Tag: Advaita

After a lifetime of spiritual seeking, Nirmala met his teacher, Neelam, a devotee of H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji). She convinced Nirmala that seeking was not necessary; and after experiencing a profound spiritual awakening in India, he began offering satsang and Nondual Spiritual Mentoring with Neelam’s blessing. This tradition of spiritual wisdom has been most profoundly disseminated by Ramana Maharshi, a revered Indian saint, who was Papaji’s teacher. Nirmala’s perspective was also profoundly expanded by his friend and teacher, Adyashanti.

Nirmala offers satsang in gratitude for the love and grace that flow through his teachers, Neelam and Adyashanti, and for the Truth brought to this world by Ramana Maharshi and H.W.L. Poonja. Advaita satsang is offered as a celebration of the possibility, in every moment, of recognizing the truth of who we are. Nirmala offers a unique vision and a gentle, compassionate approach, which adds to this rich tradition of inquiry into the truth of Being. He is also the author of several books including Nothing Personal: Seeing Beyond the Illusion of a Separate Self. He has been offering satsang and Nondual Spiritual Mentoring throughout the United States and Canada since 1998. Nirmala lives in Sedona, Arizona with his wife, Gina, and their two corgis, Bodhi and Gracie. Nirmala’s wife, Gina Lake, also offers astrological and channeled consultations to support awakening and spiritual growth. More information about her and her books, including Radical Happiness: A Guide to Awakening, is available on www.radicalhappiness.com.

Premananda was born in Bangor, Wales and started very early questioning life and the essence of life.

After his studies, while staying in Japan, he learned about Osho and in 1976 he found himself in the Ashram in Pune where instinctively he knew that his questions would be answered. He remained there for 15 years.

After Osho's death, Premananda went to Lucknow and after three weeks in the presence of Papaji he recognized "who he really was". For five years he stayed in Papaj's sangha, and then he started giving satsang in Australia.

Since 2003 Premananda has been touring many places in Europe, inviting people to satsang and conveying the essence of Advaita in public meetings, intensive weekends and retreats, with the central question: "Who am I?"

Nowadays, Premananda lives and give satsangs in the Open Sky House Community in Hitdorf, a place next to the Rhine River between Cologne and Düsseldorf in Germany.

Stephen H. Wolinsky, PhD is one of the few direct living disciples of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj living in the United States.

Wolinsky is a founder of Quantum Psychology, integrating Western Psychology, Advaita-Vedanta’s Non-duality, Quantum Physics, Neuro-Science, and Buddhism. In 2002, he founded Post-deconstruction, a scientific approach beyond Postmodernism. He is the author of fourteen books, audio tapes and a DVD series, I Am That I Am.

Wolinsky presently resides in Aptos, California.

Stephen, has a PhD. in Clinical Psychology and began his psychotherapy practice in 1974. From 1975 to 1985 he met over thirty different Gurus, Teachers, Rinpoches, and Meditation Masters. In January 1977, he journeyed to India to study meditation, and remained there for almost six years. Stephen continued traveling back to India for months at a time, over the next four years. In the mid-1980’s he went to Nepal to study three of the six Yogas of Naropa . Later he realized the identical nature of the teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Madhyamika, (Middle Way) Buddhism Founder, Nagarjuna, and his Eight Negations.

His Spiritual Journey

In the mid 1970’s, Avadhut Bhagawan Nityananda appeared to Stephen as he spontaneously entered Samadhi. Upon receiving initiation (shaktipat diksa) Bhagawan Nityananda, became his Initiation Guru. A few months later he met Swami Muktananda, a disciple of Nityananda who told him “come to India”. In January 1979, after living in India for two years and studying I AM THAT, he met his Teacher (Acharya) Guru Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Stephen says it was Bhagawan Avadhut Nityananda that guided him to Nisargadatta Maharaj, and that it was Sri Ramana Maharshi that acted as a portal or doorway to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Nisargadatta told Stephen to visit Ramana’s Ashram in Tiruvanamalai, which he did in 1983.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Bhagawan Avadhut Nityananda

The connection between Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Bhagawan Avadhut Nityananda goes back to the 1950’s, and was relayed to Stephen twice, first by a brother disciple of Nisargadatta Maharaj, Alexander Smit. In a conversation with Maharaj, Smit asked him, “Did you ever meet Nityananda?.” Maharaj replied, “Yes”. Smit asked, “What did you think of him.” Maharaj replied, “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him.”

The second connection between Bhagwan Avadhut Nityananda and Nisargadatta Maharaj revealed itself, when S. K. Mullarpattan, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s primary translator in the years 1976-1981, told Stephen that Bhagawan Avadhut Nityananda, as a young man used to stay with Mullarpattan’s family quite often, and that Mullarpattan used to go and see Baghawan Nityananda frequently in Ganespuri, and that he still does his mantra japa, (repetition). More interestingly, both Nisargadatta Maharaj and Bhagwan Avadhut Nityananda gave the same mantra diksa (initiation), and taught the same unique way of repeating the mantra, (japa).

Ranjit Maharaj was born in Bombay on January 4th, 1913. Intensely spiritual as a child, he used to fervently worship Lord Krishna. “But when I saw my guru I forgot Lord Krishna,” he would say later.

At the age of 12, he met his master Siddharameshwar Maharaj, a great guru from the Navnath Sampradaya tradition who was also the master of Nisargadatta Maharaj. Ranjit Maharaj stayed with his Guru from this time until Siddharameshwar's death in 1936.

While Siddharameshwar’s guru taught the long and difficult path of dhyana or meditation, Siddharameshwar directly communicated knowledge, gyana, of the Final Reality to his disciples, including Ranjit Maharaj. This way, he said students could attain enlightenment very fast, like a bird flies from tree to tree and so he called it Vihangam Marg or the way of the bird as opposed to the Pipilika Marg or the way of the ant taught by his Master. It was this path that Ranjit Maharaj also taught his disciples.

After meeting his guru, Ranjit Maharaj continued to live a normal life. After completing his schooling, he tried his hand at various jobs, including that of a bar manager, before becoming an accountant. Because of his shy nature and respect for his senior colleague, Ranjit Maharaj refrained from taking on disciples of his own. When faced with a request, however, from his guruu's son Yashwantrao, to give mantra diksha to his daughter-in law, he could not refuse and ultimately agreed to carry on the spiritual lineage.

Ranjit Maharaj did not begin to teach until 1983 at the age of 70 when increasing numbers of seekers kept showing up at his door, following the death of Nisargadatta Maharaj two years earlier.

Satsangs took place every day at his small flat in a busy commercial area in Mumbay. His teaching were in the continuity of his master's, which emphasizes simplicity and directness in language.

Ranjit Maharaj made his first tour to the west only in 1996. He visited and gave talks in USA and also in Europe.

In early 2000, Ranjit Maharaj suffered a stroke, which left him paralyzed on one side. In a touching expression of his devotion, even in this state of health, he traveled almost 1,000 km by ambulance for the annual pilgrimage to Siddharameshwar’s Samadhi in Bagewadi in Karnataka.

Ranjit Maharaj passed away on November 15th, 2000 at 6:16 PM at his residence in Bombay. Maharaj's words during his last few days were:

It is of no use now, this has to go

Nisargadatta Maharaj speaking about Ranjit Maharaj
(A quote from an interview with David Godman about his memories of Nisargadatta Maharaj)

Ranjit Maharaj once came to visit during one of his morning sessions. They chatted in Marathi for a few minutes and then Ranjit left.

Maharaj simply said, 'That man is a jnani. He is a disciple of my Guru, but he is not teaching.'

Sri Ramana Maharshi was born on December 30, 1879 in a village called Tiruchuli about 30 miles south of Madurai in Tamil Nadu in South India. His middle-class parents named him Venkataraman. His father died when he was twelve, and he went to live with his uncle in Madurai, where he attended the American Mission High School.

At age 16, he became spontaneously self-realized following what looks like a near-death experience. Six weeks later he ran away to the holy hill of Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. He lived on and subsequently near Arunachala for the rest of his life, never leaving the place physically.

For several years he stopped talking and spent days in samadhi. When he began speaking again, people came to ask him questions, and he soon acquired a reputation as a sage. In 1907, when he was 28, one of his early devotees named him Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Divine Eminent Ramana the Great Seer.

With the years, he became world-famous and an ashram was built for him to which many westerners used to come.

He died of cancer in 1950 at the age of 70.