About the Lives of the Saints and the Sense of Writing Biographies

Milan Šišmiš

And you are asking me, my brother, where to find the Truth?
It is everywhere, it is within me, it is heaven eternal,
But the one who is not able to distinguish softly, does not find it,
He does not understand, he blunders, continues to search in vain
A small tree hidden in a forest´s young trees.
The one who is not listening, will not hear its soft voice.
Do not search in books – it is inexpressible by words.
The real Truth resounds deep within yourself.
Swami Brahmananda

In the end of September 2011 a Czech-Slovak-French conference on the topic “How historians write biographies“ took place in Bratislava. The event was organised by the Historic Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Historic Sciences of the Czech Academy of Sciences and their French colleagues. This event inspired me to write this article.

The personalities

When considering biographic research we sometimes get back to the question, who should be the topic of this research. I would like to introduce and interpret the view on personalities from the point of view of the philosophies of vedanta, advaita and yoga.

Patanjali (2nd century b. C.) and the whole row of other representatives of this philosophical school perceive the universe as one organic, harmonious unit. A human, as a part of it, is from this point of view understood as a form of energy, a being, who expresses this energy and (as a difference from other living beings) can work conscientiously with it, to accumulate and direct it.

The differences among humans, their character features and expressions result from how much of this energy they have, how they should spend and utilize it and how they really spend and utilize it. “The yogis teach“, swami Vivekananda puts it, “the highest form of energy in the human body is the power called ojas. This ojas is to be stored in the brain. The more a human has of it, the stronger, brighter and riper s/he is. One is able to express beautiful ideas using beautiful language, but may not be able to affect other people. Another person may not be able to express his/her ideas in this “flowery“ way, but in spite of this his/her words may astonish others: every movement radiates his/her special power. This is the power of ojas.“ (1) Vivekananda adds that this charisma is within each of us, some manifest it less, some more.

Significant, or rather influential personalities

“You must have certainly noticed“, Vivekananda writes in a different place, that “what a contagious power the zeal of some individuals has. People who move the history of the world are gifted with a strong power of will. They are able to bring their prana (life energy) into the state of such high vibrations, which have such a strong power, that in one moment these are able to attract and influence whole masses of people in such a way, that half of the world thinks the same way as the bearers of these vibrations. Great prophets had a tremendous control over their prana which gave them a great willpower. From this control all the manifestations of power (in other words, of life energy or prana) spring out.“ (2)
The yogis developed the techniques enabling to work the most effective way with the prana running through human bodies (on all of its levels) – physical, pranic, mental, intellectual, causal: relaxation, physical exercise, breath exercise – pranayama, concentration and meditation techniques, special purification techniques – hathayoga kriyas etc.). A significant influenece was also given to nourishment (it should be lacto-vegetarian, with milk products, but without meat, fish and eggs) and eating habits (fasting). (3) Many of these techniques require a certain discipline, are well known and were used in our environment, especially in the environment of monastic orders and hermitages. This is also the reason that very many significant personalities came out of these spiritual environments.

Worldy and spiritual personalities

Spirituality can be understood as purity – physical purity (outer and inner), purity in thinking and acting. The human body is filled with toxins, suffers from fatigue and when not purified, starts to waste away, many of its functions stop working properly which can lead to various health disfunctions, psychic disorders or stop working completly (death). The functioning of the body or to be more exact of the mind is naturally also manifestated by the outer behaviour, reactions and actions of a human. (4) The society and environment, where a human lives, also have a big influence on it.

Extraordinary spiritual personalities

The mission and matter of the life of these people is to help (directly or from a distance, mentally). Their essence is the conscience of love to all. They identify with everything and everyone and “the divine essence“. “They devote their life to God and God shines from all their acting and being. The Christians celebrate them as saints. Also in Eastern cultures there are men and women, who are devoted to God and they bring the message about divine love to all people. They are considered saints as well. Despite this there is a difference between Western and Eastern thinking. In the west it is only after death that these sages are proclaimed as saints – in the East they are worshipped already during their life.“ (5)
For most people the “self-knowing“, revealing of the own self is a process, which requires commitment, effort and renouncing. Those, swami Maheswarananda says, who reached the highest degree of consciousness by diligent exercise (under the guidance of their masters) are called yogis. Those, who were already born with a higher conscience, are in Eastern cultures labelled and worshipped as mahayogsiddhis – “the great perfect, perfectly united“. (6) The first ones (in the process of recognition and perception), as well as others (from their coming into this world) manifest so called siddhis – special abilities, e.g. ability not to be hungry and thirsty, to hear and see from a distance, to heal, influence weather, to be simultaneously in many places, to see the past and foretell the future etc (there are 24 of the siddhis according to yogic literature). (7)

Examples

Humans, who have fully developed these aforementioned abilities, are unusual phenomena. However the world, swami Vivekananda says, is never without them. There have been many of them in human history. They came and worked in various parts of the world. It was not only about individuals as it may seem. “Many people think“, swami Madhavananda mentions “that only Jesus was God´s son. The others (like hinduists) believe, that the only God´s son was Krishna. Yet other (hinduists) are persuaded that the only God´s avatar was Rama. All these are images that limit God. God is not limited and neither is the number of his human incarnations.“ (8) When describing this situation the example of fire is also used as the manifestation of energy. When fire is burning at one place, does it mean it cannot burn anywhere else?
Many of these personalities were well known, became famous and became founders of big religions (Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mohammed...), many were active only locally.

How to write (their) biographies

To write a biography of any person is intricate. What do we know about him/ her? What do we know about our nearest ones, about ourselves? To what extent can we evaluate someone or judge him/her? How can we approach to write any biographies with this equipment, especially those personalities, who lived outside of our environment or far in the past and we only have second hand (recorded) information about them?
Gandhi´s film biographer Richard Attenborough when searching for the answers on similar questions came to this conclusion that also became the motto of his legendary film Gandhi, 1982: “No man’s life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to record and try to find one’s way to the heart of the man...“
In addition to this film there are of course many examples that illustrate and shape the biographies of significant personalities as well as special spiritual personalities. The most valuable are their autobiographies and then the works written by their close colleagues or disciples. Many biographies are generated especially as a resulting from autopsies. If we leave out the oldest ones such as Indian heroic epics (heroic biographies, dynastic sagas) Mahabharata (9) and Ramajana (10), biblical biographies or biographies of the Christian saints – from Central European environmnet e.g. legends about saint Cyril and Methodius (11), Svorad and Benedict (12), we can instead concentrate on those “more modern“ stories like a popular autobiography of swami Yogananda (13) or the life of Mahaprabhuji for example.

Examples and approaches

As an example let´s have a look at the last of the aforementioned works – the biography of Rajasthan´s saint Mahaprabhuji (1828 – 1965) (14). It is a personality, that is awesome already by the fact, that he had lived for 135 years. From India and also from other environments there are many well known references (remarks) about long-aged people who lived for more than 100 years. However these cases were very unusual and make us astonished even nowadays causing us to ask “How did they manage to reach this age?“
Mahaprabhuji was born in a desert, in the Rajsthan´s “little town“ Hari Vasini, and actually lived all his life there. He had no interest in publicity, however the rumours about him circulated in the whole colonial and later independent India and people, who came to ask him for help, came from various areas, social and religious environments – there were atheists, but also believers: Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and followers of local sects etc. He was of course not interested in their backround: “It is not important to come from, but to come, to come to Truth.“ Gandhi himself knew about him and met him (and Mahaprabhuji interpreted the past to him and foretold the successful ending of his effort – the independence of India).
In the book the events of Mahaprabhuji´s life, stories from the life of his masters, and also some of his followers (including the author himself, his disciple swami Madhavananda, 1923 – 2003) are described. There are tales of his extraordinary abilities, „miracles“ not unlike those mentioned in the stories of the New Testament or the biographies of other saints.
“I have collected such a huge amount of the accounts about master´s miraculous deeds“, the author of the work writes, „that this book is not able to take hold of them“. (15)
Which sources did he use (or had a possibility to use), which heuristic methods did he use? There were means used also in other, similar works (in this case especially those from the category of so called oral history) – maybe with the exception of one: “In the first place I am putting this information into the book which Mahaprabuji himself gave to me“, Madhavananda states. „Of course, I am bringing my own testimony about what I experienced and saw in his presence. Later I recount the stories and events told by witnesses who saw them... I always checked the dates of events and names of the participants to give the message as much authenticity as possible... Eventually I am giving to the readers what was revealed to me in meditation.“ (16)

An unusual research technique?

A European might be surprised by this last information. What do we know about intuition, meditation), revelations...? We know, that meditation is a certain energetic state of our consciousness, a state of maximum peace of so called vrtti, waves in the form of ideas, the state without them. The techniques to enter this state have sufficiently been elaborated. (17) In Europe they were used e.g. in the environment of the orders. There and also in Eastern cultures meditation was also used as an acknowledged research technique – when searching for answers to various questions. Let´s recall the account of how St Constantine the Philosopher searched for the shapes of the Glagolic script for the Slavs: “... The Philosopher proceeded in the manner of an old custom and devoted himself in prayer with other helpers as well. Soon God appeared to him, God who listens to the prayers of his servants, and he immediately composed the letters and started to write the words of the gospel...“ (18)
There are many remarks about the „revelations“ of biographic data. In the preface of Ramayana we can read the following part: “Valmiki entered the yogic meditation and there with the power of his inner sight he could see everything that Rama had to go through, his whole story with all of the details which Narada did not talk about. (... He did not hesitate and started to work. Using 16-syllable verses he composed a song to which he gave the name Ramayana...)“. (19)
Also in Europe there are known Biblical biographic narrations, written based on revelations and insights like the stories of the life of Christ, first published in 1949 inspired by an impulse of Pope Pius XII. (20)
It is difficult, in fact impossible to evaluate this way of knowing, „collecting the information“ to those, who do not use it, or who have not mastered it. However in the biographies of spiritual personalities both Christian and Eastern it is often mentioned.

About the meaning of writing biographies

Patanjali, who is considered to be the founder of psychology and the other representatives of vedanta philosophy talk about knowledge real and unreal. Intelectual knowing, knowing coming from oustside (not from the inner self), including the books is considered as knowing not direct, not real. (21) However they do not condemn this way. The opposite way they recommend reading (and also writing) of biographies – as one of the techniques which can lead to spiritual development – if it do not create negative vrttis (ideas) in a reader´s mind. (22)
“The biographies of the saints are signposts on the way to the Eternal. Their teaching and deeds reveal the Divine Truth and are invaluable indicators for spiritual seekers. The meaning of human life is to put away the cloak that conceals the Truth. Furthermore it is the saints who inspire us to realize this meaning of life.“ (23)
Similary, as spiritually exceptional men and women, our ancestors also (without difference) tried to search for Truth, happiness (for themselves and also for us) or however we may call the aim of their effort. Despite not always behaving nor acting as „saints“, their countless fights, losses and victories, small or big „miracles“, smaller or bigger steps, which they made on their eternal journey through human life toward knowledge, are definitely worth recording and can inspire us. (24)

ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS

“As a freshman only a few things made me as angry as the debates about history with my father. He refused it heretically and his disbelief about its existence was not based on some false theories, but on something that could be called human logic: “When we were young journeymen with Rybníček“, he said, „Miklóš Figura wanted to become independent. He wrote to his birthplace a request to send him his birth certificate. They sent him an answer telling him that it seems he was not born there, because they could not find him in the birth record register. Look, if it was not possible to find out then that someone was born 30 years ago in some village“, the father made a significant pause, “how can we know what happened 300 or 500 years ago?“
His blasphemous persuasion, that history is only a practical joke of the lords, deeply offended my steady faith in science and scientific research. (In those times I did not learn by intuition how many times let´s say Nestor´s Russian chronicle was rewritten because of the command of the respective ruling princes. I considered history as “magistra vitae“ (teacher of life) and I have never hesitated that the birth of an unimportant watchmaker cannot be compared to the Tatar invasion, or the time of the 30-year war. These all have furthermore been justified by detailed documentation, archeological research and many other pieces of evidence. I took it for granted that the identity of little nameless people must be kept in perspective to a majestical picture of a historic period which although was created by the great diligence of nameless people, however, their place in history was only as an anonymous brick in an imposing building.
To understand that these obscure little ants also deserve a right to their historical existence, some of my near ones had to pass away. Only then did I understand and feel, that everyone, even the smallest person continues to live when s/he has a place in our heart and our memory.“
Kornel Foldvari, Populating history (foreword to the work of Juraj Linzboth The caleidoscope of Prespork, published 2007 in Bratislava), p. 5

“It is not easy to explain to people that what they read in many beautiful books is not the truth. Two groups of people write books. The first one are those who have real knowledge. The other ones are pure intellectuals. Books only written by intellect, on the level of the psychic, do not resolve our objective. Real documents are the books written by enlightened souls. The problem is that enlightened souls usually do not have the need to write. Therefore it is their disciples who collect their ideas, but put into it something personal and depict the things the way they understand it.“
Swami Maheswarananda, tape recording from a lecture from 1990s in Ostrava

THE DESCRIPTION OF PICTURES

1.Patanjali´s Yogasutras systemize the philosophy of yoga and came into existence in the period 200 – 150 years b. C. They came out from Vedas, one of the oldest written records of humankind (they are supposed to be originated 3 – 8 thousand years ago, until then being in oral tradition). So far the latest (Czech) edition of Yogasutras was introduced by Swami Maheshwarananda in 2006.
2.Swami Vivekananda (1863 – 1902) was the first one to make popular the yoga philosophy and vedanta in the West. He began his „tour“ in 1893 in Chicago. His ideas spoke to the well known French writer Romain Rolland who wrote his biography (La Vie de Vivekananda et l´Evangile Universel, 1930) and the biography of his teacher Ramakrisna. Both were soon published in Czechoslovakia – under the title The mystical and active life of up-to-date India (Praha, 1931, new edition in 1995). In English speaking countries there were 24 editions so far (the latest one from 2008).
3.Swami Yogananda (1893 – 1952), who predominantly worked in the USA, is considered to be the first yogi who published his own biography (Autobiography of a Yogi, 1946). His work concentrated on the American „saint“ – botanic Luther Burbank. This very popular work was published in approximately 25 languages so far. The Czech version for Czechs and Slovaks was translated by Czech Hindu expert Dušan Zbavitel (Jogananda, Paramhansa. Životopis jógína, Praha, 2003).
4.The example of Gandhi (1869 – 1948), the herald of non-violence and the spiritual father of India´s independence, inspired millions of people around the world. The Slovak readers could get acquinted with his autobiographic „Experiment with Truth“ thanks to Anna Racova (Mohandás Karamčand. Môj experiment s pravdou. Bratislava 1989).

A SAMPLE – A STORY FROM THE BOOK „LILA AMRIT“

(A passage from the autho/biography of swami Madhavananda Lila Amrit, Martin 1995, pp. 54 – 55 according to the Czech translation by Dr. Milena Hubschmannova)

The well in Jalor

Sri Devpuriji stopped to teach in public, but he did not close up to people and he helped everyone who asked him for help. Similarly as a tree gives his shadow to everyone who sits under it, as the rain does not choose the field where he would like to fall, but irrigates the whole earth, as everyone can drink from a stream who is thirsty, also the saints spread welfare without choice. They are here for everyone. They serve the whole world for everything. The saints are the greatest gift humankind can wish for. They purify the world and in India it is said, even the wind that blew around a saint´s dwelling, spreads peace.
Once a group of begging people from the village of Jalor came to Devpuriji. There was a severe drought. Rajasthan is a desert country and droughts torture its inhabitants several times during a period of one human generation. It happens, that in some places not even one drop of rain falls for several years. In the district of Jalore the last residues of water had been dwindled away from the undermost parts of the soil. In the wells there was nothing but mud saturated with salt. Both people and animals suffered from thirst.
“Master, you are the last one who can save us! Only you can help us so that we would not die from hardship“, the villagers were begging in despair.
Sri Devpuriji set for the journey to Jalor on the very same day, accompanied by his dogs and snakes. In the square he sat under a tree to rest from a tiring journey for a while. The whole village came to welcome him.
“Dear Master, how thankful we are, that you came! What can we do for you?“
“You called me not to do something for me, but I shall do something for you, shall I not?“ the master laughed. “If you want to do something, bring hacks and let´s go down to work“. Then he showed the men where to dig. He took a hack himself and started to work as the first.
“Master, that is not right!“ the villagers were screaming. “It is not proper for a saint person to work with a hack! It is enough if you bless us and we will ceratinly find water!“ In reality most of them doubted, that on a rocky place, which sri Devpuriji marked, they would find water.
The master knew their hidden doubts. “Just do not be afraid“, he encouraged them. “All the men who have healthy hands and legs, just dig properly! You will see what water will spring out here.“
The men encouraged by his words started the competition with the stone. The stronger ones were digging, the weaker ones were putting away the dug soil. All were working in a perfect harmony as a balanced organism in which every part fulfills its function exactly. Everybody was necessary here. One without another would not master what they achieved all together. They worked without break and even did not observe how the time was flying and the light was no longer provided by the sun, but by the big orange moon. And when a new day came from the pale dawn, they found water. It was clear, transparent, cool and exceptionally good.
The inhabitants of a desert praise water in a different way then Europeans do. I have been hearing in Europe everytime it was raining: “Oh God, what weather! It is raining again!“ I was remembering my fellow countrymen who would give all of their posessions for few drops of rain.
When the well in Jalor was filled with clear water up to its brim, the whole village burst into joy. “Sri Devpurij, kee jay!“ Long live sri Devpuridzi.
The well is still there today. Nowadays the women come here for water under a wide-branched banyan tree on the edge of the village. The well does not dry up even during the worst drought. It is here as a symbol of life in a desert. The villagers show it to everyone who comes to Jalor and talk about Sri Devpuriji´s miracles.

REFERENCES

1 Vivékánanda, svámí. Čtyři knihy o józe [VIVEKANANDA, Four Books about Yoga]. Přáslavice (CZ): Fontána Esotera, 2006, pp. 43 – 44.
2 Ref. 1, p. 32.
3 More information for example Mahéšvaránanda, Paramhans svámí. Systém Joga v dennom živote [MAHESHWARANANDA, Yoga in Daily Life – the System]. Wien (AT) : Ibera Verlag/EUP, 2000, 448 pp. ISBN 3-85052-002-1, 2nd Slovak edition Praha (CZ) : Mladá fronta, 2006.
4 More information in Pataňdžaliho Jógasútry. První díl: Samádhi-páda. [Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Vol. I. Samadhi-Pada]. Střílky (CZ) : DNM import – export s.r.o., 2006, ISBN 80-903200-1-5, 216 pp.
5 Mahéšvaránanda, Paramhans šrí svámí. Úvodní slovo. [MAHESHWARANANDA, Introduction]. In Mádhavánanda, Paramhans svámí. Líla Amrit. Život božského mistra Šrí Maháprabhudžího [MAdhavAnanda, Lila Amrit. The Life of the Divine Master Sri Mahaprabhuji]. Martin (SK) : Vydavateľstvo Mahéšvaránanda Joga v dennom živote, 1995; 2nd Czech edition Praha (CZ) : Mladá fronta, 2009, p. 11.
6 Mahéšvaránanda, ref. 5, p. 12.
7 For example Mádhavánanda, ref. 5, pp. 35 – 36.
8 Mádhavánanda, Paramhans svámí. Předmluva [MAdhavAnanda, Foreword]. In Mádhavánanda, ref. 5, p. 16.
9 See for example Mahábhárata. Největší duchovní epos všech dob [Mahabharata. The Greatest Epos of the World]. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, 2002, 986 s. ISBN 91-7149-456-1.
10 See for example the Czech edition Rámájana [Ramayana]. Praha (CZ) : Argo, 2000, 216 pp. ISBN 80-7203-264-X.
1 See for example Život Konštantína Cyrila a život Metoda. [The Life of Constantin Cyrillus and the Life of Methodius]. Martin (SK) : Matica slovenská, 1994, 99 pp., also Veľkomoravské legendy a povesti. [Great Moravian Legends and Tales]. Bratislava (SK) : Tatran, 1990 (here are also the legends from the lifes of the other saints).
12 Život svätých pustovníkov Svorada vyznávača a Benedikta mučeníka [The Life of Saint Hermits Zorardus the Confessor and Benedictus the Martyr]. In Marsina, Richard. Legendy stredovekého Slovenska [Legends of Medieval Slovakia]. Budmerice (SK) : Rak, 1997, pp. 35 – 43 (here are also the biographies and legends about the other Hungarian saints).
13 Jógananda, Paramhansa. Životopis jógína [YOGANANDA, Authobiography of a Yogi]. Praha (CZ) : Aquamatin & Fontána, 2003, 403 pp. ISBN 80-7336-134-5.
14 Mádhavánanda, ref. 5.
15 Mádhavánanda, ref. 5, s. 16.
16 Mádhavánanda, ref. 5, s. 15 – 16.
17 See for example Mahéšvaránanda, ref. 3, pp. 325 – 349 (Self-Inquiry Meditation, Parts 1 – 8), also Mahéšvaránanda, Paramahansa svámí. Skryté síly v člověku. Čakry a kundaliní [MAHESHWARANANDA, Hidden Powers in Human]. Praha (CZ) : Mladá fronta, 2004 (different pages), also an interesting book in a form of correspondence describing author’s personal experiences with meditation GATTANI, P. D. Božské vnemy. Požehnania Díp Maháprabhudžího [Divine Perceptions. Blessings of Deep Mahaprabhuji]. Martin (SK) : Vydavateľstvo Mahéšvaránanda – Joga v dennom živote, 2003, 106 pp. ISBN 80-967331-5-X.
18 Život Konštantína Cyrila a život Metoda, ref. 11, p. 60.
19 Rámájana, ref. 10, p. 10.
20 Valtorta, Mária. Evanjelium, ako mi bolo odhalené [VALTORTA, Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me]. Bratislava (SK) : Jacobs Light Communication, 2008 – 2011 (10 volumes).
21 Pataňdžaliho Jógasútry, ref. 4, pp. 47, 184.
22 See for example Mahéšvaránanda, Skryté síly v člověku, ref. 17, p. 125, also Systém Joga v dennom živote, ref. 3, p. 386.
23 Mádhavánanda, ref. 5, p. 15.
24 To the subject see also POLTIKOVIČ, Viliam. Touha po absolutnu. Svatí muži Indie [Longing for the Absolute. Saint Men of India]. Praha (CZ) : Mladá fronta, 2003, 213 pp. ISBN 80-204-1063-5, his documentaries (http://www.csfd.cz/tvurce/32487-viliam-poltikovic/), as well as http://www.swamiji.tv.