The Lion's Roar: Siddhas of Lanka (Part II)

Sometime in the eighties I happened to walk into the office of the then Minister of Hindu Religious Affairs P. Devarajah. He was at a meeting with some elderly Hindus and I was asked to be seated. I could not but overhear their conversation which had great relevance to the spiritual lineage I had been initiated into, on my return to Sri Lanka in 1971 after five years in the west. Lay devotees of Yogaswami the Sage of Jaffna, were arranging with Minister Devarajah to commemorate Swami's birth anniversary with a postage stamp, a statue and a road being named after him. Believing that I had been sent to stop this secular desecration I spoke up.

Will a stamp that would be licked, pushed into a postbox, franked at the post office and end up as garbage enhance a sage's reputation? Will statues that are of use only for birds to relieve themselves propagate wisdom? Will polluted roads the hallmark of commerce named after Swami increase piety? The minister responded positively to what I said and the lay devotees became silent. The campaign was abandoned and the traditional attitude endeared as if by magic.

Yogaswami

Siddhas like Yogaswami did not celebrate birthdays, nor did they pose for photographs, write books, or use titles like Reverend, Doctor and Venerable. They did not seek adulation or devotees, nor did they reveal themselves to an ignorant sensation-seeking media. These anonymous free spirits moved at will like the wind. When a Siddha speaks it is often in riddles with multiple meanings but it is always the Eternal Dhamma, and wherever they chose to be, they were attended to by an enlightened community – arya sangha - from the four quarters of the world.

The world itself was their home. This is the sangha or community that for centuries found felicity in a Holy Land called Sri Lanka.

Yogaswami's reputation was such that several lay folk considered themselves his disciples. The Tamil Markandu and the German Gauribala were the only sanyasin disciples. Markandu Swami sat around Yogaswami in Jaffna repeating songs and stories that he had heard from his Guru while Gauribala Swami moved around freely in different parts of Sri Lanka, coming to terms with his awakening which occurred as a result of his meeting with Yogaswami. In Kataragama, Gauribala Swami was called "Pettai Nai" or the bitch by a wise old woman called Haro Hara Amma, who named the four young men with him after animals, whom Swami had in turn introduced to his guru. This lineage that begins with Siva Dakshinamurti was transmitted to Yogaswami by Chellapah Swami who in turn was initiated by Kadai Swami who was initiated in a succession by siddhas in Tamilnadu.

It was my good fortune that on returning home in 1971 I found in Sri Lanka an Arya Sangha from the four quarters of the world still enjoying her felicity. After five years in a material world in North America I never expected to meet an enlightened Siddha roaming around this island roaring like a lion and living the myth in modern times.

Gauribala Swami

Peter Schoenfeld alias Nyanakhetto Thera alias Gauribala Swami alias German Swami came to Sri Lanka sometime in the 1930's escaping from a Europe that was witnessing the rise of Hitler. His brother Malte, Paul Zils who contributed greatly to the art of film documentation in this country, and several young Germans in their twenties came at the same time to Ceylon in search of ‘an island of light' or Dhamma deepa - located somewhere in the mystic East. For them Lanka had the same symbolic value as for the ancients. It was magical and the abode of the wise. This movement east mostly of Germans of Jewish origin is well documented in the book Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer.

I first met Gauribala Swami in 1971. He was staying with Mike and Elizabeth Wilson on Barnes Place. A bare bodied European dressed in a white un-seamed cotton cloth and being called Swami was being treated with great respect in the household when I was introduced to him. He called me ‘the crown crested gem' which I did not know was the meaning of my name. From the beginning I noticed that unlike holy men, he made no secret of the fact that he enjoyed a drink and a Jaffna cigar and was living life to the fullest. Happiness and mischief permeated from every pore of his being. This was no ascetic or saint. He was Rabelaisian. I however was shocked, being at that time a brainwashed subscriber to Galle Road civilization and its morality. I expected Swamis to be saintly and holy, but for Swami swa meant 'self' and mi meant 'person' – the word Swami therefore meaning 'one who is him/herself'.

On his rare visits to Colombo in the seventies, Swami attracted people from Archaeological Commissioner Raja De Silva to Chitrasena. He danced with them both, dropping tit bits on Sihagiri as he called Sigiriya for Raja's benefit and striking matching postures with Chitrasena. Raja several years later on the 30th of September 2002 inscribed my copy of his book Sigiriya and its Significance with the words "The debt to Swami Gauribala's wisdom is recorded here". This man performed no siddhis or miracles on demand as modern gurus do but rather played with words and ideas.

Stranger than fiction

I remember once when Captain Leslie de Silva of Air Ceylon called on me. My house guest Swami Gauribala answered the door. Since I was not in he soon left but called me the very next day to inquire as to who had answered the doorbell. When I told him who it was he told me an amazing tale. He was the pilot of an Air Ceylon plane plying between Jaffna and Colombo. One day a saffron robed European Swami was one of the passengers. Since the flight had been delayed the Swami insisted that he wanted to get down at Katunayake since he was meeting the Canadian High Commissioner James George who was arriving there from abroad in one hour. Leslie laughed and advised Swami to take a taxi from Ratmalana. The flight took off and just when they were approaching Colombo the visibility was so bad that the plane was forced to land at Katunayake International Airport. Swami disembarked, thanked Leslie, and walked away. Leslie was left dumbfounded. He had not met this man thereafter. Seeing him at my door several years later rekindled his memory and that evening he came home to enjoy a drink of Chivas Regal with Swami.

Another incident concerns Kavichandra Alexander. Kavi is from Batticaloa and is today one of the world's most respected recording engineers cum producers with his label Waterlily Acoustics having twice won the ‘World Music' category in the Grammy Awards. Gauribala Swami and Haro Hara Amma ‘misappropriated' Kavi's earring in Kataragama Perehera season when Kavi was quite young and returned it after seven days having blessed it. Acoustic sound is Kavi's specialty and he has recorded most of the great masters from around the world. Kavi attributes his keen sense of hearing to Murugan, God of Kataragama who transmitted this power through Swami and Haro Hara Amma. Kavi whom I have never met in the flesh found me magically on the net because I had in the past written about the very two people who had changed his life. We are now great friends.

Co-incidence, siddhi, call it what you may, these things happened. When such things happen it is beyond belief. All those who really ‘knew' Swami now know that fortune smiles in the presence of a siddha. I bear witness to this with my own life which is the greatest miracle that I know.

There were several others who caught some aspects of the spirit of this remarkable man. Maggi Lidchi who had not met Gauribala Swami wrote a remarkably intuitive novel Earthman which is mostly about the relationship a western seeker had with him set in Jaffna and Kataragama. Richard Boyle and I purchased the screen rights of this book in 1974 and hired Sinhala screenwriter Tissa Abeysekera to write an English screenplay long before he was publicly acclaimed as a brilliant bi-lingual author. The film never got made for lack of funds.

Phillip K. Crowe who was American Ambassador to Ceylon also writes about his meeting with Swami in Kataragama in Diversions of a Diplomat in Ceylon (1957).

The Pada Yatra

Swami and I corresponded. I still have the letters he wrote. He never dated letters but rather preferred stating here and now. It was however, sometime in 1975 that he wrote to me trying to entice me to join the annual Pada Yatra or foot pilgrimage, from Jaffna to Kataragama.

"The road is open for you, my dear! But time runs out for me. So, here is a new test and trial for you: a very hard one, I tell you: the karai-yatra. If you can do it, even in parts, which means in not too hard a sequence for you, it will be very good for your Guru and Mike, Aiyar and all those who are really sincere in following The Path! I gave you the timetable out of love for you. Now it is up to you, to act! If you come, I must warn you: it will be hard going for you. For me, too. It is my 25th jubilee pilgrimage, and with the help of the Mother's Grace (Virgin Madre!) and yours, I hope to complete it at Valliamma's sacred hill. After this my "mission" in Lanka will be completed and I will set out to the ‘Hieric Islands' for the last "flight of the alone to the Alone".

The Mike referred to was Mike Wilson who became Siva Kalki Swami in later life and Aiyar was Aja Iskander Schmidlin, the Swiss German artist who became Bhikku Sumedha who lived the last decade of his life in a cave near Kandy, both of whom were greatly influenced by Swami. I responded positively to Swami's letter and as suggested walked the Yatra with him from Pottuvil to Kataragama. Accompanying Swami on this his last Yatra was also the great dancer Chitrasena. From Kataragama we proceeded as said in the letter to Vallimallai the hill beyond Wedasittikanda where Mike and Aiyar were living in a cave. In a symbolic gesture Gauribala Swami disrobed and draped his kavi cloth on me which I kept on for a day or two before returning to my faded jeans.

From then on Swami would only wear white. As he had stated in his letter he was free, but I found that I had been bound by the magic of the Pada Yatra, till I helped revive it in 1989 for the Kataragama Devotees Trust that I founded to continue this ancient tradition. I found that a few of my ancestors had also participated in the Yatra in the past which had been abandoned for a few years due to the increasing hostility en route. From two of us in Nainativu or Nagadipa to a few more in Mullaitivu to twelve in Trincomalee to 40 devotees reaching Kataragama, I handed over my obsession of keeping this ancient tradition alive to the American Patrick Harrigan. He had walked with Swami all the way from Jaffna in 1972 and since 1989 has continued with it for twenty years. This year was the 20th consecutive Pada Yatra since the recommencement of this tradition, and now it happens spontaneously.

The Lion's Roar: Siddhas of Lanka (Part II)

It was Swami who introduced me to the mature writings of Ananda Coomaraswamy, Rene Guenon, and Frithjof Schuon. In 1981, when I found myself in the United States with Prime Minster R. Premadasa I abandoned his entourage to meet Schuon who was living in Bloomington, Indiana with Whittal Perry. He rarely granted interviews but his curiosity had been aroused when Rama Coomaraswamy told him that I knew Gauribala Swami whom he had also met.

I made my way to see him delighted at the prospect of meeting the last of these three men who wrote mostly on the Perennial Philosophy. I left my one hour meeting with Schuon, who was dressed as an Arab sheikh, and wired Swami thanking him for having turned me on to this school of thought.

Swami wired back asking me to return at once to Sri Lanka. When I returned I asked him why. His response was "You need to be turned off from traditionalism." He then showed me an article by Schuon that was titled ‘The Problem of Sexuality' and asked "Do you have a problem with sexuality? Is there a problem with sexuality?" He then smiled and stated in Tamil the famous Yogaswami dictum "Oru Pollapum Illai" meaning ‘Not one problem exists'. Years later we are now witnessing the re-branding of the Perennial Philosophy as ‘Traditionalism' and its adherents as ‘Traditionalists'.

Caves and Siddhasthanas

At one time the Ariya Sangha occupied caves in many parts of Sri Lanka. I remember when Islamic Bawas were keeping the flame lit, occupying caves in Jailani or Kuragala. Inscriptions in many parts of Sri Lanka state that caves have been donated by the laity to the ‘Sangha of the four quarters of the world, past, present and yet to come'. The Sangha referred to were not just the Theravada Bhikku Sangha. Knowledge and wisdom defined the Ariya Sangha and enlightened seers did not need robes to set them apart. Culture was apparent everywhere around them. Labels, exclusivity and religion were not in their vocabulary. The Buddha himself was a Maha Siddha in this tradition. Some consider this southern revelation also as Dakshinamurthy which means southern form.

There were once several siddhasthanas in Sri Lanka. Since siddhas chose anonymity these siddhasthanas were originally in dense forests. Swami Gauribala who knew Sri Lanka better than anybody I have met so far took me to a few of these siddhasthanas in various parts of the island. The oral legend was that there were three circles around every siddha. The outer periphery was the Kaela Miniya or the Forest Dweller also called Vedda. This man dealt with the villagers bordering the forest and traded honey and dried meat. He alone had access to the next circle which was normally composed of disciples of the siddha. They grew plants of use and were guardians of the labyrinth that protected the centre from strangers. Beyond the labyrinth there was always an ascent. The horizontal turned into the vertical. Here there was silence and nobody. If fortune permitted it would lead to the siddha who was the embodiment of solitude. The Dhamma revealed itself in silence. Speechlessly spoken wisdom with show of hand (mudra) led to a silence that contained it all. This is how the oral tradition describes this transmission.

The kuttis or Cubs

Gauribala Swami like his very German name Schonfeldt was himself a shining field. Even when he was a Buddhist monk for a while at Polgasduwa he was called Nyanakhetto. He like the bitch or ‘Petta Nai' in season attracted those interested in the chase from the four quarters of the world.

This was his refrain as he walked to the Menik Ganga for his daily ablutions followed by the rest of the puppies Haro Hara Amma had named. The son of the last British Governor General of Ceylon Yanai Kutti, Nari Kutti an Australian Architect, Punnai Kutti or Adrian Snodgrass, currently one of the world's most respected Buddhist scholars and of course Sam Wickramasinghe, the well known raconteur who was Pulli Kutti.

The Way and the Sangha

Gauribala was an iconoclast. His lineage was of iconoclasts. Summa Iru or Nikang Inda was at the core of this dispensation. Thoughtlessly being, empty, nobody, breathing in and breathing out, now here yet nowhere was the experience. It was not in books, not in scriptures, could not be articulated except as the chin mudra in art. Mudra was the teaching method that the siddhas used where all contradictions were resolved in the present. Time and space converged hence everything was perfected. This language transcended speech and belonged to every traditional race on the planet. Symbols and hand gestures told the whole story that could not be stated otherwise.

Thanks to this lineage a few of us were privileged to glimpse beyond the veil. All suffering being dependent on ignorance was understood for what it was. One automatically began accepting whatever happens as happening right, like a true Muslim accepting always the will of the Divine.

Gauribala acolytes are today everywhere. Rose Collingwood, a girl I introduced to Swamiji in 1971 returned in 1984 and had the privilege of performing the last rites on a man who willed his own death. He was perfectly alright when Rose walked into ‘Summasthan', his Selvachchanithi Ashram. He greeted her as "Padma" which has the same symbolic meaning as Rose. They had not met in more than a decade. She came in response to a dream not even knowing if Swami was alive.

Having recognized her after so many years his next statement was "Now that you have come I can go". He attained Maha Samadhi having given her specific instructions on what was to be done thereafter. Rose carried out his wishes in detail.

Her first stop after carrying out the last rites as expressed was to visit the late Bhikku Sumedha, to hand him a small trunk full of books in German. Her second stop was my home. To me was left his note books and life study - the Summa Iruka Suttiram or the art of self naughting – the Mu Copy. I had also been given another copy by Swami himself. This was inscribed from Bala to Bala. I gifted one copy to Patrick Harrigan.

The Arya Sangha

The great error is assuming that Sri Lanka only had a Theravada Buddhist dispensation. Every dispensation that either arose or came to India found its way to Sri Lanka. Mahayana Buddhists, Tantric Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Sufis, Nestorian Christians were all present in traditional Sri Lanka and this is evident in cultural practices that still exist, as well as in inscriptions, monuments and the oral tradition.

Gauribala Swami who would have been 100 on September 15 had he lived was a living exponent of what the Ariya Sangha stood for. He passed this knowledge in a traditional manner to a few of his acolytes who still revere his name. As for others who did not really know him, like all siddhas he will be dismissed as a great fraud and trickster, a label he would have enjoyed.

A Siddha passes

As he lived, Swami died. He did not want a samadhi built by ignorant lay folk like they did with Yogaswami which in turn became an Army camp. When he decided to die, he spent three days preparing Rose for his departure. She thought it a joke at first as he was in perfect good health. However, after three days of talking when he suddenly turned into an invalid she proceeded to do as she had been instructed. After the life force had left, she got rid of all evidence that there had ever been a Gauribala. A few months later his ashram was bulldozed by the Sri Lankan Army as their Vadamarachchchi campaign went right through his compound. Rubble was all that was left of Summasthan. This is exactly what this siddha would have wanted since he knew that a great hunter leaves no trail.

He experienced life as Yogaswami had taught him. He told him Virupinapadi Cey – "Do as you please" - there is no further birth for you. To live as a free man he could not have done so in the official robes of a sect with rules. He had been there, done that and wanted no more of it. People around him in both Jaffna and Kataragama held him in great respect, since they were accustomed to siddhas and their ways. Traditional people were used to a tradition in which jnanis or siddhas were permitted anything. They knew that there were multiple meanings in every action; hence they never judged such men.

In this world the only war is internal and victory is liberation from delusion. Thanks to Gauribala Swami I often visited such a world in the Jaffna peninsula, considered the bottom of the social structure in 1971-1984. In these traditional communities, bhakti (devotion) and jnanam (wisdom) ruled. Cultivators, fisher folk, toddy tappers, tom-tom beaters, palanquin bearers and all the little people worship Amma or the Earth Mother. They are summa. Their lifestyle is summa. Summa is a state of being, where tranquility and serenity replace paranoia and fear.

Gauribala Swami was always summa iru as tattooed on his left arm and this was what he left as a legacy. All traditional people are summa or nikkan which explains their detachment and placidity in the midst of chaos. It is this detachment that has permitted charlatans to dominate sometimes since everybody knows that all manifestation is subject to change.

(The Living Heritage website www.kataragama.org is another source of information about Yogaswami, Gauribala Swami and this lineage)

The Lion's Roar: Siddhas of Lanka

Yogaswami

Gauribala Swami

Stranger than fiction

The Pada Yatra

The Lion's Roar: Siddhas of Lanka (Part II)

Caves and Siddhasthanas

The kuttis or Cubs

The Way and the Sangha

The Arya Sangha

A Siddha passes

Life and Times of German Swami | The Bohemian Swami