even till recent past such yogis will available in almost every city of India, but in Modern India their presence is decreased and only pseudo yogis are found which are harming the great tradition of India. Although it is also true that yogis and masters are always available in the world if our search is sincere.