[Advaita-l] JAGADGURU SRI CHANDRASEKHARA BHARATI MAHASWAMI – MYSTIC AND SEER - 7

[S Jayanarayanan]

 (Continued from previous post)
 
 
(Book condensation from Tattvaloka, July 1999, Volume XXII No. 2 )
 
http://www.svbf.org/journal/vol5no1-2/mystic.pdf
 
Higher Studies in Bangalore
 
For Sri Narasimha Bharati Mahaswami it must
have been quite a wrench to send Naransimha
away from his immediate presence. He had
already selected him as his successor and grown
fond of him because of his intellectual brilliance,
humility and many endearing spiritual virtues.
Though the great ones have no attachment, still
the relationship between the guru and a disciple
is something special and cannot be explained.
 
Narasimha moved to Bangalore with his
parents in 1911, and plunged into his studies.
Mahamahopadhyaya Vellore Subramanya Sastri,
who  had  studied  Mimamsa  under  the
Mahaswami, was a teacher for this subject. He
had also a brilliant teacher in Mimasaka,
Shiromani Vaidyanatha Sastri. Narasimha spent
long hours studying Mimamsa books like Bhatta
Dipika.
 
Narasimha had a wise head on his young
shoulders. So he sought out Virupaksha Sastri,
an exceptionally erudite scholar in Vedanta, to
learn from him. He was not on staff of the Peetha
Pathasala, so Narasimha took private tuition
under him. The great advantage was also that
he was a chosen disciple of Mahaswami. It was
as if the divine had planned that Narasimha
should receive his coaching in Vedanta from
Virupaksha Sastri who had studied under Sri
Narasimha Bharati Mahaswami himself. The
divine hand is clear because Virupaksha Sastri
was specially chosen later for continuing
Narasimha’s lesson in Vedanta, after he had
acceded to the Peetha, the very next year in 1912.
it was to be a long and close relationship born of
mutual love and respect.
 
Even in Bangalore there was no change
whatsoever in Narasimha’s inwardness. There
in Sringeri it was the Vidya Sankara temple
which drew him. He wanted a place not too far
away from his house which would yet be
unpolluted by the vast crowds. He found a
suitable place in the Gangadhareswara temple
in Gavipuram. It was like an oasis in the city
and almost as if it was situated in a village.
Narasimha would go there regularly and lose
himself in the mental worship of Siva.
 
For his parents this was perhaps the best
period of their lives. Narasimha stayed under
the same roof and pleased their hearts no end
by willingly attending to all their daily needs.
Their son was performing exceptionally well in
his studies and was ever obedient, gentle and
affectionate. Little could they foresee how
quickly fate would take a hand, how soon they
would lose their son to a higher call, a call from
his guru to succeed him to the Sharada Peetha.
 
 
(Continued in next post)