In the tradition of Vedanta there are systematic steps to discover Self Knowledge. Swami Chinmayananda followed these unconsciously before meeting his Gurus and consciously thereafter.
The First text that Swami Chinmayananda studied under Swami Tapovanam was Panchadashi, written by Swami Vidyaranya. This was followed by Prashnopanishad, Mundakopanishad, Mandukya Upanishad, Aitareya Upanishad, Chandogya Upanishad. Some more Upanishads and texts of Vedanta were also taught by Tapovanji.
Both Swami Tapovanam and Swami Chinmayananda were from Kerala and both were well versed with English. Yet, Swami Tapovanam chose to teach in Hindi and Sanskrit. As the Guru spoke in Hindi, Chinmaya was meticulously translating and noting everything in English because he wanted all of his notes in the language most familiar to him.
Swami Chinmayananda practiced an intense Sadhana during his period of stay with Swami Tapovan. Often he sat all night in meditation in a quiet corner of the forest or sometimes on a boulder besides the Ganges.
After the Upanishad, Swami Tapovanam had planned to give classes on the Bhagavad Geeta but developed a severe cough. “Okay, I’ve taught you the Upanishads, now you study the Gita on your own. If you have a question, we’ll discuss it.” With these words Swami Tapovanam ended Chinmaya’s studies from a textbook. But learning from the teacher did not stop; he would spend another 6 years communicating with the Master.
(Gurudev): Sri Swami Tapovanam was unique in that inspite of his inordinate erudition and scholarship deep devotion and highest spiritual realization he chose to remain in his humble mud plastered one room kutia with a small veranda at Uttar Kashi. He lived always ever retired from the hubbub of life revelling in his own self. He hated all ostentations, physical and mental. He recommended study, reflection and attempts at direct experience. He must learn to lift our minds to meet Him where He is in our own hearts. A scholarly pundit from Jaipur who was also Gurudev’s life long argent devotee had composed a prayerful hymn upon Sri Gurudev. Verse by verse the hymn composed in the very vocabulary of the Upanishads invokes the Supreme Self and the poet identifies that Self Divine Sri Swami Tapovan. We must all realize that.. the infinite substratum for the entire universe, Brahman, contities…for blessing us all is Sri Gurudev, the Lord of Soumya Kashi, Sri Swami Tapovanam.
I wish all our Bal Vihars, chyks, study group members and all other non attached Devotees we learn and repeat it everyday Let us invoke him to this mass chanting to bless our country and all our efforts reviving this great culture. Let this hymn be sung throughout the world in all our centres in the same tune in a chorus of sheer faith and pure devotion… Hariom !
On the left are the Mahavakya temples based on what Swami Chinmayananda learnt from Swami Tapovanam. Enter through the first and exit through the fourth temple.
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10 steps to Self-Knowledge are depicted on the steps leading to Swami Tapovanam’s Kutia in the exhibit. Along with these steps of Knowledge are the ways in which Swami Chinmayananda lived them. They also explain some interactions of the Master & the Student.
1. Selfless Actions – Nishkaama Karma
Fighting for the freedom of the country, writing articles for the benefit of the common man, Seva at Divine Life Society & Serving Swami Sivananda
2. Single Pointedness - Upasana
As a child Balan had Loved the form of Lord Shiva. After Agnostic phase, when he quit the ‘Palace of Life’, he resumed japa of Om Namah Shivaya 3. Four Fold Qualifications - Sadhana Chatushtaya
The 4 fold qualifications were invoked in Balan during his Journalist days in Delhi, death of Shroff & Char Dham Yatra resulting in Sannyas
4. Seek a Guru – Guru-Upasatti
Swami Tapovanam put a condition when Swami Chinmayananda approached him for study, “I will only teach once. I will not repeat. If I ask you any question and you cannot answer, you will have to leave.” Swami Chinmayananda agreed. He in turn would ask many questions till he was clear.
5. Self-Enquiry – Brahma-Jignaasaa
“I went to Swami Tapovanam with the desire to know directly what the scriptures say in their profound declarations. I wanted a fuller confirmation of what I had gathered from books in the library, that is, a direct glimpse of the ideas in the Upanishads and the Geeta.”
6. Serve the Spiritual Teacher - Guru Seva
Swami Chinmayananda would use a large stone as a pillow and be at the Guru's door at 4am, after a freezing cold ganges-bath, with a cup of tea. Many times Swami Tapovanam left the cup of tea untouched, just to rub away the doership.
Often he would cook food for his guru. “See one never gets to give up Tapas In these Himalayas.” Chuckled Swami Tapovanam
7. Listening – Shravanam
Every morning the class began at 6am with Shantipath. Swami Tapovanam would read out one Sanskrit verse and explain its word by word meaning, rules of grammar, deeper meaning, an example and the possible misinterpretations. Though both of them were from kerala & knew English, Swami Tapovanam taught in Hindi & Swami Chinmayananda would listen attentively and make notes in English.
8. Reflection – Mananam
With the execption of class time, if the students even approached Swami Tapovanam or talked amongst themselves, he would chide them: "What are you doing hanging around here? Don't waste a minute! You go do your own reflection. It's all in you!”
9. Contemplation – Nididhyaasanam
With the setting Sun, Chinmaya retired to his humble shelter & spent long, cool nights reflecting & contemplating on the Truth revealed by his Guru.
Journeying between Uttarkashi & Gangotri, Swami Tapovanam would often point out in a contemplative mood, “Loot at those clouds, Chinmaya. So beautiful is all of nature. How can anyone not believe the grace and beauty of the Lord when they see His form manifested in this wonderful world of nature.”
10. Absorption of the Mind - Samadhi
Often Swami Chinmayananda sat all night absorbed in meditation in a quiet corner of the forest or sometimes on a boulder besides the Ganges. When Swami Tapovanam taught Mandukya Upanishad, Swami Chinmayananda was enthralled. “The world is unreal! It never came into existence!” He would rave on for hours like a man possessed.
1.Remove the conditioning and explain the Self.
Often Swami Tapovanam would repeat at the end of his class that what was discussed was only the conditioned. "Remove the conditioning and realize the Self," he would conclude the class.
After contemplating these words for several days, Chinmaya felt compelled to ask the guru during the next class, "Swamiji, why not remove the conditioning and explain the Pure Brahman? Why do you say that it is the eye of the eye without the eye-conditioning." The guru paused for a moment, then continued the class without giving a direct reply. All of a sudden Swami Tapovanam said to him, "Chinmaya, get me some water to drink." The disciple was somewhat surprised because it was unusual to be thirsty in the cold climate of Gangotri at such an early hour; nevertheless, he quickly brought a pail of fresh water and place it in front of the guru.
"What is this," asked the guru in an assumed air of anger. "Swamiji, this is the water you wanted," murmured the awed disciple. "But did I ask for a pail," roared the master, "or for water? Take that pail away and bring me the water!" "But Swamiji, how... without a pail? ...HOw carry ... water?" Stammered Chinmaya.
“Never mind," said the master, in a soft, encouraging tone. "Nobody can convey water without a vessel; it is the same in conveying the knowledge of Truth. The absolute cannot be explained in words; just as you cannot bring water without a vessel. We cannot express Truth except through the medium of one or the other of its conditionings, in this case, words. Hence it is that the scriptures as well as the gurus explain only the conditioned truth, instead of the Absolute Truth.”
2.Drop It! Drop It!
A devotee who visited Swami Tapovanam regularly came trudgling up the hillside carrying two bundles of groceries for the master, one in each hand. Thw Swami spotted him coming upthe path and called out to him, "Drop it!" The poor fellow not knowning exactly what the Swami meant, but wanting to follow his instructions, obligingly dropped one bundle. "Drop it!" called out the Swami again; so he dropped the other bundle. By this time he had approached nearer the hut, when the Swami looked straight in the eye and repeated with an emphatic firmness, "Drop it, I say!" Since the devotee had dropped all of the external packages, there was nothing left to drop but the internal bundle - the mind. When the light dawned of what Swami Tapovanam meant, the devotee sat down on the spot and entered a state of bliss (Samadhi). The students observing the encounter were dumbfounded.
3.A Basket of Laddus
One afternoon a basket of laddus arrived just as the class began, so everyone got a chance to eye it. The laddu has earned the distinction of being the favoured sweet of holy men and everyone felt sure that the teacher would allow each student just one. "Put it inside!" he tersely ordered one of the students. After a few days the students' minds became disturbed, thinking: This is some Master, hogging all the laddus for himself! Several actually became so disenchanted that they left, for they did not want to study the scriptures from such a greedy character. Chinmaya tried to convince them of the guru's austere way of life, explaining that he often used such incidents as practical examples of teaching. But he was not sure what was going on himself. After the fifth day, the teacher noted that the attendance in the class had abruptly dropped; two of the students left without even bidding good bye. "What happened? Where are the other two?" he questioned. "They left," came a timid reply.
"Chinmaya, come here. Now, go and take that basket from my room." Chinmaya went inside and found the basket of laddhus exactly as it had arrived, not one was missing. "Bring it here!" he ordered. "To the Ganga! Throw them out!" he ordered. "When you take sanyaas, you are supposed to have control over your senses. Just look at the quality of your minds, agitated over a paltry basket of sweets. I saw your distractions and knew what was going on, so I didn't want to encourage it. We're here t study the Upanishads, not to eat laddus!"
4.Liar Incident
The Swami handed some plain cloth, which had been given to him as a gift, to Chinmaya and another student and asked them to make one of his simple robes. They carefully cut the fabric, stitched it by hand, dyed it orange with saffron, then laid it out over some bushes to dry. They then folded it carefully, put it in a plain paper wrapping and presented it to Swami Tapovanam. Somwhow, when he took it out of the wrapping, it had a tear in it, or at least he claimed it did.
"Look! You tore it. You were careless when you took it off the shrubs!" He looked straight at Chinmaya.
"No, I was very careful, Swamiji. Let me see it; I can't understand how it got torn," the student bravely defended himself.
"I was watching you take it off those shrubs and you were careless. Your attention was not on what you were doing. You are surely lying now." That was a heavy blow for Chinmaya - to be called a liar - especially when he was sure he was telling the truth.After that, when Chinmaya approached his hut, Swami Tapovanam would taunt him: "." Chinmaya's anger and frustration stirred to the boilding point. So he made up his mind to leave and study on his own "without all the guru nonsense." Fortunately, an older Swami you understood the guru's ways saw the young Swami making preparations to leave and called him aside. "Look, son. He is only testing you," he persuaded the young man. The next time Swami Tapovanam called out "Liar!" to chinmaya, he was ready: "Perhaps," he retorted with a knowning smile.
"Oh, so now you see! This whole creation is a lie, why make a big deal over one little lie!" the Swami retorted with a chuckle.
Teaching Concludes. Learning Does Not.
Swami Tapovanam had planned to give classes on the Bhagavad Geeta but developed a severe cough. “Okay, I’ve taught you the Upanishads, now you study the Gita on your own. If you have a question, we’ll discuss it.” With these words Swami Tapovanam ended Chinmaya’s studies from a textbook. But learning from the teacher did not stop; he would spend another 6 years communicating with the Master.
Swami Chinmayananda practiced an intense Sadhana all during his period of stay with Swami Tapovan. Often he sat all night in meditation in a quiet corner of the forest or sometimes on a boulder besides the Ganges.
Texts Studied by Swami Chinmayananda Under Tapovan Maharaj:
Panchadashi - 6 June 1949 (Gangotri)
Prashnopanishad - Nov. 29 to december 22 1949 (Brahmananda Ashram, Rishikesh)
(end of 1949 to April 1950 - All India Tour taken up by Gurudev)
Mundakopanishad - April 7 to 27 (Uttarkashi)
Mandukya Upanishad - April 30 to July 22(Uttarkashi)
Aitareya Upanishad - Nov. 2 to 23 1950 (Uttarkashi)
Chandogya Upanishad - July 9 1951 to August 20th 1951 - Gangotri
(August 1951 - another All India Tour taken up by Gurudev)
Some more upanishads and texts of Vedanta were also taught by Tapovanji.
Design Notes
10 Steps to Acquire Self-Knowledge
10 Steps to Self-Knowledge are recreated to metaphorically represent the steps of unfoldment that Swami Chinmayananda underwent, leading to the Higher State of Consciousness & Kutia of Swami Tapovanam. The steps, the stones, the Kutia are made from FRP. Along with these steps of Knowledge are the ways in which Swami Chinmayananda lived them. They also explain some interactions of the Master & the Student along with some photographs of his student days.