Chinmayi - An Exhaustive Commentary in English on Amrtanubhava of Sant Jnanesvar Maharaja

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

I was attending to my father in Tata Memorial Hospital for his cancer treatment over a period of twenty-eight days. I had all the time in the world at my disposal, being free from the hectic routine of lectures, visits and other activities. During this time the Lord provided me with the best opportunity to study this text for the first time in great depth. It provided me immense joy inspite of all the cancer patients around. To share the joy with sincere seekers, regular lectures were delivered to eager students during my stay at New Delhi. All the lectures were recorded, transcribed, edited and finally brought out in the present book form. In this stupendous job of bringing out such a voluminous work, God's grace and anugraha was evident at every stage. Had it not been the persistent efforts put forward by many friends of mine, this volume could never have been published. Infact, I felt many a times that it was the Lord who wanted this work of His to be brought out inspite of me and my limitations. To thank all those who directly or indirectly contributed will be an impossible task. However, few of them must be mentioned to record the Divine Grace and acknowledge their contribution.

Bhagavan Sent Jnanesvara Maharaja of Alandi has given the vision to see the truth in his inimitable style of revealing the mystic experience of joyful existence. His love for his Gum gave an altogether different dimension to this unique relationship of Guru-Sisya and brought me nearer to my Guru Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji Maharaja as never before.

Whenever I was to expound on the verses glorifying Guru, it was the most difficult task. At times certain verses were beyond comprehension due to the old Marathi language, difficult subject matter and my own inability. At such times, I have always experienced that a blank mind lost in the ignorance about what to talk became enlivened by the mere rememberance of Pujya Gurudeva. I offer this work unto Him as my submission to His grace.

The students of all age groups, as young as twenty-five years to as young as eighty-five years of age were the source of inspiration who compelled me to think aloud on this topic for over a period of one year. It is their inspiration to listen to, that made me express this divine blissful experience of Being that Amrtanubhava is.

Special efforts were put forth by the following seekers of truth which needs recognition :-

Mrs. Saraswati Doraiswami, Mrs. Gayatri, Mrs. Bela Kapur, Mrs. Uma Kumar, Mrs. Neela Pardhi, Ms. Sarita Ohri ail of them from New Delhi for their assistance in recording, transcription, manuscript writing and type-setting work done at the preliminary stage. Mrs. Shobhita Punja engaged her official machinery to give a book form to this manuscript. The subsequent stage of editing, correction, page-making and preparation of the final manuscript was possible with the dedicated work of Mr. Vishwamitra Puri, Br. Abhinava Chaitanya, Br. Anil, Ms. Anagha and Ms. Sumathi of Mumbai. They worked together in a team spirit of dedication and devotion to Pujya Gurudeva and His work. Mr. Vishwamitra Puri was able to maintain the team-spirit among the co-workers inspite of his failing health and eyesight. His dedication to Pujya Gurudev's work was a source of inspiration and guidance for all of us.

I request all the readers of this book to kindly go through the introduction portion thoroughly well before taking up the subsequent studies.

A transliteration key is provided for enabling proper pronunciation of Devnagari words. All non-English words are given in italics.

I offer this Bliss of Being to my beloved Gurudeva, Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji.

Swami Anubhavananda, reflects both the simple being and the erudite scholar. He is suave and witty. He is equally at home with all; children, young and the old. He communicates the most difficult of the philosophy in a simple and direct manner.

A disciple of H.B.Swami Chinmayanandaji, He had been the Acharya at the Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, Powai - a Post Graduate Academy for the Vedantic studies. His lively discourses on the Bhagavad Geeta, the Upanishads, Sri mad Bhagavatam, Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Panchadasi, Amrutanubhav, Tripura Rahasya have endeared Him to all His listeners. His sparkling talk series titled "Mauz Mein Raho" have been an instant hit and have made Him the most sought after speaker on Vedanta today. His camps for children, youth and adults are equally popular. Management Seminars which have also been the hallmark of His talks have always brought about a change in the attitude-of the participants.

He is the founder of the SAT BHAVANA TRUST, whose "Mauz:Mein Raho" logo reflects His approach to life- BE HAPPY.

(To first edition)

Amrtanubhava came into my hands as a grace of the Lord, when I visited Faltan for my yajna in 1984. This text, with the commentary of a great Vaisnava saint, Visnu Nraimha Jog introduced me for the first time to this text. While I was going through the third chapter, reference of Siva Sutra by Sant Jnanesvara brought me to the enquiry about what these Siva-Sutra-s are. Again it was sometime in 1985 that we visited Ganespturi to receive the blessings of Bhagavan Nitytananda Maharaja. It was a great surprise gift that someone presented me a set of books dealing exhaustively with Kasmiri Saivism. This opened an altogether new vision to the reality as non- dual truth. However, further readings of different commentaries on Amrtanubhava brought out some points which were painful to accept.

Sankara Vedanta and Kasmiri Saivism were presented in various books as if different from each other and a comparison was made between them. Thereafter, this comparison led to judgement. The selected view is accepted as good and the others are censured. This is painful. Infact, there is no difference in these two philosophical approaches whatsoever. Sant Jasnesvsm was a Natha Sempradayi, hence following Kasmiri Saivism. However, a great devotee of the Lord Pandurange and there by a great Vaisnava.

This synthesis of two non-dual philosophical approaches is unique and hence there is no difference between them although appears to be so, due to overlapping of technical terms in these philosophies. We have presented in our introduction the inherent oneness in these two paths and the perception of differences as an illusory understanding.