The Silent Power Selections from The Mountain Path and The Call Divine SRI RAMANASRAMAM -3

The

Silent Power

Selections from

The Mountain Path

and

The Call Divine

SRI RAMANASRAMAM

BHAGAVAN TREATED

FOR ECZEMA

T.K.S.

SOMEWHERE ABOUT 1935 a doctor friend of mine visited

the Ashram and stayed with Bhagavan for over six weeks. He

was deeply pious and devoted to Sri Ramanuja Sampradaya. His

devotion to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi was equally great.

He was a great congress worker. I remember that he was a good

friend of Swamy Ramananda of Hyderabad, for I saw him in his

company, when the Swamiji visited Bhagavan at the time of the

Government of India’s police action against the Nizam’s State.

Later this doctor himself became a minister of the state and was

in charge of the finance portfolio.

The doctor’s visit synchronised with the occasion when

Bhagavan had an attack of eczema for which he was being treated

by the local doctors. This doctor being more qualified than

others took the lead in treating Bhagavan. The treatment went

on for about a fortnight. Patches of white ointment were seen

all over Bhagavan’s body. After a fortnight, the disease seemed

to get under control. The doctor was happy and congratulated

himself that he had the opportunity to treat Bhagavan with

success.

Lo! His elation was short lived. The disease burst out again

with redoubled vigour. The doctor said to me that it was a lesson

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to him to curb his ego and continued the treatment with great

humility and prayerfulness, praying to Bhagavan that he must

effect the cure himself and that he (the doctor) was but his

instrument.

The divine patient now seemed to make steady progress

and gave consolation to the doctor that his prayer was being

heard. The doctor oscillated between elation and curbing of his

ego according to the disease as it decreased or increased. All

along this course of treatment and from the time the doctor

friend arrived at the Ashram, I had the pleasure of his

acquaintance and of talking to him about Bhagavan. We used

to sit until late in the night and talk and talk about Bhagavan,

so absorbed in our conversation that we had no sense of space

or time.

It was the month of December and Bhagavan’s jayanthi

was arriving. I used to talk to my doctor friend about the

speciality of jayanthi darshan, for on the jayanthi day

Bhagavan had a special glow of light about him and his starry

eyes shed a special lustre and those around experienced the

ambrosia or the elixir of life. It is for experiencing this light

or bliss of being that devotees flocked to him from near and

far. Though this experience was obtained on normal days

too, it was very intense on particular occasions like jayanthi,

Mahapooja and Karthikai days, as also it was when great souls

met him.

It is of this special favour to devotees that I was telling my

doctor friend. I used to call it the special grace of Bhagavan on

the jayanthi occasion.

It was at this time that Bhagavan was putting the eczema

ointment over his body. What could be the nature of this jayanthi

dream? This was the anxiety of my doctor friend and he used to

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ask me often, “Mr. Iyer, how will Bhagavan give special darshan

to his devotees with these white paints and patches on him? I am

sorry that I shall not have the fortune of having it. Why should

he have this disease at this time when I am visiting him?”

I used to reply, “Wait and see if he will be Bhagavan your

patient, or the Bhagavan of my description dispensing special

grace on the jayanthi occasion.”

The jayanthi day came. There were the usual decorations,

gathering of devotees, pujas, music etc. Bhagavan was seated in

a specially decorated pandal. All the same he was to my doctor

friend still his patient Bhagavan and not the Bhagavan of my

description. I was not sorry that Bhagavan was going to belie

my expectation and that of other devotees who were accustomed

to have the jayanthi gift of Bhagavan. (They used to call it

Bhagavan’s jayanthi gift). I was only sorry for my doctor friend.

It was 9 a.m. on the jayanthi morning. All eyes were riveted

on Bhagavan. There were the longing prayers of the souls

gathered around Bhagavan. Suddenly there appeared the special

features of Bhagavan on his face and eyes. The nija mouna bhava,

its fullness expressing itself as Atma Rama - Muditha vadana

and Dakshinamurthi. The Bliss of his Being ebbing over his

countenance beautifying it, true to the words of

Dakshinamuthi’s names: Sundara, Sundara, Sundara, I am the

perfection of beauty of the inner Self. I am ‘I’. Ahamevaham.

The peace of his Being permeated the atmosphere and all

those that were gathered around, keeping them enthralled in

the grace that was his. The peace that passeth all understanding.

The unborn (Ajayamana) was revealing himself through a form.

Bhagavan was Bhagavan telling us without telling Tat Twam Asi

(That Thou art).

“Tat Twam Asi, Tat Twam Asi” nithyam.

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I whispered to my doctor friend to tell me if Bhagavan

was his patient Bhagavan or Jayanthi Ramana Bhagavan. He

could only nod his head in acceptance of my remarks. He was

all spellbound and in wonder. He remarked later, “Mr.

Sundaresh, I have lived to see this great marvel. Who would say

he is like any of us? Yet he condescends to be one of us and that

is our great fortune. My patient is my darling and God.”

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81

SRI RAMANA

Major A.W. Chadwick (Sadhu Arunachala)

The author was a well-known and ardent devotee of

Sri Bhagavan, who stayed at the Ashram for over a quarter

of a century without any thought of return to England. He

used to spend many hours in meditation adhering strictly to

a regular time-table. He was a model of steadfast sadhana

which he kept up after Bhagavan’s Mahasamadhi till the

end of his life in 1962.

RAMANA MAHARSHI WAS UNIQUE in that he was an

out and out advaitin. There were no half-measures with

him. Now to be an advaitin of this description is extremely

difficult. While for most of us, it is all intellectual gymnastics,

for him it was his life. At the early age of sixteen he had realized

the Self, and had never swerved from it or come down to a

lower function ever after. When he was asked about his

movements in the temple and his period of mounam, if his

state had not become more stabilized as a result of this sadhana

he emphatically stated that, “No change had occurred, nothing

new since then had ever happened. It’s the same now as then.”

But for himself he saw nothing wonderful in it. It was the

natural state and it was really strange that others should find

any difficulty in realising or being it themselves. “You are the

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Self ”, he repeatedly said, “nothing but the Self. How can you

be anything else? There are not and cannot be two selves, one

to know the other. Just be yourself!”

Put like this, of course, it sounds easy but experience teaches

us another tale. Every word is true, but vasanas are so persistent

and desires of such long standing that they get in the way and

prevent the pure vision. Habits are deep within us and refuse to

be rooted out.

Countless are the number of existences lived in the past

with which we have been associated. Just to sit quiet and forget

them even for a moment seems impossible. Rather does it seem

to cause those long forgotten existences to bubble up and fill

the mind with their inanities.

Yet sitting in his presence the thing became so transparent

that one was convinced for the time being, that all troubles

were ended, and one was forced back on oneself in spite of all

obstacles. And this was the wonder of his presence.

It was not in the few words he set on paper or the verbal

instructions he gave to sincere enquirers that his real teaching

lay but in his silent presence. Then questions would drop away

unasked, difficulties of meditation vanished and the mind

became still. It was unbelievable how easy it suddenly became.

Not only the effect of his presence but the shining example

of himself, left indelible marks on those who had the good fortune

to spend some time with him. There was no use in saying it could

not be done. Here was one who had done it. One might tell oneself

that the state could be nothing but one of blankness and convince

oneself that it was not to be desired but here was he, exhaling bliss

which overflowed out of its superabundance to even the meanest

of us sitting there with him. It was marvellous! Was there ever

another like him? What silent power! And what a fountain of hope!

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SRI BHAGAVAN AND THE

MOTHER’S TEMPLE

Major A.W. Chadwick (Sadhu Arunachala)

BHAGAVAN WAS DEEPLY interested in the construction

of the shrine built over his mother’s samadhi. He attended

every function in connection with it, placing his hands in

blessing on the various objects that were to be enclosed in the

walls. At night, when no one was about, he would walk round

and round the construction consecrating it. That he should take

such a demonstrative part in anything has a very deep

significance. It was extremely rare and has been doubted by

many, but I myself was an eye-witness to these things and can

vouch for their truth.

He took a personal interest in the cutting of the Sri Chakra

Meru in granite (pyramidal form), which was installed in the

completed temple and is regularly worshipped. This is about

one and a half feet square and proportionately high. At the

time of the kumbabhishekam on the penultimate night before

the sacred water was poured over the images, he personally

supervised the installation in the inner shrine. It was an extremely

hot night and with three charcoal retorts for melting the cement

adding to the heat. It must have been intolerable inside the

airless cave of the inner shrine. Yet for approximately one and a

half hours Bhagavan sat there telling the workmen what to do.

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On the last night of the function he went in procession,

opening the doors of the new hall and temple and passing

straight up into the inner shrine, where he stood for some five

minutes with both hands laid on the Sri Chakra in blessing. I

happened that night to be at his side the whole time. This was

unusual, as I deliberately avoided taking a prominent part in

such things, preferring to watch from the back.

Strangely, something made me keep by him on this

occasion and on account of this I was able to understand his

deep interest in the temple and especially in the Sri Chakra. It

was because of this knowledge that I was instrumental, after

Bhagavan’s passing, in persuading the Ashram authorities to

institute the Sri Chakra pujas six times a month.

The explanation for this unusual action on Bhagavan’s part

may be found in the necessity of Siva always to be accompanied

by Shakti. The world would stop otherwise. On the only occasion

when such a puja was performed, shortly after the dedication of

the temple during the life of Bhagavan, he refused to go for his

evening meal, but insisted on remaining a witness of it until

the end. Someone remarked how magnificent it had been and

that it would be a good thing if such pujas could be performed

regularly, “Yes, but who will take the trouble?” asked Bhagavan.

Trouble is being taken now and it undoubtedly has the blessings

of Bhagavan.

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85

THE IMMUTABLE

ATMOSPHERE

N. O. Mehta

DILIP KUMAR ROY and myself reached Tiruvannamalai

at about 7 p.m., 17th February 1949 after a tiresome and

dusty journey. Our discerning hostess, a Parsi lady, was rightly

more concerned about our having the darshan of Bhagavan, as

the Maharshi is universally called there, and consequently we

promptly went to the prayer hall.

To our pleasant surprise we found Tiruvannamalai a

substantial town with good roads, and electric lighting. The

Ashram is one and a half miles beyond the town, just at the foot

of the beautiful Arunachala Hill, so sacred and so powerfully

evoked in some of the wonderful verses written by the Maharshi

years ago. The prayer hall is a nice, clean, fair sized building

which could perhaps accommodate 100 to 150 people without

difficulty. We went into the hall, but either by habit or by some

sort of inhibition or training, we did not prostrate ourselves in

the traditional fashion. We only made a deep bow and took our

seats. The critical eye noticed the scrupulous cleanliness of the

hall, the intensely devout mien of the people and the utter

simplicity and grandeur of the entire atmosphere.

Bhagavan himself, lean, of medium height, wheat

complexioned, was reclining on a sofa surrounded by a low,

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folding wooden barrier to keep the fervent worshippers from

touching his body. It is on this sofa that the Maharshi spends his

time either sitting or reclining whether by day or by night. Close

to the couch is an incense burner, which is going on all the time.

There is one more burner with incense sticks at the foot of the

couch. The purifying fumes are always rising in the air. Sometimes

the Maharshi himself is stocking the burner and putting in more

and more incense in the bowl. Just on the side of the couch is a

high stool with a time piece, a table lamp and a few bottles of

medicine. In front of the sofa is a small book case with a few

books in English and in Tamil, principally of the Maharshi’s own

writing. I counted five wall calendars hung at the odd corners

including one containing a portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru.

People were squatting cross legged, some with eyes shut,

some eagerly looking at Bhagavan, but all absolutely silent.

People were coming in and going out after doing the prostration.

All this homage left the Maharshi untouched, or was it only

my illusion, for those wonderful eyes seemed to take in

everything even though they had a faraway, distant look.

Prayers from the Upanishads were being recited by three young

disciples. I felt the magnificent rhythm of the Sanskrit language

more powerfully than I have ever felt it before. I immediately

realized how the great mantras and the verses of the Vedas and the

Upanishads must have sounded in a bygone age at the morning

and evening prayers in forest hermitages. The recitation was

wonderful, the intonation accomplished and egoless. One was

immediately hushed to devout silence. The prayers were wound up

with the invocation to Bhagavan Ramana himself.

How is one to describe the atmosphere? 1 have referred to

the trifles because though they attracted my attention on the

first evening, they ceased to have any significance the very next

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morning. All that I felt was, that I was face to face with a Reality

which transcended all that I had dreamt of him. Here was a

great sage whose darshan was undoubtedly a privilege. I

instinctively felt that here was India at its highest, for here was

the deepest realization of the Reality transcending all mundane

factors and bringing peace which passes all understanding. Let

me, however, get along with trifles, for even they may have

some usefulness.

At 7.30 p.m. was the evening meal and some thirty to

forty people sat down to a simple meal, irrespective of race or

rank, with the Maharshi occupying a corner. Rice and curry are

served, some pulses and sometimes little vegetable delicacies on

a plantain leaf. The Maharshi is the most careful diner of all,

for he leaves no particle of surplus food on his platter. Food is

served to all servants and masters by the very people who render

service to the Maharshi, the same who look after the Ashram

and who chant those wonderful verses from the Vedas and the

Upanishads at the morning and evening prayers. Here was truly

the hermitage of a saint where nothing mattered but an unceasing

effort to know and feel the eternal Brahman.

The Maharshi finishes his meal quietly and slowly, but the

diners leave the hall as they please, and so far as the Maharshi’s

presence for the day is concerned, it is all over with the

completion of the evening meal. There is a radio set in a corner

of the prayer hall. The Maharshi is interested in everything

including the feeding of monkeys, peacocks and squirrels.

After the meal we left the Ashram to go to our

accommodation across the road. There are some charming little

cottages, which have been built by the people who have been

regularly coming to have the darshan of Bhagavan and with

some luck one can have one of these cottages. However, the

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creature comforts to which we were used no longer mattered.

We were in a world totally different from the one we had left

behind. The values were also different and all that was important

now was to get up in time for the morning prayers at 4 a.m.

It is difficult to reproduce the atmosphere of the morning

prayers. The lights are still on. The Maharshi is holding his hands

over the incense burner, the disciples chant the Vedic prayer in a

firm and resonant voice. The stately rhythm of these prayers

creates an amazing atmosphere of peace and sanctity. For more

than forty minutes the recital continues in an unbroken melody

and at the conclusion, a few verses are recited in adoration of

Bhagavan himself.

The prayers over, there is an hour to get ready for the

morning coffee. The low lying Arunachala Hill looks singularly

beautiful in the light of the dawn and one is aware of that

harmony between man and nature which is so essential to

balanced life. As one strolls out of the Ashram one is aware that

Tiruvannamalai is a town of sacred memories, of temples small

and big, and of graveyards dedicated to the memories of the

departed. There are shrines, some modest and some more

pretentious, built all around the Hill, but the greatest monument

of them all is the superb temple of Arunachalam.

It was interesting to learn that the custom of burial was and

still is not uncommon among certain classes of people in the south.

Unfortunately however, the memorial stones are scattered on the

periphery of the town and are in a state of complete neglect, as is

also the case with some beautiful mandapams and temples of all

sizes. It could not have been the decline of the devout spirit so

much as the weakening and disintegration of economic life which,

once so prosperous as to have built the great edifices, is now no

longer able even to afford their maintenance. The people are poor

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because perhaps they have not been able to keep pace with the

march of time. In the whole of Tiruvannamalai the living centre is

the modest Ashram of Bhagavan, for here the spiritual lamp stays

burning, capable of igniting the fires in the hearts of those who are

still wanting or are prepared to receive the illumination.

It was fortunate that the next day of our halt at the Ashram

was the sacred day of Maha Shivaratri. Very early in the morning

crowds of people were on the march around the sacred Hill of

Arunachalam and in the Ashram itself worship was continuous

for all the twenty four hours. The great temple of Arunachalam

was illuminated but the resources of the people were far too

attenuated to permit adequate lighting. One day when the

people of India are again strong and economically prosperous

these temples will perhaps, be revived into centres of inspiration

and light, and their vast mandapams might be restored to their

proper use and status.

We attended the evening prayers on the eve of our departure.

There could be no farewell, for Bhagavan’s presence would never

be forgotten. We bade mental farewell to the Ashram for we

were going to leave for Pondicherry early next morning. As we

were about to leave, a friend said that we could not possibly leave

the Ashram without taking the permission of Bhagavan and saying

goodbye to him. We therefore repaired to the Ashram to intimate

our departure to Bhagavan just as he was going out of the dining

hall. We felt like young children going to their elders for a blessing.

Our reward, however, was immense, for Bhagavan vouchsafed to

us a penetrating glance of immeasurable beatitude which, even

now, is one of the most abiding memories of a sacred pilgrimage.

It is astonishing how Bhagavan’s presence and his usual, apparently

humdrum activities cast such a magic spell over all those who

were blessed to come near him.

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BHAGAVAN RAMANA

MAHARSHI AS SEEN BY A

BENGALI DEVOTEE

Jagannath Chattopadhyaya

TO A BENGALI who has been accustomed to hear the

Lord’s name chanted with fervour and devotion,

accompanied by dancing and sankirtan, as introduced into

Bengal by Lord Gouranga more than four hundred years ago,

Bhagavan’s method of enquiry in absolute stillness of the mind,

presents a sharp contrast. In the life of Bhagavan I am confronted

with a towering personality, the like of which I have never seen

or heard of or come across in books.

He never ran down any religion or the traditions sponsored

by a religion. For instance, the Hindu caste system has become

the target of criticism by preachers and reformers but Bhagavan

would never attack it outright. When asked whether we should

ignore caste rules he said, “Not in the beginning. Observe them

to start with. They serve as a check on the vagaries of the mind

and it is thus purified. On the same subject he says, “Differences

always exist, not only in human beings but also in plants, animals,

etc. This state of affairs cannot be helped. You need not notice

these distinctions. There is diversity in the world but a unity

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runs through the diversity. The Self is the same in all. There is

no difference in spirit. The differences are external and

superficial. Find the unity and you will be happy.”1

I myself am a disciple of Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath

Maharaj, the strict follower of sanatana dharma, the eternal

dharma based on the Vedas and Upanishads, to which foreigners

have given the name ‘Hinduism’. He is also an upholder of our

varnashrama dharma or caste dharma. I therefore very much

appreciate the Maharshi’s respect for every religion. Once, for

instance, he told a Muslim devotee to try to understand and

follow what the word ‘Islam’ means — ‘the total surrender of

the ego’.

Bhagavan’s courageous message, reminding us of our

heritage of the rishis of old, gives us faith and courage despite

the gloom of present day materialism, to seek liberation from

bondage to the non-self, the fake ego, which causes the sorrows

and frustrations of life.

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REMEMBERING RAMANA

N. N. Rajan

I

Miracles and Bhagavan

IT IS COMMON to see people flock to those who exhibit

occult powers and perform miracles like curing ailments,

floating on water, sitting buried under earth etc. but Selfrealisation

and miracle mongering are poles apart. The jnani

does not care for miracles. To the jnani the control of the senses

leading to realisation of the Self is the only aim. This is really

the greatest miracle, and to achieve it is the jnani’s goal.

The great jnani that he was, Bhagavan Sri Ramana always

revelled in the natural state of supreme bliss. He did not wish to

perform miracles. In fact, he warned people against it. This

does not mean that he had no powers. He had them in

abundance, as witnessed by many, only Bhagavan never liked

to exhibit them.

He behaved as any ordinary man would. Regarding the

manifestation of powers seen by devotees, it might be due to

his infinite compassion that the miracles happened and he might

not have been particularly intent on them.

One evening, while I was sitting outside Sri Bhagavan’s

hall, just in his view, suddenly I noticed an expressive gesture in

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his face as he leaned forward from his reclining position. It

looked as though he was calling me to say something. I was

impelled to respond to the gesture by getting up and going

near him but he did not tell me anything. I resumed my seat

only to find, in a couple of minutes, another jerk and a similar

expressive movement in him as before. This time also I was

stirred and when I went nearer there was no further indication.

I took my seat again but now became restless. I could not resist

the urge to leave the place at once with the expectation of some

urgent matter demanding my presence. I prostrated to Sri

Bhagavan and I left the hall without a word.

A major train accident had happened at my headquarters

station about nine miles off. I had been forewarned by Bhagavan

in a strange manner as recorded above and due to his grace, I was

free from the blame of not being on the spot in the emergency.

Obviously Bhagavan’s warning was quite in advance of the actual

happening. The way he did it is most noteworthy. There was no

public demonstration or publicity. An act of grace to a devotee, in

his own unique way and with no means of others knowing that a

miracle was actually performed. This is typical of our Bhagavan.

II

His Divine Excellence

“SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI has kept India’s spiritual glory

alive in our generation. He has in his own way made the name

of India respected by wise and enlightened men spread all over

the world……”

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Thus spoke Sri C. Rajagopalachari when declaring open

the Pathala Lingam Shrine, once the abode of Sri Ramana

Maharshi.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi encapsulated the whole

of the Vedas and Upanishads into a simple formula — his famous

‘Who am I?’ enquiry. He was too humble to claim any originality

for this. Such enquiry goes beyond the realm of seemingly

impenetrable mysteries. But by the grace of Sri Ramana his

followers unmistakably reach the goal.

During the period of his illness Sri Maharshi appeared

visibly unaffected in spite of the ailment which gave him

excruciating pain. The doctors and other devotees were baffled

by the utmost unconcern demonstrated by Sri Maharshi for

the cruel ailment. The total detachment with which he looked

on his suffering body was unique. By this he demonstrated

practically for our benefit that only the body suffers and the

Atman (Self ) has no share in it.

His radiant face did not show even the least trace of pain.

In fact his eyes sparkled with more divine brilliance than usual.

Despite the pain he was rigidly attending to his daily routine,

like going to the bathroom, attending to important letters, etc.,

without deviating from his characteristic punctuality. “Let the

disease run its course and let the body suffer, but I am ever

immersed in unbroken Bliss” — such was his attitude.

“A man established in the Self is liberated while in the

body, the fate of the body does not matter”: this is the Vedic

truth. Sri Ramana had entirely forgotten all consciousness about

his occupancy in the human frame and automatically the

authorship had no existence at all. He was full of bliss indicating

exuberance. The following episode, which occurred during the

same period was a thrilling sight to witness.

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An old teacher of Sri Bhagavan came to see him. He was

87 and very feeble. Nevertheless an overmastering desire to see

the God-man whom he had once taught in second form, urged

him on to Tiruvannamalai. In Bhagavan’s presence, he recalled

an incident from that time with great emotion. Once he had

asked young Venkataraman to stand up on the bench for a

minor misdemeanour. But Venkataraman gazed at him for a

while with such steadiness and power that his (teacher’s) will

withered rapidly and he reversed his decision.

It was a touching sight to see the old teacher meet his Seerpupil.

Then the teacher asked Sri Bhagavan whether he

recognised him. Sri Bhagavan smiled broadly and graciously

and answered: “Why not?” The teacher was visibly moved at

this and he again asked Bhagavan about his health. Sri Bhagavan

replied that he was feeling all right. Throughout this very moving

but short interview Maharshi displayed such graciousness and

cordiality that neither the old teacher nor those who were close

by felt that there was anything wrong with the Maharshi.

These things make us feel that Bhagavan Sri Ramana

Maharshi is a perfect divine incarnation, whose divine excellence

was lying dormant till he left his home.

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THE FORTUNATE BOY

“SEIN”

BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI is well known

to all as a great Saint. But only a few know of his

philanthropy and humanitarianism. Still fewer are those who

experienced his paternal and maternal affection.

Of all these one boy alone had the most enviable

opportunity of sleeping with Bhagavan and enjoying such

paternal treatment. One and only one had that golden privilege.

This was in 1920. Bhagavan had come to Skandasramam

from the Virupaksha cave and a small batch of devotees had

gathered round him. The greatness of the Saint echoed all over

the world. Devotees from all parts of India were coming for his

darshan. While males enjoyed the privilege of staying in the

Asramam up the hill with Bhagavan the whole day, ladies were

not allowed to remain there after sun-set.

Maharshi had a younger brother and sister, his elder brother

having passed away prematurely. This younger brother Sri

Nagasundaram Iyer who was working as a clerk in Tiruvengadu

temple had a small son. Fortunately for Sri Ramanasramam to

be and unfortunately for his family, he took sannyasa when his

wife died leaving a two year old boy uncared for. When both

the parents left this child an orphan, Maharshi’s sister, popularly

known as ‘Athai’ (aunt), took charge of the child and brought

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him up with unstinted love, affection and care. It was not only

because she had no issue of her own but also because this boy

was the only descendant of their whole family.

This lad was taken twice or thrice a year to Tiruvannamalai

to see Bhagavan and his father (of the poorvasrama), henceforth

known as Sri Niranjanananda Swami, by Athai and her husband,

who were living in the far South. They were provided with a

house near the hill at Tiruvannamalai. Every morning Athai

would go up the hill and return to town in the evening, leaving

the boy behind at Skandasramam.

When at first Athai hesitated to do this fearing to cause

any kind of inconvenience to the much loved boy, Bhagavan

said that he would be well under his protection.

In the night the boy would eat from the sacred hands of

Bhagavan and Bhagavan would make him lie down beside him,

cover him with a blanket and lull him to sleep. He bestowed on

him all care that any sincere mother is capable of. Early in the

morning he would take the boy to the spring, clean his teeth

with powder, and wash his face. Athai would rush up in the

morning. Bhagavan with the lad seated on a culvert would tell

the child, “There comes your Athai. See in what hurry she runs

up to see you.” As soon as she came up, Bhagavan would tell

her, “Take your boy, see, he is safe and sound.”

This abundant affection for the boy did not in any way

prevent Maharshi from being strict with him. The following

incident makes it clear that Bhagavan gave the boy a practical

lesson which till now he has not forgotten.

At Skandasramam lived a monkey named Nondi, which

was the pet of all. Maharshi had ordered that whatever food was

served to his followers should also be served to the monkey, and

in case it was absent elsewhere, then its share should be kept

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separate for its return. In such a case, the food would be kept

near a window inside the cave and the shutter closed but not

bolted. This was the custom.

On one of his periodical visits to the Asramam one day,

the boy had enjoyed the sweet dishes served to the devotees. He

had a little more than the usual share. The monkey being absent,

its share was kept near the closed window. The boy, having had

his share, went up to the window and began to eat out of the

monkey’s as well. Suddenly, the monkey came and opened the

window only to see the boy eating its share. It gave the boy a

blow on his cheek. Shocked and terrified, the boy cried out and

devotees tried to console him. Bhagavan came to the spot,

understood the situation and told the boy: “You deserve it. Why

did you want his (monkey’s) share. You have had enough already.

You ought to have been contented with that.” Instead of

appeasing the beloved child, Bhagavan put him right. The boy

became silent and heeded Bhagavan’s words.

“Do not touch the property of others. Be content with

what you have. Share equally what you have. Divide it with one

and all around you. Help the needy. Be not blind when a wrong

is committed before you. Correct it if possible, or at least speak

out for the right.” These are some of the golden truths the young

boy was able to grasp from the words of the Maharshi that day.

That blessed boy is Swami Ramanananda (Sri T.N.

Venkataraman, former president of Sri Ramanasramam, the

only descendant of Maharshi’s family).

􀁗 􀁘

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LEST WE FORGET ...

I

Dr. V. Srinivasa Rao

AMONG THE FOREMOST DEVOTEES, Dr. V. Srinivasa

Rao found in Sri Bhagavan the greatest solace and support

in his life. He was born in the former native state of Pudukottai

and is happily still with us at the age of eighty-seven(in1972). He

was intimately associated with the growth of the Ashram for many

decades. Childlike by nature and outspoken, his sincerity and

frankness gained him easy access and familiarity with Sri Bhagavan

who treated him like a pet child.

Born poor and orphaned when hardly four years old, he

grew up to be self-reliant. He took his degree in medicine and

surgery, and prompted by the good wishes of the doyen of his

days, Dr. Singaravelu Mudaliar, he entered Government service.

He was medical officer in several district headquarters hospitals

and retired in 1940 as the superintendent of the Royapettah

Hospital, Madras. After this he spent a good deal of his time in

the Ashram in a life of devotion and service to Sri Bhagavan.

To begin with, Dr. Srinivasa Rao had no interest in a spiritual

life and seemed more an agnostic, if not a downright atheist.

Through the friendship of spiritually highly evolved people like

Sri S. Doraiswami Iyer, one of the oldest devotees, he came to Sri

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Bhagavan. Before taking leave of Sri Bhagavan he asked him,

“Will I come again for your darshan?” Sri Bhagavan with a tender

and compassionate look patted him on the shoulder saying,

“What will happen is sure to happen.” That was all! He felt

somehow thrilled in the core of his being by his touch and the

gracious reply which strengthened his faith and surrender. Since

then remembrance of Sri Bhagavan was constant.

Sri Bhagavan directed his attention specifically to Upadesa

Saram among his works and emphasised ekachintana (fixing the

mind on one thought — of the One) as essential for the mind to

get free of thoughts; and that constant remembrance of God is

better than a recital of hymns or silent invocation. On one

occasion he told Sri Bhagavan, “It is said that one should

contemplate on God Vishnu from head to foot. Is that the correct

thing to do?” Sri Bhagavan reminded him, “It is all One from

head to foot.” Yet again he discussed the efficacy of Rama Japa

and the like and asked Sri Bhagavan, “Why not do Ramana Japa

instead of Rama Japa?” to which Sri Bhagavan gave his assent.

After 1940 Srinivasa Rao had the unique opportunity of

staying in the proximity of Sri Bhagavan rendering some

personal service or other. He treasures the privilege he had of

massaging Sri Bhagavan’s limbs and of ministering to him during

his bodily ailments as a doctor. His simple but total love and

attachment to Sri Bhagavan’s person generated many happy

incidents. Once Sri Bhagavan’s knee caps and legs did not

function owing to stiffness and Srinivasa Rao with folded hands

implored him to permit his massaging for a few days only. Sri

Bhagavan would not agree saying, “If allowed to do so you will

continue endlessly.” But he beseeched him like a child and Sri

Bhagavan yielded but said it would be strictly for ten days. Sri

Bhagavan was counting the days and on the last day when

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Srinivasa Rao was actually massaging his legs Sri T. P. R.’s father

who arrived just then, entered the old hall and perceiving the

doctor massaging the legs of Sri Bhagavan repeated a Sanskrit

sloka and exclaimed, “Oh, Raoji, do not give up what you are

doing. You need no other sadhana for your salvation.” Sri

Bhagavan burst out laughing and said: “Well, well; I have been

counting these days and waiting for this last day and you have

come to recommend continuance!” Leaving his massaging, the

doctor stepped before Sri Bhagavan and went on doing obeisance

imploring Him to listen to the elderly gentleman if not to him.

Sri Bhagavan yielded for another ten days!

During the two years preceding Sri Bhagavan’s Maha

Nirvana the doctor gave whole-time attention and assistance to

Sri Bhagavan’s health and comfort in collaboration with the

team of medical men who devoutly rendered service during the

last illness.

He happily spent his days remembering Sri Bhagavan and

his memorable days with him, and deriving all the solace needed

from his writings and utterances, which he revered.

II

G. Lakshmi Narasimham

SRI G. LAKSHMI NARASIMHAM (known as ‘ Narasinga

Rao’ at the Ashram), after taking his B.L. degree stayed at Sri

Ramanasramam for three years from 1930 to 1933, along with

his mother and sister Lakshmi, serving Sri Bhagavan. It was

Bhagavan’s Grace that his apprenticeship should be under him.

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Lakshmi Narasimham’s marriage also took place at

Tiruvannamalai and when the new couple came to do

namaskaram (prostration), Sri Bhagavan remarked: “Now, your

name (Lakshmi + Narasimham) has become meaningful!”

Sri Niranjanananda Swami (also known as Chinnaswami,

Sri Bhagavan’s brother) was the Manager of the Ashram then

and his office was near Bhagavan’s Hall. Like others Narasinga

Rao also was meditating in Bhagavan’s Hall. Chinnaswami asked

him to assist him in the Ashram correspondence. Getting

Bhagavan’s approval for it, Narasinga Rao began going straight

to Chinnaswami after bowing to Bhagavan. Later on this earned

the humorous remark of Bhagavan: “Oh! He belongs to

Chinnaswami, not to the Hall group!”

Chinnaswami was a strict and conscientious taskmaster.

He spared no pains in keeping an exact account of money

received and spent. He looked upon Bhagavan not as his brother

but as God Himself, and so considered it his first duty to serve

Bhagavan’s devotees, accommodating them and attending to

their wants. The temple, the big dining hall and well furnished

accommodations are the results of his labour of love. Actually

seeing Chinnaswami’s one pointed spirit of service, G.L.N.

dedicated himself to serve him to the best of his ability,

surrendering himself thus to Bhagavan. Saraswati Ammal and

Lakshmi used to do their bit of service in the kitchen. From

their experience too they were led to conclude that whatever

Chinnaswami did had always the distinct approval of Bhagavan.

Gradually all the members of Narasinga Rao’s family

became attached to Sri Bhagavan and the Ashram, by bonds of

devotion and reverence. They all regarded Chinnaswami as a

true instrument of Bhagavan. His eldest brother, the late

Sambasiva Rao, was a reputed lawyer of Nellore. Till he passed

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away in 1962, he diligently served the Ashram in the legal and

other spheres. Sister Lakshmi and brother-in-law, B. S.

Ranganadham, are great devotees of Bhagavan. His third elder

brother, the late Satyanarayana Rao, a teacher at the Mahant’s

High School, Vellore, from about 1925, was the first to be drawn

to Bhagavan and it was his influence which brought other

members of the family to Bhagavan. He was deeply devoted to

Bhagavan and was blessed with the proximity and touch of grace

of Bhagavan during his last illness within the Ashram premises.

His fourth brother, the late Subba Rao, a teacher at Nellore,

used to assist with his Scout troup during Bhagavan’s Jayanti

celebrations. These celebrations and the taking out of Bhagavan’s

picture in procession, started by him, continue up to this day at

Nellore.

When G. L. N. came to the Ashram, he did not know

even a letter of the Tamil alphabet. Impelled by Bhagavan’s grace

he picked up enough knowledge of Tamil to read and understand

Sri Bhagavan’s works in the original. Thus it was nothing but

Bhagavan’s grace that enabled him- to translate into Telugu

Bhagavan’s Five Hymns to Arunachala and Forty Verses on Reality.

Chinnaswami intuitively hit upon some devotees to help

him and trusted them completely. For instance, when he went

to Rangoon in 1936 to personally select and purchase special

teak wood for the construction of Sri Matrubhuteswara Temple,

he put Narasinga Rao in charge of the Ashram during his absence

of over a month. During the life-time of Bhagavan and

Chinnaswami and even after, right up to the end, Narasinga

Rao had been a devoted servant of the Ashram.

􀁗 􀁘

104

HOW I CAME TO

BHAGAVAN

I

Roda MacIver

I HEARD ABOUT Sri Bhagavan for the first time in 1939

from a friend who showed me his photograph. I was very

much struck by his eyes and wished to go and see him. My

desire to go to Tiruvannamalai to Sri Bhagavan’s abode could

not be fulfilled until 1942. A friend, who had just finished

building a house in Tiruvannamalai invited me to stay with her.

I eagerly accepted the invitation. When I arrived I was indisposed

for a few days and could not go to the Ashram.I heard that Sri

Bhagavan was in the habit of going for a walk on the hill of

Arunachala every day at regular hours, so I went there and waited

on the path. On the crest of the hilly path a head emerged like

the rising sun and then I saw the whole majestic tall figure,

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi! Slowly he came towards me,

his attendant a few steps behind. He stopped for a few moments

before me, smiling and looking at me graciously. My heart was

beating fast and I could not utter a word. I cannot describe

how I felt really.I experienced a coolness.

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During the next two years I was visiting the Ashram

constantly. Then in 1944 one day I went into the hall. Sri

Bhagavan was reading some papers. I sat down and looked at

him. Suddenly he put away the papers and turned his luminous

eyes on me. I could not stand his gaze so I closed my eyes, tears

streaming down my face.When I opened my eyes he was still

looking at me. My heart was flooded with joy and an inner

calmness! Later I went to see a friend of mine, Sri Munagala

Venkataramiah,1 and told him in detail about this occurrence

in the hall. He said that I was very fortunate to have received

initiation from Sri Bhagavan. There was no doubt about it!

Next morning when I was in the hall somebody asked Sri

Bhagavan what was the use of sitting before him. Does he give

initiation? Sri Bhagavan replied that initiation can be given in

three ways: by silence, by look and by touch. When saying “by

look”, he looked at me. Then I remembered what I was told the

day before about my experience and had no doubt that I had

received initiation from Sri Bhagavan, my most revered Master!

After a month’s stay I returned to Bombay, and there was a

complete change in my life. Worldly pleasures ceased to attract

me and I wanted to be alone as much as possible. I decided to

leave Bombay and settle down in Tiruvannamalai but did not

know where to stay. It was difficult in those days to get

accommodation but I knew Sri Bhagavan was guiding me and so

I did not worry much. He would arrange everything. And it so

happened that two days before leaving Bombay I met my husband

to be. He told me to go and stay in his house in Tiruvannamalai

and so I left happily. Soon after, with Sri Bhagavan’s blessings, we

got married and this house became my permanent home.

1 Later known as Swami Ramanananda Saraswati, compiler of Talks with

Sri Ramana Maharshi and author of other books.

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By Bhagavan’s grace I am now permanently settled here

and do not intend to leave. He still helps and guides me as

before and often hears my prayers. His Presence now is even

more powerful than when he was in the physical body.

My love for Sri Bhagavan sustains me and is of the greatest

importance in my life!

II

M. S. Nagarajan

SRI M.S. NAGARAJAN, a staunch devotee of Bhagavan,

comes from Mambattu, a village in the Polur Taluk of the

North Arcot District of the state of Tamil Nadu. Even as a

young boy he used to accompany his parents when they came

to TiruvannamaIai for the yearly Deepam festival, at which

time and on similar occasions, his father, who was a devotee

of Bhagavan, used to take him to the Ashram. Thus he came

to know Bhagavan in his childhood. When he was ten years

old, his friend, who was a nephew of Echammal, spoke to

him about the greatness of Bhagavan. He and this friend used

to practise dhyana and yogic asanas (sitting postures) every

day in the early morning. In the evening they meditated on

Bhagavan. Sri Nagarajan used to have frequent visions of

Bhagavan and Lord Murugan in his dreams. At about this

time Ranga Rao, an old devotee of Bhagavan, now no more,

had set up an ashram at Polur named Indra Ashram, to which

other devotees of Bhagavan used to go and talk about Bhagavan

and other spiritual matters. In 1930, when Sri Nagarajan was

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15 years old Ranga Rao brought him to Sri Ramanansramam.

Here he was allotted the work of doing puja, and helping in

the bookstall etc. But what he valued most was the privilege of

cutting up vegetables and grinding the pulses and coconut

gratings for chutney in the kitchen with Bhagavan. But most

of the time he was in the hall attending to some minor work

or other. He had thus the opportunity of listening to the replies

which Bhagavan gave to the questions put to him by visitors

and devotees. As a result of this he became a firm believer in

the path of Self-enquiry taught by Bhagavan.

At the end of six months Sri Nagarajan went home but

soon returned and stayed on for four years. Jobs were offered

to him but he was not interested in them since the acceptance

of a job would mean parting from Bhagavan. But one day a

letter came from his mother informing him that a job had been

found for him. This letter came to the hands of Bhagavan along

with the Ashram post. After reading it Bhagavan said,“Look

here, a job has been found for you. Go and accept it

immediately.”Tears came into the eyes of Sri Nagarajan at the

thought of parting from Bhagavan. But Bhagavan said again,

“You can go on Wednesday and join duty on Thursday.”

Unwillingly he left the Ashram. Thereafter he came to the

Ashram as often as he could get leave.

While Sri Nagarajan was employed at Sattur from 1955

to 1958 he organised a Ramana Mandali where Bhagavan’s songs

like The Marital Garland of Letters were sung and devotees

meditated every day. Talks were given periodically at this Mandali

— Bhagavan’s Jayanti and Aradhana were also celebrated in a

fitting manner. Sri Nagarajan also established a school named

Sri Ramana Vidya Mandiram Elementary School at Sattur in

memory of Bhagavan.

108

After holding several important posts in the firm of

Burmah Shell, Sri Nagarajan has now retired. Since then he has

lived for some time in Tambaram and later joined the Ashram

to render his service.

III

A Seeker

THIS IS OFFERED as homage to Sri Ramana and as testimony

to the truth that all paths lead to the same Peak and that without

Grace there is nothing, neither “light” nor “darkness”, neither

“regress” nor “progress”; Grace is All.

Born into a non-religious Jewish family, I was raised in a

small Protestant town in the southern United States. At twenty

I found myself in a university in the Northeast and extremely

unhappy. Till then God had meant nothing to me; but abruptly

things changed. Some Higher Intelligence began hammering

me over the head with the fact of Its existence and by moving

me through coincidences in which the whole universe seemed

to converge in direct answers to my innermost questions of the

moment.

That summer I read an autobiography of a yogi. It

electrified me, literally: after reading it I lay relaxed before

sleep, wondering if yoga were to be part of my path. An

oscillating sound came to me and raised my mind inwardly;

suddenly there sounded an incredibly beautiful herald of

trumpets followed by a flash of brilliant light which illuminated

my whole being.

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Needless to say, I took this as a “yes” to my question, and

that fall I took initiation from a disciple of an enlightened Indian

yogi. By the next summer I felt ready to go to India. I wasn’t

able to leave till autumn.

This Master, called Baba, lived up to all my expectations,

and more. He showered his grace upon me; my prayers for

greater devotion were being answered. But then something

happened which I cannot detail. Here through his words, actions,

and arrangement of my “external” circumstances, he indicated

unmistakably that I was to leave his mission, perhaps never to

see him again physically. So I left.

Before departing from India a friend and I visited other

ashrams. The message I got was: all paths are one; and the Guru

is within, so seek within. I went halfway across the world to

find someone to save me, but those capable merely referred me

to a mirror.

Thus I returned to the States, feeling exalted by a wondrous

journey — it was a perfect circle of experience — but also

somewhat confused as to how to proceed. I was reading

Krishnamurti and trying to Be, but I didn’t feel comfortable or

secure in a practice which said, “Make no effort.” I was praying

to Jesus. Shortly after my return, I had met a devotee of Jesus

who asked if I had accepted Him in my heart. I quickly answered,

“Yes”; but upon reflection I realized that was untrue. So I was

praying very fervently to Jesus, that He enter my heart.

At the same time I was praying to my first Guru (“my”

Guru’s first form). I had come to feel that I could be satisfied

with nothing less than absolute and eternal Realization. It felt

almost blasphemous to ask so much, but what else could I ask?

So all this was going on, and at the height of it Baba came

to me in a dream. I was sitting before him in darshan with a few

110

others. He asked if I had been practising a certain mantra.

Anxious to please him, I blurted “Yes”. He said sternly, “No,

you haven’t,” and looked away. I began to weep, my head against

his knee. Then something made me look up at him. Smiling,

he said simply, “Yours is the path of the Heart.”

Upon awakening I thought he might have been referring

to the occasional feelings in the centre of my chest that were

accompanying my practice of trying to BE with all things. Or

maybe he meant something in reference to my prayer to Jesus.

I didn’t know, and nothing was made clear.

By late spring I was feeling pretty miserable. No changes,

no breakthroughs. Some friends and I had attempted to establish

a community; egoism aborted it. I was often on the verge of

tears. One weekend I visited some friends on a farm, people I

had met in India. But rather than feeling any satsang, I felt a

loneliness, even paranoia, that I thought I’d left behind long

ago. After two days of this misery, I picked up a little pamphlet,

“Who am I?”, with a picture of the slender young Ramana. By

reading it I was able at least to regain my equilibrium.

The next night, at a friend’s apartment in Montreal,

Quebec, I came across The Teachings of Bhagavan by Arthur

Osborne. By now quite interested, I read parts of it and then

tried the sadhana the Maharshi recommended. After fifteen or

twenty minutes of asking mentally, “Who am I?”, and

concentrating on the right side of my chest, suddenly, from the

depths of my Heart something opened up in me, a piercing

sensation followed by a wave of bliss. The bliss passed, and the

piercing sensation diminished over the next few days — but

the feeling of the Heart remained.

Since then It has never left me — though sometimes I

leave It for this thought or that, and It remains on the edge of

111

consciousness. Shortly after Its advent I came to see that this is

the path of the Heart, and that I shall have to find no other

forms for my Guru. And then it dawned on me that my prayer

to Jesus had been answered. For as it is true that no one other

than Sri Ramana vibrates at the Core of my Being, so also it is

no one other than Jesus, and no one other than Baba.

“Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find.” “Earnest

efforts never fail.” What else is there to say? Full realization has

not dawned, but whether moments or lifetimes intervene, it

cannot fail to come. Patience and perseverance are necessary, as

Bhagavan has said. It may take long years of practice to reach

the Goal.

Yet the Grace he has bestowed upon me compels me to

conclude on a different note. For Bhagavan again says we are

the Self, ever and always; and Jesus says be alert, for you don’t

know when the Bridegroom will arrive. And indeed, young

Venkataraman experienced the truth of this latter statement

most dramatically, at the moment of his death and the arrival

of the Bridegroom, Arunachala. So we should be patient and

persevering, but we shouldn’t give a moment’s thought to “the

long years ahead” and other such poison. For “the thought that

you are not realized is the obstacle to Realization.” If we don’t

feel we know Reality, ever and always, then we must at least feel

continuously that its lightning flash is imminent. Such an

attitude naturally allows sadhana to become the all-consuming

flame it should be, and thus “hastens” the Coming. For, again

as Venkataraman realized, no one walks that final infinite

distance to the Peak of Arunachala — but rather, in a way too

inscrutable for the mind to comprehend, and at a speed far too

fast for the ego to withstand, one is brought to the Heart-Summit

by the Mountain Itself.

112

BHAGAVAN’S SOLICITUDE

FOR DEVOTEES

Kunju Swami

An old and well-known devotee of Bhagavan describes

some instances of Bhagavan’s solicitude for his devotees,

especially for women and old people.

BHAGAVAN WAS ALWAYS very considerate towards his

devotees in all matters. When he was living at Skandashram

on the eastern slopes of the hill, he used to wake up at 3 o’clock

in the morning. He would not get up immediately but recline

on the bed. We too would wake up at the same time and sit in

meditation near him. Bhagavan’s mother used to sing some

devotional songs from within. Bhagavan’s routine was to go

out at half past four and return by five. We would then begin to

recite the Aksharamana Malai (The Marital Garland of Letters).

That was the only song which Bhagavan had composed at that

time. I learned it by heart by merely listening to the chanting

of the other devotees. The recitation was over by six o’clock

which was the time for Bhagavan to go for his bath.

There was a large flat stone at the spot where now there is

the low wall on the eastern side. Tooth powder and water were

kept on it for Bhagavan’s use. In all weathers he used to sit on it

facing the east and clean his teeth. His body was glowing in the

rays of the rising sun. If there was heavy dew we tried to dissuade

113

him from sitting there, but without any success. Nor did he tell

us the reason for sitting there always. It was some time afterwards

that we came to know of it.

An old woman named Saubhagyathammal, living in a house

near the foot of the hill, and some of her friends had made it a

daily practice not to take any food until they had had darshan of

Bhagavan and Sri Seshadri Swami. They used to come up to

Skandashram every day for this purpose. One day

Saubhagyathammal did not come. If any of his regular devotees

were absent on any particular day Bhagavan never failed to make

enquiries and find out the reason. So when the old woman came

the next day he asked her why she did not come on the previous

day. She replied,“I had Sri Bhagavan’s darshan yesterday.” “But

you did not come yesterday”, said Bhagavan. “Bhagavan knew

that this humble devotee was too feeble to climb the hill and so

he made it possible for her to see him from a place close to her

house”, was the reply. She explained that she had seen Bhagavan

while he was sitting on the stone and cleaning his teeth and said

that she was henceforth going to have his darshan everyday in the

same way. From that time onwards Bhagavan made it a practice

to sit on that stone for nearly half an hour daily. Later on when

Bhagavan took up his abode at the foot of the hill it was also

chiefly out of consideration for his aged devotees who found it

difficult to climb to Skandashram. After the passing away of his

mother he occasionally came down to her samadhi. Aged devotees

eagerly awaited these opportunities to see him. And so when they

begged him to remain below he began to live there permanently.

It was the practice of Bhagavan’s devotees to take his

permission before proceeding to circumambulate the hill and

to prostrate before him on their return. Many came to the

Ashram all the way from the town for this purpose even late in

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the evening and then proceeded immediately to their homes in

the town. Bhagavan advised such devotees to break their

circumambulation in town in the evening and to complete it

on the following day when they came to the Ashram as usual.

When women devotees were ready to return to town at

dusk he would always make certain that none of them went

alone. If any of them found no company he would ask someone

to go with her and leave her at her house.

There were some devotees employed in Madras who used

to come every weekend to Tiruvannamalai and return to Madras

in time to go to their offices on Monday morning. Sometimes

some of them were so reluctant to part from Bhagavan that

they continued to overstay their time. They would go as far as

the railway station only to return to the Ashram on some pretext

or other. Bhagavan, therefore, used in such cases to send someone

with them to the railway station and see that they actually got

into the train and left for Madras. He did not like that anyone

should neglect his duties!

When a devotee came late in the evening after every one

had taken his meal and gone to bed he was not allowed to go

hungry on this account. Bhagavan always saw to it that some

food was kept for such late-comers and that they had their meal.

When such a visitor arrived Bhagavan simply looked at some of

us. That was enough for us to take him to the dining hall and

give him his meal!

Bhagavan never started to eat before all those who were

present were served. The beggars waiting at the gate are even

now given their food before inmates and visitors are served. No

exception is made to this rule even on crowded occasions like

the Jayanthi and the Aradhana. All these instances will show

how considerate Bhagavan was to others!

115

REMINISCENCES

I

A. Venkateswara Sarma and Smt. Sala

SRI VENKATESWARA SARMA, a native of Keelapasalai

Village, Ramnad Dt., is an old devotee of Sri Bhagavan,

who along with his wife, Smt. Sala, equally devoted to Sri

Bhagavan, lived in Sri Ramana Nagar. Both are closely related

to Sri Bhagavan.

For over a decade he studied the Kavya (poetical literature

in Sanskrit) gaining mastery in the same and also became an

adept in the science of astrology by training he had for years at

Vidyalaya in Kerala. In his early days while staying at Kandanur,

he had a remarkable experience. He saw the portrait of Sri

Bhagavan in his majestic standing posture with a penetrating

look which not merely seemed but was really felt as directed

only to him and which thrilled his whole being. This experience

provoked a great urge to have Sri Bhagavan’s darshan

immediately.

He started the very next day and arrived at Tiruvannamalai,

his luggage consisting of a panchangam (almanac) in one hand

and an umbrella in the other. That was in 1920. He climbed up

the hill to Skandashram, and recognising Sri Bhagavan who

was seated then under a nelli tree he hastened to prostrate at his

feet, spontaneously reciting in a state of ecstatic inspiration the

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first sloka of Sri Dakshinamurthi Ashtakam. “Look, look at the

visitor who has come — Subbu’s son, is it not?” So exclaimed

Sri Bhagavan, turning to his mother who was there. The mother

gave him a hearty welcome and made him feel at home.

Delighted by the stay with Sri Bhagavan that night, he was guided

to perform giripradakshina (circumambulation of Holy

Arunachala) next day. He expressed an ardent desire to stay

with Sri Bhagavan for good and pleaded that he did not want

to marry but wished to remain with him and serve him and do

pujas. The mother would have none of it, he had duties to

perform, she reminded him and an uncle’s daughter awaited

marriage with him. He was then 22 years old. Sri Bhagavan

consoled him, “What does it matter if you do puja or get married

or whether you are here or elsewhere?” And so he left!

Since then Sri Sarma was coming to Sri Bhagavan from

time to time, often staying for a month or two and benefitting

by Sri Bhagavan’s utterances and his silent influence with

devotion and piety.

Though a successful astrologer by profession, especially in

the branch of prasna (astrological forecasting on the basis of the

exact time of the client’s question), Sri Venkateswara Sarma felt

the futility of leading a bread-earning life and hence came to

Sri Ramanasramam in 1939, along with his wife, and lived with

Sri Bhagavan’s sister’s family. In 1946 they took up abode at

Adi Annamalai, four miles away from the Ashram on the

circumambulation path, after duly informing Sri Bhagavan.

They went round the hill daily and sometimes twice a day and

thus had darshan of Sri Bhagavan on the way.

Sri Sarma compiled a short history of Sri Bhagavan’s

life consisting of 120 slokas in Sanskrit, known as Ramana

Charitamrutasaram, which Sri Bhagavan graciously perused

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and corrected. He also composed songs in Tamil and

presented them to Sri Bhagavan, who used to correct them

only sparingly. Such corrections were not only grammatical

in content but also vitally enriched them with spiritual depth.

For instance, in the following verse: “Those who are caught

in the mouth of a great tiger are certain to die in this world;

but all those, caught in the glance (drishti) of the great tiger

adorning the slopes of Arunachala, known as great Ramana,

get merged with natural ease in the eternal happiness,

discarding fear of even the Lord of Death,” Sri Bhagavan

put in the word with natural ease ‘(iyal) in the place of daily’

(nidham) of Sri Sarma’s!

Since 1948, he settled with his wife and only son in

Tiruvannamalai town. The son passed away four years later.

Both parents feel they survived that shock only by

Bhagavan’s Grace. They continued to render service at the

Shrines of Sri Bhagavan and the Mother, assisting in the

daily routine — perhaps as a fulfilment of his former

sankalpa (desire) to do puja to Sri Bhagavan! He felt: “Sri

Bhagavan is ever present in my mind and heart, in jagrat

and swapna and his manifest Grace only is sustaining us in

all circumstances and at all times!”

II

M. S. Nagarajan

SRI BHAGAVAN HAD a unique method of expounding

profound truths with illustrations taken from everyday life. His

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words were never premeditated but came spontaneously, they

were also apt, as the following incident will show.

It was in 1932, I think, when I was in charge of the daily

puja at the Mother’s shrine, that a devotee known as P.W.D.

Ramaswami Iyer arranged for a special food offering of sarkarai

pongal (a kind of rice-pudding) and vadai (a small round cake of

blackgram fried in oil).They were to be offered at the time of the

ushah puja (puja conducted before day break in the month of

Margasira (December-January)). I had many things to do and

there was no one to help me. So I got up very early, at about half

past three, and after taking my bath in the Pali Tirtham, removed

the old flowers from the shrine, swept and cleaned the floor and

lit two fires, over one of which I placed the pot of rice for the

pongal and over the other the pan of oil for the vadai. I then sat

down to grind the black gram which I had soaked in water

previously. By the time the dough was ready, the oil was sufficiently

hot. I had not actually prepared vadais previously at any time.

But I took some dough and tried to spread it out on the leaf in

the form of a neat round vadai as I had seen others do, but it

would not come out properly. I tried again and again but it was

of no use. I then got annoyed and threw the dough in disgust

back into the vessel. The next moment I noticed some movement

behind me. When I turned round I saw, to my consternation,

Sri Bhagavan standing behind me and watching my efforts to

make vadai. I was naturally agitated but he said quietly, “It doesn’t

matter. You have added too much water while grinding the black

gram. Now make round balls of the dough and fry them. They

will then be bondas!” I did accordingly.

When the bondas were served to the devotees at breakfast,

as usual, Ramaswami Iyer said to me angrily, “Look here. Did I

not ask you to prepare vadai? Then why have you made bondas?”

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I was afraid to say anything and so merely looked at Sri

Bhagavan who immediately turned to Ramaswami Iyer and said,

“What does it matter? If the cakes are flat and circular they are

vadais, if spherical, bondas. The stuff is the same and the taste is

the same. Only names and forms are different. Eat the prasadam

(food offered to a deity) and don’t make a fuss.” Everyone was

astonished at the ready and apt reply of Sri Bhagavan.

Ramaswami Iyer could not contain his joy! He exclaimed,

“Wonderful, Wonderful!” Later in the day, when he saw me, he

said, “I say, you are a lucky fellow. Sri Bhagavan himself is

supporting you.”

The world consists of names and forms. These are naturally

many, but what lies behind them is one and the same. Names

and forms are not real although we think that they are. Brahman

which underlies them is real, but we forget it. What wisdom lay

in Sri Bhagavan’s words!

􀁗 􀁘

120

HOW I CAME TO THE

MAHARSHI

I

Swami Paresananda

Major General V. N. Parameswaran Pillai, O.B.E.,

retired from service as G.O.C.,Travancore-Cochin State Forces

in the year 1950. Even while in service he had a deeply

religious bent of mind and he used to visit holy places and

personages. After retirement he made a pilgrimage to all holy

places in India and to Kailas-Manasarovar.He was initiated

by Sri Sivanandaji Maharaj of Rishikesh when he visited

Trivandrum in 1950. Sri Swami Purushottamanandaji

Maharaj of Vasistha Guha gave him sannyasa diksha in 1958.

Since then he is known as Swami Paresananda. He had his

own Ashram at Kanyakumari, Neyyathinkaray and

Trivandrum.

IT WAS in the year 1936 that I had the good fortune of having

darshan of Sri Bhagavan. I had heard about him before, and

was longing to go to Tiruvannamalai but the opportunity never

came till then. This is how it came about.

I was then a Captain in the Travancore State Forces and

an A.D.C. to His Highness the Maharaja. His Highness and

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the Royal Mother had been to Madras from where they paid a

visit to Sri Ramanasramam on the counsel of the Dewan, Sir

C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, who was a devotee of Sri Ramana

Bhagavan. I came to know of this when Their Highnesses

returned to Trivandrum and was wondering whether it was not

my bad luck that I was not taken as A.D.C. on that tour. In the

meantime, one morning, my friend Sri I. S. Narayana Pillai,

the Controller of Stationery, who was a devotee of Maharshi,

informed me over the phone that he was starting for Sri

Ramanasramam the next day and asked whether I would like

to join him. It was his general practice to inform me whenever

he went to some place of pilgrimage and I had accompanied

him to many places. But this time I was not confident of getting

permission from His Highness at such short notice and I replied

that I would not be able to go with him.

Mysterious indeed are the ways of Bhagavan! A few hours

later, when I reported for duty at the Palace, His Highness said,

of his own accord, that if I also wanted to visit Sri

Ramanasramam I could go. Yes, His Highness knew very well

that I was fond of visiting religious places and saints. This sudden

and unexpected permission made me speechless for a few

seconds. I felt it was all due to Bhagavan’s grace.

Sri I. S. and I reached the Ashram the second day. My

companion was a frequent visitor, so everyone knew him. He

introduced me to the Sarvadhikari, Sri Niranjanananda Swami

who made arrangements for our stay. Then we proceeded to

the hall for Sri Bhagavan’s darshan. Bhagavan was reclining on

a couch, turning to one side. The hall was almost full with visitors

from various parts of the country and from the west. As we

entered the hall, the scene brought to my memory, slokas from

Dakshinamurti Stotra. I felt Dakshinamurti Himself was

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reclining on the couch. I. S. took me to a vantage point, sitting

where we could see the Maharshi without any obstruction.

Bhagavan noticed us. After a while he sat up and beckoned me.

We did not know whom he was summoning and, as I was a

stranger, my companion thought he was being called and he

got up. Bhagavan signalled ‘ No ‘. Others enquired whether

this or that person was meant by pointing to some persons

sitting nearby but the answer was in the negative.

At last I was pointed out and Maharshi nodded assent.

Everybody was surprised and became curious about me. I was

also surprised. I approached him immediately, placed the flowers

and fruits I had brought, and prostrated before him. He

beckoned me to come nearer and gazed at me for a while and

smiled. Then he told his attendant “Bring that book.” It was

brought and Maharshi presented it to me. It was a Malayalam

translation of Maharshi’s Tamil work, Gitasaram. I was

overwhelmed with joy and devotion. After a few seconds

Maharshi took the book from me, made some corrections in

his own hand and then handed it back to me touching my

hand, I considered myself highly blessed to receive Maharshi’s

Grace in this manner.

Then it was time for the midday meal. We were also invited;

so we entered the dining hall. Maharshi asked me to sit in the

opposite row, just facing him and I did so. While eating, he

enquired tenderly,“How is the preparation?” and so on. I replied

that everything was very nice. Again he said,“Take enough rice,

curry, etc. Eat slowly”, and so on, and asked the servers to serve

me more curry etc. Throughout he was talking to me only in

the dining hall and this made others wonder who this favoured

one might be. As for me, I had had various such experiences

before and I felt that it was all due to some merit accumulated

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in past lives. “Omnipresent and Omniscient as he is, Maharshi

understands the heart of every one”, this belief of mine was

confirmed.

My friend I. S. was a regular visitor to the Ashram but

Maharshi had never spoken to him. When I received such

favours from him, it was natural for I. S. to feel that there was

something lacking in him. Maharshi could easily understand

this. The same day he presented a book to I. S. also and made

him feel deeply gratified.

More than thirty-seven years have elapsed but the whole thing

is still green in my memory. And the book that Maharshi gave me,

corrected in his own hand, is still with meI keep it as a treasure.

II

Sunyata

Sunya Baba — Emmanual Sorensen in his

purvashrama — refers to himself always in the third person

in the article.

IT WAS IN THE YEAR 1929 that Poet Rabindranath Tagore

and his secretaries (Arya Nikam and Amiya Chakravarti) met

him and I befriended him at Dartington Hall in Devonshire,

England. And it was the Poet’s casual invitation to the

simple,‘uneducated’ gardener to come to Bharat ‘to teach Silence’

to the ebullient Bengalis, which called him here. He discerned

in the simpleton’s Being a quality of Sunya-Santi-Silence and

intuitive awareness which was felt to be congenial and

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appreciated in India. The invitation gave the sadhu-type the

needed push or pull, to venture forth simply and solitarily into

India, and the proposed 3 or 4 months’ stay stretched into 45

years of Himalayan ananda-grace.The solitary pilgrim in

Consciousness had come ‘ Home’. In India he read the Vedas,

the Upanishads and the writings of genuine Masters.

He heard of Sri Ramana Maharshi while in Kashmir and

Tibet from Lamas, and later from Paul Brunton and Dr. W. Y.

EvansWentz. After spending several years in the Himalayas and

other sanctuaries, he came to Sri Ramana Maharshi in the year

1936 for the first time and was introduced to the Maharshi by

Paul Brunton. He also came three times or more later at a few

years’ intervals. He had no problem, no disease, and no quest

and so asked no questions. Maharshi, however, did ask him

some questions which he has now forgotten.

But the first darshan of the Maharshi remains an

unforgettable experience, especially Sri Ramana’s casual, as it

were, statement ‘ We are always aware’; and this made a most

powerful impact on him. It resounded in his consciousness

like a chime and continued to linger in his memory like a

mantra or an echo of Sri Arunachala or Dakshinamurti. He

also remembers some passages mentioned from the Bible: the

phrase, ‘I AM THAT I AM’, ‘Be Still and know that I am

God’, ‘Know ye not that you are Gods?’ and the words Jesus

exchanged with Nicodemus.

He found Ramana Maharshi’s was pure advaita-experience,

and his chief language, radiant Silence, to which only mature

souls familiar with solitude could easily respond. When Ramana

was questioned by officious officials and was later asked if it had

tired him, he said: “No; I did not use my mind”. He was

mind-free and ego-free.

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As for Sunya, there was from babyhood no sense of guilt,

no sin-complex and no ego-pitiful grievance against What Is.

Very little friction, imposition or conditioning, and so no

ego-importance. Affectionate detachment from forms and

things, is natural in the conscious awareness that there is no real

division, no real detachment in the Reality we ever are, ego-free

and death-free. There is no ambition to ‘become’ this or that

and no reaching out for power or self-possessions, security. Yet,

there is intuitive Light-awareness, a flair for essence, wholeness

and esoteric grace-awareness; a secure contentment in the

fundamental all-Rightness of things and happenings as Siva Lila,

Self-interplay.

III

Satya Narayan Tandon

IT WAS AT THE END OF 1944 that I first heard about

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. I was sitting with a religious

teacher, when a visitor said: “Maharshi is Mount Everest and

others mere hillocks.” Since then I had a persistent urge to have

darshan of Sri Bhagavan.

In the summer of 1946, when I was sitting in the presence

of Paramsant Mahatma Raghuber Dayal, a Sufi saint, a

fellow-devotee who had been to Tiruvannamalai began to speak

about Sri Bhagavan, the Ashram and his experiences during his

stay there. Chachaji, (as we used to call the saint) who had

listened attentively to his devotee’s narration, spoke very highly

about Sri Bhagavan. This only strengthened my desire to have

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his darshan. But I did not get the opportunity for it — one

hindrance or another always came in my way.

Early in April 1950, when I was planning to go to

Arunachala, my younger brother, Sri Jagatnarayan, told me that

he along with a friend was to leave for Tiruvannamalai the same

evening. To me this was a bolt from the blue, as we both could

not leave the station simultaneously. I could not speak out my

mind, and he left for Tiruvannamalai. He was fortunate to have

Sri Bhagavan’s darshan — standing in a queue. He stayed there

for a few days and on the return journey somewhere near

Nagpur, got the information that Sri Bhagavan had shed the

body.

My younger brother again went to Sri Ramanasramam in

1956. On hearing from him about the Ashram and his

experiences there, the longing to visit the Shrine was aroused

afresh.

It was late in 1957 at the insistence of my wife, that my

longing to visit the shrine of Sri Ramana Maharshi was fulfilled.

Since 1957, Sri Bhagavan has been graciously pleased to

call us to his Shrine of Grace practically every year.

An accident that occurred at Allahabad Railway station on

the morning of January 23, 1972 is worth recording.

With my younger son, his wife and one of my grandsons,

I was coming back to Kanpur from Allahabad by Howrah-Kalka

Mail. After locating our berths, I was talking on the platform

with people who had come to see us off. I could not hear the

whistle of the electric engine, and the train began to move. I

caught hold of the handle of the compartment to get into it.

But I lost the grip and fell on the track. In the meantime the

train had gathered momentum. When my son, who was at the

other door of the compartment, enquired about me, a

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fellow-passenger told him that he saw an old man falling down

while trying to get into the compartment. My son immediately

pulled the chain, but the train stopped only two furlongs away.

As soon as I fell on the track, I saw the face of Sri Bhagavan

repeating like a mantra, “Don’t lift the head.” Where I was on

the track I cannot say. But I saw the wheels moving faster and

faster.

When the entire train had moved beyond the place where

I was, I got up though my head and left eye-brow were badly

wounded, so much so that my woollen coat had become

drenched. The guard who was in charge of the train said that

eight bogeys had passed over me and that it was a miracle that I

had escaped death. It was all his benign Grace that he saved this

body, for what purpose is known to him only. For the first few

days after the wounds had been stitched and I was in great agony

and pain, I was kept under sedation but I felt Sri Bhagavan

sitting by my side and at times moving his hands over the wounds

that had been stitched.

My cap and spectacles that had fallen on the track were all

received by my people without any damage whatsoever. The

same glasses and the same frame I used for years thereafter.

May this head remain at his Lotus feet for the rest of my

days on earth.

􀁗 􀁘

AWARENESS ABSOLUTE

Visvanatha Swami

IT WAS AT Skandasramam on Arunachala that I first met

Bhagavan Ramana (in January 1921). He was standing on

the open space in front of the Ashram building facing the

entrance as I approached. The very sight of him was thrilling;

something very subtle, seemingly with its centre in that body,

shone forth unlimited engulfing everything else. Needless to

say I felt swallowed up by it. I stayed for a week with Bhagavan

in that atmosphere of utter purity and serenity. I heard from

him how he came to Arunachala, irresistibly attracted and swept

off his feet by a tremendous benevolent force; how he was one

with it deep down within his heart almost oblivious of his body

and surroundings; and how only later on he gradually regained

the use of his senses and mind and was able to look about and

commune with others when they approached him.

Subsequently too, when I had come to Bhagavan for good,

the effect of his proximity continued the same way and I may

say that there was no necessity for any sadhana in particular on

my part. Along with a few other inmates I had my share in the

work of the Ashram in the elevating company of Bhagavan and

I studied his few works, devotional and philosophical, and heard

his replies to various questions put by visitors. But the most

important thing was the mere Presence, the spiritually uplifting

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company of Bhagavan. As Bhagavan says in the Supplement to

the Reality in Forty Verses: “If one associates with Sages, where is

the need for any other rigorous sadhana? No one looks for a

fan when there is the pleasant southern breeze.”

The climax of my spiritual experience in the proximity

of Bhagavan was during his ‘last’ moments. As I stood in that

small room along with a very few others, everything became

shadow enveloped by one indivisible Pure Awareness, the one

and only ever-present Reality. And so there was not the least

feeling of any separation from Bhagavan or the least vestige

of sorrow on that account. Not only that, there was a positive

ecstasy and elation of spirit which is nothing but the Natural

State of the Self.

All those who approached Bhagavan with spiritual

earnestness have had this experience of direct contact with the

Divine at the very first sight of Bhagavan. Ganapati Muni, the

great poet and tapaswin, saw an adept (a Siddha Purusha, a

Perfect Being) in Bhagavan, the moment he first beheld him by

chance on the Hill in the Ashram of Jataiswami. The scholar

became a disciple. Venkataramanier of Satyamangalam saw

Bhagavan as a clear manifestation of the all-pervading Supreme

Self and sang his five superb Hymns in Praise of Ramana.

Humphreys saw Bhagavan as a glowing centre of Divine

Radiance. Achyuta Dasa, Narayana Guru and so many others

seeing Bhagavan recognised his unique spiritual greatness.

Pascaline Mallet, a French lady, who stayed with Bhagavan for a

few months sang in a poem in praise of Bhagavan: “One Light,

One Life, One Love, shining through Thee, we see.” And Grant

Duff (Douglas Ainslee), the cultured scholar and poet, says in

his preface to Bhagavan’s Five Hymns to Arunachala: “I was in

direct contact with one who had passed beyond the boundaries

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of the senses and was merged in the Absolute Self. I do not

need any proof of the divinity of Ramana Maharshi, just as I do

not need any to prove the existence of the Sun.”

What is the secret behind the common experience of

Divine Glory which so many intelligent devotees have had in

the presence of Bhagavan? Here is the answer given by Ganapati

Muni in his remarkable hymn of Forty Verses in Praise of

Bhagavan: “Bow down to the holy Guru Ramana who reaching

the hidden source of the ego within has effaced all differentiation

and shines forth as the One Self of all beings with various mental

propensities and who is resplendent as the One Reality

transcending the body and the entire world-manifestation.” “I

bow to Sri Ramana, the Great Teacher, the remover of all sorrow,

who established in the Eternal Abode of Pure Awareness dispels

the ignorance of earnest seekers, who though seeing and moving

within the world stands as the Supreme Being transcending it.”

Whatever is seen is non-self and the Seer alone is the

unchanging Self. When we take to Self-enquiry holding on to

this fundamental principle of Vedanta, the physical body, the

life-current operating in it and the mind are eliminated as

non-self. Even the intellect, the highest known principle in man

with its reasoning faculty, has to be discarded as non-self as it is

only the faculty of one behind it, claiming it as his. Who is he?

He cannot stand by himself and so he disappears. What then

remains as the source of the elusive I-sense in us is the ultimate

Self, which is ever there as the Ground of all that appears and

disappears, of all perception in the waking and dream states

and non-perception of anything in deep sleep.

Though the truth of the ultimate Self is explained within a

few steps like this, the enveloping power of a mysterious force

of darkness known as avarana in Vedanta is such that it gets

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eradicated only after a vigilant self-enquiry constantly carried

on. The inherent tendencies (vasanas) of the mind based on a

phantom ego get annihilated only after a continuous earnest

attempt to abide at the Heart, the Source. So, Sankara says in

his Vivekachudamani that liberation (mukti) is nothing but the

complete eradication of the ego with all its vasanas. Bhagavan

says in his song on Atma Vidya that Grace is needed for the

dawn of jnana as well as earnest aspiration and devotion on the

part of the seeker to deserve it. When earnest effort and Grace

meet, then there is the achievement of the highest spiritual

aspiration of man, viz., spontaneous inherence in the

ever-present Self.                                               

The Self is Pure Awareness, unalloyed Awareness itself,

whereas the mind is awareness of this and that. The mind cannot

stand for a moment without an object, because it is by its very

nature a subject-object phenomenon. It disappears when it is

divested of objects, unable to stand by itself. And there, the

Self, the one indivisible absolute Awareness shines for ever as

stated in Sri Ramana Gita (Ch. vii, v.5): “When the ego which

is but a phantom of the Self totally disappears, what remains is

the real Self alone in all its plenitude and perfection.” This is

jnana and this is mukti (liberation).

For one established in it thus, the subject-object phenomena

may appear and disappear but he will remain for ever unsullied

as Pure Awareness, since nothing has any existence apart from

it. This is known as Tanmaya Nishta. Being the Self is Awareness

of the Self.

From a relative standpoint, the proximity of such a Sage,

normally established in the Self under all circumstances of life,

serves as an eye-opener for those in the clutches of delusion and

as an invaluable aid supporting them in their spiritual quest.

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The operation of the Spiritual Force of such enlightened Ones

is not limited to the lifetime of their physical body. It continues

for ever and those who think of them, surrender themselves to

them, study their life and teachings and try to follow them do

get into the ambit of their Grace, non-different from Supreme

Divine Grace. This is the experience of so many spiritual

aspirants who had not met Bhagavan during his lifetime but

devoted themselves to him on hearing of him or coming to

know of him somehow or other. The enlightened Ones who

are themselves timeless belong to all time and by their very

nature shed light on the path of seekers and help them in ever

so many ways.

Ultimately one sees that one has no existence apart from

Pure Awareness, that there is no world apart from it and that

there is no other God than Pure Awareness. Blissful Awareness

is the sole Reality. Manifestation as the Many is nothing but its

Lila. Every one, in manifestation, has to play his part knowing

at heart that it is all nothing but Lila, the only Reality being

Absolute Blissful Awareness.

􀁗 􀁘

133

SRI BHAGAVAN’S

BODILY HEALTH

K. Lakshmana Sarma

AN INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCE of Bhagavan’s state

as a jivan mukta, permanently established in the egoless

State, was that he could not claim any rights, even the right to

choose what shall be done or not done to his body, because

from his point of view, that body was not his. Also, he was so

full of compassion, that he could not bear to hurt anyone’s

feelings. Anyone that came to him offering edibles or medicine,

was sure of its being accepted, though he did not want it. Once

he said, “Nature cure is right. But....” And he did not complete

the sentence.

Yet he showed his real view of drugs by implication. When

a quantity of a drug had to be taken for a certain period, he

would take only one dose and would never take a second; that

is, he would not follow the prescription as one who believed in

the goodness of the drug would do, so as to benefit by it.

The same was the case when an operation was proposed.

He submitted to the operation only to please the person who

wanted to do him good.

On the last occasion, when a number of doctors and

surgeons who came from Madras wanted to operate on him to

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remove the cancer he was having, he first very gently suggested

that it was not necessary. He did that because he knew the future,

that the end was near. The doctors did not take the hint. They

insisted on operating and hence Sri Bhagavan submitted to the

operation without an anaesthetic. The operation lasted for nearly

three hours and produced a severe shock, from which the body

never recovered.

When all these medical efforts had failed, a number of

devotees came to him and prayed to him to use his spiritual

powers to heal the disease. Bhagavan replied, “I did not want

any treatment. It was you that wanted it.” After a brief pause he

added, “In two more days it will become all right”. What he

meant was that the end would come then. And it came exactly

as he said.

􀁗 􀁘

135

TREATMENT TO SRI

BHAGAVAN - AN ACCOUNT

Dr. Shankar Rao

Dr.Shankar Rao, a retired D. M. O., who was attending

on Sri Maharshi almost from the start of his illness, details in

this article an intimate and vivid picture of the Maharshi’s

ailment and the way he bore with it.

TO HAVE SERVED Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi as a

doctor for over a year is no ordinary privilege and no

ordinary experience. It was an education of the highest type, a

training of a unique character. It provided me with vivid glimpses

into the human as well as the superhuman and godlike

personality of Sri Maharshi.

For one whole year I watched the ailment sapping the

strength and vitality of the physical frame of Sri Maharshi with

cruel success. It failed to affect his detachment and composure

and I found for the first time that this disease with its brood of

pain and suffering had somehow met with an ignominious defeat.

This will be borne out in the following account of the history

of the ailment which culminated in the Maharshi shaking off

the mortal sheath.

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I first came to Sri Ramanashram in the second week of

December, 1948. At that time Sri Bhagavan had a small nodule

under the skin behind the elbow about the size of a split pea.

When I asked him about it he said that it might have been due

to a fall he had some three months back. On pressing, it used to

be painful. Within a month it grew to the size of a small marble.

Sri Bhagavan used to feel pain whenever he put his elbow on

any hard surface and so I suggested its removal. It was removed

on 9th February 1949. The wound completely healed up during

the course of a week.

In the first week of March, it was again noticed to be

growing. About the middle of March, Dr. Raghavachari of

Madras came with his assistants and removed it completely,

together with a good deal of surrounding tissues and also the

skin over it. A microscopic examination revealed that it was a

sarcoma.

Sarcoma is a malignant tumour of the flesh which occurs

generally in young people, while older ones get cancers which

are growths from the skin or mucous membranes. These

malignant tumours are not enclosed in sheaths or capsules like

simple tumours. Even small microscopic cells anywhere in the

tissues surrounding the tumour could start to grow into another

tumour. Some cells may be carried through the blood vessels to

other parts of the body and produce similar secondary tumours.

The wound, after the second operation, did not heal and

after a few days, a new growth appeared and this started bleeding

profusely. Doctors and radiologists came from Madras and

applied radium to afford temporary relief. They advised that

amputation of the limb, a couple of inches above the tumour

alone could cure the disease. The consensus of opinion amongst

the devotees of Sri Bhagavan was against amputation. Sri

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Bhagavan also said that it was not necessary. The idea of

amputation was given up.

The tumour growth subsided a little as a result of radium

treatment but in July 1949 it again began to grow. Some of the

devotees wished that ayurvedic treatment should be tried and a

local ayurvedic physician started treatment. Sri Bhagavan’s

health deteriorated, sepsis set in and the tumour continued to

grow very rapidly.

Surgeons from Madras were again requested to come. They

advised an operation as the only remedy and the tumour together

with the white area of tissues all around were removed with a

diathermic knife. Radium was then applied. This was on 14th

August.

The result appeared to be very favourable in as much as

no tumour growth appeared for three months and even scrapings

taken from the raw surface of the wound were reported to be

negative. Early in December 1949 however, there was a

suspicion of a small nodule appearing in the middle of the arm,

several inches away from the site of the original tumour growth.

Then again doctors from Madras came and having diagnosed it

as a secondary growth and that too a very small one, they

expected to remove it easily.

On 19th December the growth was operated on but when

the deeper tissues were cut into, for removing the tumour, it

was found that the growth had spread deep into the muscles.

A much larger operation became necessary and in spite of

this, the surgeons felt that the chances of recurrence could

not be ruled out.

As the surgeons had given up hope of a cure, homeopathy

was tried. By about the middle of February, the tumour again

started growing on the upper end of the operation wound and

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as the homeopath who was treating Sri Bhagavan was unable to

prevent recurrence, an ayurvedic physician from Malabar was

sent for and he started treatment. This too having been

unsuccessful, Kaviraj Jogendranath Sastry from Calcutta was

invited by one of the devotees to treat Sri Bhagavan. During all

this period the general health of Sri Bhagavan continued to

deteriorate and the tumour growth increased rapidly.

By about the 2nd of April I felt that the end was near. On

the night of Sunday the 9th of April the pulse became very

feeble and gradual deterioration of the functions of the heart

brought about exhaustion. Sri Bhagavan who, until that day,

had been able to walk to the adjoining bathroom could not do

so and was confined to bed.

Since February the blood pressure of Sri Bhagavan started

dropping. A fortnight before the end it was 88/48, the lowest

point reached being 66/36. The expected end came at 8.47 pm

on 14th April.

Sri Bhagavan’s attitude towards his body was one of complete

detachment. Disease and pain left no impression on his mind. If

he allowed himself to be treated for the ailment, it was more

because his devotees wanted it than because he desired relief. His

attitude was always supreme indifference to bodily ailments.

So he was an ideal patient implicitly undergoing any

treatment that was decided upon by his devotees. Whenever he

allowed any change in treatment his only concern was that there

should be an agreement amongst his devotees about which

particular type of treatment should be given a trial. As far as he

personally was concerned, he did not care.

To everyone who was by his side, the way in which he

bore with pain, which was at times of an extremely excruciating

nature, without even showing the signs of suffering on his face,

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was a wonder. On one occasion during the later stages of the

ailment when he was having shooting pains down his limb, a

gentlemen who had come for his darshan bowed down and said

that he was leaving Tiruvannamalai. Sri Bhagavan gave him his

usual gracious look and smile as if there was nothing wrong

with him at the time. And it was only after the gentleman left

that Sri Bhagavan admitted that the pain was severe and allowed

himself to be treated for it.

The tumour in the later stages of his illness grew to such

proportions that even medical men who were used to those

sights were shocked when they saw it. When it was being dressed,

Sri Bhagavan used to look at it and often make jokes about it.

He even helped the doctors to adjust the bandage.

On one occasion when the skin around the tumour was

being cleaned with rectified spirit, some of it bathed the rest of

the arm and fell on the body also. Sri Bhagavan jokingly said

that he was having a spirit bath and quoted the last stanza of

Atma Bodha by Sri Shankaracharya. It was not only a joke but

also carried with it a profound spiritual teaching.

One night when there was heavy bleeding from the tumour

as it was being dressed, two or three bhaktas couldn’t conceal

their emotion. He looked at them and said, “Where will l go?

And where can I go?” And whenever he said ‘I’, with emphasis,

he always meant the Atman.

Some time ago when treating the tumour it was suggested

that Sri Bhagavan should have a sun bath and the tumour was

exposed to the sun for a few minutes. To prevent flies, some

incense was put in an oven and placed just below the chair

upon which he sat. Sri Bhagavan jokingly said that we were

offering worship to the tumour to go away by burning incense

and waving lights (dhoopam and deepam) before it.

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One of my friends took photographs of Sri Bhagavan one

afternoon. During the night when we both went together and

I was dressing the wound, Sri Bhagavan referred to the photos

and gave a profound spiritual discourse using the science of

photography as an illustration. Said Sri Bhagavan,

“When taking a picture the silver salts are coated over a

film in the dark and when the film is exposed in the camera,

you get an impression caused by light outside. If the film is

exposed to light before you put it in the camera there can be no

impression on it. So is it with our jiva. When it is still in darkness,

impression can be made on it by the little light that leaks in.

But when the light of knowledge has already flooded it, there is

no impression of external objects to be obtained.” In a similar

fashion, he used to entertain his medical attendants with jokes

interspersed with profound spiritual education.

Throughout the period of illness, his desire not to embarrass

his medical attendants in whatever system of medicine they

belonged, resulted in a perfect code of medical etiquette that could

not be excelled. When he was having treatment of a particular

system of medicine such as ayurveda or homeopathy, if any one

suggested a remedy for the intense pain he was having, he would

always refer him to the doctor that was in attendance and ask him

to get his consent. On one occasion when the surgeons who operated

on him had confessed that nothing short of an amputation could

cure Sri Bhagavan, a devotee of many years’ standing, brought an

eminent physician of another system of medicine. This gentleman

saw Sri Bhagavan and had a talk with him. Sri Bhagavan received

him with his usual gracious smile and the new physician believed

that Sri Bhagavan wished him to treat him.

It was characteristic of Sri Bhagavan — and this was

observed by many of his devotees — that when each individual

went to him, he returned with a feeling that the Master had

poured his grace on him alone and that he was the most loved

amongst his devotees! I knew this and therefore took this

physician to Sri Bhagavan and asked him to obtain his consent

for the treatment. Sri Bhagavan smiled at this and said, “Do

you know doctor so and so who is now treating me? Have you

had a talk with him and what did he say?” The gentleman was

nonplussed and had to go.

To watch Sri Bhagavan and listen even to his day-to-day

talk was an education to those who were near him. There was

no need to read books on religion or philosophy. His whole

philosophy and the philosophy of ages were in Sri Bhagavan’s

life. For his life was an exposition of the highest philosophy. He

did not lecture. He did not write books for the edification of

learned scholars outside but by living the life of perfection, he

gave to those that came in contact with him, a greater education

than any books could provide. With the passing of the greatest

spiritual personality of modern times, the world has lost a living

teacher, a guru in its highest sense.

􀁗 􀁘

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THE END WAS PEACEFUL

Eye-witness Account of a

Medical Officer Who

Attended on Sri Maharshi

Lt. Col. P.V. Karamchandani

How Shri Maharshi responded with spontaneous

quickness to sincere requests and prayers, even during his last

moments, is here detailed by a reputed physician who skethes

the sombre yet touchingly majestic setting of the Master’s

mahanirvana.

THE EXTRAORDINARY PRIVILEGE of attending on

Bhagavan Sri Maharshi during the last two months came to

me rather unexpectedly and without any planning on my part.

About fifteen years ago while I was working in Trichy, a

friend from North India wrote to me asking particulars about

Tiruvannamalai and Sri Ramana Maharshi. I wrote back saying

that I had neither seen nor heard about the town and the sage

and that I was interested in neither.

In December last year I was posted to North Arcot and

very soon after, a medical officer came to me, invited me to visit

the hospital at Tiruvannamalai and also added that the occasion

could be availed of to see Sri Ramana Maharshi. Though the

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casual mention of Tiruvannamalai evoked memories of my

friend’s query, I had no impelling urge to go to the district town.

Official work however, took me to Tiruvannamalai after

some months. When my inspection work was over, it was

suggested to me that I could pay a visit to the Ashram. I agreed.

I went to the Ashram and there saw Sri Bhagavan.

Before I saw Sri Maharshi, I had been told that he was

four times operated on, for sarcoma. When I examined him, I

found a small ulcer in his arm above the elbow. At the upper

end of the ulcer there was a swelling. I couldn’t be certain as to

whether this was the tumour growth coming up again after the

operation or whether it was ordinary inflammation. I suggested

penicillin to eliminate this doubt. Penicillin was not given and

in course of time it proved to be a tumour growth.

I was called again to Tiruvannamalai only after six weeks.

When I saw Sri Bhagavan this time, I found a big growth almost

covering the upper left arm except for a two inch space in front.

This growth was bleeding and losing serum, thereby directly

depleting the system of bodily fluids. Added to this there was

pain, which was exhausting the body. More than haemorrhage

and loss of serum, pain was the distressing feature.

The variety of tumour that Sri Bhagavan had was spindle

shaped sarcoma, probably arising from the sheath of the ulnar

nerve. This is a very painful tumour with its speciality of shooting

pain. In medical language we call it lacinating pain but Sri

Bhagavan described it as something like insects creeping up and

down the arm! He bore with this pain as though the body did

not belong to him. Whenever I asked him whether there was

pain, Sri Bhagavan said that it was nothing.

Within this period I came again and found the tumour

furiously growing, draining the system fast and also arousing

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some sensation of pain in the impregnable and imperturbable

personality of Sri Bhagavan. I could only illustrate this by one

tiny incident. A few days before Sri Bhagavan’s departure

someone touched the cloth on the tumour and there appeared

an expression of pain on his face. The attendant who touched

the cloth said that he touched only the cloth on the tumour and

not the tumour itself. To which Sri Bhagavan replied that the

cloth bore the weight of mountains!

I came to see Sri Bhagavan at about midnight on the 13th

instant. I found him resting with closed eyes. When he opened

them, he asked all the attendants to clear out of the room. He

repeated this half a dozen times and this was interpreted as

delirium. But I examined him and found him to be fully conscious

and not at all delirious. I asked the attendants to obey Sri

Bhagavan’s instructions by going out of the room. Throughout

the night I sat with him. There was respiratory embarrassment

(Cheyne Stoke breathing as we call it). Pain was very intense

because even the least movement brought forth evidence of pain.

I left in the morning and came back in the evening, just

two hours before Sri Bhagavan’s last breath. This privilege of

being by his side at that time was something which I prayed for

but which I little expected. When I entered his room, Sri

Bhagavan’s eyes were closed. He was propped up on his bed and

breathing was very hard. The lips were parched and I gave him

some drops of water. I thought that a little fruit juice would be

better. I asked him, “Bhagavan, shall I give you some orange

juice?” I repeated the question twice and each time Sri Bhagavan

shook his head to mean ‘no’.

Then a strange thing happened. I stood beside him

prayerfully repeating the question within my mind. Suddenly,

Sri Maharshi nodded his head to mean ‘yes’ and opened his

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mouth. I gave him three teaspoons of juice. Each time he opened

his mouth and swallowed the juice. This was the last nourishment

that Sri Bhagavan had. This was at about 7.45 pm.

At ten minutes to eight, Sri Maharshi’s pulse was still

perceptible. A big crowd of devotees was sorrowfully waiting

outside expecting and fearing that the last breath would be taken

at any minute. I felt that it was not a question of minutes and

to relieve the prevailing tension, a bulletin was issued to the

effect that there was no immediate danger to life. This relieved

the assembled devotees a little. At twenty five minutes to nine,

the pulse was still perceptible and the breathing was very hard

and laborious. It was distressing beyond words to see that mighty

personality suffering such pains. I asked within myself why such

a great soul should undergo such agonies. Had he taken on

himself the karma of others? If he should suffer such pains what

about others? Could not Sri Bhagavan relieve himself of the

pain? Thoughts like these weighed in my mind as I stood

watching Sri Bhagavan.

As though to provide an answer to my suffering, the picture

changed and changed suddenly. The pulse disappeared and breathing

became slow and easy, a very unusual feature at such a time and

stage. The breathing became slower and slower till it completely

stopped at thirteen to nine. The last breath was as easy and slow as

any other previous breath. We were able to decide the last breath

only from the fact that there were no breaths after. The jerk, the

struggle and the gasps that usually announce the last breath in the

case of ordinary people were not there in the case of Sri Bhagavan.

And so slowly and smoothly Sri Bhagavan secured his

release from his physical encasement. That was the end.

No. How could that be? Sri Bhagavan has no beginning

and no end.

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ARADHANA DAY

I

Major Chadwick

(These articles were written to commemorate Bhagavan’s

third Aradhana)

ON MAY 11TH the Ashram celebrates Sri Bhagavan’s third

Aradhana, when one will be carried back to that momentous

night three years ago when he passed. One can still see the tense

crowds seated in rows under the veranda of the new hall, waiting,

waiting, waiting till the last breath should be breathed and the

one they all loved so much should once and for all relinquish his

body. Most of us felt it would be a happy release. We prayed he

might be spared any further suffering. The sickness and pain had

been so long drawn out, it was an agony to watch the loved one

being slowly wasted away by the malignant disease.

Doubtless he was a jnani and was beyond all suffering, he

was dwelling in the bliss of the Self, but suffering there undoubtedly

was, though he himself would have asked, “To whom is the

suffering?” It is a mystery beyond my comprehension. Vaguely, I

sense that if one is liberated, one is free from all pain as the Self is

all bliss. Behind even suffering there must be a special bliss for

such. It is only a surface appearance, though very real and painful

for the onlooker.

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Swami Ramathirtha used to say that when he had high

fever he experienced the most ecstatic bliss during meditation,

more so than when he was in normal health. At first people felt

lost, they had relied too much on the personal form, though

Bhagavan himself had repeatedly warned them, “You attach too

much importance to this body.”

Still it was only natural that this body should be missed,

although as time went on, the loss became gradually less keen.

His presence was felt so strongly in the Ashram, and daily the

feeling of this actual presence grew. A visitor remarked to me

lately, “One does not miss the presence of Bhagavan in the

Ashram, he is there just as he was before.” And this is true. He is

there and he is surely working and the Ashram will grow in

strength and renown as time goes on. There have been dark

days since that night three years ago,but those days are now

past. The Ashram takes on a new life. There is a new feeling in

the air and the stagnation is over. The school has been revived

and pujas are performed so carefully and enthusiastically that

the whole place rings with the vibrations thus set up.

I went away never to return, but he brought me back. And

now I thank him every day that I have been allowed to take part

in this renaissance. It is thrilling to the core to feel it happening.

One should have known that it was bound to be like this all the

time. How could anything happen to the place he had sanctified

with his presence for so long? The whole of India was blessed by

his life, how much more so the place in which he made his home.

I have one piece of advice to offer to one and all. Do not

believe the stories you hear about Sri Ramanasramam because

you can always test the truth of such tales for yourself without

relying on hearsay. It is very easy. Come and see for yourself.

You will not be disappointed.

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II

Mouni Sadhu

THREE YEARS AGO the sad news of the departure from the

physical body of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi came to me

and his other devotees scattered throughout the world. I do not

wish to praise or compare the great Being at whose feet the

Almighty allowed me to abide.

For how could we, from our lower level of consciousness,

describe exactly this Being whose mission was to give us

something of his infinite light? And for adequate assessing of

his greatness, one must at least be on the same level of spiritual

glory. All that I can do is try to convey, what I found in my

own heart, when I received news of his departure.

The light from those luminous eyes of Sri Bhagavan, was

for ever engraved on my memory when leaving the Ashram.

And now the account of his death lies before me. Does it mean

that those eyes cannot any more radiate their silent initiation?

That the light of eternity has been really extinguished? That

would be ridiculous, I know this light is not a material one,

though it was conveyed through a material body. This is a

mystery but not a paradox. I found in my heart no urge to

discover that mystery through the mind. I feel that the fact was

so, even though unexplainable by the thinking process. So his

death did not deprive me of his reality.

I was sitting quietly, as in preparation for meditation, but

this time, the usual process was changed. Perhaps he saw that

the human heart, not yet free from all its weaknesses, needs

sometimes some consolation. And then, instead of a void, the

well known and beloved picture arose before me.

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There were most mysterious and inspiring evenings at the

Ashram, when the beautiful hymn “In praise of the Lord of the

Universe” (Five hymns on Arunachala) was sung in the hall. Sri

Bhagavan evidently loved the hymn, for there would appear a

peculiar expression of other than human beatitude and delight

on his face. I felt that the hearts of those who were present in

that blissful hour of evening contemplation were deeply attuned

to it. Perhaps his penetrating inner sight saw the beneficial process

in it, and his silent blessing was the answer. How can we fathom

what is unfathomable? And now I experienced once again, as

with all those others who were present, the same beautiful melody

heard before with my outer ears. It was as if I reviewed a film.

There was no sadness any more. Could it be otherwise? The

true legacy of the Master could never be less than joy this sublime

and silent joy of Being, untroubled by the waves of the

surrounding illusory world or maya. This was his peace which

he bequeathed to us.

Later came letters from devotees from other continents.

My distant friends gave their own accounts of how the tragic

news affected them. They tried their best to console

themselves and me, saying that the physical departure of the

Master could not break our spiritual link with him. And yet

the ink in the last paragraphs of such letters was often blurred

as from fallen tears.

It is said that love was the force that created the Universe.

Perhaps it is. But to me the force of such unselfish love as his, is

just that power that purifies our hearts, when all other methods

prove useless. No occult training nor any other method can

give the disciple the true peace which the Master gives.

Sri Maharshi was a centre of love such as this, to his

disciples. He left us his love and where else in the world could

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be found a purifying power such as this to bring peace to our

hearts?

The anniversaries of the mahasamadhi of Sri Bhagavan

will come one after another and one year will see the last one

for me on this earth. But at the last moment he will be with me,

as with every one of you who knew him, if you keep to the end,

his legacy of love.

(Continued  ...)

My humble salutations to the lotus feet of Bhagavan Sree Ramana Maharshi
and also gratitude to Bhagavan’s great devotees   for the collection)