Annihilating sacrificial fire

MS Golwalkar’s spiritual journey at Sargachi under Swami Akhandananda shaped his life and vision to a great extent—inspiring his ‘sannyasa’ for ‘Bharatmata’ and his dedication to India’s civilisational and spiritual resurgence

From Sargachi, Golwalkar carried with him a ‘rare wealth’, which would remain his physical link to this transformative past and to his Guru for the rest of his life.

The ‘wealth’, ‘consisted of a life-size photograph of Shri Baba and carried the signature “Akhandananda”’, a ‘woolen sheet’ used by him, a ‘sacred yellow’ cloth used for daily worship, ‘two white towels carrying the impressions of the right and left feet, two white towels of square type of 15 inches size,’ writes Ranga Hari who had seen these sacred objects. ‘On both towels foot impressions in vermillion of both legs could be seen. That is, a pair of foot impressions of both legs,’ ‘two saffron handkerchiefs’, a dress worn by the Guru, ‘a teaspoon and his pocket watch.’ Apart from these, were the ashes and some pieces of bones of Swami Akhandananda, collected after his cremation and some sacred hair-relics of Sri Ramakrishna, ‘handed over to Amitabh Maharaj by Swami Akhandanandaji, and handed over by the Maharaj to Shri Guruji.’

Ranga Hari describes his indescribable feeling of seeing Sri Ramakrishna’s sacred relics decades later in 2005. ‘That small packet contained a few hairs, both black and white, I was seeing the deathless relics of an incarnation, who attained “Brahmapada” 119 years ago; not in a dream but in a thoroughly waking state. I kept the sacred relic over my head for a moment and saluted it with utmost reverence…I was really transported to a new extra-terrestrial world.’ With these sacred valuables as his only possessions, Golwalkar, ‘an ordained sannyasi now, returned to Nagpur.’

An ordained sannyasi he was and would remain for the rest of his life. But it was a sannyasa of a different kind, of a different dimension. The presiding deity of his sadhana, of his tapasya and penance was Bharatmata – India, the Mother. The goal, the realisation of his lifelong austerities, was to see her arise in all her glory – civilisational and spiritual, as a beacon powerhouse for humanity and for the world. Golwalkar’s ceaseless actions, peregrination and perambulations with India as the centre, would be oceanic, generating ever widening ripples, giving rise to mighty waves, laying deeper the foundations of a movement, that held its keel steady, amidst cyclonic upheavals. Golawalkar followed the footsteps of his Gurus – Vivekananda and Akhandananda – laying the foundations of a wider and many-layered movement for national awakening and regeneration.

As one who had been in close contact with Shri Guruji between 1944 and 1973, as one who had sifted through nearly twelve thousand letters written by Shri Guruji and indefatigably put together his twelve-volumes complete works, Ranga Hari, succinctly describes the palpable transformation Golwalkar had undergone in those few months of spiritual internship, ‘there was a noticeable difference between the Golwalkar who had left for Sargachi and the Golwalkar who returned from there. But this difference was not about change; it was about evolution, progression…’

Golwalkar returned to fold, to Dr Hedgewar, who had patiently waited, certain that he would return. ‘Guruji’s relations with the Sangh Shakha were renewed’, writes Ranga Hari, ‘now, he had no personal dreams. Anything that might have been his own had been annihilated in the sacrificial fire (yajna) of Sargachi.’ The sparks of that undiminishing sacrificial fire were contagious and invariably caught on to and consumed all those who came in touch with Golwalkar in the years and decades to come.

The deep impression and imprints of those Sargachi days and months which chiseled and shaped him, blowing the ashes away and leaving the spiraling fire to burn and rise ever higher, remained forever embedded in Golwalkar, forming the bedrock, the foundation of his epochal life. It is so with every truly initiated seeker who has discovered the larger self and embarks in its pursuit.

Even decades later, towards the end of his life, the memories and soul-imprints of his Sargachhi days were as vivid, vibrant and radiating. Writing to Amitabh Maharaj in September 1967, Shri Guruji described the memories of those nectar-filled days, ‘Last night the nectarine memories of life at Sargachi ashram flooded the mind. I do not have sufficient words to express what I felt. It was due to you that that great good fortune came to my share. Its remembrance fills my heart with gratitude. But this is not a subject for mere words, so I am unable to write anything more about it.’

Like all true and realised seekers, Shri Guruji rarely spoke of the ‘great universe of the inner self’ which he had experienced at Sargachi at the feet of Sri Ramakrishna’s disciple Akhandananda.

Of Shri Guruji’s towering reticence to speak of his spiritual quest, root and realisation, Ranga Hari writes:

‘None of us ever heard Guruji mentioning the name of his Guru, Akhandananda ji. So, where was the chance of hearing about anything else on the subject? It is said that a venerable person’s name is not to be spoken, but only indicated. He perhaps followed this religious etiquette. But he had written about his experiences in Sargachi for his personal fulfillment. He kept these writings confidential for 36 years till his death. These memoirs lay quiet in a corner of his cupboard for nearly 30 years, even after his death.’