CHAPTER 9 An Extraordinary Blessing
It was the 5th of December, 1935, corresponding to mārgaśira-śukla-daśamī of the cyclical year Yuva, and the time was a little past 4:00 p.m. His Holiness was about to set out for His meditation spot on the hilltop with a view of the Malahānikareśvara Temple. An attendant informed Him that the senior Jagadguru had sent for Him. He promptly presented Himself to His Guru and performed namaskāra. The senior Jagadguru gestured to Him to sit down. On His doing so, He asked, “Were you about to leave for meditation?” On receiving an answer in the affirmative, He smiled. Then He remained silent for a minute, gazing fixedly at His disciple’s face. Smiling again, He said, “I am glad. You can start.” As His Holiness then prostrated once more before His Guru, the latter leaned forward and placed both His hands on His disciple’s head and loudly uttered thrice the mantra, “oṁ namaḥ śivāya (Om. Obeisance to Śiva).” This was unusual. As His Holiness got up, He strongly felt, “Today, I must meditate on Śiva.”
He went to His room, picked up His āsana-vastra (cloth spread on a seat) and started for the hill. His attendant followed Him. He was only a short distance away from Sacchidananda Vilas when He heard the senior Jagadguru’s clap. The sound seemed to come from outside the building. He turned around and noticed that the senior Jagadguru was standing in front of Sacchidananda Vilas, looking in His direction. He was about to rush towards His Guru when the latter gestured that He should move on as He was doing earlier. He, however, beckoned to His disciple’s attendant. His Holiness walked swiftly and soon reached the base of the hill. He turned to see if His attendant was trying to catch up with Him but the attendant was nowhere in sight.
View of Malahānikareśvara Temple steps
The idea of meditating in complete solitude appealed to Him. He nimbly ascended the hill. At its summit, He sat down at His place of meditation, facing west. The distant Malahānikareśvara Temple was in His line of sight. The sky was cloudless. Both the sun and the moon were clearly visible. Charmed by the very appealing scene, He chanted the penultimate verse of Bhagavatpāda’s Dakṣiṇāmūrti-stotra. The meaning of that verse is: “Obeisance to that resplendent Dakṣiṇāmūrti (Śiva), who is incarnate in the form of the Guru, whose eight-fold form is all this moving and unmoving universe, appearing as earth, water, fire, air, space, the sun, the moon and the soul; and beyond whom, the Supreme and all-pervading one, nothing else exists for the discerning.”
Having adopted the siddhāsana, He mentally offered His namaskāras to His Guru and Śiva before commencing His meditation. He directed His gaze to the space between His eyebrows. Keeping His eyes fixed, He mentally chanted the mantra, “oṁ namaḥ śivāya.” As usual, He felt a strong tingling sensation between His eyebrows. He soon began to behold an attractive and soothing moon-like disc of light within Him in that region. Such a disc had made its appearance only on a few earlier occasions. What manifested often was a blue hue; much less frequently, a green hue used to manifest. With His mind having become greatly tranquil and attentive, He imagined His heart-lotus in full bloom. As described in the dhyāna-ślokā of the mantra, He visualised Śiva therein as associated with the Divine Mother and as possessed of five heads and ten arms. The meaning of the said dhyāna-śloka is: “I salute Pārvatī’s Lord, who is tranquil, is seated in padmāsana, has the moon in His crest, has five faces (four in the four directions and one upward-turned), has three eyes (per face), bears a trident, thunderbolt, sword, axe and the symbol of granting freedom from fear (open upraised palm) in the (five hands on the) right side and bears a snake, noose, bell, the fire of cosmic dissolution and a goad in the (five hands on the) left side, is variously adorned and resembles (in complexion) a crystal gem.”
As He focused on the form, His awareness of the surroundings and the body vanished. Soon, His mental chanting of the mantra came to a stop and His mind thoroughly locked on to the divine form in the heart. Suddenly, the form became extraordinarily vivid. No effort to concentrate was needed any more. He could then literally experience the immediate presence of Śiva. He was overwhelmed with joy, particularly enthralled by the affection and smile He apprehended in the Lord’s īśāna-mukha (upward-turned face). After about one and a half hours, as He discerned later but what then seemed to Him to be just a moment, He became lightly aware of the body. He opened His eyes. He could see the sun close to the horizon and feel a gentle breeze. He could, at the same time, distinctly behold the Lord, as associated with the Divine Mother, in His heart-lotus. The Lord appeared to be emerging from within and expanding. A deep long sound of ‘om’ was audible. He then unmistakeably beheld Śiva in front of and facing Him.
Tears of joy flowed from His eyes and His hairs stood on end. The Lord’s lips moved and He heard the Lord pleasingly say, “vatsa, śvaḥprabhṛty-atra nirākāre pare tattve manaḥ samādhatsva. acireṇa brahmasaṁstho bhaviṣyasi (O child, from tomorrow, fix your mind here on the formless, Supreme Reality. You shall soon become established in Brahman.)” Then Śiva blessed Him by placing His hand on His Holiness’s head. Having done so, the Lord disappeared.
No sooner had Śiva vanished than there was a drizzle. Moments later, the sun set; simultaneously, the light rain stopped. The sky was quite clear when He had sat for meditation and even when the sun set, clouds were not apparent. The sun having been visible when it rained and as it has been said that exposure to such rain is akin to bathing in the Gaṅgā, He felt that the Lord had blessed Him with a light bath in the Gaṅgā. In a state of ecstasy, He paid obeisance to the Lord and extolled Śiva through ten verses that spontaneously occurred to Him. His impromptu composition in Sanskrit was in the bhujanga-prayāta metre, which comprises four quarters of 12 syllables each, with the syllables of every quarter occurring in the repeating sequence “short syllable, long syllable, long syllable.” His voice kept choking as He metrically glorified the Lord.
His Holiness distinctly beheld the Lord, as associated with the Divine Mother, in His heart-lotus. The Lord appeared to be emerging from within and expanding. A deep long sound of ‘om’ was audible. He then unmistakeably beheld Śiva in front of and facing Him. The Lord’s lips moved. He heard the Lord pleasingly say, “O child, from tomorrow, fix your mind here on the formless, Supreme Reality. You shall soon become established in Brahman.” Then Śiva blessed Him by placing His hand on His Holiness’s head.
He then felt an urge to meditate again. Since the Lord had directly instructed Him as a Guru, He thought of meditating on Him as Dakṣiṇāmūrti, the divine conferrer of knowledge. Mentally chanting the Medhā-Dakṣiṇāmūrti-mantra, He straightaway visualised the Lord in His heart-lotus as described in the mantra’s dhyāna-śloka. The meaning of that dhyāna-śloka is: “I adore Dakṣiṇāmūrti who is of crystal and silver complexion, holds in His lotus-like hands a rosary of pearls, a vessel of nectar, a book and the symbol of knowledge (characterised by the tips of the thumb and index finger touching one another and the other three fingers held straight), has a serpent for His girdle, has the moon in His crest, is three-eyed and has donned various ornaments.” Awareness of the surroundings and the body ceased. Subsequently, the mental chanting of the mantra automatically came to a stop and His focus was just on the form. There were no distracting thoughts of any kind. The meditation was deep, with the form quite clear. When He regained consciousness of the body and opened His eyes, He found no trace of sunlight. The place was, however, illumined by the light of the moon. Stars were visible.
It was only a few moments later that He realised that there was something on His neck. A big cobra had loosely coiled itself around it. Its upraised hood was near His right shoulder, facing away from Him. He had meditated on Bhujaṅga-bhūṣaṇa (an epithet of Śiva meaning, “He who has a snake for an ornament”) and now a snake was on His body as an ornament. Taking this as a sign of the Lord’s grace, He felt very happy. He stroked the cobra gently. It seemed to like this and rested its head against His right cheek. After about five minutes, the snake slowly uncoiled itself and went away. He got up and walked down the hill, seeing His way in the light of the moon.
His Holiness realised that there was something on His neck. A big cobra had loosely coiled itself around it. Its upraised hood was near His right shoulder, facing away from Him. He had meditated on Bhujaṅga-bhūṣaṇa (an epithet of Śiva meaning, “He who has a snake for an ornament”) and now a snake was on His body as an ornament.
At the base of the hill, He found His attendant waiting with a lamp. This was unprecedented, for, on earlier occasions, He was followed up the hill without any lamp by the attendant on duty. On His way back, in response to His question, the attendant said that after calling him, the senior Jagadguru had instructed him to wait for His Holiness, with a lamp in hand, at the base of the hill, after two and a half hours. He had been waiting only for some minutes when His Holiness came there. It was obvious to His Holiness that His Guru had accurately foreseen the time that He would be spending on the hill. He also discerned that His second session of meditation, which was totally unplanned, must have lasted for almost an hour.
“Today, you have received the very special grace and instruction of Parameśvara. Finally, for a while, you were a bhujaṅga-bhūṣaṇa (one adorned with a serpent). Is it not?” His Holiness reverentially answered, “Yes” and added that all this was the consequence of His Guru’s blessing bestowed on Him before He had left for the hill.
While He was ready to report the events to His Guru, since, as per the normal practice, He was scheduled to have His Guru’s darśana only the next morning during the latter’s āhnika, He returned to His room. However, in a few moments, He received a message that He had been sent for by His Guru. As the senior Jagadguru was engaged in His evening āhnika, He went to His presence and stood silently after performing namaskāra. On completing a japa, the senior Jagadguru looked at Him with a smile and said, “Today, you have received the very special grace and instruction of Parameśvara. Finally, for a while, you were a bhujaṅga-bhūṣaṇa (one adorned with a serpent). Is it not?” His Holiness reverentially answered, “Yes” and added that all this was the consequence of His Guru’s blessing bestowed on Him before He had left for the hill. As His Guru had just unmistakably revealed that He was quite aware of what had transpired at the hill, He felt that it was unwarranted for Him to report the details. The senior Jagadguru said, “It is getting late for your evening bath. You can go for it now and proceed with your āhnika.” His Holiness prostrated and went straight for His bath.
That night, He had a dream in which He beheld Śiva dancing magnificently in the form of Naṭarāja, the king of dancers, with the Divine Mother looking on. After some time, this scene was replaced by one in which Śiva appeared in conjunction with Divine Mother, as Ardhanārīśwara (The Lord having a half-male and half-female form). In the dream itself, He venerated Śiva-Śakti by chanting Bhagavatpāda’s Ardhanārīśvara-stotra. Thereafter, the scene changed to one in which He lay prostrate before the Lord as Dakṣiṇāmūrti seated at the base of a big fig tree. He found Himself merging into the Lord. With His becoming one with the Lord, the dream ended and He woke up. The time was 4:30 in the morning.