PRECEPTORS OF ADVAITA PART 17 10 24 CONTD KR IRS *HOMAGE TO HIS HOLINESS SRI SANKARACHARYA OF KANCHI KAMAKOTI PITHA*
*by* Dr Fernand Brunner *Professor, Neuchatel University, Bern University,* (*Switzerland*) The most impressive moment of my last stay in India from September to December 1966, was undoubtedly my visit to Śrī Śaṅkarāchārya of Kāñchī Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha. On a sunny October day, Professor T. M. P. Mahadevan’s car was driving us, Dr Veezhinathan, my wife and myself, towards Tirupati. Past the endless outskirts of Madras, the road climbs through a striking landscape of bare hills and dislocated rocks, then stretches down to a tableland equally overwhelmed with heat and light overlooked by a hill ascended by a huge flight of steps and crowned by temples. At the foot of this hill, not far from the busy Tirupati, the Śaṅkarāchārya’s camp was located. No more imposing setting was ever offered by Nature to the admiration of men, and consecrated by the faithful ones to the Divinity. Let not however the unprepared European expect in the Śaṅkarāchārya’s camp the ostentation of some Mahārāja’s palace. And yet, the one who is here is the *Jagadguru,* the guru of the world: a regal title too. But his kingship is spiritual, and he lives in the most complete simplicity. The brahmans, the cows, the elephants which surround him are symbols of his function; but no other ornament signals his court: he sits under a tree, clothed like a mendicant monk;, to meet him, one treads the grass of a field that his cattle grazes all around him. But people present him with offerings fit for the gods, and prostrate before him. He gives them leave to get up with a boundless modesty. One understands that all his life has been directed towards the attainment of this perfect self-detachment. He takes interest in his visitors, their origin, their problems, with the spontaneity and sincerity typical of absolute unselfishness. There shines in his look the light of a knowledge which transcends everything finite. This is the type of a spiritual master. Everlasting India can always present him to the world. The greatness of India lies in her acknowledging the true greatness which takes the form of such 8 pure simplicity. THE SAGE OF KANCHI *by* T. M. P. Mahadevan M.A., PH.D. *1. Introduction* Any one who has read the works of Śrī Śaṅkara would certainly want to know what sort of a person the great Master was. In all his extensive writings he nowhere makes any reference to himself. The only isolated passage where one could see an oblique reference relates, not to any detail in personal biography, but to the inwardly felt experience of the Impersonal Absolute. In this passage which occurs towards the end of the *Brahma-sūtra-bhāṣya* , he observes: “How is it possible for another to deny the realization of *Brahman* -knowledge, experienced in one’s heart, while bearing a body?”[1] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62924.html#note-e-32986> The reference here is to the plenary experience of *Brahman,* even while living in a body *(jīvan-mukti);* and it is evident that the testimony offered here is from Śaṅkara’s own experience. The outlines of the story of Śaṅkara’s life could be gathered only from the *Śaṅkara-vijayas* and other narratives. Inspite of varying accounts in regard to some of the details, the image of the Master that one forms from these sources, taking into account also the grand teachings that are to be found in his own works, is that of a great spiritual leader, who renounced all wordly attachments even as a boy, who was a prodigy in scriptural lore and wisdom, who spent every moment of his life in the service of the masses of mankind by placing before them, through precept and practice, the ideal of the life divine, and who was a teacher of teachers, the universal guru. Even as such a magnificent image is being formed, the doubt may arise in the minds of many *:* Is it possible that such a great one walked this earth? Is it possible that in a single ascetic frame was compressed several millennia of the highest spiritual human history? This doubt is sure to be dispelled in the case of those who have had the good fortune of meeting His Holiness Jagadguru Śrī Chandra-śekharendra Sarasvatī, the Sixty-eighth in the hallowed line of succession of Śaṅkarāchāryas to adorn the Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha of Kāñchī, Anyone who comes into the august presence of His Holiness cannot but recall to his mind the image of Ādi Śaṅkara, the immaculate sage who was divine and yet human, whose saving grace was universal in its sweep, and whose concern was for ail— even for the lowliest and the last. For sixty years Śrī Chandraśekharendra Śarasvatī has been fulfilling the noble spiritual mission entrusted by Ādi Śaṅkara to his successors bearing his holy name. Numerous are the ways in which he has given the lead for human upliftment through inner awakening. When one considers his life of ceaseless and untiring dedication to the task of stabilizing and promoting the renascent spirit of India so that humanity may be benefited thereby, one cannot but conclude that it is the unbounded Grace of Śaṅkara that has assumed this new form in order to move the world one step higher on the ladder to universal perfection. *2. Early Life* ‘Chandraśekharendra Sarasvatī’ is the *sannyāsa* name given to Svāmināthan when he was barely thirteen. It was on the 20th of May, 1894, that Svāmināthan was born in Viluppuram (South Arcot District). His father, Subrahmaṇya Śāstrī, belonged to the Hoysala Karnāṭaka Smārṭa Brahmaṇa family which had migrated years earlier to the Tamil country and had settled in Choḷa-deśa. After passing the Matriculation Examination from the Government School, Kumbhakoṇam, taking the first place, Subrahmaṇya Śāstri served as a teacher for some time, and then entered the Educational Service. At the time of Svāmināthan’s birth, he was at Viḷuppuram. Svāmināthan’s mother, Mahālakṣmī, hailed from a family belonging to Icchaṅguḍi, a village near Tiruvaiyāru. An illustrious and saintly person connected with the family, Raja Govinda Dīkṣita of the sixteenth century, was minister to the first Nāyak King of Tañjāvūr; Dīkṣita popularly known as Ayyan, was responsible for many development projects in Choḷa-territory; his name is still associated with a tank, a canal, etc. (Ayyan Canal, Ayyan Kulam). Svāmināthan was the second child of his parents. He was named Svāmināthan after the Deity of the family, the Lord Svāminātha of Svāmimalai, Two incidents relating to this early childhood period are recorded by the Āchārya himself in an article contributed to a symposium on *What Life Has Taught Me.*[2] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62924.html#note-e-32987> This is how he has described these incidents: “A *‘mara nāi’* as they call it in Tamil or teddy cat (an animal which generally climbs on trees and destroys *t* he fruits during nights) somehow got into a room in the house and thrust' its head into a small copper pot with a neck, which was kept in a sling and contained jaggery. The animal was not able to pull out its head and was running here and there in the room all through the night. People in the house and neighbours were aroused by the noise and thought that some thief was at his job. But, the incessant noise continued even till morning hours, and some bravados armed with sticks opened the door of the room and found the greedy animal. It was roped and tied to a pillar. Some experienced men were brought and after being engaged in a tug-of-war, they ultimately succeeded in removing the vessel from the head of the animal. The animal was struggling for life. It was at last removed to some spot to roam freely, I presume. The first experience of my life was this dreadful ocular demonstration born of greed causing all our neighbours to spend an anxious and sleepless night. The next experience was a man in the street who entered into the house seeing me alone with tiny golden bangles upon which he began to lay his hands. I asked him to tighten the hooks of the bangles which had become loose and gave a peremptory and authoritative direction to him to bring them back repaired without delay. The man took my orders most obediently and took leave of me with the golden booty. In glee of having arranged for repairs to my ornament, I speeded to inform my people inside of the arrangement made by me with the man in the street who gave his name as Ponnusvāmi. The people inside hurried to the street to find out the culprit But the booty had become his property true to his assumed name, Ponnusami (master of gold)” Reflecting on these experiences, the Āchārya observes with characteristic humility: “I am prone to come to the conclusion that there lives none without predominantly selfish motives. But with years rolling on, an impression, that too a superficial one true to my nature, is dawning upon me that there breathe on this globe some souls firmly rooted in morals and ethics who live exclusively for others voluntarily forsaking not only their material gains and comforts but also their own *sādhana* towards their spiritual improvements”. A significant incident occurred in the year 1899. Svāmināthan’s father was then serving as a teacher at a school in Porto-novo. He took the boy to Chidambaram for the Kumbhābhiṣekam of Ilaimaiyākkinār temple. Ilaimaiyākkinār it was that, according to a legend, gave salvation to Tirunīlakaṇthanāyanār, one of the sixty-three Śaiva saints whose biographies constitute the theme of Śekkilār’s *Periyapurānam.* The father and son reached Chidambaram one evening and stayed at the house of Śrī Venkatapati Aiyar, an Inspector of Schools. Svāmināthan was asked by his father to go to sleep after being assured that he would be woken up at night, and taken to the temple to see the procession and have the *darśan* of the Deity. Svāmināthan woke up only next morning, and felt that his father had disappointed him very much by not waking him up at night and taking him to the temple. He gave expression to his feeling of disappointment to his father. The latter consoled him saying that he himself had not gone to the temple, and added that it was very fortunate that none in the house had gone there. There was a fire accident that night at the temple and many of those who were inside the temple perished in that great fire. On the same night, Svāmināthan’s mother at Porto-novo had dreamt of the fire accident at the Chidambaram temple, and in the early hours of the next day she was very much perturbed imagining that danger might have befallen her husband and child. In a fit of frenzy she came out of the house only to be fold by her servant-maid that there had been a gruesome fire accident at the Chidambaram temple. She proceeded towards the railway station to enquire from the people who were returning from Chidambaram about her husband and her son. Her joy knew no bounds when she saw both of them coming out of the railway station. The agony she had experienced in her dream the previous night, and the providential manner in which the father and son were saved from the tragedy should have had some mysterious connection. In the year 1900, Svāmināthan was in the first' standard in school at Chidambaram, Śrī M. Singaravelu Mudaliyār, the Assistant Inspector of Schools, visited the school on an inspection and discovered in *t* he boy the makings of a genius. He asked him to read the Longman’s English Reader prescribed for a higher standard; and Svāmināthan read it remarkably well. At his instance Svāmināthan was promoted to the third standard. The *upanayanam* of the boy was performed in 1905 at Tinḍivanam to which place Subrahmanya Śāstri had been transferred. It is significant that the Sixty-sixth Śaṅkarāchārya of Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha, Śrī Chandraśekharendra Sarasvatī, who was at the time touring in South Arcot District, sent his blessings: and it was he that later on literally captivated the boy, and chose him as successor to the holy seat: and it is also significant that Svāmināthan came to bear the *sannyāsa* name of the Sixty-sixth Āchārya. When Svāmināthan was ten years of age, he was admitted in the Second Form in the Arcot American Mission School, Tiṇḍi-vanam. The prodigy that the boy was, he gave an excellent record of himself at school. He used to carry away many prizes, including the one for proficiency in the Bible studies. The teachers of the school naturally took a great liking for Svāmināthan: they were proud of him and cited him to the other boys as a model student. In 1906, when Svāmināthan was studying in the Fourth Form, the school was arranging for a dialogue from Shakespeare’s *King John,* The teachers who were responsible for fixing the participants in the dialogue could not' find a suitable candidate from the age-group fixed for taking on the role of Prince Arthur, the central character in the play. The Head-Master who knew Svāmināthan’s extraordinary talents sent for the boy who was only twelve then and assigned the role to him. After obtaining permission from his parents, Svāmināthan rehearsed his part for only two days, and acquitted himself remarkably well as Prince Arthur in the dialogue winning the appreciation of the entire audience: the acting was so perfect and the enunciation of Shakespeare’s classical English so accurate. One of Svāmināthan’s friends had lent’ him the attire of a prince and Svāmināthan really looked a prince. Many of the teachers went to Subrahmaṇya Śāstri’s house next day and expressed how greatly they were pleased with Svāmināthan’s superb performance. *3. Ascension to Sri Kamakoti Pitha* We have already referred to the Sixty-sixth Āchārya of Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha, Śrī Chandraśekharendra Sarasvatī. In 1900 he was camping in the village Perumukkal near Tiṇḍivanam and was observing the *chāturmāsya-vrata* there. Subrahmaṇya Śāstri went to that village along with his family to have the Āchārya’s *darśana* and receive his blessings. Svāmināthan saw His Holiness from a distance in a temple during the *viśvarūpa-yātrā.* His Holiness the Sixty-sixth Āchārya had the Navarātrī Celebrations performed at Marakkanam village. After the Navarātrī he was camping at Sāram village situated on the Tiṇḍivanam-Madurantakam rail route. Svāmināthan went there with a friend without informing his parents. He offered his homage at the lotus-feet of His Holiness and requested his permission to leave. His Holiness insisted that Svāmināthan should stay there itself. Two pandits attached to the Maṭha also asked Svāmināthan to stay there. But Svāmināthan said that he had to attend school and that he had not informed his parents about his coming over to the Maṭha. Thereupon His Holiness gave him permission to leave. Svāmināthan left for Tiṇḍivanam in a cart belonging to the Maṭha. After Svāmināthan had left, His Holiness informed the two pandits of the Maṭha his keen desire to install Svāmināthan as his successor to *t* he glorious pontifical seat of Kāñchī. His Holiness the Sixty-sixth Āchārya attained *siddhi* at Kalavai and Svāmirāthan’s maternal cousin was installed as the Sixty-seventh Āchārya. He was the only child of Svāmināthan’s mother’s sister. And, he had lost his father when he was quite young. He studied the Vedas at Chidambaram, staying in Svāmināthan’s family in the years 1900-1901. After that he was staying along with his mother in the Maṭha itself. When Svāmināthan’s parent’s received the news about his installation to the Pīṭha, Svāmināthan’s mother desired to see and console her sister whose only child had become an ascetic. The whole family planned to leave for Kalavai in a cart. But at the last minute, Svāmināthan’s father received a telegram from Tiruchi asking him to attend an Education Conference at Tiruchi. And so, before leaving for Tiruchi, he desired the members of his family not to go to Kalavai in the cart because it was not quite safe to travel HIS HOLINESS SRI CHANDRASEKHARENDRA SARASVATI [when thirteen years old.] nearly fifty miles in a cart without proper escort; he asked them to go to Kāñchī by train and from there to Kalavai in a cart. The epic journey to Kāñchī and Kalavai and the providential manner in which Svāmināthan came to be installed as the Head of the Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha at a very tender age is recounted by the Āchārya himself in the article *What Life Has Taught Me* already referred to, in the following words: “In the beginning of the year 1907, when I was studying in a Christian Mission School at Tiṇḍivanam, a town in the South Arcot District, I heard one day that the Śaṅkarāchārya of Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha who was amidst us in our town in the previous year, attained *siddhi* at Kalavai, a village about ten miles from Arcot and twenty-five miles from Kāñchīpuram. Information was received that a maternal cousin of mine who, after some study in the *Ṛg Veda* had joined the camp of the Āchārya offering his services to him, was installed on the Pīṭha. He was the only son of the widowed and destitute sister of my mother and there was not a soul in the camp to console her. At this juncture, my father who was a supervisor of schools in the Tiṇḍivanam taluk, planned to proceed with his family to Kalavai, some sixty miles from Tiṇḍivanam in his own touring bullock cart. But on account of an educational conference at Trichinopoly he cancelled the programme. My mother with myself and other children started for Kalavai to console her sister on her son assuming the sannyāsa āśrama. We travelled by rail to Kāñchīpuram and halted at the Śaṅkarāchārya Maṭha there. I had my ablution at the Kumara-koṣṭa-tīrtha. A carriage of the Maṭha had come there from Kalavai with persons to buy articles for the Mahā Pūjā on the 10th day after the passing away of the late Āchārya Paramaguru. But one of them, a hereditary *maistry* of the Maṭha asked me to accompany him. A separate cart was engaged for the rest of the family to follow me. During our journey, the *maistry* hinted to me that I might not return home and that the rest of my life might have to be spent in the Maṭha itself! At first I thought that my elder cousin having become the Head of the Maṭha, it might have been his wish that I was to live with him. I was then only thirteen years of age and so I wondered as to what use I might be to him in the institution. But the *maistry* gradually began to clarify as miles rolled on that the Āchārya my cousin in the pūrvāsrama, had fever which developed into delirium and that was why I was being separated from the family to be quickly taken to Kalavai. He told me that he was commissioned to go to Tiṇḍivanam itself and fetch me but he was able to meet me at Kāñchīpuram itself. I was stunned with this unexpected turn of events. I lay in a kneeling posture in the cart itself, shocked as I was, repeating RĀMA RĀMA, the only spiritual prayer I knew, during the rest of my journey. My mother and the other children came some time later only to find that instead of her mission of consoling her sister, she herself was placed in the state of having to be consoled by someone else!” Permission for installing Svāmināthan in the great pontifical seat of Kāñchī was obtained from his father through telegram and every arrangement was made as quickly as possible tor his installation. Svāmināthan ascended the Śrī Kāñchī Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha on the 13th of February, 1907, as the Sixty-eighth Āchārya, assuming the *sannyāsa* name ‘Chandraśekharendra Sarasvatī.’ His Holiness went in a procession to the *siddhisthala* and performed the mahā-pūjā of the Sixty-sixth Āchārya. >From Kalavai the new Āchārya proceeded to Kumbhakoṇam where the headquarters of the Maṭha were located. The transfer of the headquarters from Kāñchī to Kumbhakoṇam had been necessitated by the unsettled political conditions in Tonḍaimaṇḍalam in the eighteenth century during the time of the Sixty-second Āchārya. With the passage of time the responsibilities and the functions of the Maṭha increased. It is not a simple monastic institution. The Maṭha has to administer properties endowed for various religious and philanthropic purposes. The headship of such an organization, it is obvious, should be extremely difficult. The administration requires on the part of the Āchārya great spiritual power coupled with worldly wisdom, the ability to fill the status of the *Jagadguru* , as well as minute knowledge of men and matters. It is pertinent to mention here that the paternal grand-father of Svāmināthan, Gaṇapati Śāstrī, was closely connected with the Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha as its manager *(sarvādhikārī)* for over fifty years from 1835 onwards. It was under his stewardship that permanent arrangements were made for adequate sources of income to meet the expenses of the Maṭha. The duties of the Maṭha had enormously increased since then. And, the new Āchārya lost no time in getting himself equipped for the tasks awaiting him. For this, he had first to go to the headquarters at Kumbhakoṇam. Leaving Kalavai in the same year, i.e. 1907, the Āchārya went to Kumbhakoṇam after making a brief halt at Tiṇḍivanam. One could well imagine what a proud day it should have been for the people of Tiṇḍivanam when they received their own Svāmināthan as the new Āchārya of Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha. The town wore a festive appearance. The teachers of the American Mission School and the former school-fellows vied with one another in meeting the Āchārya and conversing with him. The Āchārya had a good word for every one, and spoke tenderly to each one of the teachers. After three days’ stay at Tiṇḍivanam, the Āchārya resumed the journey and reached Kumbhakoṇam in the month of Chitra in the year Plavaṅga. The head of an Āchārya-Pīṭha is looked upon by the disciples as the spiritual ruler, and is invested with all the regalia associated with a king. The disciples of the Maṭha desired to celebrate the installation of the new Āchārya as the head of the Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha with due ceremony. The installation was performed on a grand scale on Thursday the 9th of May 1907 at the Kumbhakoṇam Maṭha. Her Highness Jeejambabhai Saheb and Her Highness Ramakumarambha-bhai Saheb, queens of Shivaji of the ruling family of Tanjore sent all the regal paraphernalia for the coronation. The ceremonial *abhiṣeka* was performed with jasmine flowers. First, the representatives of the Bangāru Kāmākṣī, Kāmākṣī and Akhilāṇḍeśvarī temples performed the *abhiṣeka.* This was followed by the representatives of the princely family of Tanjore, of the various Zamindars, and of the several aristocratic families. Prominent scholars took an active part in the coronation. Seated on the throne of the Maṭha, the Āchārya blessed all the people assembled there. That night seated in the golden *ambāri* on the regal elephant, sent by the Tanjore ruling family, His Holiness went in a grand procession through the main streets of Kumbhakoṇam. Thus commenced the Āchārya’s spiritual rulership as the *Jagadguru.* K RAJARAM IRS 171024 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZor6WNdPSX-ogaMw-dt-7VctKh-Y7xMsQqphU3GsR6-Ecg%40mail.gmail.com.
