A Dialogue with a Swami
Having missed the fact that I was going to my Ayurveda course at an Ashram, the best way to understand where I am was first to get in the mood of spirituality and get myself a spiritual name, and second to chit chat with a monk.
Together with my lovely newly found french friend/chef, we did our own rituals to find the best spiritual names that fit us based on what we do most in our lives (cooking and travelling), so we found our hit names: She was named Cookinananda and I was named Travelinananda…
Then, my victim monk, he was the only one who felt authentic, humble and happy so I decided to chit chat with him. To keep up with the tradition I will call him the happy Swami (Swami Happynananda).
– What is a Swami?
” a Swami is someone who devotes himself for the practice and path of Yoga, a swami makes a vow to renounce the world, not have his or her own physical family, as a monk, it’s there in every tradition, it’s just called different names.”
– What is the path of Yoga?
” Its the path where you dedicate most of your time to serve and teach the practice, and aim to achieve self-realisation, and evolve spiritually to the highest level.”
– excuse my ignorance, are you, and the priest and the other Swamis here in the Ashram a part of Hinduism religion?
“Yes”
– I guess we were Christian before, right? It didn’t fulfil you?
“I was raised Christian but we never got really any teachings of Christianity here in France and I was often feeling uncomfortable at the church, and I didn’t like or appreciate the policy of exclusion practised by the other traditions, but now when I found what I am searching for it’s different as now I feel comfortable when I visit a Church, I know that it’s the same divine power, it’s the same.
– Why did you choose to become a swami?
“I wanted peace, the inner peace, and harmony within and with the outside world, when I was younger I did a lot of sports and realized there is more to take care of than the body, and then I started Yoga and it helped me to calm my mind, and then I met my idol and gradually became clear to me that this is what I am searching for and what I want to do, what I am meant to be… it’s a life choice you make and need not only your own will but also divine grace to make this choice and keep up with it.”
– Do you miss your life before Swami?
“you know its hard to live with this choice, you do compromises but you get a lot also in return but most importantly you get the peace of mind, of course, I might miss watching a movie but if I do follow this desire then the mind will start wandering and get agitated easily and that is not what I want to have in my life.”
– What did you have to give up to be a swami?
” as a Swami you have to renounce the attachment the ego, like attachment to possessions, to the “I” and “wanna-be” and the never stopping the urge to have more and more and more as one never becomes satisfied, swami has to renounce the desires and give up having own physical family, but personally I don’t feel I gave up much, I didn’t have much anyway not a car or house, but it was not an easy choice…”
– Why would you renounce the desires? desires are natural and this way you go against nature?
“say one has a desire to smoke and they know it harms the body, and if one keeps doing it he or she will get sick, so you need to silence the mind and control the desires”
– But sexual desires are very natural, its fundamental for the human reproductive system, else none of us will be here on this earth?
“True, they are, but also if you let the mind take over and let the sexual desires control you it will not be right or natural anymore, sexuality has to be on a conscious level, and for us, through the practice of Yoga and mediation we can direct that energy to silence the mind and find the harmony and inner peace and to serve and give to others and the world.”
– Do you think it’s not possible to achieve self-realisation, control the mind and have inner peace if one is having a regular life?
“i am not saying its not possible, but the problem is that having a regular life you will be very occupied with surviving, you have to commute to work, do your job, come home, be busy with the family, one hardly have time to reflect and feel what’s going on inside, but if one wants, of course, they can make the time for it, i think it’s possible.”
– but do you guys have any real contact with the outside word, like you know meeting family, commuting, watching tv, the news?
“We do have some contact, I was for example living in the city centre of Paris for many years, and we had thousands of students in the centre, it was a lot, and as I said I try always to silence my mind and not agitate it so I asked to be transferred to an Ashram and I like it here, and of course we meet the family from time to time, but our family is much bigger than the traditional concept of physical family,”
– Do you think its easier to achieve the self-realisation when you don’t have to struggle for survival as one would do in regular life, you know since you live in an ashram and have your basic needs covered ? or is it more difficult?
“I can assure you it’s not easy, you don’t need the will power alone but also the grace of the divine, people are busy here serving and giving, it’s a different kind of busy, it’s a long path and I am far from where founder swami was, but the organisation and structure of the Ashram provide help for sure, and that structure is not available outside.”
– Tell me about reincarnation?
“one life is too short, (for what ?) for self-realisation and to achieve the highest spirituality level, we evolve gradually and require many lives to get there,”
– do you remember any of your previous lives?
“no, I don’t and it’s a good thing, it probably meant that we don’t remember them, as if someone did some harm to you in the previous life it will take energy from you and divert you from your path in this life”
– Did any Swami quit after they made the vows?
“Obviously those are not easy vows to make, so yea there are those who became Swamis but could not cope with this life and basically left it, this happens quite often”.
– One last question, why do people not smile over here? they don’t laugh either, is anything missing here?
Giggling with a smile on his face ” I don’t know, they don’t? I don’t know, maybe it’s the intensity of the things that go on here… but we should smile more in fact, we should not be too serious here, our founder swamis were laughing often and always smiling.. we must do it…”
