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Title: Gnanãnubhavam
Author:Sri Nãmãnanda Giri Swamigal

Sri Sri Swamiji often says-"Ours is a complete religion". Explaining this, he says, "Instead of prescribing a single path for one and all, it is only our religion that guides us to attain the goal of human life - attaining God's feet according to the mental maturity of each individual, right from an illiterate to a scholar, from a believer to an atheist. It talks about high philosophy, pure Prema Bhakti (Devotion through divine love) as also about the village demi-gods! Even trivial matters spoken of in our religion are pregnant with meaning from every perspective. That is the unique beauty of our religion."

An incident that highlights the importance of using lamp, flowers, incense sticks, etc in the worship of God is found in the book 'Gnananubhavam' written by Sri Namananda Giri Swamigal.

In Tirukkoilur Tapovanam, it is a practice to worship the 'jyoti' (divine light) early in the morning at 4 am. A small girl, bathed and dressed beautifully, would take the 'Pancha Mukha Deepa' (lamp lit on the five faces) on a plate and lead the way. Sri Gnanananda Giri Swamigal along with devotees would follow her and circumambulate the Ãshram. As someone would walk along spreading the fragrance of 'sambrãni' (a special incense that emits fragrance when burnt) in the early morning hour, the divinity of the environ, Sri Gnanananda Giri's bright face, the light from the lamp and the soothing song 'Deepa jothiyãi varuvãi' calmed and focused everyone's mind.

One day the author enquired Sri Gnanananda Swamigal about the concept behind the lamp worship. The Guru explained the reason beautifully as below.

"After the nightly pooja, the sanctum sanctorums are closed. This dark night time is the active day time for the evil forces. The evils move around during this hour. Moreover, the Ãshram inmates might involve themselves in bad thoughts, speech or actions that are not concordant with the Ãshram disciplines. These acts and thoughts might have spoilt the divinity of the Ãshram. The light from the lamp, the aroma of the incense stick, the fragrance of the flowers and the divine songs- all these destroy the evil spirits and the evil impulses. In such a nice ambience, our mind can concentrate well and meditate on God peacefully."

-A. Bhagyanathan

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