In Memoriam: Swami Chidananda Maharaj (1916-2008)

Swami Chidananda, President of the Divine Life Society, was a revered Hindu mystic and modern-day saint whose very life was a testament to the reality of the sacred. In honor of his recent passing, we present this powerful excerpt from his teachings on the nonduality between self and God:

In Impersonal Absolute meditation, there is no form, only the visualization of Parabrahman as a state of light, of existence in infinity, of eternal being, of luminous consciousness, boundless; an ocean of consciousness. A state of impersonal bliss where once and for all you drop all thoughts of name and form and dwell upon the nameless, formless Reality, by affirming it as your true Self, your essential, real Being, which has neither birth nor death.... This is not the meditation of devotees, who prefer to keep a dualist consciousness of worshipper and the worshipped, of lover and beloved, adorer and adored object. This is a different type of meditation altogether. It is called the pure Advaitic meditation, and it goes a step beyond the nameless and formless Being, beyond a ray meditating upon the sun. Here, there is no ray, no drop, no individual being, no meditator and meditated object, only One beyond all distinctions. "Aham Brahma Asmi." I am the Supreme Reality. And thus meditating upon oneself as infinite eternal being, one seeks to enter into a consciousness of non-dual, pure identity with the Supreme Being. "I and my Father are One." "Aham Brahma Asmi." "Soham, Sivoham." Source WIE