[Chaturamnaya] His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Sacchidananda Sivabhinava Nrisimha Bharati - 26

[S Jayanarayanan]

 http://svbf.org/journal/vol8no1/2006_10_swamigal.pdf
 
 
Chosen Successor
----------------
 
One thing remained to be done; a successor
to the Sringeri Peetham had to be appointed
before he could quit the world. For several years
past he had his eye on a promising youth of
Sringeri. The sole surviving son out of 13 children
of his parents, the boy was very intelligent and
well-behaved; he had passed out of the elementary
school and was a student of the government
English school established at Sringeri. The boy
was admitted to the Sanskrit school at Sringeri,
which was maintained by the matha.
 
The Swami used to visit the school once a
year and himself examine the boys and encourage
the deserving among them. On one such occasion,
the Swami marked the smartness, the prompt
replies and the modest deportment of this lad,
gave him presents and asked the Agent to monitor
him and have him trained in Logic and other
higher Sanskrit studies. The boy’s name was
Narasimha.
 
All this was before the Swami started on his
Kalady tour. After his return to Sringeri he
examined the youth and found that he had made
great progress in his Tarka studies, that he was
scrupulously observing the disciplines of
Brahmacharya—the early ablutions and prayers
and the daily homage to the sanctified fire. The
Swami now sent the youth to the matha college at
Bangalore-- Girvana Prauda Vidya Abhivardhinito
study Purva Mimamsa, as a prelude to the study
of Vedanta.
 
Now resolved to nominate a successor to the
Peetham, the Swami deputed Dharmadhikari
Rama Sastri to have an interview with the
Maharaja of Mysore and bring Narasimha Sastri,
studying at Bangalore, to the notice of His
Highness in view of his nomination.
 
On Chaitra Shukla, the Swami, while seated
in meditation after his morning bath, appeared to
have fallen into a trance; the attendants were
alarmed and rushed in haste to the Agent who
was engaged in puja. The Swami had come out
from the trance and said to the Agent, "They have
unnecessarily disturbed you. I was merely plunged
in the ecstatic bliss of Self-realisation."
 
But he had no relish for food the whole day
and remained fasting. Next morning he had his
bath as usual at six and seated in meditation till
nine. Then came a violent fit of coughing; the
Swami was still seated coughing, with his head
bent down and at 11.30 a.m. his soul merged into
the Supreme Light, leaving behind the bright
smile alone which, as ever before, was irradiating
his face. It was Chaitra Shukla 2, in the year
Paritapi (March 1912).
 
The Swami had given orders that his body
should be interred in his favourite retreat,
Nrisimhavana, and that the Narmada linga which
he had been worshipping every day before he
retired for the night should be installed over the
spot. This was accordingly done.
 
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