Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies Volume 14 Article 10 January 2001 The Sage of Pure Experience: The Appeal of Ramana Maharsi in the West Thomas A. Forsthoefel Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Forsthoefel, Thomas A. (2001) "The Sage of Pure Experience: The Appeal of Ramana Maharsi in the West," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 14, Article 10. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1253 The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Forsthoefel: The Sage of Pure Experience: The Appeal of Ramana Maharsi in the West The Sage of Pure Experience: The Appeal of Ramana Maharsi in the Westl Professor Thomas A. Forsthoefel Mercyhurst College WILHELM Halbfass's seminal study of appeal among thinkers and spiritUal adepts the concept of experience in Indian religions in the West. Indeed, such 'meeting at the illuminates the philosophical ambiguities of heart' in interfaith dialogue promises the term and its recent appropriations by communion even in the face of unresolved some neo-Advaitins. to serve apologetic theoretical dilemmas. 2 ends. Anantanand Rambachand's own The life and work of Ramana (1879- study of the process of liberation in Advaita 1950), though understudied, are important Vedanta also critically reviews these for a number of reasons, not the least of apologetic strategies, arguing that in which is the fact that together they represent privileging anubhava, they undervalue or a version of Advaita abstracted from misrepresent the im;ortance given to sruti in traditional monastic structures, thus Sankara's Advaita. In this article, I hope to sidestepping, at least initially, issues of extend the work of these two scholars, this institutional authority and traditional time reviewing the unusually strong appeal legitimization.4 Ramana's self­ of a modern adept of Advaita, Ramana understanding and the understanding of his Maharsi, to Western scholars and spiritual disciples emphasize his transformative figures. I shall argue that Ramana's own, experience of nonduality - at the age of 16, deeply inward or internal epistemology of then cultivated over many years in religious experience accounts for much of Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu - as the source this appeal to Westerners, for it promises a of his authority. For example, Olivier kind of 'knowing beyond knowledge,' an Lacombe, the great French Indologist, once internally accessed saving experience which asked Ramana if his teaching followed that transcends all cultural forms, including of Sankara's. Ramana, who rarely referred scripture. The goal and method of this to himself in the first person, replied, inward quest proves eminently attractive to "Bhagavan's teaching is an expression of his Western scholars and devotees operating own experience and realization. Others find with constructive agenda in inter-faith that it tallies with Sankara's."s With this dialogue and cross cultural studies. statement Ramana at once distances himself Moreover, the epistemological framework of from Sankara and establishes his authority internalism, largely dominant in the West on personal experience. No lineage renders since Descartes, also contributes to the his teaching authoritative, but his own appeal of Ramana in the West. Western experience does. This theme is often thinkers and spiritual figures, self­ repeated by his disciples, no more I consciously or un-self-consciously operating enthusiastically than by D.M. Sastri, "His out of the introspective turn of Descartes, Experience was prior to and superior to any will find the methodology and promise of scriptures.,,6 T.M.P. Mahadevan nuances Ramana's 'inward quest' compelling. this view in his introduction to Ramana's Finally, the outstanding spiritual qualities Vicarasangraham; this short guide is manifested by Ramana also contribute to his fundamentally based on Ramana's "plenary Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin 14 (200 1) 31-36 Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2001 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 14 [2001], Art. 10 32 Thomas Forsthoefel experience," and aU references to scriptures hyperbole ("In India he is the whitest spot in or sages "are offered only as confirmations a white space," etc.), Jung writes that of the truth discovered by Bhagavan himself Ramana "is genuine and, in addition to that, in his own experience.,,7 Though statements something quite phenomenal.,,9 Jung's such as these underestimate the role of enthusiasm for Ramana's spirituality is culture in religious experience, they are consistent with his own intellectual agenda indicative of the tendency to view Ramana's which includes his version of the perennial experience as transcending all social and philosophy. Although his take on Ramana cultural constructs. Ramana's life and favors the perennial view that a single teaching thus represents a particularly unified experience is at the core of modem form of spirituality whose appeal in mysticisms across cultures, Jung part lies in the promise of an immediate nevertheless tends to a cultural dualism, experience of the divine, uninflected by importing romantic notions of the 'spiritual' cultural forms, and available to all, East as contrasted with the 'materialist' regardless of culture or society. West. According to him, Ramana's example While there is much to examine in the is an important resource for the West, life and thought of Ramana, I shall focus increasingly threatened by a lack of here on the reaction to Ramana from the consciousness in a culture of commercialism circle of Western scholars and religious and technology. 10 Indian saints such as figures who have encountered him. So far, Ramana and Ramakrishna are modem no exposes, no Karma Colas, no prophets recalling to the West ''the demand deconstructions of his life have appeared in of the soul."l! Zimmer's student, Joseph print. Instead, of the many sincere or Campbell also appeals to the perennial fraudulent gurus that have captured the philosophy in evaluating Ramana and attention of devotees and scholars in recent Ramakrishna; sages such as these "have years, Ramana's life and teaching seems to renewed the ineffable message perennially, have struck many scholars and religious in variable terms, which philosophers figures with a similar reaction: this person is classify and adhikarins transcend.,,12 genuine, an admittedly elusive quality to While it is perhaps no surprise that determine in someone, but a quality which Jung and Campbell, both advocates of the must be considered in reviewing the perennial philosophy, were impressed by conditions and effects of religious Ramana, a more recent tribute is: no less experience. Of course the fact that many than the late Agehananda Bharati, who, it is devotees and some scholars have taken clear from his writings, suffered fools Ramana to be genuine does not necessarily poorly, also agreed that "Ramana Maharsi mean that he was. Still, their reaction is was a mystic of the first order.,,13 Bharati's .1 intriguing and invites a review. Light at the Centre is a conceptually astute I A brief survey of some recent and not­ analysis of 'mysticism'- which carefully I,!i'i so-recent responses to Ramana's life and assesses the conditions leading to and work highlights the unusually positive following from what he calls the "zero reaction to Ramana on the part of Western experience" or "consummative experience." scholars and religious figures. Klaus While disputing the contention of disciples Klostermaier, for example, considers him to that Ramana was in perpetual samadhi, be "among the greatest and deepest spiritual Bharati accepted as genuine Ramana's influences coming from India in recent claims to non-dual realization; despite years," and notes that even after his death questions concerning the social the ashram in which he lived "is somehow circumstances of Ramana's spiritual career, charged with spiritual power, emanating Bharati neverthele~s affirms that, "Ramana from him."s Heinrich Zimmer wrote a study was an exceptional mystic.,,14 And while on Ramana in 1944 which included a Ramana has always drawn the positive foreword by C.G. Jung; pared of painful attention of Indian scholars,15 leading https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol14/iss1/10 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1253 2 Forsthoefel: The Sage of Pure Experience: The Appeal of Ramana Maharsi in the West The Sage of Pure Experience: The Appeal of Ramana Maharsi in the West 33 Western spiritual figures drawn to him of it. In any case, these assessments and include the late Thomas Merton (1915- positive valorizations are also seen in the 1968), Bede Griffiths (1907-1993), and reflections of Bede Griffiths and Dom Henri Dom Henri Le Saux (1910-1973). Le Saux, both of whom increasingly adopted Merton's attraction to Ramana is Advaita paradigms to inform their own difficult to assess. Only indirect references spiritual experience. Griffiths writes that to Ramana are found in his Asian Journal, "Perhaps the most remarkable example of though the editors offer considerable advaitic experience is that of Ramana interesting and useful annotations. Still, the Maharsi.,,19 He considered Ramana's fact that Merton mentions