Last year we celebrated the birth centenary of our guru, Swami Satyananda. As soon as that concluded, we started the celebration of the sannyasa centenary of our Paramguru, Swami Sivananda. On 1st June 1924, en-route to Rishikesh, in the jungle between Haridwar and Rishikesh, he found his guru, while he was resting under a tree. That was a very special moment, for at that moment our great-grandfather guru, Swami Vishwananda, initiated our grandfather guru, Swami Sivananda, into the sannyasa tradition. The meeting was only for ten, fifteen minutes, between the two - the master and the disciple, yet the connection that existed within them, transcended place, time and space. The connection that Swami Sivananda had with his guru was a pure connection based on faith, trust and the feeling of oneness. That is known as satsambandh, the positive connection. Keeping that idea in mind, this year has been declared as the year of positive connection.
What is the meaning of the words - positive connection? What is the meaning of the sentence - to develop a positive connection? From my understanding and perspective, connection with everyone becomes positive when we respect, honour, love and inspire other people to follow the right path. We are also part of that journey. Telling people about the right path and also living that, creates a connection between me and myself, and between me and other people.
That was the theme of Swami Sivananda - be good and do good. Two small words, six letters: b-e-g-o-o-d and d-o-g-o-o-d. They are only six letters, yet they contain so much inspiration and teaching that the power of these six little letters is more potent than the explosion of an atomic bomb. These words indicate the entire goal and aspiration of life.
In relation to ourselves, me and myself, the connection that has to be developed is positive and balanced, based on understanding and wisdom. Objectivity and awareness: can we analyse how we feel, what we think, and know that this is sattwic or that is tamasic. Anything that is not positive is considered to be tamasic. Where negativity, arrogance, power, greed prevails, where all the qualities of life that we express as kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya prevail, they indicate the tamasic nature, and they colour the human behaviour accordingly.
Humans are not able to discriminate between their tamasic and sattwic expression. Human beings are not willing to acknowledge or rectify the tamasic. Rather, they find justification for the tamasic behaviour, and that is totally uncalled for and unnecessary. That is the trait that we all live in this world. As an aspirant of spiritual life, as an aspirant of yoga, or as followers of the teachings of Swami Sivananda and Swami Satyananda, one can at least develop an awareness of one’s own thoughts and responses to circumstances, situations and people, and ensure that they are positive and do not hurt anyone. That is a challenge. Most of the time, we are in this state of tamas, as we are also trying to justify our actions without accepting that what we did was either correct or incorrect. Our association with sattwa remains a distant dream.
If we can connect with the sattwa, then we know what our limitations are. We know how we need to behave with other people. Even the speech changes. Instead of admonishing somebody and making fun one should know the limitations of sannyasa; one should know the limitations of people who come here and the reasons for which they come here. They come here for inspiration, they come here for direction. They come here to outgrow their own limitations and tamasic nature, and to connect with sattwa. Situations created by another person puts them off. Especially if sannyasins do it, they are breaking their connection with their gurus. They are also blocking the connection, which the other person is trying to develop, by creating a barrier of negativity which begins to flower in the course of time.
The year of connection has to be understood in two different parts: How do I connect with the positivity within me and express that? And, how do I inspire positivity in others, so that they can also be uplifted? If we can keep these two ideas in our mind, then our life will change, our ego will be more balanced and our arrogance will decrease. There will be more peace, happiness and luminosity, that we can share with others, rather than struggling and fire fighting every day with situations, events and people.
Teachings have been there since time immemorial, but are we capable of understanding and following them? What makes it difficult for us, is our own tamasic nature, and not realizing that it is detrimental to our own spiritual development. Masters in every culture and tradition have expressed positivity, they have expressed hope and inspiration, which other people could follow.
The year of connection gives us a lot of points to think about - how it applies to us and to other people as well. Respect everyone, honour everyone, love everyone, inspire everyone -to walk the positive path. Do not admonish them, for mistakes are made by everyone. We are subject to the tamasic nature, and therefore mistakes are bound to happen. Acknowledging those mistakes and ensuring that they do not happen again, is our strength.
We have to connect with that strength, and inspire others to also connect with that strength. For me this is the meaning of the words Year of Positive Connection, or the satsambandh varsh. Try to live it, for this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. For this year, there is a focus and there is hope. Hope is an acronym, which means Have Only Positive Expectations. Can you give that hope to other people? Can you remain in the luminosity of this hope? And as it says in the poem 'If by Rudyard Kipling, 'If you do, then you are a man, my son.'
28 April 2024, Ganga Darshan, Munger