CHAPTER 13 Becoming the Pontiff
Jīvanmuktas have no attachment or aversion to life or death. In 1954, the senior Jagadguru began to give hints that He no longer wished to retain His mortal coil since He felt that His work had been completed. However, the indications were rather subtle and not taken seriously. He had even said, “Let this body be of some use after death. If it were to be cast off in a forest, animals could devour it. Likewise, if it were discarded in the waters of the Tuṅgā, fishes could feed on it.” Though He occasionally made such statements there was no reason to believe that He had already made up His mind to terminate His human drama.
On the 24th of August, 1954, when Mantreshwara Sarma took leave of the senior Jagadguru less than an hour after the President’s departure, he broke into tears, finding it heart-wrenching to be separated from his Guru. The senior Jagadguru asked him to sit down and said, “Why do you grieve? If I get released from my body before you pay your next visit here, I shall be with you as soon as you think of me.” He thought that the senior Jagadguru was trying to teach him that death is an illusion. It never struck him that He was preparing him for His ‘death’. {This is based on a published article.}
“Let this body be of some use after death. If it were to be cast off in a forest, animals could devour it. Likewise, if it were discarded in the waters of the Tuṅgā, fishes could feed on it.”
- The senior Jagadguru
In September 1954, C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer, who was then the Vice Chancellor of the Benaras Hindu University, conveyed that he wished to come to Sringeri to have His darśana. The senior Jagadguru directed His Private Secretary, S. G. Narasimhaiyya to reply that Ramaswamy Iyer could come within a week. However, the latter was unable to do so. A week later, the senior Jagadguru attained Mahāsamādhi.
On the 25th of September, 1954, He was not in a withdrawn state and carried out His routine in a normal fashion. Around 11 a.m., He came from Narasimhavana to the northern side of the river to have the darśana of Śāradāmbā. As He was heading to exit the temple from the south, He saw two leaders, Bandi Gowda and Veeranna Gowda, awaiting him. He made tender enquiries and then walked up the steps. He was about to cross the threshold when He suddenly turned back, walked towards them and gave them as prasāda some flowers that had adorned the Goddess’s idol and which He had with Him. He proceeded to the Vidyāśaṅkara Temple and then returned to Narasimhavana. Soon afterwards, the Transport Minister, Siddha Veerappa, had an audience with Him. In the evening, He returned to the northern side of the Tuṅgā and granted an interview to Justice T. M. Mallappa. After the visitor took leave, He crossed the river by boat. A little later, His Holiness, who was camping on the northern side for the forthcoming navarātri celebrations, went to Narasimhavana to have the darśana of His Guru. He spent some time there before returning. {S. G. Narasimhaiyya gave me, in 1984, these details and those about C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer’s proposed visit to Sringeri.}
It was customary in those days for the personal attendant on duty to prostrate before the senior Jagadguru before finally closing the doors of His room at night. That day, O. Ramaswamy was on duty. Of His own accord, the senior Jagadguru asked him about his father, who was unwell at that time, and even made enquiries about his child. He spoke to him for over half an hour; this was unusual. It was around midnight before Ramaswamy left.
The next morning (that is, on the morning of 26th September, 1954), the senior Jagadguru woke up early as was His wont. After some time, He was seen pacing up and down a passage in Sacchidananda Vilas. Ramaswamy and Kavi Mahabala Bhatta were on duty that day. The senior Jagadguru proceeded to Sandhya-mandapa on the riverside around 5:30 in the morning, accompanied by Mahabala Bhatta. He descended the steps leading to the river. He sat on a lower step in padmāsana and started to perform prāṇāyāma. Water was flowing over that step; as for the current, it was not strong. Mahabala Bhatta had the shock of his life when, a few minutes later, he found the senior Jagadguru missing. He looked around and saw Him floating down the river. Shouting for help, Mahabala Bhatta jumped into the river, swam downstream and managed to reach and hold Him.
Ramaswamy, who had bathed in Sacchidananda Vilas and brought the ‘maḍi’ clothing to be worn by the senior Jagadguru after His bath, reached the river just then. On seeing Mahabala Bhatta in the river holding the senior Jagadguru, whose legs appeared, to him, to be positioned in the padmāsana, he was stricken with fear and began screaming for help; he did not know swimming. Mahabala Bhatta began to be dragged by the current. A person on the other bank entered the river to help. He was a good swimmer. With his assistance playing a major role, Mahabala Bhatta managed to reach that bank with the senior Jagadguru. The sage was motionless and not breathing. His legs were locked in the padmāsana. His face looked quite normal and relaxed. There was no sign of suffocation.
Hearing the cries, Padmanabha Upadhyaya, His Holiness’s Personal Assistant, quickly arrived by boat. In a few moments, His Holiness reached the spot, running all the way from Chandramoulishwara Thotti, where He had spent the night. On seeing the senior Jagadguru’s lifeless frame, He rushed to it and rubbed it with great affection. The doctor who reached there examined the senior Jagadguru. He determined that there was no sign of life. Attempts were made to revive the senior Jagadguru but they turned out to be of no avail. Some other doctors too reached the spot. Careful examination revealed that not a drop of water had entered the lungs and the stomach was not bloated in the least. It was clear that the death was not due to drowning. After performing prāṇāyāma in the padmāsana, the senior Jagadguru had, presumably, cast off His body in yoga. His body was reverentially carried to Chandramoulishwara Thotti and placed, in a seated posture, on a bed of sandalwood logs.
By now it was 9:30 a.m. and about two thousand people had congregated. His Holiness was pacing up and down. Having loudly uttered “Ambā (Divine Mother),” He sat for some moments. Immediately thereafter, He collected Himself and was ready to execute the final rites in the traditional manner. It was a scene of sombre grandeur, with spontaneous chanting of the Vedas and stotras. Around 10 a.m., the senior Jagadguru’s body was adorned with vibhūti (sacred ash) and garlands of tulasī and rudrākṣa-beads. It was carried to the northern side of Bhagavatpāda’s temple and seated in the courtyard to the north-east of Bhagavatpāda’s shrine on a spot purified with kamaṇḍalu-tīrtha. His Holiness worshipped His Guru’s remains; the pūjā included abhiṣeka (religious bathing) with pañcāmṛta (comprising milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar) and with water, to the accompaniment of the chanting of mantras.
The duly adorned body was then placed in a silver palanquin, and taken in a ceremonial procession, accompanied by a retinue of guards, attendants and elephants. Kettledrums and conches were sounded. The body was carried through all the major streets of Sringeri to provide everyone the opportunity to have a final darśana. A young dalit woman who had delivered a baby days earlier came out of her house and held her child up near the palanquin with the conviction that even this final darśana of the sage would benefit it. Copious tears flowed from her eyes. Srinarasimha Bhatta had been out of town and was returning to Sringeri; at that time, the procession was yet to start. He was surprised to find a Muslim man running down the street crying, “All is lost!” On Srinarasimha Bhatta enquiring the reason, he replied, full of grief, “All is lost. The Mahāsvāmin has passed away.” Such was the universal regard for the senior Jagadguru.
His Holiness was part of the procession throughout. For some reason, He used a walking stick that day. After the procession through the streets was complete, the senior Jagadguru’s body was taken across the river to Sandhya-mandapa in Narasimhavana. There, His Holiness performed abhiṣeka to it with water and freshly dressed it. The remains were adorned with vibhūti (sacred ash) and garlands of rudrākṣa-beads and tulasī. His Holiness’s worship ended by around 5 p.m. He had selected a spot to the north of the Samādhi of the 33rd pontiff for interring His Guru’s remains. A pit had been dug there. The senior Jagadguru was carried to that place from Sandhya-mandapa. His body was lowered, in a seated posture, into the pit.
The prescribed procedure for interring a saṁnyāsin includes smashing coconuts on his skull till the crown of his head opens. The opening up of the ‘brahma-randhra’ symbolises the departure of the jīva, with the prāṇas, through it (as could happen in the case of one ascending to the Brahma-loka, the highest realm). This, in turn, symbolises freedom from rebirth in this world of mortals. In the case of a jīvanmukta, however, there is no such departure nor travel to even Brahma-loka; the Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad teaches, “His prāṇas do not depart (from the body). Being but Brahman, he is merged in Brahman (in this very life).” Nonetheless, the prescribed procedure is followed even in the case of a liberated saṁnyāsin. The senior Jagadguru’s skull opened up even as His Holiness struck it once with a coconut. Thereafter, as prescribed, His Holiness broke His Guru’s daṇḍa into three pieces and placed them at His Guru’s feet. Next, He broke His Guru’s kamaṇḍalu and placed that also at His feet. The pit was then packed with alternate layers of sand and salt and covered up with mud. A liṅga made of mud was installed directly above where the head was. A temporary shed was subsequently set up to house the samādhi till the construction of a permanent structure. The śāstra says that the death of a saṁnyāsin is not to be mourned but celebrated as marking his union with the Supreme. After this, His Holiness bathed, performed His āhnika and returned to the samādhi to commence the ārādhanā of His Guru with deep dedication and devotion; as required, sixteen priests were reverenced and fed. He performed the ārādhanā on the next day also.
There is an incident connected with the spot selected by His Holiness to place the senior Jagadguru’s body. One day, when doing pradakṣiṇa (circumambulation) of the Samādhi of His Guru, the 33rd pontiff, the senior Jagadguru observed that a pit had been dug, a few feet away, to the north of the Samādhi. He was the last person to concern Himself with such matters. However, on that day, He enquired why the ground had been dug. The mestri (supervisor) was summoned. He explained that he proposed to plant a tree there. Giving no reasons, the senior Jagadguru said, “Do not plant any tree there. That spot is reserved.” The pit was then covered up. This matter was not reported by anyone to His Holiness and, as He told me three decades later, He was unaware of it at that time. Interestingly, the spot that He chose to inter His Guru’s body was exactly where the pit had formerly been dug and which the senior Jagadguru had termed reserved. Moreover, His Holiness had decided on this spot overriding the strong views expressed that the internment should be done on the northern side of the Tuṅgā and not in Narasimhavana.
The senior Jagadguru had attained videhamukti on mahālaya-amāvāsyā, one of the five days in the year on which abhiṣeka is performed to Goddess Śāradāmbā. The navarātri celebrations proper commenced on the next day. His Holiness meticulously fulfilled all His functions related to the navarātri. He did not, however, don the royal robes that year during the nightly durbar conducted in Goddess Śāradāmbā’s temple. He had a photograph of the senior Jagadguru placed on the throne and it appeared as if the senior Jagadguru was Himself presiding over the durbar.
The first time His Holiness described the senior Jagadguru’s demise to me was in 1979, nearly 25 years after the events. Still His voice choked as He did so and His eyes filled with tears. He said, “My Guru had been occasionally saying that He had finished doing what He had to do and, thus, did not wish to continue to keep His body. However, none of us thought that He had decided to cast off His mortal coil. On mahālaya-amāvāsyā, He went to the river for a bath. I cannot say that the waters were deep or that the current was powerful. He proceeded to perform prāṇāyāma in the padmāsana and allowed His body to be carried downstream. His attendant Mahabala Bhatta caught the body and was soon helped out. On hearing the news, I went running but it was too late. The great jīvanmukta had shed His mortal form. How can I ever describe the grace and affection He had showered on me? He had brought me up as His own child. The sadness was deep but that did not mean that I would sit down for days, lost in grief. That would not have been what He would have wanted me to do. I had His body interred near His Guru’s Samādhi. I resolved that the structure to be built there should be akin to the one He had erected for His Guru. I worshipped at His Samādhi and also attended to my duties. I knew that His grace would always be on me.”
“The great jīvanmukta had shed His mortal form. How can I ever describe the grace and affection He had showered on me? He had brought me up as His own child. The sadness was deep but that did not mean that I would sit down for days, lost in grief. That would not have been what He would have wanted me to do. I had His body interred near His Guru’s samādhi. I resolved that the structure to be built there should be akin to the one He had erected for His Guru. I worshipped at His Samādhi and also attended to my duties. I knew that His grace would always be on me.”
- His Holiness
His Holiness’s formal coronation as the 35th Jagadguru Shankaracharya of the Sringeri Sri Sharada Peetham took place on the 16th of October, 1954, corresponding to āśvayuja-kṛṣṇa-pañcamī of the cyclical year Jaya, under the star Rohiṇī.
{The following description of His Holiness’s paṭṭābhiṣeka is based on an anonymous eyewitness’s written account (penned in 1954) that I was able to access for a few days, in 1983.}
On 14th October, the Vyākhyāna-siṁhāsana (The throne of exposition), placed facing north in the southern corridor of the Goddess’s temple, was adorned with garlands and on it was placed a water-filled kalaśa. Ṛtviks (priests) engaged in rituals centred on the throne. Homas were performed adjacent to the throne, to the west of it. His Holiness came to the temple to have darśana. He also offered His salutations at Bhagavatpāda’s temple. On the next day, after His morning āhnika, His Holiness went to the Samādhis of the 33rd pontiff and His Guru. He then crossed the river and, at the Vidyāśankara Temple, sought Śrī Vidyātīrtha’s permission to ascend the Vyākhyāna-siṁhāsana. Thereafter, He adorned robes made of velvet and silk bedecked with precious gems and went to have darśana at His predecessors’ shrines, including that of Sureśvarācārya, all on the northern side of the river. In Goddess Śāradāmbā’s temple, He presided over the pūrṇāhuti (final oblation) of the homas performed there and received, with devotion, the flowers and vibhūti presented to Him as prasāda. He sat on a silver seat to the west of the throne. His sandals were bathed in the sanctified waters of the kalaśa and several gifts were made in His august presence. Having propitiated Goddess Śāradā, He left for His abode in Narasimhavana.
The auspicious moment of coronation was signalled by the tinkling of bells. The screen was drawn eastward unveiling the throne and akṣata (unbroken grains of rice mixed with turmeric powder) was showered on His Holiness by the gathered priests. “Victory unto our Jagadguru Śrī Abhinava Vidyātīrtha” – this and many more such shouts of chorus and eulogies filled the air.
On the auspicious pīṭhārohaṇa day, He came to Goddess Śāradā’s temple and, wearing royal robes, ascended the sanctified Vyākhyāna-siṁhāsana. The throne was veiled by a screen with ‘śrīḥ’ embroidered over it. The auspicious moment of coronation was signalled by the tinkling of bells. The screen was drawn eastward unveiling the throne and akṣata (unbroken grains of rice mixed with turmeric powder) was showered on His Holiness by the gathered priests. “Victory unto our Jagadguru Śrī Abhinava Vidyātīrtha” – this and more such eulogies in chorus filled the air. His Holiness’s golden pādukās placed in the vicinity of the throne were bathed with the sanctified water of the kalaśa and the remaining water was poured on His Holiness’s head. The grandeur of the occasion was enhanced by the chanting of Vedic hymns in unison. Precious stones were rained on His Holiness. He then removed His royal robes in the room adjacent to Śāradāmbā’s sanctum sanctorum, and adorned new royal garments and a crown. Having witnessed the ārati in Śāradāmbā’s shrine, He went in a palanquin to the Vidyāśaṅkara Temple. He entered the temple and after having darśana, emerged and again sat in the palanquin. He then went to the various shrines. In a short speech given by His Holiness following His coronation, He said that He was greatly in need of His Guru’s grace to carry out His duties as a pīṭhādhipati and prayed for His Guru’s blessings.
Coronation of His Holiness