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AHYMSIN newsletter, Issue - February 2012

The Birth of Swami Prashant Bharati

by Joanne Sullivan

The Renunciation of Sushil Naidu

A fellow from Mumbai called “Sushil Naidu” used to come visit our ashram. He is no more. A few days ago, he sat in a small mud hut at Sadhana Mandir for 3 days and 3 nights, preparing for and then performing his own funeral rites. The culminating event of sannyasa-diksha (renunciation) occurred on the morning of 24th February 2012 with Swami Veda Bharati presiding. The physical body did not die. All the “me and mine” of Sushil Naidu was burned to ashes after three months of silent intensive practice known only to Swami Prashant Bharati, his Guru, and Swami Veda Bharati. The latter two guided Sushil through the sacred, subtle process - from a newborn as an initiate in mantra-diksha to a newborn as the monk Swami Prashant Bharati. Swami Prashant explained that “Pra” means “drowned” and "shant" means "peace." so the name Prashant means "drowned in peace." Swami Veda explains, “Prashant means fully pacified.”

What is the sannyasa ceremony?

In sannyasa-diksha, the renunciate abandons three desires:

The desire for sex and family (putra-eshana)
The desire for wealth and comfort (vitta-eshana)
The desire for fame and reputation (loka-eshana)

Above all, it is a reassurance to all living beings that s/he will do no harm. The whole world is his or her family now.

Shortly after Shiva-Ratri, the Night of Shiva, Sushil Naidu took the last few steps towards Un- and towards a new birth.

After the many prayers offered at the fire, Swami Veda led the newborn to Ma Ganga, where he threw the last vestiges of me-and-mine into the great river. Swami Veda whispered one of the four Mahavakyas (“Great Sayings”) of Vedanta in Swami Prashant’s ear to contemplate in addition to the other subtle practices he had been given.

It’s interesting. This is not the first swami ceremony I have witnessed here. One thing they all have in common—and I can only tell this from the few scraps of evidence that I can garner from my view through the window of external observations - is that there is a dramatic and visible change that occurs. It is as if the old person really did go away and here, in his or her place, is a newborn---albeit in the same body. And it happened again yesterday with Sushil Naidu gone/Swami Prashant Bharati born.

Swami Prashant Bharati is born

The sky contained us all together in one small sip of infinity under a brightly colored tent in the courtyard of Sadhana Mandir, the mother ashram which sits on Ma Ganga. Every flower in those burgeoning gardens was a living witness. Old friends of Sushil Naidu came as did many other witnesses from our very diverse lineage; a Sanskrit scholar from Poland whose parents and siblings all know Sanskrit, a Chinese-American geophysicist with a special assignment from Shri Swami Rama to help us all get earthquake-ready, outstanding people from many fields, people who have wholeheartedly given their lives to the Guru’s service, a few dozen swamis, three little sisters from Norway and their Mother - all these and so many more wafted their way through the gardens of Sadhana Mandir to witness the transformation of one man’s life — and, ultimately, ours.

Before a small Swami Rama altar, Agni, the Fire God, entwined in the Guru Presence, was the supreme witness and that fire was alive indeed. The chanting of ancient shlokas (verses) from the Vedas was, once again, compellingly beautiful and shining. If words or song can shine, and they can, these did as whorls of solar fingerprints that we cannot possibly fathom, but which many of us feel.

I say it in the present tense because the resounding Light of that procession of events is not past. Swami Prashant has been asked to be in residence here at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama during the summers. The monsoon rains here will be all the greener with his noble presence and the many friends who will come together in that enduring freshness. The sannyasa ceremony is more than a sacrament when Swami Veda presides at those rising flames. It is a mysterious and powerful initiation to those of us who can only just barely sense its fragrance. I believe it endures.