The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1/Pandit Sivanath Sastri
II
PANDIT SIVANATH SASTRI.
(1919)
Sisters and Brethren,
Exactly a fortnight back, almost to the very hour, came to my hand the expected and yet un-expectcd message, the very likely and yet unwelcome message, that he whom I had always counted, always respected, always revered as my guru was called to those glorious, holy, God-illumined, God-ordained walks and paths of higher duties, of holier occupations and of more sacred joys which are the rewards of this life and for which this life is a preparation.
Render we our thanks unto God—may He keep out from our hearts every sort of pride, of self-exaltation—render we our grateful thanks unto God that, in the history of the Brahma Samaj, in the short and glowing history of the Brahma Samaj, there have been these miracles of God’s grace and glory,. so many striking, outstanding, thought-arresting, heart-attracting, soul-enrapturing instances of God’s grace and goodness. Of Rajah Rammohan Roy, it was said by an admirer professing even an alien faith that his life affords one noteworthy instance of God’s providential and righteous care for man, by and through the rearing and raising of a witness in unexpected places and circumstances. In the dark day of India, God with His own hand lit the light that India might once again see light, love and joy. Of all miracles, real or supposed, this is the most arrestive of attention, that, as out of hard stone there jets forth a spring of crystal water, so, out of adamantine godlessness or out of self-puzzling superstition, springs up a life which is tender with the throb of faith and clear and firm with the reasoned knowledge of truth. And such an instance was Rajah Rammohan Roy, an instance of God’s perennial providence under the most unpromising conditions. As the story of the Dispensation began wuth him, so it has gone on. We are told that it, too, is proof and evidence of God’s providence, of God’s direct doings in the history of Christianity that mere fishermen, illiterate persons, were translated, transformed, into Apostles of God. That is true, and it is a matter for thankfulness. But the opposite wonder is that those in high places voluntarily abdicate their power and position and come down to the lowly levels of, the poor and the humble; those enjoying vested interests cast aside all personal gains and profits; those recognised, through; traditional rules of judgment, to be by Heaven itself endowed with the supreme privilege of controlling and guiding man’s destiny, give up all, humbling themselves into the lowly service of man in the name of God. That, top, is, in its own way, as much a proof of God’s direct dealing in the history of a dispensation. When Maharshi, who could, for the mere asking, have been a Maharajah, chose to be a Maharshi, giving up his power, place, position and privilege, and put on the garb of humility and wore the ashes of' self-denial, that was a marvel of God’s merciful providence in the history of this our Dispensation. And, likewise, when one who could move thousands with his electrifying eloquence; who could, not through his solicitation but by their invitation, find welcome access to Governors and Viceroys and the Sovereign herself, when he gave up all in the name of God, assumed the apostolic garb and went forth,. with truth on the lip and love in the heart, to proclaim the glory of God, when Keshub Chandra Sen went forward, that was another proof of God’s providential doing for the Dispensation of the Spirit. When a Kuleen Brahmin, by custom placed in the lofty position. of master of the whole society, whose word is social law, to gratify whose desire is held to be the salvation of one’s soul, when, he snaps, literally snaps into shreds, the mark and token of his supremacy and wears the garb of the poor servant of God, this is another proof of the providence of God in the history of the Dispensation of the Spirit. The humble to be exalted into the apostle-that is one way in which God vindicates His greatness. The powerful, the lofty, the proud to be humbled and enlisted into the lowly service of man—this is the other way in which God vindicates His glory. There are innumerable such instances of God’s doing for the good of the Brahma Samaj in the short history of our church, for which we all join to render thanks unto His mercy.
He whose translation to higher spheres is the occasion for bur meeting here to-day, was a great man, a prince among men, a prophet among souls, a saint and sage among spirits. What could he net have been, had he chosen some other path! Not quite thirty, already holding a promising place in the Educational Department with a brilliant University record providing his credentials for future promotion and elevation, on the one hand; and faced, on the other, with poor means and humble position—often the excuse for adhering to a lucrative place when duty calls elsewhere—he in a moment gave up all in self-dedication to the service of God. What could not a man of undoubted ability, moving eloquence, inexhaustible energy and activity, commanding character and winning disposition, what could he not have achieved for his own exaltation, if he had chosen to seek self before God! He gave up all , not from external pressure, not from the stress of circumstances, but from, the spontaneity of dedication to a great cause. All honour to him; all honour to the God that led him on to it! He lived, not merely a life of poverty, but a life of privation; and that, without a word of dissatisfaction, leave alone complaint. He felt the greatness of the task before him, the nobility of the vocation, the glory of the end, lie had placed before himself.
- “Unknown delights are in the cross,
- All joy beside to me is dross,”
says Madame Guyon. These delights of the cross Pandit Sastri assumed unto himself. All joy beside was to him dross!
And how cheerful was his temperament always! The very laughter of the man was a sunshine of the heart. As we all know, we laugh from different motives. There is the cynical laughter, the sardonic laughter, the empty laughter, the crowing laughter. But there is the laughter of spiritual fellowship, the ' laughter that comes from the heart, in which there is the Sunshine of God. Once t was asked to preside Over the Provincial Social Conference at Ranipet; Pandit Sastri was then at Madras. Having taken my leave of him, I went and presided. And when I came back, Pandit Sastri asked me. What did you tell them in your address, Venkata Ratnam?” “In your name, sir, I told them to be cheerful.” “Why, do you always find me cheerful And even with the familiarity I always enjoyed with my guru, my soul’s parent, as when Coleridge asked Lamb whether he found him sermonising and Lamb, in his own broken, stammering way, blurted out, ‘I ne-ne-never saw you doing anything else,’ so I said I never found him anything but cheerful. And he burst into a laughter and said, “Yes, yes, you have correctly characterised me. Our religion must teach men to be cheerful. Too long have they taught in this country that the longer a man pulls his face, the deeper is his spirituality. Our religion must make men put on a broad face and teach them to be cheerful.” Think not it is a cheerfulness that comes out of indifference to others’ concerns. No, no, it is the cheerfulness that comes out of the confidence that
- “God’s in his heaven—
- All’s right with the world.”
Madame Guyonhas said,
- "Sorrow and love go side by side;
- Nor height nor depth can e’er divide
- Their heaven-appointed bands.”
And the man of God is a composite character, a reconciliation of contraries, just as God Himself is a reconciliation of contradictions, with a tear in the eye and a kiss on the lip—the tear to baptise, the kiss to bless; the tear which says that God is a, compassionate God, the kiss which says that God is a loving God. Thus this cheerful man was also a sorrowing man, grieving that God’s process has been arrested but hoping that God’s providence shall prevail. He shed tears, not with the bitterness of disappointment, but with the trembling responsiveness of fellow-feeling. Such was Sastri Mahashai; and such were several others in the Brahma Samaj.
Another trait in him was that he was a fund of stories—there was no end of anecdotes. We, shallow people, think that anecdotage is only a mark of dotage. We think that the man is shallow and he cannot think of abstract principles and maxims. It may so in some cases. But in the case of Sastri Mahashai, anecdotes were the stepping-stones of details in life on which he rose to the higher self. Every one of these he used as a crystallised principle, a concretised maxim, a truth distilled into the essence of experienced facts. And how these came, not with the deliberate effort of one who seeks to make himself agreeable, but with the spontaneity of one in whom they were all deposited as a treasure for narration and edification! With what i kindliness and glow and with what charm and persuasiveness they came I He did not hesitate to narrate anecdotes about himself, because they were facts, they wore truths. Once a man came up to us^ talking incoherently; Pandit Sastri said: he would see him by and by because we were going to a place one a fixed appointment. After he went away, Pandit Sastri said, “Last night’s lecture must have made him mad. I sometimes make men mad.” I said, “Yes, you have made many mad men sober also.” That is the complex nature of the messenger of God’s truth—to make mad people sober and calculating people mad. On another occasion, I observed that he promised to close a service and sermon in an hour and took two and a half hours ! And he said, “I am like the drunkards who began with drinking only one bottle and did not give up till they consumed many a bottle and raised such a hue and cry that people came and thrashed them into silence. So you must have silenced me!” Wonderful man, wonderful man, that received everything in the finest grace I This fund of stories in him amused the casual hearer, instructed the thoughtful and endeared him to kindred spirits. This man, they felt, was ever watchful, ever on the alert. There was not an incident in his life that did not leave an impression on his mind, not an occurrence that did not make its mark, not a scene that did not have its own direct bearing on his life. Just as Shaik Sadi, the author of Gulistan, must have been ever awake to have stored up that inexhaustible treasure of anecdotes which is the attraction and value his work, so, a Sivanath Sastri or a Raj Narayan Bose or any of these story-tellers must have been watchful souls receiving impressions and storing them up. This is the difference between a conscious and an unconscious life. So many of us who think they are living conscious lives, lead unconscious lives. The little negro girl in ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, when asked when she was born, replied, “Methinks, I growed.” That is unconscious tree-life, and we all lead it. In big forests, botanists tell us, there are huge trees which, when cut across, show rings in the wood of the trunk which are a chronicle of the life of the tree. As many rings, so many years. We find in big trees, when cut through, five or six hundred rings showing that they lived through five or six hundred years. Even thus in man, if the conscious soul is wide-awake, all these various experiences, focussed' and crystallised into vivid realities of remembered instance and example, make the life what it is, I’ich in principle and rich in practice.
Again, another characteristic of Pandit Sastri was that he was a man of invincible faith' — a man whose faith nothing could shake and subdue. Once he undertook a prolonged mission tour — starting from ■Calcutta, passing through Behar, old North- West Provinces, Lahore, Central India and tlie Bombay and Madras Presidencies and i-back again to Calcutta — all that taking three <nionths. And h(! began that great tour with the magnificent sum of six rupees in Ids pocket! He made his plans, he sketched out the details of the tour ; but he never asked him- self what money would be necessary. On his way to the Station, he goes along Cornwallis Street, calls at the Sadharan Samaj Office and asks the Secretary, “ I am going on a mission tour. Will you give me money ?” And the Secretary says, “ I have only six rupees.” "All right, give me that ; I will go as far as dhat can take me, and God will give me the rest.” And God provides the rest I He goes to the next station and delivers a lecture. The next day he makes up his mind to g-o and j)acks up his things to start ; and somebody comes up and says, “ I have listened to your lecture with great pleasure.” “ I am going today.” “ Yes, sir, I want to contribute three rupees to 'your travelling expcmses.” “ Yes.” He receives it. He steps out. Another gentleman gives three rupees. Then he goes to the next station and gets down. He knows nobody there and is strolling up and down the platform. A man falls jirostrate at his feet and says, “ I am blessed.” “ Who are you, please ?” ‘‘I am a compositoi- in a
Press. I did some little stealiirg and was handed over to the Police. You interceded,, you pleaded for me and got me excused. 'Then I felt what a departure it was, saw what it was to be good. 1 have changed, I have timned over a new leaf. Please come to my house and be my guest and delivcu’ some lectures here.” Next day, agdin, he. makes up his bundles and waits at the Station, 'I’he porter comes and says, ‘‘It is onljr 10 minutes to the time. Please come on.'*’ “ Yes, my friend, but 1. have no ticket.’* “ f have already purchased a ticket for y<»u, sir. Please come in.” Thus lie went; on and on, till he reached Lahore, met Sirdar Dayal Singh, who gave - him an escort and some money. And Pandit Sastri told me, “ When we had to part, w^e counted all the money we had. It w^as just enough for his ticket and mine. Thus (lod helped mo.” And he added. “ How is it Fatlnn’ Huller had to pray for his w'ants and 1 never prayed?” I said, ‘‘Your mission is itself a prayer.” He laughed and said, “ Yes, it is true.” That w'as the man of faith! He came to Madras. We opened his jK>rtmanteau. We found only two ragged shirts. We put in new shirts and he said, “ God Mess you.’’ A man hands him Bs. 10. “ Did you know' that I I'equii’ed it?” “ No, sir.” “ I am in the habit of sending ten rupees every month to tny mother, and today is the due date. God has sent these ten rupees.”
Thus he lived on the bounty of God, according to His favour, as it came every day. And how scrupulous ! He goes back to Calcutta, goes to the Sadharan Samaj and says, ‘‘A watch and a silver plate have baen presented by my friends in Madras, I do not know whether they are for me or for the Sadharan Samaj. Anyhow, it is a very trying situation for me. What is spontaneous may become ’ customary, and yhat is customary may be- come compulsory. Thus the poor begging sanyasin in course of time becomes the J agud- guru Avith a crown of gold and a throne ot silver. You will decide who is to take it, I or the Samaj.” And the Sadharan Samaj says, ” Do accept it, it is meant for you-” Such was the scrupulous honesty of the man — no preseiits to be accepted except with the knowledge and assent of those whose mis- sionary he was ! Once finding he Avas not able to go out for one full month on account of ill- health, he said, “ I cannot receive the monthly allowance.’’ And they could not force him to take it. He spoke the truth as' he felt it, when he was here at Cocanada last in the year 1907—"Mind not money ; do your duty and God will send money.” That was the faith of the man. Yet, what was at the bottom of all this was ■ ihe sense of direct responsibility to God. He did not know' of any suffering he had borne for the sake of faith. He accepted everything as it came. He was even brought to the verge of death, when the Mother rescued him. “But for my ‘ scholarship Venkata Katnam, I should have starved with my wife and child ” — (now Mrs. Hemalatha Sarkar.) That resolute will, that stern unbending faith, was at the bottom of the man. He timsted in God, and God blessed him. When Pratap Chandra Muzoomdar was in England, at the close of an interview' w'ith John Bright, that great orator asked him, “ How do you, Brahmo missionaries, live ?” “ They have no fixed allowance, no definite fund. They only accept what comes to them.” “ Oh then, it is the apostolic spirit of dependence on the providence of God ! Yes, after all, f hat is the best.” Y'^es. On W'hom can man depend but on Him who caters to the ant in its hole and the nestling in its nest ? On Him alone, if we are wise and truly thoughtful, can we depend. Keshub found out that secret ; and they were happy all their days. Brahmic- history teems with ' instances of how Glod miraculously' caters to the needs and wants of His children. And of such faith and trust in the God of Providence Pandit Sastri is an. outstanding instance.
He bore the message of the Ih'ahnia Samaj alloverthe country'; and he was the first apostle of the Brahma Samaj to the Telugu Districts. In this town, he had wonderful experiences during his first visit. He W'as leceivod with X'omp and lodged comfortably in a big house. But, for having committed tin; grievous t)fience o^ receiving a tumbler of water from tlie hands of a Mahammadan servant, lie was soon sent out. The host could not understand how a Sastri holding conversations in the sacred language with Pandits could contaminate himself by accepting water from the- hands of a Mahammadan. Be was asked to find shelter elsewhere. Next day he was on a’i)ial. A meeting was held. The Collector came. The D. M. & S. O. canie. Various others came. They were all jdeased with the address and had a general talk with him on. religion. The host found out that he a fter alJ, Hn important man ; and so he struck the happy via media and gave him a banga*- low where he could safely indulge his social vagaries. Whether in the bungalow or on the piail, whether with Pandits or with a Mahammadan servant, he was the same. When, on the pial, the sun shone and the rain l>eat, some one brought a tatt}' and held it as an awning to protect Sastri Mahashai. A friend of mine who accompanied him to Madras and the South had said that I should 1>ecome a missionary, that I should become a Pandit Sastri. When they returned from Pangalore to Madras, the same friend said, “ P’^otber, for goodness’ sake, never Ixjcome a missionary. It is not only poverty but misery. Yet, Pandit Sastri bore all this and more with tlte hilarity of a man who was, as it were,, rising from power to power and expanding from glory to glory. Then he went to Rajahmundry before Mr. Veei'esalingam Pantulu was able to perform the first widow-marriage.^ He gave a lecture, many young men gathered and he put new life into them. What Mr^ Veeresalingam, with his earnest soul and persuasive life, had been trying to elicit from the yoiing men was ripened and matured into action by Pandit Sastri’s lecture ; and shortly after, the hrst widow-marriage was celebrated. Thus this harbinger of divine truth and apostle of divine light, was the great supporter of the social reform cause which has made this part of the countiy, thank God, known aiid respected elsewhere as an advanced part of the land. What he did liere and at Rajahmundry he did elsewhere, lie came to Cocanada on three occasions — 1881, 1890 and 1907. He visited different places ; and w'henever he went, he carried wdth him his authoritative conviction. A friend at Masulipatam said, The peculiarity about Pandit Sastri is : he told us what you have told us several times ; and yet, as he spoke, people felt as if they listened to it for the first time.” No wonder. He spoke from the heart ; and I spoke from the lip. He said what emerged from his heart ; I gave out how I heard that gospel. Ho spoke as a man who expressed what felt in personal experience and witlr tlie authority and power of one who was- commissioned and with the elation of re- joicing in preaching to the world. Thanked" he God, in our part of the country his noble mission has been followed so worthily by f)ther workers — Babu Bix)in Chandra Pal, Mr. Shinde, Babus Mahendranath Bose, Amrita Jial Bose, Bra ja Gopal Neogi and Hem Chandra Harkar. Before all these, Pandit Sastri was the liarbinger. We owe unto God our grateful thanks for having vouchsafed to us a messenger of His trutli so eloquent, so inspiring, so informing as I’andit Sastri.
He was, in the palmy days of his eloquence, a most moving speaker ; ' in Bengali he was one of the greatest speakers. Colonel Olcott mentioned him among the great masters of logic and geligious philosophy. Sir Monier Williams, in his “Records of Religions Thought,” spoke of him as ‘ a man of unquestioned ability and eloquence.’ Ranade and others regai'ded him as a modefii rishi to whom all votaries of reform . .ought to make a pilgrimage. A unique soul altogether I If we catfeulate the strese and strain amidst which Hb' had to carry, on his work with faith, and' judge amidst whom he worked — on the one hand, very impulsive people, and on the. other, towering intellects — we realise the gresatness .of the man, which he owed entirely’ to his devotion to God.
To me personally how great, how deep, how profound have been his kindness and good- ness ! Though it is a fact that there had’ Ijeeji humble beginnings, inner throbbings, silent processes, yet wdien it came to the d^isive step of coming into the Brahma; Siimaj, htunanly speaking, it was due to Pandit Sastri. In 1881, when I was in the F. A. Class; Pfindit Sastri delivered a series of lectures, lim 1882 I sought out Mr. Buchiah Pantuiu ; awt: ever since, for weal or for woe, I have been cum- nected with the Brahma Samaj ; and it has been my ambition, though, it must' sadly be confessed with a sense of humiliation, an unrealised ambition, to do something- werthy of one whom 1 admired and revered^— Fandit .Sast*i Unto him I owe the inepiratien which said, * Slot through exalted position, not through cheap popularity, but by loyal adherence to the cause of ti’uth and faithful pursuit of the principle of life-giving love will a man attain the end of existence.’
I feel that he was one of those but for whom the Brahma Samaj could not be what it is. He dealt out his heart and parcelled out his spirit to a thousand souls which are re-incarnated, re-duplicated, multiplied selves of him, we find here and elsewhere in the Brahma Samaj. And yet how tolerant, how ax)- preciative of merit, with none of that fanaticism which comes of narrowness of conception ^ind unbalancied mental condition ! I remember, after a discussion of the merits of vegetarianism , over which people were sharply divided, one of the advocates of vegetarianism wanted to score a crowning victory over his -opponents because Pandit Sastri was a vegetarian by prindide ; and he said, “ Is it not by being a vegetarian that you liave attained .this fine spiritual progress ?” Pandit Sastri relied , “ 1 do not know ; with the great exampie of Maharshi on. the other side, it wemid be presumptuous on my part to say so. Vegetarianism is more a matter of individual tasto and sentiment than a factor in the spiritual growth of man.” Such was the constant desire and propensity of the man to hold th&, - halance evenly between rival claimants for recognition. If, as some think, in the narration of certain events and incidents he allowed his personal proclivities to prevail, I am satisfied that his intention was not to shovr off his own cause or to show up the opposite^ cause. It was simjdy his sincere, apostolio eagerness to present facts in the dry light of truth ; for Pandit Sixstri was a person to whom justice and righteousness were always- dear.
He was a man who abhoj red all violence in any propaganda, whether social or any other. And God forbid that the Brahmfi. Samaj should ever make itself noted and notorious as countenancing any violence in social, political or religious propaganda ! Yet the spiritual ministrations of this chosen . servant of. God were not witheld even from thertrorst; , When some unfortunate young^ men who took to bomb-throwing were incarcerated and were about to be dealt with by the extreme penalty of law, he, without subscribing to their methods, yet had the necessary insight to know the needs of the souls of these young men. Pandit Sastri went up to the bai’S of the jail-cage and affectionately blessed them—not the unworthy acts, but the souls that, amidst all vicissitudes and fluctuations, continued to be dear to God. That was the true minister of Grod, not seeking popularity through assuming a taking cry, not shrinking from the discharge of unpopular but virtuous duty if, in the muae of God, it had to be done. That was tlie minister of religion, never a faddist, never a fanatic, never pusillanimous. Blessed be the name of the Brahma Samaj that has produced this great and good man, this worthy messenger of God, this noble expression of truth, this worthy example of righteousness ! Blessed be the name of God now and for ever!