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This was the only interview given by Swami Aadhavan (in 2001) by the spiritual writer and philosopher Bala Maari. This interview was given 2 months before Swami Aadhavan died and was first broadcast in Dec 2001. |
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An interview withVenPuravi Aadhavan - by the philosopher and writer: Bala Maari (Dec 2001) |
| BM: Greetings Swami Aadhavan.
VA: Please Bala. I am not a Swami, I am not a Guru, a teacher, a holy man or a great thinker. I am simply: a naked soul, call me VenPuravi, for that I my birth name. BM: Ok VenPuravi. Let us start at the beginning. When did you become an Aaiyyanist? VA: I was born an Aaiyyanist. My father was one. My mother was a simple Tamil Hindu from the Southern tradition. My father taught me the essentials of the Aaiyyanist tradition, though he was not a full Aaiyyanist himself - that is, he was not a renunciate. I was taught the twelve rings of Aaiyyan, The Seed - The spiritual teachings of Guru Vithi Telgu, and many other works. I was a spiritual person, but I was young and only decided to follow the path after I left university at the age of 25. BM: Is that when you found 'the truth' and what does it mean to live the truth... and the peace? VA: To exist in 'the truth' is only possible and credible after the knower realises the truth. To be the truth one must have integrity and consistency in your words, thoughts, actions, and intuition. One must fight for the truth... see the lies and dishonesty and challenge it wherever you exist... in the mind plane and in the physical plane. To find the truth? When person whose mind is silent and whose heart is pure and full of selfless love, one can surely realise the truth. BM: After you left university you sought the truth in many places. It was then that you joined Guru DevaNesan's ashram in Tamil Nadu. Tell me, there were quite a few students then. How did you find the experience? VA: Yes I joined the Ashram there in the 1940s till the late 50s and spent most of my 'awakening life' there, learning the teachings of Aaiyyan, the sculpture of DevaNesan and the ideals of the twelve Gurus as well as the knowledge of all the masters throughout the ages. There were many good students who passed through that Ashram including Guru Manmatari, Swami Agavoli and briefly the then very young Guru Mahavashtriyan (who went to study under Swami Jnanadipa Bhariri.) . These people had great minds and great ideas about spirituality. I was truly blessed at that time. BM: And there you met Dravida DuraiPandi? VA: Yes that is correct. While I was teaching at a dalit school in Thanjavur I met the mind and following of Dravida DuraiPandi. Guru Dravida DuraiPandi began to evolve his own philosophy of resistance from the Dravidian scriptures of old. I used to attend all these sessions and I joined all those spiritual beings and they taught me something I didn't know at all... and that was the 'total path' to non-violence. BM: Yes VenPuravi. So... in order to seek the truth and path to non-violence you began to challenge the authority of the temples and of mainstream Hinduism. You were involved in many acts of civil disobedience cumulating in your work in Tibet during the 1970s as the 'shadow walkers'. VA: I decided to spread my message around the world with my student. We travelled extensively around India, Nepal and Tibet where we encountered a great darkness. That was a terrible time, not only for the great Tibetan people but also for the Aaiyyanist movement worldwide. We lost many spiritual people including my great student UdayaSooriyan. BM: Yes I am so sorry for that. VA: Yes Bala, my student and I entered Tibet in 1967 in order to help the monks at the monastery of Ganden Chönkhor. We helped save some of the manuscripts and transported and protected a great many friends against the perceived threat from the 'fundamental secularism' of the Chinese. Using non-violent methods we resisted but. unfortunately... [interview stops momentarily as Swami VenPuravi composes himself] VA: Before I continue I must say something. You can reconciliate reason and emotions when you are beyond them. So long as you are identified with reason or identified with emotion, you cannot reconcile them. I am still identified with reason and emotion as this is the path I have chosen to aid my fellow man. Other Aaiyyanists prefer to detach themselves from the physical plane and exist as outside observers. I desire to exist and suffer in this plane to comprehend the injustices of our reality. BM: And how did this affect you in Tibet? VA: Even now, that terrible time still grips my soul... Many Aaiyyanist have followed the twelve rings to bypass the anguish in our lives... but as you know Bala, I am from the Harita school of Aaiyyanism. We suffer, as the waterfall splashing on the rocks knows no direction. It was then my student UdayaSooriyan and I were arrested by the Chinese, and imprisoned. It was three weeks later that I found out that he had died. BM: Did you ever find out how it happened? VA: No friend Bala. All I know is that the living universe lost a part of itself before its time. The non-living shadow gained a great soul, a sense of honour... a simple dedication to truth. BM: And after you were released the famous photo (in fact the only photo of you) was taking by the investigative Indian photographer: MalaiSami. VA: Yes, that is right Bala. I, like most Aaiyyanists do not wish to become an icon, or a figurehead, or set ourselves up as the Guru who knows all. This only leads to the ego self, controlling the mind child. I was anguished by the lost of my friend and many comrades and was in the press conference when the photo was taken by MalaiSami. We needed the story of UdayaSooriyan and the others to be revealed to the world. That is why I gave my permission for it to be used... but only in the context of the Tibetan movement and the human rights movement as a whole... and not to promote myself. BM: Yes... it is said you never took another student after UdayaSooriyan. VA: That is the way the forest thins my friend. I had already achieved all I needed to know. I am essentially a sannyasin now, a renouncer. I have no followers. BM : Why did you decide or choose to go into exile and become a renunciate? Does exile have a role in your path? VA: I started observing pain about 70 years ago. I wanted to listen to the voice of Brahman. When you want to listen you have to be alone... silent. Then slowly and gradually I was taken up by the solitude. I fell in love with that path. The silence is motiveless. The more you become motiveless, the more you are drawn into 'the shadow'. Exile has no role at all... BM: Tell me Swami VenPuravi, you have spent the last 70 years (ever since joining the Aaiyyanist movement) fighting on issues relating to Spirituality, Hinduism, civil rights etc. What do you think of the current situation regarding the temple at Ayodhya. VA: Ahh... unfortunately the karmic balance has been disrupted in such a case. The mosque should never been destroyed, and the ones that enacted such an act will be required by the universe to rebalance. BM: Rebalance? VA: Yes, they will either be required to rebuild the mosque in this life... or in the next. BM: The next life... in what sense? VA: Yes Bala, the ones who destroyed the mosque will be reincarnated as great Muslim scholars and will rebuild the physical mosque or the metaphysical mind. Either way the universe will be rebalanced. BM: Hmm... So the universe always finds a path to itself. Is this the essentialness of the path and tell me VenPuravi, what would you say your final legacy... or path will become? VA: Ahh Bala... my final path. Hahahaha. Hahahaha [He continues to laugh and leaves the room]. This was the only interview Swami Aadhavan ever gave. He died 2 months later of old age, peacefully in his sleep. He was 91 years of age. Special thanks go out to Bala Maari to allow us to use his interview on this webpage and the MalaiSami foundation for the use of the only photograph of Swami Aadhavan. |
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