Sri Gangadharan swamy

Sri Gangadharan was born on 07.11.1913, in the simple environment of Veerampattinam village, which is 6 km from Pondicherry. It seems the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram first saw Gangadharan, as a small boy chasing her car when she had gone to that village to see the famous Kali temple. Her concentrated look, with a pouring of grace, on that simple village boy had silently prepared his soul to lay his life in the service of Adya Shakti- the Supreme Divine Mother. Later in 1933, at the young age of twenty, he had joined Sri Aurobindo Ashram as a sadhak and given the work in the Ashram Sanitary Department.

He took up his work as the field of sadhana and did it with complete sincerity, humility, surrender and devotion to his masters. Yoga through work is the easiest and most effective way to enter into the stream of sadhana. Any work done for the Mother in the true spirit itself is the highest meditation. By Mother’s grace his soul or Psychic became his guide and he started feeling the Mother’s Presence continuously in his heart. From time to time various kinds of spiritual experiences came to him, one after another. In his 63rd and 64th birthdays, Gangadharan had a flood of spiritual experiences and Golden Light visions soon after he had sat in meditation in Sri Aurobindo’s room and in his own room respectively (only the summary of his experiences are given here. For the details please refer the Supramental experiences page in this site). In one of these experiences, the Mother came in the form of a Luminous Young Child – Bala, in the same form as when She had been about seven years old – and opened the “chakra” on the top of his head, the Sahasrara, giving rise to wonderful visions and experiences. Gangadharan attained the highest Supramental Realization after he entered into the vast Golden Truth-world and realized it’s vast Golden Light of Truth-knowledge. In the vast realm of supramental world, He saw Mother Bala seated in Her Form of dynamic and vibrating golden Light in Her own supreme and universal Heaven of Light. He had wonderful visions of truth; and Bliss coursed through and overflowed his whole being.

 

After this Supramental Realization gifted by the Divine Mother, which broke his bondage from the cycle of birth and death with its duality of pleasure and suffering, Gangadharan was occasionally able to ascend into and remain in the Truth-World of Supramental Grace-Light. In 1978, Gangadharan had the only and rare vision of dematerialization of the physical body of Swami Ramalingam, when the Swami’s luminous Form of white Substance, with very fine sub-atomic consciousness particles, entered into and got distributed everywhere in the earth and even in matter and in the Inconscient. Then he had the rare vision of the Swami’s universal luminous golden Form. As a matter of fact the immensity of his golden form contained in it the whole universe (Vishva Prapancha). This form too disappeared from his view and was replaced by another vision in which he saw the Golden Light of Truth- knowledge and Grace entering into all the directions more speedily than the lightning. It permeated and pervaded the whole universe and the farther pure worlds of Consciousness. It entered into our earth and all it’s crores (billions)of the physical forms of beings and objects and in the apparently insensible matter (Jada) and even in the very dark realm of the vast Inconscient.

 

Another significant experience of Gangadharan came in 1981, when he chanted the Integral Mantras. At the beginning of the chant of the respective Mantras, Gangadharan felt for a while the Presence of Saint Thirumoolar, Swami Ramdas of Anandashram, Cannanore (Kerala). Then Sri Aurobindo and the Mother appeared for a while in their luminous golden Forms of Grace. When he chanted the Arut Perum Jyothi Mantra (Vast Grace-Light Mantra), Gangadharan had the most powerful and integral experience. The graceful Presence of Swami Ramalingam was felt for a while during the chant. Then, Gangadharan was surrounded by the white Light of Grace and Omkara Sound and Bliss. His soul-consciousness joined with the Self and ascended to the Truth-world of Supermind. In the ascent into the Truth-World he entered into the Golden Truth-world of Golden Light (Ponnambalam proper) and then reached the summit Truth-world (Cit Ambalam) of the pure white Light of Supreme Grace (Arut Perunjothi). He became identified with the Supreme Divine of the vast Grace-Light and experienced the whole universal manifestation in its formless form and as an expression of Supreme Compassion (Thanip Perung Karunai). Then, by a power of the Grace-Shakti he came down into the Golden Truth-World and saw Siva-Sakti Dance in their subtle or formless form of union, and after descending through several planes, came back to the earth which appeared illumined by Golden Red Light. After this experience, when his soul-consciousness entered back into the physical body through Brahmarandhra, the hole in the top head “Golden Red Light” rushed into his physical body filling up all its cells, and into his whole adhara. His whole body appeared luminous in golden red, and even the roots of hair shone likewise. An indescribable Bliss overwhelmed the depth of his heart.

 

Whatever higher spiritual experiences he got and whichever spiritual worlds he ascended, Gangadharan always remained as the Mother’s True and Beloved Child. Gangadharan was a humble man with child-like simplicity and frankness. His very nature was very compassionate, without even a trace of human and spiritual ego. He expresses his characteristic way of polite demeanor equally to his rickshaw driver who was one of his ‘brothers’. To his many colleagues he was a ‘brother’ and for him all were ‘brother’ or ‘sister.’ He used to say that all these experiences are purely a gift of the Grace of the Divine Mother, and not at all due to his merits or qualifications or Sadhana. His devotion to Sri Aurobindo and Mother was very pure and high that the Mother had once remarked he is always in her consciousness. Despite his minimum of worldly education or lack of any university degrees, he had possessed a very good knowledge on Tamil devotional poetic literature and major spiritual works of Tamil Siddhar lineage like Thirumandiram, Devaram, Vaishnava Alwar’s works, Swami Ramalingam’s Thiruarutpa, etc. He himself had written several poems in Tamil on the Divine Mother, describing his higher spiritual experiences (some of them available are published in this site).

 

Gangadharan had a special bond and kinship with T.R.Thulasiram, which was of a higher spiritual kind and nature. Their frequent meetings at Thulasiram’s house were always a satsangha in exchanging their notes and happily ending up with a sumptuous meal, for which the simple Gangadharan had a rasa or special taste. Both of them had mutually and freely exchanged their independent spiritual views and experiences- still strictly within the ambit and scope of the Integral yoga of Supramental Transformation that they were practicing under their Masters Sri Aurobindo and Mother, whose core aim is transformation of life, mind and body and establishment of Life Divine on the earth. Both of their views and spiritual experiences on Swami Ramalingam’s Supramental body transformation and eventual dematerialization for the purpose of collective evolution of mankind converged on the same lines. In fact it was Gangadharan’s rare vision of dematerialization of Swami Ramalingam’s Deathless physical body, with it’s finer details on the entire process, resolved the mystery surrounding on the whole episode of Swami Ramalingam’s disappearance from the eyes of the public, after he locked himself in his secluded cottage in his Ashram at Mettukuppam, near Vadalur. In that way, the spiritual world in general and Vallalar’s devotees all around the world, owe him a debt of gratitude for his candidness and catholic attitude in sharing his unparallel and far-reaching experiences. Gangadharan’s spiritual attitude reflects Saint Thirumoolar’s popular poem of “Let the whole world shall gain the knowledge of Divine bliss that I realized.”

 

He retired from his active service in the Ashram Sanitary department in the early 90s due to his old age. His earthly journey quietly ended on 16th August 1992, after he had developed some urinary problems. He refused to be taken to the Jipmer hospital, saying, “My end is near – so let me be.” As per his last wish, his body was buried in his native Veerampatinam village. It seems there was no smell and no deterioration of his body for three days when it was kept for his people to pay homage. Gangadharan, the Divine Mother’s beloved child, finally merged in her Universal Consciousness.

Samadhi of Sri Gangadharan Swamy at Veerampatinam Village, 6 k.m. from the Pondicherry city. Mr.Prabaharan, Senior IT Security Consultant from Washington D.C., and Member-Board of Trustees of Aumra Trust is seen here praying at the samadhi. The powerful Supramental vibrations, which touches our physical body, from the head to the foot can be experienced at the Samadhi of Sri Gangadharan.

“The One Gangadhar is mighty Siva whose matted locks could absorb the thundering fall of the Ganga and imprison that flow. This Gangadhar is a tiny trickle from those matted locks, gentle, pure and clear.”Courtesy and thanks to Sri Prabhakar ( Batty ) for ” Gangadharan – The Mother’s Child,” from his book “Among the Not So Great” published by Sri Mira Trust, Pondicherry.