Versatile Genius

Sri Kapali Sastriar

(By M. P. Pandit)

(At the Ashram Centre of Education 6th September 1986)

On this occasion of the Birth Centenary of Sastriar, I would like to take you back in history some eighty years back. The Bengal Partition agitation was at its height. A mammoth meeting had been called on the Marina beach at Madras and Bipin Chandra Pal was to address the concourse. During those days there was none who did not know of the trio, Bal, Lal and Pal. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal were public heroes who drew huge crowds. Tilak, as you know, was famous for his intellectual acumen, Lajpat Rai for his massive strength of personality and Bipin Pal for his thundering oratory. Well, Kapali Sastry was one of the young enthusiasts attending the meeting. As he was listening to the speech, some one by his side told him that what they were hearing was only fire-works; the real man behind the whole movement, planning, writing, inspiring, was behind the limelight. He was a lean Bengali, brilliant, breathing a fire of tapasya; he it was who wrote the flaming articles in the Bande Mataram. His name was Aravinda Ghose.

The young man's interest was aroused. He kept in touch with the writings in the Bande Mataram and later in the Karmayogin. As a keen observer of the national scene, he followed the famous Alipore Trial, the subsequent retirement of Sri Aurobindo to Pondicherry, then a French possession. It was one evening in 1914 August, when he was returning home at Tiruvottiyur, that he was called by small shopowner in the lane and told: look here, here is something that would perhaps interest you, since you always read philosophy and such things. So saying, the good samaritan handed him the first issue of the ARYA that had just come out. Sastriar was already interested in Sri Aurobindo and to get a journal edited by him was truly marvellous. But how did it find its way into the hands of the grocer? At somebody's suggestion, he had inserted an advertisement to support a venture of a nationalist leader and he had received his voucher copy.

Sastriar took the issue home and started reading it with avid interest under his dim lamplight at night. The very first page fascinated him; it was the beginning of the Life Divine. It was followed by other features among which was the Secret of the Veda. Sastriar was amazed. For the line of thought that Sri Aurobindo was propounding was precisely the same that he himself had chalked out and pursued during the preceding years. The solution to the problem of life given in the ARYA was also identical with his own. He read the entire issue of closely printed 64 pages that very night. And what is more, he read the whole issue every night thereafter till the next one arrived.

For Sastriar had thought and pondered over these themes of moment ever since he began to think. He was deeply conversant with the Sastras and with modern thought. Born in an orthodox family of Vedic lineage, learning had been natural to him from the very beginning. He lisped his first alphabet in Sanskrit. His father, Sri Vishweshwar Sastry, was a scholar at the Connemara Oriental, Library. He initiated young Kapali in Sri Vidyaat the tender age of five. By the time he was seven! the young boy had completed his first public reading of Valmiki Ramayana and was duly honoured when he read out the Pattabhishekham, the royal crowning Ceremony of Sri Ramachandra. He had completed the Ramayana 12 times by the time he was twelve.

But his father passed away very early leaving the family burden on the young shoulders of Kapali. Naturally his school career was chequered. But he equipped himself in the best traditions of the land and developed interests in diverse fields. Naturally, coming as he did from an authentic line of Sama Vedic tradition, he delved deep into the Vedic lore. Even then it had struck him odd that a Scripture like the Veda which was all along revered as the fountainhead of the best in Indian culture and spirituality was taken to mean very ordinary things, mundane aims with primitive means. He had instinctively felt that there was more to it than what appeared on the surface. He practised and studied the Sri Vidya tradition, the agamas, the various tantras. Of course the Upanishads held his attention (as his later Lights on the Upanishads were to testify). Ayurveda, Rasa Sastra, astrology, astronomy, Sanskrit literature and rhetorics were among his interests. All along a deep spiritual discipline, upasana, was developing.

One day, when he was standing, doing his mantra-japa, in front of the Deity at the Tripurasundari Temple near his house in Tiruvottiyur, an impressive personality with attendents walked in and recited a few verses in Sanskrit, obviously extempore. The next day again he came and finding the young man present in the same spot, he enquired about him. Sastriar repeated verbatim the verses that the distinguished visitor had recited the previous day; and that was the beginning of a long, fruitful Guru-Shishya relation between Kavya kantha Ganapati Sastri (for that was name of the the luminary) and Kapali Sastry. Kavyakantha had acquired fame as a genius and spiritual Upasaka with accomplishments in poetry, literature, mantra sastra and allied spheres. Sastriar imbibed much from him in due course, not the least of this bequest being the Teacher's perceptions into the secret of the vedic mantras: the living interchanges between men and Gods and their relevance to the aspiring human soul at all times. It was Kavyakantha again who took Kapali Sastry to his Guru, Sri Ramana Maharshi at Arunachala and made it possible for him to learn and practise the Sage's Vichara Marga. A personal relation developed between the Maharshi and young Kapali as a result of which the young seeker struck new depths in his Quest.

Thus, Sastriar, had been pursuing an inner life of his own and developing a body of Thought in new directions—other than the traditionally accepted lines in orthodox circles. Sri Aurobindo's writings in the ARYA came to him with an invigorating touch and confirmed his intuitions. Especially the series on the Secret of the Veda in the ARYA acted as a tonic. And it was natural that when in 1917, he received an invitation from Pondicherry to participate in the Shankara Jayanti, he welcomed the opportunity as it would enable him to meet Sri Aurobindo. Accordingly he arrived at Pondicherry and went straight to the residence of Subramania Bharati who was living in exile at that time in the French Enclave. Sastriar knew Bharati earlier and he had also known that the poet was in contact with Sri Aurobindo. He hoped to meet the author of the Arya through the good offices of the patriot-poet. When he came to the house of Bharati, his little daughter was playing at the doorsteps and took the visitor up the stairs.

As they were climbing the steps, they heard the poet singing in strident tones:

inda janmattil jayamundu, bhayamillai maname

Victory in this life is certain, O mind, fear there is none.

Mutual enquiries over, the talk drifted to certain friends in Madras. Suddenly, the poet burst out:

Guhane paraman maghane,
guhaiyil valarum kanale!

In the secret cave, O growing Flame,
Son, of the Supreme...

Sastriar was surprised at this mention of Kumara as the Flame in the heart of man—an essentially Vedic conception. He asked Bharati how he caught the idea. The answer was that he had been studying the Rig Veda from Aurobindo Ghose for some time. Mention of Sri Aurobindo led Sastriar to speak to Bharati about the object of his visit,—to meet Sri Aurobindo. Bharati replied that Sri Aurobindo was not inclined to meet people those days. All the same he wrote out a note to a friend who was attending on Sri Aurobindo at that time and an interview was arranged at 6 p.m. that evening.

He went to meet Sri Aurobindo with a lemon fruit in hand. It was a meeting between two scholars. Sastriar started speaking in Sanskrit. Sri Aurobindo asked the youngster who was still there if Sastriar knew English. And so the conversation went on in English. One of the questions related to the immediate possibilities of India. "Why possibility, it is a certainty replied Sri Aurobindo with emphasis. On his asking about the Hindu-Muslim problem, Sri Aurobindo replied that a larger Hinduism was the solution.

Thus ended his first interview with Sri Aurobindo.

Sastriar had been pursuing his line of sadhana under the benign grace of Sri Ramana Maharshi and a stage arrived when there was a only a thin veil over the state of the sage's type of self-realisation. But he had an intimation from within that he had not come for that; it was for something else that he had taken birth. In the meanwhile he was having a peculiar experience every day extending over six months. During nights he used to be bodily carried away and thrown into one particular room somewhere. He sought to see Sri Aurobindo, that was in 1923. And, imagine his surprise when he was ushered in the presence of Sri Aurobindo to find it was the very room to which he used to be carried. That was the room where there is the Prosperity function every month now, at the entrance of the main Ashram building.

Another surprise waited for him. Sri Aurobindo's complexion had undergone a complete transformation; from the darkish hue of 1917, it had changed to golden. He mentioned it to Sri Aurobindo who nodded approvingly. "What more proof do I need of the truth of this Yoga? he exclaimed. In the course of the talk, Sri Aurobindo said: Only two can give you what you want. One, the Mahashakti; the other, (pointing to himself) is...

That decided the future course of his life. His close relation, S. Duraiswami Iyer, brother of Kumaraswami, Sastriar's brother-in-law, was already in touch with Sri Aurobindo. Sastriar kept up the contact. And when the Ashram was started at Pondicherry, he commenced his regular pilgrimages on Darshan occasions. It was in 1928 August that his Guru, Vasistha Ganapati Muni (Kavya-kantha) came for Darshan. When he was asked what was his impression after he had the Darshan, the sage who had been overwhelmed replied: divya murtulu, Divine Beings! About Sri Aurobindo, he said Such a puratana purusha, Ancient Man, (so much of maturity on his face!) The Muni, however did not choose to stay at Pondicherry.

Sastriar had cast his lot. When at the outset of the commencement of the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo announced that thenceforth Mirra would be the Mother and be in charge of the Ashram, Sastriar wanted to know more about her. Sri Aurobindo had certain papers sent to him. They were his writing on the Four Powers of the Mother which he had just completed. Sastriar accepted it in toto and thereafter looked upon her as the Divine Mother whom he had worshipped all his life.

He was given permission to stay in the Ashram, though at the wish of his physical mother he continued to visit his family till 1938, the year she passed away. It may be interesting to know that when Sastriar mentioned about his mother's only wish, the Mother nodded and said that she (Sastriar's mother) had come to her and expressed her wish—of course on a subtle plane—which he could fulfil.

At the Ashram, Sastriar's life was simple. He took up some work at the Building Service, issuing paints when requisitions arrived. One day he found that whatever quantity he picked up from the tin was exactly of the weight that had been asked for. He did not need to weight it. He tested himself again and again. There was no mistake about it. It was intuition in the physical.

He was particular in attending to this work punctually. I remember he used to have small nap after lunch before leaving for the Building Service office. He would retire at 12.30 p.m. telling me that he would be up at 12.55 so as to leave for the office by 1 p.m. And it would always be exactly 12.55, no alarm clock. These things were natural to him and he did not think of such capacities as unusual. His was a life of quiet discipline, always centred on his objective—the Divine. Even the smallest detail was related to that lodestar. He kept a low profile. I noticed that he did not read much. He started writing only late in life: either when there was a call on him from quarters which he did not like to refuse or there was an urge from within.

When the Ashram school was started, he became its first Sanskrit teacher. Students who were taught by him still recall the affectionate way with which he treated them. Mother gave special importance to his work as a teacher and let him know of it. Occasionally, Sri Aurobindo would refer to him some point of astrology or Sanskrit grammar. Purani was the messenger. When a reviewer in the Modern Review took exception to Sri Aurobindo's interpretation of the compound jivabhuta in the phrase para prakirtir jivabhuta (Gita), holding that grammar did not permit that sense, Sastriar wrote an authoritative rejoinder proving that strict grammar did not permit any other interpretation than what Sri Aurobindo had given: prakriti has become the jiva.

He was fond of rendering into Sanskrit verse some of the lines in Sri Aurobindo's poetry that appealed to him. When the first canto of the epic Savitri was first published as a fascicle, he took it up. This canto, as you know, is the most difficult in the whole poem. He would send up to Sri Aurobindo a few verses each day as soon as they were ready and the latter would go through them with care and attention. If any sense had been changed or grasped differently, he would note it and explain what he had meant. Purani took down these notes and they have been incorporated in his most helpful work on Savitri, Approach to Savitri. On one occasion, when a particular line was read out in its Sanskrit rendering, Sri Aurobindo exclaimed, 'he is a poet!' Sastriar always treasured that compliment.

It was in his sixtieth year that he commenced his commentary on Rig Veda. He undertook to work out the adhyatmic, spiritual, interpretation of the Riks, applying the clues given by Sri Aurobindo in his studies on the Veda, justifying his approach, tracing the consistency in the meaning and expounding the support provided by grammar in arriving at the purport of each. Each sheet was sent up to Sri Aurobindo. He had taken up the work which Sri Aurobindo had hoped to do in order to establish his thesis. He completed the First Ashtaka of the Rig Veda within about 3 years. He had hardly any reference books at hand. He worked single-handed, often waiting for hours before putting his pen to the paper so as to get the right clue. He did not proceed further. When I asked him about it, he replied that the main work had been done and one could study the rest of the Samhita with ease using the clues that had been provided in this commentary. This work, Siddhanjana, Mystic Collyrium, has been acclaimed as an authentic standard work on the subject in all quarters. Some of the universities prescribed it for study in their higher courses.

His writings on the Upanishads, the Tantras, philosophy of Sanskrit grammar are classics. His commentaries on the key-works of Vasishtha Ganapati Muni viz. Umasahasram, Ramana Gita, Sat Darshanam, are authoritative expositions of the thought and vision of Sri Ramana Maharshi and the Muni. His biography Vasishtha Vaibhavam, in Sanskrit, breaks new ground in introducing the modern style of pithy, short sentences in Sanskrit writing.

His translations of some of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother into Tamil and Telugu are much in demand. He was at ease while writing in either of these languages. Some one asked if Sastriar was from Jaffna. Jaffna, it will be recalled, is considered to be the home of Tamil, classical Tamil.

One scene stands out before my mind's eye. Sri Aurobindo had just passed away on December 5, 1950 to the dismay and bewilderment of all. Disciples and devotees were taken unawares. Everybody thought of the future of the Ashram: would the ashram be able to continue? There was a big question-mark facing everybody, almost everyone. At that moment, a columnist from Madras, Kumar (an old student of his, M. C. Subramaniam by name) interviewed Sastriar and asked him many searching questions. The full report was splashed on the front page in a prominent weekly of Madras; the central thrust was: the MOTHER WILL CARRY ON. He explained how the Mother had always been the Shakti charged with this mission and Sri Aurobindo's physical withdrawal made no essential difference to the situation. This emphatic statement from the lips of a personage of Sastriar's stature made a tremendous impact, halted the tide of scepticism and frustration. It was a landmark.