Page 232 - Kailaspati: Paramhans Hansdevji Avadhoot

God. he also added, “Now you fail to realize that both man and God are one and indivisible, but later on you will surely realize it after a lot of meditation and after a lot of years.”
alas! We were too poor to realize that ‘Tatva’. We could not realize the meaning of ‘soham’, uttered by a great sage; we also ignored the mahavakya: ‘ayamatma Brahma’. We have learnt a lot from our Baba, but we were too foolish to realize that my ‘atma’ is prevalent everywhere and in every human being and in different forms. had we followed this divine truth, we could not have raised a stick against a street dog or we could not have caged a bird from the woods. how many of us have done this? how many of us really realise the world outside to be the man- ifestation of ‘Brahman’. There is nothing except i, the Brahman. it is doubtful that acharya shankaracharya, who is held in high esteem as ‘shivavatar’ had done it. Could he do it, he could not have wandered from place to place praying for debates. This is not at all my personal observation. it is instead made by Brahmananda swami. here allow me to explain this point.
about 1800 years back, close to the confluence of the Gan- gasagar, Brahmananda Deva, the very frail sage, lived on a small island, called Kakdwip. ‘anandamath’ was the name of his ashrama. On the premises of the anandamath under the shade of an enor- mous banyan tree, there was neither a house nor a cottage except an uneven piece of stone. The great sage was seated on that stone surrounded by his disciples. it was at that time Bhagvan shankaracharya paid his pranam to that sage and sat at his feet. he sat there with a view to inviting the greatest of sages, named ‘Mahagyani Brahmananda’, to a debate.
With that object in view, he said, “Revered Mahatma, on having won in Uttarpradesh in the aryabarta on the point of ‘advaitism’, i have set up a ‘Math’ at Joshimath (i) in the open of Yadrikar; on having won in the west of this land i have founded the ‘sarada Math’ at Dwaraka (ii) and on having won the south i have set up the ‘sringeri Math’ at Rameswar (iii). Now i have decided to set up my fourth ‘Math’ in Bangladesh by having defeated you.”
On having understood the intention of shankaracharya, the
202 Kailashpati