Swami Nirmalananda Essay (2009)
The following was the essay I wrote for my advanced exam entrance, its obviously old and so am i so be kind to younger me! :) I’m quite fond of Nirmalananda (one of the three gurus of Sharon Gannon and David Life) and I thought I’d post this for the Feb 2024 focus of the month on silence and it felt relevant.
Swami Nirmalananda
Spiritual Anarchy
niyatam kuru karma tvam karma jyayo hy akarmanah
sarira-yatrapi ca te na prasiddhyed akarmanah
Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction.
A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work. --Bhagavad Gita, 3.8
Swami Nirmalananda spent 11 years observing silence (mauna). Residing in a small ashram in the hills of southern india, his sadhana (spiritual practice) included mauna, ethical vegetarianism, and writing letters. He wrote letters to political leaders and activists all over the world. This solitary Swami was more politically engaged than many of us currently living in society. He believed in Spiritual Anarchy, the idea that we all have the capacity to experience and honor freedom and peace through self-rule. Swami Nirmalananda exemplified the idea of conscious political engagement in the world.
Spiritual Anarchy is a philosophy of life where all people are free to choose their own lives and more importantly to protect the freedom of others to do the same. In a collection of his writings entitled A Garland of Forest Flowers Swami-ji writes, "it would do immense good for the world, humanity and for all creatures, if we do not cause more sorrow and suffering for ourselves and for others by our egoistic actions of by meddling with the Law of Life." -- Swami Nirmalananda (p. 43) Spiritual need not mean religious. Anarchy need not mean chaos, nor does it mean being apolitical. To be spiritual means to seek an unmediated connection to the divine. Anarchy literally means without (an-) a leader (archos), or to be seeking an unmediated sociopolitical connection. "This unique kind of inner as well as outer freedom should not be confused with recklessness or lisence to do anything one pleases. He who is free never encroaches upon the liberty of another. He lives free and lets others remain free likewise. " (A Garland of Forest Flowers, p. 19) Spiritual Anarchy means being ruled by your divine self.
Swami Nirmalananda spent many years traveling, studying the world's many spiritual traditions before undertaking a practice of mauna or silence. Through the practice of silence, we cultivate the ability to listen to the inner wisdom, by seeing the world with "the heart behind the eyes," we can rule ourselves perfectly without interfering with the freedom of others.
The practices that would lead one to the experience of yoga teach us not to identify with the body and the mind, but to feel ourselves as something beyond the body and the mind. When we feel our spiritual self, we see that others are not seperate from us and their happiness is our happiness, their freedom is our freedom. To have a body is to be political. Everything we choose to do or not to do has political reverberations. Inaction is also action, one cannot live in this world and not act. Instead of complaining or getting depressed about what we see in the world, the yogi asks, what can i do? When we practice taking positive action, we begin to realize the great potential that is in all of our lives for positive change. Just as a particular asana or posture cannot make us free, but can and will show us where we are resisting freedom; other people show us where we are resisting unconditional love. In this way, others are essential to our spiritual evolution and ultimate liberation.
A spiritual activist sees beyond the illusion of disconnection and takes action in the world knowing that, ultimately, they are addressing their own perceptions, the projections forced upon us by past karma. Through this knowledge, we can simultaneously take responsibility and act compassionately. Writing letters as part of a sadhana or conscious spiritual practice is a powerful way to take action in the world. It is a purposeful form (asana) of communication that gives us the opportunity to say what we mean and to mean what we say. Writing a letter to policy makers, media sources, community organizations, or companies, can be an very positive influence in co-creating a world of peace both within and without. Likewise, when we see and experience positive change in the world, media, news, politicians standing for life and truth, let's write a letter of support.
Swami Nirmalananda left his body in 1997, but his teachings live and breathe through the Jivamukti Yoga method. When we eat a vegetarian meal, when we engage in political and social action, when we sing Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu, we are invoking his gentle presence.
--Jessica Stickler, 2009
A Garland of Forest Flowers, Swami Nirmalananda