The Swami

Swami Sharnanand

Swami Sharnanand once said if a person cannot even serve a glass of water to the thirsty that person cannot become free and attain ‘.Nirvana’. He was certainly a liberated soul. The only great saint I had known personally. One has read about many saints and seers in India,read about their wisdom and visited their Ashrams and have gained a certain spiritual strength, but knowing Swami Sharnanandji Maharaj as he is popularly known,  was a great personal boon  for me and my family. He was our family Guru so to say. My father first met him in Pushkar in the early nineteen forties on the behest of his close friend. My father was very impressed by the saint but then somehow lost touch with him. Then suddenly one day when he was travelling in a train he heard someone calling out his name from the other part of the compartment 'Mathur'. My father was surprised to find that Swami Sharnanand, a blind saint, had recognised his voice from a distance and  had even remembered his name after a brief meeting many years ago. That accidental meeting established a lifelong bond between the saint and my family. This was before my birth and I am told that Swamiji as we all fondly called him, first visited our house in Ahemdabad in 1944 the year I was born. I would like to believe that that has perhaps something to do with my closeness with Swamiji or maybe it was just a coincidence. But one thing is sure that even if one does claim to be a great spiritual person time and again the great saint has come to my rescue if not in person but certainly through his goodwill and wisdom.

He was a wandering monk and never stayed in one place. He visited people who invited him and stayed with them in their homes for a few days and moved on. He used to   say that a saint should not stay in one place for more than four or five days. But he was in touch with his disciples one way or other and they knew where to find him. Hrishikesh and Vrindavan in U.P. were his favourite places. And then as the number of disciples increased, at the behest of some close disciples he established an ashram in Vrindavan in the mid nineteen fifties under the aegis of Manav Seva Sangh, a charitable trust. His disciples built a house on the adjoining plot which was later called Sant Kutir as he did not want to live in the Ashram and nor did he want to hold any of the official positions. Then more things happened and some more Ashrams came up with the help of his disciples in Jaipur in Rajasthan,  in U.P and in Ranchi which is now in the state of Jharkhand.

Swami Sharnanand‘s method of teaching was very simple, down to earth and direct. He never took recourse to pompous words or quoted great scriptures to make the disciples understand their problems. He had a one to one way of dealing with his disciples, very personal very intimate and full of love. There was no distance between him and his disciples even if they were meeting for the first time. For example, he would tell someone in distress “Kuch Mat Chaho” in Hindi which roughly would mean, don’t wish for anything sorrow will disappear or “Beman Ke Ho Jao’ meaning thereby keep a neutral mind and mental agonies will go away. He did not put disciples to difficult task of doing some great tapasya or mental task. More than anything else he put people at ease in a way that just by talking to him half of their problems would disappear. He was like a therapist who could ease away the pain in no time; he was like a counsellor who could give simple and practical advice which one could practise in one's day to day life. More than anything else he was a family to so many who knew him in his lifetime. He would regularly reply to the letters people wrote to him asking for his advice and meet visitors any time of the day and night if need be. His discourses which he gave from time to time were recorded and have been published in  a book form. His lectures are also available on CDs. He dictated books on a variety of subjects to his prime disciple Devki Maa who faithfully wrote and edited them before publishing them. After his lifetime Devki Maa took over the task of spreading Swamiji’s wisdom by travelling across the country and by preserving his wisdom by reinterpreting his lectures in her own way.This she continued till the end of her life. All the books and recorded lectures are available with Manav Sewa Sangh and the information is available on the web about his life and teachings for anybody who is interested.

There is an interesting anecdote about him which reveals his attitude towards life and the nation. It seems Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, had invited him to Rashtrapati Bhavan as Swamiji had also taken part in the freedom movement as he believed deeply that injustice has to be fought. The President told him that as political leaders they knew what was ailing the nation and knew what the solutions were but were unable to carry them out. He asked Swamiji how he would look at this problem. Swamiji told him: "If there is no compassion in the heart, nothing can be done." What he said is something that today's political leaders have to seriously consider.


For me and my wife Lakshmi, who had not met him in person, he has been a great source of inspiration and time and again in times of crisis he has been a beacon of light which indicated the way to the shore.There is this story connected with Swamiji about our marriage. Before my marriage when my parents were pestering me to get married  I told him that I will only marry when I meet a person of my liking and not marry in the conventional way of ‘Band Baaja Baraat’ and may be just have a simple marriage. Swamiji was very forthright; he told me, “Where is the need for a even a simple wedding? When you meet the person of your choice just bring her to me and I will pronounce you husband and wife.” That did not happen because he passed away before we got married but we did visit the Ashram in Vrindavan. Although Lakshmi did not believe in swamijis, she was curious because she had heard so much about him from me. So we went to the Ashram to be in Sant Kutir and Lakshmi said that she experienced an extraordinary sense of peace there in that small room.  He sure would have blessed us as we are still married and have survived the highs and lows of life!

Vishnu Mathur 

 Nov. 2013