CHAPTER XI A DEVOTED SERVANT.

Sri Srikantha Sastri who was the agent of the Mutt came to it in his 10th year and served it with great ability till his 62nd year. He was not only the administrator of its varied temporal concerns but had acquainted himself with the religious routine also of the Mutt so much so that, whenever the priests there or even His Holiness found it inconvenient to attend to the daily worship, Sri Sastri himself would step in to do it. His private worship was itself a very elaborate one. As he entered upon his official duties very early in his life, he had not the opportunity to become proficient in any particular Sastra but he easily acquainted himself with the main teachings of most of the Sastras and had acquired the competency to judge aright the merits of the several scholars who came to the Mutt That he was a good hand in composing beautiful stanzas is clear from the collection of his compositions published under the name of “Guruprasada Mahimadarsa”. He served under His Holiness Sri Sachchidananda Narasimha Bharati Swaminah for about 24 years and under His Holiness Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati Swaminah for about 10 years and during this long period of administration he carried out very many valuable improvements in the Mutt. It was only in 1931 when the present Jagadguru Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha Swaminah was given Sannyasa by Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati Swaminah that he was able to obtain permission of the latter to retire from service. Even afterwards as there was none else of his wide experience of the affairs of the Mutt, he was being repeatedly consulted by his successors and very often by His Holiness Himself, in many matters concerning the traditions or the history of the Mutt. He took Apat Sannyasa in 1949 and passed away at Mysore in 1950. It may therefore be stated that his entire life was spent in the service of the Mutt.

It is scarcely necessary to point out that, to carry out efficiently the responsibilities of any high position, it will not do to be soft but it will be necessary to be very often stiff or at least seem to be stiff. Sri Sastri was eminently fitted by God for such a job. He had not only a very commanding personality but had a temperament and tone which would discourage all familiarity in those who came into contact with him. If any person happened to talk to His Holiness on any worldly subject, He would simply say “This is a secular matter, you may talk to Sri Sastrigal about it”. Almost invariably that person would not have the courage to approach Sri Sastri or to broach the subject with him. Even when Sri Sastri was talking on any small matter, his tone would be ringing with command and power so much so that those who had no opportunity of moving with him at close quarters would easily mistake him as over-bearing.

When His Holiness was camping in a village in the course of his South Indian tour, Sri Sastri happened to notice that a bright lamp was burning one night, though it was long past midnight, in the room of His Holiness. He immediately went there and found His Holiness reading some book.

Sastri: Why this reading at dead of night?

H. H: During the tour, when else is there the time for reading?

Sastri: What You have read till now is quite enough.

H. H: It must seem enough to me.

Sastri: If it does not seem enough, the study may be resumed after we return to Sringeri.

H. H: Is there any guarantee that we shall live till then?

Sastri: It is not proper to ask such questions. If You were an ordinary Sannyasi I would not care to plead with You. You must remember that You are occupying a very responsible position as an Acharya of Sringeri Peetha.

H. H: What if I am?

Sastri: Why? As long as You are occupying this position, Your body is the property of the disciples and it is not proper for You to strain it as You please.

H. H: Is it even so?

Sastri: Certainly it is so.

H. H: (smilingly) What is the desire of the disciples now?

Sastri: That You must take rest now.

H. H: It shall be done.

He immediately shut the book up and rested. If any ordinary person had been listening to this conversation from outside, he would get the impression that Sri Sastri was lording over His Holiness Himself. Only a very few could understand and appreciate the depth of affection that was behind this conversation.

It is well known that His Holiness was, in his purvasrama, almost from his childhood treated as a member of Sri Sastri’s family. It was quite natural that His Holiness always entertained towards Sri Sastri a kind of paternal affection and treated him with great respect. Further just before His Holiness took Sannyasa, he had to be initiated into the several Mantras necessary for carrying on the daily worship in the Mutt and this initiation was given to Him by Sri Sastri himself as he was the only person conversant with all of them Naturally His Holiness looked upon Sri Sastri as a Guru also. As He desired to spend His time mostly in study and contemplation and similar pursuits and had not the temperament to engage Himself in worldly affairs, He felt intensely grateful to Sri Sastri for relieving Him of the responsibility of administering the Mutt by taking that burden upon himself. Sri Sastri fully reciprocated these feelings and bore filial love towards His Holiness. It thus happened that nothing would take place in the Mutt, either in the religious or in the secular side, without the knowledge of Sri Sastri. People who did not know of this intimate relationship between them began to think that Sri Sastri was even slighting His Holiness and was behaving like an autocrat.

Only those in the know could gauge the affection and respect which Sri Sastri bore towards His Holiness. I have heard it said by some people that Sri Sastri would never prostrate before His Holiness. As a matter of fact, as soon as his morning ablutions were over, the first thing that he did, before he took up any work, was to go to His Holiness if He was nearby and prostrate before Him. As he was in the service of the Mutt and would have to see His Holiness more than once during the course of a day, he would prostrate before His Holiness only on the first occasion when he met Him. The mistaken idea may have been engendered by people who happened to see Sri Sastri meet His Holiness later in the day. It may be recalled here that it was Sri Sastri that first prostrated before His Holiness even on the day on which the latter took Sannyasa. The excellent arrangements which Sri Sastri had made for the care and safety of His Holiness during the several occasions when He retired into Himself and was oblivious to wordly concerns are themselves positive proof of his intense affection and devotion towards His Holiness. People were not wanting who would interpret these arrangement also as a kind of restraint upon His Holiness.

In view of the extreme confidence which His Holiness reposed in Sri Sastri, the responsibility of the latter was heightened a very great deal. It was only natural that people who had reasons to be dissatisfied with any action of the Mutt concerning them personally would exonerate His Holiness of all blame and throw it all on Sri Sastri. But it was not in his nature to be disturbed by any such accusations.

One day a gentleman complained to me about Sri Sastri. Though I knew that the complaint was groundless, I thought it proper to inform Sri Sastri about it.

K: I know that the complaint is baseless. All the same, why should you give room for such complaints? People throw the blame upon you.

Sastri: Suppose I do not accept the blame and suppose His Holiness Himself did what I have done, will not the people be dissatisfied with His Holiness?

K: Certainly.

Sastri: Now, they do not blame Him but blame only myself.

K: Quite true.

Sastri: You will see now that by bearing the blame myself I am warding it off from His Holiness. I am really acting as a buffer preventing the blame from approaching His Holiness. This itself I view as a valuable service to His Holiness. Let the people abuse me as they like. It is sufficient for me that I am effectively preventing the abuse reaching His Holiness.

K: I understand your position. But you assume that His Holiness would behave in the same way as you do in any particular matter. It may well be that His conduct will be above all possibility of complaint.

Sastri: Firstly, you are wrong in thinking that I do any thing without consulting His Holiness. I do not engage myself in any responsible action without consulting Him. But it will be improper and impracticable to be giving out on every occasion that I am doing this on the advice and directions of His Holiness. Secondly, if I begin to give out like that, will I not be really exposing His Holiness and giving the dissatisfied person the ground and the opportunity to blame His Holiness directly? Now everything good is ascribed to His Holiness and everything bad to me. Let it be as it is. I have the mental satisfaction that I am conducting myself consistently with the prestige and convenience of the Mutt and His Holiness. This is enough for me.

• • • • •

Sri Narasimha Jayanti, the day on which God appeared in the form of Narasimha (Man-Lion) to punish Hiranyakasipu and bless his son Prahlada, is usually celebrated in the Mutt with special Puja. His Holiness would sit down for that puja after the mid-day bath and worship Sri Narasimha with great devotion till dusk. On one such day, His Holiness was not keeping good health and Sri Sastri obtained His permission to do that Puja himself. He also sat down for the Puja after taking his noon-bath and leisurely went on with the Puja with great punctiliousness. At about four o’clock in the evening, he finished the Puja and came out. I happened to be there and I remarked to him “It is tiring work.” He turned upon me and said “What do you mean? Are you ridiculing me?” I said “Certainly not. I only gave expression to my sympathy and admiration.” He replied “As His Holiness was not well to-day I got permission to do this Puja myself in His stead. I sat down to it determined to do it just as He would. I carried it out as far as possible without any drawback. But I lacked the peace and concentration which characterise Him. He has a light body and I have not. So when I was proceeding with the Puja my body began to clamour for an early termination of the Puja. I resisted it as far as I could. When I felt that it was no longer physically possible to continue to sit, the thought that His Holiness would do the Deeparadhana only at dusk when exactly God Narasimha manifested Himself required me to persist in the Puja till then but my body would not allow it. I had to finish the Puja shame-facedly and came out with a painful feeling of disappointment and regret. Having undertaken to do the Puja in the place of His Holiness, I felt keenly that I was not able to do it as He used to. When I was coming out thus ashamed of myself, you offer the remark that it is a tiresome business. Does it not really amount to ridiculing me? How can I ever be like Him?”

Sri Sastri was mostly engaged in his office work in the evenings and did not find time to attend any of the popular lectures delivered by His Holiness. One day he casually remarked to me “It appears that His Holiness is able to lecture fluently in Tamil.” I said “Yes.” He further said “I have had the opportunity at least of moving with Tamilians somewhat closely from the time of our previous Acharya. His Holiness however did not know Tamil till He started from Sringeri except a few words picked up while conversing with devotees who came to Sringeri from the Tamil Districts. The people were surprised to hear Him lecture in Tamil at Satyamangalam itself just across the Mysore state border. It is not clear how He learned it.”

In the evening of the same day, it had been arranged to invest a Zamindar with a title and besides the Zamin officials and the Mutt officials several prominent gentleman in high position or learned had been invited to the Durbar where the investiture was to be made by His Holiness. As the diploma was in the Sanskrit language, His Holiness asked Sri Sastri to read it. He did so. Then His Holiness said “As it is in Sanskrit, the Zamindar himself and many others here may not have understood its purport properly. As you have been in touch with Tamil country for a very long time, it will be well if you yourself explain it in Tamil to them.” Sri Sastri began to do so but could not proceed beyond a few words and even those few words were not quite intelligible to the audience. Noting this, His Holiness said. “Shall I myself explain it? I hesitated only because of my deficiency in Tamil.” Sri Sastri readily assented glad to be let off and sat down to listen. Then His Holiness gave out in a few words the purport of the diploma and explained for about half an hour the significance of the phrases there so beautifully and impressively that all there felt their faith in the Sastras deepened and strengthened. As this was the first occasion when Sri Sastri listened to any Tamil exposition by His Holiness, his astonishment was unbounded. Even the Tamil Pandits there were surprised and astonished at the pure and clear style of His Holiness. Later on Sri Sastri remarked to me “His Holiness’ command of Tamil is certainly not derived from contact with Tamilians. The unbounded grace of Sri Sarada and of His Guru must be responsible for it.”

It has been mentioned before that Sri Sastri had intense devotion towards the previous Acharya and that his respect for His Holiness was tempered by a sort of filial affection. He had asked the previous Acharya more than once for initiation to the Brahmasutra Bhashya but had always met with the response “What is the urgency for you? You will get it later on.” He could not get initiation from Him. After He attained freedom from embodiment, Sri Sastri thought within himself “I have been for all these years closely moving with Him and serving Him to the best of my capacity. Yet He did not favour me with this initiation. It is clear that I am not destined to have it in this life. When I could not get it even though I had that illustrious Guru to serve, it will not be proper for me to seek it at the hands of any other Guru.” When as years passed eminent pandits and high personages praised the wonderful style of His Holiness’ exposition and the masterly way in which He handled abstruse discussions in the several Sastras, he somewhat accepted His greatness but would not concede that He could equal the previous Acharya. Sometime after he retired from service and was staying in his village, he seriously thought “I am denying myself the initiation simply because I failed to get it from the previous Acharya. Who is the loser thereby? Am I not wasting my time out of mere pique? All pandits agree in praising the present Acharya. Why not I get initiation from Him treating Him as the representative of the previous Acharya?” This thought grew stronger day by day and made him decide to go to Sringeri and seek initiation from His Holiness. When he went there he disclosed to His Holiness the entire course of his thought without any reservation.

Sastri: In this state of things, I have come to You. Please give me a lift and make me blessed.

H. H: I have certainly no objection to teach you but you will have to agree to two conditions.

Sastri: I agree whatever they are.

H. H: The first is, that when I am teaching you nobody else must be present.

Sastri: This is quite agreeable to me also.

H. H: The second is, if in the course of my exposition you feel any difficulty or doubt, you must immediately mention it to me quite frankly. These are the only conditions.

Sastri: I feel myself more blessed than I thought. These are not really any conditions. On the other hand, You have perfectly gauged my real nature and You mention these as conditions only with a view to benefit me. If anybody is with me when You are teaching me, I will never give out any doubts nor admit that I have not understood anything. The apprehension that the other may think “Sastri has moved with the previous Acharya all these years and yet he does not know even this” and that therefore I may fall in his estimation will prevent me effectively from putting any questions. It is no doubt due to my innate egoism. Further even if there is nobody else the same egoism will tell me that You Yourself may think like that and stand in the way of my asking any questions. Your Holiness rightly felt that this egoism will not allow me to imbibe Your teaching fully and in Your unlimited grace You have blessed me by seeming to impose these two conditions. I am very grateful to You and I shall then and there expose my ignorance to You without reserve to get it eradicated.” With intense gratefulness he prostrated before His Holiness and from then onwards he began to study the Brahmasutra Bhashya daily at the feet of His Holiness. His Holiness thus expounded to him the whole of the first chapter and a portion of the second. The rest could not be proceeded with as His Holiness began to retire into Himself very frequently. Sri Sastri had thus the unique opportunity of profitting by the deep learning, the clear knowledge and the unrivalled power of exposition. Sri Sastri’s respect and admiration transcended all bounds.