Jagadguru Sri Abhinava Vidyatheertha Mahaswamin
(35th Shankaracharya of Sringeri Sri Sharada Peetham)
(35th Shankaracharya of Sringeri Sri Sharada Peetham)
On the 6th December 1935, His Holiness reached His meditation spot on the hill around 5pm. In keeping with the Lord’s instruction, He intended to focus on the Supreme Brahman, with scripture as the authoritative basis and corroborative reasoning as an aid. He began recalling and analyzing three profound statements of the Taittiriya Upanishad on the Brahman, a pair of verses of the Bhagavadgita that speak of the field, together with its modifications.
He then moved on to contemplating the nature of the Brahman as per the Taittiriya Upanishad, and having ascertained the true nature of the individual self and that of the Supreme, recalled verses of the said Upanishad as also two verses of the Bhagavadgita. His enquiry into the Truth resulted in great clarity and conviction. He then initiated His meditation as usual. Instead of conceiving any form, He mentally uttered and strongly held on to the idea conveyed by the first half of the opening verse of Bhagavatpada’s Brahmanuchintana. Immediately, He felt Himself expanding and becoming pervasive like space and felt great joy.
The next day, His Holiness pondered on pure consciousness and right knowledge. He decided to use His desire to meditate as the prop in initiating contemplation on the atman as the witness of said desire. The mental activity serving as the object vanished and an isolated ‘I’ thought remained. Very soon, even this almost faded away. Consciousness shone clearly without object or limitations and He was overwhelmed by bliss. This was His first experience of savikalpa samadhi on the formless reality. After emerging from the meditation, He decided to meditate again by directly generating and intensifying the notion that He was Brahman instead of relying on a thought to start the meditation. He promptly attained savikalpa-samadhi.
On the consequent days, His Holiness reflected on the Truth by deeply considering passages from Bhagavatpada’s Panchikarana, Mahanarayana-upanishad, Chandogya-upanishad; achieved savikalpa-samadhi by focusing on the bare existence of the Sun, and later the wall before Him. The attention to the truth that had been persisting effortlessly since then was uninterrupted even during dreams.
His Holiness then discerned that the mind could be thoroughly focused on the atman by preventing oneself from being overwhelmed by the bliss of savikalpa samadhi. He then contemplated on the Lord’s instruction in the Bhagavadgita and also on verses in Vivekachudamani that speak of nirvikalpa-samadhi. That evening, His Holiness attained nirvikalpa samadhi during His meditation session and again that night.
The next day, His Holiness felt impelled to practice Nadhanusandhana and nirvikalpa samadhi ensued. The same afternoon, He attained nirvikalpa samadhi through kundalini centered laya-Yoga. These experiences clarified to Him that consciousness does shine in all its glory without any object whatsoever and that the atman is of the nature of consciousness. Since then His mind plunged into nirvikalpa samadhi effortlessly.
On 12th December 1935, during His evening meditation session at the summit of the hill, His Holiness attained direct realization of the Brahman and jivanmukti, as had been stated by the Lord earlier. Upon His return from the hill that evening, the senior Jagadguru embraced His disciple and voiced a mantra of the Mundaka-upanishad, a passage of the Brihadaranyaka-upanishad, and a verse of the Bhagavadgita all of which are about an enlightened person, a Jivanmukta.
Since His Holiness had been repeatedly abiding in nirvikalpa samadhi over the preceding few days, His mind subsided readily and went into nirvikalpa samadhi on its own. He was in a position to perform only what He was habituated to doing. Also, emerging from samadhi became difficult. By the afternoon of 14th December 1935, the impact of the nirvikalpa samadhi had become so much that He succeeded in doing His ahnika poorly. He remained in nirvikalpa samadhi till evening bath, to complete which He needed some assistance. His evening ahnika fared far worse than one in the afternoon. He didn’t partake anything before retiring to His room. There, He again went into nirvikalpa samadhi.
His Holiness descended from samadhi on becoming vaguely aware of the intonation of ‘Om’ in His Guru’s voice and saw His Guru. The senior Jagadguru said that the Lord had made it clear to Him that His disciple could not emerge from samadhi on His own due to its intensity, and so had come to arouse His Holiness from the same. The senior Jagadguru deemed it essential that His Holiness regulate His samadhi and emerge from it Himself after a predetermined duration. He also directed His disciple to study diligently and master the sastras, and to show appropriate emotions in dealing with the devotees, the matha’s staff and others. So intense was His Holiness’s reverence for and devotion and obedience to His Guru that even the powerful tendency to repose in samadhi could not stand in the way of His strictly carrying out His Guru’s wishes. His Holiness started revising His tarka lessons and gradually regenerated interest in sastraic studies. To facilitate interpersonal dealings without any hypocrisy, He accommodated appropriate thoughts and feelings. This enabled effective and totally unpretentious functioning while leaving the mind basically silent.
There are several instances that leave no room for doubt about His Holiness’s firm establishment in the Truth. On 22nd February 1983, His Holiness was administered an intramuscular injection of morphine due to an attack of angina with severe pain in the chest. He was in a state of semi-torpor. Though hardly conscious, His Holiness muttered a verse which declares the highest Truth of Vedanta. Who else but a Jivanmukta could have affirmed thus even when having experienced intense pain and being just semi-conscious?