Eknath Easwaran, Swami Omkar, and Louise Wilding

Posted on April 13, 2011 by  | Read 2 Comments | Add Comment

There are many dif­fer­ent sto­ries about Easwaran’s con­nec­tion with Indian spir­i­tual fig­ures. Swami Omkar (1895 – 1982) was a swami and teacher known for his sweetly gen­er­ous nature. He founded Shanti Ashram in Andhra Pradesh and the Peace Cen­ter on the Nil­giris (Blue Moun­tain), in South India.

Eknath Easwaran and Sister Lalita

Easwaran with Louise Wild­ing (Sis­ter Lalita), on the Blue Mountain

When Easwaran and Chris­tine were in Kota­giri, South India, in the early six­ties, they met Louise Wild­ing (Sis­ter Lalita) who was pres­i­dent of Swami Omkar’s sum­mer ashram in Kota­giri. She arranged a weekly pro­gram where young men could med­i­tate with Easwaran, sing devo­tional songs, and hear him expound the spir­i­tual life in Tamil. And she remained a stead­fast friend and sup­porter of Easwaran through­out her life.

Med­i­ta­tion with Easwaran and Chris­tine after a talk at Swami Omkar’s ashram

Easwaran chose Swami Omkar’s Prayer for Peace as a rec­om­mended pas­sage for med­i­ta­tion. Lis­ten to Easwaran read­ing this pas­sage here (click the Play but­ton to start the audio).

Prayer for Peace
Adorable pres­ence,

Thou who art within and with­out,

above and below and all around,

Thou who art inter­pen­e­trat­ing

every cell of my being,

Thou who art the eye of my eyes,

the ear of my ears,

the heart of my heart,

the mind of my mind,

the breath of my breath,

the life of my life,

the soul of my soul,

Bless us, dear God, to be aware of thy pres­ence

now and here.
 


May we all be aware of thy pres­ence

in the East and the West,

in the North and the South.

May peace and good will abide among indi­vid­u­als,

com­mu­ni­ties, and nations.

This is my earnest prayer.
 


May peace be unto all!

We’ll share more sto­ries about Easwaran and his asso­ci­a­tion with Indian mys­tics in future posts.

Daffodils

Posted on March 28, 2011 by  | Read Comment | Add Comment

In this audio clip from 1967, Easwaran com­pares see­ing a real daf­fodil (after only hear­ing about daf­fodils) with see­ing the beauty of the Self within.

“This evening I was observ­ing the flow­ers on all sides, par­tic­u­larly the daf­fodils. I used to teach my stu­dents at the uni­ver­sity Wordsworth’s beau­ti­ful poem about the daf­fodils, but let me tell you nei­ther they nor I had ever seen a daf­fodil. I used to explain it beau­ti­fully with­out hav­ing seen a daf­fodil. When I saw the daf­fodils for the first time and the breeze was blow­ing through, I said: Oh! This Wordsworth knows what he is writ­ing about.

“See, this is the dif­fer­ence between echo and the real sound, between the log in the apart­ment house that appears to burn and the real euca­lyp­tus log that burns. The sages say every­thing that is beau­ti­ful out­side is a pale reflec­tion of the lim­it­less beauty that is within you, within me. Every­thing that is glo­ri­ous out­side is a pale shadow of the glory that is within.”

Pod­cast: Play in new win­dow

A Passage for World Peace: Easwaran Reads the Sutta Nipata

Posted on March 22, 2011 by  | Add Comment

Read­ing the news head­lines can leave us feel­ing sad, angry, or help­less. Spir­i­tual pas­sages offer a pow­er­ful anti­dote, and lis­ten­ing to Easwaran read­ing a pas­sage is the best anti­dote of all.

Switch off the news, close your eyes, and calm your mind with Easwaran’s read­ing from the Com­pas­sion­ate Bud­dha. (Click the Play but­ton on the result­ing page to start the audio.)

Dis­course on Good Will
May all beings be filled with joy and peace.

May all beings every­where,

The strong and the weak,

The great and the small,

The mean and the pow­er­ful,

The short and the long,

The sub­tle and the gross:
 


May all beings every­where,

Seen and unseen,

Dwelling far off or nearby,

Being or wait­ing to become:

May all be filled with last­ing joy.
 


Let no one deceive another,

Let no one any­where despise another,
Let no one out of anger or resent­ment

Wish suf­fer­ing on any­one at all.


Just as a mother with her own life

Pro­tects her child, her only child, from harm,

So within your­self let grow

A bound­less love for all crea­tures.


Let your love flow out­ward through the uni­verse,

To its height, its depth, its broad extent,

A lim­it­less love, with­out hatred or enmity.


Then, as you stand or walk,

Sit or lie down,

As long as you are awake,

Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;

Your life will bring heaven to earth.

This pas­sage is from the Metta Sutta, part of the Sutta Nipata, a col­lec­tion of dia­logues with the Bud­dha said to be among the old­est parts of the Pali Bud­dhist canon.


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