97. शमिताखिलसन्तापः Śamitākhila-santāpaḥ

One who subdued all afflictions

Tāpa or affliction is categorized into three types - ādhyātmika, ādhidaivika and ādhibhautika. By ādhyātmika-tāpa is meant bodily suffering due to diseases, and mental suffering due to psychological disorders or anger, jealousy, etc. Misery caused by objects or beings, such as poison, foes and snakes constitute ādhibhautika-tāpa. Ādhidaivika-tāpa is the misery resulting from malevolent spirits and the like and from natural calamities such as earthquakes. Just as fire burns forests, sorrows burn the individual trapped in the forest of saṁsāra. A seared person desperately yearns for something that can soothe his burns; likewise, the tormented being pines for relief and succour from the burns caused by the fire of these miseries.

His Holiness was One because of whom akhila, all, santāpa, blazing fires, that is the triad of miseries, were śamita, subdued. In nāma 14, His Holiness was characterised as One who completely eradicated the mental component of the agony of those who were afflicted by miseries. On the other hand, this nāma asserts that He eradicated the three afflictions from their very roots.

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The following is culled from a narrative by Dr. Vijaya Ramaswamy, published in the magazine Tattvāloka (Dec 1989-Jan 1990).

“I come from a family that worships the Sringeri Ācāryas as kula-gurus. But my association was tenuous until 1984, when, though I had had a successful academic career with a Ph.D. in History, fellowships abroad and several academic publications, I felt a sense of isolation and a very real sense of personal insecurity. The feeling of fear, loneliness and frustration increased with time. I developed a disenchantment for academics and book-reading became reading of mere words. In fact, books became objects of acute repulsion and disgust. I began to lose interest in my work and lived in a self-created world of darkness and depression. There was just this awful feeling of time slipping like sand through my fingers. I might have continued to live and perhaps die in this darkness but for the grace of His Holiness.

“One day I picked up the Bhagavad-gītā and tried to read it. To my sorrow I found that I could read the script but nothing more. The text itself made no sense to me. When I sat down with translation and commentary, what little I studied puzzled and frightened me. However, I persevered with my efforts.

“It was around this time that I began to have spiritually oriented dreams and visions of His Holiness. The dreams were initially of a great sage who blessed me by placing His lotus hand on my head. In the course of time these dreams crystallized into distinct visions of His Holiness, in which I was having His darśana, getting tīrtha-prasāda from Him, etc.

“In 1984, my uncle, Sri P. Subramaniam, informed the family that he would be taking a group of devotees to Kalady for the darśana of His Holiness. I decided to go with the group and had His darśana on 14^th August. I expressed my deep yearning for mantropadeśa from His Holiness to one of His disciples, who advised me to directly submit my plea to His Holiness. When I did so, His Holiness graciously asked me to come on the 16^th morning for mantropadeśa.

“The next day, however, my uncle was rather sceptical on hearing that I had sought mantropadeśa from His Holiness and that He had agreed to bless me with it, and thinking that I had got His Holiness wrong, apologized to Him for my foolishness. However, His Holiness only repeated, ‘Let her come at 9 o’clock in the morning.’

“His Holiness blessed me with mantropadeśa on a Friday, and I regard that as one of the most important days of my life. It was, for me, a spiritual rebirth. My personality changed as if it had been touched with the philosopher’s stone. Depression gave way to calmness and bitterness to faith.”

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Sri M. E. Muralidhara of Shivamogga reminisced, “Once while His Holiness was giving tīrtha-prasāda at Sringeri, a couple from Shimoga (Shivamogga) came with their little son and stood in the queue to receive the holy tīrtha. The child’s father recounted to His Holiness the suffering the child was undergoing and expressed the parents’ trauma. The boy had a congenital skin disease that had seriously impaired his health. Much to their despair, treatment by doctors of different schools of medicine had given no relief. In fact, the doctors had now indicated that the disease could take a fatal turn or even if it did not, it would stay with the child throughout life.

“Helpless, the couple had brought the child to Sringeri hoping that if His Holiness showers His blessings on the child, there could be a ray of hope. His Holiness, having patiently heard their pitiful story, took some sacred tīrtha in His hands and sprinkled it on the boy’s head. He assured them that the boy would be alright. That is precisely what transpired. The child was completely cured of the disease, much to the doctors’ amazement. The boy, a good friend of mine, grew up not only into a healthy man but also bearing no scar of the disease.”

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Sri Subramanya Ghanapatigal from Madurai was a devotee of His Holiness. One night, his son, Sri Ayyappa was bitten by a poisonous snake. He wasted precious time chasing the snake, and soon the poison started making him giddy. He was then taken to Madurai General Hospital for treatment. The doctors there abandoned all hopes of saving the young man, and pointed out that if he had been brought earlier he might have stood a chance of making it. “Now, only a miracle can save him,” they said.

When the Ghanapatigal was told of the critical condition of his son, he resigned himself to fate saying, “My son’s past karma has to run its course.” His attention was soon diverted to a place where he had kept the mantrākṣatā that He had received from His Holiness, along with Śāradāmba’s kuṅkuma. His hopes revived, he immediately gave the prasāda to a relative and said, “His Holiness’s grace is upon us. Let this prasāda save him.” The relative rushed with the prasāda to the hospital and applied it to the man. In a short while, to the utter bewilderment of the doctors, the effect of the poison was nullified and soon, the sick one recovered completely.

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Even fearsome snakes meekly submitted themselves to the command of His Holiness. At Narasimhavana, Sri Srikantiah and Sri Malnad Venkatesa were once ploughing the Maṭha lands, employing a tractor. At one place, a number of cobras suddenly came out hissing at them. Gripped by fear, they ran to His Holiness and described to Him what had happened. He spoke words of encouragement to them, and giving them mantrākṣatā, asked them to continue the work.

The next day, His Holiness came to the said spot and looking around, said to the duo, “There don’t seem to be any snakes here. Where are the snakes you spoke about?” Srikantiah pointed out a place and touched it with a spade. Immediately, numerous cobras came out and began dancing in front of His Holiness with their hoods upraised. Addressing the snakes, He said, “These people are afraid of all of you. It is better if you leave.” To the surprise of the onlookers, all the snakes simply obeyed and left the place.

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Sri Ramalingam was a cloth dealer residing in Kochi. He had a shop and was assisted in his trade by his son. Strange events suddenly started happening at the shop. Before closing for the day, the practice was to count the day’s income, put the money inside a locker and take the key with them. On opening the locker in the morning, they started finding that the currency note bundles were neatly cut into two halves; the cloth bales stocked in the shop were cut so finely that it was not discernible until the cloth was taken out to show the customer. It was then decided that a watchman be employed. In spite of the watchman’s presence, however, the incidents continued. The next try was to lock the watchman inside the shop. Not only were the notes and cloth torn anyway, but the watchman found himself outside the shop the next morning. These kinds of happenings continued for a while.

Finally, unable to bear the misery any longer, a grief-stricken Ramalingam wrote to His Holiness explaining the goings on, and praying for succour. When the letter was read out to Him, His Holiness instructed that the man and his son be asked to come to Sringeri. When the duo accordingly arrived at Sringeri, His Holiness learnt all the details from them again asking several questions regarding the happenings. He then gave Ramalingam two Narasiṁha-yantras with the instructions that he keep one in his shop and one at home, and also that he need not do any elaborate worship for the one kept in the shop, but should offer daily worship to the one kept at home.

The yantras were duly installed by Ramalingam as instructed. The strange happenings diminished gradually and totally stopped in just a few weeks.

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When His Holiness was on His first tour in 1950s-1960s, simple village folk troubled by prolonged lack of rain used to request Him to visit their place and bless them with rain, for they had heard that He was ‘Mazhai-Svāmigal (Svāmin who brings rain).’ Some would even stop His convoy of vehicles and beseech Him to grace their village so that they may have rain. His Holiness obliged them all.

People from a particular town once came to His Holiness requesting Him to grace their town. His Holiness acquiesced. It was customary in those days to welcome His Holiness into a town or village with a palanquin procession, in which He would don royal attire over His saffron robes, and also wear a heavy crown and be taken around in a palanquin, as per Maṭha tradition. Accordingly, when He arrived in the town, the palanquin procession took place. The town was divided into two halves, one side inhabited by Hindus, and the other by Muslims, and the Hindus, who were the ones who had invited His Holiness, led the procession into all the streets that made up their half of the town. That evening, after the procession was over, there was a very heavy downpour in the town, but curiously, the rain fell only on the part of the town that His Holiness had passed through – the Hindu part.

On knowing about this, the Muslims were distraught. A delegation of them approached the Maṭha authorities the next day, and said, “Rain is common to all, regardless of religion. We would like to invite His Holiness to our part of the town and request Him to grace our area too. We too want to take His Holiness in a palanquin procession just as the Hindus did.” The authorities declined the request because of His Holiness’s packed schedule. So the Muslims went directly to His Holiness and placed their request before Him. His Holiness readily acceded to their request without the least hesitation. That evening, He again compassionately donned the royal attire, in spite of the great inconvenience of it, sat in the palanquin and was taken around by the Muslims, this time covering only all the streets in their half of the town. And that night too it rained heavily in the town. Only this time around, the rain fell exclusively in the Muslim half.

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