Versatile Genius

Shepherd of the Divine Life

(By V. Murugesu)

(Attorneys-at-law & Notaries Public)

(A solicitor of standing in Sri Lanka, Sri Murugesu leads the Sri Aurobindo Movement in that island. He is deeply versed in the philosophies and yogic disciplines of India. He counsels many a seeker with a rare earnestness.)

The Blessed Lord Said: "This imperishable Yoga I proclaimed to Vivasvan (the luminous Sun-God), Vivasvan declared it to Manu (the original Man), Manu told it to Ikshvaku head of the Solar line".

Gita: 4.1

("Krishna has declared it in passing that this was the ancient and original Yoga which he gave to Vivasvan, the, Sun-God, Vivasvan gave it to Manu, the father of Men, Manu gave it to Ikshvaku, head of the Solar-line and so it came down from royal sage to royal sage till it was lost in the great lapse of Time and is now renewed for Arjuna, because he is the lover and devotee, friend and comrade of the Avatar."—Sri Aurobindo: Essays on the Gita, p. 137.)

This is how the torch of Truth is handed down from epoch to epoch, generation to generation and Sri Kapali Sastry is one such in that long illustrious line of illumined souls who has influenced others and kindled in them the flame of aspiration. He was a teacher of teachers of the Divine Life. "The characteristic features of Indian culture have long been a search for ultimate verities and the concomitant disciple-guru relationship. My own path led me to a Christlike sage whose beautiful life was chiselled for the ages. He was one of the great masters who are India's imperishable wealth. Emerging in every generation, they have bulwarked their land against the fate of Babylonia and Egypt."¹

Sri Kapali Sastry not only devoted himself to the deep study of Indian culture in its more intensified field of the spiritual life but also to imparting that knowledge to others through a steady, silent and ever-willing guidance to help them tread the path to God. It is this latter contribution which he made that will be referred to in this article as a tribute to his undying memory. Be was a dynamo of spiritual power who in his unique and inimitable manner assisted many a soul to the Truth of human existence and the Goal of life. The legacy he has left us is seen in the person of Sri. M. P. Pandit which alone is sufficient to assess his immense worth and value to humanity.

In a most enthralling book, "Mother and I"²which can find its place among the great spiritual treasures of the world is brought out the nobility and greatness and the unique personality of Sri Kapali Sastry and his abiding love for aspiring souls, which has been the motive force in the selfless work he did during his terrestrial sojourn from 6th September 1886 to 15th August 1953. It is proposed in this article to draw freely from that book to reflect the contribution Sri Kapali Sastry has made to human life. Those who came under his benign influence and compassion were themselves fortunate souls who have had a divine destiny behind their lives. His guidance to those who valued the spiritual life carry the stamp of the teachings of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother at whose Feet he received the Grace in ample measure. In one of his letters he writes: "Health is essential for worldly life, equally, if not more for a godly life of our conception. May you have it in plenty is my prayer to the Divine Mother."³

Sastriar was a Sanskrit teacher at the Muthialpet High School, Madras. He resigned his post on 31st May 1929 and took up to the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Sastriar's teacher was Vasistha Ganapathi Muni (known as 'Nayana') who accepted Sri Ramana Maharshi of Tiruvannamalai as his Guru. Sastriar also sat at the feet of Sri Ramana.⁴ In the spiritual firmament the stars appear lit by the effulgence of the Supreme Light, and so they are all in essence the same but set differently in order that their individual lustre will be seen the better. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar in his inspired work "On the Mother" wrote: "But the Guru-Sishya alchemic chain-relationship ensured a spiritual continuity and the Ganapathi Muni-Kapali Sastry heritage was to flow into and enrich the silent tarn of spirituality at Sri Aurobindo Ashram."⁵ This tradition continues, and perhaps one might add, in the trinity of Ganapathi MuniKapali Sastiy-Madhav Pandit.

In the guidance he gave to others Sastriar respected each station in the life of man, for according to the teachings of his last two divine Masters they had laid emphasis on the full development of man, his integral perfection. He wrote:

"Since you are a student and cannot take up Yoga in a regular fashion, the best thing for you to do is to note carefully your experiences whenever you get them and not to be depressed when you do not get any and wait till the time comes or when the education is finalised to know the significance of such experiences and to come under the direct influences of the Divine Master, of the Divine Mother."⁶

"All life is Yoga" visioned Sri Aurobindo. Sri Kapali Sastry has therefore explained how even as a student one can prepare and pursue the efforts for spiritual living, though Yoga cannot at that stage of one's life be done "in a regular fashion". There is the erroneous belief that as a student one should not take up to Yoga, but he has explained through his letters how it can be done without interfering with one's student-life. This is in keeping with what other illumined men have taught. Many of us can recall the advice given to Sri Yogananda by his guru, Sri Yukteswar. Because of its importance and similarity to what Sastriar said, that conversation is reproduced:

"You have come," Sri Yukteswar greeted me from a tiger skin on the floor of a balconied sitting-room. His voice was cold, his manner unemotional.

"Yes, dear Master, I am here to follow you."

"How can that be? You ignore my wishes."

"No longer, Guruji! Your wish shall be my law!"

"That is better! Now I can assume responsibility for your life."

"I willingly transfer the burden, Master."

"My first request, then, is that you return home to your family. I want you to enter College in Calcutta. Your education should be continued."

"Very well, Sir." I hid my consternation. Would importunate books pursue me down the years? First Farther, now Sri Yukteswar.

"Some day you will go to the West. Its people will lend ears more receptive to India's ancient wisdom if the strange Hindu teacher has a University degree."⁷

This same projected vision and the concept behind it is pursued and brought out more forcefully in another beautiful passage in which the gradation of life and the importance of the varying roles we have to play is stressed:

"Success is sure to crown your efforts, if you persevere noiselessly and quietly, consistent with the part you are called upon to perform as a youngster, as a son, as a student, as a man-in-the-making, as a soul aspiring for a higher Divine Conscious Presence with all its constituent Light, Power, Peace and Bliss."⁸

Sastriar's teachings are not parochial, nor are they circumscribed. He tells us that we must flower out in full bloom for perfection is an aspect of Divinity.

He was the repository of love behind his serious countenance. It is this love that flowed through him which touched the Mother from whom he received constant darshans and was bathed with Her effulgence and consumed by her White Light.⁹ The following passage will give us an insight into the love that welled from his heart through his pen. This was the same chord that, one may say, which bound Sri Pandit and harnessed him for the work he is doing both as a commitment to Sastriar who led him to the Mother's Feet and in the abundance of his love:

"Now again you can write to me after the exams are over. That does not mean that you shall not write letters of importance which cannot brook delay. All that I mean is that you can give me immense pleasure by writing long letters when you are free and have leisure and not in this season when you are in harness. I repeat again that my love, my affection, my care, my service—take them for what they are worth—they are all there unqualifiedly and without reservation. But there is one condition for them to be fully and effectively at your disposal. Time alone can fulfil that condition. That condition is that you must grow to be ready for all the strength and fitness for which you aspire."¹⁰

What caressing guidance from and what humility for a soul of so great a stature, and that to then a mere boy of 17 years. Many of us were not privileged to come within the aura of such a great personality, but seeing and having some contact with his illustrious disciple even a small measure of his spiritual aroma can be inhaled to suffuse ourselves. To pay a tribute to his disciple is also a way of paying homage to Sri Kapali Sastriar whose hundredth birth anniversary we commemorate this year in deep gratitude for what he has left us including his many writings of inspired erudition and scholarly works and above all his revelations of the Mother.¹¹ Furthermore was it not he who made it possible for seekers of God to receive from Sri Aurobindo the description of the Mother's fourfold powers when Sastriar wanted to have from Sri Aurobindo an idea of Her true nature and the gamut of Her powers and personalities. This enquiry of his brought out that great work from the consciousness of Sri Aurobindo which is regarded as the 'Maitri Upanishad.'¹²

Sastriar was also a great psychologist. He had the capacity of bringing out to the surface the best in a person and making that to rule and guide his life. He did not condemn or discourage. His letters reveal his true personality and one almost gets the feeling that he is talking not only to the one to whom the letters are addressed but even to the reader of those epistles today. This reflects the universality of his making. How much one is uplifted when one reads this passage:

"No reminder from me is necessary since you have the necessary attitude already, though you are always expected to maintain it in an increasing measure and with intensity enough to be dynamic (i.e. effective) in conduct, in life, waking or sleeping—and not merely in mind as an ideal or thought. For I am convinced of the sensible marks of the goodness and worthiness and growing earnestness on your part to share the gifts of the gifted few and be counted among the good, the great, the noble, the wise."¹³

This passage also reveals the depth of Sastriar's vision. He was able to see the flowering of his disciple. He was a gardener in God's orchard—tending, caring, pruning without, hurting, fertilising and watering, giving the necessary shade and sunshine to the aspiring souls committed to his care. One has only to read of the association Sastriar had with the Mother and his deep response to her Divine influence in order to gauge the summits he had reached in his spiritual life. Will he not then transmit some of those gains to those who have accepted him as their guru as he did accept the Mother and receive from her bountiful store-house of infinite spiritual Wisdom, Her Love, Light and Knowledge.

To attempt to assess the life and work of so towering a personality as Sri Kapali Sastry is too ambitious a task, and who are we ordinary mortals to venture out to scale such heights? Yet the attempt adds to our own growth and spiritual upliftment for we enter a grove giving out a fragrant breath by taking in which, even an infinitesimal part, we too are bathed momentarily in the purity of that Light. One wonders whether the description Lord Krishna gives of an ideal man will not aptly fit Sri Kapali Sastry—

     "Who hath nought
Of all which lives, living himself benign,
Compassionate, from arrogance exempt,
Exempt from love of self, unchangeable
By good or ill; patient, contented, firm
In faith, mastering himself, true to his word,
Seeking Me, heart and soul; vowed unto Me—
That man I love! Who troubleth not his kind,
And is not troubled by them; clear of wrath,
Living too high for gladness, grief, or fear,
That man I love! who, dwelling quiet-eyed,
Stainless, serene, well-balanced, unperplexed,
Working with Me, yet from all works detached,
That man I love! Who, fixed in faith on Me,
Dotes upon none, scorns none; rejoices not,
And grieves not, letting good or evil hap
Light when it will, and when it will depart,...
Linked by no ties to earth, steadfast in Me,
That man I love!"¹⁴

There can be no doubt that Sastriar had the love of the Supreme, particularly when the Mother accepted him into Her sacred fold.