Wonders of A Holy Master

The world may offer any number of great and grand wonders yet, being man made, they remain only transient. Whatever glory or grandeur one may ascribe to them at a given point of time, it is sure to dwindle with the passage of time. Since worldly wonders pertain to the objective phenomena, they are non lasting and relative, carrying only a short-lived attraction.

Unlike wonders of the world which are external and objective, there are wonders of the spirit which are purely internal and subjective, occurring at the soul or consciousness level. To the outside world they remain un noticed but to those, on whose subjective plane they take place, they leave an everlasting and memorable personality transformation effect. Such wonders are not visible to the gross eye. Occurring on the substratum of one’s consciousness, they are in the nature of soul-touching and soul-lifting experience. Their causation cannot be attributed to a human agency and hence their value also cannot be measured by any temporal standard.

The Datta Yoga Center of USA, in the year 1999, had brought out an invaluable book titled wonders of ‘Holy Master’. This work gave a compiled documented account of memorable spiritual experiences of a large number of devotees of North America as a result of their holy contact with Parama Poojya Sri Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji of Mysore.

The present book is yet another extended version of the soul-touching and soul-lifting experiences of many a more devotees • mostly from North America. Reading through the articles given in the book, any spiritual aspirant will come to know, how a mere glance or a touch of a Divine Master like Poojya Sri Swamiji, can bring about wondrous life transforming effect on their personality, helping them to transcend from the bondage of the material world to the freedom of the Eternal Soul.

Dr. Prakash Rao and his colleagues of D.Y.C, U.S.A have done a commendable service by bringing out this second volume. May Sadguru Parama Poojya Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji’s blessing be with all those who have contributed their articles as well as those who have been connected with the publication of this wonderful book.

The first volume of wonders of a Holy Master has been received with great enthusiasm and excitement ever since it was released with the blessings of Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji during the Birthday Celebrations in June 1999 in Mysore. Since then many devotees have started reading, sharing and relating their own experiences with those that were published in the book. A number of devotees who could not contribute their experiences to the first volume expressed interest in submitting to the second volume if such plans were anticipated. Devotees from other countries who attended Sri Swamiji’s birthday celebrations in 1999 in Mysore also started enquiring about possible publication of the second volume so that theyc ould share their experiences with others.

Sri Swamiji blessed us to start the compilation of articles for the second volume realizing the interest of the devotees to share their experiences. The articles for the first volume came primarily from USA devotees. The articles for second volume of the wonders of a Holy Master include experiences of nearly 70 devotees from different countries such as Canada, India, United Kingdom, Portugal, Holland, Malaysia, Trinidad and USA. Their experiences are wide ranging; defying logic, reasoning, and rationalization. Nobody with human mind can explain the mysteries and miracles of Sri Swamiji. Many devotees have so many experiences that it is almost impossible to document all of them. Imagine how many millions of devotees across the globe are touched by the grace of Sri Swamiji and the innumerable experience they had. It is impossible to document each and every experience of a devotee and also the devotees across the world. After reading these experiences in these two volumes, we realize that the longer we are acquainted with Sri Swamiji, the less we know of Sri Swamiji. He is beyond our understanding and imagination. How can we understand the Paramatma (Cosmic Consciousness)?

It is really difficult to describe God Incarnate, nay God Himself How can you describe Sri Swamiji? We are really lucky, blessed and fortunate to be even born as a contemporary of Sri Swamiji, more fortunate to be hearing about Sri Swamiji, even more fortunate to have His Darshan and listen to his words of wisdom. Nothing is comparable for having Sri Swamiji as our Guide, Master and Sadguru touching and guiding our lives. Imagine how lucky you are that God Himself came to you in the human form with whom you can sit in front of Him and talking to Him. In the Upanisadic language Sri Swamiji is Bhuma — really great. No human concept, mind, words, speech, and intelligence can adequately describe Sri Swamiji. Our language is skimpy our intelligence is limited, our perceptions are impaired, our words are inadequate and our speech is deficient to describe the majesty the glory and the aura of Sri Swamiji. He is all and all is He. Every that exists in the universe also exists in Him. He is the creator, supporter and destroyer of the universe. As you read the miracles of Sri Swamiji, you will soon realize that He is also our beloved Master, Guru, Father, Mother, Friend, Teacher, Musician, Singer, and simply Sri Swamiji. Sri Swamiji was seen in His Vishwaroopa form. He was also seen as Durga, Amba, Krishna, Venkateswara, Dattatreya, Ganesha and yes, even as a crow to fit needs of His devotees. He can assume any Roopa (form) at His will. He is beyond description. Let us paraphrase one of the verses in Siva Mahimna Stotra to describe Sri Swamiji: A If the earth be the paper sheet, the Ocean the inkpot, Sumeru Mountain the pen of Mother Saraswati, who herself goes on writing through infinite times, still she will not be able to exhaust narrating your glories, O Lord Shiva,” Or shall we say His Holiness Sri Swamiji.

Sometimes struggles, calamities, problems and stresses are what we need in life to realize the power of the Almighty - in our case the power of Sri A Swamiji. If every thing goes according to our desires, if we succeed in all the attempts we undertake, and if we get all the material things we want, do you think we will ever realize the power of God and the grace of Guru? Pain, suffering and problems bring us closer to God. Without obstacles, our life will be stunted, ego will be ballooned, and arrogance will be inflated. We would not be strong and resilient. We will forget that power of God and grace of Guru are behind every action.