The Laughing Swamis

The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

"There were once three swamis. We used to call them the Laughing Swamis. They did nothing but laugh, all day and night. Wherever they went they laughed and laughed all the time, everywhere. They laughed through the villages, they laughed with the children, they were known everywhere as the Laughing Swamis.

"Finally the day came when one of them died, and the people of the locality wanted to know what the other swamis would do. After all, when someone dies there must be mourning. :But when they came, they found both of them laughing heartily.

"Eventually, they prepared a bamboo stretcher, and put the dead swami on it, and took him to consign him to the flames as Hindus do. They were laughing, and everyone was laughing. There were no suppressed drums, there were no church cars, they were all laughing and laughing, and they brought flowers and laughter, and flowers and laughter.

"Finally, they put him on the flames. The Hindus first put logs of wood, and with the wood, if they can manage, sandalwood, and they bathe the body in Ganges water, give him a scented bath, and so many other things, and eventually put him naked on the fire.

"But this swami had made a will before he died. He said, “When I die I should not be given a bath. I should not be put on the flames naked. Still dressed in the clothes in which I die, without any ceremony, I must be consigned to the fire.”

"So they had to accept what he had willed. He was put onto the fire and when it was burning, suddenly, putt, putt, putt, the fire spat out everywhere. He had hidden fireworks and crackers in his clothes.

"Before he died this man thought that even when his body was at the most lamented moment of the fire ceremony, people should not be sorry, they should not shed any tears, they should not say, “Poor man, he is gone, we will miss him.” Instead, he must create something to make them burst into laughter. So he got a lot of crackers and put them everywhere inside his clothes; and when he was put on the fire the crackers started exploding and everyone laughed heartily.

"This is the story of a swami who laughed when he was alive, and made others laugh when he died, and I think Australians are representative of this. I have been to almost all the countries of the world, and I can definitely tell you that nobody can laugh like you do. These swamis are dead, and they must have been reincarnated as Australians. So, these laughing swamis, these laughing Australians, these relaxed beings, full of honey, full of apples, full of juice, now it is high time they must be exported out of Australia to those countries where there is a scarcity of happiness, where the people are starving for it – the emotionally underdeveloped countries. Not India, but those nations which are psychically, emotionally and spiritually underdeveloped."

excerpted from Satyam Speaks, pp. 85-86, by Swami Satyananda Saraswati:

(Haridas, Jan 2014)

Osho talks about these swamis in Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi, Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 4 and Sun of Consciousness. See also discussion, for further consideration of this story.

author: Harry Aveling

language: English

notes

editions