The below excerpts are from Sri Harshaji’s talk at a private gathering in Berlin last month – Aileen
We started talking about Tīvra-Madhya Shaktipāta, and then Shen-Gong and Fa-Shen and now seem to have gotten into discussing women and sannyāsa! Anyway, I frankly have no personal opinion on this topic, as it does not mean much to me, one way or another, but can provide two tales, which can be considered as anecdotal evidence.
One of my dear friends told me about an accomplished Yoginī named Srī Chanḍikānanda Bhāratī from āndhra deśa. Reportedly an expert at kāyākalpa, she had received sannyāsa from none other than H H Srī Saccidānanda Shivābhinava Nṛsiṃha Bhāratī and was a sannyāsinī in the traditional sense, sporting a daṇḍa in her hand. She kept the daṇḍa away during those three days of the month but performed her anuṣṭhāna as any other daṇḍī sannyāsin would do. She was adept in Mantra śāstra and Yogic discipline.
It is said that she initially lived in Sringeī but it caused the usual commotion and politics on account of a woman living within an orthodox maṭha of celibate monks. As per her Guru’s instruction, she left the maṭha, and spent much time in caves in Guntur perfecting her upāsanā. She then proceeded to the north and spent several decades in the Himalayas, and finally appeared in Bengal with a broken bone, owing to her unfinished karma. She somehow was brought back to āndhra deśa and spent the full period of a caturmāsya in my friend’s residence. Her siddhis were evident from the many things that occurred in her presence. She is known to have discarded her body at some point after her goal of exhausting karma was met. So this is the tale I’ve heard about a lady initiated into sannyāsa by none other than the great pontiff of Sringerī. I must also mention, for the sake of completeness, that when I once conversed on this topic with the current pontiff of the maṭha, the response was a dismissive smile; but that really should not negate the possibility of this incident having occurred as neither Yoga nor Tantra are areas of expertise or even interest for the current ācārya, unlike his predecessors.
And the second person I remember is someone we called Bhairavī Amma, the most influential woman teacher in my life after Suri Mami. She was a disciple of our Guru Nambudiri Appa (Srī Chinmudrānandanātha), and obviously, her name was not Bhairavī, she had so assumed that title on account of her practices. She spoke no South Indian languages, conversed in chaste Hindi, English and Sanskrit, and appeared to be familiar with Bengali. While we called our Guru Nambudari ‘Appa’, she was called Bhairavī ‘Amma’, and that probably indicated how she was related to our Guru. Our Guru spoke very little verbally, and most of his instructions came through wordless speech. But Amma was a great communicator and often acted as his medium of instruction. She appeared to be about seventy or eighty by the time I got acquainted with her, seemingly older by several decades than our Guru, who in actuality was older than her by god knows what number! Her diet was strange – peanuts, banana, water with lemon and ginger, and another fruit I did not really recognize at that point. If my trainer ever heard of it, he would probably think she was on an Atkins diet! Her chosen deity was Chinnamastā, who she unfailingly referred to as Pracaṇḍa Chaṇḍikā and held a worldview close to Trika and Spanda, but not exactly the same.
She would randomly show up at the residence of a former Chief Justice of India, who was also devoted (albeit not a disciple) to our Guru and stay in his home for a week or two. She taught me very many things, in fact, more things verbally than my Guru such as several forms of Prāṇāyāma, certain secretive aspects that form the crux of śākta yoga, several prayogas for Bagalāmukhī, Chinnamastā and Vajravārāhī. She was extremely well-versed in Buddhist Mahāmudrā and displayed a very vocal inclination towards the Shentong view. She had studied under several Dzogchen teachers that included accomplished students of Khenpo Ngawang Palzang and Gyurme Pema Namgyal. She was indeed my first Buddhist teacher for Mahāmudrā though rDzogchen is my currently preferred school for various reasons. She had lived in Nepal for quite a while and had been closely acquainted with Dhana Shamsher Ranaji (who was a disciple of our Guru for some time), and was instrumental in my accessing several manuscripts belonging to our Sampradāya from Nepal. One of my students who visited Nepal last year tells me that the priest in the temple of Guhyeśvarī recognizes her.
Anyway, she told me that she had been initiated into sannyāsa by the pontiff of Sumeru maṭha (I assume this is the same as the one in Kashi) along with daṇḍa, etc., and had performed several cāturmāsya vratas before discarding the daṇḍa and entering the avadhūtāśrama, typical of Krama Diksha. Her remark was, ‘I have lost my muṇḍa (hinting at a certain practice of extreme nature associated with Chinnamastā), what use I have for a daṇḍa?’ I have no reason to disbelieve her narration and do think she was indeed given sannyāsa the traditional way.