About the Mahaswami..A true Seer, The Walking God

While during our great and unique freedom struggle of India, Pt Nehru embarked on a journey of "Discovery of India". The 68th Seer of Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha  went about guiding his devotees on a journey towards Discovery of India, a discovery in the spiritual realm,

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(publisher of Kanchi Kamkaoti peetham's work) family were privileged to have with him, this remarkable advaitin said that Jawharlal Nehru was "an advaitin at heart."

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 thousands of 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 the countless detractors it faced."

I am fortunate to have lived in the times, and to hear and view frequently the words and the work 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.