The
Task
Baba visited
the foremost Saivite shrine of India, Varanasi
and the foremost Vaishnava shrine, Badrinath in
1961 in order to infuse spiritual power in those
dynamos of Grace. At Varanasi, He created a
unique jewel to be placed on the idol of
Visweswara declaring that it has the mystic
might to charge that symbol of the Lord with
Divine potency. At Badrinath, He drew from under
the present Narayana image, a Nethra-linga which
according to Him was brought from Mount Kailasa
(!) and ceremonially installed there, by no less
a person than
Sankaracharya
about twelve hundred years ago! This Nethralinga
when it emerged at the call of Baba, created a
chapter in history; a Linga as the basis of the
celebrated Vaishnava shrine was a welcome
reminder of the basic harmony of Saivites and
Vaishnavites.
Tradition has
it that the present Narayana idol at Badrinath
was thrown by alien hands into the Alakananda
river and that after long and strenuous
asceticism, Sankaracharya was rewarded with the
revelation that it was sunk in the Narada Kunda
of that river. Sankaracharya recovered it and
installed it at its present
site.
Therefore,
when Baba announced that the Nethralinga was the
original nucleus which had to be "energized" by
Him (with suitable rites and ceremonial
ablutions with the sacred waters of the
Gangothri, the golden Bilva leaves and the
actual Thumme flowers which He miraculously
procured on the spot) even the Trustees of the
Badrinath temple were pleasantly
surprised!
Baba spoke of
the
Linga
as being one of the Five Lingas which
Sankaracharya brought from Kailas and installed
in India, and so, the wonder grew; earnestness
to know more of this divine mission of Sankara
was aroused in many. Those who knew Him accepted
the accuracy of this exalted origin of the Linga
which they were privileged to see for some
precious minutes on that never-to-be forgotten
day. Saligrama Srikantha Sastry was one of those
who were afflicted by this earnestness to
discover the authenticity. He had studied the
Sankara-vijaya, the classical biography of
Sankaracharya; he sought to know the origins of
the Lingas that had been installed by
Sankaracharya in the monasteries he had founded.
In the reply he received from the Sringeri Math,
the monastery established by Sankaracharya
amidst the mountains of western Mysore, he was
told that mention was made of these Lingas in
the Sivarahasya Mahethihasa, a book which he was
able to get after elaborate search from the
library of a Vedic College at Varanasi. In the
XVI chapter of the IX Section of this book, it
is said that Lord Siva welcomed Sankara at
Kailas and blessed him with the words, "You are
marked out for the establishment in the world of
the true teaching of the Vedas,
viz., Adwaitha. Spend 32 years of your earthly
existence spreading this faith and overwhelming
those who decry or deny it. Accept these five
Lingas that I am giving you now. Worship them
with the Panchakshari and with
Satharudrabhisheka. Offer the sacred Bilva leaf
and Ash and recite the holy Pranava.
Complete your three Tours of Victory dispelling
the darkness of Dwaitha and then, install these
Lingas from this thrice-holy Kailasa, marked by
the effulgence of the Crescent, named Yoga Bhoga
Vara Mukthi and Moksha, in sacred sites chosen
by you, before you shed this mortal frame at
Kanchipuram." So, the story of the Linga at
Badrinath was authentic!
The
Sankara-vijaya of Anandagiri mentions that one
of the Lingas was installed at
Nilakantha-kshetra, which reminds us of the
snow-clad Nilakanthaparvatha, the Queen of the
Himalayas, behind Badrinath, resplendent in its
brilliant purity.
There is a
temple at Badrinath, called "The Original
Kedareswara." The legend says that Vishnu
discovered that Badri was a fine place for
Tapas,
but finding that it was already under occupation
by Siva, He resorted to a stratagem to take
possession of it. He assumed the form of a child
and started wailing aloud. So, Parvathi took up
the forsaken baby and fostered it, in spite of
the remonstrances of Siva. Some days later, when
Siva and Parvathi had gone to the river, the
child assumed its real form. Vishnu insisted on
staying at the place, so that the Divine pair
had to seek a place many miles off for their
residence, viz., modern
Kedarnath!
This legend
indicates that the Badri shrine was originally
Saivite and later became Vaishnavite. The
Kailasa Linga must have been there from the very
beginning, even when the Narayana image was
installed on the holy spot. These surmises arise
in our minds when we delve into the history of
the Linga which Baba revealed as having been the
initial "spiritual nucleus" of Badri. Whether as
Nilakantha-kshetra or as Kedaram, the site where
the Narayana temple is existing now, was blessed
with a Linga, by Sankaracharya, this is certain.
We can only offer our homage of reverential awe
to the unpredictable depth of Baba's divine
Awareness, when we recapitulate the story of the
Badirinath Linga.
In pursuance
of the same mission of heightening the spiritual
potency of the great shrines of India, Baba
visited the Kasi and Badri of Peninsular India
too, to wit, Srisailam and Pandharpur. At
Srisailam which He visited on the 5th of January
1963, He said. "This shrine has consoled and
comforted thousands and thousands of pious
persons year after year, for centuries.
Sankaracharya was here and he sang of the
holiness of this place and the calm he enjoyed
here. He has installed a Chakra here, which I
may tell you, is in a small cave by the side of
Pathala Ganga". He added, "The atmosphere of
Holy Places should improve. The nature of the
monks who are the custodians of these places
requires drastic correction. This will be done
by Me, as part of Dharmasthapana, the task which
I have come to fulfill".
Srisailam is a
shrine saturated over the centuries with the
deep devotion of mystics like Akka-mahadevi and
nation-builders like Sivaji. Baba revealed the
inner significance of the Names, by which the
Lord and His Consort are worshipped at
Srisailam: Mallikarjuna and Bhramaramba. This
too was something new, a gift from Baba to
generations of votaries. Arjuna means white,
pure, without blemish; mallika means the
spotlessly white jasmine flower. So,
Mallikarjuna is Siva of the snowy peak Kailasa;
pure, cool, resplendent with the sacred ash
spread all over. He is the fragrant flower that
draws the Amba or Consort, the Sakthi aspect,
called Bhramara (the Bee which is attracted
spontaneously by the Honey of Grace). She is the
true representative of the tarden devotee and
Mallikarjuna is the purest conception of the
Grace-showering God, who yields to sincere
entreaty.
While inside
the innermost shrine, Baba showered on the
Mallikarjuna, golden thumme (Leucas Linifolia)
flowers which He created on the spot by a wave
of His Hand. That was the ceremonial rite of
multiplying the potency and improving the
sanctity of the focus of
worship.
Pandharpur and
the shrines of
Panduranga
and Rukumayi have woven themselves into the
history of the Marathas and Kannadigas and, of
millions of others by the inspiration they
imparted for centuries to a long line of saints,
mystics and poets, famous for the songs that
emerged from their ecstatic experience.
Purandaradas, the great itinerant singer of
Panduranga's Glory was a Kannada Saint; Tukaram
and a host of other stalwart servants of God
were from the Maharashtra country. Even while a
boy, Baba had gathered a band of comrades at
Puttaparthi village, who danced and sang of the
joy derived from a pilgrimage to Pandharpur to
witness the shrine of
Panduranga
Vittal.
He had composed many captivating Telugu songs
for His comrades to sing; some of them glorified
the Lord who blessed devotees at Pandharpur;
some detailed the route to be followed; some
described the travails of the long journey; some
expressed the thrill of the exhausted pilgrims
when they had the first glimpse of the temple
from afar. A Divine Destiny, an indescribable
kinship, was drawing Baba towards Pandharpur
since His childhood.
At last, Baba
visited the shrine with a number of devotees
from Maharashtra on 13th June, 1965. He stood
silent for a few minutes before Panduranga, the
Vittal whose Vision - He Himself had often
vouchsafed to those who yearned to see that Form
in Him; then, He moved on to the shrine of the
consort, Rukumayi, Rukmani, the Sakthi of the
Lord and, urged by a quick irrepressible memory,
He created a Mangalasuthra and placed it round
the neck of the Goddess. A page from the
Bhagavatha
came alive during that moment. Besides these
temples, Baba has visited and intensified the
sanctity of the temple of Giridhari at Brindavan
and of
Ramachandra
at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh and Bhadrachalam and
Mahanandi in Andhra Pradesh.
"My task
comprises Dharmasthapana, Vidwath Poshana and
Vedasamrakshana. All three are interdependent,"
declared Baba once at
Prasanthi
Nilayam.
The resuscitation of the holy places where
millions gather to draw solace and peace is only
one of the many means of Dharmasthapana. The
repositories of that Dharma, the interpreters of
that Dharma had to be inspired to a greater
awareness of their responsibility. The twin
objects of
Vidwathposhana
(Fostering of Scholarship) and
Vedasamrakshana
(Preservation of the Vedas) can be gained only
by drawing the Pundits of the Land into the
circle of His Grace.
Like all acts
of Baba, this shower of Grace came about in a
quiet spontaneous manner, no one noticing the
'grand design' or the harvest of precious grain.
The deltaic region of the Godavari Basin is even
now the home of classical learning in Andhra
Pradesh, though the scholars who are struggling
to keep the flag of Vedic learning flying are
finding it hard to brave the buffetings of
economic distress and social
neglect.
When the
devotees of Baba suggested that a
Yaga
be included as one of the functions He might
attend when He visited the East Godavari
District, Baba replied that they could as well
celebrate the Yaga at Prasanthi Nilayam itself
during Dasara, when thousands from all over
India could have the thrill of witnessing it!
Lists of qualified ritualists and reciters,
Pundits and Sastris were sent to Him, but when
Baba saw that they were all selected from the
Kona-sima (delta area) only, He set them aside
with the remark that His Sima (area) is not
Kona-Sima only; it was Veda-sima (all areas
where the vedas are revered). So the lists were
revised and Vedic scholars and Pundits were
invited from Benares, Bangalore and Hyderabad,
besides the contingent from the Godavari
Basin.
When they
started from their villages, these savants did
not know how epoch-making the journey was, both
for their own lives and for the life of the
country and its culture, for, each one returned
home vastly richer in faith, more firmly
established in courage, more steadfast in
loyalty to the Vedas which were the source of
sustenance for himself as well as for the
people.
The Yaga was
called Vedapurusha Sapthaha Jnana Yagna and it
consisted of two sections, the morning sessions
for seven days of Athi-rudrahoma with all its
complementary rites, and the evening sessions of
a Jnanayajna, where distinguished exponents of
the Vedas explained to the vast gathering, the
meaning and significance of the scriptural
rites. Since the Festival had to high-light the
efficacy of Vedic injunctions, Baba said that
scrupulous care should be taken to observe them
all, down to the minutest detail. Therefore, the
number, size and situation of the pillars of the
Yaga-mantap, the number and shapes of the
sacrificial pits, the location of the shrines of
subsidiary deities like the Yoginis, the
Vasthupurusha, the Kshetrapalas like
Abhayamkara, and the Navagrahas, were all
correctly fixed. The kusa grass seats for the
participants were prepared in accordance with
the do's and dont's that the
Sastras
prescribe. The materials for the sacrifice, like
ghee prepared from cow's milk, earth from
ant-hills and royal equestrian stables and royal
elephant stables and royal palace enclosures,
the banyan tree twigs, the spoons made of
special wood, were all collected under His
personal supervision. Altogether 2,26,270
spoonfuls of ghee were offered during the seven
mornings into the sacrificial fire, with the
concurrent invocation of the appropriate Name of
the Lord, describing one among His manifold
characteristics! The Yaga was certain to
promote, according to the Vedas, the welfare and
peace of the world. "Santhi kaamasthuhomayeth";
those who desire the establishment of peace have
to do this sacrifice", say the
Vedas. [See also: Esoteric
Significance of the Veda Purusha Jnana
Yajna]
Baba, in one
of His Discourses during the week, referred to
the derision with which even many Hindus react,
when they see so much ghee being poured in the
Fire. He spoke of such critics as dwellers in
the realm of cash books, persons who clamour for
jars of ghee and bundles of fuel, rather than
the more precious and the more lasting joy of
having invoked and pleased the Gods. The very
performance of an ancient honoured rite gives a
satisfaction that cannot be expressed in cash.
"These questioners have consumed hundreds of
bags of rice since birth and they have drunk
pots of ghee so far. Let me ask them, whether
they have had a single day of happiness
themselves or whether they have been able to
give a single day of joy to their kith and kin.
But, this Yaga gives great joy to many; it gives
peace and joy to the world. I and My people are
delighted; that is enough compensation. When
ghee is poured into the Fire, those who do not
know or believe in the Vedas say it is a waste.
Those who do not know agriculture may cry that
casting seeds in the furrow is a colossal waste;
they do not know that the tiller will get the
grain back, a hundred fold. This is also like
that. Letters reach the addressee only when they
are duly stamped with
manthras
and dropped into sacrificial Fire. This is a
science as much as any other."
The foremost
reciter of the Vedas in Andhra Pradesh, a person
honoured by his colleagues as Veda-samraat
(Undisputed Master of the Vedas) Brahmasri
Cherkumalli Kamesvara Ghanapati was invested
with the office of Sarvaadhyaksha (Overall
Supervisor) of the Yaga and a Pundit in the
Nyaya Vedantha and Jyothisha schools of thought
was installed as the Officiator. Sri Uppaluri
Ganapathi Sastri, a septuagenarian scholar, one
of the very few in India today who can expound
every syllable of the Vedas in conformity with
authentic commentaries, on whom learned
Societies have showered titles like
Aamnaayarthavachaspathi, Vedabhashyavisarada and
Vedabhaashyaalankaara, was chosen as the
President of the
Jnana Yajna
section of the Yaga.
Sri Ganapathi
Sastri has stated that in his fifty years of
experience of Vedic Yagas and Yajnas, he has not
had the privilege of witnessing such a
scrupulously correct Yaga, which could pass the
most rigorous tests of orthodoxy. As a matter of
fact, the discourses he gave every evening on
the significance of the rites were punctuated
with sincere gratitude to Baba for His upholding
the Vedic Injunctions. He quoted Vedic manthras
in support of what looked like 'casual acts' of
Baba: His reference to the
rithwiks
as 'gods', His distribution of white silk
clothes to the reciters of the Vedas and red
silk clothes to those engaged in other rites and
even the order in which He presented awards to
the participants at the end of the Yaga! Baba
was the Vedapurusha, he acknowledged. Baba
Himself declared: "Do not be misled; I am not
the person performing this sacrifice. I am the
Person receiving these sacrificial offerings and
awarding the rewards". And He gave proof too. On
the Penultimate day of the Yajna, He announced
"Tomorrow, when the Valedictory Offering is
poured into this sacrificial Fire I want each
one of you to resolve with your will that you
are pouring into the flames all the evil in you,
all the egoism and degrading attachment, all the
habits that drag you down". Many who had
equipped themselves with gold and gems, silk and
sandalwood(!) in order to be ready to put those
precious things into the Fire (as is the wont in
all Yajnas) were awakened by this call, into the
knowledge of the significance of the Yajna. Baba
made also another announcement; "Tomorrow at the
moment of Valedictory Offering, you will be
given the
Darsan
of the Yajnapurusha, the Person who accepts the
Yajna".
True to the
Promise, Baba ascended the Yajna Vedi at that
very Moment; He granted Darsan to the tens of
thousands, who ecstatically acclaimed Him as the
Person who accepts the Yajna.
It must be
mentioned that the
Kamandalu
or Watervessel of Shirdi Sai Baba which has
miraculously found its way into
Prasanthi
Nilayam
was placed on the Yagamantapa to hold the
ceremonial water used for most of the mystic
rites; the continuity of the two Sais was thus
symbolized. When the Officiator required images
of the Navagrahas for installation, Baba created
them by a wave of His Hand; when he held out His
hand for a plate of gold to be deposited with
the relevant manthras
in the water-vessel, Baba made it on the spot
and gave it to him; so too, when the time for
the Valedictory Offering approached, He created
the Nine Gems and placed them in the plate held
out before him. The pundits as well as the
thousands who attended the Yaga had also another
glimpse into His Divinity, when Baba one
evening, down from His seat and moving out of
the roofed area, looked up at the growling sky
which was bent on a heavy downpour of rain; as
at Shirdi, Baba must have rebuked the skies and
said "Stop your fury and be calm", for the sky
was stunned into sudden calm and
clarity.
The Yaga
achieved many results, chief among them being
the transformation it brought about in the
outlook of the Pundits of the land. Many of them
came infected with the prejudice that Baba was
only an adept in magic, a hardy prejudice that
had unfortunately kept Sisupala,
Duryodhana
and millions of others away from Grace in
previous eras. Ganapathi Sastri confesses that
he too was thus affected, but, "as a result of
the constant association with Him for many days
during this Jnanayajna, and observation of the
ever fresh and unique examples of His Glory, I
realized that I was incapable of gauging His
reality, for He was undoubtedly the incarnation
of God". Darsanabhushana Chathusthanthri Kolluri
Somasekhara Sastri, who had a similar experience
began addressing Him soon as
Bhagavalleelaavaathaara,
Leelaa-maanusha-vigraha, meaning that He was
indisputably Divine. Vidwathkavi Vemparala
Suryanarayana Sastri revealed before a large
gathering of devotees, that he had refused to
place faith in the theory that Baba was an
incarnation of the Lord; he was not convinced
when many people told him that their lives were
saved by the Vibhuthi that Baba had materialized
and blessed them with; even when his friend, Sri
Kamavadhani had shown him the gifts that Baba
had created and given him at Rajahmundry, he had
turned a blind eye. But, before the Yajna
concluded he confessed that "the conviction that
Baba was Krishna, come again, was rooted deep in
me". Adwaithavedantha Siromani,
Meemaamsavisarada Mallavajhala Venkatasubba
Sastri of Warangal, who was also a doubter,
turned into an ardent advocate of the
Avatharhood of Baba.
He said that even the Viswarupa-darsanam
vouchsafed by Krishna to Arjuna could be
dismissed by cynics as a major magic
performance; if the Lord presented Himself
before them, they would attribute it to an
optical defect or describe it as an apparition
pictured by feverish imagination. He applied the
various tests prescribed by the Sastras and
concluded that Baba is Bhagavadavarthaara-murthi
and so, he exhorted all to worship Him with
steady devotion and sincere Love, to select Him
as their Teacher and Guide and by these means to
save themselves. [Bhagavad
Gîtâ, Chapter
12]
This
revolution in the reactions of the Pundits was
in conformity with the declaration by Baba
Himself; for, He has said often that only those
conversant with the Vedas and Sastras can delve
into His Reality, to any appreciable extent. No
wonder therefore that the hundred and odd
scholars of the scriptures that basked for seven
days in the sun of His Grace decided without any
extraneous prompting to arrange a unique
function on the Tenth Day which they named
"Thribhuvana Vijayam" Triumph over the Three
Worlds!" When asked whose triumph they were
arranging to celebrate the answer was, Baba's!
The Vedas and other scriptures, along with the
ancient sciences and disciplines by which they
could be understood and practiced (like Grammar,
the Six systems of Philosophy, Philology,
Phonetics, Theology) were to approach God on His
Throne and beseech Him to glance at them
lovingly so that they may grow strong again and
afford shelter to mankind. They pleaded that
Baba must be on the Throne and proposed that
they would approach Him with pleas on behalf of
the sciences of the Spirit. And, Baba agreed.
When some objected, "Baba! They are asking you
to act a role! They can be the roles but you are
God". Baba intercepted: "But I am acting a role
now in this human form. The Function-less and
the Role-less has come, taking on a Function and
assuming a Role".
A strange
thing had happened, unawares, in preparation for
the "Thribhuvana Vijayam"! A devotee had a dream
in Bombay a few weeks previous; She saw Baba as
Narayana on the Primeval Serpent (Sesha) Couch.
So, she got ready a magnificent Serpent Couch in
wood, complete with coils and hood and her
kinsmen brought it to Prasanthi Nilayam, in a
motor vehicle specially reshaped for the
purpose. The Pundits were happy that the very
thing they needed to make their function
realistic, the throne, had come, through the
will of Baba.
Let Ganapathi
Sastri himself describe the scene; "When Baba
reclined on that Seshathalpa, with the
Yagamantapa as the background, each Pundit and
Sastri who was a master of one chosen branch of
a scriptural lore stood before Him and
represented as previously arranged, the
importance of his field of knowledge and the
urgent need to foster it, everyone saw
Mahavishnu in Vaikuntha reclining on the Sesh
Serpent and of Brihaspathi and all the gods and
sages displaying their scholarship and
attainments for His Glorification and
praying to Him to save the Sastras from
decline. It was indeed the Devasabha the Divine
Durbar and we forgot all about ourselves in the
supreme joy in which we were submerged. It was
an occasion to be personally gone through and
experienced; the joy we felt cannot be
communicated to others by even Brihaspathi, the
all-knowing preceptor of the Gods, or by the
Four-faced Brahma or the Six-faced Kumaraswamy
or the Thousand-tongued Adi-sesha". To the
Sarvadhyaksha of the Yaga, Sri Kameshwara
Ganapati, it was a fruitful revelation. He came,
he saw and he was conquered. He left his native
home in the far-off Godavari Delta, he turned
his face away from his village home set in the
midst of the coconut gardens he cherished, and
stayed on at the Prasanthi Nilayam, where he
found the Vedapurusha whom he had been extolling
with manthras for sixty years!
The Jnanayajna
or Evening Discourses provided an opportunity
for the Vedic scholars to fathom the
extraordinary scholarship of Baba. Ganapathi
Sastri expresses the sense of admiration of the
learned Pundits thus: "Apart from the thrill
that the listeners derived from the discourses
of Baba, the reputed masters of the ancient
disciplines who had gathered renown by lecturing
to many vast gatherings throughout the land were
themselves struck with wonder at the depth and
width of His knowledge". Mallavajhala
Venkatasubbarama Sastri analyzed the reactions
of his colleagues thus: "In all His speeches
there was not the slightest deviation from the
Sastras nor the faintest whisper contrary to the
trend of their teachings. And, the subjects He
handled! They were indeed the most profound! The
methodology of exposition was in strict
conformity with the canons laid down in the
scriptures. There was no repetition of argument,
no irrelevant digression, no jeering criticism,
no jarring adulation, no over-emphasis". Kalluri
Venkatasubramanya Dikshith reacted similarly.
"The nectar of His Love filled every word of His
parables and explanations. It was overpowering
Grace that made Him pity the poor understanding
of the listeners and search for tiny tasty
stories that could clarify the profundities He
was unraveling, the Goals He desired to
picture". In short, the scholars found in Baba
the Master-Mind that was guiding and shaping
their own.
But, it was
not all wonder and admiration! The Pundits were
made aware of the worth of the treasure that
they were preserving; they were told the reason
for their poverty and for the neglect which is
their meed lies in themselves! They were induced
to examine their own lives and beliefs, their
own attitudes and prejudices, their own
preferences and foibles. "You may ask why
Pundits and Vedic Scholars are passing through
such hard times. They are mostly hungry,
ill-clad and homeless. No one comes forward to
join Vedic schools. I shall tell you why they
have come to this pass. They have themselves
lost faith in the Vedas. Let them be fixed in
that faith - then, the Veda will make them
happy. If the Veda cannot make a man happy, what
else can?" asked Baba. He filled the
Brahmins
with faith in what they carried in their heads.
He also condemned the ignorant sneer which
brands the Vedas as clever stratagems by which
the Brahmin priests ensure their position as
intermediaries between man and God and win
superiority in the social hierarchy. "Look at
the regimen of restrictions and regulations, the
hundreds of do's and dont's limiting freedom of
life and limb which these Brahmins have imposed
on themselves in order to promote the good of
society and of the world and for their own
spiritual uplift. Do not dismiss them as
superstitions; no one will bind themselves from
dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn with such drastic
rules and limits for mere fun. They are hard
limitations on daily conduct, social contacts
and economic effort. It requires great courage,
hardihood and faith to hold these rules as vital
and put them into practice. Honour those that
have faith in that ideal. Their adherence to
those ideals has been of tremendous value to
India and the world, for it has preserved the
only culture that can save mankind. I know the
sincerity with which they have been leading the
hard life, for, I have been with every one of
them, in their rites and rituals since years",
Baba said; this transformed the hostile attitude
of many towards the Brahmin community, an
attitude fostered by pseudo-political fears and
prejudices caused by the ignorance of the
sacrifice the community had been practicing for
centuries.
This was no
ordinary Yajna that Baba presided over; it was a
revival; it was a revelation; it was a
revolution, a resurgence. It was a symbol of
cultural renascence, for Baba, explained that
the Vedas are essentially for all time and all
mankind, that Sacrifice or Yajna is the sign and
secret of all life. He advised the participants
to recapture the ancient ascetic simplicity; He
explained that in the manthras, the Glory and
Majesty of the One God is visualized in various
contexts; He elaborated on the symbolism of the
Sun and the Moon as guiding the inner and outer
vision of man. He spoke of the tonic effect of
the very sound of the Vedic manthras; they charm
away the evil in man. "I want to prove to you
and to those others that a Yajna, celebrated
according to Vedic Formulae will certainly grant
the fruits promised by the Vedas", He said. "The
Vedas belong to those who value them, who are
moved by thirst for spiritual uplift, who desire
to practice them and who have faith that they
will benefit by that practice. No one else has
the right to talk patronizingly of the Vedas or
disparage them. For, all such talk will be
hollow and insincere", He
warned.
Fourty five
days later, on the auspicious occasion of His
Birthday when thousands had gathered to
celebrate it in His Presence Baba invited the
incomparable Aamnaayaarthavaachaspathi Uppaluri
Ganapathi Sastri to inaugurate the Sathya Sai
Veda-Sastra Patasala, the Academy for Vedic and
Sanskrit Study, at the Nilyam. He said, "The
Vedas are in need of revival. We have to prevent
the goats from nibbling at the sprouts. I have
come for the sake of this
Dharmasthapana".
"Vedokhilo dharma mulam", "The Vedas are the
root of Dharma". Vedic scholars have to grow in
numbers for the sake of the promotion of Dharma.
So long as Vedic Scholars are produced and
honoured, so long the Vedas will remain green in
the hearts of man. This is the real
Dharmasthapana." "My Task is to open your eyes
to the glory of the Vedas and to convince you
that Vedic injunctions, when put into practice
will yield the promised results." "My
Prema
towards the Vedas is matched only by My Prema
towards Humanity." "My Mission is just four:
Vedaposhana, Vidwath-poshana, Bhaktharakshana
and Dharmarakshana".
"These boys"
He said pointing to the first batch of boys that
was enrolled, "These boys will grow into strong
stalwart pillars of
Sanathana
Dharma;
they will be the guides and leaders of this land
in the days to come, to save it from vain
follies and wild passions. You may say they are
only twenty in number now; but, when a vast
country is administered by a Cabinet of twenty
Ministers, this band of students will be ample,
for the work I have in view". "Parents who have
sent them to this Patasala have reason to be
happy, for these boys will become lucent gems,
spreading Vedic splendour and
Sastric
light. I shall take care of them, more lovingly
than any mother".
Then, the
distinguished Vedic scholar taught the boys the
correct pronunciation of the Inaugural rik, from
the Yajur Veda, "Ishethwa" and wished the
Patasala all success. Baba takes great delight
in moving among the little boys, and watching
their progress. He instills hope and courage
into them. He pays special attention to health,
discipline and character. He insists on outer
and inner cleanliness. Baba encourages them to
seek the meaning and purpose of the riks they
recite, for, as He has often remarked, they
should not get transformed into mere
tape-records of the Vedas;
they must charge themselves with the devotion,
the rectitude, the detachment and the sense of
kinship with Truth, which the Vedas
teach.
He insists
also on an all-round progress of the boys, so
that they may grow into helpmates of the
down-hearted and the distressed. In recent
years, He has Himself written musical plays
brimful of the noblest scriptural teachings on
"Markandeya", "Sakkubai", and "Radha-bakthi";
the first depicts in easy sweet Telugu the story
of Markandeya, who defied death and won
Immortality as a Star in space. The second deals
with the simple saint Sakku, whose devotion to
Panduranga was so intense that the Lord Himself
took her form and served her husband and
mother-in-law in order to release her from her
home, for the pilgrimage to the Panduranga
Temple.
The third
reveals the deep significance of the spiritual
yearning which filled the entire being of Radha,
for Krishna. Baba Himself selected the boys for
the cast, assigned the parts, supervised the
rehearsals, decided the stage, fittings and
curtains and trained them to sing the many songs
He composed and designed the costumes for every
role in every scene, and on the days when the
plays were presented, Baba spent hours in the
green room directing the make-up and encouraging
each little boy by a soft pat with His loving
palm when they moved out towards the floodlit
stage, where tens of thousands greeted them with
loud applause. For about a month, the boys had
the unique good fortune of being inspired by His
vigilant Prema,
during rehearsals. Since every participant
imbibed the entire text, whatever be his
individual role, all the words from Baba's
Divine Pen have sunk into the hearts of all the
boys. Baba is thus transmitting them into proper
instruments for the fulfillment of the task for
which He has come. The Patasala is bound to grow
into a great Banyan tope, affording shade and
shelter to countless peoples caught in the
desert sands of greed, hate and
despair.
Baba saw that
the rampant decline in private and public morals
is due to the neglect of the discipline
prescribed in the Vedas. The Brahmin,
Kshatriya
and
Vaisya
Varns
are burdened with greater obligations than the
rest of the community because they are initiated
into spiritual life, too. This rite of
initiation is called Upanayana,
'leading near', that is to say, taking the boy
near the Guru or spiritual preceptor for
Brahmopadesam (guidance to Brahmam). This has to
be done according to the
Sastras
by the teaching of the
Gayathri
manthra before the boy evinces longings for
sensory-pleasures and thereby gets lost in the
wilderness of transitory adventures. The Brahmin
boy has to be initiated into that sacred manthra
before he is eight years old, the Kshatriya has
to be initiated before he is eleven and the
Vaisya, before he is twelve. Manthra is
("thrayathe" through manana) that which saves
through constant reflection on the meaning. But,
though these caste structures still persist in
varying degrees of strength throughout India,
this great rite has suffered drastic decline. In
many regions and families, it is postponed until
as late as the marriage rite, or completely
overlooked. When thus the very spring of
spiritual discipline is allowed to go dry, how
can the call of the ancient ideals raise any
response in the heart? Man should not be allowed
to remain a beast, caring only for feeding and
breeding.
Therefore, as
a great step forward in the revival of Dharma,
Baba announced that He will be granting members
of the three varnas
- dedicated to a second birth - the great chance
of being initiated into the spiritual life, by
Himself at Prasanthi
Nilayam.
The devotees of Baba were thus aroused into a
recognition of their primary duty to their
children; they hastened to benefit from the
offer. On February 3, 1963, when 35 boys were
"led near Him" and became Brahma-charis
(pilgrims on the path of Brahma-realisation)
through the sastraic
process of receiving the sacred
Gayathri
manthra, Baba declared addressing the group,
"You have come in this body, this receptacle, in
order to realize the Glory that you really are.
This body is the cocoon that you have spun round
yourselves with the thread of your impulses and
desires. Use it to grow wings so that you can
escape from it. The Gayathri manthra is a prayer
to the Universal Intelligence to awaken the
Dhee-sakthi in you, your faculty of
discrimination, of analysis and synthesis, so
that you may realize who you are and why".
Turning to the parents, He said "This is an
important day in the history of Sanathana
Dharma,
for it is a great step in the restoration of
Varanashrama
Dharma.
The study of the Vedas is the highest learning,
for, it leads to the conquest of Death itself.
Today, these, your children, are set on the road
to explore their Inner Realm and Innermost
Reality".
In 1964 when
the Upanayanam
rite was again arranged 300 boys were so
blessed; in 1965, the number increased to 450.
The festival is made unforgettable for
participants as well as spectators by the shower
of love with which Baba greets not only the boys
who are initiated but even their parents and
kinsmen. He makes up for all the ritual lapses
of the parents, like disregard of the 'naming
rites' or 'ear-boring rite', or 'tonsure rite';
He overwhelms the parents and gifts. He does not
allow any display of wealth by the richer
parents, least the poorer are cast into gloom
during the auspicious occasion. To have the rite
performed in the Divine Presence is itself a
unique gift and many a devotee has felt sad that
he aged too fast. Many are depressed that their
children have undergone the rite already and
have therefore rendered themselves ineligible
for the great chance.
Baba's Grace
flows spontaneously towards the assemblage of
Brahma-charis. He gives each of them ceremonial
clothes, ritual vessels, momentos and books,
besides what is treasured as most auspicious,
the inaugural Bhiksha (alms) when each boy
starts the "mendicant" career that day, as
prescribed in the
Sastras
for every seeker during the years of Vedic
study. The boys walk up in a long line to Baba's
Presence and after introducing themselves in
traditional style; mentioning their Gothra,
Suthra and patron Rishi, pray "Bhavathi,
Bhikshaam dehi", "Ma, give me alms" and Baba as
Vedamatha and Annapurna, fills their plates with
grains of rice. Baba insists that the newly
initiated prostrate themselves before their
parents; He explains to each boy, at that
particular moment, the Vedic commands
"Mathru
devo bhava"
and "Pithru
devo bhava"
meaning "May your mother be your God", "May your
father be your God". The boys as well as the
parents are, visibly moved by this act, which
Baba considers, as important as any other item
in the ceremonial. Then He places in the hands
of the boys, gifts, which they pass on
reverentially to their parents.
More memorable
than all these, especially to the Brahma-charis,
is another spontaneous gift of Baba, a Blessing
that He alone can grant. Baba calls each boy to
Himself, even when the number is 450, and, in
the sublime silence, He whispers into the ear of
the child, fresh from his first lesson in Vedic
recitation, a sacred
manthra
which He instructs him to keep strictly to
himself. He has to repeat it with
Sraddha
and Bakthi,
every day of his life. Many an ardent seeker has
striven long to get Manthropadesa from this
Avathar of the Lord, but they still await the
gift, while these chosen boys, on the threshold
of the kingdom of God within them, acquire the
key which will help them to enter it, through
the spontaneous Grace of Baba.
The Upanayana
Festival is also marked by the discourses by
eminent pundits on the Gayathri, as well as on
the need to regulate and restrict the wild
senses by the discipline prescribed in
Dharmasastras for the twice-born and others.
Baba too discourses on these and kindred topics;
His advice is directed towards the elders who,
by their neglect of this rite have brought about
downfall of the magnificent edifice of
Sanathana
Dharma.
A gentleman from Mysore had not initiated his
seven sons into the Gayathri; without any
resentment, Baba invited him to bring all of
them to Him, for as He said, it is never too
late to start on the Godward journey; his sons,
ranging in age from 28 to 8 were all led into
the sacred path. He wanted that parents too must
perform the Sandhya rite and repeat the Gayathri
for their own good; the boy should not be made
to feel that this was a chore invented for
tormenting him. "Do it cheerfully, with evident
relish. Learn the procedure from these boys,
from your children and grand-children. For your
own sake and for the sake of the human
community, start Sandhya today with Gayathri
Japa
and continue it, with increasing fervour." "I
know how systematic you are in eating and
drinking. You take pretty good care of the body.
I do not condemn it; I only want that you should
take equally good care of the needs of the
spirit". [Gayathri
Mantra,
sung by Baba]
The Gayathri
is a Vedic Prayer that has been addressed to the
effulgence that is immanent in the Universe by
millions during millennia throughout the length
and breadth of this land. It prays, not for the
health or wealth, happiness or victory but it
prays for "awakening of intelligence". It is a
prayer which all men in all lands can well
adopt. Mr. J.B.S. Haldane has written that the
Gayathri can be carved on the doors of every
laboratory of the World. "May intelligence grow,
prevail and ripen into wisdom", and save mankind
from perdition!
Baba does not
hide His displeasure when he finds that a
Brahmin, Kshatriya or Vaisya is not performing
the Sandhya rite, and repeating the Gayathri
during the rite. Fear of that displeasure has
persuaded many who come to Baba to resume the
Sandhya, brushing their memory in haste from
books or from their own children. When Baba
surprises people with the question, "Are you
doing Sandhya?" many have to accept the lapse,
and correct themselves.
God is said to
love the returned prodigal; Baba encourages by
special marks of Grace, those who come back into
the Sandhya discipline. For example, a person
from Shimoga Town came to Him to get His
Blessings, for a venture that he had set his
mind upon. Baba surprised him with the question,
"Are you doing Sandhya?" and he too hung his
head. "No, Baba, though I have been enjoined to
do it, years ago on the Upanayanam Day" he said.
"Well, it is not too late; start as soon as you
reach home" Baba ordered. The rite took about 20
minutes and had to be done three times a day; at
dawn, when the sun was at the zenith, and at
dusk. Rao kept the promise he had given Baba; he
did the Sandhya, with growing devotion and
pleasure. After some time, he felt that a
Linga,
which his grandfather and father were
worshipping ritually every day for many years,
should be retrieved from the limbo to which he
had consigned it. He recovered it; he filled it
with his devotion; he offered flowers and fruits
and poured sanctified water on it, with the
appropriate manthras! Baba 'willed' to grant him
tangible proof of his appreciation of this
laudable advance; the colour of the Linga
changed from opaque dark into golden
transparency. And, very soon, inside that
round-topped little cylinder of hard
translucence, Baba allowed Himself to be
'entangled'! For months now, thousands have
seen, inside the Linga, a lovely captivating
picture in brilliant colour of Baba with His
sweet smile, in the centre of a halo of mellow
golden light!
Apart from the
day fixed by Baba, for the Upanayanam of the
boys who are brought to Prasanthi Nilayam, Baba
confers the boon on other days also, if devotees
yearn for it and if He feels the boy deserves
it. On Sankarajayanthi Day, the birthday of the
great Sankaracharya who revived Hindu religion
and built Hindu philosophy and culture on the
unshakeable foundation of Basic Unity or
Adwaitha,
He seldom refuses this boon. Baba considers this
ceremony of opening the inner eye of the rising
generation to be so important that He even
reminds parents of their obligation to initiate
their children and calls upon them to celebrate
the Upanayanam. This, He does both directly and
indirectly. Take for example the telegram
received by Sri C. Ramachandran of Kirkee,
Poona. "On 26th April, 1965, when I went to my
residence at lunch break", writes he, "both my
sons came running forward excitedly and put into
my hands a telegram which had been just
received. The telegram ran as follows: "Sri
Sathya Sai Baba arriving at your residence on
fifth May to attend Upanayanam of your sons and
give them Brahmopadesam". The words "Satya"
"Upanayanam" and "Brahmopadesa" are underlined
in the telegram!
"I had never
discussed with anybody the question of having
the Upanayanam of my sons performed during the
summer, although I had a keen desire to perform
it as early as possible, since this function was
already overdue and had been put off, during the
last two to three years. I had not made up my
mind, whether to have it performed at Shirdi or
Palani, our family shrine. I was, therefore,
surprised to find that the place and the date
had been fixed by the sender of the telegram. We
were overjoyed at the prospect of having Baba
with us for the function"
On enquiry,
Sri Ramachandran discovered that the person who
was responsible for sending the telegram from
the Central Post Office, Poona, had described
himself as "a person in transit, with no
permanent or local address"! and that when the
Postal authorities pressed him to give an
address, he had written his name as Sri
Maragathavelu, c/o All India Sai Samaj,
Mylapore! Hesitant to neglect so mysterious a
manifestation of Baba's Grace (of which he was
well aware through other more concrete
instances, like
Vibhuthi
emanating from the pictures of Baba, in his
shrine-room), Ramachandran decided to have the
Upanayanam of his two sons celebrated on the 5th
of May as directed. And Baba gave proof that day
He was present! "During the evening Bhajan,
every one in the gathering of nearly a thousand
people had a peculiar feeling that the sofa kept
on the platform for Him was not vacant. When
Arathi
was over, we found that the new silk seat-spread
had been creased in such a way that we could
clearly make out that Baba had been sitting
there. Besides, the ring of jasmine flowers
which was placed on the right arm of the sofa,
as is generally done at Prasanthi Nilayam, was
crushed just as if His Hand was resting on it".
A sign is enough for those who
seek.
Writing about
the
Dharmasthapana
for which Baba has come in human form, we have
to devote special attention to the Academy of
Vedic Scholars established under His Guidance,
which is fast spreading its beneficent activity
from one State of India to another, since 1964.
It was on the sacred day of Ramanavami, when a
million homes all over the country were
celebrating the incarnation of Rama,
described as the embodiment of Dharma,
that Baba revealed His intention. He was that
day at Rajahmundry on the Godavari river; at
dusk, He entered a motor launch with a number of
learned Pundits and scholars, and we reached a
patch of dry sand, an island bathed in cool
moonlight, set in the dark blue background of
the river above the Dhowaliswaram anicut. There,
seated in the center of the circle of adoration,
Baba spoke on the state of the world and of
India, which must guide it, with the lamp of
Sanathana
Dharma.
We must reform the habits of man; re-construct
his character; recondition his ideals and modes
of living; help him regain the spiritual
heritage which he is now encouraged to ignore by
protagonists of material prosperity and monetary
happiness", said He.
He created from the sand before Him, resplendent
idols of Rama, Sitha, Lakshmana and Anjaneya;
then, He created a charming idol of Nataraja,
the Dancing Siva, symbolising the Energized
Universe that expands and contracts (or
breathes) in harmony with the Divine Will. Then,
in the climax of that Sublime Silence, He
announced that He had decided on the
establishment of the Prasanthi Vidwanmahasabha,
an All India Academy of Vedic Scholars who will
strive to awaken humanity to the need to attain
the Prasanthi (Inner Harmony and Equipoise)
which has its Nilayam (Above) in the
Sanathana
Dharma,
enshrined in the ancient scriptures of India.
Surely, a great moment in the history of this
Age.
Baba had given
indications even in the forties that He will
rebuild Vedic Dharma on a stronger foundation.
In 1955, on the first day of October, at 9.30
a.m., as recorded in my Diary, Swami
Amrithananda ran towards me, after an interview
with Baba, gasping with joy. He said, "I had a
big sum of money with me which Bhagawan Ramana
Maharishi advised, I should use for Vedic
revival. I had invested it in the Benares Bank
and later with some Trusts. I had consulted
Madan Mohan Malaviya, Bhagawan Das, and Bal
Gangadhar Tilak about the scheme but somehow, my
plan did not fructify. Just now, Baba told me,
unasked, all about my unfulfilled yearning. He
said, "Do not worry any more; the task of Vedic
revival is no longer yours. It is Mine". The
Swami died, peacefully, within two months of
this transfer of burden!
In January,
1960, a great Sanskrit scholar from Sorbonne,
France, Valestin by name, who was in India to
translate the commentaries on the Vedas into
French, arrived at Prasanthi Nilayam. One
evening, during an interview with Baba, he
suddenly caught Baba's hands and pleaded "Baba!
Vedic scholarship is fast declining in this Holy
Land. You must revive it, you must foster it". I
was there, nearby. I felt that East and West
were also there, awaiting with palpitating
heart, the reply that Baba will vouchsafe. For
the Vedas are for both East and West, for all
mankind. And Baba did not disappoint mankind. He
said, "I have come for that very purpose, for
Vedic revival. It shall be done. I will do it.
Wherever you are, you will know of it. The world
will share that joy, that
light".
The Sabha was
formally inaugurated at the Swadhyaya Sapthaha
Yajna
during the Dasara Festival, 1965. About 200
Pundits had assembled at Prasanthi Nilayam for
the Convocation on 20th October. "Bhavani" said
Baba, "gave a sword into the hands of the
Emperor Sivaji commissioning him to venture
forth and uphold Hinduism; this "Siva-Sakthi" is
today giving these Pundits the sword of Courage
and commissioning them to go forth and revive
Dharma in the world". "I am sure this Sabha will
move forward from Victory to victory, for it is
contributory to My Work. In all lands, the true
sense of values has to be restored and faith in
the Divinity of Mau has to be implanted. This is
the work for which I have come. The world has to
be saved from the consequences of limited
knowledge and of the blinding pride that
precedes a fall. The world is a parched desert,
calling out for rain. This Sabha will give each
thirsty mouth a cup of solace and strength, from
the well of the Vedas and
Sastras".
He condemned the criticism of Vedic rites,
rituals and teachings of superstitions. "The
Vedas are the root of Dharma. If the roots are
injured, the tree will die". "They gave
Ananda
and
Santhi
that are lasting and sustaining", He said. "They
transmuted all activity into worship of the
Supreme and saved man from unending desire and
inexplicable sorrow", He said. "Know thyself,
instead of the sun and moon - that way lies the
road to Ananda and Santhi".
The purpose of
the Akhila Bharatha Prasanthi Vidwanmahasabha
was clarified by Baba during the discourses that
He gave on the days following the inauguration,
while presiding over the lectures that the
Pundits gave on the subjects suggested by him
from Vedic and Vedanthic texts. The watchword
for the Sabha should be, He said, the prayer
that is mentioned in the Vedas as arising
however indistinct, from every human heart,
"Thamaso maa Jyothir gamaya ... From darkness,
lead me unto light". "Eradicate Ajnana, the
ignorance of the Universal that is the basis,
the Ocean of which the individual is but a wave;
light the lamp in village after village. Instill
faith in man's freedom from grief and pain, that
is to say, instill faith in the Atma
and the Atmathatwa; share your learning and
experience, in love and sympathy, with the
people who are hungry to know and be saved;
remind them of their worth and work. You are not
to condemn any one's faith or to develop any new
sect; foster the positive attitude in spiritual
effort; faith is a precious plant, a gust of
harshness will make il wither. Be kind, be
considerate, promote love, tolerance, service,
sacrifice, wherever you find them in the heart
of man. These Pundits have at last attained the
fruition of their long study, for, they have
secured this medium, this Sabha, for sharing
their joy and their wisdom with their brothers
and sisters. They have been allotted districts
and the Central Committee will be supervising
the programme and progress. They will sow in all
cultivated hearts the seed of the Karmakanda,
the Upasanakanda, and the Jnanakanda of the
Vedas, of Dharma as expounded in the
Manudharmasastra and other texts and of the
Glory of God and Man as explained in the
Bhagavatha,
the Mahabharatha and the Ramayana",
He announced.
Turning to the
thousands of devotees who had come from all
parts of India, Baba said, "They sow the seeds.
But, you have to tend the young crop, feed it
with the manure of Manana,
rid it of pests, like greed and pride, harvest
the happiness of Love and establish yourselves
in the Prasanthi that the nourishing grain
ensures". Baba recognised that the pundits must
grow experienced in the art of explaining the
essentials of the scriptural teachings to the
masses in small easily assimilable doses that
are relishing; He warned that, unless the
Pundits took care to practise what they
preached, their discourses would be exercises in
sheer hypocrisy. The people too have to be
trained in the art of listening to short,
straight, spiritual discourses which arouse the
desire to practise what is taught. For, as Baba
said, the greatest sin is hypocrisy, spiritual
weakness, self-condemnation and cowardice. These
can be cured only by the awareness of one's
inherent Divinity, that can never be harmed by
such passing clouds of depression", Baba
assured. Baba declared, "This prasanthi
Vidwanmahasabha is not something new, it is
Sanathanam. It is now once again set up on the
age-old Mission. This work of Dharmasthapanam
is being done over and over again. You have now
the chance to share in it; So, join this great
task and make your lives worth
while".
That call was
irresistible. Towns and villages vied with each
other in asking for the chance to arrange
meetings and seminars for the benefit of their
citizens. The members of the Sabha were already
famous over the length and breadth of the land.
Dr. B. Ramakrishna Rao, a great scholar in
Sanskrit, Telugu, a celebrated linguist, a great
social worker and political leader who served
the people as Chief Minister of Andhra and
Governor of Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, is the
President of the Sabha; he has a Central
Committee of Pundits who have earned enduring
fame by their scholarship, speeches and writings
like Uppuluri Ganapathi Sastrigal, who is
honoured as Amnayarthavachaspathi by his
colleagues; Kolluri Somasekhara Sastry, honoured
as a Kulapathi by his gratified students; Bulusu
Appanna Sastry, known as Darsanalankara, the
renowned translator and commentator on Sankara's
Githa Bhashya; Remilla Suryaprakasa Sastry,
honoured as Sanga Veda Vidya Bhaskara; Varanasi
Subramanya Sastry, who by his unexcelled
scholarship relating to the works of
Vyasa
is celebrated as Balavyasa; Ghandikota
Subrahmanya Sastry, the doyen among Dharmasastra
scholars and the master of Vedic lore; Pisipati
Krishnamurthi Sastry, a great expert in
astrological observations and calculations
according to all the schools of that ancient
science, and others. To bring such a galaxy of
Pundits into the same orbit is itself an
achievement, made possible only by the unique
attraction which Baba's Divinity exerted on them
all with equal force.
The Inaugural
Meeting where the Pundits carried the Message to
the people at large was held in the immediate
Presence of Baba Himself at Venkatagiri Town, in
the Palace Quadrangle, under the chairmanship of
the Raja Saheb of Venkatagiri. Baba mentioned
that the citizens of Rajahmundry on the Godavari
were hoping that the meeting would be held in
their town, since the Sabha was resolved upon
'on the sands of an island in the centre of the
Godavari on Sri Ramanavami, last year'. But,
"like all good things, this too is won not so
much by present effort, but, by merit
accumulated through, years numbering to
centuries". Baba said "Venkatagiri has been for
centuries the seat of a Royal Family dedicated
to the support and protection and promotion of
Dharma. Consider how many temples were built or
renovated and maintained by its munificence!
Take count of the Pundits it has patronised so
far and the number of religious books its
donations have helped to reach the masses. See
the interest the Family takes even now, for the
upkeep of temples and mutts although their State
and Status have been overwhelmed by the storms
of political change". No wonder that when the
Madras State Prasanthi Vidwanmahasabha was
inaugurated six months later, Baba selected the
vast grounds of the Venkatagiri Palace at Madras
City as the venue!
The Mysore
State Prasanthi Vidwanmahasabha was inaugurated
at Brindavan, Whitefield near Bangalore on 13th
April, 1964, under the Chairmanship of Hon'ble
Sri B.D. Jatti, the Finance Minister of Mysore
State. Inaugurating the Sabha, Baba said, "The
link between the Pundit and the politician, the
religious leader and the ruler has snapped and
each goes his own way, irrespective of what the
other thinks or feels. Long years of foreign
rule during which the Pundits were derided as
symbols of an out-dated culture contributed to
the widening of the gap. But, even after that
rule ended, nothing has been done to
re-establish the link. Sunk in the search of
passing pleasure and cheap recreation, people
have become deaf to the counsels of the past and
the call of the sublime. Unless the people are
trained to direct their newly won opportunities
into channels of service and self-control, there
will be large scale moral breakdown, when the
Five Year Plans stud the land with dams,
power-stations, furnaces and factories; we must
have a Plan, a well-thought-out Plan, for the
moral education and the spiritual uplift of the
nation, in order to avoid
disaster".
At the
Inauguration of the Mahasabha in Madras State,
Baba declared: "Man's ambition to conquer outer
space, even before he has understood fully the
nature of the earthly home he carries about with
him and the discipline needed for harmony
therein is leading him into great disaster. No
knowledge, however impressive, which refused to
acknowledge, the existence of God can be safe
and sustaining", Baba declared. The Mahasabha
has also been established with His Blessings at
Hyderabad, the Capital of Andhra Pradesh at a
Meeting presided over by the Governor, Sri
Pattam Thanu Pillai. The Maharashtra Branch of
Vidwanmahasabha was inaugurated by Baba at the
Shanmukhananda Hall, Bombay, on 7th June, 1965.
A Committee under the Chairmanship of Hon'ble
Sri P.K. Savant, Minister of Agriculture,
Government of Maharashtra, has been formed with
the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the
Chairman of the Legislative Council and others
as members.
Sri Savant is
an ardent devotee of the shrine at Shirdi, where
Baba lived the Life Divine and taught way to
God, as Sai Baba; Sri Savant was a member of the
"Shirdi Samsthan Trust Committee" and for some
time he was its Chairman. The Trust manages the
affairs of the unique shrine that has grown
around the 'Tomb' or Samadhi of the Sai Avathar.
When, therefore, Savant heard that the Master
had taken human form again, he was naturally
cautious about the claim. His curiosity however
took him to the bungalow of a devotee with whom
Baba had stayed for three days in May, 1960.
There Savant joined in the Bhajan;
he went through the Album of Photographs
depicting Baba's activities; he saw a few
hundred feet of film recording Baba's visit to
Badrinath and the Yajna
which
was celebrated at Prasanthi Nilayam; then, he
was taken into the very room where Baba had
stayed during those three days. It is kept as if
He has not left the place, in perfect readiness
to receive Him, any moment. While in the room,
Savant was offered the Vibhuthi
brought from Prasanthi Nilayam, kept in a small
receptacle there.
Naturally, he
opened his mouth to receive it, but, his breast
was suddenly afflicted with an understandable
pang of doubt, whether as a staunch devotee of
the Sai Baba of Shirdi, he could now take in the
Udi
consecrated by a stranger who claims to be the
"same Baba" come again. There are Babas and
Babas, he felt, spurious, pseudoauthentic, and
dubious, pitching their claims to reverence on
all manner of unprovable
relationships.
We should not
be surprised when a devotee with Savant's steady
faith in Sai Baba was harassed by doubt; we must
indeed be thankful for his hesitation, for just
at that split second, in order to convince him
that the Sathya Sai at Prasanthi Nilayam is
Sathya (Truth), the same as the Sai Baba of
Shirdi, a long bright flash of light emerged
from the right palm of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai
Baba in the picture hanging on the wall of that
room, above the heads of Dr. D.J. Gadhia, who
was offering the Udi and of Sri P.K. Savant who
was outwardly ready, though inwardly undecided,
to receive it!
That flash
scattered all argument against the identity of
the two Babas; it shattered the dark clouds of
doubt and hesitation. Savant received the Udi.
Some months later, at Prasanthi Nilayam, Baba
declared, "The depth of the devotion of Savant
to that Body and this Body of the same Sai is
known only to him and Me". Savant attended the
inauguration of the Mysore State Branch of the
Prasanthi Vidwanmahasabha and so, he was happy
that a branch of the Organisation founded by
Baba was soon started in Maharashtra. He and all
who shared the thrill of that day were glad that
the Grace of Baba had descended on Maharashtra
again and that a new era had dawned for the
Pundits of that State, who could share in the
revival of Dharma under His
auspices.
The
Vidwanmahasabha has been actively promoting
lectures by Pundits in several towns and
villages. A seminar for about twenty of them was
held for a week to suggest subjects (on which
they should speak to the people) selected from
the vast reservoirs of Scholarship that they
have each stored in themselves and to suggest
methods of presentation that would receive
response from Baba invariably encouraged the
people, the organisers, and the Pundits either
by His physical presence and Discourses or by
some 'sign' of His Presence. The District
Committees would arrange the discourses in the
headquarter towns of Taluks, for the devotees in
the Taluk headquarters could carry the Message
to the villages around. Thus, the disciplines
and ideals of the Upanishads have been planted
among agitated communities in areca-gardens and
coffee plantations, ricefields, factory-chimney
and bungaloid suburbs, University campuses,
pensioners' colonies, pilgrim centres and
professional clubs.
Where formerly
the audience at the meetings that these Pundits
addressed could be counted on the fingers of one
hand, and where in every place the same few were
the only ones attracted, the meetings of the
Mahasabha now drew tens of thousands in towns
and all the population in the villages. For, the
discourses are in the language of the people and
are simple and useful, directly affecting the
daily life. Baba's Divine Presence gathers
hundreds of thousands to His Discourses, for
they are the authentic Upadesh of the
Lord.
As Baba
declared at Venkatagiri, "The establishment of
the Vidwanmahasabha is an epoch-making event;
for it is not less than the Dawn of the Golden
Era of the Liberation of
Humanity.
The Liberation
of Humanity from the petty role to which man has
condemned it, deciding wrongly that he is the
sheath and not the sword, the body and not its
occupant, this is the very purpose of Baba's
advent in human form. Baba has revealed that the
repositories of ancient Indian culture are His
instruments for this purpose. During his
Tamilnad Tour, in the village of Surandai, He
encouraged Vedic Pundits to recite Vedic riks in
the Ghana mode, and rewarded them with
medallions of gold. Similar medallions were
awarded by Him to Pundits on the conclusion of
the recitation of riks, at Akiripalle and at
Rajahmundry. In 1963, at a Vidwathparishath
(Assembly of Scholars) held at Rajahmundry, He
gave to each member, robes of honour encouraging
them to apply themselves to the study and
exposition of the Vedas
and Sastras.
In 1960, He
presided over the College Day Celebrations of
the Markandeya Oriental College. While welcoming
Him to that institution, Dr. S. Bhagavantham
(whose father was the Founder of the College),
the great Scientist, now Scientific Adviser to
the Defence Ministry of the Government of India,
said "Whenever I went to have Baba's
Darsan,
I was amazed to find around Him groups of people
from all countries and professions, great and
small, rich and poor, sick and healthy, young
and aged and Pundits filled with academic
conceit wondering how all their learning is
found useless before the All-knowing one". They
wondered and the wonder ripened into
devotion.
Baba has
blessed by His Presence the Niranjana Bhajan
Mandali, at Maddur, the Sivanamajapasapthaha
(week-long Continuous Recitation of the God) at
Srisailam and the Githa Study Circle at Naini
Tal and the Hindu Samaj, Rajahmundry. The
Sanathana Bhagavatha Bhaktha Samajam
(Association of the Dedicated and Devoted) of
the Krishna-Guntur Districts has been taken by
Him under His benign care. Baba has also graced
the Yajna
celebrated by devotees at Rajahmundry,
Venkatagiri and Srinivaspur. He visited the
Sanskrit Patasala and the Vyasasram at
Erpedu.
When the
Banaras Sanskrit University arranged the Akhila
Bharatha Thanthrika Mahasabha, it sent Swami
Dattareyaji to Prasanthi Nilayam to invite Baba
to be present and bless the Sabha. Though Baba
has often declared, "This is the age of
Thanthra", He had to send the Swami back
disappointed. The Organisers of the Vishwa
(World) Hindu Parishad approached Baba for
joining the group of Swamis who were guiding it.
Baba told them that He had come for the very
purpose of reviving the ideals of Hinduism and
setting it on the road of victory; "I am every
moment doing the very thing you have now in
view". When the Telugu Vijnana Samithi,
Malleswaram honoured some members of the Central
Committee of the Prasanthi Vidwanmahasabha Baba
agreed to preside over the
Meeting.
Governor
Pattom Thanu Pillai said, while inaugurating its
Hyderadad Branch, "I am glad one of the main
objects of the Sabha is the fostering of
scholarship by honouring the Pundits and thereby
encouraging the study of the Vedas and Sastras".
Baba presided over a vast gathering of admirers
and students when the Hindu Samaj at Rajahmundry
honoured three old and revered Masters of the
Ancient Learning, Bulusu Appanna Sastry,
Varanasi Subrahmanya Sastry and Kolluri
Somasekhara Sastry. During the Dasara Festival,
1965, Baba conferred upon these three and on
Vidwan Dupati Thirumalacharlu of Venkatagiri,
the mark of appreciation that Royal patrons used
to confer in past ages, namely, the "Suvarna
Kankana" or gemset Golden Bracelet. Every one
who saw the tender love with which He helped the
old men to come on the stage, the pride which He
seemed to take in their achievements, and the
solicitude with which He helped the Governor to
fit the jewels on the wrists of the recipients,
and cover their shoulders with the gold
embroidered shawls, will cherish the scene as
both inspiration and instruction. Pundits have
good reason to welcome the Sathya Sai Era, for
He is their Kalpatharu come on earth. When a
Pundit read before Him some poems that he had
composed about Goddess Kamakshi of Kanchipuram,
Baba created a golden image of that Goddess and
granted Him that precious gift; when others
offered Him works on Yogavasishta and
Githa-bhashya that they have composed Baba's
grace provided them funds to publish them. Baba
is Veda-maatha; He cannot tolerate a Vedic
scholar toiling with the sweat of agony on his
brow.
Except, of
course, when He is set on teaching a lesson!
For, He is a hard task-master, intent on
maintaining the moral standard of those who
claim to be masters of the ancient scripture.
For example, a Pundit from the East Godavari
District was so desperate financially that in
his dispair he denied Baba's Grace! He denied
his wife the permission to write to Baba asking
for succour. Two days later, he was amazed to
receive a letter from Baba who was at Prasanthi
Nilayam, 800 miles away, in which He severely
reprimanded him for it, "Why did you tell
her,'You have no permission'? Do I not know? Can
I know only, when she writes or any one writes?
Do I not know, for example, that you went to
Ramachandrapuram expecting to collect some
little money through discourses on the Gita and
that you returned home having incurred loss? Do
I not know that you then started condemning
yourself that all your learning was a waste,
that all your experience was of no value? For Me
who is providing for all this world, it is no
burden to provide for you and your family. I am
placing all these hardships on you only to teach
you a few lessons". The following extract from
the letter, which the Pundit placed in my hands
at Amalapuram, indicate the lessons: "When life
flows merrily on, people claim that it is due to
their own effort and they forget the Lord. When
failure resists the flow, they start cursing and
losing faith. When you grow desperate, you are
insulting the Atmathatwa, the Atma principle
which you really are, that knows no pain or joy.
You have become condile in many subjects, but
you do not try to derive the fruits thereof by
putting them into practice. If only you have the
faith that nothing can hinder the Atmananda
which is the live spring in every heart, how
happy you can be! Just imagine how calm and
collected you could be then.
In your
lectures, you dilate on the
Atma
and the
Ananda
derivable by man and drill deep down into it. It
is easy to advise others; when it comes to
practising what you recommend, you feel it awful
bother. Carrying all the Vedas,
Sastras,
Puranas,
Ithihasas and
Upanishads
stuffed in your brain, this wailing do and this
anger not become you. Instead of resorting to
the most effective specific for all anxiety,
namely, the Name of the Lord, why do you waste
time recapitulating and lamenting over pain,
fear, loss and grief?
Engage
yourself in that which is enjoined as your duty,
the duty which your status demands. Do it
courageously and gladly. Strive to gain the four
Purusharthas;
then, you can certainly experience the Highest
Truth. Practise and earn the Highest Bliss. Do
not decry the rich; no, not the rich only, do
not decry any one, in any manner. For remember,
Sai is in every person. So when you decry
another, you are decrying Sai
Himself".
After this
paternal but firm admonition, Baba closes the
letter with the revealing colophon: "He who
resides in your heart, Sai". "Nee Hrudayanivasi,
Sai"! This vigilant supervision of the workings
of the Inner Consciousness of the Pundits who
have come within His Orbit is another of the
many ways in which this Vedamatha (Providence
which revealed the Vedas) seeks to
promote
Sanathana
Dharma;
for, unless, we have a brave band of Vedic
scholars who live the Vedic life, the world
cannot be enthused to honour and accept the
Vedic teaching of Fundamental
Oneness.
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