Mukti Kanta

Sometime ago, Putumbaka Srikrishnayya, a devotee of Bhagavan, wrote the biography of Dhanurdasa, who was a devotee of Lord Sri Ranganatha, in verse and dedicated it to Bhagavan.

Sometime ago, Putumbaka Srikrishnayya, a devotee of Bhagavan, wrote the biography of Dhanurdasa, who was a devotee of Lord Sri Ranganatha, in verse and dedicated it to Bhagavan. After Bhagavan had graciously accepted this book of verses, he wrote some more poems separately and offered them to Bhagavan. The gist of the first poem was: “Swami, my Kriti Kanya (comparing the poems to a young

* Jada Bharata was a Jivanmukta and an Avadhuta like Bhagavan.

maiden) has refused to accept anyone else but Bhagavan as her suitor. I have decided to offer you humbly this maiden. Please accept her and bless us.” In the last poem he wrote: “You have become my son-in-law. I have partaken of the marriage feast with you. I have thus become blessed. I will take leave of you. Just because you have wooed and won Mukti Kanya (comparing Mukti to a maiden), please do not neglect my beloved child.”

When this happened, I was not in town. As soon as I returned, Bhagavan told me all about it: “Look. It seems I have already married Mukti Kanya. He has ordered me not to neglect his daughter. Read this,” so saying Bhagavan made me read the poems. Apart from this, he used to narrate this event humorously. Later on, when the author of this book came there, he used to say jocularly, “My father-in-law has come. Have you seen him?” Sometime later, when Mahadeva Sastri came, Bhagavan showed him these poems and made him read them. Ramanamma, a devotee of Bhagavan, not knowing that these poems were only fit for diversion, got Bhagavan’s permission and took the book for copying. The next morning, when I went there, I saw the book in Bhagavan’s hands. Seeing me, Bhagavan said with a slight smile, “See that lady sitting over there. She took this book yesterday saying that she wanted to copy these ‘Kriti Kanya Samarpana’ poems. This evening she brought the copied poems saying that she wanted to read them out to me. ‘That’s enough. Don’t read them. Keep them with you and do parayana everyday,’ I said. The other day when Mahadeva came, I showed him these poems for fun. He read them here. What more was needed? She must have thought that Swami was very fond of them. She copied them immediately. It is not as though she really wanted them. Her real intention was only to read them in the hall.” Saying this Bhagavan laughed. I said, “If anybody writes about Bhagavan

in a humorous way, that he is a thief, a simpleton, and a deceiver, and Bhagavan starts joking about it, then some people begin imagining that Bhagavan likes it.” Bhagavan replied, “Yes, yes. If the writer who had written these poems had also added that the reading of these verses would give them the merit of giving away their daughter in marriage (kanya dana phalam), then it would indeed have been very apt.”

Four or five years ago, the wife of Ranganatha Iyer, a devotee, gave Bhagavan a book named Ramana Kalyanam written by their son. It seems that her husband was a playmate of Bhagavan in his young days. The whole book was full of songs. In it, Bhagavan was depicted as a bridegroom with a Mukti Kanta as the bride. One day he started to sing all these songs in the hall. Everything that pertained to the marriage ceremony was described in it in detail, such as the bri dal procession, the exchange of garlands, etc. At that point Bhagavan, looking at us, said, “Have you all observed me getting married? Here am I, playing with flowers, exchanging garlands, hearing songs and getting married in the proper way. These people are all grief-stricken because Swami has not been married all these days. In this way they have at last made up for the deficiency. Just listen to them!” And Bhagavan laughed.