Vedanta Vani
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If You are an educated person, you should know these basic facts
The human soul is eternal and immortal, perfect and infinite, and death means only a change of centre from one body to another. The present is determined by our past actions, and the future by the present. The soul will go on evolving up or reverting back from birth to birth and death to death. But here is another question: Is man a tiny boat in a tempest, raised one moment on the foamy crest of a billow and dashed down into a yawning chasm the next, rolling to and fro at the mercy of good and bad actions — a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever-raging, ever-rushing, uncompromising current of cause and effect; a little moth placed under the wheel of causation which rolls on crushing everything in its way and waits not for the widow’s tears or the orphan’s cry? The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of Nature. Is there no hope? Is there no escape? — was the cry that went up from the bottom of the heart of despair. It reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic sage, and he stood up before the world and in trumpet voice proclaimed the glad tidings: “Hear, ye children of immortal bliss! even ye that reside in higher spheres! I have found the Ancient One who is beyond all darkness, all delusion: knowing Him alone you shall be saved from death over again.” “Children of immortal bliss” — what a sweet, what a hopeful name! Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name — heirs of immortal bliss — yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. Ye are the Children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth — sinners! It is a sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.
Thus it is that the Vedas proclaim not a dreadful combination of unforgiving laws, not an endless prison of cause and effect, but that at the head of all these laws, in and through every particle of matter and force, stands One “by whose command the wind blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, and death stalks upon the earth.”
And what is His nature? He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and the All-merciful. “Thou art our father, Thou art our mother, Thou art our beloved friend, Thou art the source of all strength; give us strength. Thou art He that beareth the burdens of the universe; help me bear the little burden of this life.” Thus sang the Rishis of the Vedas. And how to worship Him? Through love. “He is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life.” This is the doctrine of love declared in the Vedas, and let us see how it is fully developed and taught by Krishna, whom the Hindus believe to have been God incarnate on earth. He taught that a man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water; so a man ought to live in the world — his heart to God and his hands to work. It is good to love God for hope of reward in this or the next world, but it is better to love God for love’s sake, and the prayer goes: “Lord, I do not want wealth, nor children, nor learning. If it be Thy will, I shall go from birth to birth, but grant me this, that I may love Thee without the hope of reward — love unselfishly for love’s sake.” One of the disciples of Krishna, the then Emperor of India, was driven from his kingdom by his enemies and had to take shelter with his queen in a forest in the Himalayas, and there one day the queen asked him how it was that he, the most virtuous of men, should suffer so much misery. Yudhishthira answered, “Behold, my queen, the Himalayas, how grand and beautiful they are; I love them. They do not give me anything, but my nature is to love the grand, the beautiful, therefore I love them. Similarly, I love the Lord. He is the source of all beauty, of all sublimity. He is the only object to be loved; my nature is to love Him, and therefore I love. I do not pray for anything; I do not ask for anything. Let Him place me wherever He likes. I must love Him for love’s sake. I cannot trade in love.”
The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held in the bondage of matter; perfection will be reached when this bond will burst, and the word they use for it is therefore, Mukti — freedom, freedom from the bonds of imperfection, freedom from death and misery. And this bondage can only fall off through the mercy of God, and this mercy comes on the pure. So purity is the condition of His mercy. How does that mercy act? He reveals Himself to the pure heart; the pure and the stainless see God, yea, even in this life; then and then only all the crookedness of the heart is made straight. Then all doubt ceases.
Swami Vivekananda
Testing Swami ji!
Once Swami Vivekananda was visiting a cattle town in western United States. Hearing him speak of philosophy, a number of university men who had become cowboys took him at his word. When he said that one who had realized the Light was able to keep one’s equanimity under all conditions, they decided to put him to test. They invited Swamiji to lecture to them and placed a wooden tub bottom up on the ground to serve as a platform. Vivekananda commenced his address and was soon lost in his subject. Suddenly there was a terrific racket of pistol shots, and bullets whizzed past his head. Undisturbed, Swamiji continued to lecture as though nothing unusual was happening. this was spiritual poise born of spiritual illumination by which the centre of gravity had come to rest, not in the physical personality but in the divine Consciousness, the Soul of one’s soul. Such illumination brings an entirely new outlook to a man or a woman.
How are we to bring the ego in touch with the Universal? With the help of prayer or hymns, by repeating mystic words and dwelling on their meaning, by meditating on the divine Reality, we can create such a “music” in our soul, such a harmonious state within us, that we rise above our little personality, our little ego, our individual consciousness. Then we feel the touch of the super-ego, the Cosmic Consciousness that lies in us all. It is in this state that the Cosmic Spirit is realized to be more real than the individual consciousness. Here the deepest integration takes place. When the soul comes back to normal consciousness, to the plane of the ego, the mind and the body, it feels a remarkable integration. Then the individual consciousness remains rooted in the universal, and the spiritualized ego remains in tune with the mind and the body, which act as the most obedient servants. Here personality remains integrated in the one impersonal and Universal Being.
Religion and Images
Kees Boukema
In approximately two million years of continuous selection, humans have developed a capacity for language. Language is considered to be the most important characteristic that distinguishes man from other animals (Richard Leakey, The Origin of Mankind, Amsterdam 1995, p. 113 et seq.). Not only spoken language, but also visual language was and is used for expression and communication. From the 32,000-year-old (rock) drawings in Chauvet (Fr.) and the symbolic work of the genius painter and seer, Jeroen Bosch (1450 – 1516) to the emos on our smartphone.
Images can be signposts to God, but worship with spoken, sung or written word-language, such as mantras, hymns and psalms, is usually held in higher esteem than worship with image-language. The Jewish religion even has a complete prohibition on the making and worship of images and images of “everything in heaven, on earth or in water” (Exodus 20: 3 ff.). This prohibition was and is not taken literally, but in any case images were missing in the Jewish temple. God was represented only by the “Name” (Kings 8:27 and 29;). See also: Proverbs 18:10: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous rushes thither and is untouchable.” The disrespectful use of God’s name was and is forbidden (Exodus 8:5). The prophet Isaiah mocked the worship of images made of the same wood, as “with which you can warm yourself, bake bread, and roast meat” (Isaiah, 44:14-19).
In his recently published history of ideas, ‘Godenschemering’ [Utrecht, 2023], the Flemish theologian Daniël de Waele shows that in the West, the West Country, a connection with God has been sought for centuries with the aid of images, but that these practices time and time again became the object of ridicule and the statues were destroyed.
The Greco-Roman world knew the worship of images in which the deity was present, but which were not identical with the deity. (De Waele, p.47). When at the beginning of the 4th century the Roman emperor Constantine offered freedom of religion to Christians, not only the sacrifice of animals, but also the worship of idols was prohibited. His successors were less interested in religion; every man had to follow the religion he wants. Emperor Theodosius, however, again forbade the worship of (domestic) gods [De Waele, 53-55 and 57].
Seneca and other Roman intellectuals criticized belief in idols. If image worship had any effect, so the reasoning went, it was the work of demons. All the more reason to smash those images. Church father Augustine (354 – 430) read Exodus 23: 24 and found the appropriate legitimation: “You shall not worship or serve their gods, but destroy their sacrifices and destroy their images.” (See also Psalm 135:15-17). Later, Pope Gregory I (590-604) issued a further directive regarding pagan temples: “The idols must be destroyed, but the temples themselves must be consecrated with holy water and altars with relics must be erected. Thus the temples are cleansed of ‘devil-worship’ and are consecrated to the service of the true God.” (De Waele, p.59 and 65).
A repetition of these scenes took place in the 16th century during the ‘Iconoclasm’ of the Reformation. In some churches, all paintings and crucifixes were removed and replaced with ornate gilded inscriptions on whitewashed walls. The Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli loved it: “this is how the preached word also became visible.” (De Waele, pp. 11/12 and 70).
Aldous Huxley, in his collection of essays “The Perennial Philosophy” (London, 1946, Ch. XXI), identifies a contemporary form of idolatry: A Pantheon of human “ideas” that are admired and believed. The primitive belief, for example, in an ever-evolving technique that one believes one can enjoy without having to pay for the associated disadvantages. But also the idolatry of moral ideas and national and international political ideals and organizations, in which one’s own norms and values are seen as the goal. In the pursuit of what is then considered to be truth and righteousness, qualities that are a prerequisite for entering the spiritual path, such as reverence and humility, are often suppressed. Hardness, narrow-mindedness, and pride of mind are, according to Huxley, the usual side effects of “world betterment” and also the greatest obstacles to receiving enlightenment and the liberating knowledge of the Reality.
Aldous Huxley is also the author of the enthusiastic preface to the English translation of “Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita”; an account of the conversations Ramakrishna had with his followers, recorded by Mahendra Gupta, better known as ‘M’.
Already at the first acquaintance of “M” with Ramakrishna, the worship of images was discussed:
M: If people believe that God has a form, then surely it cannot be a stone image.”
Sri Ramakrishna: “But why ‘of stone’? It is a picture of the Spirit!”
M [who doesn’t quite understand what an ‘image of the Spirit’ is]: “It should be explained to people who worship stone images that God is not in a stone image and that during their worship they should keep God before their eyes, not the stone statue.”
Ramakrishna (in a sharp tone): “That’s what you from Calcutta love to do: Lecture and educate other people, without examining yourself. Who do you think you are to teach others? (….) If it is necessary to teach people something, God, the creator of heaven and earth, will do it himself. Moreover, if worshiping the stone image were wrong, wouldn’t God, our “Antaryamin” (Inner Guide), know that the prayer is directed to Him? He is happy with this worship.” (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 80; see also pp. 337 and 688 and Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, Volume I, pp. 35/36).
An interesting addition to this exchange of views was described by Swami Saradananda in chapter 7 of his biography “Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play” (Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 2003, p.240 (note) and 506-508; the English translation of ‘Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga’):
In the fall of 1869, the Durga Festival takes place in Dakshineswar. It is organized by Mathur Babu, follower of Sri Ramakrishna and the temperamental owner of the Kali Temple. For three days and three nights, the image of the mother goddess Durga is worshiped with rituals, prayers, flowers, music and dance. The last day has arrived: Vijaya dashami. The day on which the image is said farewell, which is carried in procession to the river Ganges and will be sunk there in the prescribed manner at the prescribed time. Still waiting for Mathur. He must say the prayer that will conclude the festival.
Mathur, who participated in all the ceremonies with full devotion, is still in religious ecstasy. He refuses to say the closing prayer and orders the statue to be installed in his home, where it will be venerated daily from then on. Neither relatives nor the priest manage to change Mathur’s mind, but fear his anger if they carry the image to the Ganges without his approval.
In desperation, Ramakrishna is warned. When Ramakrishna arrives, Mathur in great despair and bloodshot eyes goes straight to him and says, “Father, whatever the others say, I will not allow the Mother to be sacrificed to the Ganges. I have ordered that daily worship be continued here. How could I live in this world without the Mother?”
Ramakrishna strokes Mathur’s chest at the level of the heart chakra with his hand and says:
“Oh, is that why you are so upset? Who told you that you would have to live without the Mother? Where would She go even if She were sacrificed to the Ganges? Can the Mother Abandon Her Son? For three days She received your devotion in the temple, but from today She will receive your devotion, seated in your heart.”
Matur calms down, slowly comes to himself and is now able to say the closing prayer.
Saradananda here quotes Bhagavad Gita, X, 20: Krishna to Arjuna: “I am the Self, enthroned in the heart of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and also the end of all beings.”
Mr Kees Boukema is a scholar in Vedanta and Comparative philosophy. His brilliant and thorough-going articles on various philosophical and spiritual subjects are being published since the first issue of the magazine. His latest work is De Beoefening van Meditatie.
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The Koan and Katsumoto
Paulo J. Bittencourt
Professor at UFFS, Erechim Campus
In Edward Zwick’s sensitive and moving film, “The Last Samurai” (2003), which portrays the battle between the Western-tinged “modernization” represented by the Meiji Restoration (1868) and the persistent persistence of elements of the ancient tradition originating from the shogunate, there is a pivotal scene in which the character of the samurai Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) talks to the prisoner Nathan Algren, played by Tom Cruise. The friendship that will underpin the relationship between the two and Algren’s existential immersion in the life of the samurai village will culminate in the Western soldier joining the ranks of Katsumoto’s army. Previously an enemy, Algren will become a samurai.
Let’s go to the scene.
KATSUMOTO: The perfect bloom is a rare thing. You could spend your whole life looking at one, and it would not be a wasted life. (…) I am writing a poem about a dream I had. (…) I can’t finish the poem. Can you suggest a final line?”
More concerned with knowing the reasons that led soldiers in the service of the emperor to perpetrate, shortly before, an attack against the samurai and the inhabitants of the village, Algren, faced with an insistent Katsumoto, answers: “I am not a writer.”
KATSUMOTO: You have nightmares.
ALGREN: Every soldier has nightmares.
KATSUMOTO: Only those who are ashamed of what they have done.
ALGREN: You have no idea what I have done.
KATSUMOTO: You have seen many things.
ALGREN: I have seen.
KATSUMOTO: But you do not fear death, sometimes you wish for it. Don’t you?
ALGREN: Yes.
KATSUMOTO: Me too. It happens to men who have seen what we have seen. And so I come to the place of my ancestors, and I remember. Like these flowers, we are all dying. Knowing life in every breath, in every cup of tea, in every life we take. The path of the warrior.
ALGREN: Life with every breath.
KATSUMOTO: That is “Bushidô.”
The flowers that Katsumoto contemplated were cherry blossoms (hana), an emblematic reference of Japanese culture that conveys the ephemeral condition of beauty and all things that pass away. Among so many masterpieces of Japanese poetry, we can mention the following passage from the monumental classic by the writer Sei Shônagon, “The Book of the Pillow,” written between 994 and 1001, during the Heian Era (784-1185):
“The cherry blossoms fall especially quickly.”
There are many profound elements of the Japanese worldview evoked in Katsumoto’s sayings mentioned above. Among them, the mention of “Bushidô,” the code of honor and ethics of the samurai, which emerged and was consolidated with the history of this class of warriors, during the Heian and Tokugawa periods (1603-1867), also stands out. In addition to its Buddhist and Shinto foundations, Bushido also originated from Confucian foundations. We know that Confucius urged his disciples who eventually had to serve the State through war to die with dignity. According to the “Hagakure” (“Hidden by Flowers”), one of the seminal works on Bushido, written by Yamamoto Tsunemoto, a samurai from Saga Province in the 17th century, “Bushido involves always choosing death when there is a choice between life and death.” The great samurai Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) also wrote in “The Book of Five Rings” (“Gorin No Sho”) that “the Way of the Warrior is the resolute acceptance of death.”
(to be continued…)
Professor Paulo Bittencourt is a brilliant teacher of Ancient and Medieval History at the Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul UFFS [Erechim Campus], Brazil. He contributes articles regularly, and is a columnist of a periodical too. He has several books to his credit. He is an ardent student of Vedanta.
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You are not you
Thoughts of Eckhart Tolle
Contributed by Francis van Schaik
Who are you really? According to Eckhart Tolle, there are two dimensions of yourself: your ‘surface self’ and your ‘deep self’. ‘The most important revelation you can have in your life is when you realize that you have a ‘deep self,’’ says Eckhart. Read this article to learn how to become aware of this dimension within yourself.
When you see yourself as your ‘deep self’, you can be compassionate towards everything that makes up your ‘surface self’; your physical body, your personal identity (or your historical identity), the thoughts and emotions you experience, and so on.
The Two Dimensions of Self
There are two dimensions of yourself. The first dimension is what I sometimes call your ‘surface self’; the person with a past and a future. This is your historical identity, which is quite fragile, since the past and the future only exist in your thoughts or as a concept in your head. Most people on the planet identify completely with their ‘surface self’.
The second dimension of yourself is what I like to call the ‘deep self’. The most important revelation you can have in your life is when you realise that in addition to being a historical person or having a ‘surface self’, you have a ‘deep self’ in particular. With this realisation, you no longer look only at your ‘surface self’ when you wonder who you really are, because that is not where you will find the answer at all. You no longer have that frustrating feeling that something is missing in your life or something is not quite right.
Be present
So how do you get that realisation? It comes between two thoughts, the space in which the historical identity of your ‘surface self’ temporarily disappears. What is left of you is not something you can talk about or understand conceptually. All you know is that there is an underlying sense of presence, of your being, that is simultaneously still, alert and alive. That is how you become aware of it. The idea is to feel present in your body every day, so that you are not swept along by the stream of thoughts in your head all day long.
The Illusion of Separation
It is important to realize that your ‘surface self’ and your ‘deep self’ are not separate. Your ‘surface self’ is a manifestation of your consciousness in the same way that a ripple in the ocean is a manifestation of the ocean. If you are a ripple and are not aware that you are part of the ocean, you feel separate, which is of course an illusion.
A Liberating Realization
The realization of your ‘deep self’ is so liberating because it frees you from the idea that there is only your ‘surface self’ and the so-called ‘drama’ that comes with it. When you see yourself as your ‘deep self’, you can be compassionate towards everything that makes up your ‘surface self’; your physical body, your personal identity (or your historical one), the thoughts and emotions that you experience, and so on. This is how you also gain access to your creativity and your true intelligence, both of which are in the formless dimension.
So, welcome quiet moments into your life whenever you can. Such a moment does not even have to last an hour; a few minutes spread throughout the day is enough to let go of your thoughts and to see your ‘deep self’. Over time, you will become more and more aware of your ‘deep self’ in the background of your life. And then you will find it easier to remain aware of it, even in difficult moments.
Written by Eckhart Tolle
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Francis van Schaik is a coach of young people and also a student of human relationships with nature, the world and Truth. She regularly contributes to our online magazine. Francis is the regular contributor of articles in this page.
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The Importance of Mother Ganga
Swami Adbhutananda
SWAMI ADBHUTANANDA or Latu Maharaj was an uneducated and inexperienced shepherd boy. From the time he joined the Master, Sri Ramakrishna, at Dakshineswar, till the Master’s death, Latu was almost constantly present with him. Latu’s recollections are therefore of special value in their richness of detail and insight. Here are Adbhutananda’s words:
It was March 11, 1883, Sri Ramakrishna’s birthday. The Master asked me to bring him some water from the Ganga for his bath. He took bath with a pitcher of water and went with it to the Kali temple. Some had to work in the kitchen. Between one hundred and one hundred and fifty people ate at Dakshineswar on that occasion, and the remainder of the meal was distributed among the poor. Manomohan Babu brought a kirtan-party group from Konnagar, and the Master sang with them. Later he asked us to go with him to the Panchavati. The Master told us that he was not only a sannyasin (monk), but a king among sannyasins.
Once while staying at Dakshineswar, Rakhal (Swami Brahmananda) fell ill. The Master told him, “Take this prasad of Lord Jagannath. Then you will be all right.” That is the effect of prasad of Jagannath! You people do not believe that. ” Eat one or two pieces of Jagannath prasad before taking your food. On Dashahara day (a special celebration in honor of Ganga), the Master asked us to offer fruits etc to Mother Ganga. He told Rakhal, “Mother Ganga is a living goddess, and today one should worship her. ” At that time Rakhal did not consider the Ganga as a goddess, and since the Master knew this, he said to him.
One day , while I was walking along the bank of the Ganges, I had a doubt : “Is Mother Ganga really a goddess?” At that moment I heard the distinct sound of a conch shell coming from the middle of the river. Gradually the sound came closer and I saw a boy traveling on the water blowing a conch shell, and a goddess following him. This vision dispelled all my doubts. Rakhal was surprised to hear this and said : “We know nothing of such things. We know the Ganga only as a river of water, polluted by the boatmen.” The Master replied sharply, ” Be careful ! See that you do not pollute the Mother !” From that day on Rakhal had great respect for the Ganga.
This was also the first year (1883) that I attended the festival with the Master at Panihati. Rakhal, Bhavanath and others went in Ram Babu’s carriage. Many other devotees of the Master were also present. Navadwip Goswami was there and Sri Ramakrishna suddenly started singing along with him. We were all shocked to see the Master going into bhava samadhi. His breathing stopped, his face, eyes, even the palms of his hands, became red. Seeing him in this ecstatic state, many people rushed to receive the dust from his feet. We were in a dilemma. Everyone wanted to touch the Master, and although we had forbidden them, (they ignored us). So there was a commotion!
Ram Babu told me, “Latu, don’t try to stop them. Let the people touch him and be blessed.” But I didn’t obey him, because I knew that if anyone touched the Master while he was in samadhi, he would experience terrible pain. Finally, three of us—- Rakhal, Bhavanath, and I accompanied him from the compound to the room. But how difficult it was to resist the devotees. Even when we went to the room, people kept touching his feet. Do you know what Ram Babu did? He took a handful of dust from the ground and touched the Master’s feet with it and then started distributing it among the people. Thus the Master was freed from the crowd.
The next year (actually this visit was in 1885) I also went with him to Panihati. This time we went by boat. Someone asked Holy Mother (Sri Sarada Devi) to accompany us, but she refused. The Master praised her for this: “See her wisdom. She refused to go with us so that no one would criticize us.” That year the Master took prasad with all of us and danced in ecstasy with both hands raised.
At the same festival the Master was offered five rupees—-other holy men received only one or two rupees. (It is an Indian custom. to honor a holy person with gifts. ) The Master did not want to accept the money. However, the manager of the festival insisted and gave the money to Rakhal. With the money Rakhal bought a basket of mangoes and a packet of sweets for the Master. When the Master came to know about it, he was angry with Rakhal, and warned him: ” Never do such a thing again.”
Mary Saaleman is a devotee of Mother Sarada and Sri Ramakrishna since decades. She translates selections from books like The Master as we Saw Him and presents snippets about the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.
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Advice to Aspirants
When the consecration of the Dakshineswar Temple had become widely known, itinerant monks on their way to Gangasagar and the holy shrine of Lord Jagannath in Puri began to halt for a few days at Dakshineswar and receive the generous hospitality of the devout Rani Rasmani. Sri Ramakrishna said that many spiritual aspirants and illumined souls visited the temple during those days. It seems that one or two of them instructed Sri Ramakrishna in pranayama and other disciplines of Hatha Yoga. Sri Ramakrishna indicated this one day as he narrated the following story regarding Haladhari. He himself had practised the techniques of hatha yoga and knew their results. He later told his disciples not to practise them. If anyone asked for advice regarding hatha yoga, he would reply: “Those practices are not meant for this age. In this Kaliyuga people are short-lived and their existence depends on food alone. Where is the time now to make the body strong by practising hatha yoga, and then to call on God through Raja yoga? If one wants to practice the techniques of hatha yoga, he or she should stay constantly with a perfect guru and follow strict rules regarding food and other activities according to the guru’s instructions. Even the slightest deviation from those requirements causes serious health problems, and sometimes the aspirant can also die. So it is not necessary to practise hatha yoga. Moreover, it is for the sake of controlling the mind that one controls breath by practising pranayama and kumbhaka. One can have automatic control over the mind and breath through meditation on God and devotion. In this kaliyuga human beings are short-lived and weak, so out of compassion God made their path for Self-realization easy. A person feels anguish and emptiness at the death of some member of his family. If one has that kind of longing for God for twenty-four hours continuously, God will definitely reveal Himself.
Swami Saradananda