My Master Casts Off His Body by Swami Rama. One day in July 1945 my
master said that he wished to cast off his body. I argued with him: “It
is written in the scriptures that the master who leaves a foolish
disciple in the world is committing a sin and goes to perdition.” So he
said, “Okay, then I will not cast off my body, because you are still a
fool and ignorant.”
Then in the year 1954, shortly before I was to leave for Germany, I was
taking a bath in the Ganges and thought, “That was not right for me to
do. I should not have forced him to stay bound to his body, as he has
already given me so much.”
When I went to my master I didn’t tell him of my thought, but he said,
“Ask the other swamis to come at five-thirty this evening for the last
teachings I want to impart.” We were at a height of 11,600
feet near a shrine in the Himalayas. This place is situated between
Basudhara and Badrinath.
The witnessing of the death of a yogi is considered to be a worthwhile
experience in our tradition; we always try to witness a master’s death.
It shows that one can die voluntarily whenever he decides. If
a master wants to live for a long time he will – but the day he wants
to leave his body, he will cast it off, exactly as a snake leaves his
skin.
I asked my master, “Why do you want to cast off your body?”
He said, “You were taking a bath and you were thinking that you had no
right to hold me back. Now you are strong and you have learned
something. You are finally mature and you can stand on your own in the
world. I feel free to go on my journey.”
There were five of us with him on top of a mountain. He sat in the
center surrounded by us and asked all of us if we wanted to know about
any spiritual practices. I was in deep sorrow, but at the same time
would not express my attachment for him, thinking that the body must go
to dust sooner or later. It is inevitable. So I tried hard to compose
myself. He looked at me and said, “Do you want anything from me?”
I said, “I want you to be with me whenever I need you, whenever I am in
distress, helpless, or cannot deal with the situation.”
He promised that he would, and then he blessed me. We all bowed before
him. He sat in the accomplished pose and closed his eyes. Gently he
muttered the sound “Aumm” and became lifeless.
We all started crying. We did not know whether we should bury the body
or immerse it in the river. We couldn’t decide. For two hours we
discussed this and consoled each other, but we could not come to any
conclusion. Finally the decision was left to me. We thought of carrying
his body to our cave., but since it was sixty-three miles away, it
would take several days to reach there. Nonetheless another swami and I
started to carry his body toward the cave. In the mountains it was not
possible to travel at night, so we stopped in a small cave. We were
very quiet and passed the night sitting and looking at each other. I
never believed that my master would ever leave me, but he had done so.
Next morning after sunrise we started carrying his body again and
walked about fifteen miles. We thought of disposing of the body, but we
could not decide where and how it should be done. We were afraid that
the body would decompose. Two nights had passed, and on the third
morning we decided to bury it on top of the mountain from which we
could see our cave far away in the distance. We dug a pit six feet deep
and laid the body inside it.
We wanted to cover up the body with boulders and earth, but none of us
could move our limbs. We could talk to each other, but all five of us
became completely inert and lifeless, as if we were paralyzed. It was
an experience which I had never had before. I felt as though my soul
were entirely different from my body and I was fully conscious of the
separation of body and soul. I felt like jumping out of my body, and
the others had a similar experience. There was a small fir tree just
five feet away from us, and we all heard the sound of my master saying,
“I am here, wake up. Do not be sad. Do you need me in my body again, or
do you want me to help you without the body?” I said, “I need
you in your body.”
With one voice we all cried for his help and begged him to come
back. Then I felt a tingling sensation in my body.
Slowly the numbness went away and we started moving our limbs. My
master got up and came out of the pit. He said, “It’s too bad that you
still need me in the body. You still worship the form and cannot go
beyond it. Your attachment to my body is an obstacle. Now I
will see that you are not attached to my body anymore.” Then he started
teaching me the relationship between the body and the formless soul.
Many times when I lived with him in the cave he would remain in
absolute silence for several days without any movement.
Whenever he opened his eyes we would go and sit near him. One day he
told me that there are three categories of beings: (1) the Absolute
Being, the Lord of the Universe; (2) the sages who have power over
birth and death and who are semi-immortal beings. They are born and die
at their will; (3) the ordinary people, who do not have mastery over
birth and death. For them death is a constant fear that lurks in their
minds and hearts,. Such ignorant people suffer.
A sage and a yogi are not bothered by the minor events of death and
birth. They are free of all fears. Being free from all fears is the
first message of the Himalayan sages. That fearlessness is one of the
steps toward enlightenment.
In the course of the conversation my master told us that the highly
accomplished yogis and sage are ageless and can live as long as they
wish. The individual soul can voluntarily cast off the body
and even enter into another body. It is said that the great yogi and
sage Shankara was gifted with such a power. One of the scriptures
describes this process as para-kaya pravesha. I was intensely
interested in experiencing this process of the changing of the body,
though earlier I had had a similar experience in Tibet with my
grandmaster. My master told me that it was not unusual or
impossible for an accomplished yogi to change his body, provided he
finds a suitable replacement.
He described three ways of expanding the life span: (1) through highly
accomplished yoga powers and a disciplined life, one can live for a
long time; (2) by changing the body one can live consciously with all
the experiences carried from the previous body; (3) enlightenment is
freedom itself, and there is no need of clinging to the garment which
is called the body.
After studying a few rare manuscripts and learning at the feet of my
master, my desire for knowing this science grew stronger.
The sages explored and expounded the deeper truths of life.
These truths are the truths of all time and all humanity, and hence the
universality of their appeal. Deep down in the hearts of all
realized men, no matter what their race and what their color, is the
desire to understand and to hold to the truth, to attain to the higher
destiny of the human race.
Man has been searching for immortality since the dawn of
civilization. If one has done something in the past, the same
thing can be done by someone today; if someone can do that today, the
same can be done by all.
Life expresses itself through the medium of the body. Desires seek form
for self-manifestation. Desire is the inner soul, and form is the
external. Without content, there can be no form – it will be dead
matter. Being devoid of rhythmic vibration, neither form nor desire is
content and will be eternally homeless. Therefore desires
seek embodiment, while form seeks desires.
Many are those who perceive the mere body. Being unable to apprehend
the life within, they consider the lines of the picture to be final:
they cannot piece through them. Their realization must remain
untrue, their knowledge incomplete. To learn more about man’s inner
life rhythms, one should learn to go beyond desire and to cultivate the
inward sensitivity and one-pointedness of that mind which can seek help
from the finer forces of rhythmic vibrations.
Life is rhythm, and one who knows this rhythm can live as long as he
wishes.
Ordained a monk at a young age by a great sage of the Himalayas, Swami Rama was involved in a learning journey from monasteries to caves, studying and living with more than a hundred sages in the solitude of the Himalaya Mountains and the plains of India. Among those with whom he studied were Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, and Ramana Maharshi. In this collection of stories, Swami Rama relates his experiences with the great teachers who guided his life.
Story from Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama available from taossales.com.
