Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri

A short life of Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, retold from the account published by the Shree Bhimeshwar Sadguru Nityanand Sanstha, Ganeshpuri.

Who he was

No one knows when or where Nityananda was born, or who his family were. Such questions, it is said, matter only to those who live in the body, and he lived always in the awareness of God. From childhood his head was shaved clean. Sometimes he wore the ochre robe of a monk in his early years, which led people to believe he had been initiated into one of the monastic orders.

A legend tells it differently. In a village in Kerala, labourers found a newborn on a stormy night, with a cobra standing guard over it with its hood raised. The labourer, Chatu Nair, took the baby to his employer, an advocate named Ishwar Ayyar. Together they raised the child and named him Raman. People saw early that he was no ordinary boy, and strange things were seen around him.

When Ishwar Ayyar was near his end, he asked Raman to let him see the Sun God, Surya Narayana. The old man saw the vision and was overwhelmed. "You have given me the highest bliss," he said. "From today you are my Nityananda." The name means eternal bliss.

Years of wandering

Nityananda took up yoga, austerities and penance. He went to the Himalayas, Varanasi, Colombo, Rameshwaram, Udupi and Mangalore. Wherever he went, it is said, people were freed from sickness, sorrow and poverty. He spent about six years in the Himalayas, then appeared as a young man at Kanhangad in Kerala, where he sat in samadhi in a cave for a very long time. There was no water anywhere near that cave. A stream, it is said, began to flow from it, and it has flowed ever since.

His fame spread, and devotees gathered. At Kanhangad and at the place nearby now called Guruvan, he set up a settlement of caves for living and meditation, and he planted trees. The stream is called Papanashini Ganga and runs there still. From a single rock about forty meditation caves were cut, and a large ashram grew around them, with a temple on top of the rock. Guruvan has been a place of pilgrimage since that time.

Though he was a born siddha, perfect from the start, he went on with hard austerities so that his devotees would be moved to follow. In those days he moved like a free child, without a care, through Dharmasthala, Udupi, Mulki, Kanhangad and Gokarna. People who believed in him were helped. Some who did not believe beat him, threw stones, and tried to burn or poison him. The harm, it is said, fell on those who did it, and he stayed unmoved. Devotees compared his doings in the south to the play of Krishna in Gokul.

He then walked to all the great pilgrimage places of India. His journey ended in Mumbai, where people spoke of healings. In 1937 he went on to the Tansa valley, to Akloli and Vajreshwari, where he started schools, rest houses and clinics, and rebuilt temples.

The hot spring and the old temple

Soon afterwards he came to the neighbouring village of Ganeshpuri. The place was already ancient. Tradition says that the sage Vasishtha, the guru of Lord Rama, once held a great sacrifice here and set up an image of Ganesha. Yogis performed penance on the hill called Mandagni, which is named in many scriptures, and the river Tejasa flows close by. It is told that the hot springs here were made for the comfort of the honoured guests at Vasishtha's sacrifice.

When Nityananda arrived, the spot beside the old Bhimeshwar Shiva temple was almost deserted, and very few pilgrims came. He settled next to the temple, at the hot spring. People say that water sometimes dripped mysteriously from the temple ceiling and formed a tiny Shiva linga on the floor, and that sages and heavenly music have been seen and heard at the spring. As more and more devotees came, he moved to a building called Kailash Niwas, and later to his ashram, Vaikuntha. The forest hermitage grew into a busy town.

Ganeshpuri

His life was plain. He bathed before dawn and ate very little. He wore a plain loincloth in every season, and when it slipped, someone nearby tied it back for him, or fed him by hand when he needed it. He sat for long hours with his eyes closed and a gentle smile, and he was described as awake both day and night. He knew Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Marathi. He spoke seldom. Occasionally he answered a sincere question in a few plain words.

People of every religion and caste came to him. They stood for hours in rain and sun for a glimpse, in long queues, and each of them felt that he belonged to him alone. Those who came with questions found them answered in their own hearts without a word being said. In his presence people fell quiet. Those who practised yoga often slipped into meditation without trying. High or low, pious or sinful, everyone who came was received into what devotees call his ocean of peace.

He was fond of children. More than a thousand children from the villages nearby were given a free morning meal every day, and he would play among them, giving out sweets, toys and clothes. He cared above all for the poor and the Adivasi children, and he wanted them to have food, clothing, schooling, shelter, health care and good character. The meal, known as Balbhojan, is still served.

Stories devotees tell

A man once prayed silently that his salary might be raised so that he could send money to his sick mother in a far-off village. His pay was doubled within the week. Some time later, as he stood in the long line for darshan, Nityananda asked him if he had sent the money to his mother. The man had forgotten it, but Nityananda had not forgotten his prayer.

Next to the hot spring, in front of the Shiva temple, a shrine was being built to Gopal Krishna. A stone image of Nandi, Shiva's bull, stood on the spot and had to be moved. Fifteen men tried, and it would not budge. Nityananda told them to break a coconut. When they did, the stone was moved with ease. Afterwards he himself consecrated the image of Krishna, and the stone Nandi was reshaped as Krishna's cow.

It is told that the goddess Bhadrakali herself wished to have a temple, and that he set up an altar for her in his own ashram, as she had asked. The temple rose in time.

He rebuked some feared criminals openly in the line, devotees say, and some of them changed, and a few stayed on in Ganeshpuri to serve. To men of action he is said to have told, "Do selfless work," and to others, "Dissolve the mind in the Self." Those who prayed to be free of the cycle of birth and death found a guide in him. A glance, a touch, a word or a thought from him was enough, it is said, to light the lamp of truth in a sincere seeker.

Many people believed that he gave no initiation and no mantra. In fact, devotees say, he quietly gave a mantra to many, and those who kept to it in silence advanced far.

The last days

As the end approached, he cut down his food until he took almost nothing but water. He grew very thin. His devotees moved him to the Bangalorewala building. On Guru Purnima, 27 July 1961, he stayed lying down during darshan. He lay for twelve days more in the upper hall, with his head to the north.

He left his body at 10:42 in the morning on 8 August 1961. Even at the last moment he was calm, radiant and serene. His samadhi shrine now stands where he first settled, by the hot spring at Ganeshpuri. Behind it is a temple of Krishna that he inspired. Devotees come to sit there in meditation, recite hymns or sing, and many say that they feel his presence there as they did when he lived.