Sarvepalli Radha Krishnan

-Teacher to and for humanity

We cannot always control events, but we can always control our attitude towards events,'' remarked Sarvepalle Radhakrishnan in 1963 when the then US President, John F. Kennedy, expressed disappointment at the rain that spoilt the warm reception the latter had arranged to India's Head of State.

It was not the first time for Kennedy to make note of such words of wisdom. Ten years earlier, as Senator, he had made a note of a sentence from Radhakrishnan's address to the US Congress was the then the Vice-President of India: "No society is static; no law is unchanging; and no constitution is permanent. Given time and patience, radical changes may happen both in human nature and in systems of society which reflect human nature.''

At the other end of the ideological spectrum, the Soviet dictator and the coldest of cold warriors, Joseph Stalin, was moved to tears when Radhakrishnan, the then Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union, patted Stalin on the cheek and advised him to take care of his health. "He is the only man,'' the stone-hearted dictator confessed, "who treats me not as a monster but as a human being.''

The builder of the "rainbow bridge'' between the age-old wisdom of India and the new knowledge of the West, as Radhakrishnan was hailed, became almost a `cult figure' in Europe and America. His philosophy stemmed from a fusion of Indian and Western thought and his outlook presented a harmonious blend of tradition and modernity.

In 1904, philosophy chose Radhakrishnan - born at Tiruttani (Tamil Nadu) on September 5, 1888 - to be its student when the lad passed the Intermediate examination in first class. That his cousin passed on his textbooks in psychology, logic and ethics was an accident that prompted the poor youngster to choose BA in philosophy. If he had money, he might have chosen some other course. Poverty made his early life hard. But it could not corrode his spirit or dampen his zest for intellectual pursuits. Poverty had once saved him from the jaws of death when a highway robber searched on the boy's person in vain for gold ornaments. Finding only peanuts in his pocket the robber changed his mind and let Radhakrishnan go. Otherwise, he would have been pushed into a nearby well. The family was so poor that there was no money to buy banana leaves on which food was usually served, and the family members ate off the floor after cleaning it! He borrowed money and even auctioned his university medals to maintain the family. The `unseen hand' as Radhakrishnan chose to describe God's will always guided his life. Equally interesting was the fact that for want of a post he was first appointed in a temporary vacancy as Malayalam Master in the Madras Presidency College.

Years of hardship preceded the young lecturer's upward career graph. His output was prolific and of a high quality. His article on the Gita secured for him the appreciation of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and writings on Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, the "grateful admiration'' of India's first Nobel laureate. Tagore's work was "a mystical torrent'' that paved the way towards transcendence synthesised "the ideals of Indian philosophy, religion and art''. Radhakrishnan was convinced that Tagore was God's gift to India.

Another great influence on him was Mahatma Gandhi, the masterpiece volume on whom Radhakrishnan edited in 1939. He wanted to revise it and present it to Gandhiji on his 80th birhtday on October 2, 1949, but as the editor wrote, "Fates decreed otherwise and it has now become a memorial volume.'' Earlier, when he went to Gandhiji for permission to dedicate the volume to him, the latter said: "Who am I? What is my service? You are my Krishna, I am your Arjuna.''

Professorship at Mysore and Calcutta and lectures at Oxford proclaimed his credentials as a philosopher and teacher of rare eminence. The farewell he received at Mysore in 1921 was one of the most memorable events in his life. Detaching the horses from the carriage in which he was to travel to the railway station, the students pulled it themselves to the destination. The platform was flooded with flowers and people and the compartment with roses as Mysore gave a tearful send-off to the young professor of 32 summers. Calcutta honoured him no less, and as King George V Professor, Radhakrishnan earned the admiration of such stalwarts like Asutosh Mukherjee and Brajendranath Seal.

Radhakrishnan delivered the first convocation address of Andhra University in 1927 and received an honorary degree at its convocation the next year. Even now people recall with pride and nostalgia the outstanding work he did as Vice-Chancellor at Waltair shaping the infant AU into a famous centre of learning. His son, S. Gopal, the eminent historian who passed away recently, records in his biography of his father that he brought to AU eminent teachers and researchers from far and near. Sir C.V. Raman was co-opted as a member of the syndicate and made honorary professor of physics; Sir M. Visvesvaraya was put in charge of technology; S.C. Chawla was brought from Lahore for mathematics and T.R. Seshadri for chemistry, besides Humayun Kabir, Hiren Mukherjee and V.K.R.V. Rao for humanities.

Interestingly, Radhakrishnan invited C.K. Nayudu, `the Tendulkar' of those times, to coach cricketers at Waltair and the legendary Nayudu accepted the offer though the plan did not materialise as the VC had left Waltair in 1935. The greatest tribute to Radhakrishnan as VC came from Raman himself: "He waved a hand and a university has sprung up. In his frail body is enshrined a great spirit - a great spirit which we have learned to revere and admire, even to worship.''

What an intellectual feast it was when in 1934 Tagore delivered the Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer Endowment Lecture at the university on "Man"with Radhakrishnan in the presidential chair!

This teacher to and for humanity, who passed away on April 17, 1975, was indeed the pride of Andhra University, which celebrates his birthday as the Teachers Day with fervour. Recalling the glory of those halcyon days is, of course, a matter of pride to the city of Vizag also.

Source The Hindu News Paper Dated  Monday, Oct 14, 2002