A Saint of Our Times

Prof. S.K.Ramachandra Rao;

This remarkable little great man is an unusual study in powerful contrasts, contrasts in his callings, in his avocations and in his predispositions. He is also an excellant illustration of the spirit’s inte grity where apparent opposites are perfectly recon ciled. A man with a mission, he has dedicated his entire life to causes, causes that are dear to his heart and causes that call for a sense of duty. Trust in God and hope in his work
characterise all his involvements, both as an enlightened individual and as a leader with commitment.
As a sanyasin, Sri Sri Vishvesha Teertha is a recluse, a renuciant, an ascetic. He keeps his monastic vows with unflinching fidelity and unswerving devotion. Indeed, he has done this almost all his life, for he entered into the monastic order even as a little boy and never even once has he turn ed back in doubt over that decision made by his elders in his tender years. He is not, however, a stray monk left to his own wits and and whim. He is pontiff, the head of a religious organization with its own spiritual and social ramifications among the people. The institution that he heads is one of the eight such institutions that were founded by Sri Madhwa in the thirteenth Century in order to propa gate his own philosophical ideas and religious ideals, and also to administer the celebrated Krishna temple in Udipi by rotation.
This position not only involves numerous responsibi lities, administrative as well as religious, but entails continuous involvement with people and their problems and almost ceaseless travel. And the discharge of his duties as the head of religious oder may indeed run into sharp conflict with his own spirit of abnegation, renunciation and dedication to God. As a sanyansi, his primary concern is quiet spiritual contemplation,
which indeed he does without a break. He is in this role a pilgrim who has turned inward in search of God. But as a leader of a pontificate, he must turn outward and partici pate in the hustle bustle of the transitional world, which also he does pull and the outward
push have not disturbed his natural cheerful disposition; they have occasioned in him no strees, no strain no confusion and no conflict.
He has a natural proclivity for a thoroughly spiritu al career, And he has meticulously prepared himself for this. He has been an avid student of scriptures and sincere religious practitiones. He ia alive both to the form and content of the traditional discipline.
Even here he is a study in contrasts. While he is orthodox to the core and conservative (in the right sense of the term) in spirit, he is also discretely modern in his approach to religious and social problems. His doctrinal stand point is un compromisingly tattva vada as propounded by Sri Madhwa in whose monastic lineage he finds himself. It is not with a mere sense of belongingness that he espouses this philosophical position; he is fully and honestly convinced about its value for human advancement and perfection.

But he is, by no strecth of imagination, bigoted or fanatical. He recognizes readily andsincerely that each one of us has perfect freedom to adopt, accord ing to his conviction, any of the doctrinal view points or religious approaches. This open hearted and friendly demeanour is altogether unusual among the religious heads aligned to the traditional deno minations. And it is but natural that followers of all the denominations look upon him as their inspired leader. In fact, he is now and has been so for many years, the honoured and universally accepted spokesman of the Hindu community all over the country, especially in the movement towards reformation, reconstruction and unification of the community, steering clear of all differences of caste, creed and concern. In this, he is scrupulous ly avoids diplomacy and politics. His all absorbing interest is to lead Hindus towards light in their personal lives and in group living.
I have been witness to his reacing great heights, not by compromising his convictions with conveniences or by exploiting opportunities to persoanl aggrandizement, but by his simplicity, sincerity, candour, transparency and genuine love of humanity. He has become enormously influential, but refrains from throwing his weight around, and from pressing even a fraction of that influence to personal advantage. All that he cares for is the wel fare of the people in the true sense of that term welfare within the milien of traditional cultural values and social living, making marginal allowances for contemporary pressures and trends. He is by no means averse to science or technology, but his priorities are clearly moral rectitude and spiritual awakening, for they alone assure humanity’s survival.He cannot be described as a preacher or a missionary. When he speaks, and he speaks often and to diverse groups all over the country, he is not eloquent, but his words carry instant conviction. He speaks from the heart, and he has keen sense of propriety and the relevance, what to say, how much to say and how to say. This is a mirror to his own life style. The garments that he wears, the food that he eats the movements that he makes, the words that he speaks, the moments of sleep that he catches and even the thoughts that he thinks follow the principle of what “necessary and sufficient’ he does not believe in stirring up emotion or sentiment, he appeals primarily to reason, and wants us to think coolly and decide in the light of our conscience. He has nothing of the his own to sell; he only articulates the time honoured values of meaningful living. Another remarkable trait that I have observed in him also marks him out as an unusual individual. He transition from the inside to the outside and from the outside to the inside is instantaneous and spontaneous. He is by nature and by training a contemplative. This is also his natural calling. But he is caught up in a social process with a distant spiritual overtone. His presence in it was required to give it a moral authority and a spiritual sanction. The leaders of this movement found in him a tower of strength. As their cause appealed to his heart, he condescended to come out of his shell and jumpe into the mainstream of the movement. It robbed him his quiet, of his customary hours of devotion, of the even peace of life that eminently suited him. It took him to far off
places, got him involved in numerous responsibilities and extremely add situations. This was when he had to move outside himself. He did it without a grumble and without a grimace.
The important point is that he did not do it at the expense of the inside. In the midst ofonerous distractions and demanding preoccupations, he conti nued to be a contemplative. Even the few minutes that he could be alone found him deeply absorbed in his spiritual practices. Mundane problems did not enter the Sanctuary of his inmost being, they were shaken off the moment he was alone. The divine pre sence in his heart was
an uninterrupted experience for him. Its pull was so powerful that he found no difficulty in returning to it with immediately. The cause that took him outside himself was dear to his heart and its pull was therefore equally powerful. He could thus shunt between spiritual and contempla tion and social concern, without detriment to either. Behind all the activity, which is verily mercurial in character, which he engages himself
in almost ceaselessly, there is the real man, who is an idealist, dreamer and mystic. He believes devoutly and firmly in God and tries hard to empty his heart of all earthly longings so that the consciousness of God permeates his soul in its entirety. His attention is infact focussed on perfecting himself in order to become a worthy vessel of divine grace. It is truly an illustration of the Gitas teaching that work must be worship.
He demonstrates that spiritual wisdom must flower out into social reform and concern for people’s welfare (What Gita calls “loka sangraha’). He is not bothered with abstractmetaphysics, his grace concern is with mankind and its betterment.