A Time of Inner Exploration
Baba Muktananda’s Divya Diksha
by Eesha Sardesai
On August 15, we will be celebrating Baba Muktananda’s Divya Diksha, the anniversary of the day in 1947 when Baba received shaktipat initiation from his Guru, Bhagavan Nityananda. It was a watershed moment—certainly for Baba in his own sadhana, as he chronicles in his spiritual autobiography, Play of Consciousness, but also for every person in the subsequent years and decades who would come to follow the Siddha Yoga path. Bade Baba’s bestowal of shaktipat upon Baba paved the way for Baba’s later establishment of the Siddha Yoga path.
If you have read my writings from earlier in August, you will know that Gurumayi has given meditation and mantra japa as our focus for this month. It is a focus that we can apply to our celebration of each of the August holidays.
In reference to Bade Baba’s Punyatithi last week, I wrote about Gurumayi’s poem A Temple Without Form, and how the world around us can serve as inspiration for our practices of meditation and mantra japa. Now, as we prepare for Baba Muktananda’s Divya Diksha, we can take that exploration inside. Baba urged seekers to examine the depths of the inner world, explaining that our perception and experience of the world outside correlate directly to what we have come to know of ourselves. Baba gave the iconic teaching:
Meditate on your Self.
Honor your Self.
Understand your Self.
God dwells within you as you.
Depending on the context, Baba gave slightly different versions of the teaching. Sometimes, for example, he included the line “Worship your Self.” Fundamentally, though, the meaning was the same. Go within. Go inside. Between 1970 and 1981, Baba traveled on three World Tours, and he spoke of his intention to create a “meditation revolution.” I’ve always been fascinated by this phrase. Revolution is a word that we tend to associate with outer change. It’s the collection of actions people take to bring about the difference they wish to see in their lives, their societies, their countries, and the world at large.
Incredible, sweeping, sometimes tumultuous change has resulted from such revolutions. India, for example, gained its independence on the very same day that Baba received shaktipat—August 15, 1947. So what does it mean, then, for revolution to occur on the inside? My understanding of what Baba taught is that change must also occur at the level of the human heart. In fact, it is this change that is most lasting—the transformation that occurs when people see the divinity in themselves and begin to recognize that same divinity in others. I have written before about Gurumayi’s wish for us all to “make this world a better paradise.” To do that, we must start with ourselves.
As Baba indicates in his teaching, we can practice meditation on the Self. We can also practice mantra japa. When Bade Baba bestowed shaktipat initiation upon Baba Muktananda, he imparted the mantra Om Namah Shivaya. Baba would later impart this same mantra to thousands of seekers the world over. By repeating this mantra, which is charged with the Guru’s grace, we are invoking our own inner Self. We are saying, “Om. I bow to Shiva, the Self of all, the Self within.”
Baba spoke often about the power of mantra repetition and its connection to meditation. We can turn to Baba’s words now, as we engage in both of these practices in honor of his Divya Diksha.
“The mantra,” Baba says, “carries you to the place of meditation. It is the voice of the soul. It is only during sadhana, while you are practicing spiritual disciplines, that a mantra is just a mantra, a set of words. When it begins to bear fruit, it is the supreme Lord himself; it is you.”1
1Swami Muktananda, What Is An Intensive?, 2nd ed. (S. Fallsburg, NY: SYDA Foundation, 1995), p. 13.
Audio recording by Eesha Sardesai