The Goal of Human Life

ISBN: 9788191019100

Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji, the 34th Acharya of the celebrated Sri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri was a great Jivan Mukta. A renunciate par excellence, a scholar beyond compare, and an ocean of compassion, His Holiness was a supreme guide to all those who took refuge in Him. Thousands thronged His abode from the length and breadth of this country, for it was their unshakeable faith that even a glimpse of His Holy form would rent asunder all their disquiet and distress.

“The Goal of Human Life” comprises the English rendering of some of His divine discourses delivered in Tamil when His Holiness blessed Coimbatore and Thiruvanantapuram with His visit in 1927. The discerning readers will find the benedictory addresses immensely beneficial, pregnant with import, thoroughly lucid and intensely practical.

I extol Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji, who is ever immersed in the contemplation of the Atman, is withdrawn from sense-objects and is well-versed in the sastra-s.)

This is how Jagadguru Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha Mahaswamiji, Himself a great jivanmukta and the 35th pontiff of the sacred Sringeri Sharada Peetham has gloriously and reverentially portrayed His Guru, His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji, who adorned the sacred Peetham as its 34th Acharya. What else needs to be stated about the greatness of His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji! Suffice to say that His Holiness demonstrated the highest ideal preached by our sacred sanatana dharma by His very life and attitude.

Compassion personified, His Holiness was ever ready to initiate His disciples into the path of dharma and show them the means to liberation. Numerous were the benedictory discourses delivered by Him during His tenure as the pontiff of the Sharada Peetham (1912-1954).

When His Holiness toured South India in the 1920’s, eight decades ago, He is said to have delivered many holy talks in the places where He camped and as many as a dozen of them in the city of Coimbatore itself.

Though there were no electronic gadgets available p in those days to record the voice of His Holiness, a sincere disciple of His Holiness had painstakingly jotted down the talks delivered at Coimbatore and faithfully recorded them for posterity. The disciple’s labour of love fructified subsequently in the form of the publication of a booklet in Tamil comprising five of the sacred discourses of His Holiness, in the year 1943. There is also another booklet in Tamil containing three benedictory addresses delivered by His Holiness in Tiruvananthapuram in the year 1927.

This book, "The Goal of Human Life", comprises the English rendering of the eight speeches contained in those two booklets. It could be observed that in all the sacred discourses available in this book, His Holiness has emphatically stressed the need for unswerving adherence to the dictates of the scriptures as laid down and practised traditionally. His Holiness has cogently and lucidly articulated that devout adherence to dharma is a sine—qua—non for one’s attainment of divine grace which would, in turn, enable him to march ahead in the path to everlasting bliss. Obviously there are overlaps in some of the ideas between the two sets of discourses owing to the fact that they were delivered at different points in time and for different audience.

However, a reader who carefully goes through the text would discern that the repetition of ideas is not only contextually necessary and significant but also serves to reinforce the arguments advanced.

I thank Sri K. Suresh Chandar who, along with a few other disciples of the Math, has devotedly worked for this publication of the sacred discourses of His Holiness. My thanks are also due to Sri Srinivas Seshan and Sri E.R.Ravi Kumar for their sincere contribution towards the proof-correction of the text and preparation of the final draft. I am sure all asthika-s who read this book will be immensely benefited by the sacred teachings of His Holiness.

With deep devotion, Sri Sridhar Chityala and Smt. Sharada Chityala, U.S.A., readily came forward to sponsor the publishing of this book on the Centenary Celebration occasion of Kalady I am thankful to them.

I conclude this foreword with a prayer to His Holiness, through a sloka composed by none other than His Holiness Jagadaguru Sri Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji, the ruling pontiff in the unbroken line of succession of the Acharyas of the Sringeri Sharada Peetha established by Adi Shankara Bhagavatpada.

I seek refuge in Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji, an ascetic committed to rescuing the people drowning in the ocean of phenomenal existence.