91. शारदापूजनासक्तः Śāradā-pūjanāsaktaḥ

One who was fond of worshipping Goddess Śāradāmbā

Mother Śāradā, the Goddess of Learning and the presiding deity of Sringeri Sri Sharada Peetham, was established there by Bhagavatpāda. On the sacred day of His Holiness’s initiation into saṁnyāsa, the senior Jagadguru and His Holiness were proceeding in the evening to the inner chamber of the Śāradāmbā Temple. The senior Jagadguru stopped at the threshold and said, "We are going to the Mother's chamber. She is no ordinary mother; She is transcendent and grants all wishes. Whatever you wish for, She will confer. Enter with full faith and tranquillity.” His Holiness’s bond of intimacy with Her was thus reinforced by His Guru Himself. He had a personal rapport with Her, the Mother of the Universe, and was seen on many occasions to be conversing with Her. It is no wonder, therefore, that He was āsaktaḥ, One who was fond of, pūjana, worshipping, Her. He used to elaborately worship the gorgeous Mother on all days of the śaran-navarātri festival and on special occasions such as vasanta-pañcamī, the anniversary day of the consecration of the idol, mahālaya-amāvāsya and His vardhantī.

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On a night before the saṁnyāsa-svīkāra ceremonies of His Holiness, He dreamt that He had gone to the temple to have the darśana of Śāradāmbā and was standing amidst a large crowd of persons. His Guru beckoned to Him and asked Him to enter the sanctum sanctorum. On His entering, the door was closed. Śāradāmbā took Him on Her lap and said, “Your good times are ahead. Even kings will pay obeisance unto you. Do not become proud. Continue to worship Me and be with your Guru. Wear this crystal necklace to remind you of Me.” So saying, She put the necklace on His neck and permitted Him to leave. Thereafter, the dīpārādhanā took place; at the same time, the necklace disappeared. The dream ended there.

One may conjecture that the Divine Mother had felt that as He had firmly lodged Her in His heart, there was no need for any external cue to remind Him of Her and so had caused the necklace to vanish in that dream.

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It was a day a few months after His Holiness’s initiation into saṁnyāsa in 1931. He was fourteen years old. He had just finished His morning āhnika and was about to get up. Without premeditation, He joined His palms and said, “śrī-śāradāyai namaḥ (Obeisance to the glorious Śāradā).” Abruptly, He felt an upsurge of joy and stopped being aware of His surroundings. It began to seem that His body was becoming transparent and that He was seeing His backbone from some vantage point in front of His chest. The backbone stood out, whitish in colour, with the silhouette of the body appearing dark like a shadow. The backbone then seemed to become translucent to reveal a canal in its interior. In moments, the canal’s width became greatly magnified. He could then see a tube, red and bright like fire, traversing the length of the canal. A mellifluous female voice announced, “iyaṁ suṣumnā-nāḍī (This is the suṣumnā-nāḍī).” He just heard the words but did not perceive the speaker.

The invisible speaker then revealed the vajrā, citriṇī, iḍā and piṅgalā nāḍīs in a similar fashion. Then one by one His Holiness perceived the yoga-cakras starting from the mūlādhāra-cakra and proceeding upward along the suṣumnā-nāḍī. At every cakra was revealed to Him various aspects of the cakra such as the lotus of the cakra, the syllables of the Sanskrit alphabet associated with the cakra, the form of Ambā related with the cakra as also the devata associated with the cakra. In the pericarp of the mūlādhāra-cakra He perceived a śiva-liṅga around which was wound a lustrous serpent. The serpent was motionless and appeared to be fast asleep. Yet, it was somehow unmistakable to His Holiness that it was the embodiment of unbounded power. He was told that this was the kuṇḍalinī.

Revealing six cakras in this manner starting from the mūlādhāra, the invisible speaker then revealed to His Holiness, above the end of the suṣumnā-nāḍī and within the head, a lotus with many white petals arranged in multiple layers. All the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet could be seen there. The voice told Him that this lotus with one thousand petals was the sahasrāra. At the pericarp of the lotus was a region that resembled the full moon and shed nectarine rays. Inside this was a bright triangle. The female voice said, “atra paramaśivaḥ sthitaḥ (Herein abides Paramaśiva).” Even without hearing any words to that effect, He felt certain that the ascent of the awakened kuṇḍalinī-śakti ends at the sahasrāra, wherein Śakti unites with Paramaśiva.

At this point, His experience ended. He submitted the details of the experience to His Guru. Then, the senior Jagadguru lightly patted His Holiness on His left cheek and said, “You are blessed. Śāradāmbā has directly taught you today and that too, of Her own accord. I am reminded of the fact that She Herself had expounded yoga to my Guru (Jagadguru Śrī Saccidānanda Śivābhinava Nṛsiṁha Bhāratī, the 33^rd pontiff). My Paramaguru (Jagadguru Śrī Nṛsiṁha Bhāratī, the 32^nd pontiff) had earlier told my Guru that She would do so.” He continued, “You are Her very own. So, it is but fitting that She chose to instruct you. She will teach you further. My Guru used to receive Her guidance not only when awake but also in dreams. You too shall do so.”

That very night in a dream, Śāradāmbā revealed to His Holiness the methods by which the kuṇḍalinī could be awoken from slumber and made to pass through the suṣumnā-ṇāḍī and reach the sahasrāra. He also beheld in the dream, the moonlike region at the pericarp of the sahasrāra, shedding nectar. Even during the dream His Holiness unambiguously realised that though Goddess Śāradā was Herself making known kuṇḍalinī-yoga to Him, She did not intend that this be His principal sādhanā. However, He did put into practice what all She led Him to recognize as meant to be implemented by Him. After the dream, He started the practice of mentally visualizing the various cakras, contemplating on the deities therein just as they had been shown to Him and then worshiping the kuṇḍalinī there. He would carry forward the worship done in one cakra to the next higher one, after conceiving that He reverentially led the kuṇḍalinī, whom He saw in the form of Ambā, there. He devoutly performed, without expectation of anything, such worship on Tuesdays and Fridays.

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As mentioned under nāma 15, the senior Jagadguru taught His Holiness a method to meditate on divine forms, in January-February, 1934. Deciding to try out what the senior Jagadguru had taught Him, His Holiness went a little later to Goddess Śāradāmbā’s temple. There, He sat next to the sanctum, facing Her idol. As He looked at the idol, a jewel on the face glittered in the light of the oil lamps. From His position, it appeared bluish. When He shifted His face a little, it appeared green. After seeing the blue light for a short while, He half-closed His eyelids and directed His eyes towards the space between His brows. Simultaneously, He mentally chanted ‘Om’ repeatedly in a slow, lengthened manner. In a matter of seconds, He could feel a tingling sensation between His brows. This gradually increased in intensity. He also began to see an attractive, blue disc of light. This resembled the light from the jewel on the Mother’s face. The main difference was that this was diffused. He then visualised a diminished version of Her idol emerging from the disc and occupying the lotus of His heart. The great clarity of the image in His heart and the readiness with which He had been able to visualise it pleasantly surprised Him. He focused on the form. His chanting of ‘Om’ stopped. Moments later, He opened His eyes. Actually, about a half hour had passed. During this time, He was unaware of the surroundings and His body.

While recollecting His meditative practices to a disciple many years later, His Holiness said, “After my Guru taught me the way to begin meditation, I started meditating every day. On the first day I focused on Śāradāmbā in the morning and on Bālā-Tripurasundarī in the evening (at the Kālabhairava Temple). Śāradāmbā's temple being very sacred, I started my serious practice of meditation next to Her sanctum.”

For about a fortnight prior to the senior Jagadguru teaching Him the method to initiate meditation, His Holiness had, in response to an inexplicable urge, been doing prolonged japa of the Bālātripurasundarī-mantra in the mornings. While engaged in such japa with His eyes open, He had, on some days, imagined Her form as remaining in His heart facing in the same direction as Himself. On others, He had imagined a bigger version of the same form as present in front of and facing Him. The special attention that He had been paying to Goddess Bālā-tripurasundarī’s mantra and form motivated Him to meditate on Her on His first engaging in meditation at the Kālabhairava Temple.

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Sometime in the period April-July, 1935, one morning, when His Holiness was about to visualise the form of Lakṣmī-nṛsiṁha, the form of Goddess Bālā made its appearance. He meditated on Her. That afternoon, He felt a strong urge to meditate upon Her as remaining in front of and facing Him and did so. It was months since He had focused on Her in this fashion. After the session, He thought, “Today, God is explicitly determining the form I am to meditate upon just as He had done nearly a year ago when He had caused me to focus on Kṛṣṇa with the flute, child Mukunda and Viṣṇu with eight arms” (vide nāma 54). He somehow felt sure that the evening session would be extraordinary.

When He commenced His evening meditation at the Kālabhairava Temple, in response to a powerful urge, He thought of Bālā in the same way as He had done in the afternoon. While He was focusing as usual on the full form of the Goddess, His mind suddenly locked on to Her feet. He had always been seeing Her form clearly. However, the experience of that day was extraordinary. He vividly beheld the Goddess’s feet; the sense of reality of the vision was intense and left no room for doubts. This was His first experience of savikalpa-samādhi. During this samādhi, He almost totally forgot Himself and that He was meditating; Goddess Bālā’s feet alone manifested. After remaining for one and a half hours in savikalpa-samādhi with His mind locked on to Goddess Bālā, He regained awareness of the body and opened His eyes. He could literally see Her in front of Him within the temple. He reached out and touched Her feet with His hands. A few moments later, She disappeared.

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It was some months after this first experience of savikalpa-samādhi, that His Holiness explicitly experienced the ascent of the kuṇḍalinī. On a Monday sometime in the period July-September, 1935, as He sat for His usual meditation, He felt an electric shock at the middle of His soles. The kuṇḍalinī started its ascent through the yoga-cakras, causing the lotuses of a cakra to bloom as it passed through it. After He had briefly seen the ājñā-cakra (yoga-cakra located in the region between the eyebrows) in bloom, He experienced a bright flash of light like lightning. Next, He saw a charming, luminous, tiny blue orb. His attention locked on to it and as He could then behold only that orb, its smallness was no more apparent. Thereafter, within it, He apprehended the forms of Śiva and Pārvatī. The blue orb with the forms of Śiva and Pārvatī constituted the object of His savikalpa-samādhi.

The next day, He again experienced the ascent of the kuṇḍalinī, but this time, when the kuṇḍalinī reached the ājñā-cakra, He had a vision of Śiva as Dakṣiṇāmūrti. After this the kuṇḍalinī reached the sahasrāra-cakra (located at the crown of the head) and He spontaneously went into savikalpa-samādhi, with the object of His focus being Īśvara as inhabiting the tiny space that He apprehended in the sahasrāra.

On the following Friday, as He was about to visualise and focus on a divine form in His heart, His tongue folded backwards. Then, for a moment, He saw the Divine Mother as seated in the sahasrāra and pouring down nectar. He decided to meditate on Her in this very fashion. So, He conceived of Her as He had glimpsed Her and focused on Her. He was soon in savikalpa-samādhi. When He regained awareness of the body, He felt a few drops of fluid descending into the back of His throat. The taste, coolness and invigorating effect were the same as on the previous occasion.

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On the afternoon of 11^th December, 1935, that is the day following His first experience of nirvikalpa-samādhi (vide nāma 1 and 76) His Holiness attained nirvikalpa-samādhi through kuṇḍalinī-centred laya-yoga. He had

244 92. Śāradendu-sama-dyutiḥ just apprehended a hue between His brows when, involuntarily, His attention turned to the anāhata-cakra (situated in the level of the chest). He apprehended the kuṇḍalinī there. The divine Śakti headed rapidly to the sahasrāra, leaping, as it were, from one cakra to the next higher one. When the kuṇḍalinī reached the sahasrāra, He plunged into nirvikalpa-samādhi. As His mind lightly came out of nirvikalpa-samādhi after about an hour, He discerned the descent of the kuṇḍalinī from the sahasrāra.

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On 12^th December, 1935, His Holiness had attained jīvanmukti (vide nāma 1) and had therefore gone beyond the need for nirvikalpa-samādhi. However, His mind kept plunging into that exalted state. This was because ‘nirodha-saṁskāras (impressions stemming from the interception of the mind)’ had become intense, because of which there was utter indifference to names and forms, and such abidance in samādhi made His mind even further disposed to reposing in nirvikalpa-samādhi and disinclined towards everything else. That night, no sooner did He lie down than He went into nirvikalpa-samādhi. By the time He emerged from it, the night had passed. The next morning, when He completed performing āsanas and readied Himself to start prāṇāyāma, His mind again plunged into nirvikalpa-samādhi. He remained in that state for about half an hour. Another session of nirvikalpa-samādhi occurred spontaneously during His āhnika.

This was the state of His mind when, later that morning, He went on His usual Friday-visit to the temples in the Maṭha complex. Notwithstanding His great indifference to names and forms in general on account of great introversion effected by repeated and prolonged abidance in nirvikalpa-samādhi, when He stood silently near the sanctum sanctorum of Goddess Śāradā, tears of joy flowed from His eyes. Such was His devotion towards the Divine Mother.

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