Glimpses of Divinity

On this day (February 13) in the year 1907, Sri Mahaperiyava took Sannyasa. He lived 100 years to show how a Sanyasi should live in this world. Once, one of his attendants told Him that he saw some abuse about Mahaperiyava written on a stone. This stone was on the way to a river, in which Mahaperiyava would do His daily snaanam. The attendant also said that he had erased whatever was written. He felt that Mahaperiyava would pat him on his back for what he did. Instead, Mahaperiyava was a bit upset and told him, “I very rarely get an opportunity to correct myself, now you have deprived me of such an opportunity too!”

In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna talks highly of a person to whom abuse and praise are the same –तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिः / तुल्यानिन्दात्मसंस्तुतिः  (tulyanindā-stutiḥ / tulyānindātma-saṃstutiḥ)

tulyānindātma-saṃstutiḥ– as someone who is very dear to Bhagavan, and as a person who is beyond the three gunas (Satva, Rajas, Tamas). If at all anyone needs to know how such a person would be, we just need to look at Sri Mahaperiyava.

तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिर्मौनी सन्तुष्टो येन केनचित्‌ |  अनिकेतः स्थिरमतिर्भक्तिमान्मे प्रियो नरः ||12-19||

     tulyanindā-stutir-maunī santuṣṭo yena kenacit |  aniketaḥ sthira-matir-bhaktimān-me priyo naraḥ ||12-19||                           

समदुःखसुखः स्वस्थः समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः |     तुल्यप्रियाप्रियो धीरस्तुल्यनिन्दात्मसंस्तुतिः || 14-24||

sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ svasthaḥ sama-loṣṭāśma-kāñcanaḥ |tulya-priyāpriyo dhīras-tulya-nindātma-saṃstutiḥ ||14-24||

मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः |     सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते || 14-25||

mānāpamānayos-tulyas-tulyo mitrāripakṣayoḥ |      sarvārambha-parityāgī guṇātītaḥ sa ucyate || 14-25||

Let us remember this great Mahan on this day 

सकृत्स्मरणमात्रेण भवरोगविनाशके |   श्रीचन्द्रशेखरपादाब्जे भासेताम् हृदि मे सदा  ||

sakṛt-smaraṇa-mātreṇa bhava-roga-vināśake |śrīcandraśekhara-pādābje bhāsetām hṛdi me sadā ||

–“Remembering MahaPeriyava” by Sri Chandrasekharan Raman