H.H Swami Pranavananda of Gudivada played a very important role in Pujya Swami Dayananda’s life. He resolved many of the doubts which Pujya Swamiji had, by pointing out that the Vedas are a pramana ,a means for knowledge for knowing the truth of the self. Pujya Swamiji recognized all the implications of this fact, and this was to have a profound impact on Swamiji. Swamiji realized that self-knowledge is not some profound incommunicable experiences, the domain of some mystics who had some profound insights. Swamiji recognized that self-knowledge is communicable through Vedanta, the ancient tradition of teaching – there was a clear methodology involved and this knowledge could be unfolded with precision and could be understood by those who had the required inner readiness for it.
In May 1969, H. H Swami Pranavanandaji passed away. In the
June 1969 issue of Tyagi, Pujya Swamiji honored him writing :-
“ His Holiness Swami Pranavananda of Gudivada attained
mahasAmadhi on 15th May 1969. He was in his seventies.
At the insistence of Sri Swamiji, I lived with Sri Swami
Pranavananda in his ashram for a few months in 1961-62, and from then on I was
in contact with him.
In teaching atma vidya, there is a tradition in our country.
If that is not known to a teacher, he can never impart the knowledge of the
sruti to a seeker. Just as the eyes are a pramana for all perceptions of forms,
sruti through a living teacher becomes the pramana for self-knowledge. And
therefore the method of teaching is important. If there is no traditional
method in teaching this vidya, there is no necessity for a Guru; one can read
the books with some prelimnary general qualifications necessary to read and
understand.
Very few know the importance of this method, let alone the
method. Because of this omission, the entire vidya proves to be meaningless
inasmuch as it becomes objective. The teacher through the traditional method of
the sruti puts the student in actual experience, as the former teaches, in a
peculair way that is tradition, the nature of the Self, the ‘I’. Swami
Pranavananda was one such master teacher. His deft handling of the scripture
frame pradoxes used to, as even the Zen Master’ Koans, disentangle the student’s
reason from its relative concepts and thereby brings in the sudden recognition
or Satori.
I discovered in his classes this main aspect of our
traditional teaching. When I met him a couple of months ago, he was laid up in
bed. But he was clear in his thinking and happy as usual. He knew that there
was no cure for the disease he was suffering from. As I took leave of him after
a two day stay in the ashram, I requested him to give me a message to the
seekers. He dictated immediately in Telugu to one of the inmates of the ashram
a few lines, indeed the essence of our scriptures. I translate the same the
same hereunder:
‘The disease that has come upon this body is too serious for
any cure, it will disappear only at the cost of this body. Therefore the
medicines or doctors are not to blame if they fail to be effective. Due to this
helplessness, my mind is in no way afflicted. I consider that it is all for the
good.
Freedom is the nature of the Self, the ‘I’, and the Self is
identical with Brahman which is non-dual. Therefore, the Self as even Brahman
is free from all mode of duality, such as sajatiya, vijatiya and svagata.
In the last verse of the Bhagavad-Gita, it is said that
brahmi sthiti is the lot of this life and therefore death cannot travel with
the prana.
Karma and upasana are pursued by the people only because of
their identification with the body, dehatma buddhi. The body which is not the
Self, the ‘I’ is taken for the Self and it is because of this reason there is
pursuit of Karma and Upasana. Therefore this pursuit cannot be held as moksa.
Suppose a person by name Rama is asleep, if he is called by
someone, ‘Rama’, he wakes up. Similarly
with profound words of the sruti if the master reveals to the student the
identity of the Self with the Absolute, the student wakes up to discover his
identity with Brahman.
Therefore moksa is only through the teaching of the Master
and Sruti. It is this that is meant by Sankara in his famous verse ‘brahma
satyam jagan mithya jivo brahiva naparah’. Brahman the Absolute is Reality;
the world is apparent; jiva the
knower is not different from Brahman, the Absolute. This, and this alone is the
message of Adi Sankara. All others take after this teaching. Therefore they
have no original content.
‘That Thou Art’ is the profound statement of truth revealed
to Svetaketu as we find in the Sama Veda. The ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ mahavakya known as
upadesha vakya is the foremost among all other staements in the sruti. All
other statements are centered on this alone.
Karma and upasana are performed retaining the ahankara. This
enjoyment of fruits of action is only when the ‘I’ is taken for ego. And
liberation and bondage also, while they belong to the ego, appear as though
they are belonging to the ‘I’.
This lack of discrimination, which is something natural to
the intellect that is extrovert, will not easily go unless one listens for a
good length of time from the Master, the scriptures, and reflects and contemplates
over what he has heard.
Therefore living with the Master, gurukulavasa, is
imperative. It is because of this only, sanyasasrama is in vogue. This is the
essence of all the Shastras. Keep this always in your heart. The notion that
the world is real has got to be dispelled. This is practice, contemplation.’
The Swami dictated all this in his usual clarity of
expression. He was clear that there was no death for a sadhu, nor I feel he
ever died.”
