Re:Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji

[Guest guest]

Regarding Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji

(1884 to 1994)and the Book Hindu Dharma

 

When India was straining at the leash during the unique "Weaponless

War" conceived, planned and led by Mahatma Gandhi to win freedom,

some of the finest flowers of Indian manhood and womanhood were

forced to languish in prison for long years. During his ninth

incarceration, this time in the Ahmednagar Fort Prison (August 9,

1942 to July 15, 1945), Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the best

among them, embarked upon a voyage of "Discovery of India".

He "discovered" for himself and for us, the common people, an India

that is "a myth and an idea, a dream and a vision and yet very real

and pervasive."

 

Nehru, with the poetic touch so characteristic of him, looked upon

India as "a lady with a glorious past, whose deep eyes had seen so

much of life's passion and joy and folly and looked deep down into

wisdom's well". It is this "wisdom 's well" that is represented by

our Vedic heritage, the "living words", as Gurudeva Rabindranath

Tagore put it, "that have issued from the Illuminated Consciousness

of our great ones."

 

This offering of Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life deals with

another kind of discovery of India, a discovery in the spiritual

realm, made by Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal,

the 68th Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha. The Sage of Kanchi

was spiritually supreme, intellectually pre-eminent. He was verily

an akshayapatra - inexhaustible reservoir - of the spiritual wisdom

of India dating back to the beginning of Time, and of Vedic Dharma.

So was he with regard to modern knowledge, current affairs and

contemporary men and matters.

 

In a special easy in the Bhavan's journal this true sanatani hailed

Gandhiji, a staunch Hindu and a secularist nonpareil, as one of

the "greatest redeemers of Hinduism". Hailing Gandhiji's services to

Hinduism, he said: "From the time Gandhiji came into the arena, he

augmented his political movements by his spiritual researches and

devotion. Almost all the features of Hinduism that were discarded as

weeds by the previous reform movements were clearly explained by

Gandhiji as being of indispensable utility. His views on Ramanama,

the Ramayana, Varna dharma, Aharaniyama and his definition of God

are such that the most faithful Hindu cannot but profit spiritually

by digesting them."

 

During one of the satsangas, some members of the Bhavan' s family

were privileged to have with him, this remarkable advaitin said that

Jawharlal Nehru was "an advaitin at heart."

 

 

II

 

The Mahaswami will shine forever as one of the greatest exemplars of

sanatana dharma, the Universal Way of Life. This sanatani

extraordinary personified in himself all that is best and noblest in

Hinduism. He always stressed that Hinduism is the latter-day name

given to mankind's earliest religion -- sanatana dharma. It is

beginning less (anadi), endless (ananta) and hence eternal

(sanatana), because it is in consonance with Nature's Laws.

 

To drive home the eternal or the sanatana aspect of our religion,

the Mahaswami used to narrate a telling episode : "There was a palm-

tree around which a creeper entwined itself. The creeper grew fast

and within months it entwined the entire tree. 'This palm has not

grown a bit all these months,' said the creeper laughing. The palm-

tree retorted: 'I have seen tens of thousand creepers in my life.

Each creeper before you said the same thing as you have now said. I

do not know what to say to you'. Our religion is like this tree in

relation to other faiths."

 

We were fortunate to have lived in the times, and to have had

frequent darshans, of one with such "illuminated Consciousness",

whose nearly 100-year- long Pilgrimage on Earth ended on January 8,

1994. He was a realized soul, and whenever he spoke, he spoke in the

accents of the Vedic seers precise, profound and authentic words

that found a permanent lodgment in the hearts of his listeners.

 

The Mahaswami's words of distilled wisdom, as compiled by his ardent

devotee Sri Ra. Ganapati run into six volumes covering more than

6,500 pages. Sri Ra. Ganapati and Sri A. Tirunavukkarasu of Vanadi

Padippakam, the publisher, deserve our eternal gratitude for their

invaluable efforts to preserve for posterity the Sage of Kanchi's

words of wisdom.

 

Being in Tamil, these volumes, with their precious content, remain a

closed book to tens of thousands of devotees in India and abroad who

do not know that language but are athirst and ever-yearning for the

Mahaswami's spiritual ambrosia.

 

The English versions of selected discourses, which have so far

appeared in book-form, touch but a fringe of what the Mahaswami has

said about sanatana dharma. The Bhavan, too, has had the privilege

of contributing its humble mite in this direction --- we have

published Aspects of Our Religion, The Vedas, Adi Sankara : His Life

and Times, The Guru Tradition and Kanchi Mahaswami on Poets and

Poetry.

 

This volume of nearly 800 pages has been rendered into English from

the Tamil by R.G.K. It is a monumental effort reflecting enormous,

dedicated and unremitting labour over a long period of time. In

translation, the transformation is normally from gold to lead but

R.G.K. has ensured that the sheen of the original is retained. He

has also spared no pains to explain obscure points of legend,

puranic allusions and scriptural references covering both Sruti and

Smrti.

 

We are thankful to Justice Sri P.S. Mishra , at present Chief

justice of Andhra Pradesh, for his illuminating Foreword and Sri A.

Kuppuswami for his learned Introduction.

 

 

III

 

The Bhavan has been the blessed recipient of the Mahaswami's grace

right from its inception in 1938. He has been one of the Bhavan's

greatest guides and philosophers. He very closely watched with a

benign concern that landmark projects of the Bhavan like the

monumental 11-volume History and Culture of the Indian People

covering nearly 5,000 years from the Vedic Age to the Modern Age.

This is the only comprehensive history of India written by Indians --

- a team of 100 eminent scholars, each a specialist in his chosen

field. They laboured on it for 32 years under the inspiration and

guidance of Kulapati Munshi, with the doyen of Indian historians

Dr.Romesh Chandra Majumdar as General Editor. The Jagadguru then

observed: "Distinguished historians like K.M. Munshi are engaged in

writing afresh our history without any bias".

 

Commending Kulapati Munshi's ceaseless efforts through the Bhavan

for the revival of Sanskrit, of India's ages-old traditions and the

resuscitation of ethical and spiritual values embedded in sanatana

dharma, the Mahaswami remarked: "Munshi is not an old fashioned

sanatanist like me. He is a reformist and a friend and follower of

Gandhiji. And he was a member of the Nehru Cabinet. So he cannot be

included among the 'reactionaries'!........."

 

During the Bhavan's Silver Jubilee in 1962, the Mahaswami sent the

following benediction:

 

The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has made the people of Bharata Varsa in

general and the intellectuals in particular evince interest in the

various aspects of our culture and progress.

 

"May we pray: Give fresh vigor to the Bhavan, a unique institution,

in directing its attention more and more, with greater and greater

fulfillment, to the dissemination of moral principles and devotion."

 

He also sent along with it a cash "donation" of Rs1,000. Kulapti

Munshi shed copious tears of joy and exclaimed in ecstasy: "This is

the holiest of holy prasads. This is invaluable, inestimable and

much more than several thousand crores of rupees. Nothing, nothing,

can surpass divine grace."

 

 

IV

 

The Mahaswami brings out the essentials of sanatana dharma in a

language that is at once simple and clear. Commendable indeed is the

cogency of the narrative. We are left in no doubt about any aspect

of out eternal Dharma.

 

As will be seen in this volume, the Mahaswami's approach is

catholic. He avers: "The goal of all religions is to lead people to

the Paramatman according to the different attitudes of the devotees

concerned. Our forefathers were well aware that all religions are

different paths to realize the one and only Paramatman."

 

More than a century ago, in 1893, did not Swami Vivekananda thunder

at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago that "Mankind ought

to be taught that religions are but the varied expressions of THE

RELIGION, which is Oneness, so that each may choose the path that

suits him best"?

 

The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Political Monarch of

Modern India and Free India's first Prime Minister (1947-1964),

inspired the people of India, particularly its youth, to regain our

political freedom. This was true also of the people, particularly

the young, of many nations of South-East Asia and Africa then under

foreign domination.

 

The eminent historian, parliamentarian and author of several

scholarly volumes such as the Bhavan's publications: The Fundamental

Unity of India (first published in London in 1914 with a Foreword by

the Rt Hon'ble J. Ramsay MacDonald, first Labour Prime Minister of

Britain, 1929 (he was also P.M. during 1929-35) and Hindu

Civilization, Dr Radha Kumud Mookerji, has pointed out the

uniqueness of the Vedas, especially the Rgveda, thus:

 

"The Vedas, and especially the primordial work known as the Rgveda,

represent not merely the dawn of culture, but also its zenith.

Indian thought is seen at its highest in the Rigveda... On the one

hand it is the first book of India and also of mankind. At the same

time, it shows the highest point of human wisdom. We see in it the

whole process of evolution, from its beginning to its completion."

 

Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti (The truth is One, the wise speak of

it in different ways).

 

This volume Hindu Dharma : The Universal Way of Life is in the

nature of a discovery of Vedic India, Immortal India, by Pujyasri

Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, the Moral Monarch of this century.

Sooner than later, this is bound to immensely inspire not only the

people and youth of India but also the people and youth of the world

over to restore and retain values, purity and sanity in personal and

public life. This is our hope and prayer, nay conviction.

 

Vedo khilo dharmaulam; Dharmo rakshati rakshitah ---the Vedas are

the root of all Dharma; Dharma protected, protects.

 

S. RAMAKRISHNAN

 

General Editor

 

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

 

Bombay

 

101st Mahaswami Jayanti,

 

June 12, 1995

http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part17/chap13.htm