By
SWAMI PREMATMANANDA,
Vice President and Head of the Ramakrishna
Mission (Ceylon Branch)
The name of the venerable Yoga Swami has come to mean the wisdom of the ages. He is a Maha Purusha as defined in the Purusha Suktam, sung by the vedic Rishis. He is greater than his teachings, for He dwelt in the infinity of Truth, and in him was no falsehood. Oru Pollappumillai is the essence of his Upadesh.
I have known Swami for over half a century and held him in deep veneration as the Light of Truth. He lived in the simplest and humblest manner, a man among men, but with a halo of purity. He did not see evil anywhere and nowhere and so his counsel, gentle or very harsh, critical or forthright, made an abiding impression on me.
St. Yoga Swami and The Testament of Truth follows the two previous publications of The Testament of Love--A study in Tiruvacagam and The Testament of Wisdom--A study in Muruga worship, by the Author who with her pious husband--Thiru and Ma as they came to be known in Swami's circle of devotees--had the privilege of “sitting near devotedly” at the Guru's feet, in order to imbibe his nectar of Grace. Swami's songs of wisdom and truth entitled Natchintanai have been presented with great lucidity and humility by the Author in varying facets, and yet her different approaches meet in the arc of Oneness, that all is in each and each is in all.
“Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti”
“Truth is One Sages call it by various names”
This Book is released as a Centenary Memorial release in “profound gratitude and all consuming love to be relayed to Swami's ever widening circle of friends embracing the whole world,” in the words of the dedicated writer. It is our pious hope that The Testament of Truth will be read with love and understanding by all those who have come under the spell of Swami's influence, and that His message of goodwill and harmony will be carried to further shores of East and West. It is also our earnest wish that the idea of dedicated service conveyed by Swami in his life and utterances and termed Sivathondu by him, and transmitted by the Author in her own inimitable way, shall pave the path to the goal of Truth and establish Universal Peace among all the nations of the world.
A real study of Yoga Swami is first hand experience of God.
Ramakrishna Mission,
(Ceylon Branch)
Ramakrishna Road,
Colombo 6. (Ceylon)
Vaikasi Visakam,
26.5.1972
THE MIRACULOUS PRESENCE
By
T. P. MEENAKSHISUNDARAN, M.A., M.L., M.O.L., D. Litt.,
Sometime Vice-Chancellor, Madurai University.
St. YogaSwami of Lanka is a great saint of universal love--a true Siddha, in whom Love that is verily God blossomed forth in all its perfection. The feeling of oneness with the universe allows no running away from the society. Renunciation is not renouncing the world but the renunciation of the dichotomy born of the feeling of the I and the mine. Really the I is not in the centre but extends to the circumference when every living being becomes the sacred temple of that Love - God whose reflection is but the very I.
YogaSwami heard the desperate but unconscious call from those around him demanding his spiritual touch for healing the sufferings which are but the signs of the growth yet to be realised--
a growth from the farthest stage of the mysterious evolution, back to the source through stages of involution. His heart rushed to their help. He was a yogi, a master of the spirtual science of Tantra, a great Jnani and withal a true example of a karma yogi, working for prohibition and other kinds of social, and therefore as he realised, of spiritual elevation of the poor and the down-trodden and through them for the whole humanity.
The strength of a chain is measured by its weakest link. How can the world be safe for peace and love as long as the sub-human men and women remain as they are? Now are the so-called “well to do and the educated” any better for they are but perversions developing more the outward form and the external behaviour allowing the heart and soul to atrophy and die as far as they are concerned. The conquest of the objective Nature has not brought us a corresponding conquest of the inward Nature--the revolting spirit of man. That is the crisis in the world of today. To the latter also, Swami was an eye-opener. His divine presence worked a subtle and a deep conversion, not only among the easterners but also among the westerners who came into contact with him. Out of his over-flowing kindness, he sent his embassy of Love which included the author of this book and her husband to distant England to carry and deliver the message of Saiva Siddhanta. The Testament of Truth is indeed a step in the right direction to carry out the Guru's mission of universal love and oneness to the further shores of the world.
The tired and weak, the hungry and the worried--spiritually, intellectually, mentally and physically--came to him as though to a mother. His piercing and glowing look of love plumbed the depth of their hearts and lo! there came peace and joy. It may look all madness. But to the worldly, the other world is all madness, and to the other worldly too, the world is all madness--so sings the great Alwar Saint Kulasekhara. YogaSwami used to sing the songs of the Tamil Saints and also his own songs from Natchintanai and he made us also sing in his presence. The words which we previously thought we had understood completely were in those moments with him, infused in a new dimension of immeasurable depth, which we could not clearly express, though experiencing the truth of the songs in his mysterious presence.
He arranged pada yatras or walking on foot by Sivathondars from village to village on Sundays, which stirred the dumb millions to a spiritual awakening of love. He started a Journal to spread the message of Sivathondu. He spurred us all to study the great spiritual heritage of the Tamilians truly and calmly, never disturbed by dogmatic assertions of commentators. He gave his gospel of Natchintanai in Tamil in simple poetry of divine intoxication to be sung by all, young and old, educated and un-educated. His physical garb is no more but his eternal presence hovers about us all. May his miraculous presence help us to live and work as he desired!
In her Book, Mrs. Ratna Navaratnam has with a fine sensibility dwelt on Swami's magical-play or leela of the One--as the one and many, as the immanent and the transcendental, as the world and the beyond, as the Absolute and the relative, as the joy and the sorrow, all somehow harmonised in that Whole of the Supreme--Muluthum Unmai. He knew as we did not, that there was nothing wrong anywhere, Oru Pollappumillai, that everything was good and that the secret of it all was to be quiet, Summa Iru--by drowning ourselves in It, or surrendering everything unto It, allowing It to work at Its best without our obstructions and grumblings which would mean nothing.
It is my sincere wish that this Book will carry the message of this great Teacher to all English speaking friends throughout the world.
June 5th, 1972.