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Traditions of the life of a Sadhu

A discourse on the significance of Mahāsamādhi and the disciple's path.

"We worship both the anniversary of the death and the birth anniversary. This is a point people sometimes do not understand."

"Now we don't say 'died,' we don't use the word 'death,' but we use the word called 'Brahmalīna'... Leena means to become one with it."

A spiritual teacher explains the meaning of a saint's Mahāsamādhi, contrasting worldly grief with the spiritual perspective of merging with the divine (Brahmalīna). He details traditional funeral rites (samādhi) for renunciates and elaborates on the rigorous guru-disciple relationship, using an extended allegory of a wasp and caterpillars to describe the three types of disciples (Kaniṣṭha, Madhyama, Uttama). The talk emphasizes the need for sincere devotion, humility in satsang, and the irrelevance of worldly titles on the spiritual path.

Filming location: Jadan, Rajasthan, India

Om Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān kī Devadhī Deva, Deveśvara Mahādeva kī Dharma Samrāṭ, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān kī Satya Sanātana Dharma kī Bhārata Mātā kī. Blessed self, spiritual seekers, and bhaktas, blessings are coming to you from the Om Śrī Alakpurījī Siddhapīṭa Paramparā. You had a wonderful bhajan singing on the evening of the 6th of November, on the occasion of the Holy Gurujī's anniversary. It was in the Hindi language. You may know the bhajans and names of the spiritual deities, etc., so you understood some of it and not other parts, but you enjoyed the melodies, the rāga, the different rāgas. He was also singing Rajasthani folk songs like bhajans, the way village people enjoy them in their language. We worship both the anniversary of the death and the birth anniversary. This is a point people sometimes do not understand. Generally, we are all sad and unhappy if our family members, friends, neighbors, or even our house pet dies. But in the tradition or system of the spiritual saint—it doesn't matter from which belief—we talk now of Hindus, Indians. Hindus and Indians also have many different spiritual lineages. In these spiritual lineages, there are spiritual leaders. They are not householders; they are bachelors who lead a spiritual group. They are bhaktas, devotees; the village people all know them. At the time of their Mahāsamādhi, meaning their death, people will come, they will support, and they will organize everything. The fuel, not a funeral, sorry. Mostly in the spiritual traditions, the Rājā, who is a sādhu, follows certain principles. There are different kinds of sādhus. Someone who just left the house because of certain problems; someone who is poor; someone who doesn't like to work; someone who doesn't like to study and was just born to go away, that's all; and someone who became a sādhu because one of their partners is not good. Mostly, the one going away is male, and so there is quarreling, maybe between husband and wife. I don't want to make anyone negative, but there is no option. So one option is good for them: just to go and become a sādhu and live somewhere however they like to live, and it has no aim. They think, "If I get liberation, I will get liberation, but at least I get food and I get some shelter," and that's all. That is not good. We have thousands of such sādhus. Sometimes there are those who have vairāgya, meaning detachment from worldly life, and would like to go to the spiritual path. They search for a master. Now it is the disciple's choice. He or she who would like to have a master must decide which master. The master is only one in life. You have one mother in life. You can adopt a mother, but the real mother is only one, and the father. Similarly, you have one master, one guru. Once you surrender, then this is your destiny. One who seriously would like to study Sanskrit, yoga, meditation, and would like to develop with the master to become a master of spiritual knowledge must follow strict rules. The sādhu, the sanyāsī, should not move alone. You see the Jaina sādhus: the male sādhus are always walking together, never alone—one, two, three, together. And the females, all females, are walking and going together, not alone. Never. Even if they are 80 years old or more, the others will help her or him. Similarly, there are different traditions. It is called a sevak. The one accompanying you is a sevak. In certain situations, he protects you, guides you, supports you. In my case, Gurujī never let me go, for example, from here to the road alone or from here to somewhere far. I said, "Svāmijī, Gurujī, I am not afraid." She said, "I am not afraid, and you are not afraid, but go with someone." No argument, okay? Gurujī was very kind, very humble, but very strict. When a child is born, every mother, even animals, takes care very much and protects very much. So even if you are fifty or sixty years old, but you become a sādhu, a sanyāsī, and surrender to one master, that master would like to train you, to make you a master, and observe you, and wish that you will become like that. Many go away; many disappear. There are three kinds of disciples, as you call them: Kaniṣṭha, Madhyama, and Uttama. These are the three. Kaniṣṭha means in the beginning they say, "Yes, I want a mantra," next they say, "No, I don't want," and this, and Ariyam, all disappears. Without any words, it disappears. And Madhyama, the middle: okay, if the master tells, I will do. But if the other world does master, then please give another chance. So, they try to avoid. But Uttama is that we always follow the instructions and thoughts of the master. The same attitude should also be had with the parents, and parents with the children. When children come to know that their parents need something but they don't ask or tell you, and you come to know, you will fulfill that wish of the parents. Similarly also with the master. We know, often we spoke about one wasp, Bhamarī, that gets one caterpillar. There are different kinds of caterpillars, and there is one which will become the wasp. They make a mud house somewhere in the building, and then they catch this one caterpillar and close it inside. Sometimes they have a few inside, and then they close it inside, and there is only a little hole where the oxygen is coming. They can't come out, so it's more hold. When this one wasp is searching, searching now for the follower, the next generation, then moving in the grass—and this is in prāṇāyāma, there is one technique called Brahmari Prāṇāyāma. Bhamarī is that Bhavrī, that one which is going. So we do the Prāṇāyāma. It's a Nāda. It's a Rāga. So certain music, Nāda, certain melody you like. But I don't like it. But the other one likes it, but only for a little bit of time, then it's enough. Also, a different kind of instrument. People, they like, they understand, they enjoy, and a little bit, then finished. So this one wasp was flying over the grass somewhere and searching. The negative one, which does not have this karma or spirituality, immediately runs away or hides in the grass. Then that wasp will not go there, because this one will not become a wasp. That will not become a guru. Then the second, Madhyama: when he hears the sound, that caterpillar tries to stand up a little and then runs away a little bit. But then again, he stands and turns back. So yes, no, yes, that's it. So, that best friend knows, yeah, this one will one day go away. That one will disappear. In this fruit, there is no juice. In this seed, there is no oil. Then comes the third one. She is searching constantly, he or she, this wasp, I don't know, male or female. Then he sees one, and that one goes under the grass and puts a little of his body outside—mouth, face—and then listens. And after a while, doing like this, where the bee is going, where the wasp is going, he is going like that. And the wasp goes away, and he is still moving and then looking left and right. Again, the wasp comes. Yes, it is that you have not concentrated; you can see that. So, then this house has already been prepared. You will see that house in our Om Ashram. Beautiful. And we are all angry because they just—we put a nice, our architect, Yogājī, and the mystery and his tekadār—they made a beautiful, and within 10 days, there is already such a big mud house on the top. So it closes. Inside, it's not only the holes. It's a very beautiful design. There are different streets. Yes, there is a different place where this inside that worms will be taught that they can make their rest of the things from stomach about outcomes or not. So there are streets, and every street has a name. And in that, they are walking; they are not sitting here. They walk there, they walk there, they have exercises, and that wasp is feeding them. Now, she finds this, she takes and brings in this little mud hall and puts again some earth so that the caterpillar cannot come out. And what she is doing, the wasp gives an injection. Sticks are the body of the needle, which they stick on us like this. So that she is leading to some kind of hormones or whatever it is. And this is painful. Then, the wasp is bringing some food, always coming and sitting there, feeding there, and going away. Yes, and again, chanting, and it goes away. So, they know inside, a few said, "When is she coming?" And now, they are afraid because of a stick always, so they are relaxed. And when she hears that the mess is coming, they all sleep down. Again, she comes and wakes them up and gives something. Then again, she doesn't come. It doesn't come for a whole day. So they are looking to see why she doesn't come. And then they are trying to listen to see if it's coming. And then what happens? They themselves, waiting and waiting and... waiting, and they are making themselves. When they turn to the wasp, and the wasp comes, oh, the babies are already there. They got wings, and they are singing. Then she opens the hole and opens the door, and then flies away, and all flies behind her. They don't go along anywhere. They are together until they become mature, and they can again produce new wasps. So it was only a few, and then suddenly you have such a big nest of wasps. That's how they are becoming, and so it is that the Master tells how the disciples are developing. And so, Holikubha Prabhujī says the bhajan, no? Which bhajan is that? Mahāprabhujī said, "What a glory of the satsaṅg." You should attend the satsaṅg. Go to the satsaṅg. Listen to the satsaṅg. If you learn a few words in a few days and then you sit like a master, and think that you are self-realized, and you give the satsaṅg. Theory is not. You have to create that love in your heart so that you have no doubts and no conflict. All negative vṛttis are cleared up. Otherwise, your heart is suffering. And so it becomes then that one who becomes the master. So one master produces or makes the other master, but it has to have a quality. It's not a question of having some diplomas, not a question of some talents or some technology. But that is confidence, love, and you should know what the master wants. Such saints, such sādhus, when they pass away—if they are gṛhasthī of the family, living with the family—then they have their normal saṃskāras. There are sixteen saṃskāras in Hindu dharma. So, they have their saṃskāras, and they are doing them. But when a sanyāsī, who became a real sanyāsī and followed the master, passed away, we give them samādhi, which means we give them a funeral. Mostly, there are different kinds of funeral. One is called jal samādhi. They drop this body into the water, in the ocean or in the river. So also, the other creatures can use it more. In the Parsi tradition, the people who are Parsi, Persians, when they die, their family members put them somewhere in the forest and leave them there. They trust and believe that what remains after the body should still be utilized for someone to eat. It is like in big cities—Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, in all these big cities, Ahmedabad—they have a big high building, a terrace, and they have some different kind of nest made or something. So they are coming like different birds, and what you call these eagles, vultures, yeah, and different crows also. And so they eat their body. They go there, they make a ceremony, a lot of good ceremonies, light and this. Do you know that? Many know, and many don't know. Second is that you grave it, put it in the earth or cremate it. So generally the sannyāsīs get one of the two samādhis: jal samādhi or bhū samādhi, in the earth. And then you have the ceremonies, mantras, everything. So, like we had last, last some sannyāsa dīkṣā to our mātājī, and she got that kind of samādhi, and the sādhus came, ṛṣis came. When you become a sanyāsī, then you don't go to anyone's funeral, except your mother, maybe to your father, that's all. But not to brothers, not sisters, not neighbors, no friends, no. You can go to the funeral of one who is a renounced saint, a sādhu. There you have to go to join there. So this is the tradition. Now we don't say "died," we don't use the word "death," but we use the word called "Brahmalīna." Brahmalīna. Now Brahm is the highest. The Brahman, and that is the God, that Brahman, the Supreme; you can say the Holy Father. It has no form, nothing. It is Brahman became one with the Brahman. And therefore, when the sādhu dies, who follows the rules, who follows the rules of instructions of the masters, who got realizations, who served the masters, who served the traditions, who served the lineages, who served the societies, who gave and gave the knowledge—so it's called Brahmalīna. Leena means to become one with it. It became one with it. You have nothing else, no other wishes, desires, anything. So that's called: this soul merges with the ātmā, and that ātmā merges into Brahman because the ātmā itself is Brahman. So we will say Brahma-līna. We second. Then we don't say the sadness, so we don't express the sadness. Because you should not express the sadness, because that person, that saint, became one with Brahman. And therefore, not sadness. But still we are sad, who left behind the disciples. Those who love their master, those who were so much with him and attest, and everything, doing seva and this and that. So, it doesn't matter who you are, we are the sad, but it should not express, all right, like this. If you have parents and family, then few people will cry. But when great saints pass away, then I think it becomes sad, as the cries are numerous. Maybe how many disciples do you have? Millions, two millions, a hundred, a thousand, one, or nobody. So, Brahmalīna, and that gives the samādhi. We call it, generally you call it the funeral, but for them it's called a samādhi. That's a samādhi. Samādhi means, now, so samādhi, there are many different kinds of samādhis. There are many, many different kinds of samādhis. Finally, it is called sabhīja samādhi and nirbīja samādhi. That brahmalinī is nirbīja samādhi. Either you do being still in the body, or you go out of the body. But that other body, samādhi, is this what we call the funeral. And that place is called, this grave, that's called a samādhi. So when one passes away, then we call it Mahāsamādhi. What? Mahāsamādhi. But we don't always say Mahāsamādhi, Mahāsamādhi. Once, now my Gurudev is in samādhi. Many don't understand, so you can say, "My Gurudev is in Mahāsamādhi." It means that is final. That is final. Now, in the tradition of the renunciations, which is renunciation means who became a saint, renounced everything, not going home, in your own home, not cooking, eating there. You can go to neighbors, but not to that house which you renounced. In certain situations, you can enter your house and go and say, "How are you?" and so on, but no more going. Now, the final ceremony is on the 16th day, and that's called Ṣoḍaśī Bandhāra. Bandhara means giving, eating, okay? But this is a ceremony. But for others who come to this, mostly they are coming for eating, and you see how many sādhus come here. They only come for the money. They don't care about anything. Paisā, paisā, please give. Every time we have problems, they are not a sādhu. They are not that gurumukhī. Gurumukhī means following the words of the master, and gurumukhī means one who has a mantra from that master. Now, there are so many mantras. "Who will cut my hair?" is my mantra. "Who will give me chaddā?" is my guru. "Who will give my langoṭī?" is the langoṭī guru, and so on and so forth. So you don't know who is which is guru, because there are so many mantras and this and that; everyone gets something. So, one is the, and then you don't know, maybe someone is a gañjā guru. But the guru is one. So, sixteen saṃskāras. Saṃskāra means the traditional ceremonies or traditional things. Now, why sixteen and why not fifteen? So, sixteen is counted to the day, as it is called, the six siddhis, six siddhis, who have achieved the six siddhis, it was a god, Rāma or Kṛṣṇa. Kalā means there can be some knowledge, there can be some miracles, but Kalā is different. Now, this Kālā belongs to the moon's system, Chandra Kālā. Chandra Kālā is not Sūrya Kālā. It is—is it Sūrya Kālā? It is Chandra Kālā. So Chandra Kalā, Chandra means the moon. And so, the moon every day hardly rises equal. So it takes 16 days again to come to that position of beginning changing. So from the full moon, that full moon you will not count. You will count the full moon as a pūrṇa kālā, complete, achieved. But the next day, it will be a little less. So that will be counted. So then it becomes 15, but it is actually 16. So sixteen siddhis or sixteen kalās, that one goes to the Brahmaloka. That becomes that real liberated soul. That becomes Satguru, and that is something. So one has to practice. It is not only that you renounce your house and that's all, and then I do what I want. That means that's a way to Naraka. Only you think that you are realized or you are a sādhu, and now I am this for the spirituality, for that brahmaloka, to go to the Brahman. There is no title that is valid. If I go to the door of the Brahman and say, "I am Ahmad Ali," Aswan, and I am Vishwa Guru, and I am Paramahansa, and open the door to brahma loka. Why? So, title does not help. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa had no title. Only two words: Rāma had no title. Parśurām had no title. Jesus had no title. Or where is the professor? Where are the doctors? Where there is something? No. Title comes after. Title is only for the society. So, it is like a political situation. Once you become a prime minister, and then the next time, nothing. But a sādhu's position is growing. As an old sadhu becomes, he becomes more respected and more spiritual. But all these officers and politicians, they will go away. When they become, they have the highest point. But when they are lost, they are gone down completely. A Sadhu never loses anything. In a Sadhu, there is na śuk na duḥkha. That's what Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad Gītā, 12th chapter, Bhakti Yoga. And there, no name, no fame. Not this, not that. Read the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā completely. According to the Bhagavad Gītā, there are 18 different kinds of yoga. So, karma, bhakti, rāja, and jñāna are only these four, modified by Patañjali. But Patañjali did not say only these four. Patañjali also gave them more different types of yoga: Haṭha Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jñāna Yoga, Sannyāsa Yoga, Karma Yoga, many, many yogas. What does Yoga mean? So here, then, yoga means that you do certain things to become one. So it is not easy that now I have an orange dress and I am the supreme one. No, no. You can be a supreme one in your thinking, like a crow sitting on the peak of the church. And someone asks, "Why are you sitting here every day at this time?" You don't know they are all in the church, sitting and praying to me. It is not like that. So it is a hard training to become that Brahma Jñānī, that Satguru, that master, or that wasp develops. But ask that one how it came to this. So this is a training, like gold: how many times it goes into the fire to get clean and clean and clean. So, satsaṅg, you have to go to satsaṅg to the humbleness. You have to go as a bhakta, not as a self-realized, "I will sit here and I don't listen," no. Doesn't matter who speaks anything, you will learn something from them. You will learn from anyone who is talking. So we are there in the satsaṅg to drink the nectar of the wisdom. That's why the satsaṅg is there. Therefore, Mahāprabhujī said, and so that's why we are worshipping or remembering or making ceremonies. For that spiritual, that's all which came to the Brahman, and what he left with us is blessing on that name, Bandara. And if you don't take Prasad, it is your bad luck. Even a little, but you should come to the Bandara and eat something, so sword see. So it means that he who has developed these sixteen kalā siddhis—and there are twenty-four siddhis, and there are twenty-seven siddhis. It means the whole month. And that is described, holy Gurujī, in Līlā Amṛt, that Mahāprabhujī, as well as Devapurījī, had these siddhis. And these siddhis came from Alagpurījīs. So we are all trying and trying and trying. Perhaps they will give us this siddhi. So they don't need any commission. There is only one commission: bhakti, devotion. Repeat mantra and devotion, bhakti, bhakti,... bhakti. Janama janama bhulu nahi. Every life, I should not forget. And every life, O Lord, let me be with you. That's it. Don't separate me. I should not be separated. That is worthwhile, that you came to on the earth and you raised up from the earth into the Brahmaloka. That's it. So, Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa Dīp Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa Dīp Nārāyaṇa... Namashivaya om namah. Om namah shivaya om. Om namah shivaya om. Om har har bode. Namashivaya har har bode. Namashivaya har har ganga. Namah Shivayoh Shivaya. Namah Shivayoh. Om Namah Shivayoh. Om Har Har Bho. Namah Shivayoh. Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Alak Purījī Mahādev, Dev Puruṣa Mahādev, Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ, Satguru Svāmī Mādhāvanandjī Bhagavān, Satya Sanātana. Therefore, body, mind, words, and all my belongings are surrendered. Then you are just fresh-born, that's it. And that goes, pure consciousness rises up.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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