Sri Gurukripa Vilasam (Greatness of Sri Chandrasekhara Bharathi) Bhashya Swami in Tamil
(Translated from Tamil by Sri K. Narayanaswami, Vidyanarayanapuram, Sringeri)
Some other evening, when Sri Chandrasekhara Bharathi Mahaswami went to the Kalabhairava shrine on the small hill some of the asthana vidwans of the Sringeri Math accompanied him. As usual some of the boys of the patashala also followed them. When they were all seated in the small shrine the vidyarthis went through the usual exercise of antadhi sloka recitation and His Holiness was watching it with great interest.
At that time a new person arrived there. Though he appeared to be a stranger to Sringeri it was evident that he had obtained the permission of the Math’s officials and had been properly guided by them to reach that place without much difficulty. But everyone noted that he had not taken to dress himself properly in the traditional brahmanical way with kacha and uttareeya as other grahastha used to do when they came to have a darsan of Sri Acharya. He was also not having a sikha (teft). After he prostrated before His Holiness the latter made the usual kind enquiries about his name, the place to which he belonged, occupation, etc., to make him feel at ease. He introduced himself as a holder of a Master’s degree and as one who had studied Sanskrit and attained some proficiency and added that he came from one of the families which had descended from the great advaitin and Shiva bhakta Sri Appayya Deekshita.
Then he took out from his bag a big sheet of paper, unfolded it and placed it before His Holiness. He had drawn on it a ‘family tree’ starting from Sri Appayya Deekshita and showed in it the different branches of the families of his descendants. Then he began to explain how he happened to belong to a particular branch and how happy and proud he was to be connected to the great men thorough his forefathers. He did not suppress his eagerness to impress Sri Acharya in that way and was repeatedly talking about the greatness of Sri Deekshita.
His Holiness was listening to him with a smile on his face for some time and also showed interest in seeing the drawing nodding his head in appreciation. But it seemed that the gentleman would not finally stop mentioning Sri Deekshita’s name and his own connection with him. Then Sri Acharya turned his attention to the pandits seated on the other side and asked them: “Oh great brahmanas! Will you all tell me, one by one, to which gotras you all belong.” The Pandits were taken by surprise but they readily answered. One Pandit said, “Acharyare! I belong to the great Vaashistha Gotra”. Another pandit said, “I am a descendant of the great sage Bharadwaja. I belong to the Bharadwaja Gotra." A third one could not hide his pride when he said “I belong to the Atreya gotra, the same gotra to which Sri Shankara Bhagavatpada himself belonged.” Having said so he turned around to have a look at others to satisfy himself that they were also listening and were impressed. Sri Acharya showed his hand and said, “That is enough. Now you tell me what kind of austere life sage Vashista was living, how sage Bharadwaja was engaged day in and day out in performing the daily Karmanushtanas as per the shastras, and how severe were the austerities of sage Atri. Also, please tell me which of you is evaluating them in your karmanusthanas now to be worthy of such a great lineage.”
The asthana vidwans understood the purport of Sri Acharya’s questions and became silent. Then one of them took courage and said, “Oh Guru! We know regretfully that we are in no way near any of them in the matter of anusthanas and austerities. But what can we do about it? They belonged to the previous yugas and we are in the Kali yuga. It has been agreed that it is very difficult to perform all those rituals laid down in the shastras, in this Kaliyuga. Certainly in the innermost of our hearts we are very sorry about it.” Sri Chandrasekhara Bharathi beacame very stern on hearing those words of the pandits. “Alright, alright. I am prepared to grant that every one cannot perform rituals like agnihotra, soma yaga and others now. But what about the simple smartha karmas like aupasana and sthalipaka, laid down in the smritis. If you make up your mind you can certainly devote sometime in the day to perform such rituals in your house. What prevents you from doing them now? Tell me.” The vidwans replied in chorus: “Mahaswami, for performing even those simple rituals regularly we have to stock fuel materials like paddy husk and cow dung cakes. It is very difficult to procure them now-a-days. Sri Acharya was not prepared to accept their explanation and leave the matter there. Assuming a serious look in his face he told them, “Do not have any worry about the nonavailability of the materials. I shall see that all of them are supplied to you from the Math’s cow sheds and the stores. Give your promise to me now that you will all regularly perform at least the aupasana daily in the mornings and evenings and nurture the agni. Will you give your word now?” At once all the pandits stood up and said, “Oh Jagadguru! We all beg your pardon for our omissions and commissions. We have understood that your upadesa and command are only for our spiritual welfare. Tomorrow itself we will start performing aupasana in our homes.”
They prostrated before him and on getting up they remained standing. His Holiness softened a little and gave them some more advice. “Oh brahmanas! Whenever there is an occasion to do so we proudly announce our gotras and the pravaras. But while doing so we do not think even for a while that we have no right to do so when we are not emulating our fore fathers even in a small way. We have no right to mention their names when we are not performing even the simple rituals laid down in the shastras for the brahmanas.” The particular gentleman who had provoked the entire discussion by his conduct appeared to have understood that Sri Acharya’s words were meant more for him than for the vidwans. Out of shame he hung his head and kept quiet. Next morning when he came for darshan of Sri Acharya he was dressed like Vaidika brahmana with a shaven head, leaving only a small shika (tuft) on its back. The other pandits also were there. From the fresh mark of the bhasma on their foreheads over and above the tripundrait was evident they had all performed aupasana that morning. Sri Acharya looked at them but did not greet any one of them particularly. He put a general question to one and all of them.
हरेः कोलावतारेण किटीनां+++(=सूकराणां)+++ का वरेण्यता? (Mahavishnu took avatara as a big boar (varaha) to save the world. How does that fact confer any greatness on the ordinary pigs (for them to feel proud of themselves)?)
The message conveyed through that question went deep into the hearts of the pandits as well as the particular gentleman, and brought about a permanent change in their attitude and way of living.