CHAPTER 11 Ever in the Supreme
When His Holiness was returning from the hill on the evening of mārgaśira-kṛṣṇa-dvitīyā, corresponding to 12th December, after attaining enlightenment and jīvanmukti (liberation even while living), He saw His Guru standing outside Sacchidananda Vilas and looking in His direction. The senior Jagadguru beckoned to Him and went inside. When He went to the room of His Guru, the latter, who was standing there, rushed to Him and embraced Him even before His Holiness could prostrate before His Guru or say anything. Holding Him by His shoulders, the senior Jagadguru said, “I am so very happy.” He then voiced a mantra of the Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad, a passage of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad and a verse of the Bhagavadgītā, all of which are about an enlightened person, a jīvanmukta (one liberated even while alive).
Holding His Holiness by His shoulders, the senior Jagadguru said, “I am so very happy.” He then voiced a mantra of the Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad, a passage of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad and a verse of the Bhagavadgītā, all of which are about an enlightened person, a jīvanmukta.
The import of that mantra is, “When the supreme Ātman, which is both high and low, is realised, the knot of the heart (comprising the host of tendencies and impressions of ignorance in the form of desires) is destroyed, all doubts come to an end and one’s actions become dissipated.” The cited passage of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad conveys, “He who was subject to death then becomes deathless and attains identity with Brahman while living in this very body.” The import of cited words of the Lord is, “But that man who rejoices only in the Ātman, is satisfied with just the Ātman and who is contented in just the Ātman - for him, there is no duty to perform.”
The senior Jagadguru then said, “Such declarations of the śruti and smṛti are applicable to you who abide as the Supreme Brahman.” Then altering a verse of Gauḍapādācārya a little, He metrically asserted, “The Reality has been seen (by you) in the context of the individual and in the external world. You have become identified with the Reality. You rejoice in the Reality. You are undeviating from the Reality.” The original verse of Gauḍapādācārya contains the teaching, “Having examined the Reality in the context of the individual and in the external world, one should become identified with the Reality, should have one’s delight in the Reality and should not deviate from the Reality.”
On the senior Jagadguru letting go of His shoulders, His Holiness prostrated before His Guru for long, placing His hands and head on His Guru’s feet. Recapitulating all this in August 1989, His Holiness told me, “Such was my Guru’s greatness that He highly appreciated anything positive in another. His instructions, blessings and grace were responsible for my sādhanā and whatever I achieved. Yet, He was so thoroughly free from egoism that He did not take any credit. Where can one find anyone like Him?”
“Such was my Guru’s greatness that He highly appreciated anything positive in another. His instructions, blessings and grace were responsible for my sādhanā and whatever I achieved. Yet, He was so thoroughly free from egoism that He did not take any credit. Where can one find anyone like Him?”
- His Holiness
As His Holiness had become fully enlightened and attained jīvanmukti that evening, samādhi ceased to have any role in His case as an aid to realise Brahman. However, as He had been repeatedly abiding in nirvikalpa-samādhi since the evening of 10th December, ‘nirodha-saṁskāras (impressions stemming from the interception of the mind)’ had become intense. Because of this and utter indifference to names and forms, His mind subsided readily and went on its own into nirvikalpa-samādhi. 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, that is, on 13th December, corresponding to mārgaśira-kṛṣṇa-tṛtīyā, 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. Later, He went on His usual Friday-visit to the temples in the Math 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. It is said in the Bhāgavata-purāṇa, “Even sages who revel in only the Ātman and are without any bond (or, have given up even the study of texts) are devoted, without any expectation whatsoever, to the Lord. Such is the excellence of God.”
As His Holiness had become fully enlightened and attained jīvanmukti that evening, samādhi ceased to have any role in His case as an aid to realise Brahman. However, as He had been repeatedly abiding in nirvikalpa-samādhi, His mind even further disposed to reposing in samādhi and disinclined towards everything else. He was in a position to perform only what He was habituated to doing and which did not involve fresh application of the mind. Also, emerging from samādhi became difficult.
That afternoon, He attempted to revise a text of the Tarka-śāstra but failed because His mind soon went into nirvikalpa-samādhi. By the evening, He was in a position to perform only what He was habituated to doing and which did not involve fresh application of the mind. Also, emerging from samādhi became difficult. The nirvikalpa-samādhi of the night stretched on to cover even the period when He would have normally performed His āsanas and prāṇāyāma the next morning, that is on 14th December, corresponding to mārgaśira-kṛṣṇa-caturthī. Had His samādhi lasted any longer, His morning bath would have become delayed. When He engaged in His āhnika after having a bath, He omitted nothing but because of introversion, His performance of āhnika was like that of a sleepy person doing pūjā.
By the afternoon, the impact of the nirvikalpa-samādhis had become so much that He succeeded in doing His second āhnika only poorly and was hardly aware of partaking bhikṣā thereafter. Post bhikṣā, He remained in His room in nirvikalpa-samādhi till His evening bath, to complete which He needed some assistance. His mind was so intoxicated with bliss that the evening āhnika fared far worse than the one in the afternoon. He did not partake of anything before retiring to His room that night as He felt too disinclined to do so. There, He sat down and straightaway went into nirvikalpa-samādhi.
He descended from samādhi on becoming vaguely aware of the intonation of ‘om’ in the senior Jagadguru’s voice. When He opened His eyes, He beheld His Guru. The senior Jagadguru was seated next to Him and was gently stroking His disciple’s head with His hand. “Taking care to avoid any further samādhi, finish your bath and āhnika and come to me,” He said and immediately left. So intense was His Holiness’s reverence for and devotion and obedience to His Guru that even the powerful tendency to repose in samādhi that had built up could not stand in the way of His strictly carrying out His Guru’s wishes.
When He went to His Guru and offered namaskāras, the senior Jagadguru directed Him to sit down and then said, “I knew that your mind was becoming more and more absorbed in nirvikalpa-samādhi. Though you have transcended any need for samādhi, I did not interfere. Last night, however, the Lord made it clear to me that your samādhi had become so intense that you would not emerge from it on your own. Unless aroused from samādhi, you would remain in it till physical death. As impelled by Him, I came to your room before the night ended. Telling your attendant to remain outside, I entered alone. The Math staff have been under the impression that you have been unwell since yesterday. So the attendant assumed that I had come to check on your condition. I found you seated motionless, deep in samādhi. With great difficulty, I succeeded in awakening you. Regulate your samādhi and the introversion of the mind. Else, today itself, your nirvikalpa-samādhi will become such that you cannot be aroused from it at all by anybody. Do not leave me by entering irreversible samādhi and discarding your human form. There is so much to be done by you for me, for others and for the Math.”
“I knew that your mind was becoming more and more absorbed in nirvikalpa-samādhi. Though you have transcended any need for samādhi, I did not interfere. Last night, however, the Lord made it clear to me that your samādhi had become so intense that you would not emerge from it on your own. Unless aroused from samādhi, you would remain in it till physical death. As impelled by Him, I came to your room before the night ended.
With great difficulty, I succeeded in awakening you. Regulate your samādhi and the introversion of the mind. Else, today itself, your nirvikalpa-samādhi will become such that you cannot be aroused from it at all by anybody. Do not leave me by entering irreversible samādhi and discarding your human form. There is so much to be done by you for me, for others and for the Math.”
- The senior Jagadguru
His Holiness eschewed samādhi in its entirety that day and slept during the night. The next day, that is, 15th December, corresponding to mārgaśira-kṛṣna-pañcamī, He was once more in a position to determine the duration of His samādhi and, as intended, remained in it in the morning for an hour. When, after completing His morning āhnika, He had the senior Jagadguru’s darśana, His Guru advised Him as follows:
“It was in obedience to the directive of my Paramaguru (Jagadguru Śrī Nṛsiṁha Bhāratī, the 32nd pontiff) that my Guru (Jagadguru Śrī Saccidānanda Śivābhinava Nṛsiṁha Bhāratī, the 33rd pontiff) checked the overpowering urge to be absorbed in yoga. I am happy that, in deference to my wish, you have regulated your samādhi and can emerge from it by yourself after a predetermined duration.
“While you can now manage to perform your routine activities, your mind is still too introverted to engage in the serious study of the Tarka and other śāstras. Only tranquillity and happiness can be seen in your face. Even if I, to whom you are deeply devoted, were to cast off my body right now, your facial expression would not change. No matter how much you may be provoked, not a trace of anger would be visible. Nothing of the world interests you at all. Such readily noticeable, rock-like imperturbability and disinterestedness in everything would be unexceptionable if you were an independent saṁnyāsin. On you, however, rests the future of this great pīṭha.
“My Guru was ever established in Brahman. He had nothing whatsoever to gain or lose by anything. Yet, enacting his role to perfection, He wept when His Guru shed the body, rejoiced when the Candramaulīśvara-liṅga was recovered, evinced deep interest in promoting the study of the Vedas and śāstras, appreciated the good efforts of people and expressed disapproval of their straying to the path of adharma. He captivated the hearts not merely of spiritual aspirants and mahātmans but of all. He was an unmatched master of the śāstras whom even the most erudite looked upon with awe. He brought immeasurable glory to the pīṭha. It is like Him that you must be.
The 32nd Pontiff
The 33rd Pontiff
“Accordingly, though unswervingly established in Brahman, you should study diligently and master the śāstras. Further, you should learn to show, whenever appropriate, interest, appreciation, concern, anger, curiosity and the like in your dealings with devotees, the Maṭha’s staff and others.”
The senior Jagadguru then cited, from the Yoga-vāsiṣṭha, verses that contain the advice given by Sage Vasiṣṭha to Rāma when the latter had become withdrawn. The import these verses is, “Sport in the world, O Rāghava, internally bereft of all longing relating to the future, without attachment to anything current and devoid of tendencies born of the past, but externally conforming to all the observances. Sport in the world, O Rāghava, with assumed attachment, anger, etc., on the outside but without any turbulence in the heart, as a doer externally but internally a non-doer.” He then told His Holiness, “Be as prescribed in them. You must be an ideal for others. Appreciate the condition of others, conduct yourself suitably and do good to them.”
To implement His Guru’s directives, His Holiness ignored the prevailing disinterest and revised His Tarka lessons. Over the next week, He gradually regenerated the interest in śāstraic studies that had vanished. The senior Jagadguru graciously expedited this process by asking questions relating to the text studied. Displaying emotional responses proved tougher for His Holiness to achieve because His mind felt just peace and bliss and the emotions of the past seemed no more than a vague, distant dream.
It was clear to Him that His Guru did not intend that He learn to pretend to be pleased, concerned and the like, without such feelings arising in the mind at all. He recognised that if, while being thoroughly disinterested, He were to make someone think that He wished that that person come again soon or that He was interested in what that person was showing Him or that He was displeased as that person had not done something important, He would be a deceiver and there was no question of His Guru advocating that He ever resort to such hypocrisy and deceit.
He discerned that to facilitate interpersonal dealings without any hypocrisy or subterfuge, His mind should accommodate fleeting emotions. Appearance of thoughts and feelings merely when necessitated by and as appropriate to situations would enable effective and totally unpretentious functioning while leaving the mind basically silent. Further, such mental activity would be powerless to cause any bondage as misidentification of the Ātman with the mind had already ceased once and for all and there was no forgetfulness of the falsity of the mind either. He comprehended thus the thrust and mode of implementation of His Guru’s directive.
When His Holiness told me this is in August 1989, a month prior to His shedding His body, I asked Him, “Over the years, has intense anger, worry or grief appeared in Your Holiness’s mind, unaccompanied, even for a while, by the awareness of its falsity.” His Holiness responded, “No, never. Even during excruciating pain, there has been the clear awareness that it pertains only to the illusory mind and that I am the changeless witness of the nature of pure consciousness. All this is solely due to the grace of my Guru and God. Else, where was the question of even one so ordinary as I becoming unswervingly established in Brahman and functioning in the world as I was directed to do by my Guru?”
“Even during excruciating pain, there has been the clear awareness that it pertains only to the illusory mind and that I am the changeless witness of the nature of pure consciousness. All this is solely due to the grace of my Guru and God. Else, where was the question of even one so ordinary as I becoming unswervingly established in Brahman and functioning in the world as I was directed to do by my Guru?”
- His Holiness
Several are the instances that leave no room for doubt about His Holiness’s firm establishment in the Truth. On 22nd February, 1983, His Holiness suffered an attack of angina, with severe pain in the chest and dull pain in His left arm. Around 6:30 p.m., He was administered an intramuscular injection of morphine. Soon, He was in a state of semi-torpor. Giridhara Sastry, the then Administrator of the Sringeri Math, and I were seated on the floor by the side of His Holiness as He rested on a simple wooden platform. Though hardly conscious of what He was saying, His Holiness muttered a verse, ending with the words, “mati-kṛta-guṇa-doṣā māṁ vibhuṁ na spṛśanti – The meritorious and faulty doings of the intellect do not touch me, who am all-pervading (that is, as per Vedānta, pervading everything by virtue of being present everywhere, being present at all times and, being the very basis of existence of everything, just as gold is of a golden ornament).” Who else but a jīvanmukta could have affirmed thus even while experiencing intense pain and being just semi-conscious?