Nandababh the Mastana - Panoramic view of Swami Ji's Mysticism, Spiritualism and Humanism
by Moti
Lal Bhat "Shafiq"
(We
find it too irresistible a temptation to use
freely the lucid description in concrete
terms of the Panoramic view of Swami Ji's
mysticism, spiritual heights and human sympathy
extracted from the scholarly treatise "Nandbab
the Mastana" on Swami Nand Lal Ji by Shri
Moti Lal Bhat "Shafiq". Some extracts
from the book are reproduced in the following
pages - authors).
He (Iswarswaroop Paraaswami Nand Lal Sahib
Kaul)
appeared as a youth on the spiritual scene of
Kashmir and strode it for over 50 years like a
gentle colossus leaving behind indelible imprints
of the paths he trod, places he visited, the
people who followed him and those who joined his
spiritual congregations.
For
his humane qualities of head and heart, he was
popularly known by the homely name of 'Nandbab'.
In spoken language 'Nanda' is an abbreviation of
the name nandlal and 'bab' means father, elderly person. That was the profundity of the
fervour unfathomable reverence which his devotees
had for him.
Strangely
dressed, as he always used to be Nandbab did not
seem, from his outward appearance, to be
uninitiated, to be what he in reality was to the
initiated. The knowledge of the changeful
multitude and of the imperishable changeless
reality, the spiritual unity and solidarity of all
existence, the One behind the many without a prior
or posterior, had fully blossomed in the Eden of
his inner self. He was a universal man a 'vishvapursha',
integrated within and without. Himself having
risen from mortal to the immortal status of
existence, Nandbab ever endeavored to lead his
devotees from the phenomenal world of appearances
to the realm of reality; from the darkness of
unawareness to the light of awareness, from the
lower nature 'apara prakrati' to the higher Nature
'Para Prakrati'.
While
doing so, he did not lose sight of the meaning and
importance of life in the world. The inviolable
relationship between the Cosmic Reality and the
individual soul was well known to him. He had an
intelligent understanding of being a man first and
then being a saint. It is true manliness which on
fruition leads to godliness, was lucidly clear to
this man of Supreme knowledge - the 'mahagyani'
and he boldly acted upon this unifying
all-embracing message of the Upanishads.
Always
wearing a mystic smile which spoke volumes about
the divine ecstasy of his transformed being
Nandabad the man of the epoch - the 'Yugapurusha'
attracted thousands of people, from far and wide,
yearning for his blessing for their solace and
protection from major trials and tribulations,
crises and conflicts, in which worldly valour and
wisdom are of no avail to meet them. Those who
came to him were people of all faiths. Caste,
creed and social status, being unnatural dividers,
had no meaning or relevance, whatsoever, for this
great man - the 'mahapurusha'. He poured forth
love in abundance to all. Hindus and Muslims
revered him alike. It was a sight to see how even
highly placed Muslims treated Nandabab with
absolute faith and veneration.
Nandabab
had a profound sense of observation. All that came
his way did not go unnoticed by him. He would
react in his own inimitable ways to what he
saw. Abject poverty, despondency, destitution and
deprivation invariably moved him. He would always
express his deep concern for the suffering and
work in his own subtle ways for their upliftment.
His soothing words acted as elixir for them.
As
a clairvoyant he saw visions with the seership of
the one higher up in the hierarchy of the
spiritually accomplished. He made prophetic
pronouncements, sometimes talking in parables,
simi metaphors and through the language of
gestures but generally dictating on chits of paper
his pithy words in his own-addressing Paul what
is intended for Peter 'tche kun valith mei kun'
style of communication. It would either be replies
to the mental unrevealed queries of individuals or
reflect social or political events to follow.
Once
a devote and his America-based brother on their
return from the health resort of Pahalgam in
Kashmir, while passing through a village Bhavan,
came to know about the presence of Nandabab in
that village. The devotee could not resist his
inner call to pay obeisance to the saint. Making
enquiries, both of them went straight to the house
of a villager where Nandabab had halted. They were
still at the threshold when the saint looking
towards this devotee and nodding his head said:
"Well! have you performed the last
rites?"
The
devotee got upset. He became panicky for he
mentally interpreted the saint's words as some
sort of untoward happening in his family. However,
he kept his cool. After paying obeisance, he and
his brother took their leave and left for their
home at Srinagar.
Everything
was normal at home. Next day the news spread that
at a place in Pahalgam a massive cloudburst had
washed away, down a hillock number of hovels and
huts along with the inmates, causing heavy loss of
life and property.
Usually
Nandabab's movements were unpredictable. Way back
in the sixtees, he had left Srinagar for Delhi on
a certain mission. On reaching old Delhi railway
station, he suddenly changed his mind and asked
his whole-time caretaker disciple to arrange for a
horse-cart for going to the residence in old Delhi
of a lady whom he neamed with paternal feeling.
The disciple knew the lady as the daughter of a
pious family of Tankipora mohalla in Srinagar with
whom Nandabab had lived, as a son of the
household, for over a decade of his initial
shining out. But he did not know the Delhi address
of the lady and without address it was impossible
to locate the lady in a big city like Delhi.
Had
Nandabab given the slightest inkling to him before
their departure from Srinagar, he would have
collected the Delhi address of the lady' the
disciple thought to himself. But that had not been
done. He mentioned his difficulty to Nandabab.
But, Nandabab insisted. A horse- cart was
arranged.
Nandabab
seated himself alongside the cart-driver and
guided him all through from area to area, colony
to colony, street to street, lane to lane, till
they reached the particular house at Shakti Nagar
in old Delhi where the lady and her husband were
residing.
That
was Nandabab and his spiritual insight.
At
the spiritual level, Nandabab seemed to have been
assigned the paramount seat of the perceptible
aspect of power as kinetic force by the whole host
of contemporary mystics, which he manifested as
and when required. He had been accorded the
epithet of the 'supreme commander of peace'. The
rise and all of governments in Jammu &
Kashmir State, social changes, political
developments and many other aspects of major
significance were under the orb of his spiritual
influence. It is incredible. But it is the truth.
It
is amazing that even before the Jammu and Kashmir
Governments had thought of working out the
modalities of the land-to-tiller policy
pronounced after independence, Nandabab, as 'amicus
human genres' - a friend of humanity had issued
his commandment - a hukamnama, on chits of paper,
distributed then in hundreds, spelling out the
modus operandi of distribution of land between the
landlord and the tiller. The hukamnama read -
"Yak hissa wa hardu hissa hawala."
That
was Nandbab's heart religion.
During
Pakistan's invasion on Kashmir in 1947, as
Pakistani forces advanced and organized their
forward movement to besiege the city of Srinagar
and capture the only airport a few kilometers form
the city, Nandbab rose like the force of light to
destroy the force of darkness. He got going like a
giant to repulse the incursion.
In
the top-floor balcony of a house in Tankipora
mohalla in Srinagar, where he was staying those
days with a family. Nandabab fixed pieces of
household firewood in different directions,
symbolising artillery power, which he himself
maneuvered, frequently changing their position and
direction. He shouted. His shouts sounded like war
cries. He swiftly moved hither and thither making
strange gesticulations. Panic-stricken onlookers,
watching Nandabab in action, differently
interpreted his movements, according to their
individual understanding.
Circumambulating
the big fire, which he had lit in the courtyard
of the same house, he looked furious beyond
description. From here, he went back to the
balcony and sharply glanced around as if viewing
distant objects from a gazebo. After a pause, he
gazed skyward with a mysteriously smiling face and
loudly uttered some typical words which for the
understanding ones meant: "invasion thwarted
... invasion thwarted.. ".
Immediately
thereafter, it so happened that the Indian armed
forces, which were airlifted, landed in full
strength at the Srinagar airport and launched a
massive counter offensive swiftly pushing back the
aggressor.
In
1965 Indo-Pak war, Nandabab repeated the
miraculous feat. Standing firm as a rock, under
the still more catastrophic conditions he once
again provided impenetrable umbrella of protection
to the people of the State.
That
time Nandabab was putting up in the house of a
devotee at Dewan Bagh in Srinagar. One day he
started showing signs of alarm. His close
devotees, as were present, asked him about the
immediate cause of his extra anxiety. He did not
mention it, but asked them in a commanding tone to
light instantly a holy fire in the courtyard and
to prepare oblation food which he wanted them to
keep ready by a certain hour of afternoon of the
next day. The devotees followed the command. The
holy fire was lit then and there and preparatory
work for the oblation food was started same day.
Next
day as the word spread, a large number of devotees
thronged the place with their offerings. All these
offerings were consigned to the holy fire as
and when brought. As the indicated hour approached
two platefuls of the oblation food were placed
before Nandabab. One of the plates he kept for
himself and the other one he asked a devotee to
consign to the holy fire which had been alight all
through. The principal devotees present on the
occasion interpreted it as a calculated counter
move which bore the desired outcome.
Almost
the same time, some sabre jets of Pakistan Air
Force appeared on the skies of Srinagar and
hovered around with the airport being their
principal target. But their mission was foiled and
their design frustrated.
Again
in 1971, during the Bangladesh war, Nandabab
exerted at the metaphysical plane, bringing into
action, in his own way, his supernatural powers
for the overall good of the humanity. He stretched
his ethereal personality to re-establish true
humanness with re-inforced foundation of moral and
spiritual life. There was nothing cradle,
dogmatic, parochial or sectarian about
it. It was all universal and human. It was broad
and inclusive.
Nandabab
was ill and confined to bed in his parental house
in the village called Nuner. He was unable to move
by himself. One day he suddenly asked one of his
close disciples to shift him to Srinagar. The
disciple was surprised. The saint was sick and why
should he have asked to shift him to Srinagar?
Apparently there was no reason. But then the
disciple did some pondering and concluding that
Nandabab would not have asked him for no purpose
to move him to Srinagar, he made preparations for
Nandabab's departure.
On
reaching Srinagar, Nandabab was escorted further
to the residence of a devotee at Karan Nagar, as
it was here that he could be given continual
medical treatment for a member of the resident
family was himself a doctor and besides there were
some proficient doctors practicing in the same
locality. But who knew or could know the fixed
purpose of Nandabab's coming to Srinagar even in
sickness. It needed the clear eye of understanding
'bodhachakshu' to realize the true form of
reality.
While
Nandabab had outwardly given himself to medical
treatment of his bodily ailment, he was
psychically engaged seriously with something
behind and beyond the world of appearances,
creating a situation for establishing tranquility
and harmony in the temporal life and living in a
part of the world, which had been under heavy
gunfire for long. The situation was grave. The
movement of the seventh fleet of the United States
of America had all the more aggravated it. The
whole country was tense.
In
those extremely anxious moments, Nandabab once
again intervened. He wielded his sceptre and
majestically asked one of his close disciples to
prepare a Kashmiri nonveg. delicacy called
roganjosh and cooked rice. So it was done and
offered to Nandabab. He ate some of it. He paused
for a while. He looked in all the six directions a
observed in a satisfying manner - everything is
alright now.
The
following day it was on the Air that the Pakistan
armed forces in Bangladesh had surrendered en
masse and the war was over.
Nandababh
seldom stayed at his home. He had forsaken his
personal comforts. He was a selfless and sublime
man of action - a 'Karmayogi.' As a roving
ambassador of the Lords of the Universe, he went
about indefatigably distributing the treasures of
higher wisdom in the spirit of service to mankind.
The wooden staff in his right hand, the dagger
tucked in his waist band and the big axe on his
left shoulder, which he always carried with
him, wherever he went, symolized the power of
action - the 'Kriyashakti' the Divine had vested
in him.
Ever
established in the beaming bliss of the pure
consciousness of the great self in him, Nandabab
was not an ordinary mortal. He was an embodiment
of super human acumen and achievements. While
living fully in the world of entanglements, he had
completely disentangled himself from the
meshes of the world like a lotus in a swamp.
Born
on the 30th December, 1896, at Purshyar, district
Srinagar in Kashmir, Nandabab entered 'mahasmadhi'
on the 10th October, 1973, in the capital city of
Delhi. His mortal remains were reverentially flown
to Srinagar for the last rites. Profusely bedecked
with bunches of bouquets, wreaths and
garlands of flowers of rainbow colours, the gun-
carriage carrying the mortal remains of the saint,
ever worshipped by the constant devotees - 'nityam-ashrit
pujitah', was wheeled round the city of Srinagar
on Public demand.
Thousand
of people in tears of mourning moved, shoulder to
shoulder, in the funeral procession chanting from
the holy Srimadbhagwad Gita and other holy
scriptures. Many more, longing for the last
glimpse of the One seated in Godhood 'adhirohah'
showered flowers of obeisance from their
house-windows and house-tops en- route the funeral
procession which was lined on both sides of the
road by vast numbers of plaintive people.
Winding
its way through the streets of Srinagar, as the
funeral procession reached near the cremation
ground, the large number of mourners who had
already assembled there, for making meticulous
arrangements for a befitting finale, joined the
procession, showering flowers and flowers and
flowers, all the way and all the time, till the
funeral pyre was lit. Some of the mourners
prostrated themselves before the pyre, some of
them circumambulated the pyre and many others
sorrowfully sobbed - "Vai! sani tathi
Nandabab". In the forepart of mourners one
could see late Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah with his
hands raised in prayer and his head bowed in
reverence. It was, indeed, an unprecedented
spectacle of offering shradanjali' on the last
journey of God's chosen one, never witnessed
before in whole of Kashmir.
That
was Nandabab -- the Friend of All, 'sarva lalsah;
the Doer of Good to All, 'sarva shubhankarah'; the
Uplifter of the poor, 'dinasadhakah '; Pure in
Body, Speech and Mind, 'trishaklah' Throughout
his wordily existence he bloomed like a lotus in
the lake of ambrosia of Paramashiva's Grace
wafting all the time, all around, in the ethereal
form of pleasing fragrance, the message of
humility, virtue, uprightness, purity,
compassion and humanism.
It
was after 'mahanirvana' of this eternal and
infallible spiritual guide, that some of his
disciples organised themselves and
established an 'ashram' at Shalakadal, near
Karfali mohalla in Srinagar. Soon this 'ashram'
hummed with pious activities and became a place of
pilgrimage for all.
It
is most tormenting even to think that with the
hapless eruption of violence and subversion in the
land of Abhinavgupta and Utpalacharya;
Vikramaditya and Budshah, Lalded and Sheikhul-Alam,
who taught tolerance and togetherness, and
consequent displacement of Kashmiri Pandits from
their own homeland the 'ashram' has become a
sanctum of the 'Sound of Silence'.
The
roar of the gun has gagged the speech of the
sacred. But for how long?
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