. GURUDEV’S AWAKENING CALL

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

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May each and everyone of you who are participating in this early morning spiritual
fellowship enter into this new day, gifted to you by the Divine, in a higher way, in a subtler and a
spiritual way, not merely in a gross and physical way.
You have the blessedness of conceiving, of making each dawn hour not merely a physical
awakening of the physical body into physical activities, but simultaneously also a spiritual
awakening and a spiritual activity in and through your real Self, your real nature—an awakening
into awareness of your real identity.
You awaken not merely as a physical body from physical sleep, but you awake and emerge
into a state of wakefulness and awareness in your real, everlasting, unchanging spiritual
identity—feeling yourself to be birthless, deathless, of the same stuff as the eternal Cosmic Reality,
feeling yourself to be satchidananda. You thus make each day a fresh awakening spiritually, a fresh
rebirth, so that each day is one step higher towards the supreme culminating pinnacle-point of
God-realisation. Each day adds on to your spiritual evolution, to your spiritual upward ascent
towards the great goal of knowing you are never bound, the great goal of realising that you are ever
free and eternally pure. It is a pinnacle-point of consciousness where you know that neither am I
born, nor do I die, neither have I bondage, nor do I seek liberation—I am ever that Being, one with
the Supreme Reality, unborn, eternal, ancient, beyond time, imperishable, ever present.
May this be your vision, not of something extraneous to yourself, not of another thing, but
may this be your vision of yourself. May this vision be directed within your self, and, inwardly, may
you behold the imperishable within the perishable. This is the vision that Lord Krishna wanted you
to have: “vinasyatsv avinasyantam yah pasyati sa pasyati—O Arjuna, see the imperishable within
the perishable. Dwelling in this body-house is something that is beyond the body. It never was not,
It ever is and ever shall continue to be. Behold that the Eternal is the dweller within this non-eternal

body. See thyself with that vision. Know thyself with this wisdom-experience,
wisdom-consciousness. Know that thou art free.”
Thus, Lord Krishna, through Arjuna, called upon us to turn the gaze within and know that
bondage and liberation do not exist, have no meaning, for you are the ever-pure, ever-awakened,
ever-free, all-perfect Reality, nitya mukta paripurna atma tattva.
Thus, rejoice in your freedom, rejoice in your eternal, birthless, deathless state, the truth, the
fact of what you truly are. To this fact of your being, Gurudev has awakened you through wonderful
musical wisdom, musical upadesa, jnana in the form of a song:
Chidananda chidananda chidananda hum
Har halme almast satchidananda hum
Ajarananda amarananda achalananda hum
Nirbhaya aur nischinta chidananda hum
Kaivalya kevala kutastha ananda hum
Nitya suddha siddha satchidananda hum.
Knowledge-Bliss, Knowledge-Bliss, Bliss Absolute,
In all conditions I am Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.
I am without old age, immortal and immovable.
I am without worry, without fear, Bliss Absolute,
Eternal, pure, perfect Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.
We miss the point of this song. When Gurudev says that in all conditions I am
Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, we interpret this “all conditions” to apply to outer conditions, whatever
condition our world may be in—what is in the news or how people are treating us. But this is
missing the point. In all conditions refers to your own self. No matter what condition your body may
be in—healthy or unhealthy, sitting or standing, working or resting; no matter in what condition
your mind or emotions and thoughts may be—pleased or displeased, calm or agitated, one-pointed
or fretful, up or down; no matter what your intellect may be—creating this complication or that
problem or solving them; no matter what your condition—plus or minus, “In all conditions, I am
Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. I am the eternal, pure, perfect Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.”
That is chidananda. It is not said satchidananda because saying sat is unnecessary. Sat
means existence. To affirm your existence is unnecessary because you don’t need anyone to tell you
that you are. You know you exist. But you think you exist as Mr. So and So: “I am male, female,
young, old, I belong to this country and so on.” That is where the problem arises, where the shoe
starts pinching, and you weep and wail.
Because, although you know you exist, your knowledge is topsy-turvy, upside-down
knowledge, which just creates problems. Therefore, know that you exist as pure consciousness, that
you exist as perfect bliss— unchangeable, unchanging, eternal, pure Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.
You are chit and ananda, perfectly, totally, not 99.95% but 100%. Therefore wake up. Don’t dream
that you are someone else. Just wake up and know that you are what you are.

We are gathered together here in the vicinity of a light, a light of awakening wisdom, in the
vicinity of an awakening voice calling us to direct our gaze within. For, no matter what condition
our physical body, our mind, our memory, our imagination may be in, in the midst of all this you are
what you are eternally. Nothing can alter the fact of you. Nothing can change the truth of what you
are.
This, therefore, is the great call and gift to mankind, not only by the ancient sages of bygone
ages, but it is the selfsame awakening proclamation in clarion tones by sages of our own times.
Beloved and worshipful Swami Sivanandaji called upon us to stop looking here, there and
everywhere and to start looking just where we are. He said: “Be silent and know that I AM.” Silence
the mind, silence the emotions, silence the clamouring of the senses. In that inner silence know that
you are the eternal, pure, perfect Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.
Thus, as we benefit from our early morning worship and fellowship here, let us also benefit
from the unseen presence and the powerful, unheard voice that silently issues forth twenty-four
hours a day, proclaiming: “Thou art what you have ever been. You have never been anything but
what you are, for that is the truth of your being.”
Let us receive this unspoken awakening message about ourselves, become awake and
remain awake—live, walk and work in a state of wakefulness, never going back to slumber again.
In wakefulness, may we live our life, no matter where the body is, no matter how it functions, no
matter where the mind wanders and what it does. In all conditions of our interior being, may we ever
be in a state of wakefulness!
Gurudev’s presence is not only confined to the Samadhi Hall, is not only all-pervasive in
this holy ashram, but it lives and moves in and through you. You carry his presence when you
adhere to truthfulness. You carry his presence when you are kind, considerate and compassionate.
You carry his presence when you refuse to swerve even one inch from the path of purity. You carry
his presence vibrantly, dynamically, forcefully when you live your life in a divine manner with
determination, humble intention, firm resolve, and all sincerity and earnestness.
When you are trying to pursue a divine way of living your life in thought, word and action,
you are manifesting Gurudev, you are a vibrant centre of that which the world knows as Swami
Sivananda. You become a lamp through which his light shines; you become the vessel to hold the
living waters of his spirituality, his sublime spiritual teachings.
Do not, therefore, confine Swami Sivananda to the Samadhi Hall. Make yourself a vehicle
of his living presence so that by your life others also become awake and illumined—they feel his
divine presence through your life, and their life is also divinised. Move amongst this world of men
as the candle imparting your light to anyone whom God brings you into contact with.