VII. Love of Seclusion

way solved the problem as regards the secular part of the Mutt administration; Brahmasri Srikantha Sastri who had served the Mutt as agent for over forty years with characteristic zeal and untrivalled ability and deep devotion thought it opportune to retire from service.

His Holiness felt that He was more free now to retire into Himself. He of course evinced great personal and even paternal interest in the daily education and training of the young Swami and very often taught him Himself. But in course of time even these activities became less and less and His Holiness liked to be quite alone when He did not engage himself in the Puja or in the exposition of the Vedanta literature. Gradually the Puja and the expositions themselves ceased to engage Him and He found ineffable peace only in solitude and in introspective vision. His ceasing to take any interest in the Mutt affairs practically resulted in leading them to a chaos and the Junior Swami, by reason of his being quite young and engaged in his studies, could not be expected to take charge of them. The Government of His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore therefore came to the rescue by taking over the management of the Mutt into their own hands for the time being. His Holiness ceased to take interest in conversing with people and even when a large number of disciples were waiting for His Darsana, He would very often not come out at all and, if He did, He would greet them with a significant nod to some and an expressive monosyllable to some others and a bewitching smile to the rest and pass out of their view.

It is impossible to understand or to characterise aright the nature of the experience that His Holiness was having when He retired from communion with the world. Many have been the honest attempts of several devotees to “cure” Him and many a doctor who pronounced Him “ incurable ” have been sorely disappointed at His becoming quite normal very soon after their verdict. It may also be mentioned that during His abnormal moods His experience seemed to have a wider range and transcend space. I shall mention just one or two simple incidents.

(1) There were two brothers A and B. B the younger was suffering from high fever and A the elder brother wired to His Holiness for blessings for the speedy recovery of his brother. The Mutt official who received the telegram murmured within himself “As if His Holiness would care for such things ! He has forgotten the world itself.” Some hours later when he went to see how His Holiness was, he took with him this telegram so that he might inform Him if there was any opportunity. As soon as he went in, His Holiness asked “What is there in your hand ?.”

The official replied, “B has sent a telegram that his elder brother A is having high fever.”

His Holiness said “ You mean that A has wired to say that his younger brother B is ill.”

The official looked up the telegram and found that His Holiness was correct and immediately said “I am sorry. I forgot to remember the thing properly.”

His Holiness smilingly said “I can afford to forget the world but you ought not to.”

The official naturally felt that his own unspoken words were being thrown back at him.

(2) The residence of His Holiness at Sringeri is ordinarily on the southern bank of the River Tunga away from the main Mutt buildings and the busy town of Sringeri which are on the northern bank. The Mutt officials reside in the Brahmin Street which is about half a mile from the usual residence of His Holiness. During one of the abnormal periods, His Holiness once after midnight called His attendant and asked him to run up to the other bank and to the Brahmin Street and to help a particular official who had fallen down. The attendant stepped aside without any intention of obeying His Holiness as he thought that this sudden command at the dead of night must be due to some dream or hallucination. A few seconds later, His Holiness asked from His room “Have you gone?.” The attendant for fear of incurring His displeasure and reluctant to utter a false-hood refrained from giving any response and slowly slipped away and did come to that official’s house. He found it bolted inside and quite quiet and thought his suspicions confirmed. But he did not like to face His Holiness’ possible question as to whether he saw the official. So he tapped at the door and the official himself opened it and was taken aback to find His Holiness’ attendant there at that time of night and naturally became anxious about His Holiness and asked him what the matter was. The attendant told him what happened.

Then the official said “ Some minutes back I stepped into the street for passing urine and when I had washed my feet and was about to enter my house my foot slipped on the stone step and I fell down. I lost consciousness for a minute or two, then I came to myself and quietly returned to my bed without anybody in the street or in my house knowing anything about this incident. I do not know how His Holiness saw it. Anyhow I am extremely thankful for His kindness. Please inform Him that I am now quite alright.”

When recounting this incident to me, the official added. “The moment I pronounced the last sentence I realised my folly. If His Holiness saw my falling down, will He not have seen also my getting up alright? It was only my foolishness that made me ask the attendant to inform His Holiness about it.”

In 1938 a stay at Bangalore for some time was proposed by some intimate devotees but His Holiness declined to undertake any tour with the usual paraphernalia.

He accordingly started on quite an informal tour and proceeded to Bangalore. He stayed there for some months but it was impossible to secure him the solitude that He preferred. In the course of the Kaladi tour His Holiness the previous Acharya had consecrated in 1907 a fine temple for Sri Sankaracharya on the right hand side in front of the Sankara Mutt at Bangalore and this visit of the present Acharya was utilised for erecting a similar fine temple for Sri Sarada on the left hand side facing the other temple and symmetrical with it.

From Bangalore His Holiness went via Coimbatore to Kaladi and stayed there for about ten months. This gave the South Indian disciples an opportunity to pay their respects again to His Holiness nearer home. The Government of His Highness the Maharaja of Travancore made extensive arrangements for the convenient stay of His Holiness at Kaladi. But the disciples flocked to him as during His previous tour and sought His help, not as a spiritual teacher but as a healer of their physical, mental or domestic troubles.

Early in 1940 His Holiness decided upon returning to Sringeri. He was glad to be back again at Sringeri especially as the Junior Swami was very anxiously awaiting His return. His native element was solitude and silence and He could not have these outside Sringeri.

By temperament and training, His Holiness was averse to all ostentation and idle talk and He generally did not like to give audience to persons who went to Him only out of motives of curiosity. But to those who were sincere in their longing to attain the true knowledge that could break asunder all bondage and desired to be shown the way, He was ever accessible; He was not only their master and teacher but was their loving friend and guide.

But it must be said that it is very regrettable that the number of persons who sought His help for spiritual salvation was practically nil. Those who have no ailments to get rid of but still visit Sringeri go there mostly for sight-seeing. It is not surprising therefore that His Holiness did not relish the idea of being included among the items of sight seeing. Naturally to one of such a temperament, idle conversation is mere waste of precious life. Once after much difficulty I was fortunate enough to get His permission to meet Him one evening. In the course of conversation, I found occasion to say. “Many a disciple coming to Sringeri return disappointed for want of opportunities to hear a word of blessing or of encouragement or of advice from Your Holiness’ lips. They will be greatly benefitted if Your Holiness can be more accessible.”

His Holiness: “You are mistaken. Those who seek to converse with me are mostly interested in matters in which I have no interest. And they have no interest in matters in which I have interest. What purpose is served by granting interviews to them?”

K: “It may be so. But there are still some people who genuinely seek guidance from Your Holiness.”

His Holiness: “ Seek help from me ! Why, they want my help as a Doctor and as a Mantrika. Is it for this that this great institution was founded by the great Acharya ?”

K: “ There are a few persons who long to approach Your Holiness for spiritual guidance but are to their great regret denied that opportunity.”

His Holiness: “ If they really and sincerely long for my guidance, they will in spite of my seeming inaccessibility force themselves upon me,” and with His characteristic smile He added “ Just as you have done.”

I took this both as a hint and as a hit and did not deem it proper to pursue the subject further. His Holiness’ standpoint was so different from the ordinary layman’s that it was really profane to seek to disturb Him.

On another occasion, I happened to enter the room where His Holiness was seated quite alone. After a slight gesture asking me to sit down, His Holiness relapsed into silence and continued in it for about twenty minutes. The peace and exaltation that I felt and enjoyed during that period can never be adequately expressed. I thought I noticed a smile flickering on the face of His Holiness and looked up. His Holiness asked “ Shall I tell you ? ” I naturally replied “ If Your Holiness so pleases.” Then His Holiness said “ I was in perfect peace when a thought disturbed it. I realised that you were sitting near me and perhaps expected me to speak. This led me to the further thought that, if I had to meet your expectations, I must speak. I recollected immediately that ‘to speak’ was a verb requiring an object. I thought therefore I must find an object as otherwise there could be no speech. Then I recollected that all objects in the universe came under either of two categories, the True and the False. The True is Brahman and the False is the world of form. Either of these two things must therefore be spoken of. But the Vedanta has declared in unmistakable terms that Brahman the True is beyond all speech and even all thought. So Brahman as an object of speech was out of the question. There was thus only the world to be talked about. But regarding the world, the Vedanta was equally emphatic that it was Anirvachaniya or incapable of being explained in words. So the world also seemed to be out of the question as a fit object of speech. There was no third entity available. There was therefore no fit object of speech. For want of an object, there could be no speech. When I came to this conclusion, I realised that I had come back only to wherefrom I started and that I need not have allowed these thoughts to disturb me. The example of the cartman who drove his cart through the bye-paths to avoid the toll-gate but found himself at break of dawn just in front of it suggested itself to me. Evidently I smiled at myself for all this waste of thought and you looked up.”

Having said this much, He relapsed into silence. This was far more of a lesson to me in practical Vedanta than anything I could learn from the books. I realised keenly that I might have quite unconsciously entertained a passing thought that His Holiness was silent and a vague hope that He would break the silence. I realised at the same time that I was the unconscious cause of bringing His Holiness to the level of the ordinary world. I immediately rose up and took leave of His Holiness. When His Holiness is revelling in a higher sphere, is it not profanity to make Him care for us if only as a matter of etiquette?

—

It is not always that we realise that our devotion to our Guru requires that we should not disturb Him or drag Him down to our level. His noble presence is itself quite sufficient to radiate happiness and peace around Him without any need for Him to open His lips and give us any spoken blessings or advice.

Well has the Lord said of the Seer, “What is night to all beings, there the Seer is awake; where the beings are awake, that is night for the seeing Sage” (Gita II, 69). It is therefore meaningless to judge of His Holiness by any of our ordinary standards. His personality baffled all attempts at classification for He stood in a distinct class by Himself. Judged by the normal standard of ordinary worldly life, He might have seemed at times quite abnormal, if not eccentric or even mad. Sri Hastamalakacharya was to all appearances a dunce till the Great Master put him the question “Who are you?” Even long after he was accepted as a disciple, his co-disciples did not realise his worth. The Master pointed out to them “If Hastamalaka would only write a gloss on my commentary on the Brahma Sutras it would certainly be a brilliant production. But it will be difficult to bring him down from his plane of Atmic realisation to that of authorship” thereby suggesting that the disciple

H. H: “You may answer my question on the supposition that he does.”

G: “He must certainly be mad; otherwise how can he see such a sight? It exists only in his imagination.”

H. H: “He is considered mad simply because of the fact that others fail to see what he himself sees?”

G: “It is not so. He is considered mad as he sees something which does not exist.”

H. H: “Something which does not exist in the view of the other nine?”

G: “No. Something which does not exist at all.”

H. H: “But it does exist for him.”

G: “But it is due only to his madness.”

H. H: “That is, he is considered mad because he happens to see something which nine of his friends have decided from their own experience does not exist.”

G: “Certainly.”

H. H: That means, that his madness or otherwise is not determined with reference to his own experience but with regard to the opinion of the majority who do not have that experience.”

G: “It is something like it.”

H. H: “Suppose then that by the vote of the majority it has been decided that the thing seen by him does not, as a matter of fact, exist; can this prevent him from seeing it, at least after the moment of that decision?”

G: “How can it? He will continue to see it as before.”

H. H: “Then, what is the value of the vote? It is neither based on the experience of the seer nor is it effective to dispel that experience. Madness therefore seems to be only a relative conception based on the experience of those who have not the particular experience which the so-called mad man has ”

The gentleman did not think it necessary any longer to ask His Holiness the question which he came to ask. He had been more than answered without any need for his asking.

When the Lord Himself came down on earth as Sri Krishna, it was only a very few who recognised His greatness. The majority of people ignored Him. A few went to the length of scoffing at Him. It cannot be expected therefore that all and sundry would flock to His Holiness and seek release from the bondage of phenomenal life.

—