BHAGAWAN'S DEVOTEE --- MASTAN 2

Mastan was very humble. Bhagavan himself said that except for Kunju Swami and Viswanatha Swami, the other devotees never knew who Mastan was. He preferred to remain unobserved. 

Before his death, Mastan was bedridden for about a week. Akhilandamma who was taking care of him says, “During those days he would say, ‘There Nandi [Siva’s bull] is descending. He is affectionately licking all over my body. Look, Siva’s ganas are dancing here. See! They are calling me to come to their world. Look at those lotus ponds where celestial swans are swimming.’ We thought that this was delirium. 

But on the last day he suddenly got up from his bed and stood up, looking as if someone, face to face, was calling him. Then, in great excitement, he exclaimed, ‘Mother Apeetakuchama [name of consort of Siva in Arunachaleswara Temple], you have yourself come to escort me?’ The next moment he fell down dead.” Akhilandamma adds, “When Bhagavan learnt about Mastan’s passing away, he sent Kunju Swami to our village with full instructions on how to make samadhi for Mastan. He drew up a plan of the dimensions of samadhi and sent it along with Kunju Swami. He also sent enough vibhuti and camphor from the Ashram to take care of all the necessary rituals. The funds for the samadhi were provided by Simhakutti Nayanar, a local Jain. 

A nearby Siva temple lent its chapram so that the body could be taken in procession through the local villages prior to its burial. (Chapram is a fourwheeled trolley that temples use to parade deities through the streets.) At each place the chapram visited, people joined the funeral and helped to push it. In the years that followed his samadhi, the family affairs and business of people who had helped Mastan prospered. So, people started coming to his samadhi to ask for blessings. 

Sambandan, a disciple of Mastan, who wrote about 200 verses in praise of Bhagavan, also wrote 11 verses praising both Bhagavan and Mastan. 

A brief summary of some of these is: 

1. Mastan, the liberated one, who shines in Desur! Divine one! Through grace you told me, a sinner, to sing in the language of poets the divine glory of Ramana Guru, the much-famed God who shines and abides at Arunachala. 

2. Mastan, the liberated one, the precious gem who obtained the cool grace of Sadguru Ramana, you renounced this worldly life, which is like vomited food, and attained the life of true jnana. 

3. Mastan, the liberated one, who realised truth without any obstruction, and became that reality! You said, ‘If the vishaya vasanas are destroyed, the mind will also be destroyed.’ 

4. Mastan, the liberated one, who travels on the path of renunciation, without ever forgetting the lotus feet of jnani Ramana, declared, ‘Knowing consciousness is true knowledge.’ 

5. Praise to the jnana Guru! Lord, undo this misery-causing bond of samsara. Accept these poor words of this devotee-slave, which are addressed to your beautiful divine feet.

BHAGAWAN'S DEVOTEE ------ MASTAN PART 1

Mastan  was a Muslim weaver, who was highly spiritual. He came to Bhagavan in 1914. Even as a child of eight years, Mastan would enter into samadhi without knowing what it was. He had the natural ability to be detached from people and things from childhood. The simple Tamil poems of the nineteenth century Sufi mystic Gunangudi Masthan, which are vedantic in nature, had a powerful influence on him.

 Born in Desur, a small village about forty miles from Tiruvannamalai, he got drawn to Bhagavan by Akhilandamma of the same village, who made regular visits to Tiruvannamalai to see Bhagavan and cook for him. Mastan, describes his first darshan of Bhagavan: “He was seated like a rock. His unswerving gaze was filled with grace, compassion and steady wisdom. I stood by his side. After giving me a look, he opened the gate of my Heart and I was also established in his state in the very first encounter.” When he returned, Mastan experienced some conflict within himself. He was filled with Bhagavan’s presence, but, as he was brought up in the Islamic tradition, he had this feeling: “Am I brushing aside my master Mohammed because he is no more in the body?” Fortunately, he was bold enough to go to Bhagavan and confess, “Bhagavan, this is my problem. Please help me.” Bhagavan looked at Mastan and showering his grace, replied, “Do you take this body to be Bhagavan? Do you think the Prophet is dead? Then, is the Buddha dead? Is Christ dead? Are they not guiding hundreds of thousands of people even today? Are they not living in the Heart? A living guru means the one living in one’s Heart as a guru. The guru lives eternally in your Heart. Heart is Allah, Heart is Jesus Christ, Heart is Buddha and Heart is Bhagavan. Live in the Heart as the Heart by diving into the Heart.” 

Mastan began coming regularly to Bhagavan. He relinquished weaving as a profession and wove only to make loin cloth and towels for Bhagavan. Bhagavan once remarked, ‘Mastan’s craft, though it did not give food either to him or his parents, gives me clothes.’ Being a true ascetic, he never married. He begged in the streets of his own village. At Arunachala too, he would go begging for alms. Mastan once asked Bhagavan, “While I was meditating at night, I used to hear the sound of a bell ringing. Sometimes limitless effulgence would appear.” Bhagavan advised him, “There is no need to feel concerned about such sounds or light. If you see from where it arises, it will be known that it arises on account of a desire [sankalpa] of the mind. Everything appears in oneself and subsides within oneself.” 

An interesting incident related by Mastan about Bhagavan: When Bhagavan lived at Skandasram, a large, golden coloured mongoose entered the Ashram and made straight for Bhagavan. It sat on his lap for a while. Then it wandered around and disappeared into the bushes on the hill. Sometime later, when Bhagavan’s attendant Perumal came to the Ashram, I told him, “I was afraid that the mongoose might harm our peacocks, so I kept myself ready in case it made an attack.” Perumal told him, “You should have caught it, we could have kept it as a pet.” Bhagavan who was listening to the conversation, said, “Do you think you could have caught him? He was a sage of Arunachala who took on this form to visit me. How many times I told you that sages come to see me in various forms.” 

In talk no. 84, dated 16th October 1935, Bhagavan himself mentioned this incident. He said, “When I was living at Skandashram, a mongoose, larger than the ordinary size, of golden hue (not grey as a mongoose is) with no black spot on its tail, moved about fearlessly. Everyone was struck by its attractive appearance and fearless movements. It came up to me, got on my lap and rested there for some time. It went round the whole place and I followed it lest it may be harmed by unwary visitors or by the peacocks. Finally it disappeared into the rocks near the Ashram.”

(SOURCE : RAMANA JYOTHI, SRI RAMANA KENDRAM , HYDERABAD .