Swami Rama / Swami or Samsari

Samsari is a derogative term which is contrasted to swami. The swami is the person who is in control of the self (sva), who is identical with the atma spiritual person-self. If the swami departs from his vow then he may be regarded as being degraded to being a samsari who is a person who is dedicated to materialistic living with no clue about atma as a spiritual being.

In an astral conversation during a session of breath infusion and meditation, Swami Rama, who is deceased, discussed this topic with me. His reputation as a swami was ruined after it was discovered that he had a son whom he disowned early on just to protect his swami status. Once rumors got out about this, his integrity was damaged irretrievably.

This Swami happen to be one of my yoga gurus because of his having showed me some technique for using pranayama breath-infusion to accomplish the advanced disciplines in the agnisara practice. The question is that if this swami did master that discipline, how is it that he was induced to beget a child in a woman and also to deny that child, even though financially it is believed that he secretly supported the mother and the child.

Before we could tackle that problem, he looked down into the trunk of my body during the breath infusion and pointing to a mass of energy in the gut area, he said,

“That is it. That is the cause. It is because of the formation of that.”

He blamed a mass of subtle energy which re-formed in his psyche even after he had eradicated it. It appears that even if the subtle body is made to not have that energy in the gut area, it may develop that energy again. When this happens it is likely that even a famous swami whose reputation would be imperiled would give in to sex desire and beget a child.

The problem is however that once the child arrives, what does the Swami do? Does he simply give up his swami status and become a participant parent of the infant?

Swami Rama failed to do that.

Actually with monogamy as the mainstay of modern societies, a Swami who has children out of wedlock is in deep trouble, He has to be willing to face criticism and condemnation from every quarter. Besides he would lose his position in the religious or spiritual society of which he is the founder if it was chartered on the basis of his swami status.

My view and I told the Swami this is that he should have claimed the child even though that action would have caused ridicule and disgrace of himself in terms of his celibate swami vows. I also tried to explain to him that the issue of who owns the body, is the thing that must be considered. Did he own his body?’ Obviously he did not because against his desire and will, his nature turned to desiring sexual relationship with a woman and that resulted in the formation of an embryo who was an ancestor of the Swami. For sure that ancestor has some share in the body and used that right to upset the Swami’s vow.

This would mean that the vow was faulted in the first place, because one cannot make a vow to control the property of someone else. One may take a vow to control one’s property but if the property one supervises belongs to oneself and to others, then one cannot make a vow for that property unless one takes into account the rights of the shareholders. Whosever invented the swami vow did not take this into account and so its institution is based on a grave error.

Lucky are those who take such vows and whose ancestors are 100% contributory to it. They and only they can really uphold the vow.