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THE Mountain Path Aradhana Issue 2002 "Arunachala! Thou dost root out the ego of those who meditate on Thee in the heart, Oh Arunachala!" - The Marital Garland of Letters, verse 1 Aradhana 2002 The Real Wealth — Editorial 1 Editor: Ramamani The Absolute of the Buddha — Dr. RJ. Saher 4 Publisher: The Search for Happiness V.S. Ramanan — Prof. K. Swaminathan 5 Foreword to Self-realization Letters and remittances — K. Sundaram Chetty 10 should be sent to: "THE MOUNTAIN PATH" The Ideal of Seva (Service) with special reference to the Sri Ramanasramam P.O., Views of Swami Ramdas Tiruvannamalai 606 603, — Dr. Susunaga Weeraperuma 13 S. India. Is all love bliss? — Stuart Rose 17 Phone : 37292; 37200 Fax : 0091-4175-37491 Bhagavan and I: A Tete-A-Tete — I.S. Madugula 24 e mail: Effort, Grace and Destiny [email protected] — Arthur Osborne 28 Website: The Enlightenment of Buddha Sakyamuni — Lama Anagarika Govinda 32 http://www.ramana-maharshi.org Yoga Vasishta Sara 46 Cover: Manuscripts of Sri Bhagavan 47 Deepam on summit Garland of Guru's Sayings 53 of Arunachala Photo: Ten verses from Sri Sankara's Sivananda Lahari 54 Dev Gogoi Sketches: Methods of Meditation Maniam Selven — I.S. Madugula 57 [Please turn over] Contents (Contd.) In Praise of a Solitary Life — Dr. Susunaga Weeraperuma 67 Lai Ded (Lalleshwari) of Kashmir — J.L. Raina 77 What's Wrong with the World? — Douglas E. Harding 86 TheMiMwChitta — Hellmuth Hecker 92 Book Reviews — Compiled and Edited by J Jayaraman 95 Ashram Bulletin 103 The Mountain Path • The aim of this journal is to set forth the traditional wisdom of all religions and all ages, especially as testified to by their saints and mystics, and to clarify the paths available to seekers in the conditions of our modern world. • Contributions for publication should be addressed to The Editor, The Mountain Path, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. They should be in English and typed with double spacing. Contributions not published will be returned on request. • No payment is made for contributions published. • The editor is not responsibility for statements and opinions contained in signed articles. • Contributions are accepted only on condition that they do not appear elsewhere before being published in The Mountain Path. They can be published later elsewhere but only with acknowledgment to The Mountain Path. The Mountain Path is dedicated to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi ARADHANA 2002 EDITORIAL The Real Wealth HE difficulties of life are common to prove his material position implies the Tall with the exception perhaps of the use of all kinds of methods. They may princely class, or those born with a sil• be fair or unfair. The man who is con• ver spoon in the mouth. Even so, the scious of ethical principles will adopt privileged class have their own share of only fair methods for achieving results. life's problems. They are free only from How is one to rise above common certain types of problems faced by the worldly tendencies or trends and culti• majority, who are under-privileged. vate a sane outlook or order of life? How Human activity is not confined to self- to safeguard one's higher life? The way preservation. It aims at self-improvement can be shown only by those who are free or self-advancement. Man's material from even a trace of materialism or per• ambitions therefore soar high. It is not sonal ambition. merely a question of bread-winning! The teachings of Shankaracharya are This is particularly so in modern a pointer and show how man can regu• times. One has to make good in substan• late his life and also reach spiritual tial measure. In an atmosphere clouded heights in spite of the constraints in which by competitiveness no one could possi• he is placed. bly remain satisfied with mere existence! He says: Many of the woes of present day society can be traced to the unbridled material Oh fool! Renounce your endless thirst ambitions of individuals or groups of in• for riches. Learn to be contented just dividuals. This leads to clash of interests with the returns (wealth) you get for or even clash of personalities. your belabour.1 Nothing succeeds like success. There• fore the attempt by an individual to im• 1 Dwadasa panjarika stotram (1). 2 THE MOUNTAIN PATH Aradhana We find that the Vedas contain prayers isolation from his duty of doing chari• or rituals towards acquiring name, fame table deeds. Those who are wealthy and and wealth. those who are not so wealthy are alike The Sruti says: expected to give in charity to the needy. May I become famous among people! Avvayar, the great Tamil saint and May I become praiseworthy among poetess says, "Cultivate the desire to do the wealthy. O Adorable One! May I charitable deeds." enter into you, such as you are As The following is a verse of water flows down a slope, as months Shankaracharya: roll into a year, similarly O Lord, may Recite the Bhagavad Gita, the students come to me from all Recite the thousand names of Vishnu, quarters! . ? Meditate on the divine form of Vishnu. Now, what is the significance of such Associate with the wise, Give alms to the poor.4 prayers? Is there more to it than mere materialism, or not? The inner spiritual A basic question that arises in this con• idealism contained in such prayers is ex• text is: what is real wealth? Is it merely, plained by Shankaracharya in his gold, silver, lands and the like — just commentary. movable and immovable property? Or, is there something else substantial and Shankara says: everlasting? ... O Adorable One [Lord] let there A number of Sruti texts point to the be nothing but identity between us Self as the real wealth. The prayer for prosperity is dealt with The Sruti says: Dravinagum in this context of knowledge for the suvarchasam (I am the effulgent wealth).5 sake of wealth; for wealth is needed for rites, and rites are calculated to In brief, the commentary of diminish accumulated sins, on the ex• Shankaracharya on this passage is as haustion of which knowledge becomes follows: revealed. ... I am that effulgent (wealth) that is Shankara also quotes the Smriti'm this the reality of the Self. Or, the knowl• connection: edge of Brahman is effulgent, inasmuch as it reveals the reality of the Self. And Just as one sees oneself on the clean sur• face of a mirror, so knowledge arises 2 Taittiriya Upanishad, I.IV.3. for man on the exhaustion of sin/'3 3 Mahabharata, SantiParva, 204.8. Traditionally, the possession of wealth 4 Charpata Panjarika Stotra. by an individual has not been viewed in 5 Taittiriya Upanishad, I.X.I 2002 THE REAL WEALTH 3 it is called wealth, being comparable the obtaining of something not ob• to wealth because of its producing the tained before, for here there is no dif• bliss of emancipation ference between the person attaining 7 The Sruti teaches that the Self is dearer and the object attained. than wealth. To all appearance it looks as though one The Sruti says: obtains the Self afresh. However this is only because of self-forgetfulness. Self-re• This Self is dearer than a son, dearer alisation is just like waking up from a than wealth, dearer than everything dream. This is the taching of Sri Maharshi. else, and is innermost.6 Sri Maharshi says: Commenting on this, Shankaracharya When, forgetting the Self, one thinks, says: That the body is oneself and goes A son is universally held dear in this Through innumerable births world; but the Self is dearer than he, And in the end becomes which shows that It is extremely dear. The Self, know this is only like Similarly dearer than wealth such as Waking up from a dream wherein gold or jewels, and everything else, One has wandered all over the world.8 whatever is admittedly held dear in The same idea is expressed in the fol• the world.... lowing verse of Shankaracharya which was often quoted by Sri Maharshi in his And is innermost The body and the conversations with devotees. organs are inner and nearer to one• self than a son or wealth, for instance, Shankara says: which are external things. But this Self True—the Self is always here and now; is nearer than even these.... yet it is not apparent, owing to igno• Hence the Self is the real wealth. At• rance. On ignorance being destroyed, taining the Self means obtaining the real the Self seems as if it were gained, like wealth. However, in reality, nothing new the necklace on one's own neck.9 — that is, something which was not there — is obtained. 6 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, I.IV.8. 7 This is explained by Shankaracharya Commentary on Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, L1V.7. 8 as follows: Five Verses on the Self, verse 1. 9 A tma Bodha, verse 44. The non-attainment of the Self is but The allusion is to the story of a lady wearing a the ignorance of It. Hence the knowl• precious necklace, who suddenly forgot where edge of the Self is Its attainment. it was, grew anxious, looked for it everywhere and even asked others to help, until a kind friend The attainment of the Self cannot be, pointed out that it was round the seeker's as in the case of things other than It, own neck! The Absolute of the Buddha By Dr. P. J. Saher HE Latin word absolutus is the past concept which Western philosophers at• Tparticiple of absolvere, which means tribute to their 'Absolute'.

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