In the latter part of December 2024 and early January 2025, some devotees from around the world gathered in Chennai, India, to receive the darshan of our master, H.H Maharanyam Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji. During this time, Sri Swamiji imparted personal and profound teachings especially to youth, addressing doubts with simplicity and guiding everyone toward deeper spiritual understanding.
This compilation presents a selection of those transformative insights in a Q&A format.
Q: What is the Self?
Sri Swamiji: “The true Self is beyond our physical body. There are, in fact, five total ‘bodies’ that make us up, at the source of which lies the real Self.”
To explain this, Swamiji used five cups stacked on top of one other as a representation of these five ‘bodies’:
“At the most basic level, we identify with our physical body—the organic matter we call ‘ourselves’. But there’s more to us than just limbs and ligaments.
Running through each of our physical bodies is something called Prana. This is the vital energy that animates us, and is carried and controlled by the breath.
Beyond Prana lies the Manas, our conscious mind where thoughts endlessly rise and fade.
Deeper than this is the Buddhi, the quiet intellect that observes without judgment and witnesses every thought and action.
And at the core of it all is the ‘I’ (or ‘Naan’ in Tamil): the constant japa (repetition) of ‘me, me, me’ reverberating within and shaping what we call our ego.
These are the five layers within us. The source of these five is the Atma: what we (should) call the Self.”
Q: What is beyond the Self?
Sri Swamiji continued with the analogy of five cups:
“Each cup can be considered a container of sorts.
What does it contain? Air.
And outside it? Air again.
The only difference lies in the boundary—the cup itself—which divides the space into ‘inside’ and ‘outside.’ Remove the cup, and what remains? Just air, undivided and whole.
The Self is no different. It’s merely a boundary; once dissolved, all that remains is what is called Brahman, the Eternal One.”
Q: What are vasanas?
“Vasanas are the deep-seated impressions, or ‘scents,’carried by us over countless lifetimes. These subtle imprints generally dictate our tendencies, influencing the choices and actions we take on a daily basis.”
Q: What’s the difference between a Mahan and an Avatara Purusha?
“A Mahan is a self-realized soul who has attained spiritual greatness. An Avatara Purusha is Divinity itself, incarnated to uplift and liberate all beings. While every Avatara Purusha is a Mahan, not every Mahan is an Avatara Purusha.”
Q: What causes depression and anxiety?
“Depression arises from dwelling on the past, while anxiety stems from fearing the future.”
Q: What’s the origin of the cycle of birth and death?
There’s no clear answer for this—or at least not the one we might expect. To help us understand why, Swamiji shared a story from the life of Swami Gnanananda Giri:
“Sri Gnanananda once had a devotee, an esteemed judge of the court, who became obsessed with a burning question: When did creation begin? What set this cycle of birth and death into motion?
The thought consumed him. Unable to sleep, he rushed in the middle of the night to Tapovanam, where Sri Gnanananda’s ashram was located, determined to seek an answer.
To his surprise, Sri Gnanananda was already waiting for him. Before he could utter his question, the Swami simply said, ‘Have some coffee first!’
The judge complied, drank his coffee, and came back—only to receive the same instruction again.
Again and again he was offered cup after cup, and with each passing round his frustration deepened; the question he’d come for gnawed at him. Finally, after his twentieth or so cup, Sri Gnanananda stopped him.
Pointing at the judge’s dhoti, he remarked, ‘You seem to have a stain.’
Now, one thing to note about this judge—he was a perfectionist, obsessively clean. Immediately, his entire focus shifted to removing the stain.
As he frantically tried to clean it, Sri Gnanananda asked, “Which one of the cups of coffee you had gave you that stain?”
The judge, still panicking over the imperfection on his otherwise spotless white dhoti, replied, ‘What does it matter? I have to get rid of this stain either way!’
Sri Gnanananda smiled. ‘Your question about the origin of your karma is no different. Who knows which birth started this cycle? What matters is cleansing yourself and ending it once and for all!’”
Q: Who’s responsible for this cycle?
“The same mother who puts us to bed is the one who wakes us up.”
Q: After death, are we reborn immediately?
“No, our rebirth is not immediate.
“When our life on earth ends, the four remaining ‘bodies’—Prana, Manas, Buddhi, and our sense of individuality—separate from the physical body and collectively travel to a designated loka, or realm. The loka we enter is determined by the vasanas and karma we carry with us. For most beings (99.9%), this journey leads to pretaloka, a realm where souls remain until their next birth. However, if our descendants perform the appropriate rites as prescribed in the scriptures, our spirits are elevated to pitruloka, a higher realm above pretaloka.
For certain advanced beings—those whose karma is nearly exhausted and who are close to self-realization—their journey leads to Hiranyaloka, where they shed the last traces of their karma and vasanas. Once fully purified, they attain Moksha—liberation from the cycle of birth and death, and realization of the Atma.
Jñanis, the highest among realized beings, do not follow this process. At the moment of their final breath, they merge completely with the Atma, freeing themselves from all attachments. For the rest of us, as long as vasanas remain, the cycle of rebirth continues until we reach complete self-realization.”
Q: If the ultimate goal is to attain Moksha, what’s the purpose of our rebirth cycle?
Sri Swamiji answered this with another question:
“Imagine someone offers you a pill that could instantly erase all your troubles and worries, but at a cost: this pill would place you in an eternal coma. Would you take it?
Most of us (hopefully) would say no! We want to experience life, not sleep through it.
In the same way, Mahapralaya—the Great Deluge—is like a coma: effortless, without struggle, but also without purpose. True liberation isn’t about avoiding life; it is through birth and rebirth that we grow, learn, and evolve. Only by undergoing this experience can we fully break the cycle of rebirth. So, the purpose of this cycle is experience.”
Q: How do we break the rebirth cycle?
“There are infinite ways to break this cycle and achieve liberation, as per our Sanatana Dharma. However, these paths can be grouped into four main yogas: Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga.
Karma Yoga is the path of action. It emphasizes engaging in worldly duties while practicing non-attachment. As Sri Krishna teaches in the Bhagavad Gita, we have the right to act, but not to claim the fruits of our actions.
Raja Yoga is the practice of developing physical and mental purity through rigid self-discipline. The sage Patanjali, the foremost authority on Raja Yoga, breaks down the practice into eight steps (Ashtanga Yoga):
Yama (ethical principles),
Niyama (self-surrender),
Asana (physical posture),
Pranayama (control of the Prana by breath),
Pratyahara (sense-restraint),
Dharana (one-pointed concentration),
Dhyana (meditation),
and finally Samadhi (state of complete absorption in the divine).
Raja Yoga views the mind and soul as distinct yet all-pervading. Jnana Yoga, however, sees no separation at all.
Jnana Yoga is the path of Self-realization through Atma vichara, or Self-inquiry. Sri Adi Shankara, one of its greatest proponents, taught that man and Brahman are one—there is no duality between the individual self and the Divine (in the essential Consciousness, chaitanyam)
Lastly, Bhakti Yoga—the path of devotion—is the one most familiar to us. It is the development of a deep, personal connection with the Lord through pure love. Through Bhakti, one transcends the cycle of rebirth and attains supreme bliss at the Lord’s feet.”
Q: Guruji, what path do you encourage?
“If you ask me, it’s Bhakti. The Bhakti Marga is the simplest and most accessible path to attaining the Lord. And how, you may ask? Simply by chanting the Divine Name.
All the great proponents of Bhakti—Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Bodhendra Saraswati Swamigal, Sri Krishna Premi Swamigal—have declared that Nama Sankirtan alone is enough to experience the bliss they themselves have realized. There are no complexities or rigid requirements—just chant!”
“History is filled with examples of the transformative power of Nama. Yogi Ramsuratkumar, after receiving initiation into Rama Nama from Swami Ramdas, chanted ceaselessly, day and night, for seven straight days. At the end of this period, he underwent a profound spiritual transformation. Reflecting on this time, he said, ‘This beggar died at the Lotus Feet of Papa Ramdas. From then on, there is only the Supreme Father in this body—nothing else, nobody else!” Similarly, Valmiki. Once a hunter, Valmiki was initiated by Sage Narada with ‘Mara’. As he repeated it, it transformed into ‘Rama’—and in turn, transformed him into Divinity Itself.”
“So continue to chant the Mahamantra incessantly as you live your life, and rest assured you will be liberated.”
