[Chaturamnaya] Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati, Shankaracharya of Sringeri Sarada Pitam (4)

[S Jayanarayanan]

(Continued from previous posting)

His body was taken in procession through
the streets of Sringeri. Thousands of devotees
rushed to Sringeri on hearing the stunning
news and paid their tearful homage to
Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati. His body was
interred at Narasimha Vana next to the
Samadhi of his illustrious Guru, Sri
Narasimha Bharati. A Samadhi was built and
a marble statue was made and consecrated
in 1963.

Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati lived the life
of a true renunciate. His needs were few and
he loathed pomp and show. He always felt
that he was first and foremost a sannyasi and
that headship of the math was secondary. In
accordance with his conviction, he followed
the sannyasa dharma, constantly did Atma
Vichara and acquired the firsthand experience
needed to guide disciples and devotees
and dispel their doubts. The Swami unwaveringly
and relentlessly pursued his tapas and
attained its fruits. It needs to be said that several
disciples and devotees had their doubts
clarified and were thus able to progress rapidly
in their spiritual sadhana through tutelage
from and interaction with the Swami. A
single darshan of the Swami, a smile on his
lips, a single nod of his head were enough to
elevate a person. People felt ineffable peace
and contentment in his presence.

Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati's silent,
unpublicised presence drew thousands of
people to Sringeri. He treated everyone alike,
whether rich or poor, prince or commoner,
whether Hindu or Christian or Muslim. He
belonged to the category of saints like Sadasiva
Brahmendra, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
and Seshadri Swami who were avadhutas and
who were in their lifetime sometimes categorised
as mad by the laity. Sri
Chandrasekhara Bharati was, nevertheless,
understood by those fortunate few whose
struggling souls passionately searched for an
anchor that would help them cross the ocean
of samsara.

Teachings

The Swami always emphasised the necessity
for intense practice rather than learned
dissertations. He said that one need not have
to spend time in extensive study of the sastras,
but it was important to catch hold of a single
truth expounded therein and apply it in practice.
The Swami stressed the need to perform
one's duties without bothering about their
fruits. This would purify the mind and prepare
one for the greater goal. The Swami was
never tired of repeating that performance of
nitya karmas like sandhyavandana were important
and were not to be given up. It was
important to develop an attitude of contentment
and detachment, faith in the Guru and
God. The Swami's erudition and scholarship
was legendary, yet he used very simple
language to explain abstruse points of philosophy.
Sometimes a single word or even a
gesture was sufficient to dispel the doubts
of a seeker. The Swami advised his disciples
and devotees to understand and experience
the beatitude of the Self rather than indulge
in semantics and dialectics. "Leave all those
to the scholars. They have to prepare the
dishes for others. You confine yourself to
the practical enjoyment of the S e l f , he
would say.

He would also advise devotees to show
proper respect to their parents, look after
them and attend to their needs.

Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati said that the
path of dharma was broad enough to accommodate
various beliefs and there was absolutely
no necessity to quarrel about the relative
merits and demerits of the various paths
or faiths. What was important was the practical
realisation of the truth. The catholicity,
broadmindedness and practical convictions
of Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati are brought
out in a conversation with a European gentleman,
an excerpt of which is given here:

European: Your Holiness, I have been
studying your religion for many years
now and am fascinated by its various aspects.
I wonder if I could convert to Hinduism
and if Your Holiness could initiate
me!
Swami: Have you studied the aspects of
your own religion thoroughly?
European: I am afraid not, but I have, to
a certain extent, tried to follow the precepts
of Christianity. Unfortunately, I have
not been able to meet a genuine spiritual
master of Christianity so that I can clarify
my doubts.
Swami: In the first place, every human
being can be said to belong to Sanatana
Dharma or what is today called Hinduism,
because of the fact that most of the
tenets of other religions are contained in
Sanatana Dharma. However, God must
have had a purpose in causing you to be
born in a particular religion. I also cannot
accept your opinion that there do not exist
genuine spiritual masters belonging to
your own religion. It is not necessary for
you to convert to Hinduism in order to
realise the truth. Go back and devote your
time to study of Christianity in depth.
Also, if you sincerely search for spiritual
masters within your own religion you will
definitely find them and they will solve
your doubts in no time.
European: Your Holiness, I am amazed
at your catholicity and I do not know
how to thank you, but now I go back,
determined to live the life of a better
Christian.

Once a few disciples were waiting for the
Swami to teach them Adi Shankara's bhashyas.
The Swami was then engaged in Sri Chakra
puja. He was so engrossed in it that he did
not notice the passage of time nor the presence
of his disciples waiting for him. A devotee
who was observing all this thought to himself,
"How can His Holiness find pleasure in
mechanically offering flowers to the Goddess
and how can it be superior to the charm and
depth of Shankara's bhashyas?" Sri
Chandrasekhara Bharati came out after the
puja and while offering prasad to the devotee
said, "One of the holy names of Mother
Goddess is mithyajagadadhisthana (substratum
on which the illusory universe is seen).
Do the bhashyas contain anything more than
this?" To the Swami the puja was not a mechanical
act but a wholly divine endeavour,
which, if performed realising its fullest significance,
was itself a powerful sadhana leading
to Self-realisation.

In another instance, a gentleman from
Bengal who came to Sringeri for darshan expected
to see Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati in
deep samadhi. Instead he observed that the
Swami was deeply engrossed in performing
puja to the Sri Chakra. After the puja was
over the gentleman, albeit in a roundabout
way, made bold to question the Swami:

Devotee: If a person has realised the Self
can he engage himself in rituals and puja?.
Swami: What else do you expect him to
do?
Devotee: My point is that, engaging in
rituals or performing puja implies
doership. Inhering in the Self implies
non-doership. How can both conditions
exist in the same individual? Is it not
inconsistent?
Swami: Can you tell me who the nondoer
is?
Devotee: The Self.
Swami: And the doer?
Devotee: The mind, the senses and the
body.
Swami: True. Therefore the Self is the
non-doer and the doer is the non-Self,
right?
Devotee: Yes, Your Holiness.
Swami: It therefore follows that the doer
and the non-doer do not exist in the same
entity. Where is the inconsistency?

Satsang with the wise and noble, reverence
and obedience towards the guru and
constant vichara (enquiring into the truth)
were the main requisites of sadhana according
to Chandrasekhara Bharati. Regular concentration
on one's chosen deity or guru was
very important. According to the Swami,
desire was the root cause of all suffering.
Therefore he exhorted his devotees to conquer
desire. Through performance of selfless,
desireless action the mind gets purified and
atma vichara then comes naturally to the
sadhaka. The Swami would say that health
which is not preceded by sickness is more
natural. Similarly, true happiness is that
which is natural and not that which obtains
after a period of mental unrest or suffering.
Man can be happy by refusing to submit to
anything that may disturb his mental equilibrium.

The guidance that Sri Chandrasekhara
Bharati gave to a Frenchman on spiritual
practice is very useful and can be followed
by all. Here is an excerpt from the reply sent
by the Swami in response to the request of
the Frenchman:

The pursuit of Vedantic truth requires as
a preliminary qualification in the seeker
that he should have attained a certain degree
of spiritual awakening as much as of
intellectual acuteness he may have acquired
in his previous births. As he advances
he may meet with difficulties which
he can overcome with the help of a guru.
The steadying of one's mind is a sine qua
non for realisation. Towards this end, the
following practices are advised.
Physical: Avoidance of stimulating food and
drink and adoption of a vegetarian diet.

Moral: The daily exercise of universal love
towards all beings without any distinction
and rendering of useful help to them
whenever possible.
Mental: Daily concentration of thought
on a single object held in the highest reverence.
Concentration may be practised
whenever the mind is fresh.
Intellectual: Enquiry should be made everyday
and the problems of truth pondered
over whenever they occur.

Once a team of football players came to
have Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati's darshan.
The Swami after blessing them observed:

A total of twentytwo persons kick a single
ball in this game. When one side kicks it,
it goes to the other side, but there also it
meets with kicks. The ball's life is full of
kicks. Similarly with man. Life is like the
game of football. Jiva is the ball. The incidents
of life are the kicks. Only when
the players are exhausted, the light is insufficient
and the play is over that the ball
is relegated to the corner. Similarly man
puffed with pride moving about in this
world with head held high does not get
peace of mind or happiness. Only when
he relieves himself from unnecessary and
useless activities, acquires humility and
practises meditation in seclusion, he will
become wise and come to possess mental
peace.

The inspiring life of Sri Chandrasekhara
Bharati proves that it is possible to live the
life of the fully enlightened Sage as described
in the sastras even in this age which is characterised
by atheism, restlessness and deceit.

(Concluded)