105. सत्यादिधर्मनिरतः Satyādi-dharma-nirataḥ

One who was steadfast in the practice of truthfulness and other virtues

The Vedas, Smṛtis, Purāṇas and Itihāsas mention several sāmānya-dharmas, that is dharmas universally applicable to all. The Śruti says as the first among a series of sāmānya-dharmas, “Speak the truth.”²⁶⁷ In this nāma, therefore, ‘satya-ādi-dharma (the dharmas of truth, etc).’ clearly stand for such sāmānya-dharmas. These dharmas are covered in the Yoga-śāstra under yamas and niyamas. Since the latter has already been talked of in nāma 44, and satya is one of the yamas, the list of yamas is considered here.

The Yoga-śāstra speaks of yamas or restraints as being the first of the eight limbs of yoga (vide nāma 76). Mahaṛṣi Patañjali lists ahiṁsā (abstinence from injury), satya (truthfulness), asteya (abstinence from thieving), brahmacarya (continence) and aparigraha (non-acceptance of possessions) as the five yamas.²⁶⁸ To His Holiness, each of these attributes was a highly cherished gem, a complete dharma in its own right. He was ‘nirataḥ’, devoted to, and indeed established in the yamas from a tender age.

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His Holiness greatly valued ahimsā from childhood. The following dialogue is suggestive of this.

Sri Srinivasa Sastry: Hunting of animals is improper.

Friend: Carnivorous animals prey on weaker creatures. Such being the case, they deserve to be killed.

Sri Srinivasa Sastry: God has created some animals as food for the carnivores. This does not entitle man to poke his nose into the laws of nature and indulge in slaughter.

His statements about hunting were in harmony with the teaching in the Mahābhārata that desire-driven hunting is a grave vice and that the one who never yields to the delusion that hunting is right is praiseworthy.

274 105. Satyādi-dharma-nirataḥ

A day after saṁnyāsa, when His Holiness was walking in Narasimhavana, a cobra partially crossed His path, a little further down. It then moved towards Him and stopped just in front of Him. It raised its hood. Its upraised hood was directly above His feet. He stood still, admiring the snake and not in the least fearful of it. The snake, for its part, remained motionless. After some time, it lowered its hood and went away. Mahaṛṣi Patañjali has aphorised in the Yoga-sūtras, “In the presence of one who is established in ahiṁsā, even inimical creatures abandon their hostility.”²⁶⁹

Recalling this incident in 1974, His Holiness told a disciple, “It was not as though the snake did not fear me because I believed in ahiṁsā. All I can say is that I derived great joy because I regarded it as a good sign.”

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Truth was a dharma that was always extremely dear to His Holiness. After He became the pīṭhādhipati, in a certain hearing of a court case in Bengaluru, it was the turn of the Maṭha to present evidence. When reporting the case to His Holiness, the administrator voiced the legal opinion obtained that presenting the facts in a certain buttressed fashion would be monetarily beneficial to the Maṭha. “Will we be able to keep up in the future what we plan to indicate in the court now?” queried His Holiness. The administrator’s honest answer was, “No. It will be difficult for us to carry out what all we are going to declare.” “In that case, do not represent the case in that fashion. Just state the facts as they are,” directed His Holiness. He was unwilling to allow any deliberate misinterpretation of the facts.

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His Holiness often drove home the importance of not coveting another’s possessions. He once said, “Refraining from stealing implies that another person’s property should not even be mentally coveted. ‘Let whatever belongs to another person, be with him. I shall give something of mine to others’ – such a mentality should be ours.” His Holiness lived in accordance with His precepts. He was quoted in the context of nāma 70 as having described the state of Janaka and saying “I too have nothing and yet have everything.” He was thus absolutely beyond covetousness.

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After recollecting to a disciple, some of the advices of His Guru to Him when He was thirteen years old and still a brahmacāri, His Holiness told him, “My Guru was so kind that even when I was too young to be afflicted by passion, He emphasised the worthlessness of sensory pleasures and stressed the importance of dispassion and thereby precluded any scope for even the seed of passion finding a place in my mind. He rendered me fit for saṁnyāsa.”

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During His Holiness’s camp at Hyderabad in January 1966, the Maharaja of Mysore and Raja Venkata Rao Limbekar had submitted high quality, imported mattresses and blankets for His Holiness’s use. The attendant laid the bed for His Holiness at night before He entered the room. His Holiness removed His upper cloth, rolled it up and used this as His pillow. He lay on deerskin on the floor; His lower cloth served as His blanket. In the morning, as soon as He got up, He slightly rumpled the blankets on the bed. This went on for a few days.

One day, a disciple who had noticed what His Holiness had been doing, asked Him, “Why is Your Holiness doing this?” He clarified, “I am a saṁnyāsin and I do not want comforts. However, those who donate such articles expect me to use them. If they come to know from the attendants that I am not utilising them, they may come to the conclusion that the items ordered were not regarded by me as good enough and feel bad about it. As a result, they may trouble themselves further and get me even more valuable objects. Why give room to all this? Because of seeing the blankets rumpled, the attendants will not report the eminent donors that I did not use them.”

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