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| Avadhoota Nadananda |
(from "Autobiography of an Avadhoota - part 2"):
Avadhoota Nadananda: Another memorable incident also occurred in Uttarakashi that left me inconclusive about certain basics of spirituality. Though I had come across many kinds and categories of sadhaks, some even established at the top, one among them perplexed yet appealed to me. Whenever I crossed through the marketplace to purchase something, or went for bhiksha, or for a walk, I would see a middle-aged Swamiji sitting under a tree at a particular place near Kailash ashram, by the Ganga. He never changed the spot, always in a different mood of his own altogether. Though he was clad in rags, his stunningly bright eyes were characteristic of a great soul. Whenever I passed by him, I used to pay a courtesy glance. One day by chance or by destiny, I observed a big wound filled with oozing pus on his left leg, just near the knee. He sat looking at that wound with a smile on his face as if he were in ecstasy. I felt that I should go and do seva to that saint and so I went to the market and purchased some cotton, soframycin powder, a small bottle of Dettol, and some bandages and walked up to him. As usual, he was sitting looking at the wound and smiling.
I sat near him, but he ignored me if I was not there. I just did my namaskars to that saint and touched his feet, he pulled his leg back with a jerk, and to my shock one or two worms fell down. Immediately the Swamiji shouted, "What have you done, you fool!" He started crying loudly as if some of his near and dear ones had died. I was wondering what had happened. He scolded me, You fool - you have thrown them away! They were happy having their food in that wound. You sinner! Think twice before you act." With utmost care and affection, he took the small worms in his hands and placed them back on the wound, and smiled again. He sat in silence for some time and looked at me as if asking me to get lost. Slowly I stood up and walked away, and threw the medicines and bandages with a prayer to Ganga Mata. The medicine plunged into the water but not my worry that I had disturbed that great avadoota saint in his ecstatic moments, and I hoped he would not curse me. Everything happened due to my lack of proper understanding at that point of my sadhana, about the various states of the saints and their attitudes towards this world. There were a lot of questions in my mind about the veracity of such sadhana and states etc.
My mind had fooled me and I was not satisfied with my own understanding. Then the radar-vision Swamiji came to mind and I approached him with reverence, for he is a master of his own accord, and narrated to him the incident.
"Nadanandaji," with love and concern he started explaining, "it is very good that you have attempted service with good faith and regard. But you must remember one thing while serving sadhus. Their attitude towards the body is entirely different from that of worldly people. Common people in the world of sensual satisfaction want to cure the body in the hope of extracting from it more enjoyment of any type, till the last breath is reached. But when sadhus attempt a cure, it is only to keep the body in order, so that it helps them as a vehicle to reach deeper and wider in accessing the subtler areas of self-knowledge. There is no point in spending money on a junk car. Another thing to know is that just enduring pain in the body is not going to take you to enlightenment - this is not a norm or a standard that we should accept or propagate.
I interrupted to ask how it was then that in the Chadoyga Upanishad, it is stated that, Samvarga Vidya is the greatest state of attainment, which was imparted to King Janasruti by sage Raikva who appears as a cart driver. That sage too was like this mahatma, with inflamed sores all over his body, and he is considered one of the greatest avadhootas of the Upanishads, how was he different from this one.
Swamiji was now in his element and started explaining. "Look," he said, "the actual state of mind of the avadhoota, and that of another person merely practicing or reenacting his behavior after hearing about it, are different. This mahatma might have heard that story, and it probably made a deep impression on his psychology, and so he adopted it in his life. It is an isolated kind of thinking. If such things become standard procedure or behavior for the attainment of enlightenment, then everyone would be nursing wounds, and will all creatures with wounds become realized? It is all right that you went in good faith to serve an ailing soul. His mindset did not permit that service, and there ends that story. Whether he is supposed to suffer, whether it was a state of greatness etc. are all useless considerations till we get clear supporting data about him. So why do you take it too much to the heart and are so gloomy? So goes the saying, "Serve the needy." Before serving we must first establish that the needs are genuine, and aimed at seeking the knowledge. Seva in order to feed your ego or help sensual gratification is not service. Without a prior understanding of this, you will be diverting the source of help in the wrong direction. Helping the undeserving is another irrevocable sin. If this mahatma is choosing to endure all this as a sadhana, let him carry on. This is allowed in our scriptures, and we should not interfere in his choice of sadhana. If he solicits help, we can certainly attend to it within our capacity."
The clouds had become dense, and the wind ceased to blow. All of a sudden it started to rain. The heavy downpour gave relief to the clouds. And my heart felt the same way, like the clouds. It lasted only a few minutes and the sky cleared. There were no clouds anymore. I felt the freshness of nature around me and renewal inside me as well! Sometimes when a new sadhak come across such extreme behaviors, he might mistake it for an advanced state of attainment. However, it need not necessarily be so. One can still choose to adopt such an attitude as an isolated practice, but the attitude need not necessarily subdue the mind. Take care that you do not develop an ego, basking in the name and fame that might result from such behavior. It is a rule that any calculated, premeditated suppression and endurance of suffering only takes one into the opposite indulgence. It will not help in purifying the karmic residues. That is why it can be seen that some sannyasis become wealthy later, due to the ego's payoff of their sufferings in the first stage of sadhana.
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