FOREWORD

AT no time as at present has there been so much need for the uplifting presence of great · men amongst us and for their guidance in our affairs. While all may not be fortunate enough to be in continual contact with such great souls, nevertheless, a remembered darśana or conversation or even a report of their lives and sayings is often enough to lift our thoughts towards the higher verities of life and to restore the scale of values which we have left crumbling in our trivial preoccupations. The continuity of the fundamental values of our civilisation has been maintained through the ages because of the presence of such saints in our midst and the reverence and attention with which they have been received. One such great saint was Śrī Candraśekhara Bhāratī Svāminaḥ who adorned the Jagadguru Pīṭha at Śṛṅgeri till September 1954.

I have had the good fortune to know intimately not only that great saint but also his illustrious predecessor Śrī Saccidānanda Śiva Abhinava Nṛsimha Bhāratī Svāminaḥ. I find it difficult to think of either of them without instantly recalling the other, for, even though the former became the Pīṭhādipati only after the latter had attained Siddhi in 1912, their ideals and their work fit together so smoothly.

Śrī Nṛsimha Bhāratī Svāminaḥ was a towering personality. One had only to behold his effulgent face and calm, peaceful eyes to know that one was in the presence of a great soul in whom all conflicts and contradictions had ceased, and who had reached the pinnacle of spiritual development. The Śāstras and the Purāṇas speak of the varcas that the Ṛṣis of old possessed. What the varcas was—that brilliance of look that words cannot describe—could have been known from a glimpse of His Holiness. The pupil whom he selected and trained and who later became Śrī Candraśekhara Bhāratī Svāminaḥ was an eminently worthy successor. I cannot pay my reverence to them both better than by saying that they were in every sense worthy to have been the heads of the great Maṭha founded by Śrī Śaṁkara Bhagavat-Pādācārya.

It is our traditional view that the spiritual perceptiveness of a person and the spiritual eminence that he attains is the result of the accumulated impress of his actions in past lives. Only such a hypothesis—that all our actions bear, apart from their physical fruits, impresses upon us and determine the state of our being—can account for the wide disparity in spiritual evolution we find in this world. The lives of the two Gurus mentioned above, it seems to me, culminate the efforts of many past lives and illustrate the statement of the Lord in the Bhagavad Gītā, VI 42-45:

Or, he is born in a family of Yogins rich in wisdom.

But a birth like this is indeed hard to get in this world.

Śrī Candraśekhara Bhāratī Svāminaḥ, known in his Pūrvāśrama as Nṛsimha Śāstrī, was born in a very poor family, in an atmosphere of Vedāntic culture. Our tradition asserts that a birth into such circumstances forms the ideal ground for the realisation of Vedāntic truths. He grew up amidst the privations of poverty and personal misfortunes. Titikṣā and Vairāgya seemed to have been born with him. He cared nothing for worldly life but devoted himself to his studies and the service of his parents.

He was among the first batch of students to study at the Geervana Proudha Vidyā Vardhinī College founded by His Holiness in 1911 at the Śaṁkara Maṭha at Bangalore and carried on his studies in Pūrva Mīmāmsā under a most eminent professor of the time. This remarkable institution anticipated many of the institutions of advanced Saṁskṛt research that came into being later and may well serve as a model for similar institutions that are proposed to be set up. In opening the college His Holiness said,

We propose to establish here a college under the name of ‘The Indian College of Advanced Saṁskṛt Learning’ with a maximum of fifty scholars who have already had a general grounding in Logic or Grammar. The advanced courses will, for the present, be confined to the following four branches of Saṁskṛt learning, viz. (1) Advaita Vedānta, (2) Pūrva Mīmāmsā, (3) Veda Bhāṣya and (4) Dharma Śāstra.

It is our intention that the professors and scholars of the college should be properly accommodated with healthy surroundings and so paid as to enable them to devote their whole, attention to the higher learning. Facilities will also be provided for them to attend to their religious rites and practices as laid down in the Śāstras for the various Varṇas and Āśramas. We have it in our mind that these scholars, when well-qualified in the four branches of learning mentioned above, should be sent to various parts of India to dispel the darkness of ignorance by spreading the light of spiritual knowledge amongst the people.

From the very beginning, the institution became famous as a centre of learning and its students subsequently became scholars of great repute in the Universities and Pātha-śalās. But for some years past the time spirit has begun to invade this institution also with the result that it has not been functioning satisfactorily. It seems to me that, if the conditions of study sketched by His Holiness and maintained at the beginning are again restored, the institution would once again command the reputation it once enjoyed.

Nṛsimha Śāstrī had from the earliest years an innate and spontaneous control over his mind and senses. He would be quite oblivious of the numerous distractions around him and never interested himself in anything but his studies and introspection. He was very reserved and loved solitude. He would rarely talk and, when he did, he would say only what was strictly necessary. He was a Śiṣṭa (well trained) to the core.

He will not be restless with his hands or legs; he will not be restless in his eyes; he will be self-controlled ; he will not be restless in his talk—such are the characteristics of a Śiṣṭa.

When the time came, he was duly selected for the Jagadguru Pīṭha at Śṛṅgeri in view of his keen intelligence, high character and noble qualities and during his headship of the Maṭha for over forty years he rigidly followed in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessors and maintained and enhanced the prestige and reputation of that Maṭha by his unrivalled learning and Ātma Sākṣātkāra and by his overflowing love and grace towards all who sought him.

Śrī R. Krishnaswami Aiyar has sketched with admirable brevity the main events of the life of that saint and has, in the main body of this book, collected a number of the Guru’s sayings in his conversations with those who came into contact with him. The author is already well-known for similar works like Dialogues with the Guru, The Call of the Jagadguru and The Saint of Śṛṅgeri and also numerous excellent works on Advaita and Sanātana Dharma. In writing this book, he has furthered the noble service he has been doing, not only to the devotees of the Śṛṅgeri Maṭha but to the pious reading public in general to whom the Guru has become almost a legendary figure.

A noteworthy fact about the two Jagadgurus mentioned above was their insistence that none should speak disparagingly of other faiths, other philosophies, other Maṭhas or even persons. Sometimes over-zealous devotees provoked into an unfriendly attitude towards any of them would approach Their Holinesses, but both the Jagadgurus would make it clear in no uncertain terms that such an attitude was completely contrary to ordinary Dharma and more so to Saṁnyāsa Dharma.

That such great souls lived in our midst in the not-too-distant past is enough to hearten us in our darkest days.

I feel keenly the honour done to me by the author in his asking me to contribute a foreword to this book.

Bangalore City G. SREENIVASA IYER 15-4-1958