The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1/D. P. Bapaiya
III
D. P. BAPAIYA.
(1908)
In the very presence of God—the Author of life, the Ordainer. of death, the Indweller of every soul, the Companion of every devotee in heavenly bliss—in His holy, serene and awe-inspiring presence, we are met here and now with hearts filled with sadness, with minds puzzled with the mysteries of existence and with souls yearning' for the comfort that comes only from the Unseen. We are come together, with sighs and tears—the marks of human helplessness; with prayers and supplications—the stay and hope of feeling souls. There is the aching heart within, and there is the void world around. Yet the heart would repose in the sweet memory of long association, in the holy sympathy of inspiring company and in the reassuring vision of a love that never faileth. We feel the problems of life creating a most painful agitation in the very depth of our hearts; and we long to seek the enlightening and tranquilling presence of God to solve these problems. We thus seek the presence of Him from whom alone knowledge can come by awaiting the Master’s further wishes, trusting in the Master’s further revelations and hoping for the Master’s unfailing mercy and the undiminishing survival of all that is beautiful in life.
Almighty Lord, the Knower of hearts, the Author of souls, the Originator of worthy aspirations and the Generator of all noble deeds! Speak Thou unto us in our hearts and souls and in the convincing language of divine wisdom and vouchsafe unto us the cheering message of a deathless life and love. And as we throb and feel after the departed friend,^ into our hearts and souls come the melting tears of sweet and invigorating hope, the assurance that, drawn away, he is not lost—called away, he is not denied—and, physically translated, he is yet spiritually abiding in us!' And with the assurance come also the resolve to emulate the nobility of the life whose crowded chapter is so early closed aud the piety of the soul which so unflinching and unswerving, so trustful and cheerful, through these many years of a devoted and consecrated career! And as we thus seek the inspiration of a worthy example, may we be uplifted info a higher altitude of knowledge and of trust where death shall appear as but a transition, a mere partition, an ordained passage in that great progress of life here or elsewhere which is the one unbroken Divine purpose fulfilling itself through ages and generations and concentrating towards one eternal abode where God is the presiding genius and love is the all-proving law! O Lord God, may the tears of sorrow be so touched with the rainbow-hue of hope that, as we sigh, we may see that the sighs are natural to the physical body, while sight is the embodiment of the soul! Thus seeing and thus believing, may we rise to new duties with inspiring ideals and cherished memories! O Lord God, the Ordainer of death, the Companion of souls, may we go forth hopeful of Thy help in the performance of those new duties!
Thou art our Master; therefore we rejoice in Thy service. Thou art our Inspirer; so we lay bare our hearts to Thee. Thou art our eternal Companion; therefore we confide in Thy guidance. It is by Thy ordaining man lives, feels and thinks. At Thy summons man leaves this for nobler Regions. Yet O God, in Thy all-wise ordaining, Thy all-ruling providence, Thou hast formed this relation of friendship for an inspired example, as a sustaining strength. Thou who choosest to draw soul to soul and cement heart to heart, may we be sustained by the faith that, though the form may change and the scene may shift, yet unto the heart there is no permanent loss of vision or of communion! Ah Lord of life and death, dost Thou sanction that hope? Is it approved of Thee? Or is it a mere fancy? Mayest Thou grant us the grace to realise the endless fruition of the promising faculties budding forth in such progressive souls into truth confirmed, wisdom matured, goodness expanded and devotion deepened ever-more I Hope suggests , and the heart rejoices to feel, that we are here only to lay the foundations. Now wetted and nourished with sorrow, now once again sustained through adversity, may we endure from age to age and grow larger from generation to generation! €an it be that all this investment of truth and love and holiness, so abundant and promising, will all be rung out of existence? Ah, no; truth is triumphant; love is eternal; virtue is immortal; and' goodness is never to be exhausted. We feel that sorrow has darkened our prospect and that we toiled together in vain as co-workers and as brethren. But, O Lord, as deep as ai’B the associations, so inspiring are the suggestions. Thou art eternal. We are Thy children. We will be everlastingly glorifying Thee here and hereafter. May we be sustained with this hope!
We are brought here this evening to discharge a duty which various feelings enjoin on us-the melancholy duty of lamenting a heavy loss, the pious duty of cherishing a dear memory and also the loving duty of saying ‘adieu’ and yet ‘welcome'. To me, who have had the privilege of knowing the dear friend under hallowed associations, perhaps for a longer period and more intimately than almost all else here, this is really marked and noted event in my life. As I have felt and as I have often told others, this is an event which has made this world poorer and death dearer; an event which has left me devoid of las presence here below but yet plants a hope in the hereafter; and an event which stirs me to long to be freed from the allurements of physically tempting life, not in the commercial sense of higher advantages, but in the spiritual signification of seeing a holier vision and living a nobler existence. This event has thrilled through every fibre of his dearest friends. While it is usual to say, ‘Let Thy will be done,’ we ai'e now face to face with the now and pressing enquiry, ‘What is Thy will?’ This is an event which, unlike many a passing event of the time, is significant of more than one inspiring truth. I have been made to feel now, if at any time in my life, that, as the poet has said, one crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name. Here is a brief life but a rich one, and an early death but a gentle, peaceful. pious passing away. And as I take a review of the many leading incidents of this noble soul, I feel that it is not the lack of opportunity but the absence of spirit that makes life so very barren in us. Here is a young man who lived for a few years, yet with a matured spirit that a sage may covet, with a serene repose that a saint may envy and a sustaining faith which a prophet may follow as an example. He passed through these years as the inspiring example of a noble life to his survivors. And as we dwell upon that life, we feel how much is possible for man and how deeply inlaid this life is with Divine presence. He was a man of twenty-five years more or less. In this short span of life, he illustrated in himself, in so many ways, the rich possibilities of youth well spent and of opportunities sacredly employed. We also feel compelled by the physical absence, with more than usual emphasis, to dwell upon that life, that so we may sustain and intensify its healthy influence within us. By its very withdrawal, it is made more significant and its spirit is better brought home to us.
Let us first of all take that which most prominently attracted tke attention of everyone—his serenity, lis calm-reposing, unshaken trust that all is well in spite of seeming troubles and sorrows. Smarting with an uncommon degree of pain, dissociated from dear ones, shifted from place to place as a homeless wanderer, deprived of those pleasures which are dear to all, looked down upon by those who ought to have understood him better, deserted by those who ought to have been brought close to him, suspected by those who ought to have confided in him, neglected by those who ought to have clung to him and entirely ignored by those who ought to have followed his way, he had no complaint against any person, except the general one of man’s negligence in that man is so blind to the goodness of God. That serenity which was so striking, which often misled others as to the nature of his complaint, and which one made light of, was the marked feature that struck every thoughtful observer that stood by him even for a few short hours. If he was able, too, at the close to sink to a gentle sleep, it was because the soul had been well prepared . Serenity makes death happy. Plato said, ‘The end of all philosophy is to teach us how to die serenely.’ There is no miracle other than a serene death. This is impossible unless there has been an antecedent serene life. To seek a serene death with and after all our petty strifes and rivalries, jealousies and sorrows, is to ask God to reconcile night with light and storm with calm. Serenity of life is the guarantee of serenity in death. No serenity in this world is possible except that of piety, faith and trust in God. People are callous to, unmindful of, of what is going on in the world unto whom, however, the passing days are all in all. That serenity is bad; it is a spurious serenity which in reality is a selfish concern. Indifference to what is passing is not serenity but fatality. True serenity is that which is sensitive to all things around but at the same time composed with the assurance that One is guiding everything. It is this serenity that is the treasure of every pious soul. He may be shedding tears, sighing, rapt in meditation, downcast for the time being. Yet, he is like the centre of the earth. While the earth revolves, the axis remains the same unmoved. Thus serenity predominates. How many virtues spring from that serenity! Where the world is disposed to find fault, it pauses and judges. Where the world is intolerant, it is sympathetic. Cut of it comes, above all, that cherishing hope which says, ‘The tempest passing over us will pass away, and the peace of the Divine will come sooner or later—the peace with the prosperity ordained by an eternal God. It is wide awake; yet at its bottom calm and composed. It is like a pendulum that moves but yet does not shift. At a certain point it is fixed. The man of serene faith is fixed in the basis of divinity. By its spiritual pendulum the world marks its time.
His second characteristic, patent to his friends and relations, was the many-sidedness of his sympathies. There was no direction in which human destinies could be improved and human union and unanimity could be fostered but called forth Bapaiya’s sympathies. The two contradictory features in his character were : its apparent determinateness to one particular course and its apparent accommodating tendency to various things. And, in fact, it is the case with every great man. It is the incapability to understand the various sides of man that creates unpleasant criticism. But Bapaiya was wide awake to the necessity of spiritual progress and of social reform. Often such a person appears self-contradictory. Take a leader like Mr. Veeresalingam Pantulu. The man who praised him yesterday runs him down to-day. This incapability to understand creates petty differences and unpleasant criticisms. What is true of Mr. Veeresalingam Pantulu is also true of Bapaiya. In his narrow compass of life he could bring various susceptibilities into marvellous harmony. Where thers was a call for human exertion and progress, there was his heart. No wonder that his many-sidedness handed him over to occasional misconstruction by others. Even in relation to the Deity, excepting those few select souls who invariably honour Him, we all cling to Him on one side; but directly the other side is revealed, we seek to drop off. On a miniature sea lei that is the experience of every Divine soul. Jesus has his Peter who says one day, ‘Come what may, I stand,’ and the next day, ‘I am no follower of his.’
We save our outer coverings, allowing the soul to be corrupted. They are people of a higher order to whom the soul is the inner gem and the body a mere covering. Unto them the inner gem is all in all. The inner soul is the piercing light which cannot be clouded. That is the difference between a firm soul and a faltei’ing spirit. Unto one like Bapaiya, the soul is the essential thing, while the skin is the outer covering and the body a temporary receptacle; and as long as there is the gem within, it must shed its lustre in all directions. ‘Love me, love my cause, love my prosperity’ is the world’s motto. ‘Love for its own sake’ is the motto of great men. They make love supreme and universal; and we make it subsidiary and individual. They stand up for the. triumph of truth and love but not, like us, for that of a certain cause or party. They are, therefore, better situated for realising the underlying link within all human activity. If there was a soul which trembled sensitive to nationalism, it was Bapaiya’s. He at times would exclaim, ‘0, how our young friends are running after one thing! When will they seek for the other things?’ The balancing of all things constitutes the variegated richness of a person like Bapaiya. Unconditioned appreciation of goodness and truth is characterised by one thing all the world over—singleness of purpose. When Marcus Aurelius was asked why he w'as good, he said, ‘I am good because that is the natural condition of man.’ The rule of life is conviction but not calculation. Out of that conviction there comes a crisis. The only pause before it is the feeling, ‘ Am I equal to the task, or how shall I be made equal to it? ’Hence the prayer to God for firmer determination; and then and thence the crossing of the Rubicon! This, is the secret of our friend’s anushtanic Brahmaism. Outward conventional considerations never weigh w'ith a person like him. It is a conviction; it is a sacred obligation; and it is a heaven-ordained mission. As such, it is a silly question to ask him, ‘Why do you do it? ’ Carlyle asks, ‘What is the use of great men?’, and declares, in answer, that they are themselves a use. There is no other measurement by which you can calculate it. The truly great man is a use in himself. He is the central organiser from whom all usefulness goes forth. You stand in tlie presence of a splendid picture drawn by a master-hand. Then your soul seems to melt into that of the artist. You look with contempt at the person who disturbs you in that state. Similarly, great men are the master-pieces created by the Deity. Their very presence is useful. Burke was a man of time genius. One day when Burke stood in a shower of rain, his friend remarked, ‘There is a wisdom coming spontaneously from him!’ That is the characteristic of all devoted souls. True life is a rich, beautifying symphony, a marvellous vision, a potent fact, a mighty force. Thus, he of the noble spirit might be bed-ridden; and yet his presence was enough to keep up our larger human activities. As Carlyle has said, we weave all around us so many cobweb-theories. We believe those cobwebs to be mighty fences! But a great man comes. He realises that these are webs. And he passes on without any effort; and they themselves disappear 1 As Dr. Martineau has it, the supremacy of the moral law is such that it is binding upon a lonely individual living in the wilderness as solemnly as upon a man in society. Life is a sacred trust. Every hour and minute must be employed. Laziness is not merely repugnant, but also something impossible and inconceivable, to him who has some divine spirit in him. There are people to whom duty is but a secondary thing. But duty merges into spontaneity with him to whom life is a sacred trust. And when it has done so, the next thing is that life is then measured not by years but by thoughts and deeds. Such a person crowds into one hour all the fervour and intensity, the inspiring zeal and the slow and hard-earned acquisitions, of any ordinary mas. Unto such a man, day and night cease to come in their alternate conditions. He has become a part of Nature. He knows no repose. He is above time; and when death comes to him, it comes to him merely as a passing event but not as a warning. A man of knowledge knows that a big comet is appearing but does not tremble. To such a man there is no change. Death has come and gone. It is neither an alarm nor a call ; but it is a transition. So Maharshi Devendranath Tagore has said that death is merely the tearing of a veil. When Jesus was crucified, the curtain in the Temple of the Jews was torn and the Glory was revealed. Unto such a man, the flesh is crucified but the soul is liberated. While he sinks, he is serene. He has no fear, no anxiety and no anguish. It is all one stretch of flight through the dark portals of death. What is heaven to that man? It is, as it were, the mingling of the river with the ocean, the kindling of a blaze of new light before which the whole world is illumined. Heaven is the abode of peace without tediousness; the realm where law prevails without its rigour; and a fraternity where all people are brought together, each soul working and weaving itself into other souls. He feels that this world is an ante-chamber—a narrow passage and a first entrance into a larger glory where light never fails, truth never shakes and love never becomes feeble. Heaven is the Fulfiller of sympathy and trust. Even as a hidden spring gushes out through a narrow opening and spreads itself forth, so also the noble activities of life spread out freely without any the least limitation of mundane barriers and overflow in their fulness through the gorge of death. So we need not feel sorry for him. Yet there is an inseparable pain out of which there is born a new life with a deeper attachment. He is part and parcel now of that new birth in which new relations are allowed!
Thou, Supreme, Awe-inspiring Presence, we bow down before Thee. Thou hast drawn him into Thy presence. We are sure of his abiding peace and unfailing happiness in Thy bosom. We beseech Thee to put into us the knowledge and trust that this separation is a temporary, passing thing and that, in holier relations, though physically gone, he is spiritually nearer and dearer unto every one of us. While iron custom might trample upon that poor child, may Thy love sustain her as an object of compassion! Let others feel her to be an object of sympathy and service and sisterly love. 0 Lord God, may the example of the departed soul illumine us and strengthen us! May we feel how rich is human life! O Almighty Lord, may we render our thanks for these examples of good lives in the Theistic Church ! Mayest Thou grant the asset and guarantee of strength to this Church! May Thy Kingdom be thus extended as the one permanent abode of truth and love, glory and righteousness! May we all be knit into one family, and may we all live as members of one home! Do Thou mercifully vouchsafe it unto us.
Om ! Santhih ! Santhih ! Santhih !