| Sri Swami Krishnananda Saraswati Maharaj | |
|---|---|
His Holiness Sri Swami Krishnananda |
|
| Born | 25 April 1922 India |
| Died | 23 November 2001 (aged 79) Shivanandanagar |
| Birth name | Subbaraya |
| Guru | Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj |
| Philosophy | Vedanta |
| Quotation |
"God loves you more than you love Him, and you are bound to achieve this glorious consummation of life." [1] |
Sri Swami Krishnananda Saraswati Maharaj (April 25, 1922 – November 23, 2001) was a Hindu saint.[2] He was a foremost disciple of Swami Sivananda and served as the General Secretary of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, India from 1958 until 2001.[2] Author of more than 200 texts, and lecturing extensively, on yoga, religion, and metaphysics, Krishnananda was a prolific theologian and philosopher.[3]
Swami Krishnananda was President of the Sivananda Literature Research Institute and the Sivananda Literature Dissemination Committee. He served as editor of the Divine Life Society’s monthly paper, Divine Life, for 20 years.
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The eldest of six children, Swami Krishnananda was born on April 25, 1922, into a highly religious and an orthodox Madhva Brahmin family.[4] He was named Subbaraya by his parents. He had his high school education at Puttur, Karnataka.[2]
By the study of Sanskrit works like the Gita, the Upanishads, the Vedas, etc., Swami Krishnananda became rooted in Advaita Vedanta philosophy, though he belonged to the traditional Madhva-sect (Dvaita Vedanta), which follows the dualistic philosophy.[a] In 1943, Subbaraya took up Government service at Hospet in the Bellary District, but it did not last long. Before the end of the same year, he left for Sivananda Ashram, where he arrived in the summer of 1944 at the Divine Life Society.[2][4]
When he first met Swami Sivananda, Subbaraya fell prostrate before him and the saint said: "Stay here till death; I will make kings and ministers fall at your feet." In later years, Krishnananda came to realize the prophecy of the saint's statement. Swami Sivananda initiated the young man into the holy order of Sannyasa (Hindu monasticism) on the Indian sacred day of Makar Sankranti, January 14, 1946, and he was named Swami Krishnananda.[2][4]
Swami Sivananda found that Krishnananda was suitable to do works of correspondence, letter writing, writing messages and even assistance in compiling and editing books. Later on he was given the work of typing up the hand-written manuscripts of Sivananda, which were brought to him daily. For instance, the entire two hand-written volumes of the Brahma Sutras of Sivananda's were typed by Swami Krishnananda. He confined himself mostly to literary work and never had any kind of relation with visitors; people who came from outside never knew he existed in the ashram. It was in 1948 that Sivananda asked him to do more work, along the lines of writing books in philosophy and religion, which he took up with earnestness. From that year onwards he was absorbed in writing, conducting classes and holding lectures, as per instruction of Swami Sivananda.[2] During these early years at the ashram, Krishnanada experienced the heights of God-consciousness and became a perfect Jnani.[5]
When it became necessary for the Divine Life Society to co-opt assistance from other members in regards to management, Swami Krishnananda was asked to collaborate with the Working Committee of the institution. It was at this time that he received a position of secretary, concerned especially with the management of finance. He continued this work until 1961, when, due to the extended absence of Swami Chidananda—the President of the Divine Life Society from 1963 to 2008[6]—Sivananda nominated him as General Secretary of the Divine Life Society. Krishnananda served in this capacity until his death in 2001. He was the longest serving General Secretary in the history of the institution.[2]
Due to his considerable literary skill and understanding of the entire gamut of the works of Sivananda, numbering about 300, Swami Krishnananda was appointed President of the Sivananda Literature Research Institute, by Sivananda himself, when it was formed in 1958. Krishnananda was also appointed as the President of the Sivananda Literature Dissemination Committee, which was formed to bring out translations of Sivananda's works in the major Indian languages, simultaneously. In 1961, Swami Krishnananda was made Editor of the Divine Life Society's monthly publication, Divine Life. He held the position for 20 years.[2]
On the morning of November 23, 2001, Swami Krishnananda related to those attending on him a dream he had the previous night in which it was indicated that he would soon leave his body. He had further said that his cook and the doctor from Rishikesh who had been attending on him must be paid their dues that very day. According to those close to him, Krishnananda was very cheerful that day and met with Ashramites and visitors as usual. He also talked very freely to the persons attending on him. In the afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Krishnananda asked for a copy of the Bhagavad Gita with the commentary by Swami Sivananda to be kept by the bedside. When the holy scripture was brought, Krishnananda began to read it periodically. Around 3:30 p.m. he had his usual light supper. At 4:25 p.m. he felt a little difficulty in breathing and asked his attendant Swami Satyakamananda to recline him on the bed indicating that the last moment had arrived. He died at 4:30 p.m.[7]
An excerpt of an article that was published in the December 2001 edition of Divine Life entitled "His Holiness Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj Attains Mahasamadhi" read:
"Our Guiding Light over the past five decades, His Holiness Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj, whom Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to call as our 'Dakshinamurti' and 'Sankaracharya', has merged in the Cosmic Being. Revered Swamiji Maharaj, who has been our General Secretary since 1958, our guide, administrator, philosopher, mentor and much more, entered Mahasamadhi on Friday, the supremely auspicious and holy Gopashtami day, the 23rd of November 2001, at 4.30 p.m., in his Kutir in Sivanandashram on the banks of the sacred Mother Ganges, in Shivanandanagar, at the foot of the Himalayas. The Divine Life Society records its deep reverence to the towering stature of the Spirit of Worshipful Swamiji Maharaj as well as its heartfelt gratitude to a sublime career of unremitting labour of love that came to a glorious close in that momentous afternoon. Though Swamiji Maharaj had not been keeping well for quite some time, the END came rather suddenly. Swamiji was conscious till the very last moment."[7]
The last rites were carried out on Sunday, November 25. Many devotees and most of the local people came to pay their last respects. Thousands of people were present. Krishnananda's body was carried in a sitting position in a palanquin covered in flower garlands. He was carried in procession to the Samadhi Shrine, the Viswanath Mandir, and the Bhajan Hall of the Sivananda Ashram, then along the road to the Sivananda Ghat where abishek was performed.
As Swami Krishnananda was being taken in the boat to be immersed in the Ganges, three large flocks of birds appeared in the sky, each flock in a V formation. They were flying in the direction of Badrinath, the abode of Lord Narayana and the holiest temple in India.[7]
Swami Krishnananda was a highly respected philosopher,[8][9] especially in the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.[3] Though he valued and was a scholar of Western philosophy, he was an exponent of Advaita Vedanta philosophy, the most influential[10] sub-school of Vedanta. Vedanta is one of the six orthodox philosophies of Hinduism, chiefly concerned with knowledge of Brahman, the universal supreme pure being.[11] Advaita Vedanta is the monistic arm of the philosophy, based on the unity of the Jiva (individual soul) and the Atman (universal soul).[12][13]
The Indian philosopher Adi Shankara (788 CE – 820 CE), the one largely responsible for the initial expounding and consolidation of Advaita Vedanta, wrote in his famous work, Vivekachudamani:
"Brahman is the only Truth, the spatio-temporal world is an illusion, and there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and individual self."[14]
Though Advaita Vednata is ultimately a philosophy of monism (that is, Idealism), it does not, according to Krishnanada, categorically deny the existence of the world independent of the mind. For it does not hold the world to be the projection of any one particular mind—as do some forms of Idealism,[15] but rather the projection of the ONE universal mind, of which the particular minds are contents. This universal mind is Isvara (God), the manifest form of Brahman. Here Advaita Vedanta provides for the existence of the world independent of the human mind, and thus of a God on which the world is dependent. But when the dependent particular mind ceases to identify with the world, it becomes identified with the independent universal mind, and thus realizes its true nature as Brahman. Here the world and a God have no meaning.[16] In Vedanta, this state is termed Moksha or Self-realization.[17] Krishnananda maintained throughout all of his work that every being innately longs for this Absolute, perfect experience, and that such longing is the ultimate motive behind the action of all beings.
As a philosopher, Swami Krishnananda was an expounder, not a formulator. He did not develop any kind of new or personal philosophy. Rather, typical of most Hindu philosophers, he expounded and built upon the philosophy contained in the Upanishads. The Upanishads are commentaries on the Vedas,[18] a large body of sacred texts originating in ancient India, which according to Hindu tradition, are “not of human agency.”[19] The Upanishads constitute the core teachings of Vedanta.[20] Krishnananda wrote in-depth commentaries on all of the principal Upanishads.[3]
This is not an attempt to present something new, but to suggest a method to him who is blazing with an aspiration to realise the Highest. The purpose of this work is to provide a leaning staff for those who are determined to plunge themselves in the duty of the struggle for Self-realisation. The pure and the sincere will certainly be benefited by this honest attempt to investigate Truth in the light of the Upanishads.
— Krishnananda, The Realisation of the Absolute[21]
The Upanishads are called the Vedanta because they are the concluding and crowning parts of the Vedas, and give the highest essence of the teachings of the Vedas [...] The sages of the Upanishads were absolutely practical persons who were concerned with living and being, and not with mere fantastic day-dreaming. They directly realized the Absolute Truth and knew that distinctions, even of the individual, world and God, are relative, and anything has a meaning only because it is a phase of the Supreme Being.
— Krishnananda, The Realisation of the Absolute[22]
Krishnananda proposed and expounded the following points throughout his work:[3]
Krishnananda was a proponent of the "deep sleep proof" for the existence of Brahman as expounded by Adi Shankara in the 9th century. He asserted that by analysis of the three states of consciousness—waking, dreaming, and deep sleep—and their relation to each other, it could be deduced that Brahman—pure, transcendental consciousness—must exist, and that we, in essence, cannot be different from Brahman. For in the state of deep sleep it can be seen that when recognition of the mind, body, and the world—all that constitute the individual—ceases, the individual still exists, as is testified by the following experience which identifies the person who has woken up with the person who slept previously. According to Krishnananda, “the existence of the Self in the condition of deep sleep was one of awareness of nothing, an awareness together with nothingness, which means mere awareness, as nothingness has no value.” Therefore, he concludes that since the existence of the Self is corroborated by the subsequent remembrance of the existence of oneself in deep sleep, and since remembrance is not possible without previous experience, and experience never possible without consciousness, the Self exists in deep sleep as mere consciousness—that is, pure, transcendental consciousness. According to him, “this consciousness exists in the waking state as the unchanging basis of the changing mind and senses,” and “in the dreaming state as the synthesizer of mental functions,” the only difference between which two being that in the former experience is the effect of the function of the mind aided by the senses, while in the latter experience is the effect of the function of the mind alone. Because this consciousness is proved to exist in deep sleep also, Krishnananda arrived at the conclusion that this ONE consciousness “endures without even the least change in itself in all states of experience, without a past or a future for its existence” and is therefore eternal and infinite.[24]
In The Realisation of the Absolute, Krishnananda observed that—whether in the waking or dreaming states—we are always conscious of something other than the Self, and that it is only in deep sleep that we “practically become one with the Absolute”—the Self. However, he asserts that we are prevented from experiencing Brahman in deep sleep due to the “presence of ignorance, the store of the potential objective forces existing in an unmanifested state.” Krishnananda goes on in the book to assure that deep sleep, then, which according to him is tantamount to an “unmanifest inert condition,” is not Reality, but that rather “Reality is dynamic Consciousness.” He refers to it as the fourth state of consciousness, which includes and transcends the other three states—waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. According to him, this state is unimaginable.[24]
A duality of existence and consciousness, considering the nature of these, implies a consciousness of existence, that is, a consciousness of oneself existing as an object, by identifying with an object of consciousness, namely the mind and the body. According to Swami Krishnananda, we are accustomed to thinking of existence in this way, as an action, a process which begins and ends, a becoming rather than a being, because thought, which presupposes existence as we know it, is itself a process which begins and ends, becomes rather than is. But the Vedanta holds that existence is consciousness, and to, for clarity’s sake, correct the said notion to the contrary, philosophers such as Krishnananda are forced to express this assertion, though referring to only one thing, with two words, namely “Sat-Chit,” Sanskrit for “Existence-Consciousness”:
The difficulty of language is such that no word can be used at all to designate what Sat-Chit means. They are not two different things or states. It is Being which is Consciousness, or Consciousness which is Being. […]So the hyphen is used, Existence-Consciousness, because no other way is known to write it down.
— Krishnananda, The Philosophy of Religion[25]
Therefore “Sat-Chit,” though appearing by linguistic convention to represent a duality, is in fact representative of a non-duality, a perfect unity, the state of which is bliss; for, in perfect unity there can be no limitation, and thus no desire. This is signified by the addition of the word “Ananda,” Sanskrit for “bliss,” to “Sat-Chit.” But according to Krishnananda, even as “Sat-Chit” is not representative of two things, the addition of “Ananda” to "Sat-Chit," though appearing, again by linguistic convention, to construct a duality, in fact does not so, for:
Even this Bliss is not separate from Existence-Consciousness. Existence, which is Consciousness, itself is bliss.
— Krishnananda,The Philosophy of Religion[25]
To Krishnananda, then, “Sat-Chit-Ananda” is not multilateral, but unilateral; not a proposition of what are the extensions or attributes of Reality, but the very essence thereof.
The world appears to be real, intelligent and blissful, because it projects itself on the background of something which is essentially Reality-Intelligence-Bliss.
— Krishnananda, The Realisation of the Absolute[26]
Thus, "Sat-Chit-Ananda," each of the three components of which being representative of an infinite property, and thus implying the other two, means one state, the nature of which according to the Vedanta, is infinite existence, infinite consciousness, and infinite bliss. But even this concept, to Swami Krishnananda, is only the “ideal other of what we here experience […],” the “logical highest […],” a mere “intellectual prop”.[27] Krishnananda ultimately holds, then, that nothing accurate can be said about the Absolute. However:
[…] in the admission of our limited knowledge and our inability to know Reality is implied our claim to know it.
— Krishnananda, The Realisation of the Absolute[28]
Krishnananda frequently made reference to the distinction between becoming—movement of subject towards object—and being—a state which, according to him, cannot be comprehended by the human mind, as it is the presupposition of the human mind. In The Realisation of the Absolute Krishnananda refuted the common argument that a non-dual Brahman is, due to its lack of motion, tantamount to “nothingness” or “non-being”:
There is no sense in non-being, for non-being also must at least “be.” Consciousness itself is being, and unless even non-being and unconsciousness are objects of consciousness, there can be no meaning in them.
— Krishnananda, The Realisation of the Absolute [29]
Being cannot lead us to non-being, for, the moment non-being is known, it becomes being itself. But being is not an object of our immediate empirical experience, for it is always a particular mode of being or, rather, becoming that is the object of our relative experience. To us, individuals, there can be no such thing as experience of existence-in-general. But eternal being is general or absolute existence which cannot be confused or identified with becoming which is a process.
— Krishnananda, The Realisation of the Absolute[29]
Krishnananda held that, since Brahman obviously has free will, and since we are, in actuality, not different from Brahman, we have free will, and only appear to be determined, due to our acceptance of limited, imperfect individual existence, the nature of which creates desire, which is the motive for action, which is governed by causal law, which determines everything. In other words, within the realm of phenomena, there is no free will; outside of the realm of phenomena, there is free will. Krishnananda maintained, though, that freedom was a relative concept. To him, while there could be no freedom per se within the realm of phenomena, there could be freedom experienced to lesser and greater degrees, in accordance with the degree to which an individual is attached to the objects of the world. That is, the greater is the attachment, the greater is the bondage; the lesser is the attachment, the lesser is the bondage. According to Krishnananda, “The Bhagavad Gita is this much: No action can bind you, provided that the vision of the cosmos is before you.”[30]
In addition to the Vedanta, Swami Krishnananda was also a master of practically every system of Indian thought and Western philosophy.[8][9][31][32] Throughout his exposition of the Vedanta, namely in The Realisation of the Absolute, The Philosophy of Life, and The Philosophy of Religion, Krishnananda brought together Eastern and Western philosophies with surprising ease and efficiency, to create a synergy of thought rarely encountered in modern philosophy.[8] In his Studies in Comparative Philosophy and The Philosophy of Life he did comparative studies of the Vedanta and most of the prominent Western philosophers, including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, George Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, William James and A.N. Whitehead.[33][34]
Fundamentally, Krishnananda did not believe that Western philosophers added to the Vedanta, but he did believe that “they help[ed] in fortifying it with a powerful weapon against onslaughts from ill-informed sources.” He was particularly fond of Plato, Kant, and Hegel and referenced their work numerous times throughout his own. Krishnananda maintained that Western logic was a good companion to the knowledge of the East, and cautioned against being “too eager to cherish either a fanatical adherence to what is ours or a contempt for what is alien.”[35] In his autobiographical essay, My Life, he wrote:
Though I have read practically every type of philosophy, both Eastern and Western, and no one can stand before me in philosophical arguments or religious doctrine at the present time, and therefore I am fully satisfied as regards all the philosophies and all the religions of the world, though these philosophies appear to be different from each other and religions also differ from each other, I have with my own rational capacity tried to bring them together, and to me now there is only one philosophy and one religion. I do not any more see many philosophies and many religions; they just don't exist for me. I agree with Chesterton who said: 'There can be only one cosmic philosophy and one cosmic religion, and those who are believing in many philosophies and many religions are asking for many skies, many suns and many moons.'
— Krishnananda, My Life[36]
Swami Krishnanandaji is a master of Western philosophy also.
— Swami Sivananda[31]
Krishnananda expounded practically all of the major scriptures of the Vedanta through his extensive lecturing at the Divine Life Society;[2] and he wrote in-depth analytical commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Brahma Sutras, all of which have illumined and made more accessible those sacred Hindu texts.[8][32] Krishnananda's The Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita and The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad are considered classics of theology.[8][32] His epic 600-page exposition of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, The Study and Practice of Yoga, is widely regarded by Hindu scholars as a milestone in the history of the Hindu religion.
To Swami Krishnananda, the central message of the Upanishads was crystallized by the famous Vedantic proposition, originally occurring in the Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7,[37][38] "tat tvam asi," Sanskrit for “thou art that.”[39] In Krishnananda's thought, this is understood to mean that the subject is not distinct from the object. That is, if the only thing outside of the subject is the object, when the subject declares itself as “that,” all quantitative and thus qualitative differences dissolve and the subject becomes “That”—the Absolute.[40] This is one of two principal methods of jnana yoga to realize Truth as the Vedanta sees it, the other of which being that of denial or renunciation of object by subject.[41] In either case, identification with objects ceases. Krishnananda maintained throughout his writing and teaching that the realization of the truth of this proposition, which he held to be “logically proved and also corroborated by intuitional declarations,” is the fundamental desire of every person, and that—whether consciously or unconsciously—every person is striving for its fulfillment, in every place, and at every time.[42]
Krishnananda viewed Brahman as the Ultimate Reality. According to him, there could be only one reality, as anything relative to reality would be unreality, and since consciousness—with which we are endowed—is the presupposition for anything and everything, that one reality—Brahman—must be us.[43]
In addition to Shankara’s deep sleep proof, Krishnananda accepted, endorsed and expounded a number of other arguments for the existence of God, including Saint Anselm’s ontological proof and Descartes’ variation thereof, Cogito ergo sum; the Quinque viae as expounded by Saint Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica; Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason; and the cosmological argument.[44][45]
In Hindu philosophy, Maya is the word used to describe the phenomenon of untruth. Often illustrated with the snake-and-rope analogy (i.e., a rope appearing as a snake), Maya refers to the world and the means by which the world is created.[46] Krishnananda described it as the “baffling mystery of the decent of the ONE into many.”[47] If Brahman is truth, and if truth cannot come from untruth, but only untruth from truth, then untruth—Maya—can only be conceived of as an attribute of Brahman. This, though, limits Brahman; therefore, it cannot be true.[48] According to Krishnananda, logical analysis brings us to the conclusion that there must be truth, and that truth must be ONE, but fails in giving us any answers as to how or why there appears to be untruth, as logic is part of the untruth and, being separate from truth, cannot contact it. To him, “Our greatest intelligence lies in admitting that we cannot understand anything, finally.”[49]
The absolute cannot become what it is not; if it does not there is no world. But there is one seen. It must not be, therefore, different from the Absolute. This, again, means that there is no world but only the Absolute. But we do not see the Absolute; we see only the world!
— Krishnananda, The Cosmic Mystery[47]
Krishnananda held the concept of Isvara (personal God) to be man’s attempt at contemplating upon Brahman, but as such, governed by the laws of process and action, and therefore, essentially a proof that God is not personal, as a God bound by law could not really be God—it would be just another phenomenal being, albeit the most powerful. In the Realisation of the Absolute he states, "the pure Indivisible Being cannot be the object of the understanding working through the phenomenal categories," and thus "Ishvara is an appellation for Brahman viewed from the standpoint of the relative universe." However Krishnananda did not believe that a personal God was opposed to the impersonal Brahman, but rather only a way for us, as persons, to understand it. To him, a personal God was valid so long as the individual was valid;[50] for if God were to be denied, the individual could not be valid, as it is always contingent upon something outside of it which can never truly be known, and thus, only described as God.[51]
According to Krishnananda, the Atman is the universal soul (God) and the Jiva is the individual soul. The one Atman is the essence of the many Jivas. Since the Atman is not particular, it is not bound by space, time, or causality (karma), and thus remains as a detached witness to the Jivas which are affected by space, time, and causality. But ultimately, in his thought, there is no real difference between the Jiva and the Atman. Brahman, through means unknown to us (i.e., Maya) creates the Jiva, and in which process appears to become the Atman, which while distinct from, is also identical with, the Jiva. The ensuing causal chain of events—the creation of more and more Jivas—is the expanse of the universe, the motion of which is sustained by reciprocity in space and time, viz. the “veiling” and “projecting” aspects of Maya. Throughout his work, Krishnananda referred to the Jiva as a "reflection" of the Atman.[39][52][53]
In Hinduism, the concept of the Trimurti, or the “trinity” of Gods, (i.e., Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) is interpreted both literally and figuratively. As a Vedantin, Krishnananda held only a figurative view of the Trimurti, as such a concept taken literally would, according to him, be incompatible with the non-dualistic philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. He maintained that the concept was merely a way of explaining the manifestation of Brahman on the universal level, at stages of creation, preservation, and destruction; and that each stage corresponds to the manifestation of Brahman on the particular level, at stages of birth, life, and death.[54] In the Philosophy of Life he states: “A universe with many gods cannot be governed harmoniously, for there would be conflict of purpose among them."[55]
Swami Krishnananda did not see a conflict between faith and reason. On the contrary, he maintained that reason was necessary to justify faith in Truth,[56] as Truth, according to the Vedanta, cannot be experienced by empirical means. He believed that reason would ultimately concur with the longing of the human heart, that they were “unanimous in ascertaining that the One Absolute Brahman alone is the Reality.”[48]
An educated mind cannot accept the canons of faith without rational evidence; whatever we are called upon to accept, must be justified by reason otherwise religious beliefs will be reduced to wishful thinkings.
— Krishnananda[9]
The Hindu religion is concerned primarily with the human situation, not the Hindu situation.[17][57] As a Hindu, Krishnananda accepted all of the world’s major religions as valid pathways to God, and did not condemn or discriminate against any person on the basis of their religion. He expounded the teachings of Krishna, Christ, and Buddha alike; he saw no conflict in their doctrines.[9] In one lecture on Buddha, Krishnananda makes reference to Buddha's elightenment, "What Nirvana is Buddha did not say, and no one can tell you,"[58] while in another, on Krishna, he stated, "Bhagavan Sri Krishna is regarded as Purna-Avatara [...] He is considered to be a complete manifestation of God, not a partial expression of the power and the glory of God."[59] In his article A Sacramental Life, Krishnananda refers to Jesus Christ as the son of God: "The suffering of the son of God, Christ, is a brilliant example of how the incarnated symbol of the eternal bears witness to its source."[60] He clarifies this seemingly contradictory acceptance of multiple incarnations of God—and thus, religions—in a 1994 lecture that he gave on Jesus Christ, in which he stated that the principles of Christianity were not exclusive to Christianity because the concept of “incarnation” was not exclusive to Christianity:
The Christian tradition believes that there has been only one incarnation of God; and it occurred at one time in the history of time. This is a tradition accepted in the theological circles of Christendom, but there are others who draw more interesting conclusions from this concept of Incarnation on the basis of the omnipresence of God [...] Now, the idea of omnipresence suggests the possibility of God having the power to manifest Himself at any place, in any shape, and at any time. The other religions which do not entirely subscribe to the Catholic tradition, hold the view that there are as many Incarnations of the Supreme Being as there are rays of the Sun. The omnipresence of the light of the Sun is an example before us, to picture before ourselves the power of God. How many rays has the Sun? You may say He has only one ray, which floods the whole earth with His radiance; but you can also say the rays are infinite in number. Both viewpoints may be considered as equally valid.
— Krishnananda, Christmas Eve, 1994, The Coming of God on Earth[61]
To Swami Krishnananda, yoga was a practical implementation of philosophical truth in daily life.[62] In In The Light of Wisdom he writes:
The method of yoga is the systematic art of the rousing of the lower consciousness to the higher in a comprehension of both—the outer and the inner. This process involves several stages of ascent.
— Krishnananda, In The Light of Wisdom[63]
Swami Krishnananda taught and practiced Yoga of Synthesis, a method of yoga he learned directly from Swami Sivananda.[5] It combines the four main paths of the discipline - Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, and Jnana Yoga.[64] This is reflected in the crest of the Divine Life Society, which is, "Serve (Karma Yoga), Love (Bhakti Yoga), Meditate (Raja Yoga), Realize (Jnana Yoga)."[65] According to Swami Sivananda, “Integral perfection can be had only when you combine service and devotion with Jnana.”[31] Swami Krishnananda was a master of the Yoga of Synthesis as propounded by Sivananda.[5]
Krishnananda's approach to yoga was ultimately that of the integral Yoga of Synthesis, but due to his prolificacy as a theologian and philosopher, he is widely known as a jnana yogi.[8][66] Jnana yoga or "path of knowledge"[67] is one of the types of yoga mentioned in Hindu philosophies. Jnana in Sanskrit means "knowledge" or “philosophy.”[68] While Krishnananda valued and stressed the importance of direct experience above all else, the sometimes-held notion that philosophy is an abstract thought process, while life is concrete and substantial was, to him, a mistake. He saw both metaphysics and physics, especially in light of the enormous discoveries of the latter, reducing concrete matter to mere space-time, and suggested the implications of this for the observer of phenomena located within space-time: "The distinction between knower, knowledge, and known breaks down,"[39] and the “individual merges, as it were, into the vast indivisibility of the [space-time] continuum.” [69] He viewed philosophy as an "intensely practical science," a "necessary means for the possession of the higher knowledge of the Self."[70]
Swami Sivananda wrote of Krishnananda when he was still a young man:
He has excelled me. He has excelled Sankara. He has excelled Dakshinamurthy. […] Not a single harsh word he has spoken. He never becomes angry. He never complains. I think there is none in this Ashram of his type. These are all divine attributes. He has more divine qualities than are mentioned in the Gita. Lord Krishna was in a hurry; therefore, He enumerated some major virtues only, and we have to add to them the virtues that Krishnanandaji possesses. […] He is the proper man to go to the West. But if that is not to be, even his mere presence in the world is sufficient. His books are treasures for us. I am sending them all over the world. […] Swami Krishnanandaji is silent dynamism.
— Swami Sivananda[31]
Consistent with Advaita Vedanta philosophy and the Yoga of Synthesis methodology, Swami Krishnananda’s message was that of wholeness and unity, which is, according to the Vedanta, Reality or Truth.
In his Yoga as a Universal Science, Krishnananda states that all human suffering is ultimately the result of the perception of separation from Brahman, and that people erroneously try to relieve this suffering by interacting with objects through the physical senses. Our cultivation of these sense experiences, he says, is nothing more than the outer expressions of the Self attempting to relieve suffering. However, he explains that the relief we are really seeking is to become one with, or more accurately, to realize that we already are, Brahman, and that it is only through Maya that we desire for and attempt to have sense experiences instead. This misconception, he says, not only perpetuates the predicament but results in lost energy. [71]
As a remedy to this, he says that people must gradually, through careful discrimination and cooperation, cease to look at the world as being "outside" of or separate from themselves. Rather, people should unite themselves with the "outside world" and become ONE with it.[71]
Most of his lectures have been published in text form, and include commentaries covering the philosophy, psychology, and practice of the various disciplines of yoga.[8][9][32] Additionally, Swami Krishnananda is the author of more than 50 books and 160 essays and articles on yoga, religion, and philosophy, many of which have been translated into multiple languages.[32]
The work can be classified under the following categories:
Under the first category are Krishnananda’s expositions of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, the most notable of which being his Commentary on the Brihadaranyanka Upanishad, Commentary on the Chhandogya Upanishad, and Philosophy of the Bhagagvad Gita. Philosophy of the Bhagagvad Gita is a celebrated work which has evoked praise from scholars and seekers as being one of the best revelations of the true import of the Bhagavad Gita.[32]
Krishnananda’s monographs are primarily works in metaphysics, epistemology, and psychology, and on the study and practice of yoga, in light of the Upanishads and the writings of Swami Sivananda, and are frequently comparative to Western philosophy. These works include The Philosophy of Life, The Ascent of the Spirit, Essays in Life and Eternity, The Philosophy of Religion, The Realisation of the Absolute, and Yoga As a Universal Science.
Among Krishnananda’s dialogs are The Problems of Spiritual Life and Your Questions Answered. The former volume consists of a series of lively conversations held over a period of several days between Krishnananda and a Canadian lawyer, in which Krishnananda furnishes replies to the man’s philosophical queries. The latter consists of a large collection of informal dialogs between Krishnananda and a wide range of visitors to the Sivananda Ashram that touches upon practically every aspect of spiritual inquiry, analysis and contemplation.
Swami Krishnananda did not travel extensively, and he did not promote, nor profit monetarily from his writing or teaching.[3][72] However, his influence on the world has been considerable.[5][8][9] His legacy to the world is that of Swami Sivananda’s—service, love, charity, chastity, meditation, realization[65]—embodied in the mission, teachings and practice of the Divine Life Society, which from the year 1936 has been built up by Sivananda and his disciples to its present day status as a spiritual, religious and educational outreach to the world. For 73 years the Divine Life Society has disseminated spiritual knowledge to the world, trained and educated spiritual seekers, established and run educational institutions, established and run medical organizations, and helped countless poor and needy.[65]
The Divine Life Society’s headquarters in Rishikesh, India maintains and implements many bodies and causes, including its Charitable Hospital, which renders free medical service to the public; its common kitchen (the Annapurna Annakshetra), which feeds about 600 permanent residents, daily visiting guests and pilgrims; its Guest House, which looks to the needs of its many daily visitors and guests; the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy, which trains spiritual seekers and aspirants; its monthly periodical, Divine Life (in English and Hindi), which puts out articles on philosophy and spiritual guidance; its well-known Leprosy Relief Program; and its Social Service Wing, which attends to the needs of the world’s poor and needy. The Temples of worship at the Divine Life Society hold prayers for the peace of the world and conduct regular worship of the Lord. They also conduct continual, 24-hour-a-day, recitation of the Lord’s name.[65]
Swami Krishnananda served as this institution's administrator for more than 40 years, and represented it with his many works of theological and philosophical literature.[2]
All of Swami Krishnananda's books, essays and articles are available free of charge in PDF or HTML format at the website Swami-Krishnananda.org. His books are also widely available for purchase in print.
Books on Yoga, meditation and spiritual practice
Books on Bhagavad Gita, Vedanta and Hinduism
Books on the Upanishads
Books on mysticism
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Books on metaphysical philosophy
Poetical writings
Selected essays and articles
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a. ^ Shankara's Vivekachudamani and Upanishad commentaries in particular influenced Krishnananda's conversion from Dvaita to Advaita.[5]
b. ^ Krishnananda provides for the distinction between indeterminate perception (mere recognition of an object) and determinate perception (identification with the object recognized), though only at the superficial level.[73] He explains that the reason there is delay between recognition of and identification with objects superficially is due to an excessive amount of objectivity that must be cognized before a given perception can be complete. According to him, this is why a being of intellect identifies considerably less with objects than does a being of mere instinct. At the fundamental or ultimate level, however, there is only one object to cognize, and so to Krishnananda no difference between recognition and identification possible.[23]
c. ^ Sri Swami Vimalananda is the President of the Divine Life Society as of 2010.[72]