Sri Sankara Vijayendra Saraswathi Swamigal – ‘A Hundred Years
of Light’ - III Volume
“During the few years when our Paramaguru imparted lessons to me in the Bhagavatpada’s Sutrabhashya, on my repeated request, the MahaSwami revealed a few interesting episodes pertaining to his youthful years. One of the episodes is as follows:
When the Acharya was in his late teens, during the Chaturmasya period, gatherings of scholars were held in the mutt, off and on. Erudite scholars, wellreversed in two or three sastras participated in these gatherings. Devotees with a
quantum of sastraic knowledge belonging to neighboring places would also attend the Vidvat Sadas to hear the Vakyartha-vichara (discussion cum short discourse) of the pandits. The great Acharya would grace the sadas with his presence and attend the discussion. On one such occasion, after the discussion had been over, some of the lay devotees placed a request before the scholars, praying for a clarification of a particular point touched upon by some of the scholars during the
discussion. Mahamahopadhyaya Harihara Shastrigal ( who lived in the first half of the current century), who had been a teacher for many a pupil and who had been instrumental in printing and publishing many rare Sanskrit works which had until then remained as manuscripts, came forward to explain. The Great Acharya,
the assembled scholars and devotees listened with rapt attention to the hour-long elucidation of the famous pundit. But even after this, some of the devotees entreated for a more easily comprehensible explanation. None of the scholars
dared to do so. Silence prevailed for some minutes. The Great Acharya, himself, told the assembly that he would clarify the issue. His Holiness spoke in simple Sanskrit and explained the touchy point in a lucid manner. All the scholars including Harihara Shastrigal were struck with wonder and they paid glowing tributes to the Maha Swamigal.
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