Educated People
Yesterday, Sri Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and family came here. Having had Bhagavan’s darshan, they went to the great Arunachaleswara Temple in the town and, after taking food and rest, came to Bhagavan to take leave of him.
Yesterday, Sri Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and family came here. Having had Bhagavan’s darshan, they went to the great Arunachaleswara Temple in the town and, after taking food and rest, came to Bhagavan to take leave of him. Bhagavan graciously nodded his head, giving them leave to go. Having known the ladies of the party, I went to their car to see them off, and then came back to the hall. I sat down and Bhagavan asked if they had gone. I replied in the affirmative. “Ten years ago,” said Bhagavan, “they were here; Pranavananda Swami is a first cousin of his.”
After a short while, Bhagavan noticed that the European and the Gujarati ladies sitting by me were asking me something, and so enquired what they were saying. I said that they were enquiring as to whether Radhakrishnan had asked Bhagavan any questions.
“I see,” said Bhagavan. “No, they are all well-read people, they know everything. What is there for them to ask?” * Kailasa: The world of Lord Siva. Bhooloka: Our human world. Vaikunta: The world of Lord Vishnu.
An Andhra gentleman: “Did he ask any questions when he came last time?”
Bhagavan: “No. It was the same thing last time too. He had heard everything about me from Pranavananda Swami, and when he came here he just sat, and never opened his mouth.”
The devotee: “Outside, he gives lectures in a grand style. Why did he sit here without any talk or discussion?”
Bhagavan with a laugh, said, “In 1938, Rajendra Prasad came here and it was the same thing with him too. Although he was here for four or five days, he did not ask questions even once. He used to sit quietly in a corner with closed eyes. Only when he was leaving did he want to know what message, if any, I had for the Mahatma. Even that, he prevailed upon someone else to ask for him.”
The devotee: “It seems that Bhagavan said that the Mahatma was always in communion with the inner Self (antaratma), that the inner Self is here, there and everywhere, and that there is nothing that needs to be communicated. Is that so?”
Bhagavan: “Yes, indeed. Jamnalal Bajaj also came at that time, and it was the same with him too, he used to sit in a corner quietly, without anyone being aware of where exactly he was sitting. In the early morning, when we were all cutting vegetables, he would join us in the work. It was only at the end that he asked us a few questions and had his doubts cleared.”
The devotee: “In 1944, when Manu Subedar, the translator of the Jnaneswari into English, came here, he did not ask any questions either, did he?”
Bhagavan: “No. At that time someone was reading the Ribhu Gita and Manu Subedar said that in every book the Siddha or adept state is elaborately explained, but nothing much is
said about the sadhaka state, the state of the spiritual practitioner. It was then that I showed him the discussion between Vithoba and Jnaneswar in the Bhakta Vijayam. That was all. He asked no more questions. He is a well-read man. What is there for people like him to ask? They come here for Peace.”
The devotee: “Satyamurthi, Thiru V. Kalyanasundara Mudaliar, Jnaniyar, Bulusu Sambamurthi, Tanguturi Prakasam, Karapatraswamy and many others, when they came here did not speak at all. Yet all these people, when they go away, deliver lectures, thumping the table and roaring like lions, Bhagavan.”
Bhagavan: “Yes, they are learned people. Some are writers, some are orators. Nayana was also like that.”
The devotees: “So people who are well-read do not ask Bhagavan any questions. It is only ordinary people like us who worry you with them. But if we do not ask you, Bhagavan, how else are we to know?”
Bhagavan: “That is all right; it doesn’t matter.” And he was once more silent.