[Chaturamnaya] His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Sacchidananda Sivabhinava Nrisimha Bharati - 9

[S Jayanarayanan]

 http://svbf.org/journal/vol8no1/2006_10_swamigal.pdf
 
 
Pell-mell in Camp
-----------------
 
On way from Bellary to Sringeri the Swami
had to camp at a small village called Belaguppe.
Here the accommodation consisted of two small
houses.
 
It was his habit when he retired at night to
have the Chandramoulisvara linga and the image
of Ratnagarbha Ganapati safely locked in a copper
cabinet and placed within a bigger wooden box,
also under lock and key.
 
That night thieves broke into the house and
walked away with the valuables including the
wooden box containing the puja items. The
personal attendants of the Swami, coming at five
in the morning, found the dress-box of the Swami
opened and the contents lying pell-mell; they
rushed to the resting-place of the Swami and
found the wooden box also missing. The Swami
was struck dumb.
 
The linga and the icon of Ganapati were his
very life. He rose for his bath uttering not a word
and, with his wet clothes on, sat down in
meditation. Not a word of anger or impatience
escaped his lips. He sat for hours, mute and
absorbed in prayer.
 
Wires were flashed to the British authorities
and an Inspector of Police, noted for his deductive
ability, came next morning. On the fifth day after
the theft, word came from him that the copper
cabinet had been found by a peasant ploughing
the ground. The camp, which had appeared as if
sunk in a magic sleep, came back to life; in a
grand procession, with all the paraphernalia of the
matha, the cabinet was brought back.
 
A shower, least expected at this time of the
year, accompanied the procession and ceased only
when the palanquin reached the camp of the
Swami.
 
The Swami fell on the ground almost in
unconscious ecstasy at the sight of the cabinet and
the linga and the icon, which were his very life
breath, as it were. Tears flowed down his cheeks;
his hair was on end and he hardly spoke a word
for half an hour. Then he looked at the Police
Inspector who had been instrumental in the
recovery, laid his hands on his head and blessed
him from the very depths of his heart.
 
At seven in the evening the Swami went for
his bath and the puja to the recovered gods lasted
the whole night.
 
Tradition has it that the linga, along with
the Ratnagarbha Ganapati had been worshipped
by Adi Sankara and were handed over to his
disciple Suresvaracharya, from whom they had
descended in unbroken succession.
 
The first thing he did on his return to
Sringeri was to place them before the altar of his
master’s shrine and receive them back with his
unseen blessings.
 
This tour lasted about four years; the Swami
was now 32 years old. It had been forecast that he
would pass through a very critical period at this
age and he felt thankful to the higher powers that
it was over, without loss to the world or the
Peetham, though to himself nothing could have
caused greater anxiety than what he had to suffer
till the moment of recovery of the most valuable
possessions, of which he regarded himself now as
the sole trustee.
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </archives/chaturamnaya/attachments/20160713/8d05746a/attachment.html>