On 14th of July at 03h local time, Mahamandaleshwar swami Veda Bharati D.Litt. has left his body. His final message to the ashramites was: “Let every person feel loved.” What a difficult, but glorious task.
It was not unexpected for him to leave this body, which has caused him a lot of trouble, as he was always caring for others and his own health seemed to have been last in the row. Even though leaving the body behind is something which awaits us all, his mahasamadhi left all of his fellow ashramites, friends and students feeling orphaned.
His learning was enormous and his willingness to help those who wanted to reach Enlightenment was far beyond what could be seen. Sometimes with a wink of his eyes, sometimes completely unnoticed he facilitated saktipath for those whom he considered fit for it. His life before his period of mauna was of a constant travel and inspiration of those who met him – on nearly all the Continents. But he bore this hardship without any complaint, remembering that this was one of the tasks given to him by his Master swami Rama.
I remember when I met him in Zinal, at the Congress of the European Union of Yoga. He was busy, but after some time he asked his questions mapping the life-field of mine and then I felt that we rediscovered a long standing deep friendship. Subsequently I could meet him both in Zinal and in Rishikesh at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama and at times his willingness to teach was so intensive that whether it was day or night, one could be summoned for further training and instruction, and thus the whole day and night was just one lag of sadhana.
When I saw him in January, he was having a troubled health, but nevertheless, he was spiritually perfectly fresh. One of the members of the ashram research team has shown me an EEG pattern registered on Swamiji, where the maximum activity was in the area of Brahmarandhra. Evidently he was training for the yogic way of departure from the body. Not withstanding, he was still working on the new, extended version of the commentary of Patanjali´s Yoga sutras and I was really touched when he gave me a copy of his new Samadhi Pada commentary. He also gave me some homework to do and when he asked me when will I come again and I told him that next January, he was almost upset. Now I know why. Yogis do know when they depart, but do not speak about it.
Swami Veda Bharati is a yogi of rare qualities. He sampled all walks of life – that of a researcher, the family life and then sannyas. He knew the difficulties of people, who had to cope with the busy life of today and simultaneously with the quest of Enlightenment. And now, when we cannot see him through our sensory perceptions, he is still there to help, with much greater degree of freedom than before.