The
Silent Power
Selections from
The Mountain Path
and
The Call Divine
SRI RAMANASRAMAM
BHAGAVAN IS
EVERYWHERE
S.G. Devaraj
I HAD SEEN Bhagavan’s pictures and heard about him, but
was not particularly drawn to him until 1975. One afternoon
in September of that year in a busy street in an American city, I
saw a man walking ahead of me with a bag on his back on which
the Sankskrit word AUM was embroidered. Prompted to talk to
this man, I invited him to have a cup of tea in a nearby restaurant.
I asked him how it happened that his bag bore the Sanskrit word
AUM. He opened the bag and took out the book Talks with Sri
Ramana Maharshi and a few other books about the Maharshi.
We talked for a while and this north American told me, “I was an
ordinary person like the rest here in this country. I had a job and
a good income, a car and friends and relatives. Everything was
OK but I was worried about my possessions being stolen and I
had to make sure that my apartment was properly locked. I was
worried all the time about losing my possessions. Somehow I got
some books about Bhagavan and read them and then things started
changing. Now this bag is all I have. I do not have a place I call
mine. I do not have a job. If I need money I work for a few
hours or for a day and what I earn could get a meal with no
questions asked. All the time I spend reading these books about
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Bhagavan. I keep reading them again and again, but each time I
learn something new.”
It was this strange encounter with an unknown person in
a city far away from Arunachala, who gave up all his possessions
except the bag on his back, that prompted me to make a trip to
Bhagavan’s Ashram. We reached the Ashram around 3p.m. on
the 25th anniversary of his mahanirvana. Putting our bedding
and luggage in a room and getting a copy of the Ashram
schedule, we went up the Hill to Skandashram, drank the spring
water, spent a few minutes in the room there and returned in
time for the evening meal at the Ashram. During our I979
visit, my daughter, looking at Bhagavan’s picture in the old
meditation hall and said to her mother, “Amma, I see light in
those eyes”. In April of 1982, I was planning to visit India to
bring my family back to the US to join me. In the same city
where I met the strange person who gave up all his possessions
except the bag on his back, circumstances brought me into
contact with another American just a couple of days before I
was to start my trip to India. My new friend, learning of my
trip to India, wanted me to go to Tiruvannamalai and meet his
friends (whom he named) in the Ashram!
This encounter with a total stranger was for me a blessing
and a welcome to this home by Bhagavan Himself. Since the
first trip in 1976, Sri Bhagavan made it possible for me to come
to his feet no less than six times. Not only that, he made it
possible for me to go to Madurai and spend some time in the
spot where he had his realisation. What I was at the time of my
first trip and what I am now, only I know and he knows. At
present I am far, far away, physically, but again and again he
makes his presence felt in innumerable ways. HE IS
EVERYWHERE.
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BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA
IS PERSONALLY
PRESENT HERE
Swatantra
(Sri Bhagavan is very much alive! His continued
Presence at Sri Ramanasramam is sure to be felt by sincere
seekers of Truth, stresses the author of this article.)
BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA is personally present here. To
demand proof is like wanting proof that the sun is shining
overhead. His presence is known or ‘seen’ by those with eyes to
see. For others even a positive proof would be useless.
If a few phenomenal incidents are cited to prove his
personal presence here, the logical mind may well dismiss them
all as too fantastic or merely imagination. A man of faith could
accept the facts on hearing them but would that instill
conviction of Sri Ramana’s presence as a living reality?
For those who come to visit Sri Ramanasramam, I would
like to offer my advice. Please do not come like a tourist merely
with an idea that you are going to sight — see an Ashram. Even
if it bears the name of one of the greatest Rishis of modern
times. Don’t go through the ritual of offering prayers and puja
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at various shrines, receiving prasadam and vibhuti only to go
back satisfied that you have ‘done’ with another holy place.
Of course, visiting holy places does have great effect, but
that in itself is not enough. It may be enough for the uninitiated,
but seekers of the Truth require a sense of holy presence, such as
can be experienced at Sri Ramanasramam.It is a fact that
Bhagavan is here.
Towards the end of his bodily manifestation, he said, “They
say that I am going, but where can I go? I am here”.
Once when someone wrote a booklet criticising Sri
Ramanasramam, Sri Bhagavan remarked that the author had
done a great service to the cause of Truth. When asked for an
explanation, he said that this book would keep away the insincere
and superficial people and only the sincere Truth-seekers would
continue to come. In the same way the Maharshi himself has
done a great service to the cause of Truth by withdrawing himself
from the physical plane. He has made himself unavailable to
the worldly eye, while to the seeker with spiritual sight his living
presence is very much here.
Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Ramanaya!
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HOW I CAME TO
BHAGAVAN
Muhammad Abdulla
I WAS BROUGHT UP in rather religious surroundings and
grew up a religious man. Later when I went to college and
abroad my outlook changed. I became an agnostic if not a
downright atheist. This condition lasted till my late thirties. All
this time, off and on, I tried to regain my faith but to no avail.
Somehow the idea of an anthropomorphic God did not appeal
to me. I could not see any reason why God created the world.
If He wanted to prove Himself to Himself, it seemed rather a
poor reason. To create the world as a puppet show and enjoy it
as a spectator also seemed ungodly and rather cruel.
Many questions troubled me. What is God? What is life?
What is it all about? Scriptures did not satisfy me for they demanded
faith to begin with, which I did not have. I studied psychology but
there was nothing beyond the unconscious mind. I turned to
dialectical materialism but then again I found that its adherents
were at loggerheads on trivialities. Turning to existentialism, I found
it too morbid and depressing. Finally I turned to metaphysics and
mysticism and that is where luck favoured me.
While I was searching for a clue to my problem, by chance
I got hold of a book from the library shelf. It was an old edition
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of Day by Day with Bhagavan. I was not particularly interested
when I started reading it, but as I progressed my indifference
gave way to astonishment. Well, here at last there was someone
who was reaching me. I read on with great enthusiasm and
finished the book with a thirst for more. I placed an order to
the Ashram Book Depot for all the books about Bhagavan. I
had never waited more eagerly for anything than the book
parcel. When it came I studied everything from cover to cover
drinking deep from this source of true wisdom.
For a couple of months, I was immersed heart and soul in
the teachings of Bhagavan. Here at last, all my questions were
answered, all my doubts cleared. When I had imbibed his
teaching, I planned a visit to the Ashram.
Now I must say a word or two about the visits to the
Ashram. There is something in coming to and going from
this place. Some mysterious force takes charge of you the
moment you decide to go there. I met by chance an old
devotee, Prof. K. Swaminathan, who is in charge of Ramana
Kendra in New Delhi. He encouraged me to make the visit.
I left New Delhi and arrived at the Ashram two days later. It
was 2.30 p.m. I sat in the meditation hall facing Bhagavan’s
picture. He seemed so much alive. Such a kind and
benevolent smile! I could not move my eyes away from him.
I had no idea of the time when suddenly the dinner gong
was sounded at 7.30 p.m.
I lived in the Ashram for a month, and meditated morning
and evening. I found to my surprise that the problems which
seemed monumental gradually receded to the background. The
past became shadowy. Yesterday’s desires made no sense and made
me laugh. Apprehension for the future dwindled to nothing. I
felt happy.
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A month was quickly over and I travelled back with a
heavy heart. I had only one prayer when I took leave of
Bhagavan. I wanted to come again. I also prayed to Bhagavan
to help me maintain the peace I had found for a long time.
Both my prayers were answered. I came again and again.
Bhagavan never forsook me in my hours of trials. I never let go
of Bhagavan nor does he let go of me!
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RAMANA’S UNIVERSAL
PHILOSOPHY
Dr. M. Hafiz Syed
I
Ramana Maharshi’s Spiritual
Philosophy of Life
IT IS ONLY the sage who has realised the Truth Eternal that
keeps the flame of spiritual wisdom alive. He is the perennial
source of inspiration to the earnest aspirant on the path of
spiritual development. Without him the world would not have
had the light of the spirit to dispel the darkness of material
existence.
Of such wisdom is sage Sri Ramana, who embodies in
himself the Truth that is beyond time and space, who stands
supreme in the realm of spiritual attainment and who is the
true benefactor of the whole of the human race. In him we see
that glorious realization which at once, includes and transcends
all religions through the revelation that the only true religion is
the religion of the heart. His teachings give the clearest expression
to that one, inexpressible, universal, spiritual experience, seeking
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which, every earnest aspirant treads the path of inward spiritual
development. To such an aspirant the Maharishi’s teachings are
a revelation of that Truth Eternal which ever resides as one and
is identical with himself.
The nature of the world — Reality — whatever it be —
is no hurdle to one who follows the path pointed out by the
Maharshi. His insistence is not so much on deciding the
unreality of the world as on discovering the Self. In one of
the books published some years ago by the Ashram, the
Maharshi brings out his point of view in a striking manner in
reply to a question as to whether the objectivity of the world
is not an indisputable fact of sense perception and whether
this objectivity is not itself proof positive of the world’s reality.
Here is the Maharshi’s answer: “The world, which you say is
real is really mocking you for seeking to prove its reality, while
of your own Reality you are ignorant.” Even if we are of the
world, the Maharshi wants us to see things in their proper
perspective. Discussions about the Reality or otherwise of the
world, should be of secondary importance to the earnest seeker
whose one aim should be to seek the Self, the ‘I’ of which he
can have the least doubt and the quest whereof, can alone lead
him to the one that alone is real.
That Reality requires no proof, for it is Self-evident. It
requires no proof, for it is Self-existing (Svata-siddha). It requires
no scholarly exposition, for it is Self-luminous (Svaprakasa).
What is required is not the proof or refutation of anything, but
the poise in and the realization of the ever-existent, unchanging
Self or the Atman.
It would be interesting to note in this connection what the
Maharshi says regarding the true nature of sleep, for this will give
us an idea as to what the state of pure consciousness would be in
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relation to life as we know it. One is not really enveloped in
ignorance, says the Maharshi, when one is actually asleep. Sleep
is not a state of non- existence nor mere blankness as we suppose
it to be. It is a pure state. And what we call the waking
consciousness does not necessarily contribute to true knowledge.
It is really a state of ignorance, because as a rule we are
forgetful or unaware of our real nature. The Maharshi uses a
striking paradox in order to impress on us the all-comprehensive
nature of pure consciousness. He says, “There is full awareness
in sleep and total ignorance in the waking state,” and adds,
“The Self is beyond both knowledge and ignorance.” To put it
briefly, sleep, dream and waking are only different modes of
our higher consciousness.
ETERNAL AWARENESS: What then is realization? What
is the relation between our life experience of ignorant existence
and the state of realization which is all-embracing? The
Maharshi’s exposition on this point is most illuminating.
“Realization”, he declares, “is here and now. It is nothing to be
gained afresh. The Self is not ‘reached’, you are the Self.”
Most of us are prone to think we have not yet realized the
Self, that we are ajnanis, but the Maharshi reminds us that this
is merely our own thought about ourselves and that is the real
obstacle in the way. It is not some objectified Self that is declared
to be eternal. Our awareness of the Self is itself eternal. They
are one and identical. In the words of the Maharshi there has
never been a time when we are not aware of That, the Self. It is
the never-ending, timeless state and it is in It that we live, move
and have our being.
CLEAREST DEFINITION: Elucidating further the same
point Maharshi says that the happiness the mind feels when
agreeable things are presented to it is nothing but the happiness
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inherent to the Self. On these occasions it is verily into the Self
that one dives. But the association of ideas is responsible for
foisting the inherent bliss in us on things extraneous, because
the plugging into the Self was unconsciously done. If you do so
consciously, with the conviction that comes from experience
that you are identical with that happiness which is verily the
Self, the only Reality, you call it realization. That is the most
realistic definition of Self-realization, and shorn of all mystery
it is the clearest one you can have on the subject.
A SHACKLE: Answering the question from the particular
point of view of the individual who has to do some specific
work, the Maharshi reiterates in his own words what Sri Krishna
taught five thousand years ago. “Work performed with
attachment is a shackle, whereas work done with detachment
does not affect the doer who may be said to be in solitude, even
while he is free from attachment and has no desire.”
Just as renunciation is not retirement into the forest, solitude
is not seclusion from life. The Maharshi considers that solitude is
related more to the inner working of the mind of man than in
keeping away from the active life of the outer world. Solitude is of
the mind, not of the body. It is the attitude of supreme serenity
with which one views the flow of events in life and does not signify
from the highest point of view living in seclusion and retirement.
One of the finest definitions of renunciation ever given is
vouchsafed to us by the Maharshi, who says, “The Self alone is
permanent. Renunciation is the non-identification of the Self
with the not-Self. When the ignorance which identifies the Self
with the not-Self is removed, the latter ceases to exist and that is
true renunciation.”
This definition, so simple yet so profound, is at once concise
and comprehensive.
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One enquirer was puzzled as to what would be the effect
of his daily actions, right or wrong, in afterlife. The ideal Vedantin
that the Maharshi is, his answer is pregnant with meaning,
revealing to us an insight into the philosophy of life as taught
by the ancient rishis. “The Self of man has no beginning and
no end. It is never born and It never dies.” If this truth is
accepted, no question of birth and death can arise. What is
subject to birth and death is the earthly vesture of man, whose
essential being is deathless.
WHAT IS MIND? To the aspirant on the path of
Self-realization, there is no question so puzzling and so vital as
that of mind control. Many are the methods and remedies
suggested and most of them have been practised with varying
degrees of success, but Maharshi’s solution to this age-long problem
is all his own and sheds new light on this apparently hopeless
problem. The Maharshi says that, as a matter of fact, there is no
mind to control, if the Self is realized. The Self shines when the
mind vanishes. In the realized man the mind may be active or
inactive, but the Self alone exists. For the mind, body and the
world are not separate from the Self. They cannot remain apart
from the Self. Can they be other than the Self? When one is
aware of the Self and has fully established oneself in it, one has no
reason to worry about these shadows which cannot in the least
affect the serenity of the immutable Self.
In order to have a clear grasp of the Maharshi’s unique
teachings on this point, the question has to be considered in a
little more detail. According to him the problem of mind control
ceases to be a problem when the mind seeks its source within.
What is mind? Does it exist apart from the thoughts that
come and go? What is the ‘I’ with which the mind identifies
itself? What is the one basis of the entire thought activity? It is
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the endeavour, made here and now, to gather in and converge
the mind at its source, to attune it to the Self which is the support
of all thought activity. This is the most natural, direct and
immediately effective method of controlling the mind. Every
other conceivable practice has this fundamental defect, namely
it tries to control the mind by sustaining it. These other methods
of practice retain the veil of the mind and can therefore never
reveal the Self. When one dives within, seeking the source of
thought and has a glimpse of the Self, one knows the true nature
of the mind as nothing but an unreal manifestation of the one
Reality, the Self.
NO SUCH THING: The two essential aspects of this
question of mind control, which the Maharshi seeks to impress
on the earnest aspirant are (1) that from the true and ultimate
point of view of the one Reality — the Self — there is no such
thing as the mind, and (2) that the endeavour to control the
mind on the contrary assumption that there is really something
called the mind to be controlled, is bound to prove futile.
Because the mind, considered as real, will never allow itself to
be controlled, just as the thief will never allow himself to be
caught by turning himself into a policeman. Under the
pretentious garb of a policeman, he would elude his own arrest
all the more effectively. Even so, if we give the mind the garb of
reality we would never be able to control it. The Maharshi,
therefore, expects us to disregard all limitations, which pertain
only to the mind, and plunge headlong into a dauntless search
for the real Self in us. When our attention is fully riveted to the
Self as the source of thought, the mind is subdued and controlled
quite naturally and without any effort.
This in short, is the direct and right way to what is called
peace of mind. Maharshi’s method of approach to the control
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of mind deserves fullest consideration and sincere efforts if we
have failed in trying other methods of mind control.
II
Testimony of Islam to Bhagavan’s
Life and Teachings
THE GREATNESS OF Ramana Maharshi’s unique life and
teachings consists in the fact that he was unacquainted with the
scriptures of the world and yet after his Self-realization the
knowledge of Infinity was open to him. To quote a line from
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, “When an unlettered person’s mind is made
one-pointed, the inner and outer knowledge is revealed to him.
He comes in direct contact with the supreme Source of his Being.”
The devotees of Ramana are acquainted with his simple
and uneventful life. He lived a plain life to the end. He was
without any pose or pretensions. Not only that he was a great
teacher and lived in a high plane of his own but he was utterly
human in every day life. He had love and sympathy for every
living creature as a true Brahmin should have. He mended his
own stick, took part in the cutting of vegetables and cooking
some food now and then. His sense of unity and equality of
mankind was so great that he never accepted anything prepared
for himself but had it distributed equally to all persons present
in his hall. Men of every race, caste, creed, sex, high and low,
rich and poor, visited him and to him all were alike. He never
showed any preference to men of position or looked down
upon a pariah or a panchama. To him all were accessible.
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So was the Prophet of Islam. He believed in the brotherhood
of man and treated all men alike. He used to say to his followers,
Ana mislakum, that is “I am one like you”. To him Jew or gentile,
Muslim or non- Muslim were alike. Whenever a non-Muslim
visited him when he was sitting in his mosque engaged in prayer
he would at once rise up from his seat, spread his own cloak and
seat him respectfully. He mended his own shoes and patched up
his own worn-out garment. Nothing was left in his household
for the morrow. All that he received during the course of a day
was distributed to the needy and the poor. He often said Al faqr
fakhri, that is to say, ‘poverty is my pride’. He took keen interest
in the welfare of human beings and used to retire to a cave for
spiritual meditation. Thus we see there is a close similarity between
his life and that of our beloved Maharshi.
We all know how Maharshi repeatedly enjoined us to
surrender completely to God’s will and be at peace with all,
sink and bury our differences. In fact once he said, “Burn them
and turn to the abode of peace, your own heart.” Islam is derived
from the root Salama which means peace, tranquillity and finally
surrender of oneself to the Divine. ‘The word Islam’, says
Deutch, a German writer, ‘implies absolute submission to God’s
will’. Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph, the son-in-law of the Prophet
said that “No one can have any conception of God unless he
knows his own Self.” Thus confirming Bhagavan’s repeated
teachings in all his well known books.
One mystic poet says, “What I have done with myself, no
one has ever done it for himself. Within my own house (body)
I have lost the owner of my house (that is my own self )”. Does
it not bear testimony to Bhagavan’s inspiring words?
Further it is said in the Quran, “We are of God and to
Him shall we return”(Quran, Chapter II, verse 156). This clearly
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indicates whence we came and whither we are going. Man’s
inherent divinity is expressed in these unequivocal words of the
Quran. “God breathed His own breath in the nostril of man.
Man was created after the face of God.”
In the Ghaznavids and Early Saljuq’s period there was a
great philosopher-poet Nasir-e-Khusrau, who was acknowledged
as a mystic of a great order. In his poem Raushani nama on
Self-knowledge he writes, bearing full testimony to Bhagavan’s
well-known teachings:
Know yourself; for if you know yourself
You will also know the difference between good and evil.
First become intimate with your own inner being,
Then become the commander of the whole company.
When you know yourself, you know everything;
When you know that, you have escaped from all evil.
You don’t know your own worth, because you are like this;
You see God Himself, if you see yourself.
The nine spheres and seven stars are your slaves,
Yet you are your body’s servant: that’s a pity!
Don’t be fettered to bestial pleasures
If you are a seeker of that supreme blessedness.
Be a real man and abandon sleep and fasting;
Pilgrim-like, make a journey into yourself.
What are sleep and fasting? The business of brute beasts;
It is by knowledge that your soul subsists.
Be wakeful for once: how long have you been sleeping?
Look at yourself: you’re something wonderful enough.
Reflect now; regard from where you’ve come
And why you are now in this prison.
Break the cage; depart to your own celestial station;
Be an idol-breaker like Abraham, Azar’s son.
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You were created after this fashion for a purpose;
It will be a shame, if you neglect that purpose.
It is a shame for an angel to take orders from a devil;
It is a shame for a king to be servant to a doorkeeper.
Why must Jesus be blind?
It is wrong for Karun to be one-eyed.
You have snakes coiled over your treasure:
Kill those snakes, and be free of pain.
But if you feed them, you will become fearful,
You’ll have nothing of that boundless treasure.
There’s a treasure in your house, yet you’re a beggar;
You have a salve in your hand, yet your heart is wounded.
You are asleep; how will you reach journey’s end?
You weave charms, and are heedless of the treasure. Quick,
break the charm and take the treasure:
Take a little pain, and rid yourself of pain.
Jalaluddin Rumi, prince of mystics, quoted by R.A.
Nicholson in his Rumi, Poet and Mystic, says:
Jalalu’l-Din was asked, “Is there any way to God nearer
than the ritual prayer?” “No,” he replied, “but prayer does not
consist in forms alone. Formal prayer has a beginning and an
end, like all forms and bodies and everything that partakes of
speech and sound; but the soul is unconditioned and infinite:
it has neither beginning nor end. The prophets have shown
the true nature of prayer. . . . Prayer is the drowning and
unconsciousness of the soul, so that all these forms remain
without. At that time there is no room even for Gabriel, who
is pure spirit. One may say that the man who prays in this
fashion is exempt from all religious obligations, since he is
deprived of his reason. Absorption in the Divine Unity is the
soul of prayer.”
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“When a fly is plunged in honey, all the members of its
body are reduced to the same condition, and it does not move.
Similarly the term istighraq (absorption in God) is applied to
one who has no conscious existence or initiative or movement.
Any action that proceeds from him is not his own. If he is still
struggling in the water, or if he cries out, ‘Oh, I am drowning’,
he is not said to be in the state of absorption. This is what is
signified by the words Ana’l-Haqq, ‘I am God’. People imagine
that it is a presumptuous claim, whereas it is really a
presumptuous claim to say ‘Ana’l-’abd,’ ‘I am the slave of God’
and ‘Ana’l-Haqq,’ ‘I am God’, is an expression of great humility.
The man who says,‘Ana’l-abd’ ‘I am the slave of God,’ affirms
two existences, his own and God’s, but he that says ‘Ana’l-Haqq’
‘I am God’ has made himself non-existent and has given himself
up and says, ‘I am God,’ i.e.‘I am naught, He is all: there is no
being but God’s.’ This is the extreme of humility and selfabasement.”
These two quotations bear fullest and clearest testimony
to Bhagavan’s teachings as embodied in his books Self Enquiry
and Who am I? and others.
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BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA,
THE LIGHT DIVINE
Dr. T.M.P. Mahadevan
(Excerpts from a speech delivered on a Jayanti day)
IT IS DIFFICULT to speak on Advaita. It is more difficult to
speak about Bhagavan. I am not going to speak as an
intellectual, nor as a professor of philosophy, I am going to speak
to you as one would to his brothers and sisters. I think I will
succeed in expressing at least a little of what I feel about Bhagavan
only when you forget my personality totally. It is only when the
speaker’s individuality completely recedes into the background
that the Advaita can be understood at all; and Bhagavan Ramana,
as I am fond of saying, is pre-eminently an Advaita avatara.
Today is the most blessed day for us, who by a stroke of
good fortune, have come under the protective wings of our
Bhagavan. The ardra day has been an auspicious day in the Hindu
calendar. But it has been made more auspicious because Bhagavan
chose to be born on that day, and this year his birthday has come
on the eve of another holy day, Makarasankranti. We will be able
to appreciate the greatness and grandeur of the life and teachings
of Bhagavan if we ponder for a moment over the significance of
these two great festivals—Ardra and Makarasankranti. Ardra
marks the victory of Lord Siva over the demon Andhaka. The
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very name ‘Andhaka’ means the ‘dark’ and the ‘blind’, and
‘Andhaka’ is an allegory for ajnana, avidya, ignorance or maya.
It was on the Ardra day that the Lord vanquished Andhaka in
order that the world may be saved, in order that humanity may
see the face of goodness. The myth of the conquest of Andhaka
signifies the victory of the forces of light over those of darkness,
of vidya over avidya, of the supreme good over all that is evil.
After killing the demon Andhaka the Lord danced his
cosmic dance, the expression of supreme joy, which alone sustains
the Universe. It is in commemoration of this great event that
the image of Nataraja is taken out of the temples in procession
on the Ardra day. In the year 1879, on this auspicious day the
Nataraja image of the temple at Tiruchuli was being taken into
the temple at the conclusion of the procession. It was at this
moment that Bhagavan Ramana was born. So, it is significant
that our Lord chose the auspicious day of Ardra for making His
advent into this world.
Makarasankranti, again, marks the dawn of the day of the
gods — the beginning of Uttarayana. Students of the Mahabharata
will remember that the great Bhishma lay on a bed of arrows
awaiting the dawn of Uttarayana. Today the gods are awake. They
have begun to have another bright day. The month proceeding
Makarasankranti is also a holy month for us Hindus. The month
of Mirgasirsha is to the gods what the Brahmamuhurtam is to
humans. Therefore we prepare ourselves during this month for the
dawn of the divine day by rising early in the morning and singing
the praise of the Lord. In the south, especially in the Tamil area,
even today we find groups of devotees rising early in the morning
and singing the praise of God in the villages and towns, singing
and awakening those who slumber and who will not otherwise
hear the call of the divine.
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The drama of bridal mysticism as portrayed in the
Tiruppavai of Andal and the Tiruvembavai of Manikavachakar
is the great drama of the communion of the soul with God. And
it is this consummation that is sought to be achieved by observing
the vrata (penanace) in the month of Mirgasirsha. This year after
that preparatory penance we have today entered the path of light,
the path of divine light. It is supremely significant that we should
be thinking of Bhagavan ‘the light divine’. Bhagavan Ramana is
the supreme and eternal light, which alone can save us from
degradation and spiritual death. I am reminded of a mantra of
the Isavasya Upanishad which describes in graphic terms the lot
of those who are killers of the soul.
Those who are slayers of the Self go to demoniac worlds
of blinding darkness enveloped in ajnana. If we do not want to
share the fate of the soul-killers, we must turn our eyes away
from those regions of blinding darkness and take to the straight
path of spiritual light emblazoned before us by Bhagavan Sri
Ramana. So on this auspicious occasion may we meditate on
Bhagavan as the light divine.
The symbol of light as representing spiritual illumination
is as universal as religion is. In mysticism and in spirituality
there is no better symbol of the spirit than light. In Christianity
the symbol of light is employed to denote the heavenly Father
and the heavenly Son equally. One of the pictures that impressed
me when I was young and continues to fascinate me is that of
Jesus Christ holding a lighted lantern in one hand and knocking
at the door of a house with the other, bearing the inscription,
“Behold the light of the world.”
The Buddha has been described as the light of Asia.
Zoroastrianism thinks of God as the luminous Fire. The Konarak
Temple, which I visited recently, is a great monument of the
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devotion of the Hindu for the symbol of the sun. One finds
there various aspects of the solar principle expressed in beautiful
sculpture. Sun-worship is not foreign to India. The sun cult
(Saura-mata) is one of the oldest forms of Hinduism. In the
mantras of Rig Veda we have different aspects of the solar
principle adored and we come across names of various solar
deities. The Gayatri mantra signifies a grand mode of meditating
on the principle that is behind the sun. The adored principle is
the worshipful splendour of the solar deity.
The supreme splendour of the solar deity we invoke and
meditate on every day so that our intellects may be purified
thereby. To characterise the Vedic deities as the personification
of natural phenomena is not to understand what the ancient
seers and saints saw in their inward turned vision. It was not the
physical phenomena that they worshipped, but the spiritual
principle behind nature. They also discovered that the same
principle pervades everything, objective as well as subjective.
Between the external and the internal there is correspondence
in principle. For instance, all Upanishadic text identifies the
god that is in the sun with the principle that is in the right eye.
What is in the macrocosm is identical with what is in the
microcosm. We find this truth expressed exquisitely in the form
of a prayer in the Isavasya Upanishad.
No poet of mean order, no worshipper of the natural
phenomena could have composed this grand verse. The spiritual
principle behind the solar phenomena is recognised here, and it
is this spiritual principle that is prayed to in this verse. Consider
the grand closing of this mantra, where there is a Mahavakya
uttered: yosavasan purusah soham asmi. The principle that is
yonder, miles and miles away, in the sun is the same principle
that is within me. I am He. Thus in Hinduism we find the true
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significance of sun-worship expressed. Then we are told that the
consummation of such worship is the realisation of non-duality,
the realisation of abedha, non-difference. The symbol of light is
not an empty symbol. It is sublime in its significance. Sri Ramana
represents the supreme light of spirituality which knows no
distinction and which knows no difference.
The birth of Bhagavan is itself a manifestation of that
spiritual illumination. In order to lift us to the spiritual heights,
in order to attract us to the supreme goal, he incarnated himself
as a human being, and lived and moved in our midst. We know
that Bhagavan as a student did not belong to the extraordinary
type. He was not brilliant, nor even studious. But how this
ordinary lad received illumination all of a sudden cannot be
explained. How this could happen passes our understanding.
The little candle of our intellect cannot illumine the self-effulgent
sun. To attempt to understand the secret of Bhagavan’s life is
bound to end in failure. All that we can do is to meditate on
him as the light eternal, the light supreme.
Look at another marvel. Some relative of his who came to his
uncle’s house in Madurai one day said that he was coming from
Arunachala. But what Arurnachala was, what it meant, our
Bhagavan did not know. Yet this word acted like a magic spell and
drew him out of his uncle’s house to that Hill which is no ordinary
Hill, but which is the Hill of spiritual light. The Hill which represents
spiritual light drew unto itself the light that was born in Tiruchuli.
This light travelled to ‘The Hill of the Holy Beacon’, and what
appeared as two lights were recognised to be one.
The story about Tiruvannamalai (Arunachala) is itself
significant, as are the festivals connected with Bhagavan’s birth.
The Creator Brahma and the Protector Vishnu are said to have
quarrelled between themselves as to who was superior. In order
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to teach them a lesson Lord Siva appeared as a column of light
without top or bottom. Brahma and Vishnu could not discover
the limits of the light-column. It is this limitless light that
Arunachala represents. Bhagavan found in Arunachala the light
supreme, which he himself is.
Bhagavan did not leave the precincts of Arunachala after
his arrival there. Why should he go anywhere? When the world
was ready to go to him, why should he go to the world? The
world should go to the guru. There is no use of the guru going
to the world. Because if he goes to the world he would only be
misunderstood. Even Sri Krishna had to confess that he was
not being understood by the people.
“Because I have taken birth as a human being people do
not understand me. On the contrary, they scold me, they abuse
me, they revile me.”
The world knows only to revile things! Even Arjuna,
Krishna’s own cousin and dear disciple, could not understand
the magnificence of the supreme Master. The Lord had to reveal
his cosmic form in order to drive sense into Arjuna’s head.
Arjuna repents for his past behaviour and says, “Out of familiarity
and not knowing your greatness, I have called you, ‘ O Krishna,
O Yadava, O friend.’ Please forgive me for whatever disrespect
I have shown towards you.” Because of his easy accessibility Sri
Krishna was not understood by the world. The world seldom
understands the guru who goes to it.
It is only when the world has learned to go to the guru
that the world will feel inclined to listen to him. Sri Ramana
had no need of going to the world whilst he lived in Arunachala.
The world, even the western world went to him. Why did this
happen? Bhagavan was the light transcendent which cannot be
resisted. If you try to resist it today, by a greater force you will
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be attracted to it tomorrow. Light does not require darkness for
making it acceptable. Only darkness does. You need not paint
light because it is all luminous. Without advertisement, without
any drum beating, without any concerted propaganda, the light
that was at Arunachala spread far and wide, and it is on that
light that we should meditate. We saw before our eyes the grand
manifestation of that majestic light. We saw the grandeur of
that spiritual light before us. If we could not see it, it was our
fault, and not that of the light. In order that you may understand
light, the light need not speak to us. It is only when there is
darkness that you require the help of speech in order to identify
the things around, but when there is light and when your eyes
are all right you need not be told what is around you.
And so, for the most part, Bhagavan Ramana kept silent.
Silence was his mode of communication. Today people all over
the world are striving hard to find out new means of
communication. But in spite of the many devices, communication
becomes more and more difficult. Here, without any verbal
communication for the most part, the blessed Lord, seated or
reclining on his couch in the corner of the old hall in the Ashram,
was communicating not only with those who sat before him, but
with devotees who were even far away. Though most of us may
not understand for the moment the language of silence, we are
sure to understand it eventually. Our Bhagavan did not move
out of Arunachala and seldom did he speak. Even his speech was
of a quality that is far different from the speech that we are
accustomed to. His speech was scarcely distinguishable from
silence. Some of us had opportunities of watching the grand silent
drama that was being enacted constantly in that auspicious hall.
People came, strangers came with long lists of questions to test
the Maharshi, but often it so happened that those who came with
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doubts forgot all about them. They forgot to question because
there was no need to ask. What they had come for had already
been fulfilled.
The most remarkable feature about Bhagavan’s form was
his eyes, extremely penetrating and profoundly fascinating.
Once you had come within the range of those beaming eyes,
there was no need for any other sadhana. Once those eyes had
rested upon you there was no more fear or worry for you. The
very first European to see our Master, Humphrys, who sent
reports to a magazine in England, has made this statement:
‘For half an hour I looked into the Maharshi’s eyes, which never
changed their expression of deep contemplation.’ This was
written as early as in 1911. Those of us who met the Master
much later could testify that the brightness of those eyes did
not diminish at all, not even on the last day of the his earthly
existence.
Last summer in Honolulu some American professors of
philosophy happened to look at the picture of the Master that
appears as frontispiece in the book Ramana Maharshi and His
Philosophy of Existence. Many of them wanted to have copies of
this book even before reading what was written there, just because
the face of the Master fascinated them, enraptured them. All of
them, without exception remarked about the remarkable eyes.
From those eyes, light shone forth from which no one could
escape. Bhagavan out of compassion for us, who cannot
understand the language of silence, did sometimes speak, but
not for the sake of speaking as most of us do. He wrote not for
the sake of writing, because he was no writer at all. He spoke
and wrote because he wanted to save us.
There is a fine sloka in the Aankaradigvijaya where
Vidyaranya offers obeisance to Dakshinamuthi and Sankara:
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“Rising from his seat beneath the banyan tree, and breaking
His silence, Dakshinamurti, out of compassion for humanity
which is being burnt in the forest-fire of samsara, took form as
Sankara who moved about constantly and spoke profusely. The
silent Dakshinamurti became the speaking Sankara. The
unmoving began to move.”
Bhagavan Ramana struck a compromise between the
silence and stasis of Dakshinmurti and the speech and movement
of Sankara, because today we require the message of both atchara
and chara, mauna and vak. Bhagavan Ramana spoke and wrote
in order that we may understand him. The path of light that he
has expounded in what he has written and spoken is the same
path of light which has come from the ancient sages and seers
of the Upanishads. The light of jnana is what we ought to strive
for and gain. It is this which can save us. And this is the central
message of Bhagavan, the light divine. What is this light? It is
the light of Atma vichara, the light of Self-enquiry. This light
can be gained by anyone, any human being, no matter what
his beliefs are, or where he is born. The Upanishads set forth
various modes of Self-enquiry. Only our Bhagavan has made
Self-enquiry easy for us, and has simplified it so that all of us
can adopt it and follow it and gain what it alone can give us.
And also he has given us a technique by which we can register
quick results. He rediscovered for us the heart that is on the
right side of the chest. By fixing the attention on this heart, the
spiritual heart, the path of enquiry, a discovery made in Vedanta,
our Bhagavan has given to us out of compassion.
It will be interesting to note that the great Upanishadic
sage Yagnavalkya in one of his teachings to King Janaka employs
the significant phrase, ‘hrdyantar-jyotih’, in describing the self--
the Atma, the light which is within the heart.
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One day when the Sage walked into the king’s court, the
king put to him a question. It was: “What serves as the light for
man?”
The Master began by saying that “the sun is light for man.”
“During daytime it is by the light of the sun that we work”.
Then the king asked, ‘When the sun has set, what is man’s
light?” “The moon”, came the answer. “We do work with the
help of the light of the moon; when the sun has set, the moon
acts as the light for us.”
“But what happens during the absence of moonlight?”
asked the king. “What serves as the light then?” “Fire!” said the
master. “You may light a fire, you may burn a lamp and work
with the help of the light it gives.”
“And when fire goes out, what has one to do? There is no
sun, moon. or fire!”
“In such a situation speech can serve as the principle of
illumination. For instance, when we go through a dark region
where no light is there, we clap our hands or we speak in order
to hearten those who may follow us”, continued the master.
“When speech, sir, is also not there, what serves as light for
man?”
The final reply of the Master came, “The Self. The Self,
Self luminous light.”
What happens to us when we dream? There is not the
external sun, nor the moon, nor fire, nor even speech, and yet
there is experience. The Self of the dream state is therefore called
taijasa (made of light). In the absence of any light there is
experience, there is luminosity. The Self is of the nature of
consciousness. It is that which shines in the recesses of one’s
heart. This is the great teaching of Vedanta and Bhagavan. So
long as we trust the light of the mind, we are sure to be misguided.
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It is only when we turn to the light of the heart that we shall be
saved. The great danger that confronts the modern man is that
he believes in the omnipotence of the light of the mind. He
scans space. He wants to travel through it. He wants to know
what is on the other side of the moon. He wants to colonise the
planets and the stars if he can, all with the help of this light of
the mind. He has not opened the door of his heart, and so he is
threatened by what he has created by the light of his mind.
What man has created now dominates him like a Frankenstein
and threatens him with utter destruction.
What does Bhagavan teach us? He does not want us to
shut out the light of the mind. “With the help of the mind, he
says, “let us enter the region of the heart.” When you turn to
the light of the heart, you will know that the mind shines only
by borrowed light. The original light is there. It is that resplendent
light which is the supreme Self. It is this which is called
Hrdyantar-jyotih (light within the heart).
Bhagavan found its location on the right side of the chest.
It is not the physical heart which is on the left side, it is the
spiritual heart. Not that it is there physically. The surgeon’s knife
cannot exhibit it. It is the spiritual heart which Bhagavan Ramana
located on the right side of the chest, so that we may meditate
on it and gain progress in the path of jnana. How should one
enquire? Bhagavan has given us a wondrous method. It is the
simple enquiry of ‘Who am I?’ Bhagavan Ramana held that the
word ‘Aham’, is the most sacred of all mantras, more sacred
even than the Pranava itself. It is more efficacious than all the
mantras. This again is a true discovery of Bhagavan. It is true
that the Pranava is the sound-symbol of Brahman. But what is
easier to understand is ‘Aham’ (I). You may deny everything else
but you cannot deny the Self.
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Aham is often meant to signify the non-Self. Even the ‘I’
thought is not the real ‘I’. It is the pseudo ‘I’. In order to
overcome this, it has to be used in a judicious way. One must
trace the ‘I’ thought to its source. When this is done, with
constant and persistent inquiry, the distinction between the
thinker and thought is found to vanish and then the Self which
is pure experience will be realised. This path is the same as the
asparsa-yoga taught by Gaudapada. It is the path that leads to
non-duality, the path which takes us away from the non-Self.
Ordinarily, man runs along the mental current, goes out through
the sense-channels and gets lost in the external world. But one
in a million, the hero, dhira as the Upanishads call him, has the
strength to go against the current, swim in the reverse direction,
and reach the source of the mental current. This is the path of
vichara which is easy and yet difficult. Seemingly easy, even a
child can pursue this course at the beginning, but he cannot
gain its end if he chooses to remain childish all the time. It is
true that anyone can take to it but he must pay the price for it.
The price is dispassion. This does not mean that one must neglect
one’s duties. When sadhakas asked Bbagavan,“Is it necessary
that one should leave one’s house, change the colour of one’s
clothes and go to the forest,” Bhagavan used to say, “No, it is
wrong to think that you will become a new man by simply
leaving home. If you go to the forest your home will haunt
you, it will follow you. Can you leave your mind behind, your
sense organs or your body? What binds you is not your family,
or home, but your mind. How to renounce the mind? To
renounce does not mean sitting in a place closing the eyes and
thinking ‘I have renounced.’ That is not true renunciation.
True renunciation is to become mindless. How is this to be
accomplished? Through inquiry. Trace the mind to its source
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with the help of the mind itself. Catch the thief with the help
of the thief. Through Atma vichara, we get to the end where
there is no mind at all. If you cannot do this, if you do not have
the strength to follow this method,” says Bhagavan, “surrender
yourself to God. Absolute self-surrender is bhakti.” In Bhagavan’s
hymns on Arunachala we have a glorious philosophy of
devotion. The quintessence of this philosophy is to negate
yourself in the Lord and you will find fulfilment. Let God
pervade your being then you will be saved. Even this is difficult
for many of us. We worship God with commercial spirit. We
seek earthly benefits from Him.
A sanyasin went to the palace of a king in the hope of
receiving alms. The king was engaged at the time in worshipping
his chosen deity. His prayer was, “Give me this, give me that.”
The sanyasin was listening to this prayer; and after a while he
rose to leave the palace. The king came out and asked him why
he was leaving. The sanyasin said, “I came to beg but I now find
that you are a greater beggar. How can I beg of you when you
yourself beg for this and that in your private shrine?”
We go to God for gaining selfish ends. There are phalasrutis
which say ‘If you recite this prayer, you will get your desires
fulfilled’. I am not condemning or criticising this, but I want
you to understand the significance of the phalasrutis. When a
phalasruti says, ‘If you recite the Vishnu-sahasra nama your desires
will be fulfilled’, this is only with a view to making people turn
God-ward and recite His name. But when once you have tasted
the sweetness of the name you will not care for the earthly benefits.
When you go to God therefore, what you should do is to
surrender yourself to Him completely. But this too is difficult.
And so what should one do? We must resign ourselves into the
hands of the guru, Bhagavan Ramana. This is the purpose of a
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celebration like this. If we can surrender ourselves, especially
those of us who have seen him and have heard him speak, we
shall be saved. Even others can follow this course because he has
not gone away from us. It is not that he is no longer with us.
Even now he guides those who go to him. The reality which is
the Self shines within those who go to him. Even today he will
guide us provided that we seek his guidance.
Bhagavan has declared in two short lines the entire teaching
of Vedanta:
Ekam aksharam hrdi nirantaram,
bhasate svayam likhyate katham.
The Reality which is the Self shines within the heart always.
How can one write about it?
If we can realise within the heart the supreme Spirit, if we
can feel its presence, if we allow ourselves to be illumined by it,
we shall have no fear at all. At the commencement of the fourth
chapter of the Mandukya-kharika Gaudapada offers obeisance
to Lord Narayana, the first guru. We may offer the same
obeisance to our Bhagavan. Jnana is like akasa, the supreme
Self which is to be known through jnana is also like ether. The
various objects we see in the world as well as the souls are like
ether. Therefore, who is to know which? What is to be known
by what? The supreme realization is that there is no plurality.
True knowledge is distinctionless. That knowledge is the Self,
the Light Divine. That knowledge is Bhagavan Ramana.
May we offer our obeisance to this supreme Lord who
came to save the world and who still abides and will ever abide
with us in order to make us perfect!
May we, on this auspicious occasion, renew our faith in
our Bhagavan and pay homage to Him so that not only we, but
the entire world may be saved!
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SRI RAMANA:
A PURE CHANNEL FOR
A HIGHER POWER
Paul Brunton
FORTY YEARS* have passed since I walked into his abode
and saw the Maharshi half-reclining, half-sitting on a tigerskin
covered couch. After such a long period most memories of
the past become somewhat faded, if they do not lose their
existence altogether. But I can truthfully declare that, in his
case, nothing of the kind has happened. On the contrary, his
face, expression, figure and surroundings are as vivid now as
they were then. What is even more important to me is that - at
least during my daily periods of meditation - the feeling of his
radiant presence is as actual and as immediate today as it was on
that first day.
So powerful an impression could not have been made,
nor continued through the numerous vicissitudes of an
incarnation which has taken me around the world, if the
Maharshi had been an ordinary yogi - much less an ordinary
* Written in 1971
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man. I have met dozens of yogis, in their Eastern and Western
varieties, and many exceptional persons. Whatever status is
assigned to him by his followers, or whatever indifference is
shown to him by others, my own position is independent and
unbiassed. It is based upon our private talks in those early days
when such things were still possible, before fame brought
crowds; upon observations of, and conversations with, those
who were around him; upon his historical record; and finally
upon my own personal experiences, whatever they are worth.
Upon all this evidence one fact is incontrovertibly clear -
that he was a pure channel for a Higher Power.
This capacity of his to put his own self-consciousness aside
and to let himself be suffused by this Power, is not to be
confounded with what is commonly called in the West,
spiritualistic mediumship. For no spirit of a departed person ever
spoke through him: on the contrary, the silence which fell upon
us at such times was both extraordinary and exquisite. No physical
phenomena of an occult kind was ever witnessed then; nothing
at all happened outwardly. But those who were not steeped too
far in materialism to recognise what was happening within him
and within themselves at the time, or those who were not
congealed too stiffly in suspicion or criticism to be passive and
sensitive intuitively, felt a distinct and strange change in the mental
atmosphere. It was uplifting and inspiring; for the time being it
pushed them out of their little selves, even if only partially.
This change came every day, and mostly during the evening
periods when the Maharshi fell into a deep contemplation. No
one dared to speak then and all conversations were brought to
an end. A grave sacredness permeated the entire scene and
evoked homage, reverence, even awe. But before the sun’s
departure brought about this remarkable transformation, and
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for most of the day, the Maharshi behaved, ate and spoke like a
perfectly normal human being.
That there was some kind of a participation in a worldless
divine play during those evenings - each to the extent of his
own response - was the feeling with which some of us arose
when it all ended. That the Maharshi was the principal actor
was true enough on the visible plane. But there was something
more .
In his own teachings Sri Ramana Maharshi often quoted,
whether in association or confirmation, the writings of the first
Acharya Shankara, who lived more than a thousand years ago.
He considered them unquestionably authoritative. He even
translated some of them from one Indian language to another.
In the temple of Chingleput I interviewed His Holiness
the Shankaracharya of Kamakoti Peetam, a linear successor of
the first Guru. When the meeting was concluded but before I
left, I took the chance to ask a personal question. A disciple of
the Maharshi had come to me and wanted to take me to his
Guru. None of those I asked could tell me anything about him,
nor had even heard of him. I was undecided whether to make
the journey or not.
His Holiness immediately urged me to go, and promised
satisfaction. He is still alive and still active in the religious world
of Southern India.
Sometimes, as I looked at the figure of Ramana Maharshi
on the couch, I wondered if he would ever come to England. If
so, how would he be dressed, how would he behave in those
teeming London streets, how would he eat, live and work? But
he was uninterested in travelling and so he never came, not in
the physical body: what did come was his spirit and mind, which
have awakened sufficient interest among the English.
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Again and again he gave us this teaching, that the real
Maharshi was not the body which people saw; it was the inner
being. Those who never made the journey to India during his
life time may take comfort in this thought that it is possible to
invoke his presence wherever they are, and to feel its reality in
the heart.
PART III
ON
MISCELLANEOUS
TOPICS
189
THE ETERNAL NOW
Major A.W. Chadwick (Sadhu Arunachala)
IN MANY OFFICES one finds the encouraging notice,
‘ D o
it Now!’ Although this is undoubtedly good advice, it is
hardly to my present point, as I contend that we can never do
it any “when” else. It always is NOW and the sooner we realize
this the quicker will problems and worries disappear. Sri
Bhagavan has the following verse on the subject of time in his
Forty Verses (verse XV)
The future and the past are only seen
With reference to the present. They in turn
Are present too. The present’s only true.
As well to search for future and for past
Outside the eternal present of the Self,
As think to count without unit One,
Which sums up the subject succinctly.
I have long been intrigued by this question of time. Some
few years ago I saw Anand Coomaraswamy’s book Time and
Eternity, but unfortunately neglected to take notes of the many
apposite quotations contained therein on the subject. The few
that do follow I have noted myself, at various times in my
varied reading.
St. Augustine, that pillar of Christianity, was himself much
puzzled by this question and prayed to God for enlightenment.
In his book ‘Confessions’ , he has the following: ‘Neither the
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past nor the future, but only the present really is; the present is
only a moment and time can only be measured while it is passing.
Nevertheless, there really is time past and future’. We seem here
to be led into contradictions. The only way we can avoid this is
to say that the past and future can only be thought of as present.
Past must be identified with memory, and future with
expectation, memory and expectation both being present fact.
This, after all, is much the same as Bhagavan’s verse
although St. Augustine is not quite certain of himself and hesitates
to speak outright.
One of the last of the great western philosophers, Kant,
found in time, one of the basic premises of his whole philosophy.
He declared that “time is not an empirical concept derived from
any experience”..... “only on the presupposition of time can
we represent to ourselves a number of things as existing at one
and the same time or at different times” . . . ...
“Time is a necessary representation that underlies all
intuition. We cannot in respect of appearances in general remove
time itself, though we can quite well think time as devoid of
appearances. Time is therefore given a priority”. In other words
we cannot think outside time. Time is one of the modes of our
minds as thinking machines. Bhagavan also asks in Forty Verses
(verse XVI): “Do time and space exist apart from us?” Implying
thereby, the contrary.
In our objectification of the world, we create it in terms
of time and space, thus only can we see it apart from ourselves.
In the ‘eternal now’ it ceases entirely to exist. We find it hard to
realize this as our minds are restless machines and refuse to give
up activities which necessitate time for their functioning. We
are always trying to become something else, other than what
we are, or rather think we are at the moment - happy and
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virtuous, failing to see that all becoming must change, so that
this happiness gained will change back into its opposite
eventually, that is into unhappiness. It is only in ‘being’ or the
‘now’ that we can ever find rest. Plato also says that time and
creation come into existence together, in fact all appearance is
only in time. And Schopenhauer opines that matter is actual,
(using actual in its original meaning), that is only in its
functioning, which is in time, so does it exist at all?
My reading of the Hindu Scriptures is defective, though
undoubtedly, they must say exactly the same repeatedly. I find I
am unable to quote from them as I should to substantiate my
thesis, but I know one quotation from the Vishnu Purana, which
finds its place here. Parasuram says, “Time is only a form of
Vishnu, for change is only possible for things which are imagined
with reference to a substratum.”
But the whole picture, all our waking experiences, is only
one moment in eternity. We see only a part and through
continuing time, a strip. It all depends on the angle from which
we look at it, as to what we see. If we look repeatedly from the
same angle we see the same isolated picture or strip. The picture
never changes, it is only our point of view. The prophet is able
to see a larger expanse of the picture than the layman. To merge
entirely in the picture is to know eternity and from that view
point there is no picture as we know it, and no time.
Boethus, the old Roman statesman awaiting his death in
prison also said, “Eternity is the simultaneous and complete
possession of Infinite Life.” It would be hard to find it summed
up better than this. For eternity is the ‘now’, it does not flow in
time, there is no before or after in it, no birth and no death.
Heraclitus, the Greek famous for the aphorism:
“Everything flows,” said that fire was the cause of all. By this
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he did not mean the physical fire, but rather the energy of the
modern scientists, though an energy that was not just material
but rather spiritual. For him this central fire is eternal and
never dies, “the world was, is ever, and ever shall be, an
ever-living fire.” Although fire itself is everlastingly changing,
this change would, like phenomena, seem to be apparent, but
essentially fire remains the same fire. Change in appearance is
its nature, as 1:9 Mandukyopanishad has it: ‘Others think that
manifestation is for the purpose of God’s fulfilment. While
still others attribute it to mere diversion. But it is the very
nature of the effulgent being, for what desire is possible for
him whose desire is always fulfilled?’
Substitute fire for effulgent being, which is after all a
legitimate substitution, for what is fire but effulgent? And do
not both of these essentially agree?
In Bergson I find the following sentence: “Pure duration
is the form which our conscious states assume when our ego lets
itself live, when it refrains from separating its present state from
its former states.” This apparently goes beyond the tenets of
Advaita, as he seems to be referring to the reincarnating ego in
his reference to former states, nevertheless it is pregnant with
meaning, for we are undoubtedly conscious when we rest in
the now, although we do not individualise. Surely it is only
then that we do really live!
For many of the philosophers, time was a problem, with
the exception of those who considered it to be something real,
although we are little interested at the moment in their
conclusions as we are trying to picture the verity of the ‘eternal
now’, in contrast to the unreality of time, which slips through
our fingers like a running stream when the hand is plunged
into the water to stay its course.
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Leaving the realms of metaphysics let us glance at the
hypotheses of some of the scientists. They have certainly been
intrigued by the problem and well understood that it was not
to be ignored. Especially since Einstein sprang on the world his
theory of relativity. He himself says in one place that distance is
between events and not things, which takes a matter-of-fact
measurements out of the realm of every day life, where we
thought they were safely enthroned and could be relied upon,
into the province of time itself, where we had never thought
that time had any reason to interfere.
It reminds us of Schopenhauer’s ‘matter is actual’, though
one doubts if he ever really intended to imply quite as much as
this. He does say, “All being in time is also non-being, for time is
only that by means of which opposite determinations, can belong
to the same thing. Therefore every phenomenon, which is in time
again is not. For what separates its beginning from its end is only
time, which is essentially a flitting, inconstant and relative thing.”
In astronomy time takes on its most intriguing aspect.
We think that when we look through our telescopes into the
measureless distances of the sky, we are looking at something
present now. Most of what we see has either moved millions of
miles away from where it appears to be or has even ceased to
exist altogether. We are, in fact, looking at all sorts of things
which are not there at all. And if this cannot be called maya
then the term has no meaning. One of the furthest nhebulae
our present telescopes can reach is 150 million light years away,
an unimaginable mathematical figure. What actually does this
mean? It means that the astronomer now is looking at a 150
million year past event, which is happening for him in the
present. At best he is only looking at a cosmic memory. The
picture does not actually exist at all.
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The whole pattern of the heavens, the position of the stars
is an hallucination; they have one and all moved away from the
positions in which we see them now, but not proportionately,
so that the actual pattern is much the same. But some have
shifted vast distances and others but little in comparison. We
may photograph it, plot it on our tracing board, all to no
purpose. It is all a myth. Our sight and even our machines are
grossly deceived as we can never know what the picture really
is. Even the apparent stationary position of the stars is deceptive.
They are one and all rushing about at incredible speeds. Time is
playing a game with us.
Eddington pointed out that if the Universe is spherical
whatever direction we may look, provided there is no
obstruction, we would be able to see the back of our own heads.
Well not exactly! Because time has taken over 6,000 million
years to go round and our heads were not there then, we ought
to be able to see what stood in that particular place then. Now
let us suppose there are no obstructions and we do see some
object which existed in that spot 6,000 million years ago, what
actually does it signify? We see and yet we don’t see. We really
see an object that is not there at all. Our head is turned by such
riddles and with the poet Omar Khayam, who was himself a
great astronomer, we may truly say,
“Another and another cup to drown
The memory of this Impertinence.”
Perhaps this same problem was too much for him also. We
can hardly be surprised.
So it would seem as if science were gradually being forced
to recognize that reality can alone be found in the ‘eternal now’,
and that time deceives us every step we take. Each of us makes
his own individual picture in terms of time and space, which
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spring up together with the uprising ego and with it, sinks back
again. As Bhagavan says:
“The ego rising all else will arise.
On it subsiding, all will disappear.”
(Forty Verses on Reality, verse 26)
Is it not also written in the book of Revelation X. 5. 6.?
“And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and the earth
lifted up his hand to heaven and swore by him that liveth for
ever and ever . . . . that there should be time no longer.”
As a method of meditation trying to rest in the ‘now’
irrespective of time is interesting and seems to me a productive
sadhana. When all is at rest and the flow of outward events is
allowed to go on itsway unheeded, or taken up together into
the whole, a peace passing all understanding rests on one and
one draws very near to a full realization of the Reality. I am not
speaking here of nirvikalpa samadhi when all outward
cognizance has disappeared, but rather of a preliminary
condition. As for the ultimate state it matters little whether we
call it the Self, Eternal Now, or pure Being. These are all names
only given in objective consciousness. In pure introspection
they are found to be one and the same.
For the advatin who sees and knows the One alone,
such discussion may seem unproductive and for some not
even interesting, But for those who are not so established,
there still remain doubts and especially on the question of
mortality. They fear death. They look on it as extinction.
And the dogmas and creeds of various faith give them no
more than encouraging words, not assurance, but in the
certainty of the Eternal Now, all such doubts should be
dispelled. Here, there can be no fear of death, for how can
we ever escape from the present that is now. It eternally is.
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And it is summed up by, I AM. Not I was or I may be at
some future date, but eternally I AM.
Schopenhauer endorses this, “any form of life or reality is
really only the present, neither the future nor the past. These are
only in the conception . . . . No man has ever lived in the past,
and none will ever live in the future. The present alone is the
form of all life, and is its sure possession which can never be
taken from it. The present always exists.”
But I begin to overstep the space allowed me. So I will
end with one last quotation from Plato:
“Now all these portions of time, and was and shall be, are
forms of time which have come to be, although we wrongly
ascribe them to the eternal essence. For we say that it was and is
and shall be, but in reality is alone belongs to it.”
(Continued ...)
My humble salutations to the lotus feet of Bhagavan Sree Ramana Maharshi
and also gratitude to Bhagavan’s great devotees for the collection)
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