Vasishtha Ganapati Muni
His Association with The Mother and Sri Aurobindo
Vasishtha
Ganapati Muni was an
ardent adorer of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. While going through the writings
of Sri Aurobindo appearing in Arya, he had developed an inner contact with the Master
and the Mother. But he never had any opportunity to have their Darshan. On the 15th
of August 1928 he came to Pondicherry to participate in the birthday
celebrations of Sri Aurobindo. After he saw the Master he had only one word to
express from the deepest depths of his heart – Divya Purusha, the Divine personified. Later he told one of his
disciples here that he had witnessed a powerful spiritual radiance around Sri
Aurobindo. He also exclaimed that Sri Aurobindo’s face was 500 years old, there
was so such of wisdom, so much of maturity, so much of ripeness. Before he came
to Pondicherry a copy of his magnum opus, Umasahasram (thousand verses in Sanskrit praising goddess Uma) was
sent to Sri Aurobindo. It was Sudhanva, a disciple of the Muni who settled in
the Ashram here, who had given this copy of Umasahasram
to Sri Aurobindo. On going through the verses of this grand poem Sri Aurobindo
had expressed that it was a ‘superman performance’ and he would like to meet
the author. Later Sri Aurobindo passed this copy on to Kapali Sastri who wrote
a splendid commentary on it.
After having Sri
Aurobindo’s darshan, the Muni stayed in the Ashram for fifteen days. He stayed
at the residence of Sudhanva. On the 16th of August, at 9 a.m. he
saw the Mother with Kodandaraman. Both Mother and the Muni had a joint
meditation for half an hour. After the mediation Mother expressed her wish to
hear a few verses of his Sanskrit rendering of Sri Aurobindo’s book ‘The Mother’. Mother was highly pleased with him. Mother had
remarked: “The half an hour’s meditation of the Muni was perfect. It was a continuous,
unbroken state and that no sadhak
with whom she meditated has yet done so for more than three to five minutes.”
On the other hand the Muni also said that during the meditation, first he felt a
current emerging through his head, and then he felt that an external current
was very perceptibly falling on him from all sides. On the 19th the
Muni had his second interview with the Mother. It lasted full forty five
minutes. During the first fifteen minutes the Muni read the verses from his
Sanskrit rendering of The Mother. Then there was a long talk between them.
During this conversation the Muni said to the Mother that she must consider him
as her son and that he was at her service, to be utilized as her instrument for
Divine works. As the Muni was expatiating on his revelations of the incarnation
of Shakambhari (one of the aspects of
the Divine Mother) Mother seems to have closed her eyes and fallen into a
trance. Afterwards the Muni revealed to Sri Venkataraman that he saw a bright
light emerging from her toe and there was a halo of light around her and the
current emerging from all parts of her body was distinctly visible to the naked
eye and the entire room was surcharged with electricity. Towards the end of
this meeting the Muni gave to the Mother a copy of his incomplete renderings of
‘The Mother’ for Sri Aurobindo’s
approval. The third interview with
the Mother was on the 25th morning. It lasted for one full hour and
ten minutes. The first half hour was spent in meditation, and then conversation
followed. During this meeting Mother returned the copy of the verses given for
Sri Aurobindo’s approval and said that Sri Aurobindo highly admired them and
found them very beautiful and wanted him to complete the work. Then Mother said
that Sri Aurobindo and herself have recognized him as a man who could do their
divine work.
On one day during
his stay here in the Ashram, in one hour, he composed 108 aphorisms or sutras divided into 8 parts. These sutras explain many secrets of different
Yogas. The work is known as Tattvaghantashatakam
of which part 7 and 8 are available. It is interesting to note that the Muni
did not know English yet many of the fundamentals of what Sri Aurobindo wrote
in the Secret of the Veda were written down by him in Sanskrit. When Sri
Aurobindo was asked how could it be possible, he said that when the great
truths descend they are received and given expression to by whoever is open to
them. This was the secret of Vasistha Ganapati Muni – he was sufficiently open
to receive truths descending from higher planes of consciousness.
After he left
from Pondicherry he never returned. A few letters to the Mother written in
Sanskrit are the only proofs of his gratitude to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.
Apart from these letters no where else do we find Vasishtha Ganapati Muni saying
anything about the Mother or Sri Aurobindo or their yoga.
Dr. Sampadananda Mishra
Click Here for some more information related to Muni's Association with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
No comments:
Post a Comment