Versatile Genius

Multiple Genius

(By R. R. Diwakar)

(Senior statesman and scholar, Diwakarji has held several eminent positions Viz. Cabinet Minister at the Centre, Governor of Bihar, Chairman of Gandhi Peace Foundation etc. Now at 90 he is as active as ever; the call of duty would not allow him to 'retire'.)

"As a layman and an humble student of Sri Aurobindo I look upon Sri Sastriar as a multiple genius. So often do I turn to his writings when I need some clarification of the principles enunciated by Sri Aurobindo. One of the most original contributions of Sri Aurobindo in the field of Vedic scholarship is his rehabilitation of the Vedas as the fountain-head of Indian spirituality and of the deepest perception by human consciousness of the experience of One-ness of all Existence, Ekam Sat Viprah bahudha vadanti—Existence is One Indivisible Whole; learned persons call it differently.

Indian traditional scholars had always believed in this Truth of Truths, Satyasya Satyam. Butwestern scholarship in all honesty and in the wrong belief that the Orient and especially Vedic India could not have reached spiritual heights visible in the Upanishads, had misled the world by saying that the Vedas were but poems in praise of Nature-Gods by a primitive ritualistic people. Perhaps they did not note that in the Upanishads themselves are clear references to Vedic insights clearly expressed saying, Etad richabhyuktam—thus has the Richa (Vedic Mantra) said. There are also references to 'Deerah' (the yogis of the Vedic period) which are quoted in some Upanishads. Moreover, the Upanishads are not independent compositions but are attached to Vedas and are therefore called Vedanta—the end-portions of the Vedas. Thus the close kinship and indivisibility of the Vedas and the Upanishads is proof of the traditional spiritual thought-content of both the compositions.

It was not surprising that Europeans interpreted the Vedas in that way. But it was tragic that some English-educated Indian scholars too, who had lost touch with their roots, followed suit.

However, in the great adventure of reinterpreting the Vedas to us along the lines of Sri Aurobindo, Sri Sastry played a significant part. He had studied the Rigbhashya of Madhwacharya, the originator of the Dwaita Philosophy in the twelfth century. Of all the Acharyag, he was the only one who wrote Bhashya on 40 Vedic Mantras, in addition to Bhashyas on the Prasthana Trayi, namely, the Upanishads, the Brahmasutras and the Gita. Madhwacharya has clearly pointed out that the Vedas have an indepth spiritual (adhyatmic) meaning.

In addition to his ability to penetrate to the deep meaning of the Vedic Mantras which sometimes is not even on the symbolic surface, Sastry brought to bear on them his vast scholarship. For example, the epithet 'Adbhuta' is applied to god Agni. The word 'Adbhuta' can be derived in different ways as it happens with many Sanskrit words. But Sastriar's wide scholarship has been able to hunt out its use in many contexts in the Vedas and elsewhere and to prove that that objective is mainly the attribute of god Agni who represents the Sun-God on earth.

Scholarship was only one of things which adorned the personality of Sastriar. He was a Spiritual seeker of the highest order. In the course of his quest for self-realisation in this life here and now, he had the good fortune of the grace of Ramana Maharshi before he joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His writings reveal that he was equally conversant with the wide range of works dealing with the different ways in which the protean Indian mind had sought to probe and realise the Truth of Life. Sastriar was as much at home in Vedic literature as in the Agamas, the Puranas, in yoga, and in Tantra. It is these things which have made me refer to him as a multiple genius. On whatever subject he wrote, (and he wrote in four languages, Sanskrit, English, Tamil and Telugu) he wrote as a master and not as an amateur.

It is but so natural and apt that Sri M. P. Pandit who recognised in him his Guru, should have taken the lead in bringing home to the English knowing readers of today the Light-giver on a vast number of subjects of vital importance for the growth of the human being to its legitimate height.