CHAPTER VIII TRUE AHIMSA

Unlike the ordinary pious people who are shocked and even. get indignant at seeing impiety in others, His Holiness had nothing but sympathy for them and tried His best to wean them to the right side without in the least offending them.

A gentleman was running a hotel. It is well known that, apart from the fact that the Sastras have in unmistakable terms condemned the sale of food, many a Dharmic and even hygienic rule has to be violated in that profession. He wanted at the same time to get from His Holiness initiation into the Siva Panchakshari Mantra. After a great deal of hesitation, he approached His Holiness at Sringeri and with all humility gave expression to his desire for initiation.

G: I have a great longing to have initiation from Your Holiness. But I feel at the same time that I am not pure enough for it, for I am running a hotel. I have to do so for want of education fitting me for any other profession to eke out my livelihood.

His Hcliness listened patiently and said, “It is a very good thing that your being in that trade has not destroyed your innate desire to have spiritual progress. God will certainly help you. But can you observe strictly any kind of simple restriction that. may be imposed upon you in case you get the initiation?”

G: Certainly, I shall implicitly follow it.

H. H: Very glad to hear you say so. It is ‘ only this: you may continue in your present trade but make it a rule that hereafter you will not use for your own consumption any article of food or drink which you prepare in your hotel.

G: I shall certainly conform to Your Holiness’ direction.

H. H: In that case, come here tomorrow morning. and have the initiation.

He went there the next morning, had the initiation, returned home and was performing the Japa very devotedly and did not take any thing, even coffee or water, from the hotel for his personal use. After a few weeks, he began to think within himself, “I am preparing the food in my own hotel and under my own personal supervision and I am confident that the food is pure and free from any contamination. Yet His Holiness has asked me not to use it. Evidently there is some impurity attached to it when it is prepared for sale. While so, it must necessarily be more impure when it is actually sold away for money. I may not be able to see what the impurity is but the fact that it exists is clear from His Holiness’ direction. Why should I then continue in a trade which evidently pollutes not only the seller but the buyer as well?” When this thought grew stronger and stronger with each day, he decided upon closing the hotel and, fortunately for him, found a willing purchaser who paid him a handsome sum for the stock-in-trade and goodwill. He thereafter retired to his village and was able to spend his time in spiritual pursuits.

It was usual with His Holiness to dispense holy water, Tirtham, in the forenoon to waiting disciples and then take His mid-day bath. One day after taking His bath at midday, He began to prepare himself immediately for a second bath. He was not in the best of health that day and it was apprehended that a second bath would seriously upset His health. An intimate official of the Mutt when he heard about it ran to His Holiness to plead with Him for giving up the idea of a second bath.

Official: What is the need for a special second bath?

H. H : I feel I must have one.

Official : The cause for that feeling ?

H. H : (with His characteristic smile) : Of course, my mind.

Official : There must be something to make your mind feel so ?

H. H : Certainly.

Official : May I know what it is ?

H. H : It is not necessary. It is sufficient that I feel so. The official non-plussed by this answer could not with any propriety pursue the matter but could not leave the matter there in consideration of His Holiness’ health. He thought over the matter.

Official: Is it because there has been any special polluting circumstance at the time of giving Tirtha ?

His Holiness faced with this direct question said, “Yes“.

Official: What was that circumstance ?

H. H: It does not matter.

The official again had to think for himself.

Official : Can it be on account of So-and so approaching you for the Tirtha ?

His Holiness again faced with this direct question said, ‘‘Yes’’.

Official : If that is a polluting circumstance, I might have been informed earlier and I would have made the necessary arrangements to prevent him from approaching you.

H. H : What for ? However sinful he may be, he has still faith in the efficacy of the Abhisheka Tirtha of Sri Chandramouleeswara and it will not be proper for me to deny it to him.

Official: I could have arranged for his getting the Tirtha otherwise than from Your Holiness’ hands.

H.. H : Why so, when he attaches special sanctity to the Tirtha from my hands ?

Official: But in Your Holiness’ present health, it necessitates a second bath.

H. H: That is a minor matter personal to myself. Further, we all believe that the Abhisheka Tirtha is a great spiritual purifier. Don’t you think that it stands to reason that the necessity for it increases with the intensity of the sin of the receiving individual? In other words, the more sinful a person is, the greater is his need for purification. While so, what justification can I possibly have to decline to give him what he is in need of more than other people who are less impure ?

His Holiness was staying in a village in the course of His tour, and one evening it was found that the casket containing the gold, silver and copper yantras was missing. The official who was then in charge was naturally upset, called the Mutt servants immediately connected with the Puja and was rating them vehemently in a loud tone. His Holiness who was in a remote apartment of the building sent for him.

H. H : Anything the matter ? Your tone was somewhat high ?

Official : The casket of yantras is missing from the Puja. This was noticed only when arranging for the night Puja. I am making enquiries about it.

H. H : Don’t trouble yourself. Leave things alone and come to me after the night Puja is over.

The official accordingly went to His Holiness after the Puja.

H. H : In the garden attached to this building, there is a mango-tree in the corner. Take a lamp and go there. You will find near it some fresh mud. Dig it up. You will find the casket. It has not been opened. Just wash it outside and replace it in the Puja.

The official strictly followed His Holiness’ directions and found the casket intact and immediately came to His Holiness with great joy.

H. H: Now that you have recovered the casket, leave the matter there. Don’t trouble yourself to find out who is responsible for the theft. He will of his own accord leave the Mutt before day-break.

It would have been certainly easy for His Holiness, who found out the exact location of the casket in a garden which He had never stepped into, to say who the culprit was. But He did not do so.. The regret which would. have assailed that person was a more dire punishment than any punishment that law could give and was in addition a great reforming factor which would have naturally ‘ transformed his evil tendencies.

One evening after a fairly long spell of inspiring silence, His Holiness looked up and asked me (K.):

“I hear that, in the village of S....in your part of the country, the low caste people refused recently to remove the dead bodies of cows from the Brahmana streets and that the Brahmanas themselves removed them in handcarts to the river bank and buried them there with their own hands. Is that correct ?”

Not a little surprised at this incident having reached the ears of His Holiness, I said, “Yes.”

H. H: I suppose the Brahmanas there are naturally very resentful of this breach of traditional practice?

K: They certainly resent it very much.

H. H: Now, will you tell them for me that they need not do so but may look upon the incident as a good thing in itself?

K: How?

H. H: It is well known that modern mothers have hardly milk for their children and the children mostly grow up on cow’s milk. Further, all of us, young and old, require milk as an important item in our diet. The cow supplies us with milk for our Puja also. Apart from the sacredness proclaimed by the Sastras, she is verily more than a mother to us. Ought we not to be grateful if we get an opportunity of performing the last rites’ for her with our own hands? It is an act of great merit and we must with pleasure do it.

K: Accustomed as we have been to a course of practice, it will be difficult to reconcile ourselves to a change.

H. H : It may be so but it is worth trying where there is a positive benefit obtainable. Further, I suppose that when low caste people take away the cow‘s carcass the Brahmanas fully know that those people will eat up the flesh.

K : Certainly.

H. H : By asking the low caste people to take away the carcass, the Brahmanas virtually ask them to eat the cow‘s flesh and must inevitably get a share of that sin. Now by burying the dead cows themselves, they have no longer the opportunity of assenting to another’s eating cow’s flesh. Is this not a gain by itself? When you meet the village people, inform them about both these aspects and tell them that the turn of events is only for their ultimate good and that they need not resent it at all.