30. चिन्तालेशविवर्जितः Cintā-leśa-vivarjitaḥ

One who was absolutely shorn of even a trace of worry

The detrimental nature of cintā, worry, is brought out in a verse that conveys, “Between citā (funeral pyre) and cintā, it is the latter that is powerful. While a citā burns the dead, cintā burns the living.”⁹⁰

Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, “Having dedicated all actions to Me with a discerning intellect (thinking, ‘I act for the sake of the Lord, as His servant,’) and being free from longings and free from the feeling of ‘mine’, fight without disquiet.”⁹¹ Thus, the Lord teaches Arjuna to surrender to Him and thereby abandon all worry.

Śrī Sadāśiva Brahmendra, the renowned avadhūta-yogin, pours out in a musical composition, the bliss of the state shorn of worry, while at once indicating in detail, the means to attain that state: “There is no worry indeed for those who are filled with mind-control, sense-control and kindness, who keep the company of the holy, who have vanquished Kāma in all three spans of time (past, present and future), who have destroyed the insolence of all the senses, who have centred their minds on the feet of the Paramahaṁsa-guru, and who are intoxicated in the nectar of the bliss of Brahman.”⁹² His Holiness had all the above characteristics and was hence One who was vi-varjita, completely free from, cintā-leśa, even a trace of worry. The word ‘trace’ here indicates the absence of even a small worry about the past, present and future, and the word ‘completely’ emphasizes that this was always the case.

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His Holiness was, from childhood, filled with dispassion, intent on liberation and deeply devoted to the Lord. After He came to be with His Guru at Sringeri, the resolve to take up saṁnyāsa only grew, and His dedication to the Lord deepened, with His mind being ever intent on serving His Guru. During His sādhanā, he practiced to perfection, karma-yoga, contemplation on the Ātman and meditation, and soon achieved Advaitic realization. As such, He was so self-controlled at every stage of His life, that there was never any question of worry in His mind.

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The Government returned the administration of the Maṭha to His Holiness in 1959, but without the 23 villages that had constituted the Sringeri Math’s Jahagir and 22 other Inam villages that had belonged to the Maṭha. Hence, a body blow was struck to the income of the Maṭha. In the place of the income from many villages and from an area within six miles around Sringeri, the Maṭha had to make do with a limited compensation to be paid annually.

His Holiness took the matter in His stride. When the loss of income was mournfully related to Him, He cheerfully replied, “The Maṭha had been functioning well even before the lands were granted. There is no cause for worry.” His stand was thoroughly vindicated, for the patronage of the devotees took over the patronage of the former kings. He firmly held, “Īśvara is there to take care of everything. Whatever He decides is indeed the best.”

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The following are teachings of His Holiness about the cause of worry and the importance and ways of getting rid of it.

“Normally, when people are unable to remedy some unpleasant experience, they worry and lament. The spiritual aspirant who is endowed with true forbearance is different. A mind that is tainted by anxiety, lamentation, etc., is unfit to successfully enquire about the Truth.

“We should dedicate everything to God and be without any worry. If we do so, the Lord Himself will fully take care of us; He will provide us what we lack and preserve what we have. He will give the realization of the Supreme too. The deathlessness that we desire would then be ours. Attaining God is alone the ultimate attainment and the highest good.

“A sincere devotee has no cause for any worry, for he has surrendered his body and mind to God and left everything in God’s hands.”

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