2. अनुकम्पासरित्पतिः Anukampā-saritpatiḥ

One who was an ocean of compassion

A person who is a śrotriya and brahma-niṣṭha, as His Holiness was, would be pre-eminently capable of gracing disciples to cross the ocean of saṁsāra. However, he would actually do so only if he were to have unbounded compassion. It is for this reason that Bhagavatpāda, while delineating the characteristics of a Guru, says, “He is one who has realized the Truth and who ever strives for the welfare of his disciples.”¹² That this characteristic too fits His Holiness perfectly, is borne out by this nāma.

Bhagavatpāda eulogizes the Sadguru by saying, “There is no illustration whatsoever in even the depths of the three worlds for a Sadguru, the giver of knowledge.”¹³ He goes on to explain that even the (now mythical) sparśa gem (philosopher’s stone), that can convert an ordinary piece of iron to gold, does not stand a chance of being a fit enough parallel. This is because the sparśa transforms iron only to gold and not to another sparśa that in turn would be capable of producing more sparśas, whereas a Sadguru converts an ordinary human being into a Sadguru. The Sadguru, being a brahma-niṣṭha, has achieved all that has to be achieved. For him the entire world is but illusory, just as a dream is for one who has woken up, and the Supreme Brahman alone exists. When this is the case, there can be only one cause - compassion - for a Sadguru to descend to the level of the disciple who has surrendered to him, and grant him his own state of establishment in Brahman. Surely, such compassion must be exceptional.

His Holiness’s compassion is compared here to sarit-patiḥ, the ocean, implying that His Holiness’s edifying compassion was constantly available, infinite, never diminishing and ever unprejudiced.

A question that would arise here is why such compassion of the Sadguru does not prompt him to grant the state of liberation to all, unprejudiced as it is. At any rate such total lack of prejudice would not only bring into question the validity of Śāstraic injunctions regarding the sādhanā (means or practices) to be pursued for liberation, but would also deal a body blow to the fundamental principles of natural justice. After all, ‘liberation for all’ would imply that a person who has strived for liberation as well as a sinner would both be granted liberation. It is obvious that no Sadguru so grants everyone liberation, for if it had happened, then everyone in the world would have become liberated. So the counter question that would arise is whether his compassion is really so unprejudiced after all.

Bhagavatpāda answers, ‘Having accepted as his own disciple, one who takes refuge in his pair of feet, the Sadguru grants him his own state (of being established in Brahman)’.¹⁴ Essentially, the Sadguru’s grace extends to those who seek it; he does not grant liberation to everybody, because giving knowledge to one who is not prepared for it can be disastrous. This is just as the ocean, referred to here as the lord of rivers, is available as refuge to any river that seeks it, but does not go out to rivers to engulf them for that would indeed be cataclysmic. Total surrender at the feet of the Sadguru by the disciple is the minimum that is necessary to earn his grace and also turns out to be all that is required. Thus, the Sadguru’s compassion does not depend on whether the person who approaches him is greatly qualified for knowledge or is an abject ignoramus - all that matters is that the person has truly taken refuge in him. The Viveka-cūḍāmaṇi wraps it up thus: ‘The Sadguru is an ocean of cause-less compassion; He is a friend (one who gets rid of misery) to those noble ones who have totally surrendered to him’.¹⁵

This ocean-like compassion of His Holiness made Him an inimitable Sadguru, the giver of the Supreme knowledge.

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The following is excerpted from a narrative penned by Sri R. M. Umesh.

“I first had the darśana of His Holiness in Chennai in 1971. I earlier had no intention of even going for His Holiness’s darśana, being under the impression that no intermediary is required between God and a person and hence a Guru is superfluous. Much to my own surprise, when I had the darśana of His Holiness, I requested for mantropadeśa (initiation into a mantra) which His Holiness readily acceded to give. As instructed, I reached the place of His Holiness’s stay at Chennai the next morning. While His Holiness initiated me into the Śiva-pañcākṣarī mantra, I was in a daze and felt His Holiness’s grace possessing me.

“I went home soon after the initiation, and found that I was automatically mentally chanting the mantra linked with the outgoing breath, and that no thoughts crossed the mind, which was extremely joyful. As the day wore on, an intense desire to meditate gripped me. Locking myself up in the pūjā room of my residence, I assumed a meditative posture and gently closed my eyelids. I found that the mantra rumbled on but slowly faded away. The mind became increasingly calm and in a few moments I lost all awareness of the body and surroundings. I felt as if I was expanding. I beheld a vast expanse of intensely bright illumination and had the experience of merging into it. Waves of bliss submerged me and the sense of time was lost. In what seemed a trice, I regained light consciousness of the body. Actually an hour had elapsed.

“This experience was repeated every time I sat for meditation. The mantra, for its part, was spontaneously chanted throughout the day. The joy of the period of concentration was so great that coming out of that state to engage in other activities was positively repugnant to me. The desire for worldly enjoyments and attainments started waning and a burning longing for saṁnyāsa took its place.

“I knew beyond doubt that His Holiness had graced me in abundance and that my experiences were solely due to Him. I went to Sringeri in 1972 and He granted me a private audience. Before I could pose any questions, His Holiness began to speak. In the course of what He said, He cleared most of my doubts. He said, ‘I know that you want to take up saṁnyāsa. However, it is better that for the time being you continue your engineering studies.’ He assured me that I need have no fear of getting enmeshed in the snares of worldly life. He continued, ‘At the time of initiation, by the will of Īśvara, śakti-pāta (transfer of spiritual power) had occurred. You will not have obstacles to your spiritual progress.’

“His Holiness then said, ‘Till now you have been doing saguṇa-dhyāna (meditation on the Supreme as possessed of qualities). Now I will teach you nirguṇa-dhyāna (meditation on the Supreme as devoid of attributes). When you sit for meditation, dissociate yourself with the body and the senses. Only the rise and fall of thoughts will be perceived. Segregate yourself from all mentation. Then realise yourself to be of the nature of perfect bliss. I will show you how to do so.’ Saying so, His Holiness closed His eyes. His body became motionless, His eyes were half closed and He radiated peace. About five minutes later, He opened His eyes and told me, ‘Go and try nirguṇa-dhyāna.’ ‘I intellectually comprehend what Your Holiness says’, I said, ‘but am at a loss to understand how exactly to proceed.’ ‘Try it’, His Holiness smilingly replied, ‘Everything will become clear to you.’

“Proceeding to the adhiṣṭhāna housing the samādhis of the earlier Jagadgurus, I sat down for meditation at the foot of a pillar. Almost instantaneously, I lost awareness of the surroundings and the body. Only the rise and fall of thoughts were recognizable. Slowly, the frequency of the thoughts became less and soon the mind was totally tranquil. I felt as though I was merging into pure ākāśa and becoming unlimited in size. There was an extraordinary experience of bliss. Suddenly there was a transition and even conception of ākāśa vanished. All distinctions disappeared without a trace. I am at a total loss for words to describe that state. All I can say is that I was lost in an ocean of unalloyed, indescribable bliss.

“When I began to regain my external consciousness and opened my eyes I could perceive nothing apart from me. Everything seemed to be in me like bubbles on the surface of the ocean. This unique experience lasted awhile before gradually fading away.

“This experience, which His Holiness later confirmed to me as being nirvikalpa-samādhi, accrued regularly. In 1974 at Sringeri, I asked His Holiness, ‘By Your Holiness’s blessings, I am repeatedly able to get the meditative state that Your Holiness has subsequently identified as nirvikalpa-samādhi. When I come down from that state, as I have told Your Holiness earlier, I feel as if there is nothing apart from me. This experience, however, is not steady. It fades away after a while and I would like Your Holiness’s benediction for that state to become steady.’ His Holiness looked upon me with compassionate eyes and then said, ‘After you complete your engineering studies that state shall become steady.’

“So unlimited is His mercy that just a few days after making this statement, He told me of His own accord, ‘Your surrender to Me has generated satisfaction. I bless you that that state become steady from now on.’ Can the blessings of the omnipotent One ever be in vain? What He said came to pass and the steadiness of the experience continues to this day. I regard that moment as the culmination of a blessing He had given years ago when I had prayed to Him for pure devotion. He had said, ‘Abidance in the Self is indeed considered the highest devotion. May you have that true devotion.’”

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The following are experiences of Sri P. S. Venkatasubba Rao.

“A relative of mine wanted a liṅga for pūjā, and approached me. I left for Sringeri and placed the request before His Holiness. His Holiness went upstairs and brought two liṅgas. One was a sphaṭika Bāṇa-liṅga while the other was a Narmadā-liṅga. His Holiness gave the latter to be given to my relative, and giving me the Bāṇa-liṅga, said, ‘Worship it. You will get jñāna (knowledge).’ I commenced daily worship of the liṅga.

“Later, I felt an urge to have some traditional lessons from His Holiness. I went to Sringeri from my place of residence in Chikkamagaluru, and made known my desire. Right away, His Holiness agreed and said that He would begin the lesson at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Some saṁnyāsins and paṇḍitas also attended the classes. The text taken for exposition was the Śrī-dakṣiṇāmūrti-stotra of Bhagavatpāda. Having given a lucid exposition of the first verse, His Holiness decided to explain the second verse the next day. He was having a sore throat that day. Yet, He chose to teach me saying, ‘You have come all the way for this. Hence, I will teach.’ On the third day, His Holiness said, ‘This is enough. In fact, what I taught you on the first day was itself sufficient for you. I took up the second verse on the subsequent day to ward off any possible feeling you may get that the absence of continuation of the second day is inauspicious.’

“A few days later, my uncle, Ananda Rao, who was in charge of the old guesthouse at Sringeri, told me about a peculiar person who had come there. The person called himself Parabrahma or Brahma. He was untidy and had long uncut nails and a big beard. His Holiness had spoken with him freely and made arrangements for his stay at the old guesthouse. Brahma observed no regulations. To all appearances, he was an eccentric, bordering on lunacy. His Holiness, however, recognised that He was enlightened.

“I went to the person’s room and offered salutation. Brahma said in English, ‘Happy man.’ I queried, ‘How about realization?’ ‘You will get it,’ said he. ‘How?’ I persisted. To this, he responded, ‘The mind will tell you.’ I reported this conversation to His Holiness. His Holiness remained silent and motionless for a while and then told me with a tone of finality, “He is a rāja-yogin and has realized the Truth of Vedānta.”

“His Holiness soon left on His first tour, but not before instructing the officials of the Maṭha to cater to Brahma’s requirements. I went some months later to Sringeri again and met Brahma. He instructed me on ātma-anusandhāna (contemplation on the Ātman). He then initiated me into the mahāvākyas (great declarations of the Supreme Truth in the Upaniṣads) and caused me to be centred on the Self. The blessing of His Holiness that He had bestowed on me while giving me the liṅga for worship had fructified.

“So powerful is His Holiness’s ātma-anusandhāna that it has a profound impact on those nearby. On one occasion I accompanied His Holiness on a camp to Kundapura. I was travelling in the jeep that was piloting His Holiness’s vehicle when, at one point, I noticed that His Holiness had ordered His car to stop. He asked me to sit in the front seat of His car and sent His personal attendant to the jeep. No conversation ensued. His Holiness lost Himself in the contemplation of the Ātman. The effect of His silent ātma-anusandhāna on me was tremendous.”

[In later years, His Holiness remarked to some people that Sri Venkatasubba Rao was a realized soul.]

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The following is the narrative of Smt. S. N. Manikarnikamma. [In it she refers to Sri D. S. Subbaramaiya, an intimate disciple of the senior Jagadguru and His Holiness and led to spiritual consummation by Them. His Holiness acknowledged Sri Subbaramaiya as a knower of the Truth.]

“Once in the early 1970s, upon our supplication, His Holiness directed my husband and me to learn Vedānta from Sri Subbaramaiya and blessed us for our Vedānta-vicāra (enquiry into the Truth taught in Vedānta). Since then, as assigned by His Holiness from time to time, Sri Subbaramaiya was kind enough to teach us various texts starting with the elementary ones, for nearly two hours every evening at his residence. He most compassionately guided, monitored and took us through the various stages of spiritual practices from karma-yoga through to contemplation on the Ātman. After our classes commenced, whenever Sri Subbaramaiya or we had the opportunity to have the darśana of His Holiness, He would invariably enquire about our Vedānta lessons, apart from Himself blessing us with His insightful remarks on portions of the texts being discussed.

“In our class at the usual hour in the evening of 3^rd January 1976, Sri Subbaramaiya commenced by asking us about our experiences stemming from the contemplation on the mahāvākya, ‘prajñānaṁ brahma’ (Consciousness is Brahman). He subtly led us by progressively and minutely distilling our contemplation. Thus, from prompting the recollection of being the witness of thoughts, he facilitated the strengthening of the realisation that even while being the witness, transcending that unattached witness is the innermost Ātman that is Self-luminous, of the very nature of incessant Bliss and non-different from the Supreme Brahman. Even as he was thus driving home the quintessence of the mahāvākya, my thought blossomed to transcend all limitations of space, time and objects, and became boundless. In a flash, there fructified the realisation of infinite bliss, my intrinsic nature. Even while seeing, the world vanished. Only the Self shone directly, and there was nothing apart from me.

“His Holiness graced Bengaluru between the 5^th and 13^th of November, 1976. On the evening of the 8^th, Sri Subbaramaiya and a group of us students were ushered into the presence of His Holiness in the inner courtyard of the Sri Sringeri Shankara Math, Bengaluru. After we paid our homage to His Holiness, He compassionately enquired, as usual, about our Vedānta lessons and spiritual progress. As we were taking leave of His Holiness and my turn came to receive mantrākṣatā (rice grains mixed with turmeric powder blessed by His Holiness) from Him, I moved forward with cupped hands, head bent in reverence. Holding a fruit and the mantrākṣatā in His hand over my cupped hands, He prompted and directed me to chant a particular verse from Bhagavatpāda's Viveka-cūḍāmaṇi. Still with head bent, I obeyed. The verse conveys, ‘Being thoroughly shrouded by ignorance, even a man who is invariably sagacious, has scriptural knowledge, is skilled in analysis and is a perceiver of what is most subtle, does not clearly comprehend the Ātman even on being taught about It in various ways. He considers what is superimposed on account of delusion to be true and attaches himself to its qualities. Alas, formidable is the power of concealment of calamitous tamas.’¹⁶

“Even as I was chanting this verse, I was wondering as to why His Holiness was bringing to my mind the disastrous consequences of ignorance, which I felt was behind me for good. Once I had finished chanting the verse, He blessed me with the fruit and the mantrākṣatā He had kept in His hand. I stepped back, looked up and beheld Him. Looking at me with a most compassionate smile and waving His right hand utterly dismissively, He said with an authority that only He could command, ‘That deluding veil is not for you.’ I paid my silent salutations to Him with my tears. He had just confirmed, as only a Sadguru can, that the veil of ignorance was shattered for me once and for all. What else was this but the infinite compassion and the infallible blessings of His Holiness who, after putting me under the tutelage of Sri Subbaramaiya and impelling me from time to time both from within and without, chose to immerse me in Supreme Bliss, which is Himself!”

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