The Pontiff and Sri Bhagavan

At the Feet of Bhagavan, Ch.14

About the year 1948 the Ashram received a letter from His Holiness Sri Sankaracharya of Puri(Govardhana Mutt), expressing his desire to pay a visit to Bhagavan and to get certain doubts cleared. Incidentally, the letter categorically mentioned the doubts and asked that they might be solved in a reply letter. The chief of these referred to certain Agamic texts: “Hara Gauri Samyogat ... avacchayah yogaha” and the Teacher asked what this ‘avacchayah yogaha’ is. I placed this letter at the feet of Bhagavan, and asked what answer should be sent to him. Bhagavan simply laughed and said that the questioner knew it all himself and needed no fresh light, but that he would know it better when he came in person. A reply was accordingly sent on these lines. After some days the Acharya visited the Ashram. Bhagavan gave instructions for him to be received and attended to with all care and respect for his exalted position; the Ashramites spared no pains in arranging for his reception and accommodation. Sri Bhagavan was seated in the Golden Jubilee Hall on the granite sofa; and eager spectators had gathered in their hundreds. Quite near to Bhagavan’s sofa a small dais was arranged, with a deer’s skin for the Pontiff to sit on, and then he was escorted to the presence of Bhagavan.

On coming before the Maharshi, the Teacher greeted Him with his staff, as is the custom of sannyasis, and was shown the seat arranged for him. He was surprised that so prominent a seat had been allotted; he asked the dais to be removed, spread the deer’s skin on the ground, and sat on that. After a little preliminary talk, the Teacher repeated the main question of his letter and asked Bhagavan to enlighten him on the meaning of this phrase. Bhagavan gave him His look of Grace and was silent, and the Teacher was all receptive. No words were exchanged between them. Thus over half an hour passed. Then Bhagavan smiled and remarked: “What is there to explain? You know it already; this text represents only the very essence of Divine Knowledge — when Nature unites with the Person, then the visible becomes all shadows. It is as meaningful as pictures on the cinema screen, and then will be experienced the state of All-Self as seen... The one Being-Consciousness which projects all this out of Itself, sustains and then withdraws it again into Itself. Having swallowed all the shadows of this world, Itself dances as the Ocean of Bliss, the Reality or Substratum of all that is, was and shall be. And then It is ‘I-I’. ”The Teacher seemed to have received new Light and Life; he was all joy. He said that in all his wandering through the country he had tried to be enlightened upon this mystery; but it was only here that he got the secret and the truth of Light as explained in the texts of the Vedanta.

So overwhelmed with joy was he that he repeated his visit to Bhagavan when the Matrubhuteswara Shrine was consecrated, and he personally supervised all the rituals in the Yagasalas (sacrifice halls) and saw to it that everything went off smoothly.