CHAPTER III SOUTH INDIAN TOUR.

His Holiness continued in that state of abstraction, obliviousness to the world or abnormality, as we may choose to call it, for a period of nearly six months. Then he returned to normal life. His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore thought that, as His Holiness had continuously stayed at Sringeri itself for more than ten years since His accession, a tour might be a desirable change for His Holiness and was also long overdue in the view of the disciples outside Sringeri and so requested His Holiness to visit Mysore and bless him and all the disciples there. His Holiness accordingly started from Sringeri on the 18th of January 1924 and after several halts and blessing the disciples on the way ultimately reached Mysore. His Highness and the people there gave Him a hearty and grand reception and rendered their devoted services to Him.

At the desire of His Holiness, the house in the old agraharam in Mysore where His illustrious predecessor was born and also some extensive space adjoining it were, thanks to the kindness of His Highness and the good services of Sri Kunigal Rama Sastri and Srikantha Sastri, acquired for the mutt and a magnificent stone structure raised thereon containing a shrine for a beautiful marble image of His Holiness the previous Acharya. During His stay at Mysore His Holiness had the supreme pleasure of consecrating this new shrine.

The disciples in the Coimbatore District just south of the Mysore State requested His Holiness to visit that District also and this was followed by the earnest representations of the disciples in the Districts further south and His Holiness was pleased to agree to extend His tour as far south as the Cape Comorin. His Holiness descended the Mysore plateau and His visit to Satyamangalam was His first contact with the Tamil Districts. His mother-tongue was Telugu; and Kannada was the language of the land of His birth. He had however picked up some knowledge of Tamil from contact with the Tamilian disciples who frequently visited Sringeri. Knowing this, the disciples at Satyamangalam requested His Holiness to give them some words of advice and to the great surprise of all including those most intimate with Him, He began to give discourses in such chaste and fluent Tamil as would evoke the admiration of any born Tamilian. Since then throughout the Tamil Districts, His discourses were all in Tamil except in special gatherings of Pandits which He addressed in His own characteristic style of very simple and expressive Sanskrit so natural to Him. He stayed at Gobichettipalayam for the Vyasa Puja and Chaturmasyam and celebrated that year’s Navaratri Festival at Erode. At the ardent desire of the disciples in those parts, He visited several places on the banks of the Kaveri and the Amravati and in the Districts of Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli, Ramanathapuram and Madura. Passing through the Chettinad where the Nattukottai Chettis were famous for their devotion and munificence, His Holiness went to Rameswaram after the Chaturmasyam at Kunnakkudi. After a dip in the sacred waters of the Setu and worshipping in the famous shrine at Rameswaram, His Holiness came to Madura where also He was given a magnificent reception. Leisurely passing through the several villages in the Madura and Tirunelveli Districts, He stayed for that year’s Chaturmasyam at Papanasam high up on the banks of the Tamraparni. Then He toured the Tirunelveli District, visited Kanya Kumari, had a fitting reception by the Maharaja of Travancore and others at Trivandram the capital of that state and finally proceeded to Kaladi the birth place of Sri Sankara Bagavatpadacharya, His predecessor had after great difficulty and with the hearty help of the then Maharaja of Travancore, acquired an extensive plot of land there and built thereon Temples for Sri Sankaracharya and Sri Sarada in 1910. It was the desire of His Holiness to improve it still further so as to make it a centre of vedic culture. At His instance a Veda Pathasala had been started already and during His visit there He personally inaugurated a Vedanta Pathasala also for advanced students in Vedanta. The students in both the Pathasalas had their boarding and lodging free at the cost of the mutt itself. His Holiness directed also the building of a substantial Pathasala and also the formation of a Brahmana agraharam street there for the residence of the teachers, temple employees etc. From Kaladi His Holiness passed through Tiruchur, Palaghat and Coimbatore to Nanjangud in the Mysore State for the Chaturmasyam in 1927. At the end of that year He returned to Sringeri. The magnificent and devoted reception that greeted Him at every step during the entire tour of four years and the divine blessings which He showered on all those who came in contact with Him are still green in the memory of all.

Many have been the incalculable benefits derived by those who had the good fortune to come in contact with Him; it is not possible to catalogue them; it will be invidious also to make any reference to any particular place or person as having been blessed by Him for His love was quite catholic and universal and included all in its range. The high and the low, the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, the Hindu and the Christian, the Mahomedan and the sceptic, all received the same kind of treatment from Him and all of them returned from His presence the wiser and the better for the few minutes of contact which they were fortunate enough to have with Him. He made even the humblest of men realise that he had a sincere friend and guide in His Holiness. The richest of men and those highly placed in worldly life keenly realised their own littleness before the spiritual wealth of His Holiness. In the field of erudition, He showed Himself head and shoulders above all scholars in the several branches of learning and commanded their admiration and reverence and even the most learned of them felt humble before this mine of learning. He was an adept in the Mantra Sastras and in the Agamas as well and many have been the suggestions and rectifications made by Him in the field of individual worship or in the Temples which He visited. Many have been the incidents in which He playfully showed His yogic and super-normal powers without the least detriment to His Tapas. It is not possible to record here the innumerable interesting and instructive incidents that happened during his tour or on other occasions. I propose therefore to confine myself in the sequel to a few incidents which are likely to interest the ordinary reader.

It may be stated here that, during all those four years of this busy tour, His Holiness never became Antarmukha or retired into Himself oblivious of the external world. When He had come out on tour with the specific object of blessing the devotees, how could that object be achieved if He chose to retire into Himself ? The devotees would be of various grades of qualifications, temperaments and natures and every one must be guided, taught and helped according to their particular grades. His Holiness must necessarily descend to their respective levels if they were really to profit by contact with Him. His Holiness accordingly mixed with the world freely and made every one feel at home with Him. He knew that the ordinary run of mankind could not understand or appreciate His own supra-normal experiences and so bore no resentment against those who tried to “cure” him. In this context an interesting incident that happened at Mysore may be stated.

One day it was arranged to take His-Holiness in a grand procession with all royal splendour. The state elephants, cavalry and infantry, the bands and other paraphernalia of the state and of the mutt went in front of the beautiful flower-decked palanquin in which His Holiness was seated. The Maharaja himself, the Dewan and the high dignitaries of the state and the elite of the city walked alongside His Holiness. Sets of Vaidika Brahmanas chanting the Vedas and innumerable Bhajana parties kept up the rear. The whole procession covered half a mile or so and was a very grand and inspiring sight. When the procession with all its dazzling splendour had however proceeded only a short distance from the start, it began to drizzle and it was thought advisable to stay the procession for a short while to avoid His Holiness, His Highness and others getting drenched. The procession was accordingly halted in front of […] nearby palatial building. In the spacious front verandah a seat was provided for His Holiness. The Maharaja and all other prominent persons sat around His Holiness, Then His Holiness casually asked “What is this building ?” An official there said “ It is His Highness the Maharaja’s Government Hospital”. His Holiness smiled and said “Some people have been trying for some time past to bring me here. Evidently this is the day destined for that ”. This remark made the persons who had tried before to treat Him as a patient hang their heads down.

He was never elated by the respect or honours shown to Him nor depressed by any deficiency in them. He was quite indifferent to and unaffected by the world and its doings but was witnessing them all, including His own passage through life, as an interesting exhibition of the wonderful and manifold play of Maya the Divine Power of God. It was not as if He was callous or blind to them; He realised their existence in the work-a-day world and at the same time their unsubstantiality, and so had no reason to worry himself about them or to bestow any serious thought over them.

When His Holiness was to be taken in procession in the golden palanquin, it was usual to deck Him with a crown of precious stones on His head and a costly embroidered laced silk cloth over the Kashaya cloth He was wearing. One day the servant in charge of this placed the laced cloth on Him but with the lace work inside, the threads showing out. The procession took place with the usual grandeur and enthusiasm. After it returned to the residence of His Holiness and when the mutt-servants busy removing the articles in His Holiness’ residence and learnt from them that His Holiness was moving to the northern bank. I immediately went to His quarters with the intention of paying my respects to Him before He left for the other bank.

R. K.: I learn that Your Holiness is going to the other bank.

H. H.: Yes. It is said that rains are likely tonight. If there are rains, there will be floods in the river. If there are floods, it will be inconvenient to bring the Puja articles here from the store on the other bank. So they said we might move to the other side even now. As it does not matter where I am, I did not object and so assented. Most of the articles have been removed to the other bank and I must also start shortly.

I did not know what to say.

H. H.: Simply because I am going there, you need not come there. You may stay where you are. There will be no rains or floods to-night.

I thought for a second that He could have given this assurance to the official who suggested the shifting. I realised immediately that the answer was already in His Holiness’ words “it does not matter where I am ”. If He had said to Him that there would be no rains, would it not imply a preference in His Holiness’ mind to stay where He was ? Further, when the official did not ask His Holiness whether there would be any rain but assumed the possibility of its raining that night and suggested the shifting to His Holiness, it was certainly not necessary for Him to contradict the official and so He did not think it necessary to object. It will be seen from this simple incident how detached He was and how He contented Himself with being a disinterested witness to all that happened. Such an attitude of colourless indifference is very difficult to maintain in these days but His Holiness demonstrated by His life that it was not an impossible state.

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