Years of Service and Devotion
Joining Swamiji's ashram, Srinivasa extended His practice of dhyana and devoted Himself to the selfless service of His Guru's mission. Swamiji became His Guru, God, mother and father - indeed His All. As well as the daily management of the ashram and serving the inmates and visitors, He also took on the care of two mentally-handicapped boys who Swamiji sent to be looked after in the ashram.

Swamiji was loving like an affectionate mother, but also strict like a stern father, and took enormous care in training His disciple. When Seenu was 24 years old, on one expedition to the holy river Ganga (Ganges) Sri Shivabalayogi initiated Him into the holy
order of sannyas (monkhood).

"From now remember you are a sannyasi (monk). You must live a simple life so that people themselves can call you a monk, but you yourself should not become egotistic by claiming or boasting of any status as such."

His devotion to His Guru was complete and faultless. Speaking one day to a group of devotees about Faith and Service, Swamiji looked over at Seenu standing nearby and declared, "Look at the faith and attachment Seenu has. Even if I cut him into pieces and throw him in the river, he will get joined back together and come back to me."

While performing prolonged meditation whenever circumstances allowed, He also carried out the management of the ashram and looking after the mentally-handicapped boys who Swamiji had sent for His care as His sadhana(3). Though a monk, Swamiji also gave Him tasks to carry out such as temporary guardianship of the children of local devotees. While this was unusual work for a monk, Seenu always carried out such tasks enthusiastically, simply considering it as service to the Guru. Looking back at those times, He recalled,

"One day when I was bathing Him, Swamiji suddenly asked, 'Hey, do you think that you came to the ashram to do meditation but instead you have a lot of odd jobs in this ashram life? Do not consider that you are being given odd jobs to do. Have faith in the name of Guru. With total devotion consider everything as a service to the Guru and His Mission. Then every karma (action) of yours will get converted into sadhana.

At one public darshan session a person once complained to Swamiji about having lost peace of mind and Swamiji asked him, 'Do you do some sadhana?' As Swamiji spoke mainly in Telugu I needed to translate what He had said into Hindi for the man and I  translated it as, 'Are you practicing any meditation?'

Swamiji pulled me up and corrected me, 'When I said "sadhana" why are you using the word "meditation"? Meditation means a person will be sitting and closing the eyes. But "sadhana" can happen during Dhyana (meditation), through Bhakti (devotion), through Seva (service) and in so many ways when one is able to surrender to the Guru. If you surrender to the Guru, automatically the mind will get controlled.

So thus Swamiji always emphasized 'Do sadhana. Do sadhana.' Through this one word 'sadhana', Swamiji beautifully conveyed the essence of the whole message that the Bhagavad Gita contains."
           

For twenty years Seenu continued thus engaged in selfless service and devotion to His Guru and Swamiji's Mission, coupled with deep spiritual practice.

In 1994, Swamiji took Mahasamadhi (dropped His physical body). Seenu attended the entombment ceremony and came away in grief. Returning to His boyhood home in Mysore, He walked out to the Chamundi Hills where He had performed sadhana in His teenage years. Sitting into dhyana, He fell into a deep meditative state for some days, finally aroused by a sound nearby. Turning to see the source of the noise, He beheld the dazzling figure of His Guru, surrounded by a glowing light.

Swamiji spoke to Him, instructing that the time was approaching when He would be initiated into tapas, the austere form of prolonged deep meditation which Swamiji Himself had performed for twelve years.

"Your time has come to do tapas. Because of your twenty years of selfless service, you have the fruit of seven years of tapas, so if you perform tapas now for another five years, that will be enough."

Seenu replied that He was unsure He would be able to perform such a severe austerity.

Directing Him further, His Guru spoke, "When the time is ripe you will have to sit and circumstances will also force you, because of your prarabdha (acquired impressions of the mind)".

Tapas
Unsure of whether the experience had been a true divine vision or a manifestation of His mind's grief at the physical passing of His Guru, Seenu returned to the Dehra Dun ashram and continued His service there. He felt that if it was truly a divine vision then its import would become clear in time. Carrying on His work thus, it was later in that same year one evening as He was completeing the evening worship at the ashram that He suddenly beheld again His Guru manifesting before Him. Swamiji touched Him between the eyebrows and lead Him to a room adjacent to the meditation hall.

"Look, from this room either you come out as a Yogi (4), or your dead body should come out. Do not abandon the practice under any circumstance until you reach the goal. I want you to do this for five years as from your years of service you already have the fruits of seven years' tapas."

Following His Guru's directive, Seenu stayed in the room of the ashram performing tapas for the next 5 years. The process of tapas is aimed at removing all acquired impressions of the mind by deep meditation. Sri Shivarudra Balayogi has described tapas thus:

" If you try to hold the mind still, focused on one point for only a minute or two - for only a moment or two - you will find how difficult it is. However if you can focus the mind like this, single-pointedly focused on one point without any thoughts for one whole hour, then one is said to be meditating. If you can meditate like this for seven to eight hours at a stretch then one is said to be performing tapas."

Page 3