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• My Teacher Swami Tapovanam
• An Embodiment of Ideal Sannyasa
• Chinmaya recalls Sree Gurudev

Just as the biography of a man starts with his birth, and will go behind it to trace the biological growth and development of the seed in the womb, so too, to write the life of a realised saint, of the stature of Sri Swami Tapovanam, it is to trace sincerely the adventures of his soul in its onwards flights to God-Realization. A Mahatma starts his career, in a new world, with a new personal­ity, and maintains absolutely a new set of relationship. Once a Sanyasi, he becomes dead to his entire past. And yet, ordinarily we have almost an unhealthy curiosity to trace the life of the Mahatma, before he reached the Gate of the Temple to ring the bell in adoration to the Infinite.

Sri Swamiji Maharaj was no tame individual to whom, even after ten years of intimate service and total surrender could I discover the necessary courage to ask of his .personallife before he took Sanyas. Some scrappy material is certainly available in his own words and here below we are tracing them as best as we can.

A boy was born in Palghat Taluk, in Kerala, in a fairly medium ­ sized village called Kuzholmannam in a house called "Puthan Veedu" (New House) in 1889 to Smt. Balamba and Sri Achutan Nair. The child was named Subramaniam. He was called by the parents as Chippu Kutty, and this pet name was taken lip later on by all his friends and admirers, all through his life till he took Sanyas.

His early education started with the village teacher and soon he had his ordinary education in the schools at Koduvayur, Kollen­gode and Alattur. The educational system available and the sub­jects taught therein were not to his taste and, therefore, the young boy at an early age of fourteen stopped going to school and came to stay in his father's house in Koduvayur.

This was a great disappointment to his father, who being a fairly rich landlord, had his own ambitions to see his son educated and employed as a Government Official. Sri Gurudev himself remem­bered the painful interview the son had with his father. Expressing his utter disappointment, the loving father one day exclaimed: "What a pity when hundreds and thousands of children bemoan that they have not the means to educate themselves, you, who have sufficient means must decide not to continue your educa­tion!"

Chippu Kutty did not run away from the school because of idle­ness. He had the greatest reverence for knowledge, and thirst for learning. He had independently thought of his problem and had come to his own conclusions regarding the type of education that would satisfy him. The boy replied, "Father, I have not discarded education. Only I have stopped attending the school". Thereafter, with the help of some well-read persons in the vicinity, the intelli­gent boy started his self-study, and gained a tolerable mastery over the English Language.

Now he turned his attention to the study of Sanskrit from the local pundits. He learnt in the old orthodox style, the divine language through the study of drama, metre, logic and grammar etc. At the age of eighteen he composed a poem "Vibhakar" in his language, Malayalam. It attracted the attention of all the literary scholars of the time, and when they came to know of the young heart behind the work, he received from them endless applauses.

Even by this time Chippu Kutty had started feeling an urge for the study of philosophy and scriptures. Throughout he was an ardent devotee of the Lord. The weakness of a young man at his age and materially fairly well off and quite independent, did not touch him. Solitude and books were his companions. He used to spend much of his time in the jungles near his father's house. Pan­chakshari was his Mantra, and these days he used to spend a lot of his time regularly in japa and meditation upon the form of Sri Mahadev.
Pilgrimage was the only recreation for this young man. He had many a time during these years opposed vehemently even vague suggestions of his marriage. When he was twenty one his father died and he was extremely shaken up by it. To bring back his mind to equilibrium he turned the impulses of despair at his bereave­ment into poetic inspiration and wrote a prayerful poem "Vish­nuyamakam". This shock in his life awakened the spirit of renunciation which was sleeping in his bosom.

At this moment, his only brother was still in the college and being the head of the family, he could not leave Kerala. However, he spent his time in religious pursuits and study of the spiritual texts. During these days"for a short time Chippu Kutty left Kerala for Bhavnagar, inSuarashtra, and there, at the feet of Swami Shantyananda Saraswathi, he listened to "two great text books of Vedanta": "Samkshepa Sareerikam" and "Vedanta Paribhasha". Afterwards he returned to Kerala. It is at this time he took up, for a short period, in a spirit of service, the editing and publishing of a monthly journal "Gopala Krishna", from Palghat. Righteousness, education, character, literature and such other non-political themes of social importance were the discussions in the pages of the journal "Gopala Krishna". During this period the young man often addressed the public, especially in the Southern districts of Kerala. All along this period of external activities his- personal spiritual Sadhana was never given up, and the inward development in him ultimately conquered all his attention. The publication and such other activities, the writing and the lecture tours all com­pletely dried away by the time Chippu Kutty entered the twenty eighth year of his life.

During this period he had visited Madurai, Sreerangam, Chidambram, Arunagiri, Rameswar and such other South Indian pilgrim centers. At Chidambaram he met Mahamahopadhyaya Sri Dandapani Deekshitar and had discussions with him and cleared many of his difficulties in his independent study of the Sastras. At Madras, he met Swami Sarvananda, President of the Ramakrishna Math. On his return journey he visited also CapeComorin, Sri Ananta-Padmanabha temple at Trivandrum, and the sacred temple of Adi Shankara in Kaladi.
At the suggestions of Sri Swami Shantyananda, Chippu Kutty left for Calcutta and lived there for a few months with the Swami, who was then the head of the Dwaraka Sarada Peetham. While he was there Chippu Kutty used to spend much of his time in lonely parks meditating upon the Self. Pleased by the young man's spiritual unfoldment, Sri Sankaracharya of the Dwaraka Peetham gave him the title "Chidvilasa". While living with Sree Swami Shantya­nanda, the young man had very many chances to meet and discuss spiritual themes with accredited pundits and scholars of Bengal and the neighbouring provinces.

During his stay in Calcutta, Chippu Kutty visited the Belur Math of Sree Ramakrishna Mission and met the Pre-sident of the Math. He met also Swami Brahmananda, the direct disciple of Swami Vivekananda. With both of them he had very profitable discussions. He chose to differ from their points of view liberally.

From Calcutta he visited Benaras, Hardwar, Rishikesh and in each place he met very many pundits, sages and saints. He visited all the sacred rivers. After staying there for a few days and tasting the joys of the solitary meditation, the young man returned, humbly praying to Lord Himavan to call him back speedily so that he may serve the Himalaya Mission by achieving spiritual perfection on those immortal and glorious peaks.

On his way back, the young man stopped at Delhi, touched Agra, Mathura and Brindavan. Enroute visiting Pushkar, he reached Dwaraka and after a three days' stay there, by boat he came to Bombay, and immediately left for Kerala by train due to a pressing call of urgent duties at home.

The visit to the North completed the transformation of Chippu Kutty. He returned to Kerala indeed as a Sanyasi in white clothes! He- remained in his native village for about three years and even today those who knew him there remember his Kuzholmannam­tapas with awe and veneration.

A furlong away from his ancestral-home, in the coconut gardens, on the edge of the extensive fields of cultivation, there stands a humble thatched hut. Within it sits a young Malay­alee youth reading, thinking, worshipping, praying and meditat­ing all day long. Once a day, in the noon, he walks to his home, of which he is the head of the family, and humbly sits in a modest corner, and partakes his simple "Bhiksha". For two hours he rests in the night, his bed is the bare floor. Early morning, after the bath, he wears the very same wet towel, a single piece of cloth, which is his sole apparel. Thus, in tapascharya lived the young man Chippu Kutty, for three ye.ars as a Chidvilasa, indeed.

His only brother by now a graduate in law, had started his practice in Palghat. One day he approached the younger brother and said, "I propose to start on the Gokulashtami-day to visit the temple of "Hari Har" on the banks of Tungabhadra; please permit me to start". On Krishnashtami day along with his brother, Chippu Kutty reached the Olavakode railway station". As the train was steaming out, the brother said "Do not stay too long, come back quick". Silence was the reply from this thirty-three year old divinely determined pilgrim.
On the banks of Tungabhadra, obeying the great call within him this born yogi accepted Sanyas from himself. Thereafter for seven years, he lived in severe tapas in many places in India.

His pilgrimage to Kailas, his rambles in the Himalayas, his stay at Badri, Uttara Kasi and Gangotri would all, if properly reported, read like a saga. After these roamings he reached Rishikesh and there on an island 'Purana Jhadi' in the Ganges, in grass a hut, he remained practising meditation. It is at this time he was given the regular initiation (Sanyasasamskara) by Sri Swami Janardhanagiri of Kailasashram, Rishikesh. Thus, Chippu Kutty became SwamiTapovanam. He had on foot visited almost all the important lower peaks of the Himalayas from Kashmir and Amarnath to Almora and Kailas. These roamings were undertaken mainly in the summer months while in other months he used to be either in Uttar Kasi or in Gangotri.

Throughout, Swamiji had been teaching the students who voluntarily reached him with a request to teach them the Prasthanatraya. However, it must be said that being a very strict disciplinarian very rarely his students could remain for long with him to complete their studies. I myself belong to the last batch that Swamiji taught, and even during my ten years of study and practice I can count some thrity to thirty five people, who came with divine enthusiasm but, alas none could keep it up for more than a couple of years. The climate, the unavailability of any living convenience, lack of nutritive food, the chilly bath in the Ganges, the hard study and the unrelenting discipline, each made life uncomfortable and together they became a suffocating tyranny for those of us who could not get any glimpse of the yonder.

Indeed, it must be admitted that had they, instead of merely reading, spent at least a part of their time in reflection and meditation they could have discovered a secret courage to face the life of tapas there, thus discover an endless source of joy that would have made it worthwhile for them to brave the discomforts of Uttar Kasi. Their failure was certainly of their own making.

Every year, during the beginning of the summer Swamiji would come to Rishikesh. By about July we used to go up to Gangotri and by November first week we used to return each year to Uttar Kasi. There we remained till about the following Sivaratri when we would again reach Rishikesh. Our programme of study continued both at Uttar Kasi and Gangotri. Swamiji would take daily lessons in the morning for one and a half hours, except in winter, when he will take the lessons in the afternoon from two to three thirty daily.
While he was planning to take the Bhagwat Geeta, he developed an attack of cough and whenever he made efforts to talk and explain, the attack would become severe. You study for yourself; if there are doubts come to me. I do not think there will be any difficulties for you" so said Sri Gurudey one day and my studies at his feet with text book in hand ended.

Late in 1955 Swamiji took ill. That year he came from Gangotri early because he felt attacks of frequent giddiness coming to him. Various medicines reached us there. Swamiji would give each one a three-days chance. He would say "we must give chance to others in the queue also" and smile! Steadily his health deteriorated; digestion became nil. During 1955-56 I ran up to Uttar Kasi three or four times, in between my Yagnas. All requests to come down up to Delhi for a general check up and diagnosis were angrily turned down. Each time I saw his body getting more and more emaciated I took with me others, his own .old Bhaktas; but none could persuade him to come down for treatment.

During my last visit in early December 1956, I broke down suddenly and burst out. He saw the tears and softly said "Chinmaya! It is easy to learn Vedanta, easier to preach Vedanta, hard indeed to live the knowledge. When we are born death is born with us. He gave me so long a chance to live and experience. Now He, who was waiting so long, is coming to meet me. You say I must now run to escape Him? How mean? Here how quietly Ilived; now cannot! quietly die, hearing the Eternal Music of my Mother Ganga. Don't weep. You go and continue the work...come….!"

I returned to my Yagnasala. While I was holding a session in Palghat came the news. The manifested Light Divine was reabsorbed into the Transcendental Infinitude. In 1957 January, on the full-moon day the Great Master chose to discard his mortal vesture.
"Narayanayeti Samarpyamai"
(Source - Hymn to Badrinath)

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There is a significant saying that while sacred shrines and Tirthas purify and sanctify all mankind, the sacred places and Tirthas are themselves more sanctified and divinised by the holy men and saints who grace them with their passing footprints or prolonged presence. Those places and things that spiritualize and redeem man, derive their saving spiritual force from the jnanis and Godmen who associate themselves with the former. Such is the true worth and grandeur of Tyagi Mahatmas and seers. The blessed Lord Himself impressed this fact upon His great devotee Devarshi Narada, in the following beautiful and telling manner. When Naradha one day visited Dwaraka, he found the Lord absorbed in deep meditation. Narada marvelled at the sight, for it was beyond his comprehension to imagine why or on what Lord Krishna would meditate. For, was not the Lord Himself the Supreme Object of man's meditation? Later on when questioned on this point by N arada, the Lord replied 'I was meditating upon the lotus feet o(the saints and holy men'. Thus the Lord sought to give some ideaofthe greatness of Saint-Mahatmas.

Sri Swami Tapovanji Maharaj of Uttar Kashi isa lofty example of just this type of most blessed souls. He is really a veritable living embodiment of the ideal Sannyasa with all the supreme renuncia­tion, rare saintliness, austerity, deep wisdom and divine dignity and compassion that is implied by such an ideal.

He is an ornament to the Fourth Ashram. The Spirituality of this ancient land ofBharatvarsha took its refuge in the Sannyasins when

Adhanna became prevalent everyhwere. The fourth Ashrama became, as it were, the repository and safe fortress for the safe­~ guarding of the spiritual heritage of Aryavarta; but when times and circumstances began to manifest their irresistible effects upon that institution also, then the Spirit of Sannyasa itself was in danger. The spirit of Sannyasa itself appears to have taken refuge in a~handful of rare and excepti ' nal souls who have been sublimely impervious to the influence of odernism, however strong and vicious it may be. Sri Swami Tapo nji is one of these very few bright Stars that scintillate with all the undiminished grandeur of unsullied renunciation and wisdom of the firmament of Nivrithi life. In him, the spirit of pure Sanriyasa shines in its pristine glory.

Sannyasa was ingrained in Swami Tapovanamji from his very birth. Though born and brought up as the eldest son of a highly respectable and rich landlord and though he could well afford to live in a very affluent style, he shunned both riches and respect in his very boyhood, because divine Brahmanic qualities filled his veins, though the people of his caste in Kerala are noted for their Kshatriya spirit and Rajasic ruling nature. According to the history of Kerala, they were the rulers of their rich, beautiful and glorious country in ancient days. They are the descendants of a sect of Kshatriya warriors of Aryavartha who invaded, conquered and ruled the southern-most part of India. Now also they are called Kshtranayakas which means Kshatria-rulers. They were the mak­ers of the wonderful history of their own motherland. Owing to his extremely Sattwic and spiritual Samskara, Sri Swami Tapovanji completely transcended such hereditary Rajasic power-and-pleas­ure-seeking natures and all the attractions of the vanishing-sensual life even in his very early age. His sense of value was.something different.

He commenced his life with complete indifference towards worldly wealth and position, for he was born with the Sannyasa ideal foremost in his heart. He was rooted in the conviction that earthly

glory was a mere straw before the grandeur of a life in the spirit. To this born-monk, Adhyatmic wealth alone was the real wealth.
In thus casting aside the life of ordinary wealth and enjoyment and taking to a life of ardent Vairagya, he has but fulfilled the glorious tradition of our land. Such has been the history ofIndia's saints both in the North and in the South. There are innumerable examples like this in the rich spiritual history of India, all rich prosperous, young and beloved persons taking to the life of the monk and doing Sadhana for self-realisation and self-bliss. The happiest and most glorious life is that of a Sannyasi. Sri Sankara says in his "Dhanya­Ashtaka".

Tyaktvaa Grhe ratirnadhogatihetubhutam Atmecchayopanisadartharasam pibantah; Vitasprha visayabhogapade virakta Dhanya scaranti vijanesu vimuktasangah.
"Leaving of all love for one's own house which is the basic cause of all our miserable downfall, induced by the thirst for Self Know­ledge, drinking the elixir of the Truth of the Upanishadic declara­tions, devoid of all desires at heart, with extreme dispassion for the host of the objects of enjoyment, fortunate souls wander in solitude giving up all company and attachment!"

Like all great men, together with the conviction he had also the rare courage to translate his conviction into an accomplished fact. The result was he deliberately threw of all prospects of a prosperous wordly career and took to the life of a recluse. He did not care to turn into material advantage the vast knowledge that he had acquired in Sanskrit and other languages, the deep study of the philosophy and also the great fame as a good writer and an eloquent orator. Instead, he became a Sannyasin. He decided to utilise his Vidya for the benefit and enlightenment of innumerable persons whose lives were benighted by the dense darkness of the fold of deep delusion. Even this superhuman abandonment of a smooth, happy worldly life in the midst of "dear and near ones" is a child's play, compared to the rigours that a saintly soul, accustomed to a rich and carefree mode of living, puts himself through on his adoption of the new Ashram. Few can compare favourably with the Sakya Muni in his intensity of Vairagya, an extreme aversion to worldly objects, an abiding disgust for the pleasures which form, so to say, the very life-breath of a worldling, and an all-consuming thirst for Truth. This part of Buddah's life (his renunciation and adoption of a life of seclusion and austerities) strikes awe into the very bone of one who "witnesses" it through the medium of cold print. No less impressed were the fellow sadhus and the hundreds of household­ers who passed by his kutir, to see this Prince of Learning put himself through a course of Tapascarya. He proved only too true to his own name. His life during this period was as full of strenuous practices which breathe new life and vigour into the soul, as a Himalayan forest is of life-giving plants.

It is as strange as it is true that one who has a mastery of learning, who had successively and effectively passed through the two initial stages in Jnana Yoga Sadhana (Sravana.and Manana) and who was eminently suited to pass on to the third (Nididyasana or silent meditation on the Truths) which would almost instantly lead the aspirant into the luminous region of truth and Immortality, should adopt the measures that any ordinary aspirant of the other system (Raja Yoga or Bhakti Marga) would have adopted in order to clear his Buddhi of the dross and make it sharp and subtle enough to grasp the Truth which is extremely subtle. To a Jnani of the type of Sri. Tapovanji, Truth shines forth in all its splendour with the least effort on his part; it is as clear to him as an Amalaka - fruit on the palm of one's own hand. At this stage, it is hardly necessary for him to practise any austerities. What can be gained by these practices which are intended to achieve what he has by birth? Such an intellect and such learning are given only to the select few who have passed through the lower stages of Tapascarya in their previous incarnation. Yet, Swami Tapovanam did all this in order to set an example to fresh recruits to this path and to warn them against the pitfall of deluding themselves with the perilous presumption that they too have performed Tapas in "their previous life" and that they are fit to be initiated into the Truth or Kaivalya. This page of his book of life further points to the supreme necessity of adopting the Synthetic Yoga which alone is suited to the present age. The ancients have laid out for us various methods for our adoption in our search for Truth; and we have, if we wish quick and sure attainment of perfection, to assimilate all that is best in the various Systems. This way we shall also ensure the homogenous development of our­selves, and develop a breadth of vision which would not merely tolerate but appreciate the other methods of realisation.

Swami Tapovanam set before himself the ideal portrayed in the Gita by the Lord. He embodied within himself all the virtues enumerated in the Seventeenth Chapter as constituting the three forms of tapas - bodily, verbal and mental. An erudite scholar that he was, he restrained his Vac-Indriya and sublimated the yearning to pour himself out and shed the light oflearning that filled his heart on one and all who carne in contact with him. Unostentatiously, he would remain in his Kutir contemplating again on the Truth which he had already long meditated upon and realised. Silently and within himself, he would put everyone of the Hindu philosophical theories that he had learned so far to the test of actual,realisation. In the evening he would pour out doses of the rarest spiritual nectar to a select band of aspirants who would listen to him spell bound; for, every word that flowed from his lips then had not only the supreme authority of the Vedas, but had passed through the test of his own realisation. These sublime thoughts would, as they pro­ceeded direct from his heart, take deep root in the listeners in whom they would invariably produce a complete reorientation.

Food and other creature comforts were a matter in which the Swami would take very little interest during the period. When hundreds of admirers would only have been too glad to provide for him the life of a princely Saint, he would insist on his personally going to the Kshetra for holding up his own hand in all humility for a meagre Bhiksha of a few roties and daal! Surely, had he sought honour, name and fame, would he not have remained in his old worldly surroundings where boys of the princely class, and sons of million­ aires would have sat at his feet to learn? He had realised the hollowness of popularity and shunned it, in spite of the fact that this relegated aspect of-Maya had fondly sought his company!

Anyone who had the good fortune to watch him during this part of his life would not have failed to notice that all the time he was anxious to be vigilant lest he should pass from Tweedledom to Tweedledee by getting back all that he renounced, though in another form, as it often happens with less wary souls. He was an aspirant of the Jnani-type extolled by Sri Krishna as belonging to the highest class of His devotees. He was, every moment of his life, devoted to the discrimination and realisation of Spiritual Essence. With an austere and serene mind always contemplating upon his goal, he would detect any intruder into his realm of Bliss immedi­ately on appearance and show him the exit! No wonder he made the Path smooth for himself - a Path acknowledged by one and all as the most thorny and most perilous - and achieved success in his pursuit with a rapidity which would have astounded even the ancients.

Thus he is an anchorite, whose ornament of austerity shines with the added lustre of brilliant intellect and a mastery over the difficult Sanskrit and Vedic lore. Of such it is said, "If the monk is the lordly elephant among men, a truly learned monk is a tusker, with the tusks adorned with the rich covering of pure gold studded with gems". He is therefore, a most precious asset and an honour to the Sadhu Sannyasin class. Such exceptional Sannyasins as Swami Tapovanji are a glory to this land with its ancient ideals of renun­ciation and Cosmic Service. They are a treasure to the entire humanity. True to the classic tradition of rigid Sannyasa, Swamiji has taken himself to the forest fastness of the Upper Himlayas and for very many years past, he has taken his abode in sacred Uttarkashi. He shuns the plains with all its garish materialism, its intense worldly bustle and petty concerns of earthly profit and pleasure. He seeks at times the deeper solitudes of the higher regions of icy Gangotri and Gomukhi.

To him, the Himalayas are the native home and seclusion amidst its towering peaks is his very life breath, as it were. He likes im­mensely the towering ranges, the dense deep seclusion of the Himalayan mountain peaks and its forests. He feels inspired by its sublime scenery and highly elevated by the serene peace of the Himalayan atmosphere. He himself has written, at the request of his Kerala admirers, a very beautiful book named "Himagiri Vihar" in his mother-tongue, Malayalam, decribing those wonderful wan­derings and secluded Tapascarya on the Himalayan peaks and in shrines, including his trip to the sacred Mount Kailasa, twice. This work is narrations of elevating experiences and reveals his deep thoughts on religious and philosophical secrets and has been very much appreciated by men of learning. He is a great Anubhava­Jnani and is established in the Consciousness of the Supreme Self. Thus everywhere he turns and in all things he sees, the colourful Himalayan flora and fauna, the mountain streams and the cataracts, the glaciers and the snow peaks, he beholds the One Indivisible Supreme Essence alone. Thus he is ever immersed in the Supreme. He dwells there, a sage of deep Wisdom rooted in Brahman. Sree Swami Tapovanji is one, as the famous Narada Parivrajaka Upanishad says, "who is attached to the Supreme Soul, who has detached from the non-self, who has no desire whatsoever', and again, 'who is an abode of tranquility, self control, purity, truth, contentment, straight forwardness, renunication and egolessness", and also "who knows the true import of the Vedas, has given, Jearlessness to all creatures". All this Sri Swami Tapovanamji is and to him may be rightly applied the declaration of the same Upanishad: "Seeing that peaceful sage, the celestial. beings are attracted towards him.
Because he does not have any corporeal sign, he is fit to attain the state of Kaivalya Mukti".

His Life and personality are indeed most precious and invaluable, for they fonn a lofty example of what true Vedanta and true ­ sannyasa have to be. They demonstrate the great secret of the relationship between Vedanta and Sannyasa. Sannyasa and Ve­danta go hand in hand. One does not become complete without the other. Wherever there is real Sannyasa, there is practical Vedanta. Wherever there is practical Vedanta there must be Sannyasa of the highest type. Sannyasa without Vedanta or Para Bhakti becomes a mockery and a vanity; Vedanta without Sannyasa becomes mere dry intellectualism. Sannyasa without Vedanta remains as empty void and does not serve its purpose. Even so, Vedanta without Sannyasa becomes an impregnable, essenceless rock and does not serve its purpose. Vedanta cannot be grasped without emptying the ego through Sannyasa, and Sannyasa becomes a waste without getting at the Supreme Ideal through Vedanta. Sannyasa empties the individual of the ego and the negative phenomena and Vedanta fills it wi th the posi ti ve Truth and the Supreme Reality. When in one Sannyasa and Vedanta melt into one, there crops up a sage of Supreme Wisdom. Verily Sri Swami Tapovanamji has achieved such a state to a unique degree. He is an admirable combination of highest Vedanta Anubhava and the strictest observance of the laws of Nivritti and the Sannyasa Dharma. Therefore, his towering personality is an eye-opener and an exemplary Guide and Light to all seekers and Sannyasins. He is a challenge to, as well as a timely saviour of the misguided, self styled Vedantins with all their irresponsible eccentricities due to erroneous notions of Sannysasa and Vedanta.

Sri Swami Tapovanji is a Brahma-Jnani. He is a veritable ocean of knowledge, an embodiment of Vedanta. Of countless Sannyasi­mahatmas dwelling in those regions, Swami Tapovanji is the Crest­Gem. What the Dhruva Nakshatra is to the Stellar constellation, Swami Tapovanji is among the Mahatmas in those upper Hima­layan regions. Uttarkashi receives its lustre from his presence there. He imparts an added grandeur and holiness to that holy place. Its name has become synonymous with his. To the vast majority, Uttarkashi means Sri Swami Tapovanji. The Mahatmas there sit at his feet and drink the highest knowledge of the Vedanta that rains from his lips. They crowd before his Kutir and vie with one another for a close seat beside him during the informal Upadeshas. They all thirst for his Satsanga. No person passes through Uttarkashi with­out having the Darshan of and paying his homage to Sri Swami Tapovanji. Even the highest of officials, the most learned of scholars sit at his lotus feet to learn Vedanta. His mastery of the difficult Brahma Sutras, the Upanishads and Gita is astounding. Deep study and deeper meditation upon them have revealed their inmost truths to him. There is hardly anything he does not know of the Prasthanatraya. Upon rare occasions, when he graces Rishikesh with his presence, he stops at a Parnakuti built upon a little hillock overlooking the Ganges in the Tehrigarhwal State. His needs here are eagerly looked after by a loving admirer, who holds a high position in the Civil Service Department of the U.P. Government. Here too visitors and Mahatmas crowd to have his Darshan and to listen to his words of wisdom. They pay homage to him in a worshipful attitude full of reverence: but Swami Tapovanji sits serene and unaffected by it all. The true living Vedanti that he is, censure and adoration are the same to him. He is quite above these. True to the scriptural dictum, he always remains happy "whether he is worshipped or censured, whether he is praised or beaten". He ever remains the same simple, affable, smiling sannyasin.

His exemplary character is brightened by shining realism. With all his Vedantic realisation; he realises the true value and force of practical example in the Vyavaharic field. His life reveals, there­fore, true adherence to the minutest principles of Sannyasa. Even though he has innumerable devotees ready to lay their wealth at his feet and to look to his smallest comfort, yet the Swamiji has stuck to the Sannyasa life. He always prefers Madhukarbhiksa for his food. Special offerings and rich eatables laid at his feet by visitors and devotees are distributed to those around him, while he himself partakes of ordinary daily food. Though long past the stage of youth, yet he has trained himself to a hard life. .He seldom wears footwear. The rough rocky ground and the mountainous tracts he traverses without hesitation every year. During summer, he leaves Uttarkashi and goes to Gangotri on foot. Recently, while at Gangotri, he climbed some surrounding peaks near Gomukh, which a strong and robust Brahmachari who was then serving him found it quiet impossible to attempt. The morning bath of the icy cold Ganges, this sage would never miss even a day throughout the year. A long evening walk in the Himalayan solitudes is a favourite item in his routine. He has marvellous self-reliance, Titiksa, and he is a Sannyasi in every inch of him. It is an inspiring and purifying sight to see this great sage in his flowing ochre coloured robes, staff and Kamandal in hand, bare headed and bare footed, with Brahmic radiance shining upon his countenance.

One, who has realized the absolute vanity of the world, knows that the wealth of wealth is in the Atman and kicks aside, without hesitation, the paltry pelf of this earth, for he is convinced as the Narayanopanishad says that "not by works, not by progeny, not by wealth, but by renunciation alone is Immortality attained - Na Karmana na prajaya na dhanena, tyagenaike amrtatwamana "suh". Also "Amrtatwasya tu Na sasti Vitteneti" as Yajnavalkya said to Maitreyi, i.e., there is no hope of immortality through wealth. His learned mind has long ago discerned the absolute truth and propri­ety of the declaration in the Brihadaranyakopanishad that says, "desiring for the state of the Self, one should renounce. Established in Brahman, one attains Immortality". In the full vigour of his youth and prosperity, this brilliant scholar obeyed the call of all scriptures towards the Nivrtti path. In his renouncing all earthly riches, Sri Swami Tapovanji has enriched the Adhyatmic world by his Vedan­tic realization and he has presented in his person a great jewel to the Fourth Order in Modem India. His name is happily one that is most significant and most apt to him. He is indeed a Tapovanam, a veritable forest of austerity and penance. He has lived a life of intense Tapas for several years in the region of the Himalayas. Austerity and Penance adorn this unique combination of Vedanta and Sannyasa even as the twin Makara­kundalas adorn the divine ears of Lord Vishnu. A few years back,

when he wrote his beautiful and inspiring "Sri Saumya Kasisa Stotram" at North Benares, he perfonned a rigorous Anustan for 41 days during which he had the spontaneous outpouring of the divine verse.

He is verily Tapovanam, but not wild Vanam or Jungle grown with rough growth' of dry austerity and cynical seclusion. He is rather an Upavanam full of fragrance of the flowering of Vedanta and filled with the fruits of his mature realisation. It is an Upavanam wherein countless bees in the fonn of seekers, sadhaks and san­nyasins crowd to drink of the honey of true wisdom. Simultane­ously, with his great Vedantic experience, he is yet mellow with Para Bhakti. He is a Bhakta-jnani. He never divorces bhakti from Jnana. His Sanskrit books "Saumya Kasisa Stotram" "Badareesa Stotram" and others are all best examples of this. He always emphasises that Abheda Bhakti is conducive to the attainment of Jnana. Thus, he combines in himself all the highest elements of Adhyatmic Life and the Nivritti marga.

During a visit to Ananda Kutir, he was filled with immense bliss to witness the devout worship of Viswanatha and Murli Manohar at the mandir. He was thrilled to hear the chanting of the Vedic Mantras and the Vedokta Pushpanjali. After finishing Parikrama, his face wreathed in joyous smiles, he smilingly spoke to the Brahmachari doing the worship and expressed his keen apprecia­tion and great happiness at the devout conduct of the divine puja. Being no dry Vedantin, he may therefore be rightly likened to an Upavanam full of blossoms and fruits. No doubt, no seeker can go to him but will return with his spiritual hunger fully appeased. It may truly be said that Swami Tapovanam is a divine Upavanam.

It is said that, compared to the treasure of Realisation, even the position oflndra and Brahma is as mere straw. Even to show a wish for that is petty. When such is the case, to run after mere transitory things of this little earth is the pettiest of ambitions, "Better aim at a lion and miss it, than hunt a jackal and kill it", the ancients have said. This great Tyagi- Mahatma did something more: rather than aim at a lion, he himself became the grand King of the forest. Swami Tapovanam is indeed a Vedantic lion, a Vedanta Kesari, dwelling in majesty in his own regions of the great Himalayan range, whose very atmoshpere is permeated with the spirit of Vedantic realiza­tion attained by past sages.
The value of such a versatile life and personality of modern India may well be imagined. It will be a sure beacon light that throws a flood of illumination upon what an ideal synthetic realization is, it will help to rescue seekers from the bog of dry Vedantism, lopsid­edness and laxity in the observance of Sannyasa Dharma. Sri Tapovanamji is giving to the world in his autobiograhpy "Iswar Darshan", his unique and valuable experiences for, with all his love of solitude, his love for humanity is equ;illy great. The fruits of his prolonged life of Sadhana in seclusion and his rich inner life of realization, are bestowed upon all for their benefit and upliftment. It contains the most valuable records of his experiences and is a treasure that is to be imbibed fully by one and all. Even as Father Himalaya is perennially giving to the world his snowy treasure in the form of the life-giving Ganga, Sri Swami Tapovanji has given his life's experiences in this written Ganga of his autobiography. Mayall drink of its waters and be filled with wisdom! May you all attain the Divine Life in the Atman and be established in the Supreme Brahmic Consciousness! All glory to Swami Tapovanji who, through his life and his life-sketch, reveals to you the secret to this attainment!!

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(The last representative of the ancient institution of tradi­tional Gurus disappeared from the Spiritual Life of India, when on the 16th of January 1957, Swami Tapovanamji Maharaj of Uttarakasi chose to withdraw his personal manifestation and merge back into Mahasamadhi. A God without temple, a Veda without language, was this master mind. He livedfor 68 years, as a monumental expression of an ideal Vedantic Teacher. On the 16th of January, on the Full-Moon day, at 4-30 a.m., in the Brahmamuhurtha, Sri Gurudev gained his Mahasamadhi./t was on a Thaipoo­sam day, that the spirit of Tapovanam was unsheathed.)

In 1889 at M udappallur (near Alathur) in Pal ghat Taluk, a son was born to Balammal. The entire childhood of Chippu Kutty was spent in his father's house in Koduvayor. Sri Achuthan Nair had great hopes that his son would get himself educated in the modern sense of the term, and come to occupy a high position in life. While studying in form IV Chippu Kutty returned one day from the school declaring his decision to go to school no more. His father, feeling extremely disappointed expressed his surprise that a member of his family should feel so stupid as not to continue his education. The young boy said "I am only giving up the place and method of education. I don't want any more an education within the four-walls of a school. But, of course, I am going to get myself fully educated. Very few then understood that the born Yogi was seeking his education in the Infinite Truth and that he was expressing his dis­satisfaction with everything limited or conditioned.

The loving father immediaely arranged two tutors to attend to the child's education; one to instruct him in English and the other to educate him in Sanskrit. Within a short period, the boy gained a great mastery in both the languages and realized the hollowness of English, he switched on to a deeper and more exhaustive study in Sanskrit literature and in the vernacular Malayalam.

The boy grew. Sri Chippu Nair, 17 years old by-then, had become a noted personality among the Malayalam writers and speakers. He had a style of his own, which enriched Malayalam. In another two years, his father departed and the "In Memorium" written in com­memoration of his father (Vishnu Yamakam) is a book that is almost a land-mark in the modern Malayalam which he himself initiated then. For another twelve years, he looked after the family and supervised the administration of the properties until his younger brother, now an advocate in Pal ghat, finished his educa­tion and came home. In between, Chippu Kutty had taken three pilgrimages around South India.

All these years he had been studiously preparing himself for his great mission in life. He continued his deep studies of Vedanta directly from the original text books. Though himself the head of a rich family, he looked after the estate as a trustee and himself lived in a thatched shed away from home. His contemporaries, now living in the area remember how they they had met this young boy living in his hut in the open field, sleeping on the ground and living with one single dhothi as his sole personal possession. They confess that though the boy was extremely intelligent, they had taken him to be "slightly mad". Balammal had her own plans of seeing her son married and settled in life. Often she used to point out the girl chosen for him and say "This is the girl for you to marry and when are you going to marry?". Chippu Kutty's usual answer was rather evasive; "Yes, I shall marry and when I marry, you will see whom I marry. You will have no reason to regret."
Years rolled on. In between these years, the young seeker, full of the book knowledge had often gone seeking Satsang at the feet of Swami Satyananda, Ramana Maharishi, Avadhutha Chattambi

Swami Thiruvatigal, Brahmananda Swami and Mangaraswamy of Malabar.

One day, when his brother had returned home after his education, Chippu Kutty, entrusting the responsibility of the family to him, quietly ordered for a small feast in his home. Almost all the available members of the family were invited. They were all surprised. But was not Chippu Kutty rather strange in his behaviour! They did not, therefore, try to interpret this 'Last Supper.' A couple of days after, the two brothers were together in Palghat. As usual they went out in the evening for a walk, and near about the gates of the Victoria College, Chippu Kutty turned and said: "It is getting late. You can go back home. I am going to the Harihara temple". It was thus in 1923, when Sri Chippu Kutty was 34 years of age, that he left the worldly life and took to the life of the roaming monk' (Parivrajaka). This was an Ashtami Rohini day. Earlier, during his pilgrimage, he had thrice visited the Himalayas and roamed about the various sacred pilgrim centers in India.
Whom all Sree Swami Tapovanam met, and from what sources he gathered his inspiration and instructions are not very well known, since by the time I had the good fortune to surrender myself at his feet, he had soared so high in his realization that to him to look back upon the past was a meaningless and purposeless preoccupation. A resident of his village once reached Uttarakasi for his Darshan, when Sree Swamiji had the patience and consideration to listen to the stories of his home and about his surviving relations. Regarding that conversation when he wrote to me he added: Bheemanachan told me all about the story of a home in Mudapallur, and I listened to them all as in a moving dream. Such was Swami Tapovanam. Therefore the details are lost with him who has now gained the Mahasamadhi. However, he had told me of a great Sanyasin whom he had mentioned twice as his Guru, at whose feet he must have studied.

But he did not give Sree Gurudev the Sanyas initiation. When he wanted to take his Deeksha, his Guru said: "Sanyas need not be given to you. You take it. You are already a Sannyasin." Thus Swami Tapovanam was an institution uncaused and he too caused no cause. He came from nowhere; existed everywhere and ulti­mately went to be everywhere. It is very difficult to write the life history of such a great Saint. After roaming about a lot in the country, he finally reached Rishikesh and stayed in the Old Jadj among the Virakthas. Even today the life which he lived while he was a young Sannyasin is glorified and pointed out as the ideal for the new initiates to try to aspire and live.
Essentially a poet, he had a mad passion for witnessing the canvas of Nature's beauty unrolling itself in the unfrequented peaks and valleys of the Himalayas. Moving from place to place and roaming from peak to peak, he visited almost all the areas from Kashmir to Almora, and he is known today even in the remotest villages in the Himalayan ranges. As he roamed about, his pen was constantly scribbling down the beauties that he discovered and the thoughts that passed through his sacred bosom. Essentially a new style of literature has been revealed by this master Vedantin through his Nature-poetry and philosophical travellogues. He had reported his travels in two splendid volumes, but both are in Malayalam, "Himagiri Viharam" and "Kailasa Yatra".

Besides these two important books in Malayalam, Swamiji had written a few volumes in chaste Sanskrit, at once beautiful and efficient. Of them is his masterpiece is the bulky volume called "Ishwara Darsan", which is a garland of spiritual thoughts in a Man-of-realization as he waded through the welter of life, written over an autobiographical sketch, which forms the frame-work for the entire life to rest upon in its own splendid beauty. This book, written in prose and interspersed with poetry, has been much commented upon both for its style, easy flow, sureness of strokes and depth of significance. Apart from the main work, there are smaller pieces, all in easy Sanskrit and in different metres, like Sri Soumyakasisa Stotram, Gangotri Kshetra Mahatmyam and Sri Badrisa Stotram. Each one of them - seemingly an objective glorification of some beauty spot of divine association where he had lived and spent his glorious life of Perfection, such as Uttarakasi, Gangotri, Gomukhi and Badrinath - in essence is a beautiful summary of the difficult Vedantic Text Books and the Upanishads.

For the last thirty years, he had been spending most of his time in Uttarkasi and every summer he used to go to Gangotri, the place where Bhageeratha did his great Tapas. Sree Swamiji had never encouraged disciples reaching him and never believed in opening Ashrams. According to him, Mahatmas with Ashrams are manag­ers of Dharmasalas and he believed that the true seekers will be guided to a true teacher by Sri Narayana Himself. In fact many of the Mahatmas who are today working outside India belonging to the various Missions of India had at some time or other come in contact with Sri Tapovanji Maharaj .

Every one of them had been Initiated into one or two of the Upanishads and some earlY,introductory text-books of Vedanta by him. But never did he ever try to keep in contact with his devotees or disciples. He invariably discouraged anybody writing to him letters, and as a general rule, he replied but to a few. Living thus se­questered and seeking always solitude and contemplation, he was ever ready to give Satsang but never entertaining anyone to be too familiar with him. He lived a life of his own, chaste and pure, far and high. His gates were never closed, though he never came out of those gates.

During the Uttarkand pilgrimage season, all varieties and types of seekers would come and Swamiji gave his advice to everyone. Each got an advice best suited to his or her temperament and nature. In the beginning it was rather confusing for me. An Acharya from Benares would come to discuss with him some portion of the RigVeda and the implication of some Upanishadic text. The discussion may some times be all in pure Sanskrit, wherein the very conversation is held in aphoristic style, implying subtle logic and suggesting very significant lines of philosophic arguments. At this moment would come up a heaving old lady from the villages of Rajasthan on her way to Gangotri an ignorant, dull-witted ordinary commonplace woman. To the utter discomfiture of the wonder­Pundit from Benares or the scholar-Sastri from Madras, Swamiji would suddenly come down in his talk, enquire of her children at home, her relations and others and would convince her that all she had to do was to visit Gangotri and return home with all her sins completely washed out. This capacity to sing in all tunes and in all notes is unavoidable in a great Teacher occupying the place of reverence and glory as he was. It took years for others around him to understand the necessity for such an agile mind and intellect in a teacher.

Before and after the Delhi Yagna, I had occasions to reach his feet since he was reported to be very ill. He was not keeping good health for the past three or four months. Individual and even communal appeal, for which I took a substantial team of devotees from Delhi, were of no avail. The power of conviction and the deep determina­tion with which he laughed at our fears could be a real re-education even to great students of the Scriptures. It is easy to learn the idea of Vedanta from the Text-Book, but however much logical the philosophy may be, a doubt will till linger in the mind of the students: "Is it ever humanly possible for one to get oneself completely detached from the destinies of one's mind and intellect, and revel deep within oneself in a constant, unbroken stream of Bliss and Perfection?" Logically the State of Beatitude may be possible but in practical existence, it should be the doubt of all seekers; 'Is it ever possible?" I must confess that the few days that I had spent at his feet, during these two visits, were much more educative to me than the years that I had spent in his presence, enjoying every day hours and hours of his Satsang.

What he used to talk during the discussion of the Upanishads were the very words that he repeated, or rather reminded me of, when he was discussing his own illness. Our argument that he must come down to at least Rishikesh, where medical services are more easily available was invariably answered. "Do you think that the medical science has discovered any medicine by which this human body can be immortalized? It should die, and since it must die, why not die here? See, how peaceful is this serene Himalayan atmosphere. If we are healthy, here we can live in quietude and peace, and even if we must die and as all must die - how peaceful and serene to die in this quietude with nobody to disturb. You can die so beautifully, so silently". The courage and the mental poise of a man who can thus wait for an appointment with Death and watch his approach with the thrill of a lover's rendezvous cannot be had unless one has come to live the truths indicated in the Upanishads.

Again during my last visit, (December 5 & 6, 1956), I was rather crestfallen to see him physically in that condition. By then he had for days almost stopped taking food, he had grown emaciated to less than one - eighth of his original size. The lean emaciated, worn­out body seemed to get dissolved slowly and steadily into the very elements from which it came. It was difficult for him even to stand up from his asan without the help and support of others, and yet he would insist that he must come to his usual seat in the veranda, as ever before and stay there from 6 a.m. to late at night 10 p.m. Seeing him in this condition, an old devotee of his procured some pillows and a cushion and the vehemence with which he protested against such pleasures given to the body, even in that condition, was an education in itself. However, more to satisfy the old saint from Ahmedabad than to enjoy himself, he allowed those things around him. But the next day, it was more painful for me to see that he had left the support of even bare wall and was trying to sit upright lest his body might learn to enjoy the pillow!!!

"I have already left this body. There is nothing in it to regret", were the words that he said to me with a smile, and the sparkle in his eyes at that time was, to say the least, rather mischievous. My reactions to these words were rather tragic. Perhaps he created the situation to hammer into me the insignificance of the phenomenon called Death. Looking into my brimful eyes, he regretted: "So, this is the Vedanta that you had studied from me. What is strange in death? Death is only one of the experiences which the Atman illumines." I had no words to say, no thoughts to think, no feelings to entenain. Perhaps, gauging my thoughts, he continued" Supposing there was an old man who had come to you. He, seeing that you are engaged with others, was so considerate that he had. patiently waited the whole day in the veranda. Till late in the evening you are buried in your work and the old man waits on withall patience. Would you then close the doors on his face because you are tired? Or would you not then with all apologies invite the old man in and entertain him? Similarly, an old man was waiting to meet me for the last 68 years, and seeing me engaged with other preoccupations, he did not lose his patience and waited on in his instinctive goodness, all these years. Now that I am no more so busy, he is trying to come forward to meet me. Should I turn him down? Poor Death has been waiting from the moment I was born. Now that all my other engagements are over, he is trying to come and meet me. I am anxiously waiting to meet him and give him the interview.

I had no reply to give, I came away hoping ... The particular form, the great Lord took in the name of Sree Swami Tapovanam has dissolved and he has gone back to merge into his own Swaroopa. He has now become the Essence in each one of us. Wherever we find the glow of divine compassion, love, purity and brilliance, there we see but Sree Gurudev with his ever-smiling face. He has left His sheaths. He has now become the Self in all of us. Ours is a new great responsibility. We, his sishya-fami1y have to see that He finds an ample field in our individual bosoms to express Himself. It is not sufficient that we evovle ourselves - we must learn to realise Him to visible expression everywhere. It is a glorious chance now to take a sacred oath upon ourselves that we shall not rest contented until He is fulfilled. Hindu revival is the Tapovana Vratam.

At least we, who are his immediate disciples, must consider the full moon day of each month as a sacred day for fasting, study, prayer and deep meditation. Let us observe the Poornima Day of every month as a day for inspiration and self dedication till the Tapovana Vratam of the Hindu Revival is accomplished.

(Written in 1957 after Swami Tapovanam's Mahasamadhi)

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