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I have a personal experience of seeing the Kanchi Mahaswamigal (1894-1994) in around 1989. I was visiting the Kanchi Mutt for a darshan of the three Acharyas. It was an evening (around 7PM) when the Kamakshi deity of Kanchipuram was having the ten-day annual festival and that was the day of the “Kudirai-vAhanaM” (i.e., the deity would be taken in a procession seated on the palanquin riding a horse). And it appears before the deity is taken round the town for the procession, they had the habit of bringing the palanquin to the gate of the Kanchi Mutt so that the Mahaswamigal could have a darshan of the deity.
And thus the procession appears at the gate of the Mutt. I was totally unaware of the day’s routine. I was just mingling and conversing with a few persons inside the Mutt hoping to be able to see the Mahaswamigal in due course. But suddenly I heard a bustle of movement; everybody was rushing to the gate. And then I knew something was happening there and I also moved with the crowd. Lo and behold! The sight that I saw there was scintillating. The Mahaswamigal had problems of vision those days. Maybe he could see very little. So he was there standing at the gate almost very near the palanquin of the divine deity. Heavy Searchlights were being focussed on the deity for the Acharya to see Her clearly.
Of course She had been decorated to the fullest, what with gold and diamond and pearl and ruby. And what an abundance of flowers of all colours on Her. The Acharya was standing on the ground
with his hands cuffing over his eyes for him to see clearly. Maybe on one side the lights were blinding his
eyes. He was straining hard to have a vision of what was standing befoire him. He was moving his head this side and that side to optimise his vision. Everyone was silent .
It was difficult to decide, for us spectators, whether the Acharya was there to have darshan of Kamakshi or whether Kamakshi was there to have a darshan of the Acharya! This serene silence and the drama of the Mahaswamigal slapping his cheeks in token of having darsan of the Goddess continued for probably full four or five minutes or so.
And at last he turned to walk inside the mutt and the disciples led him on. I came back to earth realizing just then that I had been witnessing all along a divinely scene which I can never forget!
Mark Ye, all devotees!. What great necessity was there for this jIvan-mukta to have a darshan of the deity with such great difficulty ? And what did he achieve? But that is the characteristic of a jIvan-mukta!
PraNAms to all the jIvan-muktas of the world.
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Beautifully narrated by Prof V Krishnamurthy; source is kanchiforum.org
