Chennai, January 15
Ever since the Kanchi Shankaracharya came out of jail all eyes are focused on him while the junior pontiff, Sri Vijayendra Saraswati, who was arrested on Monday seems to have been forgotten.
He has been lodged in a small cell in the special quarantine block of Chennai Central Prison here. The cell had once been the temporary residence for two famous personalities - Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in 1996 and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President M. Karunanidhi in 2001.
The junior Shankaracharya is not aware of this fact. “But if we had, we doubt whether that could have made a difference,” a prison official commented.
He said only his relatives and a few Kanchi Mutt officials came to meet him with a change of clothes. Like the Shankaracharya he was not fortunate to meet a bevy of famous visitors like former Union Ministers and politicians.
The 35-year-old seer had lived amid comfortable surroundings but here in this cell he does not even have a fan, a bed or even a mosquito net.
He is literally living the life of a recluse and spends most of the time worshipping a wooden idol of Lord Shiva, which he was allowed to carry inside prison. According to prison rules no inmate is allowed to keep any valuables with him. However, he has been allowed to keep his holy staff.
He rarely talks to the prison officials who come thrice daily to enquire about his health. His daily diet includes only curd rice which is supplied thrice from the central kitchen of the prison.
Though he is not bothered about the food Vijayendra Saraswati had made a small request to the prison authorities - procurement of well water for his prayers. Use of water from a well or a river is a must for those who have renounced the world.
But they could not comply with his request because the sewerage water from the nearby Buckingham Canal (a huge sewer that crisscrosses Chennai dissecting Cooum - another river that has metamorphosed into a gutter) - had seeped into the ground water inside the prison.
A prison official said, “We did not want polluted water to be used by the junior seer.”
There are others from the Kanchi Mutt in the Chennai Central Prison - Raghu, the younger brother of Vijayendra and Sundaresha Iyer, the manager of the Mutt. But none of them had any interaction with the junior seer.
Prison sources said they expected many requests like a bed with proper pillows and blankets and a fan but the seer did not ask for anything.
An official said, “We have been observing him right from the moment he entered the prison. He has a calm, and majestic expression. He seems to be oblivious to his surroundings.”
The official said the seer slept on the floor and remained calm throughout the day and seemed to be hardly aware of the storm created by the video clips leaked to television channels in which his guru lambasted him during police interrogation.
He said, “The Swamigal seems to have taken everything in his stride. Neither he nor Raghu nor Sundaresha Iyer seems to have taken the issue of imprisonment to their hearts. The only possible irritant could be the presence of mosquitoes. But, we have not heard him complain even about that.
“The only extraordinary habit of the junior seer seems to be his wish to wash his monastic attire. We offered to wash it for him, but he politely refused the offer.”
The junior pontiff begins his day at 6 am. As per prison rules, all cells are closed at 6.30 pm. The authorities have housed well behaved inmates in the nearby cells so that the seer has a peaceful night.
