Looking at me Guruji (Sadguru Gurunath Vishwanath Mungale – we normally address him as Mungale Sir) addressed me as Prasanna Kumar a few times. I thought, he did not hear my name correctly and said that my name is Swatantra Kumar. He said “No, Prasanna Kumar thheek hai – referring to my smiling countenance”.
As mentioned in earlier posts, I was a practicing meditations (not involving mantra), pranayam and yogasanas with all seriousness. I, however, never prayed or performed pooja or observed any vrata. This was mainly because of my family background (our family followed Arya Samaji traditions) and to some extent the way Osho and Kabir spoke against the ritualistic part of sadhana.
I believed in efficacy of meditations and took the masters as knowledgeable persons (I was time and again overwhelmed by what they said) and some thing more than mere instructors. I had respect for masters but there was no feeling of devotion towards them or the deities.
Seeing that bhakti was missing (Anahat Chakra was dormant), after a while he suddenly asked – “Pooja prarthana karte ho?” I said “No”. He asked me “Kiya karo”. On being asked what to do, he said “kuchcha bhi karo (do anything)”. I sought approval to chant Panchakshara Stotra of Shiva (disregarding a suggestion for chanting of Vishnu Sahasranama which came from Gaur Saheb) as I used to be captivated by its rendition by Sadguru Jaggi Vasudeva. He approved and asked me to continue whatever else (yogasanas, pranayam and meditation) I had been doing.
Mungale Sir usually asks every sadhaka to continue with his practices (perhaps makes them more effective by his energy / initiation) and makes small corrections in a subtle manner over a period of time – he patiently waits for the sadhaka to be ready for a change or next step.
I was absolutely ignorant of this part of sadhana (pooja, prarthana). I even did not know where to get text of Panchakshara Strotra. I was, however, quite serious about doing what Guruji asked me to do – that discipline was there. I asked someone and got the text. Being bad in memorizing things, it took me about a month to memorise these five slokas. Till then I continued chanting them – reading from the book. I recited them five times every day in one sitting. No questions arose in my mind in connection with necessity or efficacy of this form of sadhana.
I did not notice anything but my wife told me that she saw a major change in me in a month’s time after I included chanting into my daily routine. It is true that only others close to us can perceive the changes in us. Their perception is real – depend on them.
Gradually I added Prataha Smaran and Shiva Manas Pooja to my daily chanting.
In one of my subsequent visits (I have been going to him every 2 to 3 months), he asked me to hug a mango tree while going for morning walks. In another visit he asked me to feed cows (if there was no such facility – it could be mentally visualized). And in yet another visit he asked me to keep two sticks, one on my office table and another in the room where I meditate. I never felt like asking him ‘why?’. I knew that he can see ahead and if it were necessary, he would have told me. About the need for sticks, he however told me that in my previous life I left my Guru and went back to normal worldly life and that my Guru used to keep a stick like that (he showed me one). He added that these sticks will keep me on right trek. I sincerely did whatever he asked me to do along with all other practices.
A new dimension in sadhana was thus added.
In the month of May, 2005 I had gone to Guruji with Gaur Saheb to give him invitation card for the marriage of my elder daughter (Sweekriti). I had carried a photo album with me. While coming back, Gaur Saheb was glancing through the album and pointing at the photo of Chetna Singh (sister-in-law of my daughter) enquired about her and told me that she has spiritual potential. That girl was having troubled family life – though living in the same house, she stayed away from her husband for about 7 years soon after her love marriage and a case for divorce was already filed in the court – and she had regular quarrels with her mother. I told him all this and expressed opinion that she may not have any such potential though she has done some courses of Art of Living. Gaur Saheb reiterated his view that she has spiritual potential and advised me to invite her to be with me three times for about 3 days each and then take her to Mungale Sir. He added that her life would change.
And as if things were falling in place as destined or Guru Tatwa was at work, she herself came to us thrice in next couple of months and stayed with us for at least three days on each occasion. Then I took her to Mungale Sir. She was adamant and told Guruji that she would not live with her husband under any circumstance. Guruji told me that there is slight clash of aura and if her husband visits him, he would set it right. On the request of Chetna’s mother, he visited Guruji with me saying that he does not believe in any Guru (he used to ridicule Sri Sri Ravishankar whom everyone else in the family was devoted to) and that it is his first and last visit to a Guru. Though Guruji appeared to be just chatting with us – apparently not doing anything to the boy, a miracle happened! Within a fortnight Chetna and her husband went to Malaysia and Singapore on a pleasure trip and after another fortnight they started living together. They fell in love with each other all over again!
This miracle deepened our devotion to Guruji.
Associations with Guruji continues and may continue in the life hereafter. He once affectionately told me “I will go before you. But when it is time for you to go, I will come and take you with me!” What an assurance!!
I will narrate many of our experiences with him in my posts hereafter. But now it is time to advert to Paramhamsa Nithyanandji whom I had fortune to meet in July, 2005.
To be contd. …
As mentioned in earlier posts, I was a practicing meditations (not involving mantra), pranayam and yogasanas with all seriousness. I, however, never prayed or performed pooja or observed any vrata. This was mainly because of my family background (our family followed Arya Samaji traditions) and to some extent the way Osho and Kabir spoke against the ritualistic part of sadhana.
I believed in efficacy of meditations and took the masters as knowledgeable persons (I was time and again overwhelmed by what they said) and some thing more than mere instructors. I had respect for masters but there was no feeling of devotion towards them or the deities.
Seeing that bhakti was missing (Anahat Chakra was dormant), after a while he suddenly asked – “Pooja prarthana karte ho?” I said “No”. He asked me “Kiya karo”. On being asked what to do, he said “kuchcha bhi karo (do anything)”. I sought approval to chant Panchakshara Stotra of Shiva (disregarding a suggestion for chanting of Vishnu Sahasranama which came from Gaur Saheb) as I used to be captivated by its rendition by Sadguru Jaggi Vasudeva. He approved and asked me to continue whatever else (yogasanas, pranayam and meditation) I had been doing.
Mungale Sir usually asks every sadhaka to continue with his practices (perhaps makes them more effective by his energy / initiation) and makes small corrections in a subtle manner over a period of time – he patiently waits for the sadhaka to be ready for a change or next step.
I was absolutely ignorant of this part of sadhana (pooja, prarthana). I even did not know where to get text of Panchakshara Strotra. I was, however, quite serious about doing what Guruji asked me to do – that discipline was there. I asked someone and got the text. Being bad in memorizing things, it took me about a month to memorise these five slokas. Till then I continued chanting them – reading from the book. I recited them five times every day in one sitting. No questions arose in my mind in connection with necessity or efficacy of this form of sadhana.
I did not notice anything but my wife told me that she saw a major change in me in a month’s time after I included chanting into my daily routine. It is true that only others close to us can perceive the changes in us. Their perception is real – depend on them.
Gradually I added Prataha Smaran and Shiva Manas Pooja to my daily chanting.
In one of my subsequent visits (I have been going to him every 2 to 3 months), he asked me to hug a mango tree while going for morning walks. In another visit he asked me to feed cows (if there was no such facility – it could be mentally visualized). And in yet another visit he asked me to keep two sticks, one on my office table and another in the room where I meditate. I never felt like asking him ‘why?’. I knew that he can see ahead and if it were necessary, he would have told me. About the need for sticks, he however told me that in my previous life I left my Guru and went back to normal worldly life and that my Guru used to keep a stick like that (he showed me one). He added that these sticks will keep me on right trek. I sincerely did whatever he asked me to do along with all other practices.
A new dimension in sadhana was thus added.
In the month of May, 2005 I had gone to Guruji with Gaur Saheb to give him invitation card for the marriage of my elder daughter (Sweekriti). I had carried a photo album with me. While coming back, Gaur Saheb was glancing through the album and pointing at the photo of Chetna Singh (sister-in-law of my daughter) enquired about her and told me that she has spiritual potential. That girl was having troubled family life – though living in the same house, she stayed away from her husband for about 7 years soon after her love marriage and a case for divorce was already filed in the court – and she had regular quarrels with her mother. I told him all this and expressed opinion that she may not have any such potential though she has done some courses of Art of Living. Gaur Saheb reiterated his view that she has spiritual potential and advised me to invite her to be with me three times for about 3 days each and then take her to Mungale Sir. He added that her life would change.
And as if things were falling in place as destined or Guru Tatwa was at work, she herself came to us thrice in next couple of months and stayed with us for at least three days on each occasion. Then I took her to Mungale Sir. She was adamant and told Guruji that she would not live with her husband under any circumstance. Guruji told me that there is slight clash of aura and if her husband visits him, he would set it right. On the request of Chetna’s mother, he visited Guruji with me saying that he does not believe in any Guru (he used to ridicule Sri Sri Ravishankar whom everyone else in the family was devoted to) and that it is his first and last visit to a Guru. Though Guruji appeared to be just chatting with us – apparently not doing anything to the boy, a miracle happened! Within a fortnight Chetna and her husband went to Malaysia and Singapore on a pleasure trip and after another fortnight they started living together. They fell in love with each other all over again!
This miracle deepened our devotion to Guruji.
Associations with Guruji continues and may continue in the life hereafter. He once affectionately told me “I will go before you. But when it is time for you to go, I will come and take you with me!” What an assurance!!
I will narrate many of our experiences with him in my posts hereafter. But now it is time to advert to Paramhamsa Nithyanandji whom I had fortune to meet in July, 2005.
To be contd. …
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