Versatile Genius

Introductory: Sri Kapali Sastriar

(By M. P. Pandit)

Sri Kapali Sastriar, whose birth centenary is being observed on September 3, 1986, has come to be known more and more after his passing in 1953 than before. For he always avoided limelight and chose a life of silent dedication to the Ideals he cherished. He was an example of perfect self-effacement in the best traditions of the Aryan who represents the noblest and the highest aspirations of humanity.

Sastriar was a multiple personality. He excelled in whatever field he worked. Among his several services to the national heritage, the one which comes most prominently to the mind is his solid contribution in building a strong bridge between the ancient past and the evolutionary thought of the present. Following the trial of his Masters, first of Vasishtha Ganapati Muni and then of Sri Aurobindo, he unearthed many a truth that lies concealed within the cryptic utterances of the Veda. His was not a scholastic approach, though he was an impregnable scholar in his own right. He delved into this hymnal on the strength of his inner experience, verified the verities that are perceivable to the awakened eye, in his own yogic realisations and then went on, in his sixtieth year, to write his classic commentary on the first Ashtaka of the Rig Veda in virile Sanskrit. Entitled Siddhanjana, the mystic collyrium that activates the inner sight, these thousand pages of exposition, prefaced by a Bhumika, Introduction, explaining the context and the method of the interpretation, have come to be increasingly resorted to by earnest aspirants for the Vedic Knowledge, both in India and abroad. Sastriar's forte is simple yet powerful diction in handling the Sanskrit language. He wrote in four languages, true, English, Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit; but the last, the tongue of the Gods, was most natural to him. For he lisped his first alphapet in Sanskrit when he was an infant and had completed his first traditional reading of the Ramayana by the time he was seven. In his exhaustive commentary on the hymns of the Veda, he traces an often missed continuity in the thought and experience of the Indian mind and soul from the Vedic beginnings to the present day, through the Upanishads, the Tantras, the Epics, the Puranas. He explains the legends in the Puranas with reference to the seed-truths enshrined in the older texts and not vice versa.

His writings on the Upanishads, especially on the various Vidyas, disciplines, that are inadequately described in verbal terms in the originals, are a treasure of mystic lore. His Lights on the Upanishads, are manuals of sadhana and present in detail such lines of upasana, intensive effort, as the interiorisation of consciousness, plunging into the heart-cave, expansion of being so as to merge in the manifestation of the universal Life-force, ascension beyond the mind into the altitudes of the Spirit, and—more important—the way to discover and taste the Delight of existence that underlies all creation. Indeed, he leaves certain details unsaid in the sacred tradition of the Guru-Shishya communication, but what he has expounded is a veritable mind of instruction, guidance and inspiration.

Sastriar regarded himself as a tantric, first and last. For ever since his childhood he was brought up in an environment of Sri Vidya, the purest form of worship of the Divine. Mother, alongside his family obligations to the Vedic heritage. He regards and proves that these two traditions, the Veda and the Tantra, have a common origin and have developed on parallel lines, complementary in fact. He explains the rationale of the different schools of Tantra in terms that are satisfying to the modern intellect. He de-mystifies what has been commonly regarded as mysterious.

And then comes what was most intimate to him, yoga. After practising some of the main lines of discipline in the esoteric Wisdom of the Vedic and Tantric inspiration, he was led, early in his career, to the Feet of Sri Ramana Maharshi who, at that time, was still living in the hill caves of Arunachala. Sastriar developed his inner life in the mould of the Sage's Path of Quest for the Self—an austere, psychological discipline—and arrived at, certain radical realisations before he found himself literally transported into the mighty presence of Sri Aurobindo. That is another fascinating story which requires separate telling. Suffice it to say that he spent over 25 years of the rest of his life in the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother devoting himself to the thought and practice of Integral Yoga. He wrote widely in exposition of the finer and intricate aspects of the Poorna Yoga perfected by the Masters. He translated into Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu some of the key works in this Teaching. He was a poet whose abilities were appreciated by Sri Aurobindo—himself the Poet of the Age—especially in his rendering of the first canto of Savitri, admittedly the most difficult in the epic.

He followed several ways of spiritual quest in the course of his concentrated life and drew the utmost from each before he proceeded to synthesise all in the depths of his soul. Though the Path of Knowledge, Jnana Marga, was his natural line, especially in his earlier years, his emotional being was always athrob behind the seemingly stern exterior. He was a standing exemplar of the synthetic note of the Gita in as much as he was at once a mature Jnanin, a pure Bhakta and a perfectionist in Works. He had a wide grasp of the nature and problems of the human being and he went all his way to help whenever any one sought it. One could say he was a spiritual pragmatist in the finest sense.

Sastriar was a profound votary and a masterful adept in the Mantra Sastra. It is on record how his Mantra Japa turned the tide in the lives of many in distress. The Mother confirmed that when he recited an invocation during his meditations, the very Deities were present almost physically and the effect of their response was materially perceptible.

And more. Kapali Sastriar had a profound knowledge of the sciences of astrology, Rasa Sastra, Ayurveda. He used to be consulted by practitioners in these fields and he was very liberal in his communication. His knowledge of the occult side of life was as deep as the spiritual. He was no seeker for his solitary salvation. He spread himself out in different dimensions and acted upon situations that called for merciful interventions. It is not generally known that he was a patriot involved in secret revolutionary activity for winning freedom for his motherland in the first decades of the present century under the leadership of another Master-Spirit that was Vasishtha Ganapati Muni. He included in the circle of his friends fire brands like Subramania Bharati, V. V. S. Iyer and others.

In commemorating the Birth Centenary of such a unique versatile genius like Kapali Sastriar, we honour not only a pre-eminent son of India but equally a thinker and idealist of world-class. It is men such as him that have built this hoary value-based culture and civilisation on the continent of India and made it a perennial spring of spiritual inspiration. Moments like this are occasions to remind ourselves of our responsibilities as the custodians of the heritage of a dateless past.

(Courtesy: A.I.R.)