Kuvempu’s reverence to 'Sri Aurobindo'

Compassion and divinity: Son-in-law K T Surendra talks of the spiritual strength he derives even today from the departed soul of Kuvempu VEENA BHARATI Deccan Herald, Sunday, April 25, 2004

"The first time I saw Kuvempu was in 1956, when he became the vice-chancellor of Mysore University. He came to meet my uncle Kadidaalu Manjappa (the then education minister) at the ministerial bungalow. Later, I went to England for higher studies and heard about Kuvempu through my father when he proposed his daughter to me!" Kuvempu himself performed the marriage rituals at a small gathering in Shimoga in 1969 and expressed gratefulness to Surendra for marrying his daughter! "For my wife Indukala, Kuvempu was more than a father. He was my wife's guru and more than a father figure, he was like a mother to her." Indukala who died of cancer five years ago has also written two books on Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda.

He talks of Kuvempu’s reverence to 'Sri Aurobindo'. "He used to tell us that the previous night of Aurobindo's death he had seen a huge tree in his dream, which suddenly came falling down to earth. It was a way of spiritual and divine interconnection, which Kuvempu used to believe in. Similarly, he used to sit near the plants which had blossomed after my mother-in-law's death, because she had planted and nourished them." For Dr Surendra, Kuvempu was a great soul and an embodiment of compassion, divinity and spirituality.