RAMANA SMRTI Sri Ramana Maharshi Birth Centenary Offering 1980 SRI RAMANASRAMAM Tiruvannamalai 1999 © Sri Ramanasramam, 1980 All rights reserved Published by V.S. Ramanan President, Board of Trustees Sri Ramanasramam Tiruvannamalai Typeset at Sri Ramanasramam Printed by Kartik Offset Printers Chennai 600 015 CONTENTS Title Author Page His Life and Teachings Devaraja Mudaliar 1 He Opened My Heart Shuddananda Bharati 11 Bhagavan Ramana Dilip Kumar Roy 14 Identity Lucy Cornelssen 23 Trudging Along A. B. Bhagavata 31 The Gist K. Padmanabhan 34 Bhagavan and Bhagavad Gita G.V. Kulkarni 36 Sat-Cit-Ananda Guru Purnima Sircar 43 The Sage of Arunachala Ratna Navaratna 47 Some Recollections C.R. Pattabhi Raman 51 The Silent Initiation Maha Krishna Swami 53 What I Owe Douglas E. Harding 55 What Does He Mean to Me? Wolter E. Keers 56 1947-Tiruvannamalai-1977 Henri Hartung 69 Ramana: Amana and Sumana Ra. Ganapati 74 Unique Messiah S. Ramakrishna 75 Bhagavan’s Boyhood Days N.R. Krishnamurti Aiyer 79 Svaraat K. Sivaraj& Vimala Sivaraj 82 A Vedic Seer Patrick Lebail 88 Arunachala Ramana T.M.P. Mahadevan 93 Maharshi and the Mother A.R. Natarajan 98 My Reminiscences Swami Chidbhavananda 102 The Path and the Goal Doris Williamson 105 The Herald of a New Era Robert Fuchsberger 108 Kavyakantha K. Natesan 111 Pradakshina Charles Reeder 115 A Tribute Jack Dawson 117 Sadhana with Bhagavan Ursula Muller 119 Why Ramana? Kumari Sarada 122 Celebrating the Birthday Jean Dunn 124 Mercies of Bhagavan S. Siva 126 The Call I.S. Varghese 127 Boundless Love Gladys de Meuter 131 Remembrance Barbara Rose 135 Embodiment of Purity Robin E. Lagemann 136 How Bhagavan Came Into My Life Karin Stegemann 138 Where Has Bhagavan Gone? Swami Virajananda 140 Arunachala and Ramana K. Subrahmanian 142 Beloved Bhagavan Swami Ramdas 143 Years of Grace R. Narayana Iyer 145 Eternal Bhagavan Shantamma 147 Sri Ramanasramam Lokammal 153 Glimpses of Sri Ramana Raja Iyer 156 Bhagavan’s Cooking Sundaram 160 A Day with Bhagavan P. L. N. Sharma 165 Shri Bhagavan’s Grace Gouriammal 168 A Lifetime with Bhagavan T. K. Sundaresa Iyer 171 Maharshi’s Teaching and Modern Scientific Thought K. K. Nambair 185 Bhagavan in the Kitchen Sampurnamma 188 Healing Grace M. V. Ramanaswami Iyer 193 My Life My Light V. Subhalakshmiamma 195 The Bhagavan I Know Voruganti Krishnayya 200 Tales of Bhagavan Chalam 205 Poosalar 214 Visitor’s Guide K. Padmanabhan 216 The Path to Surrender Ramana Maharshi 226 Transliteration of the Sarangathi Song 228 Translation of the Sarangathi Song into English 229 1 SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS By A. Devaraja Mudaliar SRI Ramana Maharshi, as he is now known, was born on the 30 December, 1879, the day of the Ardra Darshan, held to be sacred and auspicious since it commemorates the occasion when Lord Shiva appeared before great saints like Gautama and Patanjali. His father was one Sundaram Iyer of Tiruchuzhi, a village about thirty miles South-East of Madurai. Sundaram, a pleader of respectable status held in high esteem and love by all alike, was married to Alagammal, a pious Hindu, devout wife and generous hostess. The child was named Venkataraman. After a few years of schooling at Tiruchuzhi itself, Venkataraman studied for his first form at Dindigul and for the higher forms at Madurai. He does not seem to have attained any special distinction at school and is reputed to have been given more to sports than to studies. Bhagavan once told me, “They have been writing like that, but I was really indifferent to studies and sports alike”. He was physically stronger than most of his companions at school. There is nothing particular to record in his life till November 1895. When one of his relatives spoke of his having returned from Arunachala (another name for Tiruvannamalai), the name for some unaccountable reason had a strange and profound effect on him, evoking in him awe, reverence and love combined — though this was not the first time that he had heard it. Bhagavan has told me, “From my earliest years, the name Arunachala was ‘shining and sounding’ within me. There was sphurana of that name”. I asked Bhagavan what sphurana was and he said it conveyed the idea of both sound and sight, a sound and sight not perceptible to the ears and 2 eyes but only to the heart, the psychic heart. A little later he came across the work Peria Puranam in Tamil, which recounts the lives of a number of Tamil saints, and was deeply moved by a perusal of it. In June 1896, when he was sixteen years old, the most important event in his life took place. A sudden and great fear came over him that he was going to die, though he was then in normal bodily health and strength. The shock of this sudden and overwhelming fear of death led him to a very unusual experience which is succinctly described by the Maharshi himself thus: The shock made me at once introspective or introverted. I said to myself mentally, ‘Now death has come. What does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies’. I at once dramatized the scene of death. I extended my limbs and held them rigid as though rigor mortis had set in. ‘Well then’, said I to myself, ‘this body is dead. It will be carried to the burning ground and reduced to ashes. But with the death of this body, am ‘I’ dead? Is the body ‘I’? This body is silent and inert but I feel the full force of my personality and even the sound ‘I’ within myself, apart from my body, so ‘I’ am spirit, a thing transcending the body’. All this was not a mere intellectual process. It flashed before me vividly as living truth. This experience, which might have lasted perhaps half an hour, changed the boy completely for ever afterwards. He lost interest in his studies, friends and relatives and even his food. He would go frequently to the shrines of Meenakshi and Sundareswara in the great temple in Madurai and spend long hours in adoration before the images. He would occasionally pray for the Lord’s grace to flow into him and make him like one of the sixtythree saints in Peria Puranam. But, for the most part he would be lost in the divine bliss within him while tears flowed from his eyes. 3 Observing this change in the boy, his worldly-minded elders and especially his elder brother would rebuke him now and then. Finally on 29 August 1896, when he was studying in the sixth form, things came to a head. The elder brother burst out, “To one like this (i.e., one lost in contemplation), why this sort of life (i.e., books, school and home)”? This touched young Venkataraman’s heart and he said to himself, “Yes, that is quite true. What business have I here and with all these things”? and he decided at once to leave his home and go to Arunachala. He told his elder brother, “I must go to school now to attend a special class”. The elder brother replied, “Then take five rupees from the box downstairs and pay my college fees”. The young aspirant took this as God’s provision for his train fare to Arunachala. He searched for Tiruvannamalai in an old Atlas and spotting the place, thought that three rupees should be enough to take him there. So he took only this sum and started for the railway station, leaving in a prominent place a note in Tamil, which ran: In search of my Father and in obedience to His command, I have left this place. This (i.e., myself) is only entering on a good enterprise; so none need feel grieved over this event, nor need one spend any money in search of this. Two rupees left herewith. He arrived at the station much later than the hour the train was due to leave. But providentially the train too was late and so the boy was able to catch it. He had taken a ticket only to Tindivanam, for according to the old Atlas Tiruvannamalai was not on the railway line and the railway station nearest to it was Tindivanam. But an aged Moulvi sitting in the compartment enquired of the bright youngster where he was going and told him of the recently opened Villupuram-Katpadi link line passing through Tiruvannamalai. The Maharshi could not remember having seen the Moulvi in the compartment at Madurai railway station nor his entering it at any subsequent station. Anyhow there he was to guide him. And following this Moulvi’s advice 4 the lad got down at Villupuram and after a few incidents of no special interest reached a place called Arayaninalloor (Tirukoilur railway station) on his way to Tiruvannamalai. Finding a temple, viz. that of Atulyanatha Iswara, he entered it and sat in dhyana (meditation) in a mantapa dimly lit by a flickering lamp. While he was absorbed in dhyana he suddenly found the entire place filled with a bright light. In wonder the young devotee looked in the direction of the garbhagriha (the innermost shrine), to see if the light proceeded thence. But he found no such source for the light which in any case, disappeared soon. The place where this vision was vouchsafed to the young swami was the very spot where the celebrated saivite saint Tirugnanasambandar had a vision of Lord Arunachala, also in the form of light. The saint had installed a linga of Lord Arunachala which is still being worshipped.