11. Greatness of the Jagadguru

The love and compassion of this great yogi, Sri Sacchidananda Shivabhinava Narasimha Bharati Mahaswamiji, was universal. He could not tolerate the sight of any one suffering in his presence. Even while walking, he took great care to avoid treading upon worms or insects. When he met people in distress and when they gave vent to their sorrows, the change in his countenance was such that it seemed as though he took up the burden of their sorrows and endured them. Not a day passed without his making inquiries whether the people around him had taken their food. If it came to his knowledge that someone could not get food, no matter how inconvenient the hour might be, he would insist on seeing that the person was fed. When sannyasins, old men or men afflicted with disease came to Sringeri to have his Darshan, he would ascertain for himself the arrangements made for their lodgings and meals; if he found any lapses, he would quietly arrange to rectify them without blaming any one.

The equanimity of the mind of the Mahaswamiji was extraordinary. He never differentiated people on the basis of religion, caste, age or worldly status. His conduct reminds us of that of Bhagavan. The Lord says:

(I am the same towards all living beings. To Me, there is none detestable or none dear. But those worship Me with devotion, they exist in Me, and I too exist in them.)

Such indeed would be the trait of those who have treaded the path of the philosophy of non-duality and realized their identity with the Supreme God. With pundits, Yogis and Jnanis, he would discuss for hours on end the subtlest issues of philosophy and practice; with little children, he would himself become one among them delighting in their ingenious prattle and pleasing them with fruits and things they valued most.

The Mahaswamiji's devotion to God was exemplary, in accordance with the teaching of the Bhagavadgita, which says;

(An ordinary person does whatsoever a great man does; whatever the great man upholds as authority, the world follows that.)

The Mahaswamiji sought God through love and found Him. When he was barely two years old, he used to dance before the deity his father was worshipping, his tiny hands beating time to the music of his lisping words, out of child-love for all that is pure and holy; and when he grew up to manhood, it was the same love that threw him into the rapturous joy of fervent devotion.

He saw no difference among the deities Siva, Vishnu and Brahma. He was intensely earnest in his Bhakti. His method of performing Puja was a sight to see. None could hurry him in his Puja. He may have some one hundred idols before him. Each idol must be separately worshipped. Each must have its allotted Gandha, Akshata, kumkuma, and flower. Each must be praised. Each must be meditated upon. Of course, Sri Chandramoulishvara and Sri Sharadamba occupied the foremost place in his mind. He would never think of them as images but would feel their living presence. He would repeat Stotras with all the enthusiasm of a devotee. Hundreds of hymns in Sanskrit flowed from his lips as spontaneous outpourings of praise of and prayers to the deities he worshipped; the collection of his works came to be known as ‘Bhaktisudhatarangini’. No wonder, it seemed to the beholder of the Mahaswamiji’s Puja as though the deity that he was worshipping came and stood before him and conversed with him.

To say that such a great Jnani and Yogi possessed anima (a power with which one can become as small as an atom) and other Yoga-Siddhis, is not surprising in the least. Many people came to him desiring to be blessed with children or to be cured of diseases. It is well known that the Mahaswamiji never employed any means other than giving the sufferers Bhasma (sacred ash) or tirtha (holy water) or rarely, talismans or Upadesha (initiation). The method he adopted may have been different, but the result was the same – the suffering of the disciple was alleviated and their minds were suffused with bliss. Sometimes, the very Darshan of the Mahaswamiji was sufficient for the suffering of the devotees to disappear.

The Mahaswamiji's devotion to his Guru was remarkable. He would talk for days together about the greatness of his Guru. All his talk, all his deeds, in short everything of his, he would dedicate to his Guru. His Guru was ever a living presence to him. He would consult him on each and every occasion. Without his express permission, he would never do anything. He would be never tired of worshipping his Guru. He was an incarnation of faith. His belief in the Vedas, Smritis and Puranas was unshakeable. His respect for those who observed a Dharmic life was overflowing.

The Mahaswamiji's detachment to the world was impeccable. He never desired anything for himself. Even amidst activities that required his active involvement, he never felt that he was the doer. An enlightened yogi, the Mahaswamiji often forgot his physical body and spent hours in Samadhi, absorbed in Brahman. The highest Upanishadic truths, he would expound in an easily understandable style. The most knotty philosophical points, he would unravel in a marvelously easy way. Indeed, it is only possible for those who have realized the Atman and not those who possess bookish knowledge, to make known the truth of truths get into even untrained minds.

The Mahaswamiji had a great regard for the famous Jivanmukta, Sri Sadashiva Brahmendra, who lived in the eighteenth century (C.E.) in Southern India. The Mahaswamiji was never tired of reciting or listening to Atma-vidya-vilasa, the outpouring in poetic form of Sri Sadashiva Brahmendra on the bliss of the knowledge of the Atman. Oftentimes, when seated among his pupils, he used to ask one of his students to sing the verses of this poem. The Mahaswamiji would have passed into Samadhi on the Atman and become oblivious of his body and surroundings, within minutes after the commencement of the recitation.

Thanks to his excellent administration, the resources of the Math increased manifold and the money collected was spent on noble causes. The debts that had gone on accumulating for long were all paid up in the Mahaswamiji’s lifetime. The ancient and dilapidated buildings of the Math were rebuilt according to contemporary designs to provide greater convenience for public. The temple of Sri Sharada was originally built mostly of wood and, only to a very limited extent, of stone. During the time of the Mahaswamiji, it was wholly built up of stone structure. The Mahaswamiji earmarked sufficient funds for the spread of Sanskrit education; two Sanskrit Colleges were established. Monthly and annual grants were given to certain private institutions as well as scholarships to deserving students of all communities. It would be no exaggeration to say that that the Mahaswamiji’s reign was a golden era in the history of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham.

Hundreds of foreigners, educated men of alien faiths, came to have a sight of him and returned carrying with them the conviction that they had seen and conversed with an exceptionally great soul. Mr. Fraser, who was tutor to the Maharaja of Mysore, once remarked that in his own country and elsewhere visitors were treated to tea and the other things, while the Swami gave to his guests out of the fullness of his heart and they departed from his presence with the sense of their souls having been lifted-up above life's turmoil.

Pomp and splendour did not influence him in any way. He lived in the midst of luxury, with hundreds of attendants to minister to his personal comforts; the income of a rich Jagir at his entire disposal, princes laying their wealth and influence at his feet; but he stood aloof from all; his soul dwelt apart; he lived a simple life, an abstemious life, with not a thought for the riches that flowed to him unsolicited, absorbed in his praises of God, in his Vedantic studies and discourses; and if he emerged out of these, it was only to relieve the distress of those he saw around him, only to raise his fellow-beings from the depths of spiritual degradation into which they had fallen.

The Mahaswamiji is often referred to as “Abhinava Shankara” (Shankara reincarnated) as his life had several parallels to the life of Sri Shankara Bhagavatpada. There were several similarities between him and the first great master, Shankara Bhagavatpada. Both were born of their parents' tapas; both lost their father in early childhood; both became sannyasins before they were eight years old; both preached Vaidika Dharma. Shankara Bhagavatpada put-down the immoral practices which people were following in the name of religion; the Mahaswamiji substituted observances in the temples that were founded in his day, with Vedic methods. From the example of the Mahaswamiji, we can understand how Shankara Bhagavatpada could have combined in himself both veneration for the various concrete symbols of Godhead and impersonal contemplation in the ecstasy of ultracosmic consciousness – how the two may be useful each in a particular stage of spiritual advancement but that both may co-exist, though in different moods. For the rest, the Mahaswamiji was content to walk humbly in the footsteps of the Great Master Shankara Bhagavatpada, whom he worshipped as God-incarnate on earth, to establish righteousness and whose image, he set-up at Kalady, his birth-place. He was a realised soul, a master of the Shastras, a benign Guru, an accomplished Yogi, a magnetic personality and an excellent poet. Indeed, the Mahaswamiji was a sage par excellence. <<<>>>