The math that Mastan and Akhilandamma ran in Desur had been established to serve travelling sadhus, particularly those who were devotees of Bhagavan. The following story, narrated by Viswanatha Swami, indicates that Mastan took this responsibility very seriously:
Viswnatha Swami (left) Muruganar (centre) and Kunju Swami (right)
In those days [the 1920s] some of Bhagavan’s devotees used to travel on foot to nearby towns such as Polur and Desur. We used to undertake these trips to visit devotees who lived in those areas. Bhagavan always gave us his permission before we undertook any of these trips. The members of the group would vary from trip to trip but we could usually count on devotees such as Kunju Swami, Ramaswami Pillai, ‘Nondi’ Srinivasa Iyer, Ramanatha Brahmachari and Ranga Rao to be enthusiastic about these adventures. I also went on many of these trips. Some of our expeditions would be to Cuddalore or Vellore, but most of them would be to locations in the Polur and Chengam areas.
When we travelled we would never stay in houses. When night came we would shelter in mantapams or caves. Sometimes we would just sleep under trees. We would beg for our food on the way. Sometimes people would give us provisions for a meal. If that happened we would stop and cook. If we received cooked food in our bowls, we would share it out equally among all the members of our group. Although we had a lot of fun, we were also aware that we were sadhus on a pilgrimage. As we walked we would chant scriptural works or meditate in silence.
On some of these trips Mastan would somehow find out in advance where we were going. We would arrive at a town, Polur for example, and find him waiting for us. Once he had discovered our whereabouts, he would make us sit while he went out begging for us. We didn’t want to be served in this way, but Mastan was very insistent. He told us on these occasions that he was the ‘devotee of devotees’, a role and a title that he took on himself.
He would say, ‘I want to serve the devotees of Bhagavan. You must stay here while I find food for you.’
Mastan would generally return with a huge amount of food, far more than we could possibly eat. After we had eaten as much as we could, we would share the leftovers with any local people who lived nearby. If we were living in caves or other out-of-the-way places, we would give the leftovers to monkeys.
As he fed us Mastan would make one persistent request: ‘Please tell me some stories about the glory of our Master. Tell me everything he has said during the time I was not with him. To me, every word Bhagavan speaks is holy. The words that come out of his holy mouth are so powerful, merely listening to them can give liberation to ripe souls.’ (Unpublished story narrated to V. Ganesan by Viswanatha Swami)
Mastan, standing top right, in a group photo taken at Ramanasramam around 1930
Mastan continued to be based in Matam until 1931, the year he passed away. He was aware well in advance of the date and time of his death, for he gave full details to Muniswami Gounder, the man who was looking after him there. Muniswami Gounder, though, paid no attention to the prediction. The day before he died Mastan sent a message to all the devotees of Bhagavan who lived in his vicinity, asking them to come to see him as soon as possible. Most of them failed to arrive in time, either because they lived too far away, or because they did not receive the news before it went dark. Akhilandamma was present when Mastan died. This is her description of his final moments:
He was sick and bedridden for about a week. During those days he spoke of many things not of this world, as if he were actually seeing them.
He said, ‘There, Nandiswara [Nandi the bull, the vehicle of Siva] is descending. He is very affectionately licking all over my body! Look! The Siva ganas [celestial followers of Siva] are dancing here! See! They are beckoning me to come to their world. Look at those lotus ponds where celestial swans are swimming!’
We thought that this was nothing but delirium, but on the last day a very strange thing happened, and we cannot lightly dismiss it as delirium. On this day he suddenly got up from his bed and stood up, looking as if someone, face to face, had been calling him.
Then, in great excitement, he exclaimed, ‘Mother Apeetakuchamba, [the consort of Siva in the Tiruvannamalai temple] have you come yourself to escort me?’
The next moment he fell down dead. I immediately sent a message to Bhagavan.
Kunju Swami, 1960s
When Bhagavan learned of Mastan’s passing away, he sent Kunju Swami to our village with full instructions on how to make a samadhi for Mastan. There is a Tamil book [Tirumular’s Tirumandiram] that faithfully gives the details of how saints who have followed Lord Siva have to be buried. In accordance with these details Bhagavan drew up a plan of the dimensions of the samadhi and sent it along with Kunju Swami. It seemed very strange to us that a Muslim should be given a Saiva saint’s burial and stranger still that Bhagavan, who did not generally encourage ceremonial rites, actually laid down in the minutest detail the rites to be followed in the samadhi of Mastan.
Whatever the reason, just as Bhagavan stipulated, we made a tomb for Mastan in our village. It is a village whose population is predominantly Jain. These inhabitants of the village felt that having a Hindu samadhi in their midst would be very inauspicious. When they first heard of it, there was even talk of their abandoning the village completely. However, in the time that has passed since Mastan’s samadhi was constructed, the village has thrived and grown rich. Nowadays the samadhi is a visible deity to all people from the village, whatever their caste or religion. What a wonder! (‘My Reminiscences’ by Akhilandamma, Arunachala Ramana, May 1982, pp. 5-9.)
There are several points in the last two paragraphs that deserve some comment. First, so far as I am aware, Bhagavan only ordered this type of samadhi for three of his devotees: his mother, Lakshmi the cow, and Mastan. Since Bhagavan publicly declared that the first two realised the Self, one can make a strong case for saying that Bhagavan felt that Mastan was also in this state at the time of his death. If this is true, the final realisation must have occurred sometime between 1922, when Mastan was still asking questions about his sadhana, and 1931, the year he passed away.
Tirumular (verse 1916) recommends that the samadhi pit of a jnani be five feet by five feet on the surface and nine feet deep. Within this pit triangular walls three feet long are built. The body is placed inside the triangular structure in the full-lotus posture. The inner chamber is then filled with large amounts of vibhuti and camphor. When Bhagavan sent Kunju Swami to Matam with detailed instructions on how to build the samadhi, he also sent enough vibhuti and camphor from Ramanasramam to take care of all the necessary rituals. Kannappa Mudaliar, who was present during the construction of the samadhi, told me that he remembered helping to build the inner triangular walls. Tirumular states (verse 1913) that if the ‘body of the jnani’ is properly buried according to these instructions, ‘the rulers and the people of the land will receive the blessings of infinite grace’.
The funds for the samadhi were provided by Simhakutti Nayanar, a local Jain. It is a remarkable feature of Mastan’s life that people of all religions revered him as a saint. This may be partly explained by the fact that Mastan didn’t like or indulge in any rituals that would mark him out as a follower of any particular religion. The manuscript at his samadhi states that he disliked, ‘pujas, drums, prostrations, delicious food and garlands’. He did, though, like smearing his face with vibhuti. Kunju Swami has reported that he always showed up at Ramanasramam with vibhuti on his forehead.
When news of Mastan’s death spread, a nearby Siva temple lent a chapram so that Mastan’s body could be taken in procession through the local villages prior to its burial. A chapram is a four-wheeled wooden trolley that temples use to parade deities through the streets. This particular one was brand new. It had only just been completed and it had never been used by the temple. I find it an astonishing testimony to Mastan’s holiness that a Hindu temple would allow one of its vehicles to be used to carry a Muslim’s body on a funeral procession.
Mastan passed away on 8th November 1931. That year this was also Deevali day. With Mastan’s body on board, the chapram was pushed and pulled through three of the local villages in a torrential downpour. One man, whose uncle built Mastan’s samadhi, told me that at times the devotees had to manoeuver the chapram through waist-deep water. Neither the weather nor the difficulties of pushing the vehicle seemed to dampen the spirits of the funeral procession. At each place the chapram visited, local people joined the funeral and helped to push. When the procession returned to the site of the samadhi, a funeral feast was arranged. Muniswami Gounder, who had looked after Mastan’s needs for many years, donated 200 kg of rice and fed everyone who attended. For the rest of his life Muniswami Gounder organised a similar-sized meal on Mastan’s samadhi day. The practice stopped when he died.
I asked Chockalingam, a local resident, about the tradition that the samadhi has wish-fulfilling powers, something that Akhilandamma referred to in the final paragraph of her account.
He replied, ‘In the years that followed his samadhi everyone noticed that the family affairs and businesses of people who had helped Mastan prospered, whereas those who were opposed to him found that their fortunes declined. Everyone could see what was happening, so people started coming to the samadhi to ask for blessings. Even today, many people still come here to pray for their desires to be fulfilled.’
Some days later Akhilandamma went to Tiruvannamalai to tell Bhagavan about Mastan’s passing away:
I went to Bhagavan and described the final days of Mastan.
Upon hearing about them Bhagavan commented, ‘Maybe the universal mother, Apeetakuchamba, personally came to take him. All his descriptions tally with the world of Siva. Mastan was an unassuming devotee. He had a wealth of hidden spiritual experiences. It is a matter for gratification that he passed away in your care and under your supervision.’ (‘My Reminiscences’ by Akhilandamma, Arunachala Ramana, May 1982, pp. 5-9.)
Desur Mastan Swamigal Bhakti Rasa Patigam
(Eleven Verses of Tasty Devotion on Desur Mastan Swami)
Though Mastan never wrote about any of his experiences with Bhagavan, an associate of his, Sambandan, did record a few of his spiritual sayings in an eleven-verse poem that was composed after Mastan passed away. The language and sentiments of the verses indicate that Sambandan was a disciple of Mastan. The verses clearly show that Sambandan regarded him as an enlightened being who was fully qualified to give out spiritual instructions. Mastan had originally encouraged Sambandan, who must have resided somewhere in the Desur area, to compose some verses extolling Bhagavan’s greatness. Since Mastan knew that he had a talent for composing Tamil verses, he asked him to put it to good use. Sambandan subsequently filled a notebook with about 200 verses that praised Bhagavan. This manuscript found its way to Ramanasramam. Muruganar, who was shown the poems, made many corrections and improvements to the verses. Inside this notebook was a small printed leaflet that contained eleven verses by Sambandan that praised both Bhagavan and Mastan and included brief teachings that both of them had given out. It seems that these eleven verses were composed and published to commemorate one of Mastan’s death anniversaries. The notebook and the printed poem come from the collection of Muruganar’s papers that was passed on to Sadhu Om in the 1970s shortly before Muruganar himself passed away.
The term I have translated as ‘liberated one’ that occurs at the beginning of each of the first ten verses has several other meanings such as ‘sun’, ‘light’ and ‘consciousness’.
1
Mastan, the liberated one who shines in Desur! Divine one! Holy one praised by the lotus-born Brahma and other devas such as Indra! Through grace you told me, a sinner, to sing in the language of poets the divine glory of Ramana Guru, the much-famed God who shines and abides at Arunachala, where forests flourish.
2
Mastan, the liberated one who shines in Desur, where many tanks are filled with fragrant lotus flowers! Shining one! You told me, ‘This great world, which is a painting drawn by Brahma, is only “us”. It is not different from us. If you give up name and form, delusion will go.’ [Without attempting to realise this,] I wasted much time.
3
Mastan, the liberated one who shines in Desur! Liberated one whose renunciation was firmly established, who is praised by devas beginning with Brahma, and who spoke only of the glory of Ramana, that peerless God who, like the vast ocean, abundantly bestows his cool grace! You said, ‘Destroy ignorance. If you restrain the mind within, then that itself will be the blemishless swarupa.’ In this way you destroyed your own ignorance and reached the village of Matam.
4
Mastan, the liberated one who shines in beautiful Desur, which is surrounded by honey-rich groves! Good Guru who gave me the teaching, ‘Abide blissfully at the source from where the world rises’. Precious gem who obtained the cool grace of Sadguru Ramana, praised by the noble! You renounced this worldly life, which is like vomited food, and attained the life of true jnana.
5
Mastan, the liberated one who shines in beautiful Desur, you are like my own mother! [You told me,] ‘This body composed of flesh and so on will certainly cease to exist one day. Knowing this, always abide in your Heart. Even if the sky falls on your head, or even if a sword is firmly driven through your chest, do not slip from your true state.’ Though my ears consumed this delightful teaching of yours, I am not following it in practice.
6
Mastan, the liberated one, who is praised in beautiful Desur, which is surrounded by ponds of flowing water! Good and pure renunciant who remained forever like a child, who roamed like a ghost, and who lived without associating with women. One who showed much grace to those devotees who came to your feet! Lamp shining in the bright mind of Akhilandamma, whose shoulders are like bamboo!
7
Mastan, the liberated one who lives in Desur, which has the greatness of being surrounded by fortified walls over which clouds hover! You said to me, ‘Wherever you may be physically, always remain and abide in your Self’. Guru who possesses the wealth of grace and who stroked me with his hand, showering grace like a rain cloud! I did not obtain the cool grace of staying with you and serving you. What will I do now?
8
Mastan, the liberated one who lives in Desur, where swans with reddish legs walk through the water channels. Ocean of satchitananda who realised truth without any obstruction, and became that reality! You said, ‘If the vishaya vasanas [the tendencies of the mind that make it move towards objects of the five senses] are destroyed, the mind will also be destroyed. Then, the incomparable reality, whose own nature is tranquillity, will shine of its own accord. That reality is not apart from you.’
9
Mastan, the liberated one who shines in Desur, which is rich in water resources! Immaculate one who travels in the path of renunciation in every way, without ever forgetting the lotus feet of jnani Ramana, he who teaches by abiding in the truth declared in the Upanishads: ‘Knowing consciousness is true knowledge; all knowledge of non-Self is knowledge born of delusion.’ When will my agitating mind subside?
10
Mastan, the liberated one who shines in Desur, which is rich in honey-bearing groves. One who excelled in mauna and who showed in practice the devotion of not forgetting the fragrant lotus feet of the peerless primal Guru Ramana Maharshi, who is praised by the world and who declared, ‘Not to allow any thought to arise is mauna’.
11
Praise be to the purna! Praise be to the jnana Guru! Praise be to the light shining in our minds, showing the heart of the Vedas! Lord, undo this misery-causing bond of samsara. Accept these poor words of this devotee-slave, which are addressed to your beautiful divine feet.
