513. A Lesson to a Jnani from a Sanyasini……

http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/mysticism/a-lesson-to-a-jnani-from-a-sanyasini

                  

A Sanyasini was living in an ashram on the banks of the river Ganga imparting spiritual teachings to women. She had many women disciples. The daily routine of the Sanyasini would start with a dip in the Ganges. She used to go to river Ganga every morning and on the way to the river lived an ascetic whom the local people considered to be a Jnani. Literally the Jnani was a person who had renounced the worldly pleasures and was very wise and knowledgeable. That Jnani had a small pot made of clay which he used to carry water. He was very much attached to this pot and would not be without it.

One day, he was sleeping with the pot tied to his leg so that no one steels it. The Sanyasini who was on her way to take bath in Ganges with her disciples one morning saw this and said, “This Jnani who is full of knowledge and wisdom but has a small flaw in him. He has renounced the worldly pleasure but is attached to this small pot and fear that it may be lost.” The Jnani heard it and became very angry, he could not tolerate the remarks made by a women.
 

He waited for the Sanyasini and her disciples to return back from the river after bath, when they were back he threw away the pot on the road. His intention was to show that he was not attached to it anymore and wanted to prove her wrong. Seeing this, the Sanyasini told to her disciples, “O, what a mistake I thought that this Jnani had only one flaw in him which was Moha (Attachment) but now he want to prove me wrong by showing up his Ahamkara (Ego). I wonder how a person who has Moha and Ahamkara can be a Jnani.” This statement by the Sanyasini was like an eye-opener for the Jnani he fell to her feet and became her disciple.

The Sanyasini was Ubhaya Bharathi, the wife of Mandana Mishra an exponent of Mimamsa. She had rescued her husband when he was about to be defeated by Sri Sri Sankara and challenged Sri Sri Sankara telling since she was the wife of the challenger she had every right to come to her husband’s rescue. She poised some questions regarding marital secrets to this Brahmachari, and had for a brief moment won also.

The questions Ubhaya Bharathi asked Sri Sri Sankara were as follows:

What are the signs and qualities of Conjugal Love?

What are the various types in eroticism?

Where the erotic passion does have its centers in a physical body?

By which physical acts does it find arousing and how is it subsided?

How does passion rise and fall in man's and woman's body in the bright fortnight when the moon waxes and the dark fortnight when it wanes?    

These questions were very remote to Sri Sri Sankara so with his yogic power he had to use the Parakaya Pravesha Vidhya (Art of one’s Subtle Body entering into the Dead Body of another and reviving it) and entered body of the King Amaruka of Varanasi to have the experience of the marital secrets. Such was the tactics of the Sanyasini to save her husband; later her husband and she became the disciples of Sri Sri Sankara. Her husband Mandana Mishra became Sri Sureshwaracharya and was crowned the first pontiff of the Sri Sri Jagadguru Shankaracharya Mahasamsthana Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharada Peetha, Sringeri in Karnataka.

Ubhaya Bharati decided to return to her world since her husband renounced the worldly pleasures and became the head of Dakshinamnaya peetha. At that moment Sri Sri Sankara requested her to settle down at the proposed Dakshinamnaya Peetha in south as he experienced the presence of Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge) in her. She agreed to his request on condition that she would follow Sri Sri Sankara, but if he looks back she would settle down at that very place. So Ubhaya Bharathi followed Sri Sri Sankara from Varanasi after they reached Kudali in Karnataka Acharya did not hear the sounds of the anklet bells of Ubhaya Bharati, and he looked back with anxiety. The very next moment Ubhaya Bharati stood at that place as per the terms of agreement. Since then she has settled down in that very place, Kudali in Shimoga district Karnataka and the people of the region regard her as the blessed one by Goddesses Saraswati and revere her even to this day.