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(Translation of a discourse by Gurudev Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya on
"Apane Brahmaña Evam Santa Ko Zinda Kijiye " delivered in May 1983)

Let us begin with the collective chanting of the Gayatri Mantra:

“Om Bhur Buvah Swah, Tatsaviturvareñyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi,    Dhiyo Yonah Pracodayat ||”

Sisters and Brothers,

Many of you are often curious to know how I have acquired spiritual powers. Well, I can only say that I have only experimented on disciplined life. My first experiment was to see what distinct powers, if any, are there in the life of a true Brahmaña. Are there any supernatural effects of living like a true Brahmaña?  Well, first of all let me clarify, as I have explained earlier on several occasions, that one does not become Brahmaña (Brahmin) by birth.  A Brahmaña is one whose life is devoted to Brahm (Brahman).  In simple terms he (or she) lives for attainment and dissemination of gyana — pure knowledge that enlightens the inner self, and for the welfare of all beings. He lives an austere life, uses the minimum of his resources for himself or family and dedicates most of his earnings, talents, time and labor towards altruistic service of the society. His activities are aimed at illuminating and elevating the lives of others.

Simplicity and austerity are natural in his life, as otherwise, if he has substantial resources and income, he would be engaged in self-possession and comforts and hardly find time and money for altruistic service. If he has just enough for an average life-style, then all his earnings would be spent and he would have no savings for donating to the society.  Thus in any case, in order to fulfill his duties for the society, for the needy, a Brahmaña adopts abstinence and even self-imposed hardship. Spiritual progress cannot begin without sacrificing the comfort-driven life-style and self-centered attitude. 

Realizing the fact that one has to be a Brahmaña for spiritual ascent, I began my experiment of becoming one. The first step in my journey was living like a true Brahmaña. I tell you that it was indeed a wise and beneficial decision to take that step.  Whatever I had received from ancestral property (land), all that I donated for Gayatri Tapobhumi, Mathura, the first centre of Gayatri Pariwar where we also run educational programs on self-reliance in the Swawlamban Vidyalaya. A girls’ intermediate college was also opened in my native village, Amalkheda. (This is now an Undergraduate Degree College). I reminded my wife of the Brahmans among Peshwas of Maharashtra. For example Ram Taank had donated everything for the motherland on the advice of his Guru-mother. My wife also voluntarily donated all her jewelry for establishing the Yug Nirman mission’s activities at Gayatri Tapobhumi, Mathura.   Though we were at loss financially and were almost empty-handed, this dedicated act of adopting the disciplines of a Brahmaña endowed us with immense power and divine grace.

Friends, real power does not lie in money or might, it lies in the character, it lies in brahmañatva (virtues that make one a Brahmaña).  I have remained a Brahmaña throughout my life and I will continue to be so.  All the blessed talents, powers and supernatural attainments, if any, you find in me are consequence of devout Brahmañatva. 

Today there is only one community or one social identity of almost all the people across the globe and that is of those living for money. It looks like all other qualities, skills and norms of human character have become obsolete today or have ceased to exist any more.  Every aspiration, every aim, every action of mankind seems to have got influenced by commercialization and consumerism.  There is practically no brahmañatva alive in this world. Everyone is busy earning and accumulating money and worldly resources, as these have become the yardsticks of prosperity and success in human life. I am thankful to the Almighty for awakening brahmañatva in me.  The peace, joy and soul-contentment I have cannot be bought by any amount of wealth. 

You may claim to be a seeker of spirituality or might be aspiring to become one, but your urge and search is superficial. Peep inside and introspect! Your ambitions, your aspirations are self-possessive. Do you have the courage to leave all your comforts, your prosperity for any benevolent constructive mission or altruistic cause? Can you embrace poverty and hardship for noble purposes and live like a self-dependent and dignified Brahmaña? Well, all this will be required in the process of spiritual empowerment and elevation. You will have to cultivate the seeds of brahmañatva, broaden your outlook to visualize the sublime horizons of enlightened life. You will have to awaken the Brahmaña lying hidden in you to experience and acquire unflinching inner strength and willpower. 

The second major spiritual experiment (sadhana) I have conducted upon myself is that of becoming a sadhu (saint, tapaswi). This means closing all the ‘holes’ (flaws and weaknesses), which drain out one’s powers and abilities. You may think of a sadhu or tapaswi as someone wearing saffron garments, having some special faculties such as – walking on burning coal or on sharp thorns, or bathing by ice-cold water in shivering winter, and what not. No my friends. Such things pertain only to the training of the body. What is important is to train the mind, to control the sense organs. A real tapaswi is one who has performed ‘tapa’, a true sadhu is one who has succeeded in ‘sadhana’. What is this tapa and sadhana? These are arduous endeavors of cleansing and control of sense organs, mind and intellect. Ascetic practices of self-restraint are certainly part of it but the real challenge lies in melting the ego, rectification and transformation of accumulated habits, beliefs, tendencies and motivating the intellect (thought process) towards the sunlit and righteous path. 

Our so-called ‘wit’ today has become so egotist, audacious and shrewd these days! It is like a ‘ghostly wit’ a ‘devilish impulse’.  It may be very sharp and logically analytical. But what is the use of this brilliance and rationality? Very skillfully and impressively, it argues in favor of vested interests and selfish-possession and drives our being accordingly.   It may solve complex puzzles of mathematics or take instant profit-making decisions in a fluctuating market. But hasn’t it been responsible for the ‘follies of the wise’ that have put the world at the brink of a bottomless pit of doom? Can it solve the problems of those suffering the consequences? Can it eliminate people’s agony? Can it render support and light to the deprived ones at the cost of its own interests?  Can it give righteous direction to today’s man? No. Not unless you purify and set it right. You will need to apply your inner power to draw it on the righteous path. You need to practice arduous disciplines to train your astray ‘intellect’ and agile mind. This is a battle against oneself.  The vast science of tapa-sadhana stands to help us win this battle.   

You may ask about the power of mantras and effect of devotional practices with meditation on divinity (upasana). Well, these are certainly prominent components of spiritual endeavor. But the sublime power of the mantra you chant will be awakened only if your tongue is purified and controlled by your inner wisdom. You will not be able to practise deep meditation unless you have good mental concentration and your mind is free of all other distractions and gets engrossed in the thoughts and feelings of divinity.  So you need to strive for tapa-sadhana first. With gradual progress in your ascetic efforts, upasana and mantra-sadhana will also become potent. Tapa and sadhana, upasana are inter-dependent and lend mutually accelerating support.

I have been telling you about the ascetic disciplines of tapa-sadhana and have also written about it. Let me give you the gist of it again. Fasting is among the first and most widely recommended disciplines here. One cannot starve nor do strict fast equivalent to that for a long time. Also, that is not what fasting aims at; in any case, it should not disturb the performance of your normal duties. The objective here is to restrain the passions of the sense organs. Fasting means — eating lesser than filling the tummy (to help reduce the lethargy of the body) and more importantly, eating austere and tasteless (to your tongue) food.  For example, during the Mahapurascharans of Gayatri Mantra-Sadhana for 24 years of my youth, I used to take only barley chapatti and buttermilk. Even now, I take minimal sattwic food only once a day.  You need not take a pledge for such an austere fasting. You may start with, say, fasting for one day in a week – taking only one simple vegetarian meal, without sugar and/or salt. Observance of chastity and voluntary renunciation of luxuries and some other comforts are part of fasting. To reduce your comforts, you may for example, do all your daily chores by yourself, reduce the number of your resting hours and make use of that time in reading good books and/or helping someone in his / her work, etc. 

After I completed my AnuÌÚhana, once a gentleman came to me and requested that I become his guru. He was a manufacturer of silk. He kept sava rupaya (Rs 1.25) on my hand (may be as his ‘guru-dakshiña’!).  Then I thought – if I accept his money, I will not be a Brahmana, instead I will be like his laborer. It was sometime in 1945-’46. I took that person along with that money to the nearby village market. Those days, small mats made up of old clothes stuffed with cotton were available for that much amount. These were supposed to be very warm. I asked him to purchase one such mat from the money he wanted to give me and donate it to some needy person in the village. He was very impressed; he used that money for this noble cause and also purchased some more such mats and shawls and distributed them among the poor. He came back to me with inspiration of becoming a Brahman. Later on, he sent Rs. 200/- for the altruistic projects of our mission. So you see, the work of the mission did not stop. The work has continued to expand manifold – this is the outcome of brahmañatva! 

Now let me tell you about my experiments with control of speech. As part of my tapa-sadhana, I prefer to observe silence for most the time. I have always wanted to make only minimal use of my baikhari vañi (audible voice, through which we speak). As you know our mission is for the welfare of the masses, thousands of people visit here every day. I might have spoken to so many people and delivered so many discourses that perhaps nobody in the world would have. Many people get light and transform their lives by the guidance of saints-tapaswis. My discourses have also inspired and transmuted the lives of many. I often see the soul-level of the people before advising them. Higher ones are those who have the will and courage to follow some ideals. But I find most visitors, most of the people in the audiences as shallow, superficial. They simply come to take blessings for somehow getting rid of their problems and hardships. Attending discourses is also some kind of  an ‘entertainment’ for them. So what is the use of spending the precious spiritual energy via the baikhari vañi? 

Are you aware of the vital powers one loses in speaking? Enormous amount of spiritual energy is lost in talking. I therefore don’t want to meet anyone in this phase of my sadhana. By preserving this precious resource, I want to awaken the subtler currents of voice – madhyama and pashyanti vañi (voice of thoughts and inner mind) and use them for higher, nobler purposes. Sri Aurobindo and Maharshi Raman had experimented on this sadhana of silence and generated immense energy that had energized the country and sparked off the non-violent freedom movement.

God has bestowed his enormous power in our faculties of speech and thought. But it is often wasted via our baikhari vañi. I am therefore going to restrain its use, even in the mission’s work that I have been doing so far. I have already started that experiment. Now I want to do it more rigorously by observing complete silence. For this, I will have to stop meeting people. Hundreds of people come to meet me every day. But, what for? They mostly utter the tales of their worldly problems. Some of them keep complaining about how difficult it is for them to discipline their minds and practise mantra-japa, meditation etc. Without attempting any sadhana they want to attain spiritual benefits. I cannot waste my time any more in talking to such a crowd. I have to focus my efforts for greater objectives of the divine mission.

Many of you seem to be worried as to how will I help the agonized, the help-less coming to me every day with lots of hope, if I stop meeting people and go into absolute solitude? You may think that this way I am becoming harsh and self-centered. Don’t worry my children. The heart of a saint is full of compassion and love for all. The saint within me will remain alive forever. I will continue to support and guide you all and help the needy as before, without meeting or talking to you.  This is not difficult for the spiritual force of a true saint and Brahmin.

(To be concluded in the next issue)


|| OM SHANTI ||

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