On Alexander and Naked Hindu Saints: Swami Vivekananda & Paramahamsa Yogananda
Compiled by London Swaminathan
Post No 834 Date:-11-02-2014
(Maha Kumbha Mela Pictures are taken from different websites;thanks)
“Strength, strength is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page. This is the one great thing to remember, it has been the one great lesson I have been taught in my life.
“It is the only literature in the world where you find the word Abaya, fearless, used again and again. In no other scripture in the world is this adjective applied either to god or man. Abhih, fearless!
“And in my mind rises from the past the vision of the great emperor of the West, Alexander the Great, and I see, as it were in a picture, the great monarch standing on the bank of the Indus talking to one of the Sanyasins (ascetics) in the forest; the old man he was talking to, perhaps naked, sitting upon a block of stone, and the emperor, astonished at his wisdom, tempting him with gold and honour to come over to Greece. And this man smiles at his gold, and smiles at his temptations, and refuses; and then the emperor standing on his authority as an emperor says, “I will kill you if you do not come”, and the man bursts in to a laugh and says, “You never told such a falsehood in your life, as you tell just now. Who can kill me? Me you kill, Emperor of the material world! Never! For I am spirit unborn and un decaying; never was I born and never do I die; I am the infinite, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient; and you will kill me!, child that you are!”
That is strength, that is strength! And the more I read the Upanishads, my friends, my countrymen, the more I weep for you, for there in is the great practical application. Strength, strength for us. What we need is strength”.
(Page 222, Selections from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, May 1990)
Yogananda’s ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’
Paramahamsa Yogananda in his book ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ gives more interesting details (page 382 to 385):-
“Interesting stories were minutely recorded by Greek historians and others who accompanied or followed after Alexander in his expedition to India. The narratives of Arrian, Diodoros, Plutarch and Strabo the geographer have been translated by Dr J W Mc Crindle to throw a shaft of light on ancient India. The most admirable feature of Alexander’s unsuccessful invasion was the deep interest he displayed in Hindu philosophy and the yogis and holy men whom he encountered from time to time and whose society he eagerly sought.
Shortly after the Macedonian warrior had arrived in Taxila in Northern India, he sent Oneskritos (a disciple of the Hellenic school of Diogenes) to fetch a great Sanyasi of Taxila, Dandamis.
“Hail to thee, O, Teacher of Brahmins!” Oneskritos said after seeking out Dandamis in his forest retreat. “The son of mighty God Zeus, being Alexander who is the Sovereign Lord of all men, asks you to go to him. If you comply, he will reward you with great gifts; if you refuse, he will cut off your head!”
The yogi received calmly this fairly compulsive invitation, and “did not so much as lift up his head from his couch of leaves”
“I also am a son of Zeus, if Alexander be such”, he commented. I want nothing that Alexander’s, for I am content with what I have, while I see that he wanders with his men over sea and land for no advantage, and is never coming to an end of his wanderings.
“Go and tell Alexander that God of Supreme king is never the Author of insolent wrong, but is the Creator of light, of peace, of life of water, of the body of man and of souls; he receives all men when death sets them free, being then in no way subject to evil disease. He alone is the god of my homage, who abhors slaughter and instigates no wars.
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“Should Alexander cut off my head, he cannot destroy my soul. My head, then silent, and my body, like a torn garment, shall remain on the earth, whence also they were taken. I, then, becoming spirit, shall ascend to my god”.
“Let Alexander then terrify with threats men who wish for health and who dread death. Against the Brahmins his weapons are powerless; we never love gold nor fear death. Go then and tell Alexander this: Dandamis has no need of aught that is yours, and therefore will not go to you; and if you want anything from Dandamis, come you to him”.
Oneskritos duly conveyed the message; Alexander listened with close attention, and felt a stronger desire than ever to see Dandamis, who, though old and naked, was the only antagonist in whom he the conqueror of many nations had met more than his match.
Alexander and Brahmin ascetics
Alexander invited to Taxila a number of Brahmin ascetics noted for their skill in answering philosophical questions with pithy wisdom. An account of the verbal skirmish is given by Plutarch; Alexander himself framed all the questions.
Which be the more numerous, the living or the dead?”
The living, for the dead are not.
Which breeds the larger animals, the sea or the land?
The land, for the sea is only a part of land.
Which is the cleverest of the beasts?
That one with which man is not yet acquainted.
(Man fears the unknown)
Which existed first, the day or the night?
The day was first by one day.
This reply caused Alexander to betray surprise; the Brahmin added: impossible questions require impossible answers.
How best may a man make himself beloved?
A man will be beloved if, possessed with great power; he still does not make himself feared.
How may a man become a god?
By doing that which it is impossible for a man to do.
Which is stronger, life or death?
Life, because it bears so many evils.
Alexander succeeded in taking out of India, as his teacher, a true yogi. This was Kalyana (Swami =Sphines), called Kalanos by the Greeks. The sage accompanied Alexander to Persia. On a stated day at Susa in Persia, Kalanos gave up his aged body by entering a funeral pyre in view of the whole Macedonian army. The historians recorded the astonishment of the soldiers as they observed that the yogi had no fear of pain or death; he never once moved from his position as he was consumed in the flames.
Before leaving for his cremation Kalanos had embraced many of his close companions but he refrained from bidding farewell to Alexander, to whom the Hindu sage had merely remarked,
“I shall see you later in Babylon”.
Alexander left Persia and, a year after, died in Babylon. The prophesy had been the Indian guru’s way of saying that he would be present with Alexander in life and death.
(A foot note the bottom of the page says Mc Crindles translations are available in Six volumes on Ancient India (Calcutta Chuckervertty, Chatterjee & co 15 College Square 1879, reissued 1927)
(Summary of this article has been given in Tamil on April 8, 2012 நிர்வாண சாமியார்களுடன் அலெக்ஸாண்டர்)
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