Reminiscences of Shri Kunju Swamigal - 27

[Guest guest]

Injikollai Yagnarama Dikshitar was the brother of Jagadeesa sastri of

madras.He used to come

and spend two or three months in the ashram.He was a very orthodox

person.Every day he used

to wash his dhoti.Though a little yellowed,his dhotis were spotlessly

clean.He would make

towels out of torn dhotis.Looking at them Sri Bhagvan used to ask

jokingly,"Can I have a towel?"

In the early days,an andhra devotee by name Sivayya used to come and

see Sri Bhagvan at

Virupaksha cave.Much of the time he was doing japa.If he came across

any twig of leaf on the

path,he would remove it to keep the path clean.He would carry

Echammal's vessel containing

food to the ashram.He was always doing some service to the

ashram.Once when Sri Bhagvan and

a few others went to the top of the hill,he carried a pot of water

there.Such was his zeal

for service.

On the last occasion he came to see Sri Bhagvan,Yagnrama Dikshitar

was also at the ashram.

Sivayya said that as he planned to take sanyas and go on a pilgrimage

to the south observing

mouna,he asked Kavyakanta to write briefly about his (Sivayya's)

birth,gothra and how he came

to take sanyas,so that he could give that information when needed,

without speaking.

Kavyakanta wrote ten slokas in praise of Sivayya.At the back of the

sheet on which the slokas

had been written,Injikollai Dishitar wrote in Tamil in pencil,"All

that is written here is not

true." Sivayya did not know Tamil.He went to several places in the

south and went to the

Sankara mutt at Kumbakonam.He showed the people there that sheet of

paper.They read everything

on it and laughed.When he asked why they were laughing,they told him

the reason.In deep sorrow,

he wrote a letter to the ashram.Sri Bhagvan read the letter and asked

us,"Who wrote this?"

He looked at Injikollai Dikshitar also.Immediately he said,"I wrote

it because what

Kavyakanta wrote about him is not true." Sri Bhagvan smiled and kept

quiet.

 

in SRi Bhagvan,

sriram