Preface

His Holiness Jagadguru Śrī Abhinava Vidyātīrtha Mahāsvāmin, a sage par excellence with unbounded compassion who adorned the Dakshinamnaya Sringeri Sharada Peetham as its 35th Jagadguru Shankaracharya for 35 years, was born on 13 November 1917. His Holiness Jagadguru Śrī Candraśekharabhāratī Mahāsvāmin initiated Him into saṁnyāsa on 22 May 1931. From the day of His saṁnyāsa, His Holiness deeply engaged in spiritual practices. These culminated in His attaining the direct realization of the Supreme Brahman on 12 December 1935 and His thereafter remaining steadfastly established in the Supreme as a glorious jīvanmukta (one liberated even while alive). His Guru, a celebrated jīvanmukta, promptly recognized His Holiness’s enlightenment and, citing passages of the scriptures about a jīvanmukta, categorically asserted that they were fully applicable to Him. Later, His Guru averred that He clearly knew that His Holiness was actually God in human form and that His practising spiritual disciplines and, thereby, becoming enlightened and liberated were only His divine sport. He even composed, in 1943, some verses about His disciple and, in one of them, stated that the wise should hold Him in their hearts, that He was but the Supreme Brahman, that He was reachable through the praṇava (om) and that He was skilled in taking care of the entire world. My divine Guru, in His infinite mercy, blessed me, over the course of some years till a month before He shed His body, with the complete details of His sādhana and its fulfilment. I included some of this information in a two-volume book on His life and teachings that I respectfully submitted at His lotus feet in 1984.

Some years after His disembodiment in 1989, His Holiness Jagadguru Śrī Bhāratī-tīrtha Mahāsvāmin, the present pontiff of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham, directed me to pen the complete details. I did so and submitted the material to Him. Fully satisfied with it, He directed that it be published and blessed the book with His śrīmukha. That book, Yoga, Enlightenment and Perfection, was first published in 1999 and has been reprinted several times; over 20 lakh copies of the free digital version have been downloaded.

A few months ago, I happened to compose a century of verses on the divine Guru’s sport of spiritual practices and attainment of perfection, with stress on the pivotal final week from 5-12 December 1935. They contained a few unpublished points too. I submitted the sole copy to His Holiness Jagadguru Śrī Bhāratī-tīrtha Mahāsvāmin. His Holiness not only perused the verses, He refined some of them, directed that they be published in the form of a booklet and even kindly conferred His personally penned and signed śrīmukha for this publication. My sāṣṭāṅga-namaskāras at His lotus feet.