Giri Pradakshina Map and Arunachala Temple Guide

Please find below both Maps.

Guru and Disciple

Let us examine Sri Bhagawan's statements carefully.He sometimes said he had no disciples and never stated explicitly that he was the Guru, however, he used the expression " the Guru" as equivalent to "the Gnani " and is such a way as to leave no doubt that he is the Guru and he more than once joined in singing the song Ramana Sat-Guru.

Moreover, when devotee was genuinely distressed and seeking a solution he would sometimes reassure him in a way that left no room for doubt. An English disciple, Major Chadwick kept a record of such an assurance given to him in the year 1940 :


Ch: Bhagawan says he has no disciples?

Bh :Yes

Ch: He also says that Guru is necessary if one wishes to attain Liberation.

Bh:Yes

Ch: What then must I do? Has my sitting here all these years been just waste of time? Must I go and look for some Guru in order to receive initiation seeing that Bhagawan says he is not a Guru?

Bh: What do you mean think brought you here such a long distance and made you remain so long? Why do you doubt? IF there had been any need to seek a Guru elsewhere you would have gone away long ago.

The Guru or Gnani sees no difference between himself and others.For him all are Gnanis, all are one with himself, so how can Gnani say that such and such is his disciple? But the unliberated one sees all as multiple, he sees all as different from himself, so to him the Guru-disciple relationship is a reality and he needs that Grace of the Guru  to waken him to reality. For him there are three ways of initiation, by touch look and silence.
Ch: Then Bhagawan does have disciples!

Bh: As I said from Bhagawan's point of view there are no disciples, but from that of the disciples the Grace of the Guru is like an ocean.If he comes with a cup he will only get a cupful.It is no use complaining of the niggardliness of the ocean , the bigger the vessel the more he will be able to carry. It is entirely up to him.

Ch: Then to know whether Bhagawn is my Guru or not is just a matter of faith, if Bhagawan will no admit it.

Bh: ~(Sitting straight up and turning to the interpreter and speaking with great emphasis) Ask him ,does he want me to give him in written document?

Sri Ramanaya Namaha

In conversation with Bhagawan

Mr.P.C Desai introduced Mr.P.C Deanji (Rtd Sub-Judge) who was returning from Trivandrum where he had presided over a section of the Philosophical conference.Mr.Dewanji asked Bhagawan, "What is the easiest way to attain one-pointedness of mind"?

Bhagawan said " The best way is to see the source of the mind. See if there is such a thing as mind. It is only if there is a mind that the question of making one-pointed will arise. when you investigate by turning inwards, you find there is no such thing as the mind".

Then Mr. P.C Desai quoted Bhagawan's Upadesa Sara in Sanskrit to the effect "When you investigate the nature of mind continuously or without break, you find there is no such thing as the mind. This is the straight path for all".

The visitor asked again " It is said in our scriptures that God it is that creates, sustains and destroys all and that He is immanent in all. If so and if God does everything and is all what we do is according to God's niyati( Law) and has already planned in the Cosmic Consciousness, is there individual personality and any responsibility for it.

Bahagawan: " Of course, there is. The same scriptures have laid down rules as to what men should or should not do. If man is not responsible , then why should those rules have been laid down? You talk of Gods niyati and things happening according to it. If you ask God why this creation and all, He would tell it is according to karma again. If you believe in God and His niyati working out everything completely surrender yourself to Him and there will be no responsibility for you. Otherwise find out your real nature and thus attain freedom".

EXPERIENCE AND VISIONS

Rudra Raj Pande, Principal of the Tri-chandra College at Kathmandu, Nepal, went with a friend to worship at the great temple in town before leaving Tiruvannamalai.

" The inner temple gates were thrown open and my guide took us into the interior, which was rather dark. A small oiled wick-flame was flickering a few yards in front of us. the young voice of my companion shouted " Arunachala". all my intention was directed to the one purpose of seeing the Image or the Lingam in the Sanctum Santorum. But strange to say, instead of the Lingum I see the image of Maharishi Bhagawan Sri Ramana, his smiling countenance, his brilliant eyes looking at me. and what is more strange, it is not one Maharishi that I see, nor two- in hundreds I see the same smiling countenance, those lustrous eyes, I see them wherever I may look, in the Sanctum Santorum.My eyes cannot  the full figure of the Maharishi but only the smiling face, from the chin above. I am in raptures and beside myself with inexpressible joy- that bliss and calmness of mind I then felt how can words describe? Tears of joys flowed down my cheeks I went to the temple to see Lord Arunachala and I found the living Lord as he graciously revealed himself. I can never forget the deep intimate experience I had in the ancient temple".


Neverthless, Sri Bhagawan never encouraged interest in visions or desire for them, nor did they occur to all devotees or desciples.

But my personal experience is that, although these visions are not desired by Gnanis like Bhagawan, these will be a good encouragement for the Sadhakas.

ONE is Enough

A Muslim from Punjab are came to Sri Bhagawan on 31.12.1945. He was born blind ,but has learnt Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English and knows by heart the whole of Quran. It seems he heard of Bhagawan from some friend, who also translated to him in Urdu the English book Who am I? and thereupon he decided he should go and visit Bhagawan. Accordingly he has come all the way from the Punjab province all alone. Somebody suggested to him here that he should hear some other works of Bhagawan. He replied " No.It is not necessary. That one book is enough".


SRI RAMANAYA NAMAHA

TALKS WITH RAMANA MAHARISHI

Devotee: Now you  were telling me that the Heart is the centre of the Self..

Maharishi: Yes, it is the one supreme centre of the Self, You need have no doubt about it. the Real Self is there in the Heart behind the jiva or ego self.

D: Now be pleased to tell me where it is in the body.

M: You cannot know it with your mind. You cannot realise it by imagination, when I tell you here is the centre (pointing to the right side of the chest). The only direct way to realise it is to case to fancy and try to be yourself. Then you realise, automatically fell, that the centre is there.

This is the centre, the Heart, spoken of in the scriptures as Hrith-Guha (Cavity of the Heart), Arul Ullam.

D: In no book have I found it stated that it is there.

M: Long after I came here I chanced upon a verse in the Malayalam version of Ashtangahridayam, the standard work on Ayurveda, wherein the ojas sthana is mentioned as located in the right side of the chest, called the seat of consciousness (Samvit). But I know of no other work, which refers to it as being located there. 

D: Can I be sure that the ancients meant this centre by the term 'Heart'?

M: Yes, that is so. But you should try to HAVE, rather than to locate the experience. A man need not go to find out where his eyes are situated when he wants to see. The Heart is there ever open to you if you care to enter it, ever supporting all your movements even when you are aware. It is perhaps more proper to say that the Self is the Heart itself than to say that it is in the Heart. Really the Self is the Centre itself.It is everywhere, aware of itself as Heart, the Self-awareness. Hence I said; " Hear is Thy Name".

D: Has anyone else addressed the Lord thus, naming Him the Heart.

M: Long after I said this, one day I came across a hymn in  Sri.Appar's Thevaram, where he mentions Lord by name Ullam, which is the same as the Heart.

D: When you say that the Heart is the supreme centre of the Purusha, the Atman, you imply that it is not one of the six yogic centres.

M: The Yogic chakras counting from the bottom to the top are various centres in the nervous systems. They represent various steps manifesting different kinds are power or knowledge leading to Sahasrara, the thousand pettled lotus,where is seated the supreme Shatki. But the Self that supports the whole movement of Shakthi is not placed there, but supports it from the Heart Centre.

SWAMY RAMANAGIRI

I don’t know anything,
and that ‘I’ which knows is nothing but an ignorant fool.
I think, when I don’t think,
that I have no end and no beginning.
That which thinks has to take thousands of births.
When there is ‘I’ He is not; when He is, I am not. 

                                    --Swamy Ramanagiri 

The following is extract from David Godmans blog. This is about a devotee of Sri Bhagawan. Davids blog is very interesting and I strongly recommend devotees to visit his blog frequently as anecdotes of old devotees are presented by him regularly.

Swamy Ramanagiri, His original name was Per Westin. He belonged to the royal family in his 

native Sweden. He  came to India to study Sanskrit at Banaras Hindu University. He met 

Bhagavan and did not  return to his native place. Bhagavan gave him a small begging bowl 

made by Himself, out of coconut shell. In the following days, he could not get sufficient 

quantity of food as bhiksha, and complained to Bhagavan about it. Bhagavan told him that 

thereafter he need not go in  search of food as it would come to him. From that time he did 

not have to bother about his food. He then moved to different places and settled at this 

place, which is near a jungle stream. The coconut shell begging bowl, made by Bhagavan, is 

kept safely in a jewel box, along with other belongings of Sri Ramana Giri.

Swamy Ramanagiri gives an account of his sadhana in a letter to a fellow saadhaka :

In the course of sadhana, maya first comes to the sincere soul in the form of worldly troubles; second in the form of desires, and third in the form of dear friends who keep him away from the quest.

 

Our own mind is the greatest cheater in the world. It will make thousands of different reasons to go its own way. There are three ways of handling this cheat, who is nothing but a bundle of thoughts creeping into the conscious mind.

First, to treat him as a friend and give him full satisfaction. This is a very long and tiresome way because he is never satisfied.

Second, to treat him as an enemy and with all force try to get rid of him. This is only possible by the grace of the divine because the mind has got two very powerful weapons – the discriminating intellect and the imaginative faculty. These two fellows can convince even God himself that black is white.

The third way is the way taught by Sri Ramana in the days of silence at the foot of sacred Arunachala. This way, which has been adopted by this fool, is to treat the mind as a patient, or rather several patients who are coming to a doctor to complain about their various ailments.

Just as a doctor sits in his room receiving different kinds of patients, this fool imagines himself sitting in the sacred cave of the Heart and receiving the different thought-patients. You know that a sick person likes to babble for hours about his complaint. In the same way a thought likes to multiply itself, but the doctor always cuts it short, saying, ‘Very good. Take this medicine. Thank you very much.’ And then he calls for another patient. This is how this fool decided to meditate.

First the fool slows down his breath as much as possible, but only to the point where there is no discomfort. To this fool, two breaths per minute is the proper speed, but that may not be possible for you because this fool has practised for a long time. You may be able to decrease your breathing to 8-10 per minute in the beginning. Don’t get to a level where you are uncomfortable, because that discomfort will give rise to thoughts.

This fool decided to receive twenty patients before closing the dispensary of the Heart. He calls out ‘Number one!’ and he waits for thought patient number one to come. The thought patient may say, ‘Smt such-and-such is not well. Sri so-and-so is worried.’

Then this foolish doctor says, ‘Oh, you are number one. Very good. The name of Lord Murugan will cure you. Thank you very much.’

Then he calls for number two, and he waits till the second patient is entering the room. ‘Mr so-and-so may get mukti this life,’ he says.

‘Very good. You are number two. The whole world is benefited if one soul gets liberated. Thank you very much.’

Numbers three, four, five, and so on are dealt with in the same way. When all the twenty thought patients have come and gone, the doctor closes the room to the Heart, and no one else is allowed to come inside. Now he is alone. Now there is time for atma-vichara.

He asks himself, ‘To whom have all these thoughts come?’

Three times he slowly repeats the same question, along with the outgoing breaths.

Then he, in that same slow manner, answers, ‘To me, to me, to me’.

‘Then who am I? Then who am I? Then who am I?’

All questions and answers are repeated three times, very slowly.

‘This “I” is not a thought. This “I” is not a thought. This “I” is not a thought.’

‘Then who is the receiver of the thought? Then who is the receiver of the thought? Then who is the receiver of the thought?’

‘”I” – “I” – “I”’ Now the mind is centralised in the source itself. ‘

‘Then who am I? Then who am I? Then who am I?’

Now the breath comes to an end and the attention is concentrated 100% on the sound caused by the palpitation of the heart, as if the sound would give the answer to our questions. This is nothing but the pranava itself. If, during this time, the sakti which was static is converted to movements or becomes dynamic, trance will occur. If the primal energy reaches the space between the eyebrows, savikalpa samadhi will occur. If the energy rises up to the top of the head, nirvikalpa samadhi will occur, which is nothing but the Self itself.

However, you should also know that even if the doctor has closed the dispensary door, some patients may come and peep in through the window to complain about their ailments. At the beginning of atma-vichara, the patients at the window are many. In the same way, although the door to the cave of the Heart is closed, some thoughts may occur at the time of dhyana.

For example, a thought may come: ‘Mr Iyer’s sushumna nadi has opened up.’

Since the patient has not come at the proper time, the doctor doesn’t attend to him.

Instead, he continues the quest: ‘To whom has the thought of Mr Iyer come?’ ‘To me, to me, to me.’

‘Then who am I? Then who am I? Then who am I?’

Dearest ‘S’. In all humility this fool has babbled something about how he tries to establish himself in the experience of ananda, which is no different from the Self itself.

With all my love to you.

Ramanagiri in Him

Om.