AN IDYL IN SOUTH INDIA
“You are the first Westerner, Dick, ever to enter that shrine. Many
others have tried in vain.”
At my words Mr. Wright looked startled, then pleased. We had just
left the beautiful Chamundi Temple in the hills overlooking Mysore
in southern India. There we had bowed before the gold and silver
altars of the Goddess Chamundi, patron deity of the family of the
reigning maharaja.
“As a souvenir of the unique honor,” Mr. Wright said, carefully
stowing away a few blessed rose petals, “I will always preserve
this flower, sprinkled by the priest with rose water.”
My companion and I {FN41-1} were spending the month of November,
1935, as guests of the State of Mysore. The Maharaja, H.H.
Sri Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, is a model prince with intelligent
devotion to his people. A pious Hindu, the Maharaja has empowered
a Mohammedan, the able Mirza Ismail, as his Dewan or Premier.
Popular representation is given to the seven million inhabitants
of Mysore in both an Assembly and a Legislative Council.
The heir to the Maharaja, H.H. the Yuvaraja, Sir Sri Krishna
Narasingharaj Wadiyar, had invited my secretary and me to visit
his enlightened and progressive realm. During the past fortnight
I had addressed thousands of Mysore citizens and students, at the
Town Hall, the Maharajah’s College, the University Medical School;
and three mass meetings in Bangalore, at the National High School,
the Intermediate College, and the Chetty Town Hall where over
three thousand persons had assembled. Whether the eager listeners
had been able to credit the glowing picture I drew of America,
I know not; but the applause had always been loudest when I spoke
of the mutual benefits that could flow from exchange of the best
features in East and West.
Mr. Wright and I were now relaxing in the tropical peace. His travel
diary gives the following account of his impressions of Mysore:
“Brilliantly green rice fields, varied by tasseled sugar cane
patches, nestle at the protective foot of rocky hills-hills dotting
the emerald panorama like excrescences of black stone-and the play
of colors is enhanced by the sudden and dramatic disappearance of
the sun as it seeks rest behind the solemn hills.
“Many rapturous moments have been spent in gazing, almost absent-mindedly,
at the ever-changing canvas of God stretched across the firmament,
for His touch alone is able to produce colors that vibrate with the
freshness of life. That youth of colors is lost when man tries to
imitate with mere pigments, for the Lord resorts to a more simple
and effective medium-oils that are neither oils nor pigments, but
mere rays of light. He tosses a splash of light here, and it reflects
red; He waves the brush again and it blends gradually into orange
and gold; then with a piercing thrust He stabs the clouds with a
streak of purple that leaves a ringlet or fringe of red oozing out
of the wound in the clouds; and so, on and on, He plays, night and
morning alike, ever-changing, ever-new, ever-fresh; no patterns,
no duplicates, no colors just the same. The beauty of the Indian
change in day to night is beyond compare elsewhere; often the sky
looks as if God had taken all the colors in His kit and given them
one mighty kaleidoscopic toss into the heavens.
“I must relate the splendor of a twilight visit to the huge
Krishnaraja Sagar Dam, {FN41-2} constructed twelve miles outside
of Mysore. Yoganandaji and I boarded a small bus and, with a small
boy as official cranker or battery substitute, started off over a
smooth dirt road, just as the sun was setting on the horizon and
squashing like an overripe tomato.
“Our journey led past the omnipresent square rice fields, through
a line of comforting banyan trees, in between a grove of towering
coconut palms, with vegetation nearly as thick as in a jungle,
and finally, approaching the crest of a hill, we came face-to-face
with an immense artificial lake, reflecting the stars and fringe
of palms and other trees, surrounded by lovely terraced gardens
and a row of electric lights on the brink of the dam-and below
it our eyes met a dazzling spectacle of colored beams playing on
geyserlike fountains, like so many streams of brilliant ink pouring
forth-gorgeously blue waterfalls, arresting red cataracts, green
and yellow sprays, elephants spouting water, a miniature of the
Chicago World’s Fair, and yet modernly outstanding in this ancient
land of paddy fields and simple people, who have given us such a
loving welcome that I fear it will take more than my strength to
bring Yoganandaji back to America.
“Another rare privilege-my first elephant ride. Yesterday the
Yuvaraja invited us to his summer palace to enjoy a ride on one of
his elephants, an enormous beast. I mounted a ladder provided to
climb aloft to the HOWDAH or saddle, which is silk-cushioned and
boxlike; and then for a rolling, tossing, swaying, and heaving down
into a gully, too much thrilled to worry or exclaim, but hanging
on for dear life!”
Southern India, rich with historical and archaeological remains,
is a land of definite and yet indefinable charm. To the north of
Mysore is the largest native state in India, Hyderabad, a picturesque
plateau cut by the mighty Godavari River. Broad fertile plains,
the lovely Nilgiris or “Blue Mountains,” other regions with barren
hills of limestone or granite. Hyderabad history is a long, colorful
story, starting three thousand years ago under the Andhra kings,
and continuing under Hindu dynasties until A.D. 1294, when it passed
to a line of Moslem rulers who reign to this day.
The most breath-taking display of architecture, sculpture, and painting
in all India is found at Hyderabad in the ancient rock-sculptured
caves of Ellora and Ajanta. The Kailasa at Ellora, a huge monolithic
temple, possesses carved figures of gods, men, and beasts in the
stupendous proportions of a Michelangelo. Ajanta is the site of
five cathedrals and twenty-five monasteries, all rock excavations
maintained by tremendous frescoed pillars on which artists and
sculptors have immortalized their genius.
Hyderabad City is graced by the Osmania University and by the
imposing Mecca Masjid Mosque, where ten thousand Mohammedans may
assemble for prayer.
Mysore State too is a scenic wonderland, three thousand feet above
sea level, abounding in dense tropical forests, the home of wild
elephants, bison, bears, panthers, and tigers. Its two chief cities,
Bangalore and Mysore, are clean, attractive, with many parks and
public gardens.
Hindu architecture and sculpture achieved their highest perfection
in Mysore under the patronage of Hindu kings from the eleventh to
the fifteenth centuries. The temple at Belur, an eleventh-century
masterpiece completed during the reign of King Vishnuvardhana, is
unsurpassed in the world for its delicacy of detail and exuberant
imagery.
The rock pillars found in northern Mysore date from the third
century B.C., illuminating the memory of King Asoka. He succeeded
to the throne of the Maurya dynasty then prevailing; his empire
included nearly all of modern India, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan.
This illustrious emperor, considered even by Western historians to
have been an incomparable ruler, has left the following wisdom on
a rock memorial:
This religious inscription has been engraved in order that our sons
and grandsons may not think a new conquest is necessary; that they
may not think conquest by the sword deserves the name of conquest;
that they may see in it nothing but destruction and violence; that
they may consider nothing as true conquest save the conquest of
religion. Such conquests have value in this world and in the next.
Asoka was a grandson of the formidable Chandragupta Maurya (known
to the Greeks as Sandrocottus), who in his youth had met Alexander
the Great. Later Chandragupta destroyed the Macedonian garrisons
left in India, defeated the invading Greek army of Seleucus in the
Punjab, and then received at his Patna court the Hellenic ambassador
Megasthenes.
Intensely interesting stories have been minutely recorded by Greek
historians and others who accompanied or followed after Alexander
in his expedition to India. The narratives of Arrian, Diodoros,
Plutarch, and Strabo the geographer have been translated by Dr. J.
W. M’Crindle {FN41-3} to throw a shaft of light on ancient India.
The most admirable feature of Alexander’s unsuccessful invasion
was the deep interest he displayed in Hindu philosophy and in the
yogis and holy men whom he encountered from time to time and whose
society he eagerly sought. Shortly after the Greek warrior had
arrived in Taxila in northern India, he sent a messenger, Onesikritos,
a disciple of the Hellenic school of Diogenes, to fetch an Indian
teacher, Dandamis, a great sannyasi of Taxila.
“Hail to thee, O teacher of Brahmins!” Onesikritos said after
seeking out Dandamis in his forest retreat. “The son of the mighty
God Zeus, being Alexander who is the Sovereign Lord of all men,
asks you to go to him, and if you comply, he will reward you with
great gifts, but if you refuse, he will cut off your head!”
The yogi received this fairly compulsive invitation calmly, and
“did not so much as lift up his head from his couch of leaves.”
“I also am a son of Zeus, if Alexander be such,” he commented.
“I want nothing that is Alexander’s, for I am content with what I
have, while I see that he wanders with his men over sea and land
for no advantage, and is never coming to an end of his wanderings.
“Go and tell Alexander that God the Supreme King is never the Author
of insolent wrong, but is the Creator of light, of peace, of life,
of water, of the body of man and of souls; He receives all men when
death sets them free, being in no way subject to evil disease. He
alone is the God of my homage, who abhors slaughter and instigates
no wars.
“Alexander is no god, since he must taste of death,” continued the
sage in quiet scorn. “How can such as he be the world’s master,
when he has not yet seated himself on a throne of inner universal
dominion? Neither as yet has he entered living into Hades, nor
does he know the course of the sun through the central regions of
the earth, while the nations on its boundaries have not so much as
heard his name!”
After this chastisement, surely the most caustic ever sent to assault
the ears of the “Lord of the World,” the sage added ironically,
“If Alexander’s present dominions be not capacious enough for
his desires, let him cross the Ganges River; there he will find a
region able to sustain all his men, if the country on this side be
too narrow to hold him. {FN41-4}
“Know this, however, that what Alexander offers and the gifts he
promises are things to me utterly useless; the things I prize and
find of real use and worth are these leaves which are my house,
these blooming plants which supply me with daily food, and the water
which is my drink; while all other possessions which are amassed
with anxious care are wont to prove ruinous to those who gather
them, and cause only sorrow and vexation, with which every poor
mortal is fully fraught. As for me, I lie upon the forest leaves,
and having nothing which requires guarding, close my eyes in tranquil
slumber; whereas had I anything to guard, that would banish sleep.
The earth supplies me with everything, even as a mother her child
with milk. I go wherever I please, and there are no cares with
which I am forced to cumber myself.
“Should Alexander cut off my head, he cannot also destroy my soul.
My head alone, then silent, will remain, leaving the body like
a torn garment upon the earth, whence also it was taken. I then,
becoming Spirit, shall ascend to my God, who enclosed us all in
flesh and left us upon earth to prove whether, when here below,
we shall live obedient to His ordinances and who also will require
of us all, when we depart hence to His presence, an account of our
life, since He is Judge of all proud wrongdoing; for the groans of
the oppressed become the punishment of the oppressor.
“Let Alexander then terrify with these threats those who wish for
wealth and who dread death, for against us these weapons are both
alike powerless; the Brahmins neither love gold nor fear death. Go
then and tell Alexander this: Dandamis has no need of aught that is
yours, and therefore will not go to you, and if you want anything
from Dandamis, come you to him.”
With close attention Alexander received through Onesikritos the
message from the yogi, and “felt a stronger desire than ever to
see Dandamis who, though old and naked, was the only antagonist
in whom he, the conqueror of many nations, had met more than his
match.”
Alexander invited to Taxila a number of Brahmin ascetics noted for
their skill in answering philosophical questions with pithy wisdom.
An account of the verbal skirmish is given by Plutarch; Alexander
himself framed all the questions.
“Which be the more numerous, the living or the dead?”
“The living, for the dead are not.”
“Which breeds the larger animals, the sea or the land?”
“The land, for the sea is only a part of land.”
“Which is the cleverest of beasts?”
“That one with which man is not yet acquainted.” (Man fears the
unknown.)
“Which existed first, the day or the night?”
“The day was first by one day.” This reply caused Alexander to
betray surprise; the Brahmin added: “Impossible questions require
impossible answers.”
“How best may a man make himself beloved?”
“A man will be beloved if, possessed with great power, he still
does not make himself feared.”
“How may a man become a god?” {FN41-5}
“By doing that which it is impossible for a man to do.”
“Which is stronger, life or death?”
“Life, because it bears so many evils.”
Alexander succeeded in taking out of India, as his teacher, a true
yogi. This man was Swami Sphines, called “Kalanos” by the Greeks
because the saint, a devotee of God in the form of Kali, greeted
everyone by pronouncing Her auspicious name.
Kalanos accompanied Alexander to Persia. On a stated day, at Susa
in Persia, Kalanos gave up his aged body by entering a funeral
pyre in view of the whole Macedonian army. The historians record
the astonishment of the soldiers who observed that the yogi had no
fear of pain or death, and who never once moved from his position
as he was consumed in the flames. Before leaving for his cremation,
Kalanos had embraced all his close companions, but refrained from
bidding farewell to Alexander, to whom the Hindu sage had merely
remarked:
“I shall see you shortly in Babylon.”
Alexander left Persia, and died a year later in Babylon. His Indian
guru’s words had been his way of saying he would be present with
Alexander in life and death.
The Greek historians have left us many vivid and inspiring pictures
of Indian society. Hindu law, Arrian tells us, protects the people
and “ordains that no one among them shall, under any circumstances,
be a slave but that, enjoying freedom themselves, they shall respect
the equal right to it which all possess. For those, they thought,
who have learned neither to domineer over nor cringe to others will
attain the life best adapted for all vicissitudes of lot.” {FN41-6}
“The Indians,” runs another text, “neither put out money at usury,
nor know how to borrow. It is contrary to established usage for an
Indian either to do or suffer a wrong, and therefore they neither
make contracts nor require securities.” Healing, we are told, was
by simple and natural means. “Cures are effected rather by regulating
diet than by the use of medicines. The remedies most esteemed are
ointments and plasters. All others are considered to be in great
measure pernicious.” Engagement in war was restricted to the KSHATRIYAS
or warrior caste. “Nor would an enemy coming upon a husbandman at
his work on his land, do him any harm, for men of this class being
regarded as public benefactors, are protected from all injury. The
land thus remaining unravaged and producing heavy crops, supplies
the inhabitants with the requisites to make life enjoyable.” {FN41-7}
The Emperor Chandragupta who in 305 B.C. had defeated Alexander’s
general, Seleucus, decided seven years later to hand over the
reins of India’s government to his son. Traveling to South India,
Chandragupta spent the last twelve years of his life as a penniless
ascetic, seeking self-realization in a rocky cave at Sravanabelagola,
now honored as a Mysore shrine. Near-by stands the world’s largest
statue, carved out of an immense boulder by the Jains in A.D. 983
to honor the saint Comateswara.
The ubiquitous religious shrines of Mysore are a constant reminder
of the many great saints of South India. One of these masters,
Thayumanavar, has left us the following challenging poem:
You can control a mad elephant;
You can shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
You can ride a lion;
You can play with the cobra;
By alchemy you can eke out your livelihood;
You can wander through the universe incognito;
You can make vassals of the gods;
You can be ever youthful;
You can walk on water and live in fire;
But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
In the beautiful and fertile State of Travancore in the extreme
south of India, where traffic is conveyed over rivers and canals,
the Maharaja assumes every year a hereditary obligation to expiate
the sin incurred by wars and the annexation in the distant past
of several petty states to Travancore. For fifty-six days annually
the Maharaja visits the temple thrice daily to hear Vedic hymns
and recitations; the expiation ceremony ends with the LAKSHADIPAM
or illumination of the temple by a hundred thousand lights.
The great Hindu lawgiver Manu {FN41-8} has outlined the duties of
a king. “He should shower amenities like Indra (lord of the gods);
collect taxes gently and imperceptibly as the sun obtains vapor
from water; enter into the life of his subjects as the wind goes
everywhere; mete out even justice to all like Yama (god of death);
bind transgressors in a noose like Varuna (Vedic deity of sky and
wind); please all like the moon, burn up vicious enemies like the
god of fire; and support all like the earth goddess.
“In war a king should not fight with poisonous or fiery weapons nor
kill weak or unready or weaponless foes or men who are in fear or
who pray for protection or who run away. War should be resorted to
only as a last resort. Results are always doubtful in war.”
Madras Presidency on the southeast coast of India contains the
flat, spacious, sea-girt city of Madras, and Conjeeveram, the Golden
City, capital site of the Pallava dynasty whose kings ruled during
the early centuries of the Christian era. In modern Madras Presidency
the nonviolent ideals of Mahatma Gandhi have made great headway;
the white distinguishing “Gandhi caps” are seen everywhere. In
the south generally the Mahatma has effected many important temple
reforms for “untouchables” as well as caste-system reforms.
The origin of the caste system, formulated by the great legislator
Manu, was admirable. He saw clearly that men are distinguished by
natural evolution into four great classes: those capable of offering
service to society through their bodily labor (SUDRAS); those who
serve through mentality, skill, agriculture, trade, commerce, business
life in general (VAISYAS); those whose talents are administrative,
executive, and protective-rulers and warriors (KSHATRIYAS);
those of contemplative nature, spiritually inspired and inspiring
(BRAHMINS). “Neither birth nor sacraments nor study nor ancestry
can decide whether a person is twice-born (i.e., a BRAHMIN);” the
MAHABHARATA declares, “character and conduct only can decide.”
{FN41-9} Manu instructed society to show respect to its members
insofar as they possessed wisdom, virtue, age, kinship or, lastly,
wealth. Riches in Vedic India were always despised if they were
hoarded or unavailable for charitable purposes. Ungenerous men of
great wealth were assigned a low rank in society.
Serious evils arose when the caste system became hardened through
the centuries into a hereditary halter. Social reformers like
Gandhi and the members of very numerous societies in India today
are making slow but sure progress in restoring the ancient values
of caste, based solely on natural qualification and not on birth.
Every nation on earth has its own distinctive misery-producing
karma to deal with and remove; India, too, with her versatile
and invulnerable spirit, shall prove herself equal to the task of
caste-reformation.
So entrancing is southern India that Mr. Wright and I yearned to
prolong our idyl. But time, in its immemorial rudeness, dealt us no
courteous extensions. I was scheduled soon to address the concluding
session of the Indian Philosophical Congress at Calcutta University.
At the end of the visit to Mysore, I enjoyed a talk with Sir C. V.
Raman, president of the Indian Academy of Sciences. This brilliant
Hindu physicist was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his important
discovery in the diffusion of light-the “Raman Effect” now known
to every schoolboy.
Waving a reluctant farewell to a crowd of Madras students and
friends, Mr. Wright and I set out for the north. On the way we
stopped before a little shrine sacred to the memory of Sadasiva
Brahman, {FN41-10} in whose eighteenth-century life story miracles
cluster thickly. A larger Sadasiva shrine at Nerur, erected by
the Raja of Pudukkottai, is a pilgrimage spot which has witnessed
numerous divine healings.
Many quaint stories of Sadasiva, a lovable and fully-illumined
master, are still current among the South Indian villagers. Immersed
one day in SAMADHI on the bank of the Kaveri River, Sadasiva was
seen to be carried away by a sudden flood. Weeks later he was found
buried deep beneath a mound of earth. As the villagers’ shovels
struck his body, the saint rose and walked briskly away.
Sadasiva never spoke a word or wore a cloth. One morning the nude
yogi unceremoniously entered the tent of a Mohammedan chieftain. His
ladies screamed in alarm; the warrior dealt a savage sword thrust
at Sadasiva, whose arm was severed. The master departed unconcernedly.
Overcome by remorse, the Mohammedan picked up the arm from the floor
and followed Sadasiva. The yogi quietly inserted his arm into the
bleeding stump. When the warrior humbly asked for some spiritual
instruction, Sadasiva wrote with his finger on the sands:
“Do not do what you want, and then you may do what you like.”
The Mohammedan was uplifted to an exalted state of mind, and
understood the saint’s paradoxical advice to be a guide to soul
freedom through mastery of the ego.
The village children once expressed a desire in Sadasiva’s presence
to see the Madura religious festival, 150 miles away. The yogi
indicated to the little ones that they should touch his body. Lo!
instantly the whole group was transported to Madura. The children
wandered happily among the thousands of pilgrims. In a few hours
the yogi brought his small charges home by his simple mode of
transportation. The astonished parents heard the vivid tales of the
procession of images, and noted that several children were carrying
bags of Madura sweets.
An incredulous youth derided the saint and the story. The following
morning he approached Sadasiva.
“Master,” he said scornfully, “why don’t you take me to the festival,
even as you did yesterday for the other children?”
Sadasiva complied; the boy immediately found himself among the
distant city throng. But alas! where was the saint when the youth
wanted to leave? The weary boy reached his home by the ancient and
prosaic method of foot locomotion.
{FN41-1} Miss Bletch, unable to maintain the active pace set by Mr.
Wright and myself, remained happily with my relatives in Calcutta.
{FN41-2} This dam, a huge hydro-electric installation, lights Mysore
City and gives power to factories for silks, soaps, and sandalwood
oil. The sandalwood souvenirs from Mysore possess a delightful
fragrance which time does not exhaust; a slight pinprick revives
the odor. Mysore boasts some of the largest pioneer industrial
undertakings in India, including the Kolar Gold Mines, the Mysore
Sugar Factory, the huge iron and steel works at Bhadravati, and
the cheap and efficient Mysore State Railway which covers many of
the state’s 30,000 square miles.
The Maharaja and Yuvaraja who were my hosts in Mysore in 1935 have
both recently died. The son of the Yuvaraja, the present Maharaja,
is an enterprising ruler, and has added to Mysore’s industries a
large airplane factory.
{FN41-3} Six volumes on ANCIENT INDIA (Calcutta, 1879).
{FN41-5} Neither Alexander nor any of his generals ever crossed
the Ganges. Finding determined resistance in the northwest, the
Macedonian army refused to penetrate farther; Alexander was forced
to leave India and seek his conquests in Persia.
{FN41-5} From this question we may surmise that the “Son of Zeus”
had an occasional doubt that he had already attained perfection.
{FN41-6} All Greek observers comment on the lack of slavery in
India, a feature at complete variance with the structure of Hellenic
society.
{FN41-7} CREATIVE INDIA by Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar gives a
comprehensive picture of India’s ancient and modern achievements
and distinctive values in economics, political science, literature,
art, and social philosophy. (Lahore: Motilal Banarsi Dass, Publishers,
1937, 714 pp., $5.00.)
Another recommended volume is INDIAN CULTURE THROUGH THE AGES, by
S. V. Venatesvara (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., $5.00).
{FN41-8} Manu is the universal lawgiver; not alone for Hindu society,
but for the world. All systems of wise social regulations and even
justice are patterned after Manu. Nietzsche has paid the following
tribute: “I know of no book in which so many delicate and kindly
things are said to woman as in the LAWBOOK OF MANU; those old
graybeards and saints have a manner of being gallant to women which
perhaps cannot be surpassed . . . an incomparably intellectual and
superior work . . . replete with noble values, it is filled with a
feeling of perfection, with a saying of yea to life, and a triumphant
sense of well-being in regard to itself and to life; the sun shines
upon the whole book.”
{FN41-9} “Inclusion in one of these four castes originally depended
not on a man’s birth but on his natural capacities as demonstrated
by the goal in life he elected to achieve,” an article in EAST-WEST
for January, 1935, tells us. “This goal could be (1) KAMA, desire,
activity of the life of the senses (SUDRA stage), (2) ARTHA, gain,
fulfilling but controlling the desires (VAISYA stage), (3) DHARMA,
self-discipline, the life of responsibility and right action
(KSHATRIYA stage), (4) MOKSHA, liberation, the life of spirituality
and religious teaching (BRAHMIN stage). These four castes render
service to humanity by (1) body, (2) mind, (3) will power, (4)
Spirit.
“These four stages have their correspondence in the eternal GUNAS
or qualities of nature, TAMAS, RAJAS, and SATTVA: obstruction,
activity, and expansion; or, mass, energy, and intelligence. The four
natural castes are marked by the GUNAS as (1) TAMAS (ignorance), (2)
TAMAS-RAJAS (mixture of ignorance and activity), (3) RAJAS-SATTVA
(mixture of right activity and enlightenment), (4) SATTVA
(enlightenment). Thus has nature marked every man with his caste,
by the predominance in himself of one, or the mixture of two, of the
GUNAS. Of course every human being has all three GUNAS in varying
proportions. The guru will be able rightly to determine a man’s
caste or evolutionary status.
“To a certain extent, all races and nations observe in practice, if
not in theory, the features of caste. Where there is great license
or so-called liberty, particularly in intermarriage between extremes
in the natural castes, the race dwindles away and becomes extinct.
The PURANA SAMHITA compares the offspring of such unions to barren
hybrids, like the mule which is incapable of propagation of its own
species. Artificial species are eventually exterminated. History
offers abundant proof of numerous great races which no longer have
any living representatives. The caste system of India is credited
by her most profound thinkers with being the check or preventive
against license which has preserved the purity of the race and
brought it safely through millenniums of vicissitudes, while other
races have vanished in oblivion.”
{FN41-10} His full title was Sri Sadasivendra Saraswati Swami. The
illustrious successor in the formal Shankara line, Jagadguru Sri
Shankaracharya of Sringeri Math, wrote an inspiring ODE dedicated
to Sadasiva. EAST-WEST for July, 1942, carried an article on
Sadasiva’s life.