The Philosophy of Bhagawad-Gita/T. Subba Row : An Appreciation
T. SUBBA ROW
AN APPRECIATION
MY acquaintance with T. Subba Row began at the end of 1884, when I came here to Madras and settled down with the intention of practising in the High Court. It was at the Theosophical Convention of 1884 that I first met him, and from the very first moment became so deeply attracted to him as to make it difficult for me to understand why it was so. My admiration of his ability was so great that I began to look upon him almost from that time as a great man. He was a very well-made robust man, and strikingly intellectual. When H. P. B. was here, he was known to be a great favourite of hers. It was said that he first attracted her attention by a paper called " The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac ", which was afterwards published. At the Convention, there was much talk on various topics, and he always spoke with decision, and his views carried great weight. But he spoke little and only what was necessary. There was then a small committee of which Colonel Olcott was the President. Subba Row was one of the members of this and R. Raghunatha Row, P. Srinivasa Row and myself were also among its members. This committee used to meet on Sundays, but there was very little business to be done.
Very shortly after my coming to Madras, one day I was taken to a room, which is now the office of Mr. Schwarz, to see the pictures of two Masters. The big hall had not been built. H. P. B. and Subba Row were the only persons present, and I do not remember, after such a long lapse of time, what actually took place. I understood that I was admitted into the Second Section of the T.S. which had then been founded. The only thing that I knew of in connection with it subsequently was the circulation of new manuscript papers bearing on the question of Rounds, etc. Dr. Franz Hartmann, who was also a member of the Society, stayed at the Headquarters and began to give trouble, and I believe that owing to those troubles and to the departure of H. P. B., the Second Section practically ceased to exist, so far as India was concerned. But upon this point I am not quite sure.
As practitioners in the same Court, Subba Row and myself used to meet daily in the Court House. I was, therefore, a very close acquaintance of his, and he reciprocated my friendship to an extent which was to me a matter of deep gratitude. He used to drive in the evenings on holidays, and when there was no occasion to go to the Headquarters. He talked about various things to me, but never about occult matters. He was so reticent on this question, that for the whole period he survived, some six years after I became acquainted with him, he never once mentioned to me the Masters or the two Masters connected with our Society. I think he even avoided answering questions regarding their existence. So far as I know, the only persons he would speak to about Occultism were Mr. C. W. Leadbeater and Mr. A. J. Cooper-Oakley, who were both very great friends of his. Cooper-Oakley was a sort of chela to him. Though he would not say anything about the Masters, it was believed that he was a disciple of Master M. Dewan Bahadur R. Raghunatha Row, who was much his senior, and a much respected man, used to call Subba Row jocularly "Master".
In December 1886, his discourses on the Gīțā were delivered on four mornings of the Convention of that year. There was much difficulty in persuading him to deliver the lectures. I was one of the three or four who put pressure upon him to deliver the lectures. A part of the condition of his undertaking to do so was that I should attend the session of the Indian National Congress, which was to take place in Calcutta that year. He persuaded me to go there, and I said I would do so, if he promised to deliver the discourses on the Gīțā. As I expected that the lectures would be most valuable, and as I could not be present, I arranged with a shorthand reporter to take notes of those lectures, and I paid him, if I remember correctly, Rs. 150. It was from these notes that the lectures were first published in The Theosophist.
Everybody admired his great capacity and power of expression, not to speak of the depth of learning displayed by him in the course of these lectures. One gentleman, by name Bhashikachariar, who was a Sanskrit Pandit of great ability, and who, I think, presented a large number of books to the Adyar Library, was lost in admiration at the end of these lectures. I believe, on the last day, he went and embraced Subba Row in token of his admiration, and actually asked him how he managed to gather so much learning about such a difficult subject. After the appearance of the lectures in The Theosophist, it occurred to me that their publication in book form would be useful, and unless my memory fails, the first edition was published at my request by Tookaram Tatya of Bombay, an enthusiastic Theosophist, and I contributed towards the expenses of the publication. I remember forwarding copies of this reprint in book form to Professor Max Müller. But the Professor did not think it worth while to acknowledge even the receipt of the pamphlet. In all probability the fact that it came from a Theosophist was the reason of this.
I think the lectures, as they stand now, are as he actually spoke them on the four mornings. The shorthand report, when submitted to him, required very little revision. I was informed that each morning he came with a small slip of paper containing some very few notes, and it was with the aid of these notes that the whole discourse was given without hesitation or interruption. A second edition of these discourses was intended to be issued many years afterwards, and, I believe, that Tookaram Tatya's son claimed the copyright and objected to the Society issuing a second edition. Mr. B. P. Wadia consulted me, and I then showed him that the claimant had no right, but I do not know whether a second edition was issued by the Society or not.[1]
Subba Row's observations on the sevenfold classification, and his preference for the fourfold classification touched upon in the first lecture, led to a controversy on the subject, and to H. P. B.'s replies on the matter. It was said that Subba Row's criticism on the subject gave offence to H. P. B., who was then absent in Europe. Partly due to this controversy, Subba Row's visits to the Headquarters became less frequent. About the same time a certain American Theosophist made an attack on him, either in private letters or in the columns of the Path, charging him with Brahman narrowness in not freely communicating to European Theosophists knowledge and information he had about the Masters and kindred subjects. One afternoon, after he had played tennis and was sitting discussing with Dr. Cook, another Theosophist, who was a great friend of his, Subba Row expressed his intention of resigning his membership in the T.S., and he actually did so a few days later. I forgot to say he was an able tennis player, and he almost invariably drove straight from the High Court to the Cosmopolitan Club and played on the tennis ground there. He was almost the best Indian player and quite equal to Dr. Cook, an expert in the game.
After his resignation of membership in the T. S., Subba Row, after tennis, used to go Dr. Cook's house, which was adjacent to the Club. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper-Oakley used to join them there, and there were talks in which Subba Row was the chief speaker. I was the only Indian present, and I considered it a privilege to be at those talks. Mr. Oakley made short notes, after the conversation was over, and he was good enough to let me have a copy of them, which I still have. A great many interesting things said on those occasions, of course, find no place in the notes, which, nevertheless, show his great knowledge about religious and occult subjects.
He occasionally made statements, which were enigmatical, and among them one which took many years for me to understand. This statement was that : "There are three Shankaras to seven Buddhas." As I knew so little about Races, Buddhas and Manus, I did not understand what this statement meant, then; but I have since come to the conclusion that, when he spoke of the three Shankaras he was referring to the three Kumaras, who are the Disciples of the Lord.
Though he showed great friendship to me, as I have already stated, he never thought of giving me any help in spiritual matters. There was then no one at Adyar occupying the position of H. P. B. or A . B., and one got no assistance from the Colonel about meditation and the like. I used to press Subba Row to give me some directions. But he would not do so, until a year before his death. I think it was in March, 1888, in this very hall, where I am dictating this, that I spoke to him very strongly about his refusal to help even true aspirants; and this respectful rebuke drew forth from him the remark: "What can I do for you, when you have not been performing even your Sandhya properly? However, begin now with repeating Gayatri during the morning twilight, and perform your Sandhya properly." I followed his advice, repeating the Mantra one thousand and eight times every morning, for many years. Two months before his illness which ended in his death, as we had finished playing tennis and were sitting down, he put me a question: "Had you a dream last night?" My reply was: "I remember no dream." I asked him why he put the question to me. He replied: "I saw something about you, and it appeared to me that you have a better soul than I thought." Then I asked him how it was that he had the dream or the vision, and not I. He said: "Probably because I put you on the way," referring to his prescribing the Gayatri Discipline, and he added: "You have just begun to scratch the power." I then asked him to give me some further directions. He said: "We will see next year." To my great misfortune, I never saw him after this. I went away for the hot weather vacation, and he was shortly after taken ill in Madras and died. During his illness, he was treated by a European member of the medical profession, who was considered the ablest medical man then in the city. Dr. Rangappa, who was an Indian doctor, and who also treated him, told me that Subba Row's illness was "pemphigus", brought about by intense thinking.
I remember Subba Row himself telling me that after he took his B.A. degree, which he did with great distinction, being in the first class, and first in the Presidency, his mind had turned to spiritual matters, and for some nine years he never could sleep, and he used to rack his brain night and day over spiritual subjects. He also tried some Hatha Yoga practices. He said that relief came to him one day when an "old man" appeared to him—astrally I take it—and told him: "Do not go that way, but this way." Those were the words, and from that moment he knew what was wanted in his case. This old man he spoke of was a dark Dravidian, who had been working in this country for fifty years. Of course, Subba Row gave no further explanation. Possibly, it may have been the great Adept known to Indians as Dattatreya, who enjoys a veneration unequalled even to-day. He referred to Dattatreya, on one occasion, as Trimurti-Atmakam, which meant, I take it: "In Him the Power of three Logoi has found expression." In the note to one of the articles in The Theosophist signed, T S.R., he refers to this Dattatreya, as the type of one of the three classes of Adepts. The representatives of the other two are Durvasas and Chandra. On the top of Baba Budan Hills in Mysore, there is a Shrine of Dattatreya and of his mother, Anasuya, which attracts pilgrims from Maharashtra, every year. "This Dattatreya," Subba Row said, "was the Maharshi who helped an Emperor of his time, Kartikeya by name, to carry on his great government." On one occasion Subba Row said that a Muhammadan priest who looked after a Muhammadan tomb on the Hills succeeded in invoking Dattatreya, and when the Maharshi appeared, the fool of a Muhammadan prayed for a boon in the shape of a lace turban, instead of liberation, which the Rshi might have managed to secure for him. It seems that this Maharshi appears in the shape of a big tree to these who invoke him. Anasuya, his mother, is one of the great Indian female Adepts. She was the patni or wife of Ṛṣhi Aṭri, and Daṭṭāṭreya means the son of Atri. Subba Row himself on one occasion spoke of the necessity of founding an occult organisation with Dattatreya as its head, in order to train Indian Sannyāsis for Theosophical purposes.
After his death, I thought it was my duty to collect his few contributions to Theosophical literature—inadequate, indeed, to represent his learning—and the result was the publication of the volume entitled The Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row. It was issued by Tookaram Tatya, to whom I paid Rs. 500 in connection with the publication. This was the result of a very careful search by myself in the volumes of The Theosophist up to the time of Subba Row's death. After all, it is a very, very meagre contribution by him of the learning he had on certain subjects, having regard to his wide knowledge and great erudition.
His admiration and reverence for the teachings contained in the Hinḍū sacred writings connected with Vedānta and Raja Yoga were as unbounded as his knowledge of them was accurate. He once observed that a most profound treatise on the Sacred Science could be written based altogether on the Prasṭhāna Ṭraya, or the Three Bundles of nourishment provided for those who wish to tread the "razor path", namely the Upaniṣhaṭs, the Brahma Sūṭras, and the Bhagavaḍ-Gītā. That he himself could have written the book, those who knew him will not doubt. But I felt certain that he would not render that service, for the simple reason of his extreme disinclination to put pen to paper and write on such a subject. As a proof of this disinclination, I may refer to what Bhavani Shankar told me in relation to Subba Row's paper on the Idyll of the White Lotus. Bhavani was a great friend of Subba Row, and used to be sent by H. P. B. to Subba Row to get him to write articles for The Theosophist.
Bhavani got Subba Row to promise to write a review of the Idyll, copies of which had just then come to this country. Bhavani paid a number of visits to Subba Row to obtain this promised review. But every time he was put off with some excuse or other and was told to come later on. On the occasion of his visit, the last but one in connection with this matter, Subba Row attempted to send him away without the paper, as he had done often before. But Bhavani told him that he was determined to sit in the house and that he would not leave, until he got what had been promised. Subba Row was incapable of being unkind or rude to anyone, and so got pen and paper and wrote the first part of it straight away, without a scratch or a correction from beginning to end. The second part was written on a subsequent day.
His memory was most remarkable, and he could repeat passages from some of the sacred books, as if he had committed them to memory, though he had but read them once or twice. Of course, his study of them was critical, and his quotations in conversation from them were apt and forcible. For example, one afternoon, after tennis was over, some question arose about the nature of Atman. Subba Row cited at once the passage in the Mandukya Upanishat explaining what Atman was. This Upanishat was a favourite authority with him, and the four-fold division which he laid stress upon in his Gita lectures was the one explained in this Upanishat. He spoke very highly of Gaudapada's Karika on this Upanishat, and he thought there was but one other writer who could at all come up to the standard of Gaudapada, and that was Plato. In the course of a casual conversation in which some point arose connected with Buddhist philosophy, Subba Row referred to this verse in this Karika where the term Adi Buddha occurs. It was Subba Row's high opinion of this Karika that led me to employ Mani Lal Dvivedi to publish an English translation of the Karika with Shankara's Commentary.
Subba Row's acquaintance with Mantra Shastra, theoretical and practical, was apparently profound. It was he who taught Bhavani the Gopala Mantram. Others had also obtained from him instructions regarding the use of some great Mantras. One or two instances showed he knew how to invoke elementals, in order to produce phenomena.
I forgot to mention that Subba Row's death was most untimely. He was, I think, only about thirty-three, when he passed away. He had hoped to live very much longer. I heard him say once that after making a little money, he intended to retire to the part of the country where he came from and go on "making Tapas," till his eightieth year. He asked me once to obtain a reading of his horoscope from an astrologer in Pondicherry, and that astrologer foretold that Subba Row would not live longer than he actually did.
His school career was quite a brilliant one. He began his English education in Coconada, and exercised great power over his school mates. Subba Row was removed by his parents to Madras, where he joined the Presidency College, and as I have already stated, took his B.A. degree, ranking first in the presidency. That Subba Row was a precocious boy, may be judged from the fact that he took his very high place in his B.A. examination, when he was, probably, under twenty, and his B.L. within a year or two afterwards. About 1885, when he was already practising in the High Court, as a Vakil, the Provincial Civil Service competitive examination was first established. Subba Row was one of the candidates, who appeared for that examination in that year. He scored the highest number of marks and was placed first in the list of successful candidates. The time allowed for the preparation of the subjects by the candidates was comparatively short. Though practising in the High Court all the time, he got up his subjects, through intense application and study. Geology was one of the subjects which he took. Though altogether new to him, he prepared the subject, it is said, in a few weeks, studying the geological specimens, which were in the Government Museum at Egmore, spending there many hours. Mr. Michie Smith, Professor of Physical Science in the Christian College, afterwards in charge of the Kodaikanal Observatory, was so struck with the thoroughness of Subba Row's knowledge of the subject, as he found it during the viva voce examination, that he let him off with very few questions. Unfortunately for Subba Row, the office which ought to have been given to him was given to Varada Row, who took a lower place in the examination. This was a piece of injustice, of which Sir M. E. Grantduff's Government was guilty, and it was committed as a matter of favouritism to Varada Row's father, T. Rama Row, who was then a member of the Legislative Council and a friend of the Governor.
Rajah Sir T. Madhava Row thought so highly of Subba Row that he invited him to take service under the Gaekwar. Subba Row did so, but returned to Madras, passed the B.L. examination, and was admitted a Vakil of the High Court. Needless to say, his reputation at the Bar grew, and had he been spared long enough, he would have risen to the Bench, and discharged the functions of his high office in a way that would have brought credit to the acknowledged judicial capacity of Indians.
It was when he was employed in Baroda that his mind turned towards spirituality and occultism. For some nine years he pondered over these and sowed the seeds of that nervous prostration which led to the terrible disaster that brought on his death two months after his illness began. It is certain he knew the Master "Jupiter" intimately. C. W. L. once said that on the occasion of the visit he paid to that Master, Subba Row accompanied him.
Subba Row was not fond of company except that of a few well known to him. On Sundays and holidays, he used to come to the T.S. Headquarters, where he spent his time in conversation with C. W. L., Cooper-Oakley, and others. He often went to the Government Oriental Library and spent hours in pouring over cadjan Sanskrit manuscripts.
- ↑ T.P.H., 1912.