6. Life at Sringeri

For some days after his return to Sringeri, the Mahaswamiji seemed always plunged in deep reflection and indifferent to his surroundings. He forgot even his daily physical requirements and his attention had to be drawn to these by his faithful attendants. Many causes contributed to this state of things. The late Maharaja was so attached to the Mahaswamiji by ties of affection and devotion that he never failed to execute the least expressed of His wishes. When the affairs of the Sringeri Jagir had once again got into some disorder, the Mahaswamiji requested the Maharaja to set matters right. The Maharaja immediately gave orders to his Dewan, K. Seshadri Iyer, to look into the matter.

The settlement of the Jagir Inams was immediately taken up and the rights of the Inamdars, the tenants and the Peetham were carefully defined; the lands unjustly alienated were restored to the Peetham; unauthorised alienations were prohibited at the risk of resumption. As a result of this settlement and the careful supervision of the agent of the Peetham and his faithful servants, the revenues of the Jagir rose from Rs.60,000/- a year, to Rs.1,30,000/-; the lands granted by the Raja of Ramnad yielded an annual revenue of Rs.8,000/-. The long-standing debts of the Jagir were cleared; gold and silver plates and jewels were freshly made at a cost of over one lakh of rupees. The Mahaswamiji himself never gave a thought to these material considerations; but his very presence was enough to inspire his agent and his subordinates with zeal and it was their fidelity, aided by the protecting-hand of the ruler of the State that had accomplished all these tasks.

Ever since the dismemberment of the Vijayanagar Empire, the fortunes of the Sringeri Peetham were carefully looked after by the rulers of Mysore and by none, so much as by the late Maharaja. His being taken away suddenly in the prime and bloom of life had contributed to the grief of the Mahaswamiji. The Mahaswamiji was intensely emotional; pity and sympathy would well-up from his heart at the least sign of distress; he would walk gently on earth, looking carefully around him, lest he should, by chance, tread on any ant or worm; he could never bear to see others suffering in his presence.

Once, when the Mahaswamiji was being borne on the palanquin in a grand procession in the city of Mysore, he saw an old woman looking at him intently and with tears in her eyes; the Mahaswamiji noticed this, in the huge throng of enthusiastic spectators and devotees, recognized in her his old nurse, who had taken him about on her shoulders when he was a child of two or three and fondled him on her knees. He sent for her, loaded her with presents and sent her home more pleased with the simple, kind words he spoke and the reminiscences of his child-life and her tender care of him than by the presents. He never failed to enquire after the comforts of one and all who came as visitors to the Peetham, though his confidence in his agent and the attendants was unbounded; he saw to it that his court pundits lived in comfort.

One of these, though learned like the other pundits, had a failing; he was very short-tempered and the servant who had been employed by the Math to cook for him and otherwise look to his wants was so much put-out by the treatment of the pundit that, one day, he abruptly left the Math, without informing anyone, and returned later. The Shastri waited till five in the evening, fasting and gnashing his teeth; but the cook not turning up, he staggered to the presence of the Mahaswamiji and told his tale of woe, hinting that he was dying of hunger. The Mahaswamiji, at once, left his seat and went in haste to the kitchen to see if the run-away servant was there. The agent who was inside the kitchen, superintending the preparations, noticed this unusual proceeding in alarm, caused the servant concerned, who was there, to get out of the sight of the Mahaswamiji, who turned back to his seat and sent for the agent.

Was not the Mahaswamiji aware of the failing of this pundit? Could he not have easily surmised that the man had brought the trouble on himself by his own short temper? Could not the Mahaswamiji have sent for his agent by a nod of his head and should he have walked to the kitchen himself, when hundreds of attendants were waiting to readily execute his slightest command? It only shows how tender-hearted he was. Such anecdotes may be multiplied; but enough perhaps has been said to show that the most characteristic feature about him was his tenderness of heart, which hastened to the relief of distress, without respect to the fault which might have brought about the distress.

It is needless to add that the sight of the innocent boy-princes of Mysore, removed from the strong hand of paternal control touched his heart as nothing else could have done and the first thing he did on his return to Sringeri was pray to Goddess Sharadamba, soliciting her to keep them from all peril and make them wise and pious. A couple of stanzas from this hymn are given below:

(O Sharadamba, may the two sons of Sri Chamaraja become close to each other like Rama and Lakshmana and achieve well-founded and long-lasting success by Your grace.)

(O Bharati! May the two fine children of Sri Chamaraja be thoroughly endowed with prosperity, very sharp intellects, long life and happiness.)

This hymn he caused to be sung every night, before the Goddess, at the close of the evening service. This brought him some peace of mind.

The Mahaswamiji had spent four years in travelling and had seen time after time the hourly increase of Adharma owing to the influence of the times. He had seen the decline of the knowledge of the Vedas and the Shastras and of the faith in them, as well as the obvious increase of the feelings of pride and egotism and absurd doubts and of the modes of life in keeping with these attributes of egotism and want of faith. He had also seen the miseries and calamities with which these evil tendencies had afflicted both the country as a whole and the individual souls.

One of the poems composed by him, ‘Sri Sharada Stava Kadambam’, reveals his concern regarding the state of affairs that prevailed then; one or two stanzas may be here given as samples:

(My mind is sunk in ocean of grief seeing a number of men, Brahmins and the like, who have spoiled their lotus-like hearts by a spirit of atheism, who have given up their ordained duties and who sport cropped heads. Oh my Mother, yoke it into bliss.)

(Oh Mother, quickly vouchsafe people with the knowledge that there is God, that births are varied (according to past deeds), that it is easy to attain worlds (like the heaven) for those who perform their ordained duties, that there is sin and that there are worlds that give (misery) the result of the sins committed.)

For about fifteen days after he reached Sringeri, he appeared to be not his own self. He never spoke to anyone. If any one came and prostrated himself and remained standing, the Mahaswamiji never asked him questions nor opened conversation with him. He would hastily finish his baths and other daily religious duties and would sit for hours in a lonely place with bent head and would take no interest in the affairs of the Math. It became necessary for other people to induce him to take his meals. Those who were near him and did not understand the real cause of the Mahaswamiji’s dejection began to entertain serious doubts about his health. After a fortnight, this dejection of the Mahaswamiji disappeared and he swung into action.

He wanted a Sanskrit College to be started immediately in the presence of Sri Sharada and arrangements to be made for clothing and feeding the students, both the local residents and those who come from foreign parts. In accordance with his command, suitable teachers in the Vedas and the Shastras as well as students fit to undergo instruction were secured and after duly worshipping in Sharada Temple and obtaining the favour of the deity, a Sanskrit College was started under the name of `Sadvidya Sanjivini Samskruta Mahapathashala’ and work was commenced on Saturday, the sixth of the bright half of Shravana in the year Manmatha (1895 C.E).

The Mahaswamiji also commenced to teach Vedanta enthusiastically to some advanced pupils and completed teaching the commentaries on the Brahma-sutras, the Upanishads and the Gita which are known as ‘Prasthanatraya’, in the next three years. During this period, he spent all his time in the study and teaching of the works on Vedanta-Shastra. On one occasion, the Mahaswamiji was enquired the cause of the state of mental dejection which prevailed for some days after his return to Sringeri and the reason for his growing enthusiasm for the spread of learning after that dejection had passed away. He replied that a feeling of sadness had come over him when he beheld the condition of the Indians of the present day; but that he had since come to the conclusion that it was impossible to put a stop all at once to the Adharma that was due to the times, that it was also useless to grieve over the matter and that all that he could do was to wait for better times, taking precautions to preserve the Vedas and the Shastras uncontaminated and spending his time in worship and contemplation to earn the blessing of Ishwara. He had therefore gradually overcome his dejection and taken enthusiastically to the teaching of Vedanta.

In the mind of the Mahaswamiji, who was thus engaged constantly in the teaching of Vedanta, the love of a life of solitude began to increase. It has already been shown that this propensity was noticeable even in his boyhood and that it had been restrained by powerful causes. A few years previous to this, the clearing of a bit of forest land to the South of the Sringeri math on the other bank of the Tunga River had been commenced on account of the wild beasts that had infested it and made it dangerous to the cattle of Sringeri. To this portion of land, the Mahaswamiji gave the name of Narasimhavana in memory of his great Guru. The land had not been completely cleared and there were no houses suitable for dwelling built upon it. Nevertheless, the Mahaswamiji desired to live there in a cottage built of bamboo and leaves of trees and he went there with the processional image of Sri Sharadamba on the morning of the fifth day of the dark half of Aswayuja in the year Hevilambi (1897 C.E). On that day, the worship of Lord Chandramoulishwara and Sharada and the feeding of disciples were carried on in pandals temporarily built for the purpose.

At five o’clock in the evening, the image of Sharada was sent back to the temple on the northern bank of the river. The Mahaswamiji kept the Chandramoulishwara with himself and slept with a few followers within the new area. Till then the object of the Mahaswamiji had not been understood. On the morning of the next day, he commanded that a few absolutely necessary cottages of bamboo and leaves of trees be erected, as he had the intentions of living there itself for some days in solitude. This appeared strange and inexplicable to some, though this desire on the part of the Mahaswamiji was in keeping with his mental attitude and the duties of his Ashrama.

From that day, the Mahaswamiji began to cast aside one by one all the regal pomp and paraphernalia of the Peetham. He discarded the gold and silver utensils, handed down from a succession of great Maharajas for the worship of Chandramoulishwara. With great devotion he began to worship Shiva three times a day, making use of only the pure water of the Tunga and the flowers and leaves of the forest. He praised Shiva incessantly by reciting verses addressed to him. He gave up eating salt, sour or pungent foods. After four O’ clock in the evening each day, taking one of his followers with him, he would wander in the forests close to Narasimhavana or enjoy the happiness of Nirguna-Dhyana sitting under a tree. At six in the evening, he would return to his hermitage. While endeavouring to detach himself from human relationships in this manner, he still kept up his teaching of Vedanta to his pupils after the morning worship was over, till about 11 o’clock in the forenoon.

In the meantime, a communication was received from Sir K. Sheshadri Iyer, Dewan of Mysore, stating that in accordance with the desire of Maharani Regent, His Highness, the Maharaja Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV would in the course of a tour through the state undertaken before attaining his majority and taking over the reins of administration, visit Sringeri in order to receive the blessings of the Jagadguru. The Dewan requested that this information may be submitted to the Mahaswamiji in order that arrangements may be made for the reception of the Maharaja in a manner befitting the dignity both of the Peetham and of the distinguished visitor. The news was immediately conveyed to the Mahaswamiji with a prayer requesting him to return to the North bank of the river and take up his residence in the Math buildings.

The Mahaswamiji was immensely pleased with the news of the visit of the Maharaja. When this was made known to Mahaswamiji, and the agent solicited instructions in the matter, the Mahaswamiji said “You are there to receive the prince and his suite in a manner befitting the prince’s exalted rank. Make all suitable arrangements and receive the prince according to the precedent of the Peetham. I shall remain in my hermitage and give my blessings to the Maharaja.”

The Maharaja arrived in Sringeri with his tutor Mr. S.M. Fraser on Wednesday, the ninth of the dark half of Kartika in the year Vilambi S.S.1821 (7th December 1898). Being received by the Math authorities with all appropriate honours in accordance with precedents, His Highness and the European officers who accompanied him crossed the Tunga River and proceeded to Narasimhavana. He visited the Mahaswamiji who received him in a special pandal erected for the purpose and after the usual inquiries of welfare took leave of the Mahaswamiji and returned to the North Bank and encamped in a portion of the Math buildings specially fitted up for his reception.

On the next day, by the command of the Maharani Regent and under instructions from the Dewan, devout worship was carried on and offerings made at all the temples of Sringeri praying for the prosperity of the Maharaja. Brahmins were feasted and gifts of coins were made in abundance. On the next morning, the Maharaja proceeded again to the Mahaswamiji’s retreat and performed Pada-Puja with earnestness and devotion. The Mahaswamiji blessed him with a talisman for his protection from evils. Having obtained tirtha and Prasada from the Mahaswamiji, the Maharaja returned to his camp.

The respect for the Mahaswamiji that had arisen in the mind of Mr. Fraser by the casual glimpse that he had of the Mahaswamiji during his visit of the previous day, made him anxious to visit the Mahaswamiji and to have a long conversation with him. He communicated his wish to the Mahaswamiji through the Math authorities and was informed that he could visit the Mahaswamiji at about four O’ clock in the evening. He came at the appointed hour and stayed with the Mahaswamiji till eight o’clock at night, the conversation being carried on through an interpreter. The simple habits of the gentle-mannered Mahaswamiji, the genial smile that was ever hovering about his lips, the melody of his words rich with thoughts bewitched the tutor and he forgot the passage of time. The high appreciation in which the Mahaswamiji was held by Mr. Fraser is reflected in one of the letters of Mr. Fraser written to the Mahaswamiji after the former’s return from Sringeri.

On the night of the third day, a banquet was given to the European gentlemen who accompanied the Maharaja under the kind supervision of Mr. Carr, the Deputy commissioner of Kadur district. After the banquet was over, they witnessed the procession of the image of Sri Sharadamba placed on a raft and floated along the Tunga River. The Maharaja and the Mahaswamiji were seated on Asanams (seats) placed on the river bank and the procession lasted till about 2 O’ clock at night. The European gentlemen present were greatly pleased and Mr. Fraser spoke on behalf of himself and others thanking the Mahaswamiji. The European gentlemen then returned to their camp. The Maharaja returned to his lodgings after receiving the blessings of the Mahaswamiji and the Mahaswamiji returned to the hermitage. On the next morning, the Maharaja came once more to Narasimhavana and distributed presents to the pundits in the presence of the Mahaswamiji, and after receiving phala and Mantrakshata he proceeded on his further tour. These incidents produced no change in the dispassionate nature of the Mahaswamiji; such is the very essential characteristic of all Jivanmuktas, say the Shastras.

Great princes used to come to him, wealthy noblemen with large sums of money for the Math, which they respectfully laid at his feet; poor people came to him in great numbers seeking help; also people who, or whose children, were suffering from maladies sought his aid, as well as those who came to display their learning and get rewards. He received them with equal kindness, showed equal solicitude for the proper entertainment of the rich or the relief of the distressed; each one went away with the feeling that it was he that had been foremost in the thoughts of the Guru. To little children, especially, who approached him, he had a soft corner. When great scholars, great Yogis and Jnanis came, he could talk with them on the most abstruse questions of ontology with an ease and flow that were marvellous and when he was talking with little children, he became a little child himself, delighting in their ingenious prattle and pleasing them with fruits and things they valued most.

After returning to Sringeri in the year Manmatha (1895 C.E) from his four-year tour in Southern India, he remained for twelve years in Sringeri from the year Manmatha to the year Paraabhava (1895 C.E to 1907 C.E). During this period, he gave instruction three times in the three commentaries known as Prasthanatraya to sannyasins who had renounced the world and householders who were keen to acquire knowledge.

Throughout the twelve years from 1895 to 1907, the Mahaswamiji was thinking of what should be done to check the drifting away of the people of the land from their old moorings. He sought the help of first and greatest master of his line, Sri Shankarabhagavatpada, who had found the land torn asunder by conflicting creeds and abominable practices in the name of religion and established peace, tolerance and a broad outlook in the country. The great master's image in the Math was placed in a conspicuous shrine and the Mahaswamiji arranged for an annual festival in his honour, commencing on the Shukla Pratipat of Vaishakha and ending on the fifth, the anniversary of the master's birth. In the mornings, all these five days, special adoration and Archanas to the image of the master, recitation of his great Bhashyas, lectures by the Mahaswamiji himself in the evenings in simple, easy style on the teachings of the master - the programme concluded at night with a procession in the streets of Sringeri with musical recitals of the master's life and his achievements. This movement has since spread to other parts of the land.

In December 1901, the prince of Mysore once again paid a visit to the Mahaswamiji at Sringeri with his tutor and returned with his blessings, before assuming the reins of government, which he did in August 1902.

Once during this period, a friend was deputed by Pundit Madan Mohan Malaviya to invite the Mahaswamiji to Benares to lay the foundation stone of the Benares Hindu University. He regretted that he had to decline the invitation, the date chosen for the function being near and the time for travelling such a long way being insufficient. It was suggested that special trains or motor cars could be arranged for speedy travel and return. The Mahaswamiji said that the long established precedents of the Peetham had to be respected, that walking on foot had been at first the only method of locomotion adopted by his predecessors, that it was only during the time of Vidyaranya, the king-maker of the fourteenth century C.E., that the use of the palanquin and other vestiges of regal pomp and show had been substituted, that these signs of dignity had their own use in influencing people and that he could not bring himself to break the tradition which had the sanction of centuries behind it. Instead, he sent a pair of his Guru’s padukas which, he believed, had greater power than he could ever possess to ensure the prosperity of the great institution which was to be established in the most sacred city of Varanasi, for the resuscitation of the culture of India.

His love and devotion to his Guru cannot be understood by the educated people of today, who are accustomed to look upon instruction as a commercial bargain. The hymns he has composed in praise of his Guru are sincere outpourings of his heart. The first thing he did after bath every morning was to take padukas which had been used by his Guru in his life-time, clean them with clothes, then place the padukas on his own head, uttering the prayer that his Guru's padukas were his greatest refuge in life. He would talk for hours on his Guru's greatness; and he never talked what did not proceed from the very depths of his heart. He had a strong conviction that the several images of the deities in the Peetham were living representatives of the Gods themselves. He carefully looked into the milk and sugar before he offered them to the God. He examined the fresh flowers that had been fetched by his servants before placing them at the feet of the Gods, lest they should contain withered or otherwise unworthy ones. It was not merely to set an example to the thousands who came to witness the Puja, but this feeling of reverence and attachment was instinctive with him.

His childlike trust in the symbols of Godhead co-existed with his capacity for abstract meditation. For days together, he gave up the external forms of worship and devoted himself to meditating on the Supreme. He used to spend a month almost every year, on the hill not far from Sringeri, known as Narasimha Parvata. Here he lived in a hermitage, a little removed from the quarters of his attendants and spent his forenoon in prayer and meditation. In the evenings he used to walk on the hills for two or three miles, alone. Sannyasins and others who came to pay their respects to him would stand a little aloof and follow him a little distance behind, after their prostrations; He did not speak to any one on these occasions but communed with himself and nature. Only, his bright smile irradiated the atmosphere around him and brought peace of mind to those who beheld him even from a distance.

That famous poem of Sadashiva-Brahmendra, Atma-vidya-vilasa, was his favourite work, which he used to repeat to himself. Oftentimes when he was seated among his pupils, he used to ask one of them to sing the verses of this poem in a sweet voice. For five or six minutes he would be listening; but after that he would forget himself in the rapture of Self-communion induced by the poem; his head would bend down and he would be in a trance. This has been noticed by his pupils several times. Once he was seated in contemplation under a tree in this hill; a wild hill-fly settled on his thigh and drank his blood. The blood streamed down; but the Mahaswamiji was not aware of it. The agent, who was standing by, dared not disturb him. It was only after he came to himself that he noticed a feeling of cold in the thigh and saw the mischief of the wild fly.

The noteworthy feature in all this was that his self-forgetfulness in the Samadhi on the Supreme Brahman was followed by his wakeful state by intense love of God, induced by his veneration for such outward symbols as the padukas of his Guru, the images of his worship. It was a love born of no earthly consideration, a love that seeks no return, an intense and ethereal flame that baffles all analysis, that glories in self-prompted and unquestioning surrender. This Avyaja-bhakti (devotion without motives) led to the Light and the vision beatific - in which the God in man and the God in the Universe are fused into one. Sri Shankaracharya says in Vivekachudamani:

(Amongst the means to liberation, devotion is the foremost.)

This is not the lower sort of Bhakti which seeks human ends but the purest love of God; this was almost instinctive with the Mahaswamiji.

The great psychic powers flowed of their own accord from such divine love goes without saying. Once in the course of his tour through Travancore, a certain poet of a village called Ashrama approached him with the prayer that his dumb boy should be cured. The Mahaswamiji felt pity for the poor boy and asked the man to visit him with the boy at Suchindra, his next camp. There he taught a certain mantra to the poet and ordered him to sanctify a vessel of water with the intense repetition of the mantra every day for three months and sprinkle it on the boy and cause him to drink a spoonful with faith. This, the man did; the boy's dumbness gradually decreased; he began to speak a few words and in course of time got cured. The Brahmin poet has referred to this incident in a Stotra of his, composed later:

(Repeated salutations to the pair of padukas of the pre-eminent Guru that removed the dumbness of the son of the Brahmin livening in the village of Ashrama and confer bliss.)

The Mahaswamiji, however, never thought he had a part to play on such occasions. He would only pour his heart out to the Divine Mother:

(Desirous of a prompt cure people afflicted by major ailments such as deafness and dumbness as also those possessed by evil spirits come to me from afar and pray to me for relief under the impression that I have the competence to quickly put an end to these problems. O mother, O daughter of the Himalayas who bears the moon in Her crest, what am I to do? Tell me.)

(Devotees with various major diseases or possessed by evil spirits request me for quick relief from their great suffering. I am ignorant of the various means of treatment such as mantras and Yantras. What can I do? I know no treatment other than a little thought of Your lotus feet.)

He had unbounded faith in the power of the Mother of the Universe and of his Guru and he simply prayed to them and sent away those that came to him, with some holy ashes or some consecrated water in the name of the Mother or Guru.

One Hanumanthayya, an Amildar in the Mysore Province, had no issues; he came of a respectable family of long standing. He married a second time in the hope of progeny. But he got none. He was now fifty years and lost all hope of getting children and bequeathing to them his fortune. He now wished to hand over what he had, to the Sringeri Peetham, wrote a will to that effect and prayed to the Mahaswamiji to accept his bequest for the Peetham. The Mahaswamiji sent him back saying 'Mother does not want your fortune; She prefers that you should bequeath your fortune to your children. So please take the will and go back to your place’. The gentleman instead of taking back the will as directed, simply added a codicil that if he should get issues his proportion might go to them; otherwise they should go to the Peetham, and left it with the authorities of the Peetham. The man got afterwards three sons and three daughters and lived to a ripe old age. Instances may be multiplied; but it is needless. There are hundreds who have had personal experience of the Mahaswamiji's potent blessings. ◄◄◄►►►