Editor’s Note
The following is an accessible English translation of the Kannada essay titled, Kaivalya Vedanti Chikkalinganna authored by Parama Pujya Sri Sri Satchidanandendra Saraswati Swamiji of the fabled Adhyatma Prakashana. It is included in his volume titled, Sādhusantaru Mattu Mahanīyaru.
This translation is offered in a spirit of public service.
Kaivalya Vedanti Chikkalinganna
There is a well-known subhāṣita which says that this earth holds many jewels. A jewel of that very kind shone for some years Mysore, and last year (1938), it passed out of sight. While it was still radiating its resplendence and giving joy to all, it was known by the name Vedanti Chikkalinganna.
In an age when many among us think that Vedanta hard to grasp, and, even if grasped, of little use, the life of Vedanti Chikkalinganna is worthy of devout remembrance.
This great man was born in 1864 in the old Agrahara of Krishnaraja Mohalla in Mysore, the son of Kapinipatayya hailing from the Gangadikara Okkaliga community. He became the adopted son of Kapinipatayya’s elder brother Daroga Linganna—also called Bank Linganna.
Born of a distinguished lineage among the deva-brāhmaṇas, a lineage marked by devotion and spirituality, he received, from childhood and by the grace of eminent scholars, a proper education in Kannada and a fair training in Sanskrit. By the blessings of a former birth, Vedanti Chikkalinganna acquired a taste for listening to and savouring the Purāṇas. He would recite the Rāmāyaṇa, the Bhārata and the Bhāgavata in Kannada so that the meaning clearly came through, and with such sweetness; he would so show his power of exposition, that assemblies were left gasping with amazement.
Once, on some occasion, he had gone to his father-in-law’s house. There, by divine grace—and by that same special blessing of a former birth—he met a saintly man and obtained a copy of the Yogavāsiṣṭha-Rāmāyaṇa. It evoked an intense longing to know Vedanta.
It is said that when the desire to know the highest truth is truly born, it grows and ripens and then the Bhagavan at once fulfils it in the form of a profound Guru. In his case, this was literally so. Vedanti Chikkalinganna was spared even the labour of seeking a guru.
In 1906 there came from Bangalore to Mysore a great saint, Sahajananda Bharati Swami. He wanted to get his Kannada translation of Pañcadaśī printed. By service to him, our Linganna became known as Vedanti Linganna within a year and a half. While Sahajananda Bharati was still in Mysore he appointed Vedanti Linganna—with everyone’s consent—to continue the Vedantic expositions he had been giving to seekers, and then returned to Bangalore.
From that time until he was absorbed in the Supreme Brahman in 1937, Linganna kept up a regular weekly discourse and Vedantic śravaṇa in different parts of Mysore: at Kamalamma’s Matha in Santhepete, at Kashappa’s Matha, at a house of his own in Sunnakere, at Govindappa’s house in Mandi Mohalla, and at a house in Benki Nawab Street. On special occasions he delivered lectures and Purāṇic expositions to thousands at the Town Hall, at Jaggulal Chhatra, at the Okkaliga Hostel and elsewhere. After the Swami’s passing, he arranged Vedantic śravaṇa and related spiritual gatherings many times at the Sahajananda Matha in Bangalore. Among those who sat with devotion were both Brahmins and non-Brahmins.
In Chikkalinganna, humility flowered as the ornament of Vedantic knowledge. For that reason, the love and trust of many Vedantins, scholars, heads of Mathas, and followers of other sects flowed towards him in an unusual measure.
In discussing the meaning of truth, he feared no one; yet in humility, in the traditional conduct proper to varṇāśramadharma, and in the faith and reverence due to Gurus and elders, he was second to none. Followers of various sects who can still bear witness to this are alive.
Linganna revised and printed the translation of the Vṛttiprabhākara composed by his revered Guru. That book, and the Vicārasāgara as well, he expounded week after week to thousands of people, as he did the Pañcadaśī. He rendered into Kannada the Hindi Tattvānusandhāna of Chidvanananda. From this, and from his expositions of the Kannada Bhārata and kindred works, his service to Kannada letters becomes clear, and so does his acquaintance with Vedanta of a higher order.
Our Linganna, being a Vedantin, won fame by learning and by humility; he also received the respect of virtuous men in no small measure. After hearing Purāṇic discourses from him, several distinguished persons, on two occasions, offered him a necklace titled Gaurishankara, as a token of honour. It is also known that an attempt was made to install him as head of the Chunchanagiri Matha.
The revered person I have so far addressed as Vedanti Linganna is known in the circle of his disciples as Rajayogi Chikkalinganna Swami. In his memory, the late Hirode Mallappa has built a Vicara Mandira (literally, Temple of Inquiry) in Mysore. On the anniversary of his blessed passing, the body of disciples still conducts pādukābhiṣeka, lectures, Anna-Daana, and other acts of worship.
Indeed, who would not revere a great soul who, with a purified inner being, learned the highest truth from a true guru, realised that truth, and, even in this dark Kali age, lived without an enemy in the world, and by his conduct and his speech, showed the virtuous path to hundreds?
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