Life And Living: Swami Niranjananda Saraswati Part I

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"Stress manifests into disorders and when stress is unmanaged it leads to hyper tensions," said Swami Niranjananada Saraswati.

Swami Niranjananada Saraswati was born in Rajnandgaon (MP) in 1960 and joined the Bihar School of Yoga, Munger (Bihar) in 1964. Initiated into the Dashnami Sannyasa tradition in 1970 by his Guru Swami Satyananda Saraswati, he was initiated as a Paramahamsa Sannyasin at the age of thirty and was anointed Preceptor in succession to Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

During his (Swami Niranjananada Saraswati's) brief visit to Bangalore after a span of 8 years he threw light on life and living. Here are the excerpts.

" Imagination is the cause of hypertension," he said. We are influenced by the opinions of others and base our life and living on what other's think of us. No one except you alone can help yourself. Change yourself, change your opinion. Narrating a short hilarious incident he explained the meaning behind this theory.

One day a man visited Swamiji in his Munger ashram. He had just retired and complained of hypertension. On inquiring he revealed that hypertension caught him unaware and that it was only now, after his retirement that he was facing this ordeal. On further enquiry, he had a story to tell. It so happened that since his retirement he did a series of things religiously to keep himself busy during the day. His typical day looked like this: Morning walk, breakfast, a round of newspaper and odd jobs. The Afternoon lunch was followed by meeting friends, chatting, supper and sleep. In a life like this, how did hypertension crop up? One morning, as he was reading the newspaper, his daughter- in-law, who was not in the best of her moods, commented, "he just lies around like a dog." So affected was he by this that he swooned. After he regained consciousness, he realized that hypertension had made home in him.

On hearing this Swamiji enquired, " when she commented that you were a dog, what dog did you imagine?" " A lame, limping, dirty street dog," replied the man. Swamiji calmly remarked, "Why did'nt you imagine yourself to be a ferocious Alsatian, living in an air conditioned house, eating good food? Go and become a better dog." Unable to fathom what that meant he left the ashram. Three months later he returned to Swamiji with a tale. " I followed what you said and today have relieved myself of hypertension. I think I'am the boss (ferocious Alsatian) of the house and nothing really affects me after that."

We all should become better dogs and not base our lives on the opinions of others. No one except we alone can make our lives better. We are easily affected by what other's say and that is the weakness of the mind. When the mind is strong, it develops strength.