(spoken by a devotee)
Siddharameshwar was born in 1888 in the village Pathri, Solapur, India. In 1906 he was initiated by his guru 'Shri Bhausaheb Maharaj' in Karnataka, India, who taught meditation as the way to reach Final Reality. He was one of the contemporaries of Sri Ramana Maharshi.
In 1920 Siddharameshwar started to set out on a fast way to attain realization, six years after Bhauhaseb maharaj had died. His fellow-students opposed, but eventually he succeeded by himself.
Siddharameshwar died on November 9, 1936, at the age of 48, passing his understanding to his disciples.
Atma Vidya (Self-Knowledge") was the central theme in Siddharameshwar Maharaj's teachings. In 'Master Key to Self-Realization' he describes how the teaching of Vedanta is transmitted to a student. It starts with the guru. Thereafter a mantra is used to make the mind receptive. Then the teaching has to be realized experientially by the student.
The student has to turn away his mind from external objects and the gross body, and turn within. By realizing that objects have only a temporary appearance, it becomes possible to develop detachment and to clear one's mental landscape. This is a necessary step to develop Self-Knowledge, the renunciation of the impermanent, and the knowing of the permanent.
The teachings of Siddharameshwar have been called Vihangam Marg, "the bird's way", the direct path to Self-discovery.
Siddharameshwar's most famous student was Sri Nisargadatta who said the following of his master,
My Guru told me: "Go back to that state of pure being, where the ‘I am’ is still in its purity before it got contaminated with ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that.’ Your burden is of false self-identifications, abandon them all."
My guru told me, "Trust me, I tell you: you are Divine. Take it as the absolute truth. Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too. All comes from God. Remember it always. You are God, your will alone is done." I did believe him and soon realized how wonderfully true and accurate were his words. I did not condition my mind by thinking, "I am God, I am wonderful, I am beyond." I simply followed his instruction, which was to focus the mind on pure being, "I am," and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the "I am" in my mind and soon the peace and joy and deep all-embracing love became my normal state.
In it all disappeared—myself, my guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained, and unfathomable silence (from 'I Am That' by Nisargadatta Maharaj).
