As long as we do
not realize the Supreme Self, the universe looks frightening as a
snake that is illusorily projected on to a rope in darkness. The
moment the Self is realized, the illusory nature of the phenomenal
universe is experienced. Let us bow to the GURU who is the
Reality, of the nature of Reality-Awareness-Bliss. The non dual
reality which manifests itself as many to the erring intellect,
but which is realized to be the One is indeed the Parabrahman
and Lord Datta is it- the one who, in His Mercy, manifested
Himself as Lord Datta, the son of sage Atri and Anasuya, to enable
his devotees, Kartaveeryarjuna and King Yadu, to realize the Self.
He again manifested Himself as Sreepada Sreevallabha, and Sree
Nrisimha Saraswathi to uplift his devotees. Even now, he responds
to the call of His loving mortals at the confluence of rivers
Krishna and Bheema and has been perpetuating His mission. The One
Self who manifested Himself as the multiple universes and entered
its form is Lord Datta Himself. He can be realized through jnana
or knowledge. Those who transcend the duality of likes and
dislikes born of sensory experiences of objects, through the power
of discrimination get liberated from the strangle hold of
ignorance. To such a one, only the Supreme Lord is the object of
love. It is for the sake of such discriminating ones that the Lord
assumes the sporting form of a human being. In every age, He thus
manifests himself and restores righteousness through the adherence
to His own duties enjoined by the scriptures and then shuffles off
His form. In this cosmic cycle of the Day of Brahma, twenty eight
cycles of the four Yugas (cosmic epochs) had passed in the
Swetavarahakalpa. Having known that even the cosmic deities become
unresponsive in this wicked age of Kali, He again manifested
Himself. He exists in the subtle form of a renunciate Sage,
manifesting His miraculous and divine sport at the confluence of
rivers Krishna and Amaraja. The glory of this manifestation of the
divine is indescribable. Even at the moment of his birth, he
uttered the mystic syllable”Om” and by the mere touch of his hand,
he transmuted iron into gold. Even before he learned the alphabet,
he taught the Vedas to his disciples and expounded the Vedanta to
his parents in his childhood. Even at that young age, he visited
the holy pilgrimage, practiced yoga and restored the tradition of
renunciation to its pristine purity by his own practice. He cured
the intestinal illness of his devotee by making him partake of the
very food which is prohibited to such by medical science. He
transformed a tongue less man into an elegant expounder of wisdom.
He terminated the poverty of a Brahmin by his mere blessing and he
enabled him to visit three holy places in the wink of an eye. He
revived the dead, made barren cow yield milk. He conferred the
vision of his cosmic form on his devotee, Trivikrama and humbled
the pride of the learned. He made a devotee of the low caste
recite the Veda by his mere blessing. He terminated the widowhood
of a lady and expounded the subtleties of Karma Yoga to a
devotee. He made a withered twig grow into a tree and blessed a
barren woman with offspring by his mere look. He cured one of
leprosy. He presented himself in eight forms simultaneously at the
houses of his eight devotees on the holy day of Deepavali (the
festival of lights). He transformed a farm that was prematurely
harvested into one plentiful yield. He performed and has been
performing such miracles. It may be possible to count the stars in
the sky, the grains of sand on earth and the drops of water in the
ocean, but not the infinite divine attributes of the Lord. Though
he is the Spirit without any form, he miraculously assumes a form
and enters his devotee’s heart and through the gateway of his
hearing and cleans his heart and liberates him in this very life
from ignorance. The devotee who has transcended the dualism of joy
and sorrow, whether he is free from his body or not, will surely
attain perfection, the moment he works out the store of his
karma called prarabdha. This is a truth which cannot be
understood who do not bask in the association of the will, and who
are thus blinded by the force of their infatuation and
preoccupation with sensory pleasures. Those who lead their life
according to the form of righteousness that is enjoined by
scriptures; in accordance with their innate tendency; and those
who have faith and devotion in the deities and saints; those who
thus ever live in the light of their discrimination, are free from
false sense of agency in actions and free from craving for the
fruits of their actions, are true renunciates who attain both
divine security in life and liberation afterwards.
Having listened
to such a noble and glorious account of the manifestation of Sree
Guru, a Brahmin by name Namadharaka Sharma who, disillusioned with
the cravings of mundane existence, ever lived, devoting all his
life to the contemplation and glorification of the noble qualities
of the Guru, arrived at the confluence of rivers Bheema and
Amaraja. Thereby he realized the Lord. With the single object of
directly contacting the divine self of the Guru, he worshipped
Lord Ganeswara in order to ward off impediments in his endeavor
and Goddess Saraswathi, in order to obtain the right knowledge.
Then, he at last succeeded in achieving his object by glorifying
the Guru who reached out to him in the form of the story of his
Divine Sport, recounted by a living human form.
Namadharaka
glorified the divinity of Sree Guru thus: “Oh, All-knowing one!
Don’t you know me? Oh, Witness of the whole universe, don’t you
see me? Oh, all-pervading one, don’t you hear my cry? Or, even
though you have heard me, do you choose to ignore me? If you know
what I am, why does my despair still persist? If you have listened
to my cries, why does my misery persist?
In case you
ignore me, is it proper for you to mean that I should resort to
some other deity; for you are the one Spirit and Lord of all
deities. Moreover, you are our ancestral deity. How could I leave
you and seek the protection of some other deity? I know that you
are my Lord. Or, you being the Supreme, do you ignore me, because
I am but one among thy myriad creatures – just as the king is
known to all his subjects but he does not know every one of them
individually? This may be possible in the case of a little-knowing
mortal of a king, but it cannot be so in your case. For oh Lord,
you are all-knowing. If you say that you would grace me in return
for my service, or through offerings of charity, it is not proper.
He who does good only in return for some service cannot be a true
giver. Such a one is, indeed, a selfish giver. Just as the sun
affords light, and you have bestowed your grace on sage Dhruva and
Vibheeshana and bestowed the highest spiritual state on them. In a
similar fashion, may you bestow on me your blessed vision! The
nine types of treasures and the eight supernatural powers are your
servants. Can you need anything? What is it that I can offer you?
You are ever-full. What can I do for you? Even ordinary kings on
earth ever protect their servants. Oh you, Sustainer of the whole
universe, you have already received my worship. Why do you ignore
me? Oh, Lord of all deities, are you pained at some failing of
mine? It is not proper for you who is the abode of grace, to be
so. Even a human mother does not mind if a child kicks her with
its feet. Always the one or the other of the human parents ever
protects their children. You are the Father and Mother of the
whole creation. If You who is my Father and Mother, are not
merciful to me, I am helpless. It is not proper for you to say
that you have withheld your mercy from me owing to my failings.
For all my actions are prompted by ignorance; such is my innate
nature. I am doomed to do all those things which I condemn as bad.
Do you say that I should undo them by the contrary righteous
action? If most of my actions are holy and only a few of them are
unholy, it is possible for me to rectify then through
praayaschitta (penitentiary actions). Indeed, even such
penitentiary actions are afraid of me, even as a cow is afraid of
a tiger. How is it possible to remove the blackness of black gram?
Even so, how can japa and dhyana purify me who is
the very form of sin? Oh Lord, there is no sinner like me and
there is no destroyer of sin like you. Therefore, give up your
indifference towards me, Oh Lord, and protect me who has no other
refuge. Even flint seems to melt with kindness at my cry of
despair. What happened then, to your mercy, Oh merciful Lord? Why
don’t you protect me, who is slave of death?”
He started
fasting unto death. One day he wandered about and, finally, fell
asleep under a tree. He had a blissful dream in which he saw a
great wandering yogi. He had matted hair and besmeared his body
with holy ash. He wore a tiger’s skin and he wore rosaries of
rudraksha in his neck and on his arms. The very sight of the holy
one had completely quenched the blazing fire of his longing to see
Sree Guru. With tears of joy, Namadharaka prostrated before the
holy one, bathed his sacred feet in his tears of joy and wiped
them clean with his own long hair. The Yogi raised him up, and
blessed him by keeping his hand on Namadharaka’s head and put holy
ash on the latter’s forehead.