The peaceful warrior

The peaceful warrior

April 2015

By Suma Varughese

Like the Sikh clan from which she hails, she is feisty and fearless, a Joan of Arc charging to battle with the forces of darkness. Meet Anandmurti Gurumaa in conversation with Suma Varughese

She is fiery and outspoken and does not hesitate to call a spade a spade. Tall and statuesque, with a firm, strong and beautiful face, and dressed usually in saffron clothes which include turtleneck sweaters, but also in other hues, Anandmurti Gurumaa would stand out in any crowd.

Although born into a Sikh family, Gurumaa, as she is called, is passionately syncretic, quoting liberally from Buddhism, Sufism, and Jainism, while being trained in Vedanta. Even though she broadcasts the timeless truths, she is remarkably contemporary, offering new and innovative meditative methods, blending science with spirituality and championing women’s empowerment, which she supports through education of the girl child.

A gifted singer, Gurumaa intersperses her discourses with Sufi songs, Sikh shabads and bhajans, and has produced many CDs of her songs. To interview her, I went to her ashram in Ganaur, Sonepat, Harayana. Set amidst wheat fields and blooming mustard patches, her ashram was a glorious pageantry of winter flowers in late February. Beautifully maintained, the compact ashram contains accommodation for devotees, a book shop, a café and an exquisite Shiva temple, where the daily aartis are conducted.

The verdant campus contains spacious parks gay with flowers, displaying beautiful sculptures of Hanuman, Krishna and Shiva. Gurumaa was her usual trenchant self, giving rise to a stimulating discussion.

Excerpts from the interview.

What I find most beautiful about you is your syncretic approach. How did that happen?

Maybe if you love beauty, then beauty is omnipresent and it is hard to miss. My question would be, how come everybody misses that? Wherever the eternal flowering has happened, it is the same consciousness. All sentient beings have the same passion to experience happiness. And we all have the fear of death. There is always a great curiosity about what truth is, and what happens at the time of death, and the reason why it is happening. If the questions are there, the answers would be there. In the whole unified field of consciousness, wherever the questions arose, the answers came. The methodology may be different, the language may be different, they may believe in God or not, as happens in Buddhism, and Jainism. But the understanding of Guru Nanak is not different from Buddha’s. It is not different from the Shankaracharya’s. If I see the 112 methods taught in the Bhairav Tantra Sutra coming from time immemorial, the dialogue which happened between Shiva and Parvati, I would say Buddhism comes out of it; Jainism comes out of it, Patanjali Yoga Sutras come out of it. If you have eyes, the reality is bang in front of you, and if you don’t have eyes, God can say, ‘See, I am standing in front of you.’ And you will say, ‘Who are you? Give us a certificate. Who certified you?’ I find it nonsensical for people to say, I got enlightened on this particular day, and now I know the method of enlightening everybody at one go. I always wonder, the seed never knew how to become a rose in a day. It’s a whole journey to be in the soil. To go through the pangs of being alone, in the dark womb of mother soil. And then to go through the pain of breaking the barriers, not knowing what awaits it, and then it brings its small head out. It is tedious, it is arduous. Every seed has to go through this to become the final rose. There is no way that you can convert a seed into a rose tomorrow. Whoever follows the process, will gain the experience. If the sky is the same from America to China, can the Truth change? If I could have opened a café and I could have served tea or coffee of the Truth there, I believe that Jesus, Buddha or Guru Nanak would be sitting there and sipping it, while others would be fighting in the name of Shia or Sunni or Hindu or Muslim. If you move a little deeper, peel the layers of the body, mind, sanskaras of our subsconscious, the truth is the same. Some of my Swami friends also say, how come you subscribe to all paths? I say, life is all about living, about celebrating, about all that has been seen, perceived, experienced. And anything that has happened to anyone human, opens up the possibility for others. I say, okay, you have achieved Samadhi. Now what will you do? Either you sit silent your whole life which I don’t see you do, or open franchises (laughs). And that is what most of them are doing, and hiring more marketing executives, for better visibility. That seems to be happening a lot today. Why do you think this is so? They have nothing else to do. People are looking for the easy way out – both the gurus and the devotees. It is a scientific, metaphysical journey, which requires you to surrender, and to have sheer conviction and dedication to the cause. But what if I say, I have one method. Learn that method and you will reach the height. Only 15 minutes in the morning, and if you are in a good mood, maybe in the evening. Rest is all my grace and blessings.

This is a very alluring statement. What happens at your ashram?

There is a basic structure, which you need to understand. Without knowing abc, you cannot read Shakespeare. A healthy body is a must. Nothing works as well as the yoga asanas do. You will also need to know about food, when to wake up, how to breathe. There is a way to breathe. You need to breath from the diaphragm so that the stomach comes out, and when you breathe out it should go in. And if you can’t sit straight with your lumber erect, how will you practice anything? If your spine is weak, you will have very low immunity, fall sick and have many psychological problems. Keeping your spine erect is very important. This is something every child should know. If you just sit erect, it is enough to give you the optimum level of attentiveness to do your studies, home chores, office work, to have both hemispheres of your brain work in harmony. Those who find it difficult to do asanas, can go to the inhouse ayurvedic doctor who will help them open up through abyangs. You have to have a healthy body. You have to have a healthy mind. You have to have good uninterrupted sleep. If you are waking up too much in the night, it is a sign of pitta aggravation. If your body has pitta aggravation, you cannot sleep undisturbed. If your vata is disturbed, you will find it difficult to sleep. For years I have been teaching Vedanta. I had to bring yoga into it. Because here I am teaching Vedanta, and here a person is suffering psychologically and physically. When I started mass meditations I would have 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 people sitting. No teaching. Right away I would guide them using various methods. They became very popular. It was a revelation, that people would go directly into meditation without the Vedanta. I also began sankeertans and bhajans. Lately, I have been explaining the science behind sound. Your teaching also has been evolving… Have to. As a teacher you need to grow. You have to see what the subject requires. If a subject comes from an engineering college, and you ask him to say Om Namah Shivaya, he will say why? I had to bring the physics of sound. The impact of sound on the body. When higher decibels, over 500 hertz, pass through water, the shape of water changes. When you take it all the way to 8000 hertz, then it gives fantastic results. Your body has 70 per cent water. If external water can be so impacted by sound, then think of what a mantra can do to the body. Would you say society is becoming more spiritual? It depends on your perspective. If you sit in Tihar Jail, or a bar where boozing and drugs are happening, you will wonder what is happening to the country. What is your perspective? Sincere seekers were always few, and will always remain few. The rest is all about hobnobbing, or because spirituality has become fashionable today. It is a very ‘in’ thing to say I meditate or I have a guru. It gives them an ego boost. Would you like to tell us a little about your enlightenment at age 16? Some of my early chroniclers wrote that I got enlightened at 16. I said, what! But that has got stuck to my bio. I can’t put an age to it. I was just aware of the events that happened. I was maybe 12 when I heard a satsang in my neighbourhood. And I engaged into the wonderful conversation the mahatma was giving. He was talking about the varieties of joy that happen to us. He concluded by saying that everything comes like a bubble and goes away. Nothing is permanent. What we actually need is a permanent happiness. That is when I started listening. Every evening the classes would happen. And one day he said, ‘Close your eyes.’ He never used the word of dhyana. I also sat. And when I opened my eyes, I was told it was a good four hours gone. Everyone had gone, and I was the only one sitting there. I was curious. Where did the four hours go? That was the question presented to the mahatma. He never answered me. He just embraced me. He said, “Keep on doing it.” That was the state of no-mind. So you started meditating at 12? We never called it meditation. The swami is teaching something and in all rapture, we listened. Then it just happens. Total sheer silence. Not even a ripple of thought. or of darkness in the mind. It is all gone. Like the sun coming out and the darkness is gone. The simplicity of the whole thing. I loved Rinzai’s answer. He was asked after enlightenment, what did you do? He said, ‘I stood up and had some tea.’ Our very being is the ultimate satchidananda. You don’t have to become it. You already are it. We have to remove…