Of Ascetics and Emperors

Book excerpt: Of Ascetics and Emperors: Teachings of an Indian Sage is an English translation of Saralabala Mitra's book, Katha Prasanga (Spiritual Discourses). Here one can find the spiritual discourses of the renowned Indian sage, Balananda Brahmachari. His monastery in India was a place of pilgrimage for innumerable spiritual seekers. Attracted by his presence, people from all walks of life came to him. To each and every one, the great sage gave generously and poured out all the precious wealth that lay in his spiritual treasure chest. Through the ages, India has maintained a tradition of spiritual teachers giving Dharma talks to all who care to listen. Listening to a good teacher can be extremely helpful; however, in the busy world of modern times, it is hard to find such sages and even harder for people to make time for them. This book overcomes the hurdles of time and space by transporting readers to a world where great seers taught the basic tenets of the spiritual path to all seekers. To make the extremely profound, complex, and esoteric ideas of Hinduism accessible to people from all backgrounds, Balananda Brahmachari used a variety of stories, anecdotes, parables, and quotations from real life experiences and the Hindu scriptures. Sometimes the discussions are highly philosophical and sometimes they are delightfully simple. What he says pours forth straight from his heart-the heart of an enlightened one who has practiced and realized what is written in the scriptures. If he could be present, in flesh and blood, before his devotees today and they asked him to say a few words of wisdom to them, here's what he would probably say: "Ulat Jao." This phrase literally means "turn yourself upside down," but the deeper meaning is "turn inwards." This has been the advice of all sages and all religions of all ages; they have all asked seekers to turn their gaze from the outside to the inside, from the mortal to the immortal, from the untrue to the true.