41. The Best Ever Lesson

A disciple once entered the room where His Holiness Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji was seated quite alone. After a slight gesture asking the disciple to sit down, His Holiness relapsed into silence and continued in it for some time. Then the disciple noticed a smile flickering on the face of His Holiness and looked up.

His Holiness said, “I was in perfect peace when a thought disturbed it. I realised that you were sitting near me and perhaps expected me to speak. This led me to the further thought that if I had to meet your expectations, I must speak. I recollected immediately that ‘to speak’ was a verb requiring an object. I thought therefore that I must find an object as otherwise there could be no speech.

“Then I recollected that all objects in the universe came under either of two categories, the True and the False. The True is Brahman and the False is the world of form. Either of these two things must therefore be spoken of. But the Vedanta has declared in unmistakable terms that Brahman, the True, is beyond all speech and even all thoughts. So Brahman as an object of speech was out of question.

“There was thus only the world to be talked about. But regarding the world, the Vedanta is equally emphatic that it is Anirvachaneeya (incapable of being explained in words). So the world also seemed to be out of the question as a fit object of speech. There was no third entity available. There was therefore no fit object of speech. For want of an object, there could be no speech.

“When I came to this conclusion, I realised that I had come back only to wherefrom I started and that I need not have allowed these thoughts to disturb me. Evidently I smiled at myself for all this waste of thought and you looked up.”

The disciple, for his part, felt that it was the best ever lesson in Vedanta that he had had till then from his peerless Guru! ❃❃❃❃