PUBLISHERS' NOTE
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's
HINDUISM TODAY, a Newspaper circulated the world over, asked
in the form of questions for a description of Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya
Sadguru Sri Swami Omkarananda Saraswati and his Himalayan and
European Ashrams.
The Answers have taken the form
of this publication. Can one present a verbal picture of a Mystic
Sage rooted in the experience of the transcendental Truth? Not
possible. The life of this living liberated Man, Jivanmukta,
Omkarananda Saraswati, a Brahmajnani (brahmavit brahmaiva
bhavati) permanently settled in unconditioned and all-independent
joy, peace, fearlessness, and a dignity that can only belong
to the divine Reality, is inward and invisible, though the traits
of his daily consciousness, delineated here in this line, are
palpable to an appreciable extent to our eyes. It is a life that
stays beyond mind and its words; it also remains supremely untouched
by sky-high glorifications claiming however justifiably fidelity
to reality or by the green-eyed monster jealousy's death-dealing,
self-destroying defamations falsely asserting themselves to be
a progeny of facts. Only a Sage can truly know and really describe
a Sage, and even here it is still on the surface, though we have
here universally valid knowledge obtained by inner identity with
the subject of description: for instance, when Omkarananda writes
on Sivananda. And, who shall describe Omkarananda? Yet, for the
public any inadequate description is better than no description.
Here is one.
And, when Omkarananda Saraswati
was himself asked repeatedly to present to the enquirers his
own biographical sketch, he always answered in three words: Aham
Brahma Asmi.
July 1996
Dr. H. Eckert
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