Bhaghavan Sri Ramana , Sustainer of Spiritual Reality

By Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishana- 

( Excerpt from the article that appeared in the Goldenn Jubilee Souvenir, September 1946)

It is somewhat surprising that may students of religion assume that the religious seers, the true representatives of religious genius, belong wholly to the past and we today have to live on the memory of the past. If religion is a living truth, if it has any vitality, it must be capable of producing men who from time to time bear witness ot the truth and confirm and correct from their own experience the religious tradition.In the Indian tradition, religion has not meant an imaginative or intellectual apprehension of Reality but its embodiment in regenrated living.

The truly religious are those who have solid hold of the unseen Reality in which we ordinary men merely believe.

It is our good fortune that we have with us today a living embodiment of God centered life, a perfect image of life divine in the mirror of human exixtence. Sri Ramana Maharishi is not a scholar ; he is no erudition; but he has wisdom that comes from direct experience of Reality.

Dedication to God/Guru means denial of the ego. We must empty the self in the abyss of God. This  process is helped by the practice of unselfish service (Nishkama Karma), devotion (Bhakthi) , mind control( Yoga), and inquiry (Vichara). Inquiry into self , religious worship , eithical service are means to this realization. The end of all worshp, puja , japa , dhyana is communion with God.With increasing intensity in our devotion , the distance between the human and the Divine diminishes.

Sri Ramana dwells not only in a world of pure subjectivity but has also sense of the Infinite that is in all. As he has no selfish desires and no sense of agency , he enters into the world movement and carries out the functions expected of him by the Universal spirit. Honour and dishonour , praise of blame , do not move him. 

His very presence radiates peace and joy. He refashions the souls of those who look to him for help.With keen psychological insight he understands the needs of those who approach him and satisfies them.He loves all beings as he loves himself and cannot rest until everyone mirrors the Divine in his life.

Men like Ramana Maharishi recall us to the larger dimension of Reality to which we really belong , though we are generally unaware of it.

Sri Ramanaarpanam

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 .

Saints Blessings

Bhagawan gave the following explanation with reference to a saints blessings:

" The blessings of a saint perform the purification work of life. These blessings cannot increase impurity. One whose understanding is limited will ask for blessings so that he can fulfill certain desires, but if the desires are such that their fulfillment will make the seeker more impure rather than purer, the saint's blessings will not enable him to fulfil the desires. In this way the seeker is saved from further impurities. In that case , are not the saint's blessings a gift of compassion?"

Spirituality has morality as its foundation. Bhagawan's method of atma vichara is both the means of purification and the samadhi. Atma vichara is natural as there is no one who can deny the existence of "I". Just lets us question who is seeing the dream and who is experiencing the happiness of sleep. That ONE is the reality. Once we start ATMA VICHARA , the impurities will drop off one by one and we will have no regrets of past or worries of future. 

Lets surrender to HIS holy feet , rest our burden on him and go ahead with Atma Vichara 15 minutes twice a day. And things will slowly but surely change.

Sri Ramanaarpanam 

DREAM , WAKING AND ILLUSION

➜───

Sri Bhagawan, how can I express my gratitude towards you and there are no words to express your grace on me. I am that dormant seed on which you showered as the monsoon rain and the Sun of your grace made me sprout. How can I a week sapling like me offer anythig to you. Bestow upon me unwavering devotion to Thy feet. May I reach that state where there is only "I", the pure and eternal.

LINGODBHAVAM --- SRI RAMANODBHAVAM

This Mahashivaratri let us recall Bhagawan's story. Sri Ramana's story is one of compassion and simplicity. There are no miracles to attract anyone, no dogmas or rituals. Sri Ramana taught by silence and his He is ocean of love for one and all.

Sri Ramana Maharishi was born Venkataraman in December 1978 on Ardra Darshan Day, the day when, tradition has it, Siva manifested as Nataraja. A blind nurse in attendance saw a wondrous light , and it was pondered what such signs could mean. In spite of this auspicious beginning, however , the child's early life met with calamity. Already at the age of twelve, the boy lost his father. Without a breadwinner, the family could no longer sustain the family home and young Venkataraman was forced to go and live with an uncle in Madurai. At the school, though his intelligence and prodigious memory impressed everyone, he showed little promise academically and lacked enthusiasm for study.

But at the age of sixteen his life took a dramatic turn. In July 1896, while sitting alone in his uncles house, the boy was seized with a gripping fear of death and the inexorable sensation that in that very hour, he was going to die. 

"Now death has come. What does it mean? What is it that is dying? The body dies." He extended his limbs and held them rigid like a corpse. He held his breath and kept his mouth closed: " This body is dead. It will be carried to the burring ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of this body, am 'I ' dead? The material body dies, but the spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death. I am therefore deathless spirit."

In spite of these strong sensations, Venkataram did not meet with physical death that day. But he did find that he had undergone a substantial change.First of all, having conquered death, he no longer has any anxiety about the prospect of dying. But more significantly, from this time onward, he found himself in continuous state of meditative absorption, indifference to the events of ordinary life or the demands placed on him by outside world. Within weeks , he made up his mind to leave home ,never to return.

At ht end of August 1896, he set off in secret for Arunachala. On arrival , he has his head shaved, discarded hi thread, clothes and outer possessions , donned a loincloth and placed himself at the mercy of the Holy Hill. He later took up residence on the Mountain, principally at Virupaksha Cave (1900-1916) and Skandasramam( 1916-1922). In meantime , his whereabouts were made known to the family and younger brother came to join him at Skandasramam. 

In 1922 , when his mother attained final liberation in his arms, devotees carried her remains down to the foot of the hill for burial.Daily rites were performed at her tomb and few devotees shifted down to be on hand for that purpose. Within six months, Bhagawan Ramana also moved down, resulting in the founding of large ashram on the grounds surrounding her shrine. As the flood of devotees increased , buildings were erected and the community took the name Sri Ramanashramam.

For thirty years thereafter, Bhagawan Ramana received all who sought his darshan. From local householders to foreign dignitaries, as well as pundits, professors, writers and poets, Sri Ramana was tireless in marking himself available to all who came to him. As devotees began to write and publish accounts of their experiences , and as transcriptions and translations were made of Bhagawan's teachings and poetic compositions, the Sage's prominence grew and his fame spread throughout South India and the world.

In April 1950 , at the moment a shooting star descended beyond Arunachala's summit, Sri Ramana Maharishi left the body in the company of thousands of adoring devotees . In the decades that followed , the community that had grown up around him continued to thrive and endures until the present day.


SRI RAMANARPANAM

(Taken from " After the Rain: Silent Encounters with Sri Ramana Maharishi ) Copy right Sri Ramanashramam.

Does a Devotee Die

On 17th of August 1948 ,Mr. Rappold, an  American devotee opens his eyes from meditation in which he seems to have been deeply sunk and raises his voice:

Rappold : "Bhagawan , what should a devotee do at the time of death?"

Bhagawan: "A devotee never dies , rather he is already dead.(Then he stops and waits for a competent translator. Devaraja Mudaliar enters. Bhagawan completes the answer.) What should a devotee do at the time of death? What can he do? Whatever a man thinks in his life-time, so he does in his last moment- the worldly man thinks of his worldly affairs and the devotee thinks of devotion and spiritual matters. But a janani having no thoughts of any kind, remains the same. His thoughts , having died long ago, his body also died with them. Therefore for him there is no such thing as death."

Again people fear death because they fear to lose their possessions. When they go to sleep they do not have such fear at all. Although sleep resembles death in leaving all possessions behind, it causes no fear in their hears because of the knowledge that the next morning they will enter into their possessions once again. The jnani having no sense of possession, is entirely free from the fear of death. He remains the same after death as before it.

Sri Ramanaarapanam.

( From Guru Ramana :S.S Cohen's. Diary)