\ \ \ Vol* Vii, No. Is January 19/0

$\ \ \ Vol* Vii, No. Is January 19/0$ ike 4ht \ \ \ ) \ Arunachala! Thou dost root out the ego of those who meditate on Thee in the heart, Oh Arunachala! vol* vii, no. is January 19/0 Thou, unruffled by Anger ! What Crime has marked me off (for Thy wrath), Oh Arunachala ? (A QUARTERLY) — The Marital Garland of Letters, verse 25 M 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 Publisher : T. N. Venkataraman. President, Board of Trustees, Vol. VII JANUARY 1970 No. 1 Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai. CONTENTS Page EDITORIAL : Concentration and Detachment .. 1 Editor : Beingness — G. N. Daley . 3 Arthur Osborne, The Way of the Spirit —M. A. Piggott .. 4 Sri Ramanasramam. Tiruvannamalai. Two Kinds of Silence —• Prof. N. A. Nikam* .. 9 The Wakeful Sleep — Anonymous .. 10 Advaita and Sri Sankara — K. Padmanabhan .. 12 How I Came to the Maharshi Managing Editor : — Prof. D. Gurumurti .. 16 V. Ganesan, Lakshman Joo — A Yogi of Kashmir Sri Ramanasramam, — Jaideva Singh .. 18 Tiruvannamalai. A Song of Praise (Poem) — Gerard Casey . 21 The Way of Chuang Tzu — Fr. Thomas Merton . 22 Annual Subscription : GAY A TRI-—Paul Reps . 23 INDIA .. Rs. 6. As - It - Isness — Wei Wu Wei .. 24 FOREIGN .. 12sh 6d $ 1.50 Yoga Vasishta Sara . 25 Life Subscription : Rs. 125 £ 12-10-0 $ 30. In ]^y Heart (Poem) — A. K. Vattal .. 26 Single Copy: Tiruvannamalai — K. S. Sugavanam .. 27 Rs. 1.75 3sh. 6d. $ 0.45 " Enquire " — Quis Separabit .. 31 The False and Right Sense of I " — Joel S. Goldsmith , . 32 CONTENTS— (Contd.) fountain |Iailj Page (A QUARTERLY) That's That (Poem) 33 — Madhukar P. Padukone The aim of this journal is to set Garland of Guru's Sayings (Poem) 34 forth the traditional wisdom of all religions and all ages, especially The Vedaparayana 35 as testified to by their saints and Book Reviews 37 mystics, and to clarify the paths Ashram Bulletin 41 available to seekers in the condi• tions of our modern world. Introducing .... Jayadevlal Davey 44 Letters to the Editor 48 Contributions for publication GRACE IN WORDS: The Verses (UPADESA SARAM) should be addressed to ' The Editor, in Tamil reproduced on the fly-leaf facing the frontispiece The Mountain Path, Sri Ramanas- is the fascimile of Sri Bhagavan's own handwriting. The ramam, Tiruvannamalai, Madras translation is a new free rendering into English by State' . They should be in English Prof K. Swaminathan. and typed with double spacing. Contributions not published will be returned on request. To Our Subscribers The editor is not responsible for 1. The official year of the quarterly is from January statements and opinions contained to December. in signed articles. 2. SUBSCRIBERS IN INDIA should remit their annual subscription by Money Order only as far as possible and not by cheque. The words 4 subscription for The Mountain Path for .......... year/years' should be written on the M.O. coupon and the full name and address written in BLOCK No payment is made for contri• LETTERS on the reverse of the coupon. butions published. Anything herein Life Subscription should be sent by cheque drawn published may be reprinted else• favouring The Mountain Path and crossed. where without fee provided due The journal will not be sent by V.P.P. acknowledgement is made and the 3. FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS can send their subscrip• editor is previously notified. tion by International Money Order, British Postal Order or by Bank cheque or draft payable in India, U.S.A. or U.K. The subscription rates are for despatch of the journal by surface mail to all parts of the world. Contributions are accepted only If despatch by AIR MAIL is desired the following on condition that they do not additional annual amount should be remitted: appear elsewhere before being pub• lished in The Mountain Path. They can be published later elsewhere (a) Pakistan, Ceylon Rs. 6.80 but only with acknowledgement to The Mountain Path. (b) Aden, Kuwait, Hongkong, Malaysia, Indonesia, PhilUpines 15s 1.80 (c) U.K., France, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland, East, South and West Africa 22s 2.70 THE MOUNTAIN PATH (d) Australia, Denmark, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden 30s 3.60 is dedicated to (e) North, Central and South America, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi Fiji, Hawaii, New Zealand 37s 4.50 (Irate in ptarfrs JîfrtQ-p ^mnQjî^î Q_p Lip 1 1. Holding the breath controls the mind, A bird caught in a net. Breath-regulation helps Absorption in the heart. 1.2. Mind and breath (as thought and action) Fork out like two branches. But both spring From a single root. 13. Absorption is of two sorts: Submergence and destruction. Mind submerged rises again; Dead, it revives no more. BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI ( QUARTERLY) Editor : ARTHUR OSBORNE Vol. VII JANUARY, 1970 No. 1 CONCENTRATION AND DETACHMENT Editorial TX7HAT is needed is simply to take things beyond thirty seconds ! How much training, as they come, reacting in the way one then, will be needed to hold the mind to feels to be right, interfering as little as pure awareness ! possible. Then things will come right of their Some teachers prescribe exercises for own accord and the Grace will flow concentration, but this is seldom more than unimpeded. One does not have to induce the a parlour game. When it does have any effect divine Grace to flow, only to refrain from it is apt to do more harm than good unless obstructing. the mind is at the same time being purified. There are two kinds of obstruction which Concentrated egoism is more dangerous than prevent this and make the path long and distracted. arduous. They are distraction and attach• The mind automatically gets strengthened ment. Therefore their opposites have to be and purified simultaneously by being turned cultivated ; that is concentration and detach• to prayer or incantation or to meditation on ment. (or experience of) pure being. Practice is Let us first consider concentration. The needed and it may be difficult at first, but on untrained mind is seldom able to concentrate the other hand a flow of Grace may be steadily on any thought at all, for any length released far in excess of what practice seems of time. It flits about fitfully from thought to account for. Particularly may this be so to thought. The same is to be seen in con• in one" who has already developed the power versation— for instance at a social gather• of concentration, even though it be in a ing— nothing is talked through to a con• completely different field — chess, for clusion, no subject is seriously discussed, instance, or science or art, or it may even just butterfly talk flitting from one topic to be in crime or egoism. One who has openly another. Let the person with untrained used his power of concentration in an evil mind see how long he can hold it to any one way may, when induced to turn it aright, theme. He will be doing well if he can get make equally spectacular progress. There 2 THE MOUNTAIN PATH January are a number of famous examples of this. ing. The ego cannot renounce the world The Sage Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, inwardly as long as it clings to it through was a murderer and robber until a sudden attachments ; it cannot become tenuous revulsion turned him in the right direction. enough to pass through the eye of a needle The same was the case with one of the great so long as it is nourished by attachments. Marathi poet-saints of Mediaeval India. The ego and its attachments are mutually Buddha went out into the forest to seek dependent : the ego cannot be destroyed so Angulimala, a notorious killer and plun• long as there are attachments and attach• derer, conquered him by the spiritual ments cannot be destroyed so long as there power flowing through him, and brought him is an ego. The 1 holy war' can take either back as a yellow-robed monk. Similar stories the form of attacking attachments in order are told, if I remember aright, of St. John to starve out the ego or attacking the ego so the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos and that with its death the attachments also will of St. Francis of Assissi. The necessary perish. Actually both types of campaign ruthlessness was already there ; it had only have to be carried on simultaneously. Neither to be turned against the ego by one tremen• is a passport to success ; both require dous act of will and the power of concentra• courage and perseverance. Also both require tion enabled Divine Grace to flow through skill and alertness because the ego is very them. cunning. Deprived of one outlet it will switch its attention to another. Deprived of a If lack of concentration destroys a man's gross outlet it will find a subtle one. When ability to maintain steady self-awareness, vigilance is relaxed over a captured strong• lack of detachment destroys his will to. hold it will return there, so that one can What is needed is to be detached and con• never count on demolishing them one by centrated at the same time. Or it might be one. The ability of the ego to spring up in said that what is needed is true humility, a new form as soon as the old one is because humility is not in essence compara• threatened is symbolised in mythology by tive at all. It does not mean comparing the hero's combat with an enemy that con• oneself unfavourably with others (in which stantly changes form.

Load more