CHAPTER VII FAITH

His Holiness had intense faith in the Vedas and the Sastras and expected the same in His disciples, and whenever He found it wanting He tried to infuse it into them.

One evening a disciple mentioned to His Holiness that he wanted a Rakṣha for his wife who happened to be ailing frequently.

H. H: You are a Brahmana ?

D: Yes.

H H: Do you perform your Gayatri Japa properly ?

D: Yes.

H. H: Then why do you seek another’s help ?

D: I cannot claim to have any Mantric powers.

H. H : It is not a question of your claiming it. It is the power of the Mantra that works.

D : Anyhow it is not potent in my case.

H. H : Don’t say so. It is always potent. Only you do not invoke it properly.

D : It may be so.

H. H : Do you know Sri Rudradhyaya by heart ?

D ; Yes.

H. H : What ! You perform Gayatri Japa regularly and know Sri Rudra. You must really be ashamed to ask anybody else for a Raksha when you have these mighty powers with you.

D : As Your Holiness says, I do not know how to use them.

H. H : Now for the matter on hand. Repeat daily the Sri Rudra three times. Have a small vessel of water before you when you do so and, at the end of the third repetition, give the consecrated water to your wife to drink. She will be all right soon. Today is a Monday sacred to Lord Siva. Take a bath in the river Tunga and begin the Japa this evening itself.

D : But I have not brought my wife here with me.

H. H : It does not matter. If, with faith in God and an earnest longing to get your wife cured, you repeat the Mantra, its effect will reach her wherever she may be. If she is near you, you may give her the consecrated water. Even otherwise you must repeat the Mantra punctually daily..

• • •

A gentleman who was suffering from a disease and found medical treatment ineffective approached His Holiness for relief and was favoured with a Mantra.

At the end of the initiation, the gentleman asked, “I have been taking some medicine for some days past. May I continue to take it ?”

His Holiness immediately replied.

“Certainly, if you think this is not sufficient.”

Here was a test of his faith in the Mantra.

• • •

A merchant who was suffering from leprosy approached the agent of the Mutt one evening and requested him to place his case before His Holiness and persuade His Holiness to prescribe some effective rites which would cure him of his dire disease and added that he did not mind the cost even if it ran into some thousands. The agent duly mentioned the matter to His Holiness.

H. H : Diseases are of three kinds, Asadhya (those that do not admit of any cure and must be suffered), Sadhya (those that can be cured if the proper remedy is adopted) and Yapya (those that cannot be cured but can be diluted and spread over a longer period or postponed for a time). We cannot prescribe a remedy without ascertaining to which kind this merchant‘s disease belongs.

Agent : But how can we ascertain it now ? It seems to me that it can be ascertained only after the remedy is applied and its effects watched,

H. H. Not necessarily so. It can be ascertained even now.

Agent: How?

His Holiness beckoned to an attendant.

H. H. Just go outside. You will find there a merchant who wants some religious rites to be performed for the eradication of his disease. Tell him that there are very effective rites which will positively cure him but they involve Homa for a number of days and the services of eminent Mantrikas from Sringeri and Bangalore and probably an expense of about three to four thousand rupees. Assure him that arrangements will be made in the Mutt itself so that the rites may be performed properly and effectively in strict accordance with the Sastras and that a cure is certain. Mention to him at the same time that, if the expected cure does not happen within a short time of the conclusion of the rites, he must not think that the Brahmanas have cheated him of his money but must realise that his sins responsible for giving him this disease have been more grievous than these rites can eradicate and that they require fresh and more effective rites to cancel their effect. Even if he is not prepared to arrange for these more effective and necessarily more costly rites, he must not, even for a moment, regret what has already been spent, for such a regret in doing a good deed will only add to his sins. Come and tell me what he says.

The attendant went to the merchant and repeated to him verbatim His Holiness’ words. The merchant said, “Certainly so. Certainly so. His Holiness is quite correct in giving me the warning. It certainly is a matter which needs consideration, Will you kindly give me time till tomorrow morning to think over the matter and decide?”

The attendant returned to His Holiness and recounted what the merchant had said. His Holiness turned to the agent with a smile and said, “The disease is Asadhya (incurable)”.

One evening when I was seated near His Holiness, a gentleman came in.

G: My wife is having occasional fits of unconsciousness, and this is steadily weakening her health. I pray that Your Holiness will bless her and prescribe some remedy.

H. H: There are two kinds of such unconsciousness, one in which the patient is quite inert like a log of wood and the other in which the patient keeps talking. If it is the latter, you may be sure that it is not the patient that is speaking but some spirit speaking through her; in that case, the spirit itself will very often say what it wants and will prescribe also the condition for its quitting the patient’s body. If it is of the former kind, it is not such a simple matter and I may have to see the patient personally before I can prescribe anything. To which variety does your wife’s state belong ?

G: My wife is quite inert at the time of the attack and does not say anything at all. So I shall bring her here.

H. H: Do so. We shall see what can be done.

Another gentleman was admitted to the presence of His Holiness.

G. My wife is suffering from consumption. I have tried all sorts of treatment but without any effect. She must live only with the blessings of Your Holiness.

His Holiness thought for a while and said: “Please get an image of Raja Yakshma (King Consumption) made in silver by your goldsmith and worship it properly for forty days. Any goldsmith conversant with the Śilpa Sastra will make the image for you in accordance with the Dhyana Sloka and any learned Purohit will easily help you in the worship. But after the end of the course, do not give the image to the officiating priest or to anybody else as you do in other similar worships but take it to the seashore and throw it far into the sea.”

I was not a little struck with the very offhand manner in which His Holiness solved the several problems placed before Him and was wondering how His Holiness. in the midst of His all-engrossing Vedanta studies and practices, found time to acquaint Himself with the vast Mantra literature on the cure of diseases. Incidentally I happened to think-how selfish, nay, how foolish people were to disturb His Holiness with such complaints about which they could well consult a doctor. But His Holiness with His ever cool, patient and sympathetic response to all such complaints evidently was not of my way of thinking. After a brief interval, He looked up at me and, in answer to my thoughts, said:

“The Sastras prescribe for every disease, a particular Mani (precious stone) to wear, a particular Mantra (incantation) to repeat and also a particular Oushadha (herbal medicine) to take. The first is practically not available in these days and the third has gone into the hands of professionals who are mercenarily minded . When any person therefore seeks my help, I cannot in fairness refuse to grant him Mantric relief if the ailment admits of it. Poor people! When they are pulled down by their physical worries, how can they devote any time or attention to the pursuit of higher aims? It is no surprise therefore that they forget the purpose for which this institution was founded by our great Acharya and seek my help as a Vaidya and as a Mantrika’’.

A well-known couplet in Sanskrit says that to him who has intense faith in God and equally intense faith in the Guru, all things taught and untaught flash before his mind. The following incident will show that even an ardent devotee may mistake such a flash as a hallucination and require a Guru to point out to him the magnificence of that illuminating flash.

The late revered Sri Sankara Sastri, Principal of the Vaidika Dharma Samvardhani ’ Samskrita College at Kallidaikkurichi in the Tirunelveli District, was not only a profound scholar in Vyakarana and Vedanta but was proficient in Ayurveda also. Though he did not have it as a profession, he used to give valuable medical advice to intimate friends. Once a friend of his, who was unwell for some time past, had incessant hiccup and sent for Sri Sastri in the early hours of the morning. The latter was taken aback by its strength and frequency and said that he would consider and suggest some remedy.

He went to the river for his usual bath ‘ with the matter of the hiccup running in his mind. After his bath, he sat on the river. steps, performed the Sandhya and then, concentrating his mind for a moment on His Holiness the previous Acharya of whom he was an ardent devotee, began his Gayatri Japa But to his great vexation he found that he could not pronounce the Gayatri properly and after much confusion he found himself repeating, instead of the Gayatri, the words Bhuṃa Dadhyupadesat. There was no such Mantra at all and the words were meaningless. He realised the absurdity and with some force ejected the intruder and in a way finished his Gayatri Japa. But he could not understand how such absurd words kept running in n.s brain.

He realised that Bhuma was a subject dealt with in Vyasa’s Brahma Sutras but the Sutra there was not thus. He tried to recollect the original Sutra but could not, in spite of his intimate knowledge of it. This curious loss of memory so worried him that, on his way back home, he entered another friend’s house, took from him a copy of Brahma Sutra Bhashya and turned over the relevant page. He found that the Sutra was Bhuma Sampra-sadadadhyupadesat and that the four letters in the middle got wiped out of his memory.

In this state of mind, he did not apply his mind to find out a remedy for the friend’s hiccup but preferred to go to His Holiness v/ho was camping a few miles off.

H. H : How is your friend’s health ?

S : He is in the same state but early this morning he was troubled by incessant hiccup and is not yet free from it.

H. H : But you know Ayurveda well ?

S : But no remedy suggested itself to me.

H. H : You are an ardent Sishya of our Acharya and it cannot be that no remedy occurred to you.

S : I am ashamed to say that, on the other hand, I got confused this morning even in my Gayatri Japa.

H. H : What was the matter ?

S : I could not repeat the Gayatri properly. Instead of the words of the Mantra, the words Bhuma Dadhyupadesat kept absurdly running in my mind and it took me some time to get at the actual Gayatri words. I recognised that I was not repeating the Bhuma Sutra also properly and I had to look up the book itself to recall to my mind the correct words of the Sutra.

His Holiness smiled and said, “There was really no confusion at all. You evidently focussed your mind on our Acharya and got just what you wanted.”

S : I do not understand.

H. H: You were ardently seeking a remedy for hiccup and you had it in the word Dadhi (curd) flashed to you.

S : Is curd a remedy for hiccup ?

H.H : Lest you might feel any doubt in the matter, you were told upadesat (‘‘for so it is prescribed’’)

S : How to give it and in what quantity?

H. H : You have the answer for that also in the word Bhuma (plenty). Do not doubt therefore that the remedy was suggested to you by your Gurunatha Himself out of His Divine Grace and in response to your deep devotion.

Sri Sastri reverently accepted His Holiness’ advice and interpretation and gave relief to his friend on his return home. He also verified for himself later on that the Ayurveda did prescribe curd for hiccup.

It will be interesting to know how His Holiness came to interpret in this way the seemingly absurd words. It may well be that He Himself flashed those words to Sri Sastri and so had no difficulty in interpreting them rightly but this assumption will be contrary to His Holiness’ express statement that they were suggested by the previous Acharya. It is not possible for such as we to decide how it happened. I may mention, however, that this is not the only instance in which His Holiness was seen to be identical in spirit with His Predecessor.

While on the subject of faith I may mention an instance of the great reverence which the saints of our land had for tradition. An old gentleman one day paid his respects to His Holiness.

H. H.: Your native village?

G : — village.

H. H : I see. You are very fortunate. Is it not the village of....Ghanapati? [I am very sorry I have forgotten both the names —R. K.]

G : There is no such Ghanapati in my village.

H. H : Cannot be. The person I referred to lived there six hundred years ago !

G : Is it so ? I have not heard of him.

The answer of His Holiness naturally excited my curiosity. Famous authors and saints leave their sacred memory behind for centuries; but I had not thought it possible that a Ghanapati who had mastered the Vedas to justify that title could be remembered six centuries later.

K: May I know who that Ghanapati was ? He seems to have been famous.

H. H: He was certainly famous as he had the boldness to criticize and correct Sri Vidyaranya.

K: When and why did he do it ?

H. H: Sri Vidyaranya was a well-known master of all learning but had the humility to place his works before eminent scholars and get their approval before he published them. When he had written the commentary on the Sri Rudradhyaya in the Yajur Veda, he invited a large number of Vedic scholars and had his Veda Bhashya read out to them. In expounding the passage Namo Harikesaya, ‘‘Prostration to Harikesa,” he had split up the word ‘Harikesa’ into Hari-Ka-Isa (Vishnu, Brahma and Maheswara) and interpreted the passage as a prostration to the Supreme Brahman who takes on these three forms when. associated with the three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. When the commentary was read out, this Ghanapati strongly. objected to it saying, “Is the Veda your personal property with which you can do as you like ?”. Sri Vidyaranya asked, “What have I done with it to deserve this remark?” The Ghanapati replied. “It is not for you to split up the word ‘Harikesa‘ at your pleasure. You know that the accuracy of the text of the Veda is secured by the traditional safeguards of Pada, Krama, Jata and Ghana. According to the Pada, the component words are only Hari and Kesa and not Hari, Ka and Isa as you have split up.” Sri Vidyaranya realised his mistake and corrected the commentary accordingly. “To Him who is Vishnu, Brahma and Maheswara” had to be altered into “To Him who has the blue sky as the hair. on His head” This may not be a more impressive or attractive meaning but Sri Vidyaranya could not help adopting it in view of the traditional Pada text. This Ghanapati thus had the unique merit of correcting that great master himself.