The Man and His
Achievements
By Prof. A. N. Dhar
Born at Drabiyar,
Srinagar, in 1914, Shri
Jankinath Kaul 'Kamal' was well known as an
accomplished scholar through his writings in the
fields of Kashmir Shaivism and Vedanta, which have
received countrywide recognition. He attained fame
and popularity as a versatile and talented writer
and earned for himself a position of special
esteem because of his qualities of dedication and
selfless service.
All his life, he
had been a devoted teacher and scholar, content
with his modest earnings, and very proficient in
his work. An octogenarian who our community has
reason to be proud of, he remained mostly busy in
reading and writing, when he was free from
domestic and social preoccupations (excluding the
hours he devoted to his daily meditation). Of
course, he took special delight in delivering
discourses on religious and literary topics at his
residence or at select places - for which he
spared several hours a week in spite of his busy
schedule.
His scholarly
writings in English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Kashmiri,
published in the form of books and articles (that
have appeared in standard journals, including the
Prabuddha Bharata, Kalyan, Malini and Koshur
Samachar), have been favourably reviewed and
commented upon by critics and scholars of note. In
recognition of his valuable contribution to Hindi
language and literature, he received a prestigious
award from the Hindi Sansthan, U.P. Government, on
Hindi Divas, on September 14, 1992, in Lucknow. On
August 15, 1996, on Independence Day, a still more
prestigious award - Certificate of Honour - was
conferred on him which was presented to him by the
President at Rashtrapati Bhawan on June 9,1997, in
recognition of his significant contribution to
Sanskrit studies.
Koshur Samachar had
the privilege of printing a picture of the
investiture ceremony in colour in its issue of
1997. Shri 'Kamal' attended the function which
afforded him an excellent opportunity to interact
with the other fellow-awardees (all eminent
scholars of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic).
Early Life
Jankinath Ji had to
come up the hard way to make his mark as a man of
achievement. His mother passed away when he was
just 7-8 years old; his father remarried but died
when his son had barely attained the age of 13.
Facing hardships as an orphan, Shri Kaul lacked
the means that would have facilitated his
education at school. Thus he could not continue
his studies beyond matriculation. After a few
years of service in Women's Welfare Trust,
Srinagar, he joined the teaching profession at the
age of 30 and taught at the D.A.V. Institute,
Srinagar, for 30 years until he retired as a
senior lecturer in 1974. In view of his competence
and meritorious services, the Institute
re-employed him for another five years until 1979.
It was during his teaching career itself that he
Improved his educational qualifications - passed
Prabhakar and got his B.A. and B.T. degrees,
followed by an M.A. in Sanskrit from the
University of Jammu and Kashmir. He worked as
Research Officer at Sri Parmanand Research
Institute, Srinagar, for 4 years (from 1981 to
1985). Since 1986, he held the post of Editor,
Cultural Desk/ Research Officer, Sri Ramakrishna
Ashram, Shivalaya, Karan Nagar, Srinagar, and
after his displacement from the Valley in 1989, he
had been discharging these functions at Jammu.
Late Shri Jankinath Kaul
'Kamal'
A deep interest in
spirituality, rooted in his constant quest for
truth, had been the main motivation behind Shri
Kaul's life-long study of holy scriptures. His
proficiency in Sanskrit provided further impetus
to his sustained study of Shaiva, Shakta and
Pedantic texts in original. Right from his boyhood
days, he had the marks of a true Jigyasu and
Bhakta in one. No wonder, therefore, that he had
read the works of Swami Ram Tirth in English and
lJrdu and also those of Swami Vivekanand with
passionate zeal when he was a young man in his
twenties. He had in him the makings of a poet; it
was in his early youth that he started composing
Iyrics in Kashmiri and Hindi.
Divine Love
His intense love
for the Divine brought him into contact first with
a well-known scholar and saint, Shri Nilakanth. It
was under his guidance that he studied Bhagwad
Gita in depth along with the commentaries of
Shankaracharya and Shankaranand. Shri Nilakanth,
on his retirement from government service, lived
in ShivanandAshram, Rishikesh, from 1957 onwards.
In 1963, he took sanyasa and came to he called
Swami Nilakanthanand Saraswati. He left his mortal
coil in 1988. Before shifting to Rishikesh, he
recommended Kamal Ji to the illustrious sahit-scholar,
Swami Laxman Joo, known in the country and abroad
for his mastery of the Shaiva texts and his
attainments in spirituality.
During his long
association with Swami Laxman Joo, he wrote
several eulogistic and devotional lyrics on hen in
Sanskrit, English and Kashmiri. Atter the Swami ji
attained mahasamadhi, he wrote several
biograpilical articles on him which appeared in
various journals. In all humility, Kamal Ji has
acknowledged his debt to the great saint of
Ishaber as to how he profited academically and
spiritually from his discourses on Kashmir
Shaivism and his explication of the Shaiva texts.
Some of the valuable lectures of Swami ji have
heen recorded and rendered into English by him
with great care and editorial skill. Likewise,
some discourses given in Kashmiri by Swami Laxman
Joo on the practice of meditation and Pranayama
have been reproduced by him in the Nagri script in
a presentable form. During his association with
the Swamiji, he also came into contact with a
householder saint, Pandit Satram, who lived at
Ishaber close to Swamiji's Ashram. From this
saint, he learned Vidyaranya's Panchdasi, which he
found very useful.
A study of the
corpus of Shri Kamal's works reveals three things
ahout him - his capacity for rigorous research,
his wide-ranging scholarship and his writing skill
as a translator, commentator and creative artist.
His achievement as a writer is stupendous,
considering the hardships he had to face as a man
of modest means.
Poetic
Sensibility
I would first like
to talk briefly about his poetic sensibility that
flowered early in his life. A quick look at his
book of Kashmiri lyrics Shradha Posh, brought out
in 1942, reveals at once his devotional intensity,
his deep mental involvement with the Transcendent,
his spiritual aspiration as also his dispassion
and his practical grasp of the technique of
meditation as recommended in our sastras. The very
titles of some of the poems are striking and
significant - Murli Nad, Sahana Panai, Viji Vav,
Berang Nundabon, Samvit Panchadasi, Turya Tirth,
etc. The preacher's tone is marked in the poem
Grahasthiyas Updesh that exhorts one to combine
purity with a satisfactory performance of worldly
obligations to maintain the delicate balance
between Parmarth and our social conduct. His
diction is simple and lucid and his manner
straightforward. The diction is usually a mix of
Kashmiri words in common use and the appropriate
terms derived from the sacred texts. As an
illustration, I give below my translation of the
first 10 lines of the poem Siva Sankar Sambu:
Settle your mind,
Chanting the mantra
Siva Sankar Sambu.
The mind
cleansed,
Light will shine
forth
Dispelling all
darkness;
With true faith
Aided by
self-introspection,
Utter the mantra
Siva Sankar Sambu.
Get into the
temple
At early dawn
After a sacred bath;
Then meditate,
And ponder the
mantra
Siva Sankar Sambu.
Shri
Kamal's lyrical genius as a Hindi poet blossomed
forth in the volume titled, Viksipt Vina. This
work has been specially mentioned as the author's
valuable contribution to Hindi poetry in the
citation that accompained the award conferred on
him in 1992. The poem Main strikes the keynote;
here is my translation of the first stanza:
I'm the melancholy
note
From a Vina with
broken strings;
I am the wailing
song
That has burst forth
From the anguished
heart
Of a helpless woman!
The various lyrics
strung together in the volume reveal the depth and
intensity of the author's feelings and the
loftiness of his aspirations. The reader at once
feels that a 'lark is singing' in the poet's
breast. At the same time, the poems show how
sensitive he is to the pain and suffering that
life brings in its train.
Magnum Opus
From the long list
of Shri Kamal's publications, I would select three
titles for special mention:
i)
Bhavaninamasahastrastutih, which I consider his
magnum opus. It is a translation from Sanskrit
into English of the hymn containing a thousand
names of Bhavani, accompanied by an elaborate
commentary, (ii) Siva-Sutra-Vimarsha, edited with
a critical commentary in Hindi, and (iii)
Panchastavi A Pentad of Hymns to Bhavani. The
Sanskrit hymns are translated into English
followed each by an elaborate and illuminative
commentary. Three favourable reviews on the first
title (including one by the present writer) have
appeared in Vedanta Kesri, Indian Book Chronicle,
Koshur Samachar and Prabuddha Bharata. The book
has been in great demand and it has been
reprinted. His achievement as translator,
annotator and commentator is impressive and his
perceptive and critical comments in Hindi on the
Siva Sutras are thoughtful and lucid. I find this
work in no way less useful and, in some respects,
even finer than Jaidev's notes in his English
commentary on the text. The third title is a fine
work, packed with insightful comments on the hymns
matched by perceptive allusions to the relevant
materials that illuminate the esoteric meanings of
the hymns. The book has been very well received by
readers all over the country. Swami
Ranganathananda of Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad,
was all praise for this work. He mentioned the
book to me when I met him in February 1997 at
Hyderabad.
In sum, Shri
Jankinath Kaul Kamal was remarkable as a scholar
and writer. Tall, slim and pleasant-looking,
saintly and erudite, always neatly dressed, he
exuded the culture and warmth that evoked
admiration from one and all. Those who were close
to him and listened to his illuminating discourses
found his company invaluable. As a scholar, he was
every inch professional.
Source:
Koshur
Samachar
|
Articles
by Jankinath Kaul Kamal |
 Swami
Laxman Joo - The Sage of Ishaber
Fathers
of the Kashmir Monistic Saiva Thought, who
flourished in the valley from ninth to thirteenth
century A.D., were erudite scholars and eminent
saints. They recorded what they practised and
accomplished thereby. Later, there were
interruptions in this line of thought, and it was
mostly the ritualistic faith that kept the
tradition alive.
>>>
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 Swami
Ramji
In the middle of the 19th
century AD there lived a Brahmin named Shukdev at Chinkral Mohalla, Srinagar.
The Brahmin was a Purohit and lived a pious life. Around 1852 AD (1910 Bikrami),
a son was born to him. According to his horoscope, it was predicted at his birth
that the baby would grow to be a great saint. Nobody could imagine at that time
the great spiritual heights that Swami Ramji would attain in his life later.
>>>
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The
Inspired Sage of Accomplishment
Drunk deep,
one becomes unmindful,
Knows not about the cloth he wears -
Whether it's fallen off the body or held on to the shoulder;
Likewise, the sage of spiritual attainment
In disembodied joy of Divine Ecstasy,
Knows not about this transient body -
Whether he retains it by the power of destiny
Or has gone beyond it by Grace Divine.
>>>
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How
to know that Brahman - The Supreme
Peace
Purusa,
who keeps awake and goes on creating desirable
things even when the senses fall asleep, is
pure; and He is Brahman, and he is called the
Immortal. All the worlds are fixed in Him; none
can transcend Him. This is That'. >>>
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Utpaladeva
and his Pratyabhijnya Philosophy
Very
little is known about Utpala, the great mystic
Saint of Kashmir, except that he might have lived
somewhere in Nauhatta (Navyut) in Srinagar. From
some authors on Kashmir Shaivism and his
contemporaries we find that he was a Brahmin and
lived a married life around the middle of 900 A.D.
He was the son of Udayakar. >>>
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Pratyabhijna
Expounded by Utpaladeva
The
Pratyabhijna School is quite akin to the
non-dual vedantic thought of Ajatavada explained
by Gaudapada. Vasugupta was the first propounder
of Shaivism in Kashmir. He flourished in the
middle of the late Eighth Century A.D. Worship
of different deities, Yoga systems and Shaiva
faith have already been in practice here. >>>
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Fundamental
Aspect of Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism
The
six systems of Hindu Philosophy are Nyaya,
Vaisheshika, Saankhya, Yoga,
Mimaamsa
and Vedanta. There are also many other schools of
thought in India, but all are the variations of
these six systems termed the Hindu Philosophy. To
understand this clearly, we have to realize that
the basis of all the schools of Indian Thought is
the same which we call the Ultimate Reality,
Supreme Consciousness, Brahman, Siva, Allah or
God.
>>>
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 Picture
Gallery
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