Born in a family of Brahmin farmers in 1844, Sri Brahma Chaitanya (Gondawali Baba) showed his spiritual stature almost from birth, at the age of six stealing off to meditate alone in solitude in the middle of the night. His formal education ended quickly, after advising his classmates that their teacher’s knowledge was poor and that the singing of God’s Name was real knowledge.
As an adolescent he left home to wander India in search of his guru, meeting both Trailanga Swami and Sri Ramakrishna, and eventually the saint who would change his life, Sri Tukaram Chaitanya. Initiated into Ram mantra, the young saint quickly progressed in meditation under his master’s guidance. He later returned to his home village, where he spent the rest of his life immersed in divine meditation and holy remembrance, teaching and uplifting all who came to him. Foretelling his departure from this world, he attained mahasamadhi in December, 1913.
The insight and wisdom of this great yogi – simple yet profound, sublime yet practical – shines brightly amidst the great spiritual writings of India. We are pleased to share these gems as an inspiration and a guide to yogis and spiritual aspirants everywhere.
Sri Brahma Chaitanya on the nature of God
1. Reality is primary Being, pure and simple. Ultimate Reality is not a thing. It simply is.
2. Language ill fits the nature of the Divine Being.
3. Pure Being becomes God who is the Lord and Creator of the universe.
4. Reality is the prenatal state of God.
5. We cannot see God because He is everywhere.
6. The gift of God is bound to be unseen like Himself.
7. We attempt to make God a “thing” of the world. On the other hand, we ought to make the things of the world divine.
8. Vedanta says, “Brahman is real, the world is unreal.” The word “unreal” does not mean that the world is nothing. It means that the world is not what we take it to be.
9. God lives beyond time. All actions of man are in time. They can never lead the self out of time to God. God Himself, therefore, raises the self out of time into eternity. This act of God is called Grace.
Sri Brahma Chaitanya on the nature of the world
10. The world is an appearance of Reality. It is not an illusion. It possesses a dependent reality. It is not non-being.
11. The world is less than the Real but it is not unreal. It is Reality under the limitation of Time.
12. Awareness of time is the matrix of all conditionings. Spiritual exercises aim at leading the self beyond the consciousness of time.
13. The human body is large in size while the self residing in it is very minute. So also God is minute while the universe which covers Him is so large in size.
14. Insufficiency in one form or another is the nature of worldly life.
15. The world which ever keeps changing is too much with us and within us. Hence contentment cannot come to stay in our lives.