Dhanada K. Mishra, Hong Kong, 8 March 2023
This month ninety years ago, in the year 1933, a baby boy was born to Biswanath Mishra and Apsara Devi in the village of Digapahandi in Ganjam district. The boy would grow up to live a remarkable life and be known to countless disciples as Swami Chetanananda Saraswati. He passed away on May 18th, 2021, at the height of the Covid19 pandemic, after a brief illness and stay at the hospital. Later I checked the statistics and found coincidentally that the daily death rates (at least in India) from the virus started coming down after this period, never again to reach that level! Statistics such as this can be unreliable in a country like India and could be just a coincidence. Still, my overwhelming feeling at that time was as if he was sacrificing his life to save the world from the pandemic! Of course, the fact that he had lost many of his dear disciples and others close to him would have been a significant factor in his timing of giving up the physical body! He was not someone who believed in miracles. Being a man of science, he always taught against blind faith, yet his life was full of miraculous events. Many who came in touch with him, including myself, experienced extraordinary events with a dramatic impact on their life.
He completed his autobiography shortly before he left the physical body. The ‘Inner Light’ by Swami Chetanananda Saraswati is a spiritual autobiography that recounts his journey of self-discovery. Through his exploration of various spiritual teachings, particularly those of Swami Nigamananda Paramahamsa Dev and his sanyasi disciple Swami Vishudhananda Saraswati (whom he affectionately called ‘Gurubaba’), Chetanananda gradually realizes the unity of all life and that each individual contains the divine source of inner light and love. He also explores the importance of meditation, surrendering to the divine, and other practices to help one reach their highest potential. Ultimately, he discovers that all paths lead to the same source and that the inner light is within us all. This book is a powerful and inspiring guide for those seeking a spiritual path. The book starts with a brief account of the remarkable life and spiritual accomplishments of Sri Nigamananda Paramahamsa Dev, the source of Swami ji’s inspiration towards a lifelong spiritual quest. The book reveals for the first time the absorbing episodes of Swami Chetanananda’s life as he pursued difficult yogic practices while leading a householder’s life. The description of his spiritual experiences during Yoga Sadhana following instructions of Swami Nigamananda Paramahamsa, as documented in his seminal book Yogi Guru is truly unique. These mystical yogic experiences were realized before his encounter with Sri Vishuddhananda Saraswati or Gurubaba and subsequent initiation. The journey culminating in sanyas soon after his retirement as a top agricultural scientist and subsequent work as a monk makes for adventurous reading. The book ends with selected writings, including his discourse titled “Who and What is God”, delivered at IIT Kharagpur. In his words, “Science and spirituality were the twin driving force in my life. Science seeks truth by reasoning, and so does spirituality. In a way, science and spirituality seek the same divine blessings for doing good.”
The inner light is Swami Chetanananda Saraswati’s autobiographical account of his journey as Chakrapani Mishra from a village in rural Odisha to becoming a Guru who would inspire countless others to ponder the challenges that life would throw at them. This book was written towards the end of his material life at the insistence of Sri Prabhakar Das – a retired government servant given Dikhya by Swami Nigamanananda Paramhamsa, the guru of Swami Ji’s guru. His memory not being what it used to be; the biographical aspects of his life were often verified by his wife and then spiritual partner, Ma Amrutamayee Saraswati.
The book begins by talking about the religious sermons that influenced him as he grew up, making explicit the fortunate circumstances of being born into a poor but scholarly brahmin family that Swami Ji had, giving him access to religious and later spiritual resources. This did not in those times extend to economic privileges. However, it might have had a hand in his finding accommodation in an ashram in Puri when he left Digapahandi to study science at SCS college in Puri. Subsequently, he can secure admission to the degree program in Agricultural Sciences at the famed Benaras Hindu University, where he comes in touch with countless sadhus and sanyasis to further his exploration of the spiritual path. Afterwards, he served with the Agriculture department of the Government of Odisha in the Palahada research station before being selected for higher studies at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARC), popularly known as the Pusa Institute. After his post-graduation, he joined as a founding member of the faculty of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), where he served until his retirement in 1995. Early during this period, he met and took initiation from Gurubaba.
In the third and last part of the book Swamiji describes his work as a sanyasi and successor of Swami Vishudhananda Saraswati. During this period, he extended the work begun by his Gurudev by establishing many maths and ashrams, schools, and other charitable institutions. He would have completed ninety years in this world this month. I feel blessed to have taken birth as his son. The book would greatly interest every seeker keen on expanding the soul’s longing for a better understanding of the supreme consciousness while contributing to society as a karma yogi or one who follows the path of selfless action.
