55. पालिताशेषभक्तौघः Pālitāśeṣa-bhaktaughaḥ

One who protects the multitude of devotees without exception

When her modesty was sought to be violated by Duhśāsana in open court at Hastinapura, the helpless Draupadī appealed, as a last resort, to Lord Kṛṣṇa to protect her. At that very instant, the Lord, seated at Dwaraka, unequivocally declared that His immediate task is to set forth to protect Her. He said, “This increased debt of mine does not leave my heart, for Draupadī has cried out ‘Govinda’ to Me, who am far away.”¹⁴⁶

While quoting this verse in one of His benedictory discourses in Chennai in 1961, His Holiness explained what the call of Draupadī has to do with debt, and that too for the Lord of the cosmos Himself: “When Draupadī’s pleas to her powerful husbands were in vain because they were bound by rules, she looked to call Him who is not only capable of saving her but is beyond all rules. If somebody close by calls us when in trouble, then the person may or may not have much faith in us. However, when Draupadī called out with all her heart to Kṛṣṇa who was not even near her, then what must have been the extent of faith she had in Him! The compassionate Lord’s heart melted and He felt that He is bound to go to her rescue, even feeling indebted to her for the faith she had in Him.”

When His Holiness’s disciple, Jagadguru Śrī Bhāratī Tīrtha Mahāsvāmin states through this nāma that His Guru is One by whom bhakta-oghaḥ, the multitude of devotees, is pālita, protected, He resonates a fact that His Holiness’s Guru, Jagadguru Śrī Candraśekhara Bhāratī Mahāsvāmin expressed in the following verse that He composed on His Holiness: “O Wise people! Hold in the heart-lotus the Guru, Vidyātīrtha, the young One with a tranquil mind, who is exceedingly compassionate, who destroys the mountain of impediments by His extremely pure glances, who is skilled in protecting everybody, who is known by means of the Praṇava (Om) and who is the manifestation of the Supreme Brahman.”¹⁴⁷

There is a significance to the qualifier aśeṣa (without exception) to the term bhaktaughaḥ of the nāma, meaning that He protects the multitudes of devotees “without exception”. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa assures, “Unequivocally proclaim, O son of Kuntī, never shall My devotee perish.”¹⁴⁸ Thus, the Lord guarantees protection to His devotees for all time - no devotee of the Lord needs to feel abandoned. In a similar manner, His Holiness’s shield of protection is assured for all His devotees even after He cast off His mortal form, and regardless of even whether they have had His darśana in His physical form or not.

His Holiness giving the unequivocal assurance, “I will never abandon one whom I have accepted,” quoted in the context of nāma 43, begs recollection once again here. Being totally committed to truthfulness, His Holiness would never have intended any element of untruth or hyperbole while giving such a categorical and momentous assurance that totally disregards factors such as time, place and extent of the devotee’s devotion. There are many instances of devotees continuing to receive His grace and guidance even after He shed His mortal body. His grace is undiminished and His guidance available as ever to those who genuinely seek and need it.

❧

Dr. A. G. Ramesh and his sisters planned to celebrate their father, Dr. A. R. Govinda Rao’s ṣaṣṭyabdapūrti (completion of 60 years) at Dharwad, where the latter lived. From among the few priests available at Dharwad, there were only a couple who were known to do a good job and were therefore in great demand. When Dr. Ramesh approached one of them, he finally agreed after a lot of fuss. The invitations were printed and dispatched. The family then went to Sringeri to seek His Holiness’s blessings for the function.

His Holiness looked at the invitation and said, “This muhūrta… is there not another one on which you can celebrate the function?” Ramesh replied with reverence, “This was fixed according to my father’s birthday.” His Holiness said, “Alright. Why don’t you consult the local priest and ask him if the function cannot be conducted on another date?” Those were tense moments for Ramesh and his family - they had already sent out the invitations, the date was close at hand and their father had acceded with great hesitation to the very idea of a celebration. However, since it was His Holiness’s directive, they approached a local priest, who confirmed that the date had been fixed correctly. The family heaved a collective sigh of relief and returned to report the matter to His Holiness. His Holiness then suggested, “Why don’t you ask the Maṭha purohit about this?” Once again they were apprehensive, but much to their joy, the Maṭha purohit too gave his stamp of approval. His Holiness then said, “Fine. But instead of celebrating this function in Dharwad, why not conduct it here at Sringeri?”

The family was pleasantly surprised at the idea of celebrating the function at Sringeri, and gladly agreed to do so. They got new invitations done immediately. A large number of relatives gathered at Sringeri for the function. Several of the relatives who had never visited Sringeri before were blessed with a private audience with His Holiness and He blessed them all. The happy family then returned to Dharwad.

Ramesh felt a little guilty that they had pleaded so strongly with the priest in Dharwad to officiate at the ceremony and had then conducted the function at Sringeri without even informing him. So he decided to visit the priest with some prasāda from Śāradāmbā’s temple, and explain that they had changed their plans based on His Holiness’s advice. When he reached the priest’s house, however, he was shocked to hear that the man had passed away a few days ago. On further enquiry, Dr. Ramesh discovered that the end had come on the very day of the function.

He realized that His Holiness had taken the trouble to persist with the family in spite of their unwillingness. His Holiness had thereby compassionately protected the family from the event of the officiating priest passing away on the day of the auspicious function, which would not only have been very unpleasant, but would have also jeopardized the very function.

❧

The following was narrated by Smt. Vaikuntam Anantharama Seshan, who had settled down at Sringeri along with her husband (vide nāma 43).

“My husband once underwent a major surgery to fix a fracture in his leg. Just before the surgery, I received prasāda and blessings from His Holiness. The surgeon wanted to stay back with us at the hospital on the night after the surgery. Though I tried to dissuade him, he stuck to his decision. It was only in the morning that he told me, ‘The pulse rate was dangerously high at night. Only now it has improved.’ It was obvious to us that it was His Holiness’s grace that had seen my husband through. Later, His Holiness, of His own accord, told us, ‘I had told Candramaulīśvara that I wanted Seshan to walk normally and that I did not regard it as proper to abandon one who had come to me.’”

❧

The following is a personal experience of a disciple of His Holiness, who was serving Him at the Maṭha. The episode happened on 19^th September, 1989. His Holiness shed His mortal form on the 21^st.

“That day, His Holiness directed me to read out select compositions of Bhagavatpāda. He had placed bookmarks in the pertinent volume of the ‘Śāṅkara-granthāvali (Series of works of Śaṅkara)’; this volume contained Bhagavatpāda’s stotras (hymns). As I was reading from the book, I could hear His Holiness saying, ‘Hm,’ ‘Hm,’ in between when I was going fine. When I faltered, however, He promptly corrected me. Upon completing the Brahmānucintana, I looked at Him for His next directive. He said, ‘In the normal course, I would have read the Ṣatpadī-stotra, Lakṣmī-Narasiṁha-karuṇārasa-stotra, Moha-mudgara (also called Bhaja-govindam), Kaupīna-pañcaka, and others. Since I am not in a position to read them on my own today, you read them aloud for me.’ I proceeded to read them out and then, as directed by Him, read the Dhanyāṣṭaka, Sādhana-pañcaka, Manīṣā-pañcaka and Ekaślokī.

“I clearly realized that with this, His Holiness fulfilled what He had, a decade earlier, told me He would do for me someday. In 1979, I had been in Sringeri for my vacation at the time when His Holiness was expounding the Bhagavad-gītā-bhāṣya to His successor-designate. One day, His Holiness told me, ‘Just be seated here and listen. Even if you do not follow, it can serve as śravaṇa for you.’ After a week, I received a message from my parents to return to Bengaluru to attend to the application formalities to join an Engineering course. I refused because I wanted to be in Sringeri till His Holiness completed the Bhagavad-gītā-bhāṣya. This came to His Holiness’s knowledge. He directed me to go home and join an Engineering course. He told me that He would teach me alone someday. Ten years later, in 1989, as I sat exclusively in His Holiness’s presence reading what His Holiness was telling me to read on His behalf and being corrected by Him whenever required, I did not have an iota of doubt that His Holiness was gracing me with that promised private session of Vedānta.”

❧

Sri Baluchandran, a landlord, was facing untold misery caused by a leader who had been elected as the village sarpanch. The problems the leader was causing him were of the nature of encroaching upon the land holdings, inciting workers against him, non-payment of rent, diverting or preventing water flow to his fields, etc. The circumstances were such that he was unable to do anything about this.

This was the state of affairs when Baluchandran went to Sringeri in February 1989. He told His Holiness that he was having serious problems pertaining to his village. His Holiness promptly asked him, “Did an election take place in your village?”

Baluchandran: (Wonderstruck) Yes.

HH: (Nodding) What does he say?

B: (Briefing Him about the problem) A situation has arisen now, wherein either he will have to surrender or I will have to leave the village.

HH: Perform an arcanā to Lord Narasiṁha. The troublemaker will surrender to you by himself. He will ask for pardon and the problem will be solved.

The devotee accordingly performed an arcana to Lord Narasiṁha before leaving Sringeri.

Some months later, at about 10 o’clock one morning, the doorbell rang at Baluchandran’s house in the village. Baluchandran later narrated what happened after that: “I opened the door and to my surprise, I found the

156 56. Piṅgalābda-samudbhavaḥ sarpanch standing there! He came into the house and fell at my feet and asked for pardon for all the trouble he had caused me, prompted by evil-minded advisors. He even assured me of his complete help thereafter. Later that evening, I got to know that His Holiness had shed His mortal form that day. His Holiness had carried out, even on the day of His Mahāsamādhi, the assurance given by Him.”

❧

An aged disciple living over a thousand miles from Sringeri once came to Sringeri in the late 1980s and expressed a mental disquiet caused by conjecturing a time in future when His Holiness may not be present in His physical form. Having promptly pointed to the spot where His samādhi is now located, His Holiness assured the disciple, “When I am not physically present, you may come here to see me. I will be here.”

❧

After His Holiness’s Mahāsamādhi, a devotee once approached Jagadguru Śrī Bhāratī Tīrtha Mahāsvāmin asking for His Holiness’s pādukās. The Jagadguru said, “How is it possible now that His Holiness is not physically present?” Then, on seeing the devotee’s genuine intentions, the Jagadguru added, “If your devotion is so firm, the pādukās will arrive on their own.”

After a few days, two ladies came for the Jagadguru’s darśana. They handed over a pair of His Holiness’s pādukās to the Jagadguru, saying that since there was none left to do pūjā in their family, they thought this was the appropriate course of action. After they left, the Jagadguru called the devotee who had earlier made the request for the pādukās, and saying with a smile, “They have arrived,” blessed him with His Guru’s pādukās.

❧