Once my father encouraged me to go through a bunch of letters approximately sixty-five in number, just to make me acquainted with the easy and simple style of a letter-writer, his friend, who died after accomplishing his true mission of printing his magnum opus on "The Gita", a commentary revealed in the light of Chaitanya's philosophy. Though I was not familiar with him, once or twice, we had the pleasure of inviting him to our house, and felt extremely tired to hear his endless talk. What a flood of words touching on every topic of day-to-day life without drawing our attention towards the sombre depths of philosophy ! When we see great people, we think of them as strange as a distant isle surrounded by the sea of mystery. But in my father's friend, the true human touch predominates and saintliness gleams as mild as the rosy dawn without hurting our eyes with intensity of light.
My father's friend is a very frank person who is capable of entertaining anyone with his past reminiscences and grey-gone events in a lively and humorous way. The man in the saint gives a warm touch to his words and writings. He is simple in his words and never sacrifices his thoughts for bombastic words of metaphysics.Philosophers are also men. They too have their inner stirrings of mind and responses to outward impacts and influences. This is true in case of my father's friend also. Moreover he frankly confesses them without hesitation. Yet a moral sense flows beneath his utterances. Pearls of truth shine through his limpid speech undisturbed by snobbish high-brow flourish of words.
In his letters we can sense a sublime spirit talking intimately to us, so friendly, that it forgets its own heights from where it descended. Many of his letters dealt with his domestic and financial affairs, and with his religious trips and tours. The main theme I understood from them is h is ardent desire to get his monumental work on "The Gita" printed soon, which had been written by him as far as thirty years ago at the bidding of his Guru. Another theme of his letters is his indefatigable words of praise and gratitude towards his friends . Most parts of his letters seem common and dry if we compare them with those of great letter-writers such as Lord Chesterfield, Nehru, Swami Vivekananda or John Keats. They wrote with a particular purpose with a view to passing on their views to posterity. But my father's friend wrote casually just as we write unbonneted (without ornamental touch) lines to our family members. But what I emphasize is that there is a grain of notable value in a bunch of ordinary letters, and here and there some flashes of his genius sparkle with true confessional spirit. We can have a glimpse of his inner mind and workings of his soul. Though he is frank, he always mentioned in his letters that he did not like his views to be imposed on public since all persons are not as detached and open-minded to understand the naked truths in an unperturbed and balanced manner.
Therefore I selected a few passages which, I think, are quotable without any sense of causing offence or misunderstanding to anybody. As a devotee of Chaitanya cult he says: " I belong to Bhakti line which always favours Satsanga (the company of like-minded devotees) and not to Gnana line (Path of abstract knowledge) with its seclusion and self-absorption into the relationless, inactive, indefinable Brahman."
Though he appears to be a wordly-minded person, at heart he is a detached Sadhu who says: "Let things take their own course and let us not worry for anything." Let us observe his opinion upon his own book "Commentary of the Gita" which he often referred to as his monumental work. He was patient enough to wait for more than three decades to get it printed. His last wish to see it in book form while he was alive was fulfilled. Observe his views on this book : " I do not much mind if my Telugu Gita could not be printed at all though it is a very important monumental work. The whole Gita is interpreted in the light of Chaitanya's philosophy which was so closely followed by Sri Aurobindo. I have very great respect for Aurobindo as he is a very great Krishna Bhakta and a very practical philosopher." He further adds : "Something in me says that my monumental work is sure to be printed in the coming months. Let krishna's will be done." " The six M.S. Volumes of my Gita Commentary containing 740 pages will be thrown into the Arabian sea which is so close to us, as soon as I find symptoms of approaching death." A very poignant and desperate statement uttered by a noble person who was vexed with the indifferent attitude of the persons concerned. The lack of encouragement, funds and proper recognition delayed the publication of his great work. The old gentleman of eighty-three years never implored or begged the help of anybody including his sons, who were in decent positions and were well-settled.
Though he was a faithful follower of Chaitanya cult, he was not fanatic about it. He boldly pointed out the flaws and foibles in the set up of the institutions or ashrams of Gaudiya sect even at the cost of displeasing others and losing their favor. See how boldly he wrote in the following letter.
"When once these ill-educated brahmacharis (celibate disciples)are placed in charge of mutts, they develop a sense of lording it over and begin to dictate to those that visit their mutts."
In another letter he declares: "My children are as much ultra-modern although they do not earn money like them in the name of God and Guru."
He further writes: " Nowadays it is very difficult to get a self-realized preceptor who can rightly guide us." -- a good warning for us who live in these days of so many fake gurus and sadhus who commercialized their ashrams and respect only the rich and influential persons.
Though he humbly alleged that he belonged to Bhakti Cult (path of devotion), he was well familiar with gnostic philosophy too. He translated Mehar Baba's famous book "God Speaks" into Telugu and wrote a treatise on the philosophy of Aurobindo. He was well-versed in Sanskrit, Bengali, Telugu and English. Let us know his views on Sri Veda Vysa's Bhagavatam. "I have just now finished reading Srimath Bhagavatam of the sage Vyasa; I feel I should not read anymore books."
"Blest are thou in knowledge and devotion sweet
Discarding these bonds for the divine lord of the flute.
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20th July, 2016 Somaseshu Gutala
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