Who is a Guru? and Other Inspiring Speeches

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Who Am I- Before I was born, I was. After I die, I will be. A timeless Being came from, and into, timeless Eternity. Time was formed, and time is dissolved, and I remain what 1 have always been, a Being with depths to which there is no beginning, and heights to which there is no end.

Since the supreme Divinity as the Timeless Eternity and as the Time Eternity- Sadashiva Tripurasundari - is dwelling in my Heart, Life, Consciousness, and as there is no difference between That and Me and Me and That, Jam dwelling in the Soul of all Gods and Goddesses, all Saints and Sages, all beings visible and invisible. Ant yet I am what I am, the Transcendent Reality. If you know here on earth the greatest Sage, Saint, Guru, the greatest clairvoyant, prophet, or anyone to whom supernormal power of perception, or anyone to whom daily contact with God, is attributed - then, ask that person, who Swami Omkarananda is. He will confirm to you that the only true and correct description of Swami Omkarananda is the one he himself has given.

H.D. Paramahamsa Omkarananda Saraswati is a God-realized Saint, Mystic, Sage, Philosopher and Writer.

Already at the age of thirteen and fourteen his life was flooded with numerous spiritual experiences of the omnipresent and omniscient God. Under the dictates of these experiences, he left his home city in South India for the Himalayas, where the world- renowned Sage Sri Swami Sivananda recognized in him an embodiment of the high spirit of renunciation, profound divine wisdom, touching purity of heart, made him known as Bala Yogi, Bala Jnani, titled him as Adhyatma Kavita-Bhaskara and crowned him with Sannyasa-Diksha at the age of seventeen.

The activities of Sage and Philosopher Swami Omkarananda embrace spiritual, cultural, educational, scientific and social fields. One of the significant achievements in these fields is the unique work he has done for the upliftment of the backward regions in the hills of the Himalayan Garhwal area. In recognition of his extraordinary services he has received several prestigious honours like Mother India Award, Bharat Nirman Award and Hind Rattan Award.

The Omkarananda Ashram Himalayas at Rishikesh, set on one of the foot-hills of the Himalayas, is one of the main branches of his international Institution. It aims at the realization of educational, social, cultural and spiritual projects. Omkarananda Ashram Himalayas carries on its activities through its registered Trusts — Swami Omkarananda Dharma Samsthan, Swami Omkarananda Saraswati Charitable Trust, Omkarananda Educational Society, Omkarananda Saraswati Natya Kala Academy and other educational and cultural Institutions.

Swami Omkarananda has established 74 Institutions, among them 56 Basic- and Junior-High-Schools, Degree- and Inter-Colleges, an Institute for Management and Technology, an Institute for Indian Classical Dance and Music, several Public Libraries, etc. in the beautiful hilly regions of the Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand, where education was needed most.

Many beautiful Temples have been established by Shri Swami Omkarananda Saraswati in the Garhwal area, out of which the “Omkarananda-Kamakshi-Devi Mandir”, in typical South-Indian style, is absolutely outstanding in its beauty and purity and constitutes a landmark in whole Uttarakhand. This Temple and other lovely Temples of Omkarananda Ashram, situated in Omkarananda Nagar, Muni-ki-Reti, Rishikesh, and other places, are a center of attraction.

Swami Omkarananda is Author of many books on the subjects of Philosophy, Spirituality and Science, and his books are available in many languages, all over the world.

This is Swami Omkarananda’s Life in His own words:

“Purity is the soul of my Strength. Truth is the source of my Power. God is my Life, and I have no existence apart from Him. His Consciousness is my Light. His all-sustaining and all-creative Beauty constitutes my Joy. Prayer is my Breath and meditation forms the Bread of my life.

“All Humanity is my family. The Forces of Nature are my Friends. The Godhead in all of you is the object of my adoration. it is very difficult, almost impossible, for me to differentiate or distinguish between saints and sinners or artificially divide mankind into two groups called the good and the evil, — I find there are only gracious children of God on earth, some close to, and some a little away from, God’s all-purifying and all-empowering Presence.

“Human life on earth has always presented itself to me as a school in which some occupy higher standards and some lower classes, but all are to be loved equally, honoured equally, and the hand of service is to be denied to none. The people in the lower standards will one day occupy higher classes.

“I perceive real and great Beauly wherever Goodness is self-expressive and wherever Love enriches, ennobles and exalts life. I find the essential form of Beauty wherever Virtue invests human life with dignity, grants a mastery over instinctive nature and contributes to harmony and efficiency in social relations.

“I find the Face of the valuable Beauty wherever human Intelligence is active in the use of skills and in the discovery of ways and means, of conquering ignorance, poverty, suffering, disease, Nature, as a measure in the progress of the soul of Humanity.

“I have no desires, but only a few wishes, and they are the wishes for the Health, Peace, Happiness, Prosperity and spiritual Progress of all people of all lands.

“I preach to nobody, but I speak to myself. I write not to teach, but to state facts. I reason not to convince others, but to eliminate the discordant elements in thinking and in living that characterize the normal nature of a growing mankind that progresses more by the method of trial and error than by ordered reason and illumination.

“I work not for any personal objective in view, but for the Glory of God and the welfare, happiness and illumination of mankind. I labour for God’s blessed children under the sun, moved by a Will that is not my own but His, and with resources that belong not to me but to the all-creative divine Consciousness that is His.

“The human individual serves mankind best, also when he thinks good thoughts, entertains noble feelings, hates none and nothing, engages himself in useful works, wishes universal welfare, prays, meditates and communes in divine Love, with the living omnipresence of the all-perfect God.

“Nothing in me has ever responded to any form of appreciation bestowed upon any of the works that proceed from me; for, all such appreciation belongs to the invisible yet discernible owner and ruler of my energies. Since all my work, way and style of life is my silent and all-inclusive worship of the living, moving, talking Godhead, — I never wished, and will never wish, to be known, even to the very next person living with me.

“I need nothing: for, the all-responding, all-wonderful, all-knowing Godhead is the Bank of my inexhaustible Fortune, my defence army of unfailing Protection and my time-defying and all-productive Factories of Life, Love and Light.

“Pleasures of life, of society, of civilization have no attraction, no value for me; for, I live in the perpetual and self-sustaining ecstasies of the Consciousness of the Divine in dynamic action and self-expression. Yet I heartily recommend the pleasures of life, of society, of civilization to those who have not yet found the pleasures I live in; and, also I feel drawn to draw the attention of some of them to the fact that their pleasures are rendered secure, and endure, by a background awareness of God’s Presence.

“I dwell in the delights of a Mind wedded to the wisdom of God, and the loys of a Heart that is lodged in the all-absorbing Love for the supreme Beloved. Pleasures are afforded to me also by aesthetic sensibilities, artistic appreciation, philosophic perceptions, spiritual intuitions.

“The idea of being a Leader is entirely foreign to my Nature. I know myself to be a ready servant of a Humanity that seeks for the peace, the strength and the icy that come from self-control and growing moral purity, the knowledge and the illumination that are gained from culture, intellectual development, perfection and the all-blessing divine powers that result from spiritual evolution and experience.”

A renowned Vedic Scholar and Editor of the International Newspaper “Hinduism Today” asked Swami Omkarananda following question:

“The Journalist of the monthly newspaper Hinduism Today asked the inmates of your Ashrams to describe you. We know the descriptions of you by them and by thousand others. We need to have a description of yourself by yourself. Who are you, Swami Omkarananda.”

This was Swami Omkarananda’s answer:

“Who Am I — Before I was born, I was. After I die, I will be. A timeless Being came from, and into, timeless Eternity. Time was formed, and time is dissolved, and I remain what I have always been, a Being with depths to which there is no beginning, and heights to which there is no end.

“Since the supreme Divinity as the Timeless Eternity and as the Time Eternity — Sadashiva Tripurasundari — is dwelling in my Heart, Life, Consciousness, and as there is no difference between That and Me and Me and That, I am dwelling in the Soul of all Gods and Goddesses, all Saints and Sages, all beings visible and invisible. And, yet I am what I am, the Transcendent Reality. If you know here on earth the greatest Sage, Saint, Guru, the greatest clairvoyant, prophet, or anyone to whom supernormal power of perception, or anyone to whom daily contact with God, is attributed — then, ask that person, who Swami Omkarananda is. He will confirm to you that the only true and correct description of Swami Omkarananda is the one he himself has given.”

This book contains a few selected speeches of Swami Omkarananda, out of his countless speeches and talks during Satsang for spiritual Seekers.

May this book be a source of Inspiration, Joy and divine Wisdom to all the Readers.

**Contents and Sample Pages**