[Chaturamnaya] His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Sacchidananda Sivabhinava Nrisimha Bharati - 13

[S Jayanarayanan]

 http://svbf.org/journal/vol8no1/2006_10_swamigal.pdf
 
 
At Sringeri--First 12 years
---------------------------
 
For some days alter his return to Sringeri
the Swami always seemed deep in reflection and
indifferent to his surroundings. He forgot even his
daily physical requirements and his attention had
to be drawn to these by his faithful attendants.
 
As for the Swami himself, nothing touched
his heart so much as the unexpected and
premature demise of a devoted ruler. Ever since
the dismemberment of the Vijayanagar empire, the
fortunes of the Sringeri matha were carefully
looked after by the rulers of Mysore and by none
so much as by the late Maharaja. His being taken
away suddenly in the prime and bloom of life;
much more than this, the sight of the boy-princes,
removed from the strong hand of paternal control,
had contributed to the distraction of his mind.
 
The Swami was intensely emotional; pity
and sympathy welled up from his heart at the least
sign of distress; he would walk gently on earth,
looking carefully about him, lest he should by
chance tread on any ant or worm; be could never
bear to see others suffering, though it might be
due to their own fault. The Ramayana was his
favourite and he never tired of reading the epic.
 
Once, when the Swami was being taken in
a procession in Mysore, he saw an old woman
looking at him intently and with tears in her eyes;
the Swami noticed this in the huge throng of
enthusiastic spectators and devotees, recognised in
her his old nurse who had taken him about on her
shoulders when he was a child of two or three and
fondled him on her knees.
 
He sent for her, loaded her with presents
and sent her home more pleased with the simple,
kind words he spoke and the reminiscences of his
childhood and her tender care of him than by the
presents.
 
He never failed to enquire about the
comforts of one and all who came as visitors to
the matha, though his confidence in his Agent
and the attendants was unbounded; he saw to it
that his pandits lived in comfort.
 
One of these, though learned like the other
pandits, had a failing; he was very short-tempered
and the servant employed by the matha to cook
for him and otherwise look after his wants was so
much put out by the treatment of the pandit that
he left without notice and returned to the matha.
 
The Sastri waited till five in the evening,
fasting and gnashing his teeth; but nobody turned
up; he then staggered to the presence of the
Swami and told him his tale of woe, hinting that
he was dying of hunger. The Swami at once left
his seat, went to the kitchen to see if the run-away
servant was there.
 
The Agent who was inside the kitchen,
supervising the preparations, noticed this unusual
proceeding in alarm, caused the servant concerned,
who was there, to get out of the sight of the
Swami, who returned to his seat and sent for the
Agent.
 
Was not the Swami aware of the failing of
this pandit? Could he not have easily surmised
that the man had brought the trouble on himself
by his own short temper? Could not the Swami
have sent for his Agent by a nod of his head and
should he have walked to the kitchen himself,
when hundreds of attendants were waiting to
readily execute his slightest command? It only
showed how tender-hearted he was.
 
The first thing he did on his return to
Sringeri was to compose a hymn to Sharada,
appealing to her to protect the princes of Mysore
from peril and make them wise and pious. This
hymn he caused to be sung every night before the
Goddess, at the close of the evening service. This
brought him some peace of mind.
 
Another matter that contributed to his
pensiveness was the great change he observed in
the spirit of the people wherever he went, their
greed to become rich at any cost, and their
indifference to hoary traditions.
 
For himself he felt that all he could do was
to pray to the Mother of the Universe to bring
about a change of heart in the people this land.
He had unshaken faith in the efficacy of sincere
prayer. He also started a pathasala named
Sadvidya-Sanjivini at Sringeri in the very year he
returned to Sringeri and ordered that Rs.12,000 a
year should be spent on this and other institutions
for the resuscitation of Sanskrit studies.
 
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