Swami Swaroopananda recalls this rare experience.
An extremely rare Master is one who not only serves society but is also a visionary who has plans for generations to come. Such an extraordinary rare Master was our Gurudev. The sun had just set beyond the horizon, and Gurudev sat surrounded by some devotees in Hong Kong.
A question from our youth classes in Hong Kong seemed to be one without answers: “Why does a realized Person come back to this world? He knows, ‘I alone am’ and sees the world as an illusion. If so, to save whom or for what would he come back?”
We knew the common answer was that we come into this world to exhaust our vasanas; the realized Master comes back to serve the world, not out of desire but out of love. Our individual world comes to an end on Realization, Isvara’s creation continues. But… if God’s creation is also an illusion and the world is an illusion, why would the Master come back? Gurudev discerned that we were not going to give up our ‘logical’ reasoning.
He placed his hands on his knees and bent forward toward us: “When a person realizes, he, the individual, has merged and gone. Through the shell of his body, the total vasanas express themselves. Isvara Himself expresses Himself. God finds that ‘Here is a readymade equipment. I don’t have to go through the play of birth, growth, and be now and then spanked by the mother. Why not continue through this body?’ That is why we say, ‘gururbrahma, gururvisnuh, gururdevo mahesvarah.’”
Before we could think of how to corner him further, Gurudev looked straight into our eyes; his own eyes turned within, the fingers of his hands turned toward his heart, and tapping his chest, in a deep voice he said, “The meditator who meditated is merged and gone; it is Narayana functioning through this body, my children; it is Narayana functioning through this body.”