Kanchi capers

Saint or crook? Faith or fake? For all the reasons, The Kanchi Mutt is under intense media and legal glare.   Dancewithshadows kicks off PERSPECTIVE, an analytical column putting current events in their historical, spiritual and philosophical perspective. The first in the series explores the Jayendra Saraswati case.

 Shankara -- You cannot think of Hinduism or Advaita, the pinnacle of its intellectual achievement, without thinking about the great Acharya. History credits Shankara with reviving Hinduism (did he revive Hinduism or did he try to elevate Hindus to a higher spiritual orbit?) from the Buddhist onslaught. The Acharya was an accomplished Yogi by the time he turned eight; self-realisation came much later.

Lore has it that the young Yogi had control over the eight siddhis that Patanjali talked about. (The eight Siddhis are Anima (atomic size), Mahima (colossal size), Garima (excessive bulk), Laghima (extreme lightness), Prapti (attainment of whatever you desire), Prakamya (unhampered will), Isatva (lordliness) and Vasitva (control over all senses.) Shankara could change bodies and fly from place to place -- not a great feat for Yogis who had control over the eight siddhis.

The Acharya criss-crossed the country, vanquishing en route, in verbal duels, leaders and intellectuals of several sects that held sway over different parts of the country. He established four Mutts at four different places in the country, as guardian angels of Advaita.The four Mutts were at Sringeri, Jagannath, Dwaraka and Joshi. To this day, those Mutts continue to anoint Shankaracharyas who try to keep the fire lit by the great Acharya burning.

Or are they? Well, that is a subject for a different discussion. What interests me more is the fact that there are more Shankaracharyas in the country today than Shankara dreamed of. And one of the most "important" today is that of Kanchi, a Mutt the Acharya won't remember setting up. But the Kanchi Mutt's clout has grown since the time the Acharya exited this world, after finishing his mission. Today, it is more in the news than any other Shankara Mutt! And for all the wrong reasons too.

The current head of the Kanchi Mutt Jayendra Saraswati shared quite some time with prison cell mosquitoes before the Supreme Court released him on bail. I found it funny that the Master of the Mutt who traces his existence and religious position to the great Acharya couldn't do anything about it.

Neither can it be said that the Divine intervened to save the seer. As soon as he was out of jail, his deputy entered through another door. What's more humiliating, the seer cannot go anywhere near the Mutt till the Supreme Court allows him to!

Such legal restraints appear normal when applied to ordinary mortals. But do laws of physics apply to true Yogis of enormous intellectual and spiritual powers, which Adi Shankara handed down to his Mutts? Can they be kept on the leash of the piffling Penal Code? It wouldn't seem so. And true Yogis have never fought shy of using their powers, when called upon to do so. Look at the following example:

Anyone who has read Autobiography of a Yogi by Yogananda Paramahansa would be familiar with the name Trailanga Swami. The saint lived on the banks of the Ganga in Benares; only, he went around stark naked. The British police did not like the fact (though it was nowhere as serious as the offences the Kanchi seer has been accused of) and they put him behind the bars. But soon, the naked saint was seen pacing the roof of the jail; and the jail locks were all in place.

The police put Trailanga back in jail, this time with a guard posted in front of the cell. Soon, Trailanga was seen strolling on the roof top! The police, henceforth, left Trailanga alone.

How did Trailanga do it? Great masters have already realised what great scientists are trying to prove. They know everything is energy, or light. It is difficult to explain in scientific terms. But accomplished masters can command the infinitesimal building blocks of the Universe; ergo even their bodies, to the extent of making them appear or disappear!

Sadly, the Kanchi seer could not do it. Even more sad, he could not even get divine intervention on his behalf.

So many incidents of such intervention are narrated by devotees from all faiths. An example that comes to my mind is one that is attributed to Bengali Baba, the great saint who lived in northern India at the beginning of the 20th century. His most famous disciple, Swami Rama Bharati, has written an account of how the Baba saved a young widow in Rajasthan. The story goes thus: This young widow, after the death of her husband, decided to spend her life in prayers and devotion. Her room was on the second floor of her family home in a desert village. The woman had heard of Bengali Baba and thought of him as her guru. There were no pictures of the saint available and she had never met him. Then, one night, a group of ruffians in the village attacked her home; their intention was to rape her. The woman ran up to her room, bolted the door and started praying to Bengali baba to save her. She could hear the ruffians trying to break open the door. Then suddenly, she saw a bearded old man on a camel just outside the window. The man asked her to jump on to the camel's back, which she did. They travelled all night and the man dropped her at her parents' home in another village by daylight, and disappeared.

Years later, Swami Rama recognised from a picture she had of her rescuer that it was none other than Bengali Baba himself. In this case, it was a God-realized master who personally to protect his devotee; after all, how is a God-realized master different from God?

If you look at it in a dispassionate way, you will find that the Kanchi seer is no better than an ordinary priest, albeit with some cloak of hoary authority, which too is suspect. People like him can be seen in every religion.

My question is, why do Indians flock to priests and black magicians when this hallowed land still holds in its bosom God-realized masters? Political correctness would tempt me to add the clause "of all religions" here, but that cannot be; God-realized masters don't belong to any religion. For them, there is only one God.

I am not saying any wonder worker is a saint. But if you really want to, and search for it, you will surely come across one or more advanced masters; men and women of God who can guide you to God. You won't need priests and black magicians then. Instead, if you look for salvation courtsey charlatans, you are committing a mistake. And the Law of Karma, which works the Universe, will hold you accountable. Why? Because you did not use your God-given reason.

The Law of Karma? I will explain that in the next column.