Vol. 15. No, IV October 197 In my unloving self Thou

didst create a passion for

Thee, therefore forsake me (A QUARTERLY) not, Oh Arunachala ! H Arunachala 1 Thou dost root out the ego of those who meditate on Thee in the heart, Oh Arunachala ! " —The Marital Garland —The Marital Garland of Letters, verse 1. of Letters, verse 60

Vol. 15 OCTOBER 1978 No. IV Publisher :

T. N. Venkataraman, CONTENTS President, Board of Trustees, Page Sri Ramanasramam, EDITORIAL : Santi and Sakti . . 207 Tiruvannamalai. The Muni and the Maharshi — IV — S. Sankaranarayanan 211 * Jai Sri Krishna — Dilip Kumar Roy . . 216 Self-Enquiry : Some Objections Answered — Douglas E. Harding . . 217 Editorial Board : Symbolism of the Quest in the Odyssey Sri Viswanatha Swami — Arthur Osborne 222 Sri Ronald Rose Shakespeare and the Vision of Wholeness Prof. K. Swaminathan — Sir George Trevelyan . . 224 Dr. K. Subrahmanyam On Asceticism — Wolter A. Keers . . 229 Sri M. C. Subramanian J nana Sadhana of Gorakhnath Sri Ramamani — Dr. M. Sadashiva Rao . . 233 Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj — ]ean Dunn . . 236 What does Surrender Mean ? — Marie B. Byles 240 Mutability — G. N. Daley . . 242 Garland of Gurus Sayings — Sri Muruganar Managing Editor : — Tr. by Prof. K. Swaminafhan . . 243 V. Ganesan, Swami Rama Tirtha — David Flawley . . 245 Sri Ramanasramam, J nana Minakshi — S. Mohan Raman . . 247 Tiruvannamalai. How I Came to Bhagavan — Guruda,t Nadkarni . . 248 How Real Is, the Physical ? — Murdoch Kirby 250 Glory of Arunachala — Arunachala Mahatmyam — Tr. by M. C. Subramanian 251 What About I ? — Sunya Baba . . 254 Annual Subscription : A Guide during the Falling of Mind INDIA RS- 10 — Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov . . 255 FOREIGN £ 2.00 $ 4.00 Significance of Guru Purnima — Mani Sahukar 256 Life Subscription : Stories from Yoga Vasishtha — XVIII - Rs. 125 £ 25.00 $ 50 Story of Sikhidhvaja and Chudala Single Copy : — Tr. by M. C. Subramanian . . 257 Rs. 2.75 £ 0.60 $ 1.25 Arunachala Unvisited — David Richardson . . 260 Cure in Tiruvannamalai . . 261 Mr. Wu ! IS . . . — Wei Wu Wei . . 262 CONTENTS — (Contd.)

Introducing — Sri K. Natesan and (A QUARTERLY) Smt. Jnanambal Natesan 263 Book Reviews 265 The aim of this journal is to set Ashram Bulletin 271 forth the traditional wisdom of mil Letters to the Editor 276 religions and all ages, especially as testified to by their saints and mystics, and to clarify the paths Contributors arc requested to give the exact data available to seekers in the condi• as far as possible for quotations used, i.e. source tions of our modern world. and page number, and also the meaning if from another language. It would simplify matters. Arti• cles should not exceed 10 pages. All remittances should be sent to the MANAGING Contributions for publication EDITOR and not to the Editor. should be addressed to The Editor, — Editor. The Mountain Path, Sri Ramanas- ramam, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. They should be in English To Our Subscribers and typed with double spacing. Contributions not published will be 1. The official year of the quarterly is from January returned on request. to December. 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 The editor is not responsible for for year/years* should be written on the M.O. statements and opinions contained coupon and the full name and address written in BLOCK in signed articles. LETTERS on the reverse of the coupon. Life Subscription should be sent by cheque drawn favouring The Mountain Path and crossed. The journal will not be sent by V.P.P. No payment is made for contri• 3. FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS can send their subscrip• butions published. Anything herein tion by International Money Order, British Postal Order or published may be reprinted else• by Bank cheque or draft payable in India, U.S.A. or U.K. where without fee provided due The subscription rates arc for despatch of the journal acknowledgement is made and the by surface mail to all parts of the world. editor is previously notified. If despatch by AIR MAIL is desired the following additional annual amount should be remitted :

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The Mountain Path Vol. 15. No. IV, October 1978

EDITORIAL

SANTI AND SAKTI

gPIRITUAL aspiration is the basic human The Truth they know not who assert longing for deep inner peace, the self- That power and peace are different things. oblivion that enables one to forget, if not What abides as peace within overcome, the various distractions; of life. The Appears to outward sight as power. recuperation of Sakti through the Santi of sleep Sankara begins1 his Sivananda Lahari, a song is an every-day experience. The need for rest in praise of beatific bliss, with a simultaneous from action is as insistent as the need for salutation to Siva as the prakasa and Sakti as food, which we share with animals. the vimarsakala of the supreme Reality. Siva is pure awareness and Sakti is the awareness But man's spiritual need, over and above from which springs all human knowledge. The the needs of body and mind, is his " immortal spontaneous effulgence (spburana) of the longing " for this same deep inner peace, this supreme is known as vimarsa. It is this freedom from the divided self, not in the dark vlmarsa which, being one with Brahman, mani• nescience of sleep, but in the broad daylight fests and sustains the whole universe and in of wakeful awareness. The recognition that due time withdraws it into itself. The unity of Santi, like the water in the ocean, is the real Siva and Sakti is celebrated in the litany of content of our being, and that Sakti, the wave the thousand names of Mother Lalita, espe• or the movement, is a mere modification, this cially at the end in the appellation Siva identity with the depth and not the tumult of Sakfyaikya rupini, she whose form is the one• the soul, is a genuine spiritual discovery. ness of Siva and Sakti. Charming and playful, Sri Bhagavan says in answer to a question from motiveless like a child in all her manifold Swami Natanananda : " Knowers of Reality movements, her very name announces her perceive the identity of Santi and Sakti, of nature, Lalita. peace and power. Since Being is Awareness, In the first of the Nine Gems in Nava- the peace whose substance and nature is pure mani-malai, Sri Bhagavan plays with the Being in the Heart manifests as powers mythology which interweaves the mystery of without. In other words, Santi is the normal movement and the mystery of Pure Awareness. state of God when He is free from attributes and all his powers are latent, while a special He is the ever-unmoving One. Yet in the temple-hall (of Thillan) manifestation with powers and attributes is His dance of bliss He dances Sakci." Before the Mother moveless there. Now that Power withdrawn within The same idea, put in a couplet by His Form here moveless, solemn, still, Bhagavan, is expanded by Muruganar thus ; As Aruna Hill He soars, THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

In Chidambaram, Siva, — King of Kings, •— by others Brahman and by still others dances the cosmic dance which the Mother Person (PurusBd). as a mere witness watches. In Aruna- Being (Swaritpa) is said to' be the ground chala, Sakti is withdrawn into Santi, the and Activity its attribute. By understanding flame of Pure Awareness stands frozen as a through activity the source of activity, one moveless mountain, solemn, still and soaring gets firmly established in the Ground. into the sky, but shining once a year as light Being goes with attributes. And attributes illumining light, the blazing beacon on its go with Being. The relation between the two summit challenging the Kartik full-moon's is one of identity. brightness. The beautiful blend of Sakti and Activity is not other than Being (Swarupa) Santi, the interplay of relative and pure if you see indeed. All this knowledge of Awareness, is embodied in all the great difference is but imaginary." Masters of wisdom. Every representation-of * * * Buddha reveals this combination of serenity and strength, of inner clarity and\ inner power, One charge commonly levelled against which in Tamil is termed uran, a quality with advaita is that its insistence on inner peace at whose sole help, in Muruganar's words, any price amounts to a denial of the value of Bhagavan "overcome the world ". And Kavya- vyavahara or the empirical world and that the kantha sings of " his profound Santi and spiritual quest with its lordly indifference to supreme Sakti, the Santi reigning in his eyes politics and public affairs has proved a hind• «n stillness and the Sakti streaming steady in rance and a stumbling block to the country's his gaze," progress. It is pointed out that Kavyakantha and Muruganar were both deeply involved in Chapter 12 of Ramana Gita explains at political and social movements before they fell length the inter-relation of Sakti and Santi. under the spell of Bhagavan. But the critics forget that the later spiritual quest of these It is only because of the movement of scholar-poets was by no means a dereliction Sakti that the worlds come into being, but from patriotism, but rather a keen, concentrated the Reality on which the movement is based search for a dynamic ontology and deeper never moves. humanism which alone could ensure equality The seeming difference between Santi and and excellence at once, strengthen the bonds Sakti arises from (dualistic) vision. If the of brotherhood and thus build a better society vision is withdrawn into the Source, the on the firm foundation of an inviolable inner two become One. peace. Muruganar voices not only Gandhism Though the Supreme moves because of but the essential message of contemporary his own Suoreme Sakti, he is in reality dharma when he says : unmoving. Only the Sage can understand this profound mystery. There is no deed too hard Without Sakti, Being (Swarupa) is not For soul-force to accomplish ; apprehended. Sakti has two names, Vyapara Soul-force is power of love divine. (activity) and Asraya (Ground). To say that numbers or weapons can do Something that soul-force cannot Creation, sustenance and dissolution of Is but the folly of trusting blindly the universe is vyapara — activity. The Maya's play. Ground is nothing other than Being (Swarupa). The measure in which Gandhiji succeeded Because Being is itself everything, it (and his followers failed) in keeping his move• depends on nothing else. He who under• ments predominently non-violent has been stands Sakti as both activity and ground he explained by Father Merton's observation that alone knows. Gandhiji's non-violence was not a political That sole, Supreme Reality is by some tactic but the product of an inner realization called Sakti, by others Being {Swarupa), of spiritual unity in himself and that satyagraha 1978 SANT1 AND SAKTI 209 was not a means of achieving unity but "the, and go on to some more, advanced stage of fruit of inner unity already achieved ". The self-enquiry. Since the only true knowing; is priority of Santi and Sakti is stressed by " becoming", self-enquiry leading to self- Sri Bhagavan in Chapter 10, Ramana Gita. discovery is not a verbal or intellectual exercise "Santi is for purifying one's own mind, Sakti ending in emptiness, but a sustained heuristic for the progress of society". And the progress process of probing and exploring the reality of society itself - is not an endless exercise of within and without, an indefinite series of Sakti but a means for the establishment of experiments with truth. As one by one the Santi. barriers of the separate self fall away, one's dharma expands, one's capacity for being Vinoba Bhave in Chapter 4 of his Talks on increases, one's awareness deepens* and widens, the Gita describes at length the risks to which and one lives out other lives as well as one's one exposes one's moral nature by under• own. taking social service or political work before developing the purity of mind and self- The Indian view of the human condition has surrender which is " true soul-force ". When been well stated by Sri Aurobindo who says : the right bhavana or mental attitude, the " Man is a transitional being, he is not final ", inward action of the mind and heart, which and byx Tagore who says, " Man is much more should accompany karma and which Vinoba than he seems to be at present ; he is more in terms vikarma, is absent, so-called service may truth than he is in fact." The human dharma degenerate into rank self-seeking. The equation then.is a dharma of growth, at once in aware• ness of being and power of action, in height karma + vikarma = akarma and girth, in freedom and responsibility. When we accept and rejoice in the fact that other holds only where the concrete outward action people exist and embody sat-chit-ananda not {karma) is fully balanced and truly inspired less than ourselves and; that their needs are as by the inward thrust {vikarma) of desireless- important as our own, we find that " egoless ness and surrender to the Lord. In Herbert's living ", which Sri Bhagavan defines as true words, " Who sweeps a room as for1 Thy laws, tapas, is easy enough for daily practice and makes that and the action fine." It is not the conducive to inner peace. outward action but the spirit behind it which makes it sacred or profane. From Vinoba's For the daily practice of such egoless living, bold and creative interpretation of Ch. 4, of accepting cheerfully the little martyrdoms verse 17 of the Gita, as from the first three that come our way, there is no handier guide• and the last three verses of Upadesa Sara, one book than the Bhagavad Gita. For Krishna, should learn how, even while engaged in one's the undying atman, is not the blank, bleak, worldly activities, one can enjoy inner peace colourless kaivalya of dry philosophy, but the by establishing a harmony between jnana and rich, vivacious, sportful, infinite Person, a God karma, between being and behaviour, between who plays on the flute and charms his moksha and dharma. Every person is unique and so is every situation. Hence the right res• comrades, takes cows out to graze, rubs horses ponse of inner to outer reality, of ah am to down and drives the; chariot, cleans dishes and idam, cannot be predicted except in terms of mops up floors, a thousand different pictures the peace that the encounter engenders. What and the screen on which they are all projected. Dan to in his Mysticism and Morality calls the He is himself " desire undivorced from mania for monism is this sattvic tendency to Dharma " (Chap. VII) and he solemnly assures use one's inner happiness or peace as the touch• us (Chap, IX) that the sovereign secret he stone on which to test righteousness of action. teaches is easy to understand and easy to It is not as if the jifnasu, the seeker of know• practise. The tasks he entrusts to us, ledge, can quickly get through a brief training the commands of his prema, are clear course in karma, and then leave action behind and compelling. Like Jesus, he too brings 210 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October a peace that only the sword of discrimination immortality, a means of preserving our sat, can win. The unchanging dharma changes satya, sattva, our wholeness. things and relations. In Thoreau's words, this is the " action from principle, the perception In the encounter with Reality, in the moment and performance of right, which is essentially of Truth, individual death or survival is an revolutionary. It not only divides states and irrelevance. Heroic action would then be a churches, it divides families ; aye, it divides natural outcome of this " imprisoned splen• the individual, separating the diabolical in him dour ". Serious mumukshutva can well go from the divine." hand in hand with bold heroic action. The call to such action, addressed to Sri Rama To this God who is our svabhava as well as by the Sage Vasishta {Supplement to the svakala and svadesha and who peremptorily Forty Verses) is meant really for us. The demands the performance of svadharma, it is seeker, as a free person, chooses to follow no true surrender to say " I will not fight. I Sri Rama. Thoreau, who recognizes only one will not act." This God who is the Witness, power, the power of freedom, declares, " They the Assentor, the Sustainer and the Experi- only can force me who obey a higher law than encer (Chap. XIII, upadrashta, anumanta, I. They force me to become like themselves. bharta, bhoktd) is very human indeed and ... If a plant cannot live according to its demands nothing impossible. nature, it dies ; and so a man." Fleeing from svadharma, from one's allotted As Browning says in Paracelsus, Truth task, and seeking shelter in some ivory tower dwells within ourselves ; there in our inmost of abstract speculation, is a futile attempt centre it abides in all its fulness. To know the to escape the Hound of Heaven. The Krishna Truth then one does not bring in a light sup• who says " Remember me, and fight" is no posed to be without, but opens out a way for other than the Self which provides both the the imprisoned splendour to escape. For power of dharma and the peace of moksha. ordinary mortals, self-actualization, the prac• In the quest for the Self the joy of the search tice of dharma, may well be a stage in the is not less than the joy of discovery. The growth towards self-realization. Action itself wisdom of right conduct makes the journey may be a reminder or expression of our pleasant and the goal certain.

Neti, Neti

By Wei Wu Wei

Good morning, Mr. Wu ! Good morning, Madame ! Who is, that whom I am greeting, Mr. Wu ? This which is doing it, Madame.

Who is 1 this ' which is 1 greeting Mr. Wu ? What is being greeted, Madame. Then who is ' this \ ' that' what' Mr. Wu ? Madame, 1 am neither ' this9 ner 'that]* nor 'what' : Bring, 1 AM. 1978 211

THE MUNI AND THE MAHARSHI - IV1 PROPAGATION

By S. Sankaranarayanan

JF it were not for Vasishtha Ganapati Muni, the world might not have discovered the Sage of the Modern Age. Like the many Siddhas of yore who are reputed to be still in the caves of Arunachala, helping mankind unknown to the world, the Maharshi also as the simple Brahmana Swami would have led a life of serene seclusion, somewhere in Aruna• chala far away from the madding crowd. But this was not to be. The Maharshi was a spontaneously self- realised soul and he had nothing to do or accomplish na tasya karyam karanam ca vidyate. But out of his infinite compassion, he chose to live on normally, a man among men, in the world, after liberation, pvanmuktu This is the sacrifice of the Supreme Person, that the Rig Veda speaks about in the famous Purusha Sukta, the Godhead condescending to meet humanity half-way. Ganapati Muni on the strength of his realisation proclaimed the continued to reverberate ever afterwards in Maharshi as an incarnation of Skanda, But the heart of the disciple. And so many disci• divinity lay lightly on the Maharshi. Deva- ples gathered under his protecting umbrella, tamsatn api namra cestitam " Though an some enthralled by the beauty of his voice and aspect of the Godhead, how he deports himself some enchanted by his magnificent personality. with such modesty ! ", wondered the Muni. So profoundly learned and yet so humble, Nayana was open-hearted like a child and On the other hand, Ganapati Muni had an tenderly affectionate towards all his disciples. air of charm and majesty about him. There was And all his disciples became automatically the grace in his gait, sureness in his speech. When devotees of the Maharshi. he spoke, perhaps the gods came down from on high and listened. His voice had an un• The Maharshi was for most of the time earthly timbre, an ethereal magnificence which indrawn, steeped in the silence of the Self. He beckoned the soul of the listener to feast on was like a wavcless ocean plunged into its own the music of the spheres. When the Muni depth. But he acted through the Muni. In fact initiated someone into a Mantra, there was no the Muni derived the Sakti, the force neces• necessity for that person to carry on with the sary for his activities, from the profound Santi japa, the constant repetition of the Mantra. From the moment the initiation was done, the 1 This is the last and concluding in the series of four articles on Kavyakanta. Nayana $ Centenary is being voice of the Muni that articulated the Mantra celebrated in November. 212 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

Sundara Pandit, Viswanathan and Kapali. For the past three days experiences, especially satisfying, have been happening to all of us and to me in particular. Many have been having the vision of Bhagavan Maharshi in their dreams. All firmly believe that this progress is all due to the gracious look of Bhagavan.

Master, this poise of mine accomplished by the grace of thy look, I understand, is on the gnostic plane. I experience the self in the heart cavern quite clearly separate from the body. Even then the experience as an individual in the world has not gone. Therefore I do not consider that this poise of mine is an integral one. May the Maharshi himself grant this to me by his look of Grace which is capable of functioning even from far away. My previous experience was marked by profound ecstasy accompanied by a stream of force. But my present ecstasy seems to have a lightness about it and a flow of light and, vigour. I firmly believe that the Gods moved by the gracious look of Sri Maharshi are purifying and pre• Vaslshtha Ganapati Muni paring me for the fulfilment of the great task. of the Maharshi. In the eyes of the Maharshi May Bhagavan be pleased to turn his look of which destroyed the ignorance of the devotees, Grace towards me as a reply to this letter. he saw the play of Durga, in his face of a A servitor of Bhagavan, thousand expressions he perceived the presence Vasishtha Ganapati". of Lakshmi and in his voice he realised the unman if est supreme para form of Saraswati.2 What is the Great Work mentioned by the When Vasishtha Muni was staying in Muni here ? Firstly, he had an unending Anandashrama at Sirsi, he was constantly sur• spiritual quest. He wanted to find out who he rounded by disciples, devotees and admirers. was and why he had taken birth in this hoary Spiritual experiences began to happen to land of great sages and seers. And what exact• everybody around, irrespective of their inclina• ly was his mission ? His heart wept at the tion, training or background. Supernatural plight of his countrymen. He first wanted free• phenomena occurred and were witnessed in the dom for his motherland from the foreign yoke most casual way. Many who had not even ancl then freedom from all social shackles and heard of the Maharshi, had his darshan in superstitions. He wanted to remove untoucha- meditation and in dreams. They also experi• bility, uplift the outcast and work for the enced the supremely peaceful presence of the emancipation of Indian women. Lastly he Maharshi. A letter written by the Muni to the Maha• 2 Devi sakti riyam drsoh sritajana rshi on 10-3-1931 from Sirsi throws a flood dhvantaksayadhayini Devi sri riyam ambujaksamahisi of light : vaktrc sahasrachadc " Lord, Guha incarnate, .Devi brahmavadhur ivam vijayate Bhagavan would have known how my vyFihFiragudha para lapas has been progressing from the letters of •— Sri Ramana Catvarimsai 1978 THE MUNI AND THE MAHARSHI 213 wanted to propagate and establish in -this out either by an inner impulsion or in response great land the true Vedic religion, the real to the (earnest entreaties of sincere seekers. heritage of the people of this country. The Thus came into existence those soul-stirring Muni was convinced that all these could not Tamil poems of deep devotion like be accomplished by any human effort or means, Aksharamanamalai, Arunachalanavamani- however powerful it might be. The sanction of malai, Ashtakam, Padikam and Pancha- the Divine was required. And it was only ratnam and poems of deep spiritual and philo• through tapas one could know the Divine Will sophical import like Upadesa Undiyar and the in the scheme of things. And the tapas could epoch-making Ulladu narpadu. be carried out with success, only by the grace The Maharshi had no higher education in of the Maharshi. the formal sense and was no scholar in the accepted sense of the term. But he had attain• A modern representative of the hoary past, ed the knowledge, knowing which all this is the Muni was famous for his rational approach known yasmin vijnale sarvam idam vipiatam. to matters spiritual and for his scientific bent The writings of the Maharshi are not of the of mind. A versatile genius, he could straight intellect. Like the Mantras in the Vedas and go to the heart of a subject and have an the Pasurams of the Alwars and Nayanmars instantaneous mastery over the whole matter. they are hrda tastab, carved out of the heart, A born poet, he could compose verses extem• the seat of the real ' I \ Judging from the pore on any subject. No wonder, he gave vast erudition, sweeping scholarship and the expression to his seekings and aspirations in profundity of thought displayed in the Tamil the form of spontaneous verses. A stylist of verses, one will easily rank the Sage of rare elegance and simplicity, he made the Arunachala as one of the outstanding poets the ancient Sanskrit language alive and current, a Tamil literature has produced. His catechism vibrant vehicle of the deepest emotions and in trenchant Tamil Nanar (Who am I ?) is a the noblest aspirations of modern man. Blazing classic in the spiritual literature of the world. a new trail in Sanskrit literature and poetry, he was the author of devotional poems con• All these phenomena, one can perhaps taining many thousands of verses like Uma explain by saying that after all Tamil was the Sahasram, and Indrarii Sahasram. But he did mother-tongue of the Maharshi. But how to not write for fame or name. He wrote because explain the phenomenon of his composing in expression was his very lifebreath. But all his the Sanskrit language ? The Maharshi had no literary compositions came out as a part of knowledge of Sanskrit and he was not familiar his tapas. That was how Ganapati Muni pro• with the intricacies of Sanskrit Poetics. Yet, pagated his ideas, spread his influence over the without his volition, he gave expression to his length and breadth of the country and made first verse in Sanskrit " Hrdaya kuharama- the grace of the Maharshi available to one dhye " carrying in a nutshell the essence of his and all. v teaching. In the same wav he uttered Aruna- chata Pancharafnam the Five Gems on Aruna- As far as the; Maharshi was concerned, he ch^la, in the beautiful Sanskrit metre called did not spell out his mission in such detail. Arya Git'. After some time he rendered the His very presence in the world was his message. essence of the Teaching Upadesa Saram sue- In those early days he rarely spoke. Around cintly in Sanskrit in the lilting Siipratistha him there was a deep ocean of silence in which metre. AH these verses in Sanskrit composed every thing got submerged. But his eyes were by the Maharshi were elegant, flawless, per• ever eloquent as they communed with all fect in all respects, conforming to the canons beings that came within his purview. To a of Sanskrit poetrv. They evoked the admira• superficial observer the Maharshi looked tion of the great Kavyakantha himself. indifferent and unconcerned. But what con• cern he had for his fellow-beings was known Only when he felt it was necessary, the only wffen the Maharshi was moved to speak Maharshi spoke or wrote, When stupid or 214 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October irrelevant questions were asked, the Maharshi expounds the Mantra of the Maha• did not choose to reply. When simple innocent rshi in symbolic language, which the folk asked questions, the Maharshi understood Muni made explicit later in his commentary their sincerity and gave replies suited to their Gurumantra Bhashya. Happily the whole level of understanding. But when earnest, composition has been commented upon by the serious seekers asked questions to clear their Muni's illustrious disciple Sri Kapali Sastriar doubts, the Maharshi responded graciously, and the commentary Ramanagita Prakasa explaining the profundities and subtleties verily throws a flood of light on the philoso• patiently. But many found that, the moment phical concepts and spiritual import, that are they were in the Maharshi's presence, they got embodied in the grand teachings imparted by the answers to the questions they had intended the Maharshi. to ask. All the doubts were dispelled and the Vasishtha Muni wrote also a commentary in mind became clear. Sanskrit on Maharshi's Upadesa Saram, which But man is primarily a mental being, ' full the latter had himself composed in Sanskrit. of mind, leader of the vital body', mano- The Muni began and finished the whole com• may ah pranasarira neta, as the Upanishad says, mentary during the course of a lunar eclipse and he wants conviction first at the mental on a Sunday evening in Arunachala. The level. It is our good fortune that there were Maharshi's Tamil poem Ulladu Narpadu was according to the Muni an epoch-making work. earnest, spiritual seekers around the Maharshi, But it was in Tamil and could be appreciated in the early days, who could draw him out with only by those who understood the language. serious, meaningful questions. It is still more Ganapati Muni undertook to render it in the fortunate that a spiritual person of eminence Sanskrit language so that it might reach a like Vasishtha Muni was among them, who wider audience and find; a permanent place in put the dialogues on record and the result was the spiritual literature of India. The result was the work Sri Raman a Git a. Sat darsanam in mellifluous Sanskrit verses in the beautiful Upajdli metre which is- a faithful Composed by Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni, rendering of the Tamil text and yet appears Sri Ramana Gita records the instruction of the almost like an original composition of the Maharshi on various subjects of spiritual im• Muni. portance in answer to ardent queries address• ed by devotees and disciples. The work con• Saddarsanam was composed by Sri Vasish• sists of 300 verses in elegant flowing Sanskrit, tha Muni during his sojourn in Anandashrama, divided into eighteen Chapters, each mention• Sirsi, along with his disciples. As soon as the ing the occasion and the background. The work was finished by the Muni, it was follow• questions are often intricate, relating as they ed by a commentary by his great disciple, do to the deepest experience in Yoga, and Sri Kapali Sastriar who also was staying involve very subtle perception and analysis. with the Muni at that time in Anand• The Muni gave to the work the appellation ashrama, Sirsi. The letters written by the Muni ' Gita' as like the Bhagavad Giia, it deals from there to the Maharshi at that time give with no particular religion, but with the eternal the proper setting; to the whole composition. quest of man, his doubts and aspirations and The letter of 17th March, 1931 reads as the ways open to him to reach the goal. The under: Avatara of the present age, the Maharshi, is the Teacher in the Ramana Gita. The second " Lord, Master of the Universe, chapter of the work contains, like a diadem I had an impulsion from the heart to send for the whole composition, the Maharshi's to the Maharshi's presence a letter every week. spontaneous Sanskrit verse Hrdayakuharama- dhye, imparting the Master's teaching in a Sat darsanam was completed on Saturday. nutshell. Amongst the verses of the last chap• As far as possible the import of the immaculate ter, the verse Vedadipakadciinanottara verses of Bhagavan was caught in the Upajails 1978 THE MUNI AND THE MAHARSHI 215 there, If there is anything of quality in my great encouragement. Kapali's commentary translation, it is the Grace of Bhagavan. From written so far is replete with an uncommon that Saturday onwards my vision has become beauty. Deva wrote that my quotation of the extraordinary. I seem to see all things as one Tamil verse in the course of explaining the existence. I pray to Bhagavan that this practice concept of Guha and Ganapati drew a gracious may get firmly established and end up as rea• smile from the:\ Maharshi. He had the good lisation. I see the changes of form, etc. of the fortune of seeing the smile-lit face of the one Truth like bubbles on the surface of water. Maharshi. That news itself delighted our I shall try to leave them and experience the hearts ". pure existence. I am, And in the letter of 1st July, 1931

Vasishtha, who craves for Thy grace. " The commentary of child Kapali gave me special satisfaction. I trust that it will touch The letter of 7th April, 1931 says : the heart of Bhagavan as well ". And at the Lord belonging to the clan of Parasara, end of the composition Saddarsanam, Vasishtha Muni described his writing as a Here all are well by the; grace of Bhagavan. clear surface receiving and reflecting the bright Child Kapali has started his Taka (Notes) on rays of superhuman words that emanated from Saddarsana. I have indicated that considering the self-luminous Maharshi.3 the greatness of the original text, the appella• tion Bhashyam (commentary) only will be It is no exaggeration to say that those who appropriate. Says Kapali " The more one want to understand the message of the Maha• studies the more profound appears Saddar• rshi in its pristine purity have to drink deep sanam ". I understood its profoundly even at at the fountain sources of the Muni's writings the time of its composition (in Tamil). Though on the Maharshi. small in size the Work is aphoristic containing the secret of great philosophies and of Yoga. Let us close with this letter of 22nd July, Here there is no condemnation of other peo• 1931 which portrays the Muni's intense devo• ple's stand. Even then in a strange way all the tion to the Maharshi : other people's notions are subordinated. The " Lord, dear to the Devotees, arguments advanced here touch the hearts of the elite and the commoner alike. By and large, The greatness of Mantra japa has been no text of authority has been quoted. Even so experienced. The essence of yoga has been the text appears as an epitome of the essence perceived. The meaning of Sastras has been of the Vedas. In order to explain this, the com• gone into thoroughly. Tapas has been perform• mentator has a lot of things to bring out. A ed with one-pointed concentration. The play lot of new light has to be thrown. And the of Kundalini force has been witnessed. The work should not become unwieldy. Topics b

Who could believe that the Muni and the May this sub-continent of Bharata shine Maharshi both were the products of this forth, free from all affliction ! May Ganapati Twentieth Century civilisation ? They came Muni who is solely devoted to her welfare as shining messengers of the eternal values of shine forth ! May his Master Ramana, the life, to assure man that he has not been given superb Mountain of a Maharshi shine forth ! up, that he is still loved by his creator. May their Holy Mother the consort of the Lord Supreme shine forth ! " Jayafai bharataksonikhandam vlsadavivarjifam 4 Llmasabasram.

JAI SRI KRISHNA

By Dilip Kumar Roy

Oh, give me refuge at thy feet, And take me across the shoreless deep. Who but thyself, my Lord, can ever transform Life's thorny woods into sweet flower-gardens ?

Thy mystic flute-call has, once and for all, Weaned my soul from the bondage of the world. Why then must thou in this fateful hour of night Still turn thy face away ,

I know thou art compassionate : For time and again have I not thrilled To the message of thy flute But thou, alas, hast stayed invisible :

1 know thou art not cruel, Lord : For has not thy cascade of blessing flown In ever-new lilts of deep delight for me ? In my loneliness I hark to thee and appeal : Oh, teach me to hail thy bliss. And let me havened be At thy dawn-rose feet. Kindle, oh kindle in my soul Thy everlasting Light of lights. How else shall I ever learn to love thee Unknowing thy unutterable Self Of supernal beauty and bliss ? 1978 21? SELF-ENQUIRY: SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

By Douglas E. Harding

Our self-knowledge is our beauty ; in self-ignorance we are ugly. —Plotinus, All Christian religion wholly consists in this, to learn to know ourselves whence we come and what we are. — Boehme. Who is it that repeats the Buddha's name ? We should try to find out where this ' Who' comes from and what it looks like, — Hsu Yun. You know the value of everything—except yourself ! — Rumi. Forgetfulness of the Self is the source of all misery. — Ramana Maharshi.

JLJOW is it that we need all this prodding (6) It's wonderful excuse for idleness and all these warnings and earnest invitation; sponging. and promises of immense rewards, to persuade (7) It's coldly indifferent to art and to us to take a really close look at ourselves ? nature, to the beauty and wonder of the uni• Why don't all intelligent and serious people verse and the rich variety of the human scene. make it their chief business in life to find out what they really are ? (8) It's a stupefying drug which reduces Thoughtful people, when challenged on this words to gibberish, stops thought, numbs the subject, are apt to excuse1 themselves by raising mind itself, exchanging; our most highly- a number of objections to this inward search : evolved human function for the nonhuman or they aren't at all sure it's a good thing. Of subhuman Inane. course (all agree) we need a working know• ledge of our nature in order to make the best Selfish of ourselves and get on with others, but the First, take the accusation of selfishness. A probing can thrust too deep and go on too typical view is that we're not here to discover long. ' Know thyself' is all right up to a ourselves but to forget ourselves, concentrating point, but shouldn't become an obsession, an on others and exchanging our natural self- end in itself, and certainly not our life's work : centrcdness for the other-centredness of loving such introspection (they say) is likely to do service. more harm than good. And so, they go on :— (1) It's a selfish diversion of our energies But how can we really do very much good to others till we know ourselves profoundly ? from the service of others to preoccupation How much of our so-called help is in fact with ourselves. working off our guilt-feelings on the world, (2) It's a morbid introversion resulting in trying to resolve our unconscious conflicts self-consciousness (in the bad sense) if not regardless of the real need ; and how often actually in mental illness. our short-term help ends in long-term (3) It's time-consuming and unpractical, hindrance ! It's notorious that the material unfitting us for our jobs and even for family and even the1 psychological aid we give people, life. in solving one of their problems, is apt to (4) It's depressing and dull, a dreadful create two more. Only the highest spiritual aid, bore, a dead end terminating in a mental blank. given by one who really knows himself, and (5) It kills spontaneity and all natural, others through himself, can be guaranteed out-going enjoyment. altogether beneficent and free from those un- 218 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October fortunate side-effects which go on and on so surprising. Contented (not to say self-satis• incalculably ; and then the gift is probably a fied) people, fairly ' normal' and well adjust• secret one, unexpressed and inexpressible. The ed and half-way good at being human, aren't truth is that helping oneself (which means driven to finding out what else they may be. finding oneself) is helping others, though the It's those who need to find out Who they are, influence may be altogether subterranean. It the fortunately desperate ones, who are more goes without saying that we must be as actively likely to take up the enterprise of Self- kind as we can, but until we see clearly Who discovery. A sound instinct tells them where is being kind, we're working more-or-less in their Cure lies. the dark, with the hit-or-miss consequences that might be expected. So it is that the worldling may appear (and often actually be) a far better man than the One of the troubles with this would-be spiritually inclined. Looking within doesn't forgetfulness of self in the service of others is transform the personality overnight. All the that it's practically impossible : deliberate same, to the degree that this supreme enter• virtue rarely forgets to pat itself on the back a prise succeeds, it ' normalises ' a man, fitting little. Goodness aimed at directly can scarcely him at last for life and correcting avoid self-congratulation, and then its odour awkwardnesses and weaknesses and ugli• becomes unpleasant. But if, on the other hand, nesses. Now he's truly adjusted : he it's a mere by-product, arising naturally out of knows how to live and prosper and be true knowledge of oneself and concern for happy. Paradoxically, it's by discovering that others (because one is them), then it's quite he isn't a man at all that he becomes a satisfac• indifferent to itself and any incidental merit tory man. Naturally so : once he sees Who he or demerit, and so continues to smell sweet. really is, his needs and his demands on others, Unfortunately, trying to become a saint, or rapidly dwindle : his ability to concentrate on even a Sage, is a self-defeating (or rather, any chosen task is remarkable ; his detachment Self-defeating) enterprise likely to end in its provides the cool objectivity necessary for opposite — an inflated ego. practical wisdom ; for the first time he sees people as they are ; he takes in everything and Morbid ? is not himself taken in. At the start, Self- enquiry may not be the best recipe for making Can such an enquiry be morbid, neverthe• friends and influencing people, but in fhc end less ? it's the only way to be at home in the world. Nothing else is quite practical. Sages are im• What is mental illness, in the last resort, mensely effectual men, not a lot of dreamy but alienation from others and therefore from incompetents. oneself ? It's the shame and misery of the part trying to be a whole (which it can never Dull ? be) instead of the Whole (which it always is). We are all insane, more or less, till we find Ah (say those who don't know), but their by Self-enquiry our absolute identity with life is so dull, so monotonous. How is it possi• everyone else. ble — attending for months and years on end to what is admittedly featureless, without any Unpractical ? content whatever, mere Clarity — to avoid a terrible boredom ? Discovering our North Pole Self-enquiry is also suspected of being, if may bq fine, but do we then have to live there not actually unhealthy, at least unpractical. in the icy darkness where nothing ever Some colour is given to this objection by the happens ? fact (painfully evident to anyone who gets mix• ed up with religious movements) that 1 spiri• Now the extraordinary truth is that, con• tual ' people are quite often cranks, misfits, or trary to all expectations, this seemingly bleak inclined to be neurotic. Actually, this isn't and dreary Centre of our being is in fact end- SELF-ENQUIRY i SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED ltssly satisfying, absolutely fascinating : there's Idle ? not a dull moment here. It's our periphery, the Is this an easy way out — out of the Hell world where things happen, which in the end of responsibility and involvement and danger bores and depresses. Why should the colour• — into a safe and unstrenuous Heaven ? To less, shapeless, unchanging, empty, nameless look at some enquirers you might think so, but Source prove (in actual practice, not in theory) ycu couldn't be more mistaken. In a sense, so astonishingly interesting, while all its pro• admittedly, it's the easiest thing in the world ducts, in spite of their inexhaustible richness, to see what nobody else can see, namely what prove a great weariness eventually ? Well, it's like to be oneself, what it's like here at this curious fact just has to be accepted •— no distance from oneself : the Light is blazing- thankfully. It can hardly be a matter of ly obvious, the Clarity transparent and un• serious complaint that everything lets us down mistakable. But in another sense, alas, it's the till we find out Who's being let down. If we most difficult thing in the world to see and go would only allow them, all things push us on seeing this Spot from this Spot : this Selfwards. mysterious Place one occupies, where one supposed there was some solid thing, a body Unnatural ? or a brain, and where in fact is only the Seer Himself, is too wide open to inspection, too Everything naturally directs us back to its plain to catch our attention. All our arrows Source. In fact, the whole business of Self- of attention point outwards ; and they might discovery is our normal function, our natural be made of steel, so seemingly hard it is to development, failing which we remain stunted, bend them round to point in to the Centre, if not perverse or freakish. Again, this is a and still harder to prevent them springing back surprising discovery. One would have imagined again immediately. Of all ambitions this is the that any protracted inward gaze would have most far-reaching, arfd no other adventure is made a man rather less humane probably giving anything like so daring or so ' difficult' — till him a withdrawn look, an odd, self-occupied, we see how the difficulty was of our own and maybe forbidding manner. Actually, the making. reverse is true : the Self-seeing man has the grace and charm of one who is free. To find World-Rejecting ? the Source is to tap it. Take the case of Is the result worth the trouble ? Is there the man who starts off being morbidly self- nothing of value out there, nothing worthy of conscious : there are two things he can do our attention and love ? Turning our backs on about it, the one a mere amelioration (if that), a universe so magnificent and so teeming, on the other a true cure. The false cure for his all the treasures of art and of thought, and shyness is to lose himself by moving out above all on our fellow beings, is surely a huge towards the world ; the true cure is to find loss. The Sage — so it's reported — isn't himself by moving in towards himself till one interested in these matters : the world v con• day his self-consciousness becomes Self- sists of things he doesn't wish to know : for consciousness and therefore at ease everywhere. him, knowledge of particular things is only It's true that nobody can, by any technique of ignorance. Oddly enough, it's the man who self-forgetting, regain the naturalness, the simple attends only to the outer scene, ignoring what spontaneity of the small child or the animal ; lies at its Centre, who's more or less blind to but by the opposite process of Self-recollection that outer scene. For the world is a curious he can gain something like that blessed state, phenomenon that, like a faint star, can be though at a higher level. Then he will know, clearly observed only when it isn't directly as if by superior instinct, what to do and how looked at. It's an object that will not fully to do it ; and, rather more often, what not to reveal itself till we look in the opposite direct do. Short of this goal, we are all to some tion, catching sight of it in the mirror of the degree awkward and artificial. Self. For example, though the world is occa- 220, THE MOUNTAIN PATH October sionally beautiful when directly viewed as arise, his response is the correct one. His quite real and self-supporting, it's consistently mindlessness is the indispensable basis of a beautiful when indirectly viewed as a product smoothly functioning mind ; his Self-informa• or accident of the Self. When you see Who's tion includes all the other information he needs really here you see what's really there, as a from moment to moment. In short, he's sage, sort of bonus. And this bonus is a delightful which means wise : not clever and learned and surprise : the universe is transformed. Colours with a head full of ideas, but simple and — almost sing, so brilliant and glowing they are ; literally — clear-headed. shapes and planes and textures arrange them• selves into charming compositions ; nothing's Even in ordinary life we find hints of this repulsive or despicable or out of place. Every vital connection between Self-awareness and random patterning of objects — treetops and creativity. Don't out very best moments always cloud-banks, leaves and stones on the ground, include a heightened consciousness of ourselves, human figures and cars reflected in shop so that wc aren't really ' lost' in inspiration or windows, stains and tattered posters on old creative fervour or love, but newly found ? walls, litter of all kinds — each is seen to be At its finest, doesn't the opaque object over inevitable and perfect in its own unique way. there point unmistakably back to the trans• And this is the very opposite of human parent subject here ? It may even happen that imagination : it's divine realism, the clearing the transparency comes first : we attend, our of that imaginative, wordy smoke-screen which idiotic inner chatter dies down, wc consciously increasingly hides the world from us as we become nothing but this alert, expectant Void grow older and more knowing. — and presently the required tune or picture, the key notion, the true answer, arrives ready- Uncreative ? made in that Void, from that Void. Indeed the path of Self-enquiry is no escape The result of observing only the universe is route : it's the shortest way in to the universe, — anxiety. Only observing the Observer of our highboard to the keenest enjoyment of the the universe will put a stop to a man's worry• world. Yet, they say, it's incompatible with ing and fussing and scheming. When his any other serious creative endeavour, whether interest is diverted inwards he naturally artistic or intellectual or practical. If so, this relaxes his hold — his stranglehold — on the is surely a considerable drawback. outer world. Having withdrawn his capital and It's true that Self-enquiry will never succeed paid it in to his own Central Bank (where it till we put our whole heart into it, and conse• immediately appreciates to infinity) he has quently the dedicated artist or philosopher or nothing to lose out there and no reason for scientist seems to be an unpromising subject. interfering. He knows how to let things be, Actually this is not because he's too devoted and work out in their own time. He's in no to his calling, but because he's not yet devoted hurry. Knowing the Self, he can hardly fail enough, not yet absolutely serious about it : he to trust its products : whatever occurs is needs to deepen and widen his field till it fundamentally agreeable to him, and even if includes both himself and the whole world. it weren't it could never touch his real Being. For the only consistent genius, the only com• In Christian terms, he has no will but God's ; plete Artist-Philosophcr-Scientist, is the Sage, what he wants is what happens, and what who is fully conscious of being the Painter of happens is what he wants. Paradoxically, his the entire World-picture, the Thinker of all obedience to the nature of things is his rule thought, the Universe-inventor, Knowledge over them ; his weakness is all-powerful. And itself. This doesn't mean, of course, that he the secret of his power is that he isn't con• has all the details at his fingertips, but he does cerned with events at all. ' Seek ye first the sec what they all amount to in their innermost Kingdom of God, and all these things shall essence and outermost sum, namely his true be added unto you/ Seek ye first these things, Self. And whenever a question of detail does and even they shall be taken away. 1978 SELF-ENQUIRY : SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 221

This perfect obedience isn't just lining oneself the actuality. But there the resemblance ends, up with God's will, or imitating it, or even Seeing green is an ineffable experience becoming part of it,: it's that very will itself in because it's a prehuman or infrahuman one ; full operation. If we wish to find out exactly seeing the Seer of green is aci ineffable experi• what it's like to make the world, we have only ence because it's posthuman or suprahuman to desire nothing and pay attention. But total one. The Sage's rejection of the concept- acceptance is very hard. It's precisely the ridden, word-clouded mind is poles apart from opposite of the lazy indifference that merely the sensualist's. Self-enquiry isn't retrogression, lets things slide. It springs from inner but the next evolutionary step beyond man, or strength, not weakness, and is the result of rather the whole path from him to the Goal. concentration, not slackness. Why is the world And though the Goal is beyond thought, pure so troublesome, so frightful ? Is it like that by limpidity, void even of voidness, it's also nature, or because we take the easy way of nothing but the Honest Truth at last. For only fighting it instead of the difficult way of the Self can be known : everything else is fitting in with it ? We have to find out for partly guesswork, partly false. Only Self- ourselves the truth of the Sage's demonstra• awareness is wide-awakened and fully obser• tion that even in the smallest things the way vant : all other awareness is mind-wandering. of non-interference, of giving up all self-will, Total alertness is the Self. of ' disappearing', is astonishingly practical, the wisdom that works. Not only in the long And so, in conclusion, every fault we could run, but from moment to moment, consciously find with Self-enquiry has turned out to be getting out of the Light, giving place to what• only a merit. Certainly there are kinds of ever things present themselves in it, instantly introspection which are harmful, but they're puts them right. We do too much and there• concerned with the ego or empirical self and fore remain ineffectual ; we talk far too- much the very opposite of the true enquiry, which is and therefore say nothing ; we think far, far healthy and sane, creative, natural, life- too much and therefore prevent the facts from enhancing, practical, and altruistic. Though speaking for themselves — so say those who some of us may start this true enquiry terribly know the power of Emptiness. It's for us to late, it's what we're here for. To neglect it is make our own tests, not —- repeat, not — by in every sense a shame. the direct method of trying to be quiet and mindless (it just won't work) but by the It would still be a shameful neglect, un• indirect method of seeing Who was trying to worthy of our energy and intelligence, even if be like that. No man becomes Godlike Self-enquiry promised no pay-off at all. And except by seeing he isn't a man anyway. in any case its benefits are purely coincidental : the only way to have them is to care nothing His experience of deification has no content for them, but only for the unvarnished Truth whatever, no details : it's not merely indes• about ourselves, no matter how unedifying it cribable, but non-mental or non-psychological, might prove. If all we want is to see Who we and in the truest sense non-human. Thinking are, nothing can stop our doing so this very or talking about it destroys it, by complicating instant. But if our plan is merely to use that what is Simplicity and Obviousness itself. It's vision to buy human haopiness or any other rather like tasting sugar or seeing green : the ?oods, we might as well abandon the very idea more you reflect on it the further you get from of Self-enqutrv. 222 October Symbolism of the Quest in the Odyssey

By

Arthur Osborne1

""Y^HY did the ancient Greeks regard the bridegroom. He appears disguised as a desti• Homeric poems as a religious autho• tute wanderer. She recognises him but the rity ? They were religious in the sense that sin tors do not. Precautions have to be taken they recorded norms of conduct, even though lest they slay him — as the rebellious genera• they lacked the high ethical standards and tions slay the prophets, as the unbelievers slay preoccupations with d bar ma of the Hindu Christ, until he is manoeuvred into a position epics. They were religious too in the sense that where he can overcome them. they comprised allegories of the quest. That is the essence of the story, but there The question how many of the ancients saw are many wayside adventures, just as there the allegories would be as pointless as the are in the life of the wayfarer. Also there are question how many moderns sec the allegory changes of symbolism, one aspect or another of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac. It was certain• being depicted as required. Only a few salient ly there to see, and some must have seen it or features are explained here. The story of Helen the epics would not have been regarded with and Paris and the Trojan war would be the such reverence. subject of another and no less symbolical story. Indeed, the Iliad is more of the nature of one The Odyssey, it will be remembered, starts tremendous panoramic story, while the near the end and then proceeds with a throw Odyssey, in symbolism as in outer form, is back. Let us follow Homer in this. The final rather a string of episodes. episode shows Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus, still ruling his rocky homeland of There is one, it will be recalled, where the Ithaca after his years of enforced wandering syrens, treacherous nymphs singing with super• through perilous adventures. But she is beset human beauty, try to have Odysseus and his by his unruly nobles who pester her to marry men on to the rocks where their ship will one of them and proclaim him ruler, giving be dashed to pieces and they drowned ; Odysseus up as lost and disinheriting their Odysseus foils their scheme by making his adolescent son Tclemachus. men plug their ears with wax before reaching their haunt. Only he himself kept his ears Penelope can be understood as the human open but took the precaution of getting lashed state. Telemachus is the new man which is to a mast and forbidding his men to release arising out of it. The suitors are the still un• him, till he was past the danger zone. The subdued individual tendencies which try to songs of the syrens obviously represent the capture it and turn it to their own use and lures of the subtle world which have led so enjoyment. Finally they set a term for Pene• many spiritual wayfarers to perdition. lope — they will wait only till she finishes weaving the tapestry she is engaged in, but no Then there is the story of Circe. Some of longer. But she circumvents them ; each night the men go ashore on a beauteous island to she unravels what she wove the previous day. replenish their water supply and there they The tapestry is Maya — woven during the encounter an enchantress who offers them daytime of activity, unravelled during the food and wine. They partake of it and their night of meditation. Then Odysseus arrives, representing here the descent of the Spirit, the 1 From among Arthur Osborne's unpublished papers, 1978 SYMBOLISM OF THE QUEST IN THE ODYSSEY 223 doing so gives her power over them which she The story of Polyphemus is less obvious. uses by dashing a cup of wine in their faces The one-eyed giant who captures Odysseus and turning them into swine. She represents and his men ; shuts them up in his cave, and Maya, and those who have succumbed to her begins to devour them, two a day, at first allurements have become like swine. sight suggests the single eye of Siva, destruc• A strange parallel is to be found in a story tive of duality. But actually it must be only a of Vishnu. He becomes infatuated with his dark simulacrum of this, such as must come own daughter — Divine Power with the from one-pointed concentration of a harmful, beauty of creation. To make love to her would not a sublime nature, for Polyphemus is a be incest, so he transforms both of them into danger to survival and it is Odysseus who swine, for whom there is no such law. Thus triumphs and lives by putting out his eye. It transformed he wallows in filth until reminded is Odysseus too, it will be remembered, who of his true nature. attains symbolically the Nameless state by And how does Odysseus escape the peril ? telling Polyphemus when asked his name, While he is on way to Circe's house Hermes, that it is No-man, so that when the blinded a youth always represented as the messenger giant's companions ask who has done this to of the gods, comes especially to warn him and him he answers : " No man has done it", thus gives him an elixir which will turn the tables enabling Odysseus to escape. on Circe, giving him power over her. The messenger of the gods is divine intuition. These symbolical stories are indeed a sort Forewarned, the hero of mythology averts the of code, a reminder to those) who have the key snares of Maya, not only retaining his man• to them. There is a wealth of them in ancient hood but subjecting her to his will. As with Greek, as in Hindu, mythology — the Labours the syrens he is able to experience the allure• of Hercule, the Golden Fleece, myths that ments of the subtle world without becoming have lasted through the ages, that served once enslaved to them. as a reminder and still can if read aright.

THE BALL

By ' Garuda'

Like a ball thrown by a child it flics down in sleep, strikes the ground, and rebounds to the hand bright and billowing. O child, intently watch the ball as it flies up to you freely spinning ! 224 October Shakespeare and the Vision of Wholeness

By Sir George Trevelyan

rJpHE Vision of Wholeness colours the whole The current views of evolution make of Shakespeare's writing. It is the key the tacit assumption that species have to the hidden allegory which runs through all grown * by chance' through natural his plays and new light is thrown upon their selection. Man is thus essentially an accident interpretation once we begin to look upon in a realm of nature indifferent to him them in this way. The concept was still and his presence. The planet on which we current in the world-view of Shakespeare's tread is seen as a tiny speck of dust in a vast day. It was assumed that in the beginning was dead mechanism of the cosmos and life a puff the vast unity of divine imagination. This then of light to be extinguished in the vast and began to divine itself into great polarities, slow death of a solar system. No wonder that balanced opposites in a harmony of antagonis• man, finding himself an unimportant accident tic action. Among the primary polarities were in a world of death, feels himself at liberty to the " voluntas " and " noluntas ", the opposi• exploit and ' mine ' the planet ' ad lib ' for his tion of male and female running through all personal gain and pleasure. life. Gravity and its opposite known as " levity" till the seventeenth century, is Into this thinking now impinge disturbing another example. The incredible diversifica• thoughts. Perhaps this is not the true picture. tion in nature is thei picture of this ever increas• Perhaps our assumption of unimportance has ing partition into subtler polarities. It is the led to a vast arrogance. At least we awaken to process which Teilhard de Chardin called the fact that it is not the only picture. Perhaps " complexification ", and it created that com• after all we must take more literally the plex environment which makes it now possi• phrases that we say so lightly. ble for the human organism to survive. 1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the This division means that all parts are an Word was God. image of the whole and the whole is contained in every part. Man is thus the microcosm and By him were all things made. the image of the macrocosm. Modern radionics As Pope had it : rediscovers this truth. The bloodspot is found " All are but parts of one stupendous to radiate on the same wave-length as the whole whole body and thus diagnosis and healing can Whose body nature is and God be achieved at a distance through restoring the the soul " imbalance in radiation pattern. We must recognise that until recently the The opposing view sees the world as the ' vision of wholeness ' was the basic tenet of aggregate of separate parts integrated in the thinking mind. It still coloured all thought growth. The distinction is fundamental. Our in Shakespeare's day. Indeed we must admit scientific age is largely founded on the second that ours is the only culture since the world view. It is clearly accepted in the Marxist began which has not in some way held that life doctrine that all the achievements of art and b^gan in a great unity and that l:fe on our religion are but a superstructure of human e^rth plane is held by a great and living orga• thinking built upon the one reality -— matter, nism of sp:ritual being. Our arrogant age has 1978 SHAKESPEARE AND THE VISION OF WHOLENESS 225 abandoned this world-view, writing oil the the elixir of life, be it golden fleece, Holy earlier thinkers as victims of superstition. Now Grail, talisman or jewel, with life-enhancing it begins to reawaken. Stammeringly and with power. a new humility we begin to recognise that the Shakespeare's plays constitute, in this sense, older thinkers may have been right. Man may a great body of mythology. Once we have seen after all prove to be the centre of a living the ' vision of wholeness' and the truth of the organism of being ; the planet instead of a eternal being: of man we can re-read the plays speck of dead dust, may prove to be a living on a different level. They strengthen the soul seed, holding in the crown of its evolution a in the truths they reveal. spiritual future of enormous importance. Cer• tainly man as a free and conscious kingdom The theme of unity runs through them all. seems to have been the concern of God or First comes the primal unity diversified into the Gods. polarities thrown into confusion by human error, the task of the hero being to restore the " What is man, that Thou art mindful harmony through uniting with his higher self of him —- as symbolised by the heroine. A cosmic process For thou hast made him a little lower is portrayed on the level of human relations. than the angels." " The Comedy of Errors " is one of the In tht new understanding we can see the clearest examples of this. Here a condition of human kingdom as tnat held in wmch nature Elysian unity is first described, then division becomes conscious of herself. The living orga• into pairs, paired yet again, like cells dividing. nism of the planet looks out through human The uttermost confusion comes about through consciousness into a cosmos shot through with human error and frailty, until finally the right living thought and being. Man is indeed res- pairs find each other- and the original harmony ponsiDie to God for the life on the planet. The is restored. A comedy indeed, some would say divine world has handed over to him the task a brilliant youthful farce. Yet at the same time of tending and developing life upon the planet. in this early play Shakespeare gives us his We are the channels for the inflow of the whole thesis and follows it through in all the spirit and of light but in our greed, with its other comedies. The greatest error is to think offspring fear, we turn it all to confusion and that this play is simply a comedy. It is a great darkness. In a new humility we must take up allegory, but as with all Shakespeare, no moral our task of stewards of God and of ambassa• is forced upon us. We have no need to bother dors for the divine. about the hidden allegory. We may take the plays at their face value. The very title " As All mythology, all fairy stories, tell in terms you like it " shows this. " As you like it" of symbolism and allegory of that truth which turns out to be the most complete morality it is so essential for modern man to rediscover play, with not one character or even name that if he is to keep his sanity. The inner core of has not its significance in the pattern. Space man is eternal spiritual being belonging to a does not allow analysis here and only the hint timeless world of light. This descends into can be given to urge the reader to explore the world of matter to undertake an allegori• further. " Feed yourselves by questioning ", is cal journey, through dark forest or dangerous Hymen's final injunction. Orlando, represent• seas, until it can find and unite with its own ing the awaking powers of affection, revolts higher or spiritual self. When this mystical against the dominant Will (Oliver, his brother), marriage has been achieved, return to the finds his higher self (Rosalind), is separated eternal realms becomes possible. A thousand from her to go through soul trials until he can variants on this timeless theme are found by truly come back to her again, worthy of the all who know how to read in legend and mystical marriage. Exiled to the forest, an drama. The hero in all mythology is one who eternal symbol of the journey through time, he journeys into the timeless realms to bring back finds her in disguise and is trained by her in 226 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October love. When Will and heart and thinking are we have missed. The story ends again with the in harmony through the integration of the per• uniting in composite marriages in the Elysian sonality, a composite marriage is celebrated. world of Belmont, the true unity of persona• lity and spirit now established. " Now is there joy in heaven When earthly things made even So also with that great mystery play " The Atone together Tempest". Again the hero Ferdinand sees In allegorical interpretation all characters and loves Miranda. " They have changed must be seen as aspects of the personality. This eyes ". Once the inner unity is secure the is well known in the psychology of dreams. initiating priest, Prospere, separates them with The unbelievable genius of Shakespeare is apparent cruelty until after fitting trials — that he is able to keep this psychological unity " thou hast strangely stood the test" — while giving us outward stories of adventure Ferdinand is allowed to marry his higher soul and conflict which even have political patterns of love and is shown in pageant form the as well. great vision of the spiritual meaning of the world. The whole play is the picture of an " The Merchant of Venice" compares initiation. On the magic island two more remarkably with " As you like it". In both parties undergo ordeals fitting for their nature. plays wc have the clear indication of the need The court party is drawn to repentance and the to attain to a higher level of consciousness characters representing sensual man (Stephano (City, Forest and Court ; Venice, the rich City, and Trinculo) meet the tempter Caliban and and Belmont the fair mountain where lives the re-experience the Fall. rich princess). The hero Bassanio wins his higher self, Portia, through a wonderful fairy- An important clue in the imagery of " The story lottery, but in that instant has to be Tempest " is that all characters are shown as separated from her to return to Venice to moving up and down through the symbolical watch what is virtually the ritual murder of his elements from the mists of confusion into clear friend by the Jew. The task of man on this air, from air up to celestial light or down into plane is to find unity with his spiritual self. the literal mires and bogs of sensuality. The higher worlds waste no time. Once the So we can tackle play after play and they two, hero and heroine, have recognised and will break down into allegory. The strangest loved each other they arc allowed no time for and most improbable situations, such as no enjoyment. They are separated by an apparent• modern dramatist would w dare to present, take ly cruel fate and made to endure more ordeals their place with an inevitable rightness when and trials until they prove themselves worthy looked at in this way. For instance, the almost of the final union. How often docs this absurd 1 happy ending ' of " The Merchant of pattern show itself in our actual lives, suggest• Venice when Portia gives back his lost ships ing that we are all engaged in an allegorical to Antonio, is seen as the only possible finish journey working out a web of destiny with a for the picture of the integrated soul. " That goal set in a higher plane of consciousness. which thy child's mistake fancied as lost I Portia, the higher love and wisdom, comes to have kept for thee in Heaven. Rise, take my the rescue in disguise, the only one who knows hand and come ". (Hound of Heaven). the overall picture and can see how the citizens of the worldly Venice have lost their way in It seems that Shakespeare uses the Comedies their search for earthly gain. " Tarry a to present his picture of the transmutation of moment, there is something else " she calls as the soul by lifting it to other levels of cons• Shylock's knife comes up to take the pound of ciousness. All these plays have profound cos• flesh from the merchant. This line sounds like mic meaning, but this never intrudes itself. a clarion call to our materialistic culture, an There is no constraint or obligation to bother eleventh hour warning that there is a whole about it, and never is there a sense that set of values and vision of the world which Shakespeare is imposing teaching upon us. This SHAKESPEARE AND THE VISION OP WHOLENESS is understandable in that in his age the esoteric A symbol, after all, can have manifold knowledge could not be outwardly spoken. To meanings. Its purpose is to enhance the signi• write mystery or morality plays was unaccept• ficance of life. If it does this; for you, how can able to reformation thought. The inner signifi• we say it is not true ? In the balanced polari• cance of -the plays is in line! with the stream of ties of life truth often exists in the very con• hidden wisdom which has been passed down tradictions. Thus we must learn with Shakes• from the mystery temples of the ancients. peare that several interpretations can be valid " Shakespeare ", whoever he was, is certainly at the same moment and if my ' truth' is not an example of cosmic consciousness. To quote quite the same as that which you have seen, from Arnold's sonnet : we do not need to be disturbed. Both may hold good. " Others abide our question. Thou art free. Almost all the heroes are princes and aristo• We ask and ask : Thou smilest and cratic figures. This shows us that the tales are art still, about the inner royalty of the human ego in Out-topping knowledge its struggle for integration. The great tragedies show the hero faced by a deadly flaw The wholeness of life, the interpenetration in his own soul-nature which draws upon him of matter and spirit, was all included in his the corresponding ordeal and temptation in tremendous vision and if we could know the form of a person or event (Iago, Lady Mac• whole eyele of plays we should have revealed beth, Hamlet's ghost). If he falls, he is thrown to us the whole mystery of life. into mental confusion, is struck by a second temptation, falls again and plunges down into Each generation is called upon to re-inter• the horror of " accidental death and confused pret Shakespeare in its own way. Perhaps the events ", with the stage littered with corpses. allegorical and imaginative interpretation is Only when the act of creative mercy comes in fitting for our times. Those who are not is redemption possible. This is most clearly drawn to the world view of spiritual whole• shown in the comparison of " Hamlet" and ness will assuredly challenge this as a forcing Measure for Measure ". of the plays into a pattern which suits the interpreter. Be this as it may. It will seem so Hamlet can be read (among the many inter• if the basic view is not held. But there are pretations) as a study of the disintegration of a many in our time for whom the " vision of great soul. " Measure for Measure " is a text• wholeness " throws a new flood of light on the book example of a psychological experiment in whole meaning of life, restoring lost values the effects of creative mercy. Transmutation of and giving to man a new significance. the soul is the eternal theme. (Read John Vyvyan's brilliant study The Shakespearean We are rediscovering that ours is the only Ethic). culture in the whole of history that has not held in some way that man is spiritual in Always, in beginning to explore the plays nature and has a great task to perform and in this way, we must remember that all charac• much to learn while on his " erring pilgrimage " ters and even situations are to be seen as through life on the physical planes. When we aspects/ of the entire personality (your soul and feel this and direct our attention to the works mine, not merely an Elizabethan or Roman of human genius we find that a new light of gentleman). understanding floods into them. The Odyssey becomes an allegory directly relevant to mod• To take one example! at risk of being accused ern consciousness. Every fairy tale speaks of the facility of lifting a quotation out of its eternal truths which man must rediscover for place. Macbeth comes out of the supper where himself today. Old sculpture begins to speak King Duncan has been feasted and in the and the secret meaning of ritual drama begins darkness of the Castle Hall says " If tVe-re to reveal itself. done when t'is done, then t'werc well it were THE MOUNTAIN PATM October done quickly ". We so easily slip over this can see them as an exhortation to interpreta• opening to the soliloquy. But pause and see tion. Study them again with this in mind. We what other great saying it reflects. " That can each of us begin the-exploration of the which thou hast to do, do quickly ". It hits plays to discover the life-enhancing secrets you between the eyes. Would not Judas, hidden beneath the surface story. leaving that other Supper, have said the same Let me not, dwell after his Master's injunction ? Duncan is seen In this bare island by your spell, to represent the Christ in us, Macbeth the But release me from my bands Judas. When for ambition we have killed the With the help of your good light within us, is it not inevitable that we hands ; shall " sleep no more ". We are deliberately Gentle breath of yours my " pulling down the blanket of the dark ". The sails tragedy is lifted from twelfth century Scotland Must fill, or else my project into our contemporary psychological situa• fails tion. And my ending is despair Unless I be relieved by prayer. The enigmatic final words of Prospero, As you from crimes would Shakespeare's Epilogue in his final play, are pardoned be, not merely his farewell to the stage. They gain Let your indulgence set me a subtle meaning and make more sense if we free.

SUCHNESS

By Wei Wu Wei

What are you doing, Mr. Wu ? No thing, Madame, just Being. Being what, Mr, Wu ? Being I, Madame. What else could you be, Mr. Wu ? No thing can Be, Madame, only I AM. But cannot I Be also, Mr. Wu ? Madame, I have just told you : I AM. Yes, Mr. Wu, but me ? Alas, Madame, no ' me ' can Be. But ' you ' can Be, Mr. Wu ! No ' you ' either, Madame. But how so, Mr. Wu ? Only 1 /', Madame, can Be, whoever is Such. 1978 229 ON ASCETICISM

By

Wolter A. Keers1

Visitor : You said that we should give up Editor : Love is never an object that you everything, but there are things which are may give or receive. Love is the deep recogni• impossible to give up. tion of yourself in another. In other words, when you say that you love somebody, you Editor : I have never said that you should see yourself, as love, behind the eyes of the do this or that. I have tried to point out other, and vice versa. In other words, the that ownership is merely an idea, but that other is no longer another. You can never there is nothing that you can possess. Practi• maintain seriously that A loves B and B loves cally speaking, even your life is not in your A. In love, both disappear, A disappears and own hands. But quite apart from that ; who B disappears, and what remains is only love would be the owner ? You as a person. But itself. you as a person are nothing but an image which surges up ten or twenty times every day. In other words, you as a lover, you as a How long does such an image last ? Two husband, you disappear ; and that is how you seconds ? Then how can something that lives want it to be. two seconds be the owner of something ? And when the husband has disappeared from the relationship, where is the wife ? The Visitor : I agree metaphysically. But it wife isj no more a wife. She also has dissolved takes time before one has completely under• into love itself. That is what! actually happens stood that so many things called 41' are mere in your case, and I repeat : that is how you images. In daily life I find that I am pre• want it to be, both of you. pared to give up many things, and I have Maybe I can give you an image, to help indeed discovered that things that at first look you understand. You know the analogy of very attractive do not bring me happiness for waves and water. First you take yourself to more than a few moments — but this is not be a wave, living amongst other waves. You always true. There are things that you do not think that you, as a wave, are dealing with want to give up under any circumstances. other waves all around you. Until you start to Editor : Such as ... ? discover that in reality you are nothing but water. This discovery induces you to pay Visitor : My wife and I are very happy. I more and more attention to the water-aspect in would not want to give up my wife for you, and" less to the forms you assume at anything in the world. different times : sometimes when there is a Editor : If it is true as you say — and I hard wind, you may appear to be a b'g and have not the slightest reason to doubt it — dangerous wave ; sometimes when the weather that you love your wife so much, then is it is calm, you may feel that you are a peaceful not true also that you want to give yourself and innocent ripple ; but all the time you are completely to her ? water. " """" ~~ Visitor : Yes, certainly. If I continue the analogy, we can imagine I-%-v- v*r<^eir finatV receives <;o much afen^nn Editor : When you have given yourself completely, what remains of you ? 1 ba ad on a recorded talk bv the author who is the rdftor* of the Dutch magazine Yoga Advaita, Amster• Visitor ; . . . (remains silent) dam, 230 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October that your awareness sinks deeper and deeper that you are the one, uninterrupted Experience, into it. Let us suppose that, at a certain from your birth till this very moment, and moment, you find yourself a hundred feet that it is this experience which assumes all below the surface : you experience that all is kinds of forms. The moment a form arises, you water — there is not an inch of you that is are its witness and its content, in the same not water, and all you see is water ; you rea• sense that water is the content of the wave, lise that even when you thought that you were air the content of a breeze. Or if you prefer something different, you were water, conscious to put it still differently : the one Experience presence, all along. that you arc, is the in-ground, simultaneously, of the seer, the seeing and the seen. These Now the moment comes when you look up, three come and go simultaneously, but you as at the waves, a hundred feet above you. What uninterrupted, timeless Experience, are ever do you see ? That waves " talk " with each there. You as Experience are the only con• other only apparently. In truth, it is water, crete element in creation — and you are still talking to itself all the time, creating waves there when' creation has vanished in deep sleep. to talk or play with itself. How could a new dream or a new waking That is what you discover when you love : event occur if you were not present before its you can never talk about \ my ' love or 1 her ' appearance ? It needs vou, if it is to appear love. From the bhakti po;nt of view you at all ! might say that the one, universal love — by Visitor : But if I am all and everything, whatever name you may call it — has created you and her and every other phenomenon that what could I abandon or give up ? has name and form, to talk and play with Editor : The idea that you are not every• itself. thing, obviously. It is this idea that creates all The moment you say " I love ", it is this the havoc. You think that you are a small universal love that has swept away all you chap in a big world, and so you have to defend ever projected onto it : for th,e time being yourself, which implies fear and greed and (although you arc then timeless) you as a grief. From the ultimate point of view, there person have disappeared, and love looks at is indeed nothing to be given up. But from itself. the standpoint of a human being in search of freedom, love, liberation, you have to give up But since love is what you really are, behind all that you think you are — or, if it is formu• the projected person, it is perfectly true to say lated from the standpoint of an ignorant man : that you are looking at yourself, talking with you have to give up all that you are. yourself, laughing and weeping with yourself, living and dying as a mere wave in the ocean To me, the story of the young Ramana who of love. But the wave-part is unreal : it goes to the temple, throws off all his clothes cannot exist for even one second without the and prays to Shiva to devour him, is support of the water that you are funda• the most moving story I have ever heard. He mentally. The wave-part is abstracted from the had seen what Life is all about, and far from water. The water is the only concrete thing making a theory out of it and speculating you can ever experience. All the rest is derived, that there was nothing to be abandoned, he abstract. That is why it is said that conscious• threw away everything and stood there, ness, atma, is the only Reality. naked. Is there anyone of us who has got the And " to experience what you are " is yet courage ? And don't forget that this young Hindu must have had the fullest conviction another dangerous expression. You can of that Shiva could indeed reduce him to ashes in course never make yourself object of your own half a second's time ! experience — this would require more than one self. So, if it is said that you yourself arc But to this story also, there is a dangerous the only thing you ever experience, it might s'de. For some people have outwardly done perhaps be formulated more clearly by saying the same thing in one way or the other, and 1978 ON ASCETICISM have not found freedom. Then, what is the Only (hen will you want to give up things. difference ? But not as a discipline : you give up, because you see that holding on to things is not only There is a true and a false asceticism. useless, but senseless ; for nowhere in you is The false asceticism is a discipline, based there place for an owner, for a proprietor of on distrust of the world and oneself. If you anything whatsoever. You cannot even retain see the world as an evil place and yourself as a one s'ngle thought for ten seconds, no bag full of bones and dirt, you are at that ' Tthought ', no proprietor. moment very far from the truth. Those who So true asceticism is the automatic fruit of shun the world on account of this kind of insight. I will bet anything that the boy argument, look very superficially. They have Ramana did not hate his body or the world. never examined the world properly, and they He loved the Light that He was and is, and think that it constitutes a dangerous reality. the one thing He wanted, was to be consumed That way they defeat their own purpose, for by that Light. if the world is real, I am a microscop'c part of it, and I can never win the battle. If you want this, with your whole being, you will get it in no time. For if we see But those who have examined themselves ourselves as not-realised, it is only so because and the world, have discovered that all we part of us does not wish to be devoured, call the world is a series of appearances in consumed by Light. consciousness — in the one Experience that I AM. So what we call the world is not a real Here of course you can put the same ques• and dangerous phenomenon outside of me, tion : If all is Light, what is there to be con• but a mere series of vibrations or movements sumed by Light ? within me. Everyone of us is the essence, the substance, the in-ground of the sense-impres• The answer is the same : the idea that there sions that we call the world. No one has ever is Light and darkness is to be abandoned in experienced a world outside of the Experience some way or the other. he is. And if no living being has ever experi• Visitor : But is not the idea that there is enced such a thing, there is no reason to bondage also Light? believe that it exists. Editor : Of course it is. There is only The enemy therefore is not the world, but my Light. So the moment you really see the belief in it ; my belief that giving up worldly truth of what you just said, not as a mere objects will make me happy is just as supersti• speculation or a logical deduction, but as living tious as the ignorant man's belief that the experience^ that moment you are free ! When acquisition of worldly goods will make him you really see with your entire being that happy. Nothing can make you, happy : you are bondage is nothing but Light, there is nothing happiness. Nothing can make water wet. more to be done. But don't be satisfied with Happiness, freedom, consists of the living a mere logical conclusion. Freedom is what insight that you are not a somebody that is you are, and not a way of thinking. * happy on Mondays and unhappy on Tuesdays. Visitor : As long as I am here and I hear Once you have seen that you are not a body, you talking, it all sounds so very simple . . . not the functioning of five sense-organs, not but . . J; thought or feeling or memory, but the ever- Editor : But nothing. It is so simple that present Experience that is their substance, it no word can express it. Your problem is not begins to dawn that no object can make you that it is complicated, but that you refuse to happy because you yourself are the happiness look, the moment you return to your daily you seek. activities, 232 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

This evening you see very clearly that there loves you completely all the same, without cannot be such a person as a proprietor of that wishing you to change, you cannot but melt body or a proprietor of thoughts. The so-called away. The tears that you shed at this discovery proprietor is nothing but a thought, shortlived are your strength : they are the deepest expres• as any thought. But to-morrow you find that sion of the love that you are, and that comes the value of your shares has dropped some to light in the presence of the guru. points on the stock-exchange, and in one-tenth of a second you create the image of a worried This melting away — this dissolving into the proprietor, and, what is worse, you believe in love of Love itself, — is true asceticism. It this image. It is not the image in itself that comes without an effort. It changes the 1 you ' binds you, but your belief in it. and the entire world you projected, and reveals that, even when the conviction was there that The only way to get rid of this belief, is to you were a man or a woman full of problems, look, again and again, and to see that you are you were in reality the love that now sweeps not anyone of the images that appear in you. away every idea and feeling of bondage.

As this belief in images is very deep-rooted, That is why an authentic Master will not the greatest help you can find whilst looking tell you what you should do in order to become at what you are not, is love. free — he points out to you that already at Surrendering yourself completely and un• this very moment you are freedom itself. The conditionally to the " object" of your love, is only thing to be done, is to examine the idea the true asceticism. that you are something else, find that it! is false, and allow it to disappear. The authentic That is why to the very vast majority of us, Master does not ask you to contemplate the a guru is needed if we are to come to complete question : " What do I wish to become ? " understanding. The guru is the one who wants but : " Who Am I ". nothing from you — he does not even want you to change. To him, you are perfection To this question, there is no verbal and no itself. emotional answer. When you discover that there is somebody The answer is the surging up of the Unknow• who knows you completely, including the parts able — of that love, Sir, that you recognise as you yourself consider bad and dirty, and who yourself when you say that you love your wife.

AND...

By Ramesh V. Phadnis

I went in search of Him and found Him not. I gave up all search and . . . there He was.

• 1978 233 Jnana Sadhana of Gorakhnath

By Dr. M. Sadashiva Rao

JjMGHT centuries ago, a great Yogi and the public for almost eight-hundred years. Siddha known as Gorakhnath travelled About fifty years ago, scholars gained access to over a good part of India with his band of a few of them, and these were copied, printed disciples teaching Yoga. His campaign for and published by private agencies. More spreading the knowledge of Yoga marks an recently, the present authorities of Gorakh• important chapter in the spiritual renaissance nath's chief monastic centre at Gorakhpur have that occurred in medieval India. The school of published a book in English on Gorakhnath's Yogis that he created is known as the Nath philosophy.1 This is a commentary on Gorakh• school. It has come down to our time- through nath's most important manuscript; writing and Guru-slshya lineage. It contains at the his magnum opus, giving his thoughts on the present time both Hatha Yogis and Jnana fundamentals of Yoga, entitled Siddha- Yogis, indicating that he taught both forms of Siddhanta-Paddhati (The System of Thought Yoga. The Hatha Yogis are to be found in of the Siddhas). In this book, the original the monastic centre he had founded in the Sanskrit verses from this and other unpublish• North. The Jnana Yogis, or Jnank as they ed manuscripts have been freely reproduced. are better known, are to be found spread out They include his verses on Jnana Sadhana. A in Maharashtra. Their numbers have been study of these verses show that the Sadhana large over the centuries that have elapsed and described very briefly by him is essentially the their contribution to the spiritual advancement same as that taught by Bhagavan Ramana of the people of this region considerable. The Maharshi. It is of interest to those who follow first to be initiated into he Nath school in Bhagavan's teachings, because of Gorakhnath's Maharashtra was Nivrittinath in the thirteenth precise directions on the practice of Samadhi, century who in turn initiated his young brother the most difficult part of Jnana Sadhana. For Jnaneshwar, the Great Saint of Maharashtra. this reason, this brief article, it is hoped, will The spiritual history of this region records the be useful to present-day sadhakas. names of many Saints in the succeeding cen• turies who were Jnanis of the Nath school. Soham Sadhana Many of them also taught the Bhakii path, According to Gorakhnath, every time one following in the footsteps of Jnaneshwar. There breathes out, air is expelled from the lungs are at the present time a good number of them with the sound Ham. Similarly, every time in Maharashtra leading humble lives and one breathes in, air is drawn into the lungs engaged in the spiritual uplift of the people. with the sound Sah. An individual utters the Gorakhnath's teachings on Jnana Yoga have mantra " Ham-Sah " with every breath of his evoked great interest on account of their remark• life. It means " I am He " or " I am the SelfGoraknath calls the mantra " Ajapa able impact extending over eight centuries on Gayatri*' (Silent Gayatri). He says that it is the spiritual advancement of the people of the most potent mantra for Liberation. Maharashtra. However, they remained a close secret until the present century. It was known that he had left records of his teachings in the 1 A. K. Banerjea : " The Philosophy of Gorakh• nath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha» (1962) form of hand-written manuscripts in his main Published by Mahant Dig Vijay Nath Trust, Gorakh• monastic centre. These were not accessible to nath Temple, Gorakhpur, (U.P.) India. THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

For the conscious practice of this mantra, still remain or the exact approach has to be the sadhaka has to sit still watching his normal explored through trial and error procedures. breathing and recite the mantra " Ham-Sah " to synchronise with his breathing out and in. Gorakhnath has given precise instructions in With repetition, it becomes " So-Ham ". The regard to the practice of SamadljL He explains meaning remains the same. When recited the method of achieving manonasa, or extinc• silently with deep introspection and feeling for tion of the mind, to reach the Self in Samadbi. its meaning the mantra gets reduced to " Ham " Kevala Kumbhaka and Manolaya or " Aham " meaning " I " or " I am ". Pranayama, or control of breath for control This practice is called Soham Sadhana by the of mind, has different forms. In the more Jnanis of the Nath school and is taught to the common form, it involves taking a deep disciples during initiation. In its ultimate form, inhalation of air into the lungs called puraka, ic is identical with Self-enquiry. This identity to be followed by retention of breath in the is brought out by one of the ]nanis of this lungs called kumbhaka, to be followed again school who teaches direct concentration on by a strong exhalation of air from the lungs " I" or " I am stating that it was the only called rechaka. For achieving manolaya for * mantra' given to him by his Guru for his the purpose of going into Samadhi, Gorakh- Self-realisation.2 nanth recommends another form called kevala kumbhaka. This has to be achieved, he says, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi has explained without puraka and rechaka, that is, without how deep concentration on "1 ", standing for deep breathing. In practice, it can be achieved one's ego, with an inturned mind takes one through normal breathing by slowing down of deep within to sink into the Heart or the Self. breathing movements until they are hardly Gorakhnath explains the same in regard to the perceptible in the chest movements. There is concentration on " So-Ham" in different no complete stoppage of breath, the residual words by stating that the mind dissolves in air in the lungs being renewed through minute the Self to give manonasa or extinction of the movements of the chest. (Modern physiolog;cal mind. In his brief verses, he docs not refer investigations show that the rate of absorption to the Heart or explain the part of the sadbana of oxygen is higher than in normal breathing.) between the dissolving of the mind in the Self Gcrakhnath says : "If kevala kumbhaka is and the practice of Samadhi. Bhagavan has achieved without puraka and rechaka, there is explained it clearly with the Heart as the focus nothing that cannot be achieved in the three of attention. The sinking of the mind in the worlds ! " According to him, it promotes Heart marks the culmination of Self-enquiry. manolaya and also rouses up kundat'mi. The sinking can be clearly felt by the sadhaka so that he can locate the Heart for sadhana For obtaining manonasa, or reaching the which is to follow. The practice of holding Self through extinction of the mind, through the mind in the Heart destroys the vasanas or kevala kumbhaka, Gorakhnath has given pre• the samskaras which are the ' impurities ' of cise direction as follows : the mind functioning as a barrier for realising " If the mind is steady (i.e. without 1 the Self. After most of the impurities ' arc thoughts), the vayu (i.e. the breath) is also destroyed, it becomes possible to practice steady. The manolaya of the Yogi is success• Samadhi which is the Expansion from the fully achieved when there is no breathing in Heart of Pure Consciousness. Finally, through and out (i.e. no normal or deep breathing but the practice of Samadhi comes Self-realisation. only kevala kumbhaka), the holding of matc- The seat of realisation is the Heart.2 For the sadhaka, the most difficult part of the sadhana 2NisargadaUu Maharaj : "/ Aw That" (Talks). is the practice of Samadbi. It involves con• Pub: Cheina, Bombay, (1973). siderable time and efforts,- because vasanas 3 Talks, p. 119. jNANA SADHANA OF GORAKHNATH 235 rial things (pfshaya) in the mind is lost (i.e. Flis body is kept perfectly still without vishaya vasanas are not being held in the any fidgeting ; mind through the practice of meditation and His mind is kept free of all thought or vairagya), there are no cares; whatever, including that of the Self ; and, there are no thoughts of anything, there are no His breathing is reduced to actions (of the body or limbs) whatever and kevala kumbhaka. there is no vpkara (i.e. uneasy movements such In addition, he should have fulfilled all other as fidgeting). All thoughts being abandoned conditions for promoting manolaya given in and all action totally gone, there occurs Laya the previous practice. or going into the Self which cannot be des• cribed in words. When the mind goes into Some pertinent comments are necessary for Laya, only Kaivalya (the Self as Pure Cons• clarification : ciousness) remains." Samadhi is the intensely alert and wakeful state beyond thought in which one's mind Sbambhavi Mudra remains merged with the Self or the Infinite Expanse of Pure Consciousness or Supreme In order to maintain awareness of the Self Awareness. It is possible only when the mind obtained through manolaya over a long period, is held firmly in the Heart. Gorakhnath has which is called Samadhi, there is a necessity for a favourable body position. Such a body described the other conditions necessary for position, which confers fortitude (sthirata), is going into Samadhi. The inner urge to enter called a mudra in Yoga. Gorakhnath lays spe• Samadhi must come from the sadhaka. Keep• cial importance on what is called Shambhavi ing the eyes open " without seeing anything " mudra which, he says, " is hidden in the Veda- is a necessary measure of vairagya, or mental shastras and is obtained by the Grace of the detachment from the phenomenal world. Guru." It is so called as it takes one to Nirvikalpa samadhi demands that the world Shambhu (Shiva or the Self) or,' in other words, must be blanked out of the consciousness. In to Nirvikalpa Samadhi. For assuming this the intermediate state of Savikalpa samadhi, body position, he gives these directions : one is aware of the Self and also the world. The rigid requirements of the mudra or body The sadhaka sits in the sukhasana pose position are necessary only during practice. with his back straight ; Later, most of them are not required except His mind is directed inwards ; keeping the body still and the mind thought- His eyes are kept open and directed free and assuming kevala kumbhaka which straight ahead without seeing anything ; comes automatically.

BEFORE A FALL"

By Wei We Wei

How humble you are, Mr. Wu ! Who is there to be proud, Madame ?

How proud you might be, Mr. Wu ! Who would there be to be humble, Madame ? 236 October Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

By Jean Dunn

£N the city of Bombay, on a noisy, busy, commercial by-lane, there lives an enlightened sage, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. He is a member of the spiritual lineage of the Navanathas. Born in Bombay, on the auspi• cious day of Hanuman's Jayanti, in March, 1897, he was named Maruti. His father Shivrampant Kampli and mother Parvatibai were both very religious. Brought up on a farm in Kandalgaon, a village south of Bombay, he had an alert, inquisitive mind and was deeply interested in religious and philosophical matters. Maruti moved to Bombay in 1918, and in 1924 married Sumatibai, who gave him a son and three daughters. He began life in Bombay as an office clerk, but his energetic and independent nature soon made him take to petty trading. He opened a small 1 bidi ' shop, making and selling country cigarettes. In a few years he had several small shops. However there was a growing hunger for truth in him. He approached the 5/7* Nisargadatta Maharaj great saint, Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj and was initiated by him. In less than a year he In his own words : " When I met my Guru was ripe for holding meetings for religious he told me, " You are not what you take your• discourses. self to be. Findi out what you are. Watch the sense 11 am ', find your real self ..." I did After the death of his preceptor in 1936, as he told me. All my spare time I would spend the urge for self-realization reached its zenith looking at myself in silence. And what a differ• and in 1937 he abandoned his family and ence it made, and how soon ! It took me only business and took to the life of a wandering three years to realize my true nature." monk. On his way to the Himalayas, where he meant to spend the rest of his life, he met a Soon, attracted by his wisdom and eloquence, brother-disciple who convinced him that a life people began gathering in the street near his of dispassion in action would be more shop and he talked with them whenever free. spiritually fruitful. Later, when his son took charge of the busi• Returning to Bombay, he found only one ness, the meetings moved into the house. Many small shop remaining of his business ventures. foreigners, as well as Hindus, found their way For the sake of his family he conducted the to his humble abode and Maurice Frydman, a business and devoted all his energy to spiritual Polish devotee, often acted as translator. The sadhana. He built himself a mezzanine floor as questions and answers were so interesting that a place for meditation. tape recordings were made. Maurice Frydman 1978 SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAI 237 translated many of these enlightening conver• of his teachings are to be found in ( I Am sations into English and in 1973 these were That '} A few excerpts are given below : published under the title ' / Am That '} As a Volume 1 re&ult, readers from many different countries now come to Bombay, seeking the spiritual Chpt. 1 : Don't you see that all your guidance of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. The problems are your body's problems — food, present room is now wholly inadequate to clothing, shelter, family, friends, fame, name, accommodate the increasing flow of visitors security, survival — all these lose their mean• and plans are underway to acquire a larger ing the moment you realize that you may not piace. be a mere body . . .

The small upper room at 10th Khetwadi When the mind stays in the ' I am ' without Lane, built so many years ago for meditation moving, you enter a state which cannot be is daily crowded for the question and answer verbalized but can be experienced. All you periods. The walls of the room are lined with need to do is to try and try again, portraits of great saints of different religions. You observe the heart feeling, the mind There is a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. The thinking, the body acting : The very act of noisy street outside is forgotten. Maharaj'& observing shows that you are not what you slight figure is the focus of attention. In perceive ! appearance he is short, perhaps five feet tall, going bald, with twinkling, piercing eyes and Chpt. 3 : It is only when the mind refuses an infectious smile. Someone once remarked to flow with life and gets stuck at the banks on his big nose and ears and his smiling reply : that it becomes a problem. By flowing with " Perhaps I am descended from Ganesha (the life I mean acceptance — letting one what elephant god) ", illustrates his quick wit and comes and letting go what goes. Desire not, unconcern with appearances. He seems to be a fear not, observe the actual as and when it s;mple, ordinary person, much the same as happens ... you and I — for a very short while. Soon one Chpt. 15 : The person is a very small thing. understands, that, incredible as it seems, here Actually it is a composite, it cannot be said to is a living example that IT CAN BE DONE exist by itself. Unperceived, it is just not there. — IT HAS BEEN DONE ! Courage is It is but the shadow of the mind, the sum total renewed, the mind quietened, and there is a of memories. Pure being is reflected in the sense of well-being, of happiness, mirror of the mind as knowing. What is known takes the shape of a person, based on memory He jokes, laughs, frowns, shakes his finger, and habit. It is but the shadow or a projection pounds his fist to emphasise a point. Different of the knower onto the screen of" the mind. expressions play on his face like sunlight on water. He is beautiful ! One feels his vibrant Chpt. 17 : What is wrong with being, energy, the pure joy of being, flowing from knowing and acting effortlessly and happily ? him. He answers all questions simply, clearly Why consider it so unusual as to expect the and concisely, with no quoting of scriptures or immediate destruction of the body ? What is propounding of doctrines. He is kind and wrong with the body that it should die ? gracious as he knocks the props right out from Correct your attitude to your body and leave under you. Cherished concepts are seen for it alone. Don't pamper, don't torture. Just what they are — mere words. Now one under• keep it going, most of the time below the stands the value of ' Sat-Sangh '. threshold of conscious attention.

His message is simple and direct : ''You Meditation will help you to find your bonds, ARE the Self here and now. Stop imagining loosen them, untie them and cast your moor- yourself to be ' this' or ' that \ Let go your 1 / AM THAT : Pub. : Chetana Ltd., 34, Ram• attachment to the unreal," The best examples part Row, Bombay-400 001, India, 238 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

ings. When you arc no longer attached to several plans of your prison, none quite true. anything, you have done your share. The rest But they all are of some value only if you are will be done for you. — By whom ? — By the in dead earnest. It is the earnestness that same power that brought you so far, that liberates, not the theory. prompted your heart to desire truth and your Chpt. 42 : All you can do is to grasp the mind to seek it. It is the same Power that central point, that reality is not an event and keeps you alive . You may call it Life or does not happen and whatever happens, what• the Supreme. ever comes and goes, is not reality. See the Chpt. 19 : Remember that language is an event as event only, the transient as transient, instrument of the mind, it is madq'by the mind experience as mere experience and you have for the mind. done all you can. Then you are vulnerable to reality, no longer armoured against it as you Chpt. 20 : Seeking out causes is a pastime were when you gave reality to events and of the mind. There is no duality of cause and experiences. effect. Everything is its own cause. When you realize that you' are not the person Volume II but the pure and calm witness, and that fear• Chpt. 63 : Life itself is desireless. But the less awareness is your very being, you are the false self wants to continue — pleasantly. being. Therefore it is always engaged in ensuring Desires are just waves in the mind. You one's continuity. Life is unafraid and free. As know a wave when you see one. A desire is long as you have the idea of influencing events, just a thing among many. Feel no urge to liberation is not for you : the very notion of satisfy it, no action need be taken on it. Free• doership, of being a cause, is bondage. dom from desire means this : the compulsion Chpt. 67 : It is the mind that tells you to satisfy is absent. that the mind is there. Don't be deceived. All Chpt. 21 : Nothing can set you free because the endless arguments about the mind are pro• you ARE free. duced by the mind itself, for its protection, continuation and expansion. It is the bland Chpt. 29 : Just as a deficiency disease is refusal to consider the convolutions and con• cured through the supply of the missing factor, vulsions of the mind that can take you so are the diseases, of living cured by a good beyond it. dose of intelligent detachment. Chpt. 71 : You are looking for the causes There is no need for a way out ! Don't you of being what you are not ! It is a futile search. see that a way out is also a part of the dream ? There are no causes but youu ignorance of your All you have to do is to see the dream as a real being, which is perfect and beyond all dream. causation. The very idea of going beyond the dream is When you fight you invite a fight. But when illusory. Why go anywhere ? Just realize that you do not resist, you meet with no resistance. you are dreaming a dream you call the world When you refuse to play the game you are and stop looking for ways out. out of it. Chpt. 30 : Which theory of creation is Nothing stops you from being a Jnani here true ? — All are true, all arc false. You can and now, except fear. You are afraid of being pick whichever you like best . . . Experiment impersonal, of impersonal being. It is all quite with any theory you like — if you are but simple. Turn away from your desires and fears earnest and honest, the attainment of reality and from the thoughts they create and you are will be yours. As a living being you are caught at once in your Natural state. in an untenable and painful situation and you Chpt. 73 : Freedom means letting go. Peo• are seeking a way out. You are being offered ple just do not care to let go everything. They 1978 SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ 239

do not know that the finite is the price of the when desire and fear end, bondage also ends. infinite, as death is the price of immortality. It is the emotional involvement, the pattern of Spiritual maturity lies in the readiness to let go likes and dislikes which we call character and everything. The giving up is the first step. But temperament, that create the bondage. the real giving up is in realizing that there is nothing to give up, for nothing is your own. Do not be afraid of freedom from desire It is like deep sleep — you do not give up and fear. It enables you to live a life so your bed when you fall asleep, you just different from all that you know, so much forget it. more intense and interesting, that, truly, by losing all you gain all, Chpt. 78 : Nobody can say '1 am the wit• ness '. The 'I am' is also the witnessed. The Chpt. 99 : To find reality you must be real state of detached awareness is the witness- in the smallest daily action ; there can be no consciousness, the ' mirror-mind '. It rises and deceit in the search for truth. sets with its object and thus is not quite the Chpt. 100 : Before you can accept God you real. Whatever its object it remains the same, must accept yourself, which is even more hence it is also the real. It partakes of both frightening. The first steps in self-acceptance the real and the unreal and is therefore a are not at all pleasant, for what one sees is bridge between the two. not a happy sight. One needs all the courage to go further. What helps is silence. Look at Chpt. 95 : Keep quiet, undisturbed, and the yourself in total silence, do not describe your• wisdom and the power will come on their own. self. Look at the being you believe yourself You heed not hanker. Wait in silence of the to be and remember — you are not what you heart and mind. It is very easy to be quiet, see. * This I am not — what am I ? ' is the but willingness is rare. You people want to movement of self-enquiry. There are no other become supermen overnight. Stay without means to liberation. All means delay. Resolute• ambition, without the least desire, exposed, ly reject what you are not, till the real self vulnerable, unprotected, uncertain and alone, emerges in its glorious nothingness, its not-a- completely open to and welcoming life as it thing-ness. happens, without the selfish conviction that all must yield to your pleasure or profit, material Just look at yourself as you are, see yourself or so-called spiritual. as you are, accept yourself as you are and go ever deeper into what you are. Chpt. 97 : The world appears to you so overwhelmingly real because you think of it all You are free from what you have under• the time ; cease thinking of it and it will dis• stood. The outer expressions of freedom may solve into thin mist. You need not forget ; take time to appear, but they are already there.

" Whether or not the results of meditation are obtained is of no importance. The essential is to arrive at stability ; it is the most precious thing that one can gain. In any case one must trust with confidence in the Divinity and await His grace without impatience. The same rule applies equally to japa : japa pronounced even once is a benefit, whether one is aware of it or not." — SRI RAMANA MAHARSHL 240 October WHAT DOES SURRENDER MEAN?

By Marie B. Byles jy^ AHARSH1 was once asked about not accept anything and everything ; it must Mahatma Gandhi, and whether his have historical value or especial beauty and it work was good. Maharshi merely replied, must not be a heavy financial burden on the " Mahatma Gandhi has surrendered (to God). Trust. I felt the urge so strongly that I offered That is all that matters." to move away if the bushland could be better preserved, protected and cared for. Much to Maharshi's first admonition was, 1 Ask your my relief the Trust accepted my offer and did self who you are '. His second was, * Surren• not want me to leave. (Some one must cure for der '. They are opposite sides of the same coin, ever natural bushland in the vicinity of houses the purchase price for learning how to relin• to prevent foreign weeds and pests taking quish the dominance of changing finite selves. possession). And ;so, I am living here under I have often been asked how wc can dis• idyllic conditions without the burden of rates. tinguish between surrendering ourselves to God, Had my guidance come from my own desires ? and surrendering ourselves to urges springing from our own desires. Advancing years, feebleness and a serious accident, began to make the work entailed The question is not as easily answered as it beyond my strength. I got the further urge to might seem. The species, Man, has long since provide the wherewithal to build a large bed- lost the guidance of the instincts of animals sitting room :so that someone else might come which cause all they do to be in harmony with and live here, help with the work and after the needs of all creation. Men have learned my death take over the management. Was the to be separate individuals with urges and de• urge from surrender to the guidance of God, or sires that are often opposed to the needs of from my own desires ? all creation, let alone the needs of their own- social life. It is therefore not always easy to The first one who came to live in the new- know what is the will of God, the totality of construction appeared to have every qualifica• All. tion. He was also deeply religious and one of I used to reply airily, " The presence or his favourite books was called God Calling. absence of egoism is the determining criterion ??. He took it for granted that he was guided by But this answer is too facile. It merely takes God when he came. He pursued his ordinary us a little further back, for we have now to avocation on week days and the larger part of determine what urges spring from egotistical the two-day week ends be spent with his rela• desires and what from the needs of all creation, tives, his brothers and sisters, and the work on for we each have our own individual talents, the bushlands did not occupy much of his time and no one can judge for another. After a few months he left to return perman• ently to his brothers and sisters. Had he been Some examples may make the difficulty guided by God when he first came and when clearer and may, or may not, give us an accept• he finally left ? Some of us may have felt able pnswer. that he was hardly humble enough for this, Some years ago T got the urge to give to the but who were we to judge another ? Tending National Trust my tiny cottage and an area of the bush and caring for it may not have been natural bushland. The National Trust will in accord with his talents. 1978 WHAT DOES SURRENDER MEAN ? 241

The next person who wanted to occupy the agree that, like Gandhi, he had surrendered to new construction was a woman who had been God and not to his own desires. a Buddhist nun in Thailand. There was no And so too, all will agree that Mother doubt about her sincerity when she said the Teresa of Calcutta, surrendered to God when proposition met her deepest aspirations as well she started caring for the sick and miserable as her love of the bushlands. She stayed one in Calcutta for the sake of loving kindness, for night and then departed saying that this was an all-embracing love that has made her not the life for her. She must always be ready world-famous. to ' up bags and go ', that is, to travel. On the other hand there were the devout Once again we are up against the conflict Catholic priests who proscribed Galileo, and between the desire to surrender unreservedly by threat of torture forced him to deny that to the will of God and the urge of individual the earth went round the sun and not vice talents and our own desires. It is a conflict versa. Who will say that these priests had not that is particularly obvious in the 20th cen• surrendered to God, and if they had, why they tury when occupations are so diverse. Mahatma behaved in a manner which seems to us Gandhi never asked anyone to forsake his sadistically evil ? chosen avocation to help him in the move• ment for home-rule in India. Neither did At the furthest end of the scale of horror is Maharshi ask any disciple to leave his chosen the irresistible urge of the young man who way of life. We have each our own way to rapes a young girl on her way to school. Even tread and who of us should decide for if we put him in prison for the safety of another ? The Dhammapada says, " None society who are we to judge when we ourselves should neglect his own task for the sake of have never known the frightful urge of that another's however great" (v. 166). The Gita young man. " No one wantonly does wrong," says, exactly the same, " One's own duty says Marcus Aurelius, the saintly Stoic Roman though devoid of merit is preferable to the Emperor of the 2nd century A.D. Where do duty of another well performed" (Ch. 11, we draw the line between the urge of God and v. 15). the urge of our own desires ?

A consideration of these matters does not In between these two extremes there was make any easier the answer to the question as Peter the Hermit at the time of the Crusades. to how to decide what is our own urge spring• He said that men had failed to take the Sacred ing from our own desires and what is the urge Places from the infidels because grown men commg from surrender to God, the selfless were sinful. But little children were pure and driving force of the universe. innocent, and they would be successful. So he travelled over Europe proclaiming ' Deus Let us take some examples from earlier Vult' (God Wills). Little children heard his times when life was less complex. call and left their homes for Palestine. Most of Brother Lawrence of the 17th century felt them were sold into slavery and never return• God was calling him to enter aj monastery. He ed. Who are we to say Peter the Hermit was gave up his work and did so. From that time not sincere in believing he heard the Voice of he decided never to do anything except for God ? He certainly was not guided by self- the love of God. He would not so much as interest. pick up a straw from the ground except for None of these stories gives a final answer to the love of God. He did not like his work in the question asked. Nor can the answer be the monastery kitchen, nor his task when sent found through reason, logic or intellect, for it to negotiate for the purchase of wine, but he lies far beyond these. did everything for the love of God and all was well. The tiny booklet of his talks and letters It also lies outside the external word or has been an inspiration to millions. All will thought or act, for its origin is in the mind 242 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October before even thought was formulated. Was, or the rise in the cost of postage ! All complaints was not, the whole being directed to a sense betoken separateness from the Universal Whole. of ' I ', ' mine ' and ' me ', or was it directed But this of course does not mean that we do to what is Beyond all individual selfhood ? not work to right what we consider wrong. It ' The devil himself knows not the mind of a does, however, mean non-attachment. man ', says an ancient legal adage. The Buddha proclaimed an all-embracing And so we come back to the first answer Eightfold Path, which included the need for given -— egoism, being at enmity with some truth and love. It also started off with the part of the universe. This would seem to be acceptance of suffering, part of the universal the only criterion by which an individual can law of sacrifice. This does not prevent us from judge whether he is being guided by God or going to the dentist, but; it does make us by his own desires. accept suffering gladly and seek to learn from it, and if need be, bear it for the rest of our There are, however, various, considerations lives. The Buddha followed with the need for the spiritual leaders) have given for our help in the whole being to be set towards selflessness; making a decision. (in the beginning, humility) and kindness in Mahatma Gandhi was definite that what is thought, word and act. He goes on to insist not in accord with truth and love must be upon constant practice or effort, and on aware• discarded. ness or mindfulness so that we know what we are doing and are not swept away by our own Facts are part of truth. And truth includes! desires, and finally on meditation or mental frankness with ourselves and being prepared petitionless prayer, that is, the centering of to admit that we are, or may have been, the whole being to be set towards selflessness wrong. Might we perhaps have been pretend• pleasures. These needs are found in all reli• ing that we do not have a darker side to our gions but not systematically set out. being ? , There is no hard and set rule by which we Love includes the banishment of all thoughts, can know the meaning of surrender. It requires let alone words and acts, that injure anyone or the practice of the good life in its entirety. anything, and not merely kindness to our Then and then only can we be sure of the enemies. Love banishes all complaints, includ• difference between surrendering to our own ing complaints about the poor old weather or urges and desires and surrendering to God,

Mutability

By G. N. Daley

Mutability hath naught to give To those who seek the stream ; Nor may they choose to sleep and live An everlasting dream. Though they may muse and ponder how And why and whence they came, They must embrace the Ceaseless Now As upward flies the Flame. Garland of Guru's Sayings

By SRI MURUGANAR Translated from Tamil by Professor K. Swaminathan

690. 695.

Which is the asana steady, perfect, However grave one's former sins, if one Conducive most to good samadhi ? Repines not sighing, " A sinner am I " The Knowledge ever strong and firm But plunges straight into one's own Being, That the whole world rests on the asana One reaches quick the ocean of bliss Of the one Self, the firmament And sports in it. Supreme of true Awareness. 696. 691. Those who in this very birth The ending of all Knowledge gained And with no effort on their part Through the false senses and the stilling By force of grace divine, attain Of the ego-mind's restless movements Desire-free Awareness Pure And the clear presence in the heart May look like passive kittens now. Of the brightness that no eye can see But in a former birth they were And the music that no ear can hear. Young monkeys clinging hard to Mother.

692. [The kitten is carried from one place to another by the mother cat. The young monkey clings Since it was one's own past effort fast to the mother as she jumps from branch That now has ripened into Fate, to branch. These two typify simple surrender One can with greater present effort and strenuous sadhana.] Change one's Fate. y 697. 693. " Fate is not for those heaven-bound," No matter what good deeds bring joy 'Tis said. What does this mean ? And what bad deeds bring pain, the might Of both you may now overcome Not an iota of the past can touch With mind dissolved in that true Being Those who dwell unceasingly Which is the same as your own being. In the firmament of Self-awareness, Vast, unbounded frontierless and full. 694. 698. Even in worldly life one's labours bear No fruit without abundant faith. Fate which like a whirlwind fierce And till one merges in the bliss Tosses and twirls the body-bound mind Supreme and boundless, one's strong zeal Can cause no stir in the clear bright mind In sadhana should never slacken, Merged in the sky of pure Awareness, 244 THE MOUNTAIN PATH Octobe?

699. Doing karma ? " Unless one seeks And so destroys the doer-ego, Tell me, my heart. To kill and burn The source of action, one cannot reach The evil ego, the sense of doership, The end of action, perfect peace. Which drags one down to the depths of the sea Of action, is there another stratagem 704. Than meditation on the Self, He who has sought and found the nature The bright unbroken wholeness Of the doer-ego, he alone Of one's own being ? Has once for all worked out entirely Every karma ever enjoined. 700. Than this supremely blissful peace The world is made up of Being, Awareness, What finer fruit is there to gain From daily ritual or penance hard ? Bliss, Along with names and forms. Those who know aver 705. Exhalation is complete rejection Since perfect, true advahic knowledge Of name and form ; while inhalation Stands shining as the ultimate goal Is accepting Being, Awareness, Bliss, Of every kind of dharma-practice, And retention is abidance firm as That. It is the accomplished jnani who Has indeed performed all dharmas. 701. (12) Those unable to reach the source Exhalation is complete rejection Of the 11' along the path of jnana Of the thought that the body is oneself. May reach it by the inward watching Inhalation is questing inward Of the source of the subtle japa-sound. Asking Who am I ? " Retention [BHAOAVAN] Is abidance firm as That alone, This is pranayama true. 706. Those who cannot plunge within 702. The silent mind and with keen search When the soul now deeming itself the mind Discover whence the 11' arises And wandering lost amid phenomena May mentally repeat some japa Wakes up from this world's dream-spectacle, And listen to the subtle sound vibration. Re-merges in the Self and stands as much, This is the inwardness of yoga true. 707.

(11) Karma, bhakti, yoga and jnana Since you yourself are the japa's vibration Are but inquiring, u Who has karma ? If you ask who you are and find Who lacks devotion ? Who stands Your own true being, then, behold Alienated ? Who is ignorant ? » The japa once with effort practised Inquiring thus, the inquiring " I" Now of its own accord proceeds Disappears. Firm abidance Uninterrupted in the heart. As the Self is the only Truth. [BffAOAVAN] 708. Till in the seer's awareness objects Disappear, till firm and clear The meaning and essence of karma yoga One knows the truth of Self aright, Is true self-knowledge through the quest What use is it to mouth in vain "Who is this 'I', the doer, who starts The words " I am God ! I am God ! " 191k H'i SWAMI RAMA TIRTHA

By David Frawley

GWAMI RAMA TIRTHA (1873-1906), famous for his eloquence, was a Self- realized jnan'r, who taught the same path of Self-inquiry that Ramana Maharshi taught, though in a different personal style. In the western world, which he visited, and America in particular, where he resided for two years, his works are now hardly known and scarcely availablq and even in his native India they are not as well known as they should be.

Rama was a truly monumental figure. He was not only a realized jnani but an ecstatic bhakia as well, and a creative and intellectual genius of the highest order. All the world's thought and culture was at his fingertips. He was a poet and orator, a practical philosopher, a dynamic man of action, a personality of rare sweetness, an imperious free spirit, a soul of purest integrity and most exalted spirit of renunciation. In his short life he lived many lives. Swami Rama Tirtha Why is he not so well known now, though at a very young age he had attained much Rama blazed like a meteor through the dark• repute all over the world ? He shunned the ness of this world. Or rather the world passed fame that so easily came to him. He preferred like a speck of darkness in the Infinite Light the company of nature to that of men and of Rama ! Really it is Rama who endures while often retired for long periods into the solitude the world is a passing illusion. of the hills. He thought it as important to talk with mountains and streams as to talk with His life was short but filled with enormous men. Rama regarded the whole world as his creativity ; he has left a great legacy of writ• ashram and would not allow organizations to ings, that still sound as fresh as if they were be created in his name, though there were those who wished to establish a mission in his name written today for us. Rama had a girt for with branches throughout the world. His pure making the highest truth clear and direct in character and short life combined to make him modern terms, with delightful stories and apt a beacon light for the future rather than for quotations from both eastern and western his own age, for the few rather than for the sources. Though his knowledge was immense, many. But the spiritual effect of a sage cannot his talks and writings move on pure inspira• be measured or circumscribed. It is inevitable tion without any kind of'artificiality. He said : THAI Rama's teaching should receive the " Rama guarantees that anybody in this world, attention it deserves throughout the world. who reads or hears Rama's speeches would get 246 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

his doubts removed and is surej to come to the your liberty to Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed oz conviction of his own divinity ! "1 Krishna,"5 he often said. Sages and teach• ings are meant only as aids to Self-realization, Rama never assumed the status of a guru. to freedom absolute. Shun bondage to perso• He did not want to gather followers but to nalities, ideas and institutions. The age of reli• awaken people directly to their own divinity. gious sectarianist is over. Rama said : " Oh " There is no better message," he said, i: than you wavering, fickle, dubious minds, no more the message delivered : you kill the mes• of lukewarm orthodoxy or heterodoxy, all 2 senger." " Trample over this body, cat up doxies are your creation ! " 6 this personality, grind, digest and assimilate this Vcdanta, then alone do you do justice to The essence of this Vedanta is that the real Rama."3 He resolved admirably that whole individual divested of all external influences guru/self-reliance problem that many seem and social conditionings is inherently divine. caught in now. He taught that if you seek the The individual as the real center of conscious• Self, if you assert your inherent divinity, all ness is the only real fact of being, the only things must see you, all that; is needed must living being. Race, creed, nationality are only come to you. It is to the Self-reliant that help abstract and transient superimpositions on that naturally comes. He who sees others as himself real individual. The real individual, who is naturally finds help everywhere. You must one only, alone endures. Society, the world, rely on your Self, but rely on that Self in all, is just the projection of the individual, like a be open to that Self in all. Do not confine phantom in the dark. No matter how mons• that Self-reliance to your little body. Self- trous that world-idea may be, it is still rooted reliance, both inward and outward, naturally in consciousness and not vice versa. Rama brings into action the guru power in a way said : " Assert your individuality against all that will be made evident to you, though not society, all nations and everything. That is the according to egoistic expectations. That is true meaning of Vcdantic renunciation." 7 the law. But whatever personality you cling Rama taught a path of fearless individuality to, however great, will be taken from you. That and Self-reliance with formulation quite suit• is also the law. There is no need for ever able for the broader intellectual and more indi• becoming desperate, for ever feeling ourselves vidualistic temprament of today. Though re• dependent on the external personality of an• maining responsive to the present times and other. " Our hearts break when we are in the bound by no tradition, he nevertheless preserv• seeking attitude," he said, " be a giver of ed the innocent, luminous, creative spirit of peace to mankind and not an expectant ancient times, unspoilt by the degeneracies of seeker." 4 modern civilization. For Rama Vedanta meant simply truth. It was not a particular religion or philosophy. Rama's! teaching was the cry of revolt of the And that truth was no one's proptrty and in no real individual against the illusory world. His way limited. It mattered little by what name was the victory of the real individual over all it was called. He accepted all religions. worlds, all times. We arc the losers if we Everywhere he went people regarded him as do not see Rama's complete success and total their own. He accepted even the teachings of victory. Rama raised high the banner of atheists, who insofar as they were real indivi• Vcdantic revolt in the modern age. Yet a revolt; of love and joy, of youth and five as in dualists, had more of God or the Self, than

the timid followers of ordinary orthodoxies. He 1 In Woods of God Realization, Vol. I, Title Page. taught that just as the air of the whole world 2//>/

Jnana Minakshi

By S. Mohan Raman

SWEET and serene She smiles and watches Mother of all She is — and gives The steps Her children make towards Her, Freedom, the greatest of gifts to her children. One, two, three, four. She lets them sometimes stumble and fall Kind and strong, she will not press But guards them from all real harm ; Even nectar down unwilling throats. Not too kind and yet not heartless, She waits in patience, watching them Is Mother Minakshi, mother of all. Grow towards joy-light watered with tears. They must learn to walk, each at his pace ; Mother mine, tarry not long ; Some, swift and sudden, fly to Her breast. And some, of slower gait, linger behind. With the brightness of your eyes Or they play hide-and-seek with her And your honey-sweet whispers, ripen And getting lost in a maze self-woven, My being into purest bliss Or busy with toys, for a moment forget her. That I may cease to be myself The Mother watches over them all And live for ever as this Bh'ss, For all are Hers. She lets them play In the1 field of life — ever ready to help Shining brightly through your eyes, If but a cry of distress is heard. Whispering sweetly as your voice, 248 ' October How I Came to Bhagavan

By Gurudat Nadkarni

JT was sometime in July 1949 that I heard that Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi had been operated upon, for the third or fourth time, for the removal of a malignant tumour on his left arm. I was then in Bombay. Though I had heard about him as early as in 1937, I had not felt any particular urge to go to Tiruvannamalai. Now I could postpone it no longer and yet there were difficulties in the way. Being helpless, I wrote a letter to Bha• gavan praying that I might be enabled by his grace to go to Tiruvannamalai. Then one day a friend unexpectedly sent for me and told me that he wished, to visit Tiruvannamalai, and being unfamiliar with the South and its lan• guage, he would welcome my accompanying him. We left for Tiruvannamalai on the same day, 1st October, 1949. We had no time even to arrange for our train reservation. We arriv• ed in Tiruvannamalai on the 3rd October, Sri. Gurudat Nadkarni early in the morning. Wc had darshan of Bhagavan, visited Sri Arunachaleswara temple, leave Tiruvannamalai could have darshan went up the Hill, and completed the routine without waiting for the hour fixed. It was which one goes through-on a first visit to the about 4 p.m. I went into the big hall in which place. Bhagavan was sitting on a couch, as usual. There were two persons attending on Bhaga• In those days, on medical advice, Bhagavan van. I placed my fruit offering before used to come out for public darshan only for him and prostrated myself at his feet. two hours, one hour in the morning and one He accepted one fruit and gave the rest of hour in the evening. My friend left for Tiru- them back to me. Then I felt I should say pati the next day and I stayed on in Tiruvan• something to him. I went very near to him namalai. After three days, it was time for me and started speaking. I was told not to dis• to return to Bombay, visiting Bangalore on the turb Bhagavan, but I continued to talk. Bha• way. I had to catch the evening train to Ban• gavan was looking steadily and intently into galore via Katpadi. Until then I had not my eyes and he was listening. I saw an extra• experienced anything extraordinary except the ordinary dazzle in Bhagavan's eyes which I felt feeling that by the grace of Bhagavan I had entered into the very depths of my being. I felt the opportunity to be in Sri Ramanasramam for my knees trembling. My speech was incohe• almost four days and see Bhagavan face to rent and faltering. The only thing which was face twice daily. clear and complete was my parting sentence, " Bhagavan, I want your blessings ", to which There was one exception to the stipulated his reply was, " Yes ", " Yes " fully and con• timings for his darshan ; devotees about to sciously given. Since then I have been carry- ing that " Yes " with me as my greatest vividly, that the God or Self which I was seek• treasure, ing for years was within me as a " Living- I had bought some books and photographs Presence ". This experience was something from the Ashram book-stall. I read those quite beyond any doubt whatsoever. Since then books. I also read quite a few other books I have been doing nothing but trying to be on vedanta and philosophy. And, I was also in tune with this awareness always. I have doing some sadhana though irregularly. And not ceased to work for a living. I have my yet I felt no perceptible change or improve• own problems. Yet there is no inner contra• ment within me for a long time. diction. This, I am sure, is what Bhagavan Suddenly, sometime in 1971, it dawned meant when he said " Yes ", twenty-eight years upon me, like a revelation, unmistakably and ago.

" In life there is equality ; in form there is inequality. In life there is unity, because all life is one ; in the expression of that life, which is form, there must be diversity. Because you pay more attention to form, which is the expression of life, and which cannot be united, than to life itself, there is disunion. You want all people to be alike, all forms to be alike. In the expressions of thought and feeling, you want the whole world to be alike, which can never be." — J. KRISHNAMURTI 250 " October How Real is the Physical?

By Murdoch Kirby

the final reckoning our bodies are com• That is just the introduction, now we come posed only of atoms of different mate• to the question : Imagine the person (you-?) rials, and these atoms are made up from elec• to be moved into the space indicated by the trons and protons. These final particles can straight lines above. be examined by the Physicist and, depending on how he looks at them, they appear as Now, do you imagine that you have taken particles or they appear as waves, waves of your vibrating lines with you ? Have you left .space. an empty space behind you ? •— no lines ; a space without space ?

I am going to consider them as waves. In Or do you imagine that in moving into the the diagram I have indicated the person as space above you cause a different part of space waves and the surrounding area as straight to start vibrating, and that you leave a num• lines. This is not technically accurate because ber of straight lines where you were before ? the surrounding area is not empty space : it would be the atmosphere —• also composed of In this case can you say that you have the electrons and protons all vibrating in wave same body you had before ? You will have form : the waves representing the person are to adnvt that somewhere there is a template, a also simplified — every electron and proton pattern, according to which your body is re• is vibrating according to its particular pattern produced, with all its imperfections and ble• in the atom and molecule. But, I have repre• mishes. In what sense then is your body you ? sented all these vibrations as a single wave. Who are you ? im 151 Glory of Arunachala Arunachala Mahatmyani

(SIVA BHAKTA MAHATMYAM Translated from Tamil by of Sri Upamanyu)1 M. C. Subramanian

DEVI'S AUSTERITIES, THE DEATH OF MAHISHA AT HER HANDS AND HER BECOMING ONE HALF OF SIVA

1—5 entered the wood and after looking at the goddess closely returned to him and said : Upamanyu continued : (i You should win her ". ^J^HE old man said : " Leaving that best of On hearing their words that stalwart places from which Sambhu spoke to her (warrior) became enamoured of her and in the .form of a column of effulgence and immediately ordered the Asuras armed with where the divine hosts who worship him numerous weapons to attack the guards. The reside, the Goddess installed (an image) of four Swati Devis attacked them with dazzling the three-eyed Lord on the Pavala Hill a spur weapons and slew all of them in a moment. of the Aruna mountain. Goddess Parvati It was a marvel to see them. Thereupon adorned with ornaments and matted tresses Mahishasura, overcome with anger and for• wore the bark of a tree. She smeared her white getting himself, commanded four of his body with sacred ashes and practised austeri• renownel generals to fight. When these also ties as prescribed, and meditated on (Siva) in were killed in the fight with the Sakti Devis, seclusion. She appointed Satyavati, Vanavaini, he went on despatching more and more Subhaga and Bandhumari to guard her asram warriors until the fight became exceedingly on the four sides. She appointed Durga to severe. carry out her commands without any difficulty to guard the entire grove set apart for penance. Durga 2 then said to herself : " There should be no disturbance inside the Asram " and rose Now the Devas who were afraid of up and entered to fight. With weapons blazing Mahishasura (demon in the shape of a he- like flames in her sixteen hands she attacked buffalo) prayed to Parvati and she assured Mahisha who came against her fiercely. them of her protection, saying " I shall kill him When Mahisha appeared on the battlefield by a stratagem " and continued to practise her with sword and shield, Durga also armed austerities steadily. By and by Mahishasura the herself with a sword and shield and a discus. enemy of the Devas, who had become arrogant While the world-destroying fight between on account of a boon obtained by him, came Durga and Mahisha was going on the Devas hunting in the company of kings. While prayed to Durga for the welfare of the world. wandering about the forest he accidentally They said : " Devi ! The world is suffering on came to the wood in which the Goddess was account of the war Thou art waging for sport. practising austerities. When he tried to enter Mother of the world ! Kindly stop this war it, prevented by the Sakti Devatas on guard, quickly for the welfare of the world ". he stood still for a moment. Being a warrior with no scruples, he stopped his followers on the bank of the river in a dense forest and 1 This is an ancient work, like the Arunachala Mahatmya, giving an account of Arunachala. issued certain instructions to some A suras 2 Durga refers not to the goddess appointed to (demons) who were adepts in producing illu• guard the wood hut to Parvati one of whose names sions. Disguising themselves as ascetics they is Durga. 252 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

Thus besought by the Devas, the Goddess tion whether he does so with or without devo• Durga trod him down under her divine foot tion. Moreover even heinous sins for which no and pierced him with her trident. Being unable expiation has been prescribed will certainly be to resist it, he emitted a low scream, oppressed expiated when one merely looks at the Sona by the weight of his big body and trembled in Hill." Even though the noble Gautama said every limb. The slayer of Mahisha severed this, the Goddess continued to fear that she Mahisha's head with her sharp sword and had slain a devotee of Siva. danced upon it. At this moment she heard a voice in the The Devas showered flowers upon her and sky which addressed her and said : Cleave praised her. The loud sound of the Celestial the earth with your trident. Out of that cleft Musical instruments was heard. All the quart• will spring up the nine rivers viz, the Ganga, ers shone brightly. the Yamuna, the Sindhu, the Godavari, the Sarasvati, the Sona, the Kaveri and the Nar- The Deyas then besought her : " Let that mada, ail together. Bathe daily in this Sula head be severed completely. It still appears tirtha (the spring caused by the trident) for a to possess some life. Let Thy form which is whole month beginning on the day on which now treading upon, it appear before us always. the moon is in the constellation Jyeshta, re• Those who worship this form of Thine will peating the aghamarshana mantra (a Mantra attain liberation ". The goddess agreed and uttered before taking a ritualistic bath). If said " So be it ". you live near that tirtha the fear that the world Leaving one part (aspect or phase) of her would come to an end will not be felt, there standing in that form, she resumed her pure will be no drought and a sense of coolness will form (as Parvati) and looked at the demon's be produced in me (i.e. I shall be pleased). throat which had been cut. Seeing a linga Leave the linga in your hand beside the spring, inside, she took it up. It adhered to her palm take a bath in it and worship the tinga with due and the goddess was unable to free her hand offerings. You must with a peaceful mind of it. She exclaimed : " Ha ! Ha ! It is a install that Linga on the bank of the tirtha and name it Papanasa, for the welfare of the devotee of Siva who has been slain ! " and world. You should perform a sacrifice for felt miserable. She went to the Sage Gautama the Gods (Devayaga) commencing on the along with her companions and said to him : asterism of Uttarashada and take the bath sig• " I offered my protection to the Devas who nifying its • end (avabhrithasnanam) on the sought shelter with me and while trying to keep asterism of Agni (KriSika). You should then my promise, I have in my ignorance slain in the manner prescribed worship me who am Mahisha sura, a devotee of Siva. The Siva in the form of Arunacbala. O Auspicious One ! linga which was in his throat does not leave I shall then reveal to you my form of efful• my hand. How shall I expiate the sin of gence. having killed a devotee of Siva ? "

On hearing this, Gautama said : " O Gowri ! Accordingly Gauri cleft the earth with her Do not fear. This person is not a devotee. He trident, when the nine tirthas came out in the was a Siddha in his past life. He became a form of a single spring. The goddess to whose he-buffalo on account of a curse ; being a hand the linga had continued to stick on bath• demon he used to eat human beings. The Siva ed in it. The spring at once became blue on linga worn by one of the devotees eaten by him account of her lustre. Her mind, which had got stuck in his throat. As he was bearing a become violently agitated owing to her sepa• Linga when he died and as he came into con• ration from her dear Lord became calm. She tact with your divine lotus-like feet by virtue lived near that spring and made the worlds of the austerities practised by him in his former happy. After the lapse of one month she con• life, his curse has certainly been lifted. Who• ducted a festival for the Devas (Devotsavam) ever bears a Siva Linga certainly attains libera• in the month of Karri ka and worshipped San- 1978 GLORY OF ARUNACHALA 253 kara (Siva). On the day' of Krifctika in the hands and earnestly prayed to the God of Eight evening She meditated upon the form (of Siva) forms (Ashtamurti), the fulfiller of desires. The which had been seen by Brahma and Vishnu Supreme Lord (Parameswara), who is adored in ancient times and prayed : " Lord of the even by Devas was thereupon pleased to appear Devas ! If I am sinless you must immediately before her. As1 soon as she saw the Destroyer reveal Thy form to me. At once the Efful• of the Cities (Tripurari) before her, her hairs gence of Siva in the form of the Aruna Hill stood on end with joy. She prostrated before filled the entire world with its brilliance. And Him and with clasped hands prayed : " We there arose from it a golden blue-throated Per• two should never be separated. Thou must son who said : I am pleased with your severe always abide here for the welfare of the world penance. The sin which you incurred by and allow Devas, human beings and others covering my eyes and plunging the universe in who adore Thee to see Thee perpetually. Thou darkness has now been expiated by seeing the shalt be worshipped with glorious festivals ". Effulgence of Arunachala. Since your son The Lord of Arunagiri acceded to her prayer instead of sucking your breasts sucked the for the welfare of the world. He also made breasts of the Krittikas you shall be known as 4ter one half of his body. He ordered Visva- Apitakuchamba.3 O Apitakuchadevi ! Come karma — the celestial builder to build a City. to me who am an Ocean of Compassion ". The latter at the command of the Destroyer Saying this, the Lord disappeared. of the Three Cities, built a City named Aruna• The Goddess then circumambulated this chala. It is the first and most sacred of all (Hill) as advised by Gautama, in the company ancient cities. Siva is still being worshipped of Sages and divine Mothers (Deva Mathas). there in the form of a self-born (i.e. naturally Like a bride circumambulating the fire at her formed, linga). One becomes free of all sins marriage, the daughter of the mountain cir• the moment one remembers and adores Aruna• cumambulated Arunachalesvara in the com• chalesvara, the Lord of Unnamulai. It is cer• pany of Sarasvati, Lakshmi, Indrani, Arundhatt tain that those who read or hear or meditate and the wives of sages. She was praying all upon this glorious account of Arunachalesvara the way for union with $iva (Sivasayujyam). will attain the immortal abode of Siva. After completing the circumambulation she 3 Apitakucha (Tamil Unnamulai) — Of nnsuckled prostrated before Isvara, stood with clasped breasts.

THE SHUTTLE

By

' Kanji9

The shuttle flies back and forth, back and forth, the warp is steady and fine no matter how fast the shuttle flies. Listen friends, the breath within your breathing is always living thread, no matter what kind of cloth is being woven ! 254 October WHAT ABOUT I?

By Sunya Baba

^y^THAT is, to us, the essential message of whole world there is nothing but God " <— Sri Ramana Maharshi ? The aim is Self- Mental knowledge must become actual experi• experiencing or God-awareness. You may call encing. To know a thing absolutely, and not it Truth-realisation, but you cannot realise just superficially and intellectually, one must (i.e. make real), that which is ever Reai, be that thing. Be it in Empathy, in unity- immanent and omni-present. You, or Christ awareness, and in a wisdom-light that trans• in you, can awaken integrally, maturely and cends effort, knowledge, power and learned abidingly into conscious awareness of Being It. ignorance. There is nothing to achieve — attain, conquer " We are always, aware, Sunya ", Maharshi or control —-, nothing to be obtained or to be reminded us. We are always nothing but the possessed, only this mature and abiding awak• Self eternally Is, but associating ourselves with ening into conscious Selfhood. The method this ignorance of limitation, with an ego — a advocated is to be still, be ego-still to inquire : body and other tools, we ignore or forget the " Who ami"? What is I ? What is the mind- Seer and identify ourselves with the seen. This ridden, lustful and troublesome ego ? Sincerely habit is long-standing, birth after birth has been ask the Silence, the inner Stillness and you will imagined, century after century has been fabri• reach the Source, the Self. You need not kill cated by the mind, which has thus involved or control ego. It will drop away of its own itself more and more in ignorance, learned igno• accord — or you will be consciously free in rance. From babyhood we are conditioned to it, and in all other tools, and experience that false values and brain-washed into conformity, bondage is delusive. Nothing will be left but into desires, ambitions, blinkers and false the eternal, blissful Self. identity.

Be Still, but do not try to be Still. Effort, Many examples are given in Ramana like ego and reason, that also were helpers, Maharshi's talks and answers to questions, to become a hindrance to Self awareness and to suit all tastes and mentalities. His presence and the ineffable experiencing. Simply Be Still to our reading of his word-symbols automatically reflect purely ; Being — Awareness — Grace. drive us inward to the Source. It clarifies our Ramana Maharshi always stressed the one consciousness into conscious, integral Self- essential truth that was necessary for the integ• awareness and is itself a sufficient Sadbana. Do ral awakening, that there is only one Self — not delude yourself, : You are already That, and nothing but the Self. As a rustic Bengali there is nothing more to be obtained, only false youth simply and joyously sa>d : "In the association and false identity to be shed.

" One in All, All in One — If only this is realized, No more worry about your not being perfect ! " — Seng-is'an, 1978 255 A Guide during the Falling of Mind

By Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov

1. There are many people who served His desire will have caught on and then you will blessed Name all their days and toward the end bring it in to the service of the Holy. they slid back from His Service. All their 9. Holy men I know said to me, " I service was as nought. bethought my way in things of this world and 2. However, seven times the righteous fall brought my feet back to your commandments and yet rise. through this."

3. At times of such a fall, recall the early 10. The ' fall' in the Tzaddik does not days in which you were graciously illuminated. result from being engrossed in matter, G-d forbid, but rather from the lack of joy. It is 4. You did see eye to eye in real sight the due to this lack of joy that the feeling of love greatness of the Creator and His Exaltedness, and Awe are taken from him. and you might ask yourself why you have now 11. However, this applied only to Tzad- changed. dikim like David and not to a lower person, 5. Of course the reason is that you have who by rousing himself to things of this world become engrossed in matter and that you have might remain just there, G-d forbid. not freed yourself. 12. And thus for ourselves, we can fully 6. Or, in order that new understanding be decide that the cause of our being removed from His Holy Name and from His Service is added to you, and that your service become due to our becoming engrossed in matter which greater than it was at first. has prevailed over the intellectual soul and 7. However, at such times when the flame confused it in its passions and sensualities. is taken from your soul and it seems as if it 13. If only you will begin to enter His Holy were extinguished, bq very careful that you do Service you will find that the gates of light will not conduct yourself lightheadedly, for this open themselves like the gates of Heaven. lightheadedness might cause you to trip up. 14. I have heard from a holy Person, " It 8. If the feeling of Love and Awe has takes just a small taste, like a man who tastes become obliterated in you, you can arouse his food, and then you will see how much good them through things of this world until the is before you."

" Many in the Christian fold do not progress because they stick on to penances and particular exercises and neglect the love of God, which is the end." — BROTHER LAWRENCE October Significance of Guru Purnima

By Mani Sahukar

Jj^VERY year as the auspicious full moon of to a devotee who asked : " Is) not the Master's the month of ashad (June-July) draws; Grace the result ok God's Grace ? " Sri MaLa- closer, the devotee's heart throbs with excite• rshi replied: "Why distinguish between the ment and anticipation, for, it is on this full- two ? The Master is the same as God and moonday that it is re-dedicated to the worship not different from Him." (Talks, p. 34) of the spiritual preceptor. On this sacred day The relationship between the Guru and his the bhakta's devotion reaches its zenith in com• disciples is replete with reciprocal tenderness. plete surrender at the guru's lotus feet. The subtle nuances of give-and-take reach their Emotion gathers momentum when one gains fulfilment in this association of the master, and the opportunity and waits for one's turn to the chela. In fact, it was this: faith in the mani• prostrate oneself at the feet of the Revered festations of Divine Glory as incarnate One. As is the case with some delicate instru• persons that is the precious contribution of the ments, darshan on this day gives to the sadhak Puranic period. Possibly the doctrine of a true balance and poise, for, in his inner Brahman manifesting as Ishwara, who is the being the devotee has already recreated die Saguna aspect of God, gave rise in time to a image of the perfect Master whom he now staunch belief in the incarnations of God. worships with supreme surrender. As a matter of fact, in recent times, when The Vedas proclaim — Acharya devo Sri Sai Baba, the Saint of Shirdi, brought bhava. The guru is no other than God. The about powerful revival of the bhakti marga, holy Guru Purnima is an appropriate occasion the master also reinstated the Guru as the to renew loyalty and devotion to the Sad-Guru. supreme image of the Divine. Sri Upasani Baba In India, as perhaps also in some other parts and Sati Godavari Mataji, who followed this of the world, Guru Purnima, is celebrated illustrious Master, have also continued the with zest, particularly in ashrams. On this day tradition of glorifying the Guru. It is Godavari the devotee pauses, as it were, to reassess: his Mataji's firm conviction that not only the path efforts and progress and is restored, in the of devotion, but in other paths also the hidden words of Plato, 'to youth and beauty'. Guru functions imperceptibly to bring about a The teachings of saints give great import• perfect awakening of the spirit, ance to the traditional concept of the Guru and the relationship he bears to his chosen disciples. Sri Ramana Maharshi, the apostle of the The guru is necessarily the perfect spiritual path of self-enquiry, with his radiant and com• preceptor. Since the human mind cannot con• passionate personality evoked deep devotion in ceive of or love an abstract principle, the those who followed him. It is no wonder He scriptures: advise us to venerate those persons fulfilled the mission of a Guru without calling who reveal God to us and to love and accept himself one. Sri Ramana recognised the im• these spiritual presences as the Divine mani• portance of such a contact for the struggling festing itself in human form. Guru is mani• sadhaks (aspirants). fested God — this is the most appropriate and Indeed we may rejoice exceedingly that the succinct definition of the word, Guru. The soil of India still has the purity and power to Almighty and His medium of manifestation revive in millions of human hearts the eternal are identical. Christ's emphatic assurance : " I and radiant Avatars of the Supreme by the and my Father are one " confirms the Divine observance of Guru Purnima, the holiest of origin of the seemingly human Guru. In reply all holy festivals. 1978 257 STOklMS FkOM YOGA VASISHTHA—XV1II STORY OF SIKHIMVAJA1JVU CHUDAW-«

Translated from Sanskrit by M. C. Subramanian

GLKHIDHVAJA asked : What makes the branches of this tree of evil and eradicate its body active ? What is the cause of birth roots (i.e. the ego). Removing its roots is and action ? Renouncing what makes one's known as (true) renunciation. Latent impres• renunciation complete ? sions are the several branches which bear truits of various kinds. They are got rid of by Kumbha replied : O Sadhu ! The mind ignoring them and being aware of the Self. which is called jiva appears as everything. It He who is silent and not argumentative, who is neither sentient nor insentient. It is thisi is free from attachment and does the work world of multiplicity. It is one's bondage. If which comes to him is a man who has lopped one could renounce it one's renunciation would off the branches of the tree of his mind. But be complete. The mind is the seed (cause) the lopping off branches is not so important. of birth and action. Just as a tree is shaken Therefore try earnestly to cut off the roots of by the wind, so also the body is activated by the tree of the mind. Burn thoroughly its the mind. Renunciation of the mind alone is thorny roots. The mind will then cease to be. total renunciation, say those who know. When the mind is renounced there is neither duality Sikhidhvaja asked : O Sage ! What is the nor non-duality. What remains is the one pure, fire which will burn the ego, this seed of the calm and perfect Self Supreme. Total renun• tree of the mind ? ciation is supreme bliss, everything else is full of strain and sorrow. Rely on OM and do Kumbha replied : Self-enquiry in the form what you like. O King ! Renounce every• of ' Who am I' ? is the fire which can burn thing. You will become calm and serene like away the ego, the seed of the evil tree of the the sky. You will be what you truly are. mind.

Sikhidhvaja said : Bhagavan ! First of all, Sikhidhvaja said : I have already thought please tell me what is the original form of the about it. I am not the body or the mind. Next, explain what is meant by renun• world. I am not the aggregate of flesh, bones, ciation of the mind. and so on. Nor am I the organs of action and knowledge. I am neither this mind, the Kumbha said : O King ! Know that mind intellect nor the ego, since these are all in• means latent impressions (v as anas.) Mind is sentient. The concept of 61' is like a bracelet only another name for latent impressions. The made of gold (a mere appearance). ego is the seed of the tree of the mind which Kumbha said : O King ! You are a very bears all kinds of fruits in the form of trou• intelligent man. If you are not any of the bles. From it sprouts the intellect (buddhi). insentient objects, tell me who you are ? The latter has no form of its own. It can, however, be experienced. Its nature is to Sikhidhvaja said : I am the pure, unborn judge (or discriminate). When the sprout (eternal) awareness which causes these objects; which is the intellect grows through imagina• to appear and determines what they are. The tion it is called the mind (chitiah or chetah or evil seed of the tree of the mind, the I-con- manas). You should lop off constantly the cept, rises somehow in the heart of this aware- 258 THE MOUNTAIN PATH Octobet ness. I am not able to get rid of it. Every It is imperishable, tranquil and undecaying. It time I drive it away, it reappears. That is cannot be known but it can be experienced. why I am so unhappy. It is one without a second and has no begin• ning or end. It is benign and knows no dimi• Kumbha said : Every effect must have a nution. How, when and by whom can it be cause. What is the cause of the I-concept ? forced to become a doer or enj oyer ? So this Think carefully and tell me. world has not been created by anybody. It does Sikhidhvaja said : I see that the perception not therefore truly exist. God Brahma is only (or awareness) of the objective world is the imagination, he is merely consciousness cause of the I-concept. Please tell me how (thought). Creation (i.e. the world) is consci• to stop this perception and get rid of misery. ousness. It continues to appear because of Kumbha : You have understood the law of consciousness. You must realize that you are cause (and effect) very well. Now tell me neither a doer nor an en j oyer and that every• what produces this perception (of the objective thing is the unborn tranquil and benign (Brah• world). I shall then tell you what is the cause man). Get rid of your ignorance gradually. of what and what is not. Unless one gets rid of one's ignorance one can• not realize the truth. That which diminishes Sikhidhvaja said : (This faculty of) percep• gradually will cease to exist completely in tion arises in the form of the body and so course of time. Finally there will be only on, which though unreal, appear to be real, tranquillity (or peace). The Lord of Lords just as a current of air produces a stir near it. (Brahman) causes this world to appear by His The conviction that all objects are unreal will mere imagination. He himself is God Brahma. put an end to this perception and the I-concept, Everything is the tranquil Brahman. but I do not have that conviction. Kumbha : If the body, and so on, really Sikhidhvaja : Bhagavan ! You have en• exist you can perceive them, but they do not, lightened me by your words which are logi• so how can you perceive them ? cal. Since there is no doer (creator) there is Sikhidhvaja : How can we say that the body no world and since there is no world there is which possesses hands and feet, performs no one who sees it. That being so I have now action and enjoys its fruit is unreal ? become fully enlightened. I am Siva (the benign Brahman). I have realized that there Kumbha : An effect which has no. cause is no (objective world). I salute myself, the cannot be said to be real. If it appears to be Supreme Consciousness. It is perception of real it is an illusion. Know that all this does the world which makes one think that it is real. not really exist. It is an illusion. That which I have had enough (of his world). I am going has no cause is unreal like a serpent that one to remain calm like the sky. This world of sees instead of a rope. multiplicity, time, space and movement will at Sikhidhvaja : This world was created by sometime come to an end. Only Brahman the primal Father (the four-faced Brahma). which knows no diminution remains. Can he not be regarded as the cause (of the world) ? Vasishtha continued : When Sikhidhvaja Kumbha : At the beginning of creation there was enlightened thus by Kumbha he became was only Brahman (the Absolute). There was completely disillusioned. By pondering over nothing else. So God Brahma cannot be the his words he soon attained Self-realization. cause. He shut the eyes of his mind and became silent. He looked like a statue carved out of Sikhidhvaja : Cannot Brahman be regarded rock. After sometime Kumbha spoke to him. as his cause ? I cannot imagine how the God can be uncaused. Kumbha : Have you found happy repose Kumbha : The primal Consciousness is un• in the clean, big, soft and spotless bed of the born and infinite. Its existence is beyond doubt. conceptless state. Have you become dis-illu- 297J STORY OF SIKHIDHVAJA AND CHUDALA 250 sioned ? Have you known what should be (purity). Those who have minds are unen• known and seen what should be seen ? lightened ; the great; souls who have saUva alone are enlightened. You have given up all Sikhidhvaja : O Bhagavan ! I have, by acts.which will lead to re-birth. You have your Grace, reached the great and transcen• no thoughts of what has to be accepted and dental state which is simply glorious. Ah ! the what has to be rejected. Ignore the objective company of great souls who have known what world. Make your mind still. One whose should be known is like nectar and is sup• mind is still is not affected by samsara. The remely beneficial. I have, by coming into con• miseries of the three worlds arc all caused by tact with you, obtained the valuable nectar the restlessness of the mind. You must trans• which I could not get during all my lives. cend the stillness of the mind as well as its How is it that I could not obtain till now this restlessness and achieve unity. ancient and inexhaustible nectar ? Sikhidhvaja : Lord ! How can stillness and Kumbha : When one's mind is tranquil and restlessness be united ? one has given up all desires for sense-enjoy• ments and all the senses have become propiti• Kumbha : The entire world is only Consci• ous, . the wise words of the Guru make an ousness, just as the Ocean is only water. It indelible impression on the mind just as the is agitated by the intellect, just as the Ocean red juice of the kusumbha flower on a pure is agitated by the waves. Brahman which white cloth. The bad habits and impressions is described as Truth and so on appears fall away from the body (and mind) in course to the ignorant as the world. Creation of time, just as ripe fruits fall from a tree. (of the world) is only movement (or vib• Notions of duality and non-duality constitute ration) of Consciousness. It will not be seen ignorance. Absence of such notions is wis• when the Self is realized, just as the serpent dom. That is the Supreme Goal. You are disappears when one sees the rope. When, by now an enlightened man. You are entirely free. studying the scriptures, associating with the You have renounced your mind. Remain in wise and constant practice, the mind becomes your true state, a supremely fortunate, taint• pure, illumination (knowledge) rises spontane• less and silent sage. ously and the world is realized to be merely Sikhidhvaja asked : What is the mind of an an appearance, just as, when the sun rises (one enlightened man like ? How do they live who sees everything clearly). See, think and under• are liberated even while alive (jivan-rnukta) ? stand how everything comes into existence and disappears. Be free, a self-realized sage. I am Kumbha replied : Strong impressions which now going back to svarga. Narada would be lead to re-birth are known as the mind. The coming there from the world of Brahma to enlightened man has no such mind. The imp• attend a meeting of the devas. If he does ressions which enable him to live are pure not see me there he would become angry. A {sattvik) ; they do not lead to re-birth. The true disciple should do nothing which will ignorant mind alone should be called the mind. annoy his Guru. Always be free from The enlightened mind is known as saitva thoughts and desires. This is the sacred path.

" If you asked me which form of God you should meditate upon, I should say : Fix your attention on that form which appeals to you most; but know for certain that all forms are the forms of one God alone.... Siva, Kali and Hart are but different forms of that One. He is blessed indeed who has known all as one." •— SRI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAIIAMSA. 260 October ARUNACHALA UN VISITED1

By David Richardson

^JpHE sky is pale blue and clear, bui for a that, the interminable swish and hum of traffic. sprinkling of clouds mostly above the Along the highway leading into the city, cars western horizon. Though visible still, the sun race dizzily against the clock, pushed on by an will soon disappear behind a distant ridge and omnipresent, but vague sense of urgency. In when it does, it will bathe those clouds in that race, which can never be won, are all gorgeous colors — yellow and gold, rose, the commercial enterprises and corporate pink and purple -— before leaving them blue- entities, the ambitions and hard-earned pro• gray and suspended in a fading sky. motions, the self-assured successes and sullen We scuff along a narrow cemetery road failures, the adultery and adult movies and all toward a grove of evergreen trees. A small the pleasure, pain and panic that ever were. car tears past and the dust stings the eyes and In that parade too are the past glories and nose. But in the air, when the dust settles future wars, the meek and the merciless ; the down, is the aroma of freshly cut grass and the inanities, insanities and sanctimonious banali• perfume of some late blossom — an indescri• ties of worldly endeavor. bable piquancy. A Douglas Fir, perhaps 300 years old, its Resting briefly on the gravestone of Murray gray, twisted bark catching the last rays of the McNair, dead since July 26, 1963, one closes sun, stands; in mute communion with, the living one's eyes and breathes deeply. The mind and the dead. He has seen as many people kicks up at first, then subsides. arrive at their graves as he has sunsets. He Now there are only the sounds of the sum• has watched their coffins being lowered into mer evening ; gusts of wind, far off at first, the earth at his feet, while behind him, the then rushing nearer as if seeking us out, through world's traffic streams on. And he knows, as pine, spruce and holly trees and delicate young intimately as he knows his own expansive maples ; through tall weeds and wild grasses. growth, the silence of the Sage of Arunachala. It breathes louder now around ancient, pock• Years ago and on the other side of the marked tombstones which stick out of the earth, the gentle yogi lived as quiet as a hill ground at various angles as though dropped^ in and he too observed the passing sights and place from an airplane — Mr. Derry, 1901 sounds. Unruffled by wars and social struggles, to 1974 and his wife ; the Johnsons, and their the Gandhis and the Hitlers, he flourished in son, 37, who was killed in the war and all the eternity of God. His body, stiff and the beloved mothers and fathers whose child• wrinkled as a tree, was no encumbrance. It ren, nowj old in their turn, move with subdued was his house, but he was never home. Always despair toward their own moment of truth. he dwelt in silence with the fir tree and the And above the sunken graves, small birds dead — perfectly present in death as in life. with nothing to their names but their breathe, And hq dwells there still for anyone who finds trill and whistle to the glorious closing of a the strength to let go his grip on me and mine. day. Crows, whose throats must get sore, The Sage Ramana sings in his silence : squawk endlessly at everything that moves Arunachala ! Thou dost root out the ego of below. those who meditate on Thee in the heart, From a distance, muffled and thickened by oh Arunachala. the wind, come the shouts and laughter of children and the barking of dogs and beyond The writer has not so far visited Arunachala, 1978 Cure in Tiruvannamalai

HPHE Physicist and Philosopher Carl was the sense of levitation, the end of which Friedrkh von Weizsaecker records in his the author describes as a soft sliding down : new book, The Renewal of Europe by Eastern " Very cautiously experience led me back to Wisdom. earth." In the other case he saw himself " as a metal-ball, falling on a shining metal surface, "When I had removed my shoes and stood and, after a moment's touch, jumping back to in the Ashram in, front of the Samadhi of the where it came from." Maharshi, I knew in a flash of lightning : ' Yes, this is in." Thus Professor Baron Carl The experience of levitation and enlighten• Friedn'ch von Weizsaecker, 65 is describing in ment of Tiruvannamalai has been an important his book (Der Garten der Menschlichkeit) the and healing event for Weizsaecker. He himjelf zenith of a meditation-experience that he had reports, that the experience has delivered him in India 8 years back. Already in the first years from depressions of years' duration. after 1950 v. Weizsaecker had known the importance of Indian wisdom ; in those years He writes : " Without them I might not have he was still teaching Physics in the Uni• been able to stand the suffocating events of versity of Gottingen. However only in those years." 1969 he found the opportunity for a Meditation can change the character of man journey to and in India. During this stay he (in the direction of a greater peaccableness) visited in Tiruvannamalai near Madras, the and thus also cause a change in society, believes Samadhi of Sri Ramana Maharshi, who had v. Weizsaecker. left his body in 1950. There Prof. v. Mcizsae:- ker had that experience, following a medita• In fact Wcizsaecker's proposition, that tion. It seems to have happened in two phases. Europe should make the Eastern experiences First phase : An expansion of consciousness as; of meditation her own, is not only to be in a flash of lightning. This is obviously understood religiously, but also politically. enlightenment. Second phase : A blessed levita• Ultimately he has in his mind a culturally tion. v. Mcizsaeckcr describes the first phase revolutionary change of Europe and the as a quick transition from still present percep• European man. The meeting between the tions of surroundings (Light on stones, mosqui- ' reflecting ' Europe and the ' meditating ' Asia to.O into a higher state of ecstasy : " But in he takes for an " event of universal history", living were pierced the layers, the ' peels of which might deliver Europe from the tradi• onion which can only be indicated by words tions of her aggressive-analytical science- like 'You' — «I' — Yes !' Tears of bliss. culture. Bliss without rears."

Tn the second ohasc v. Wei7saccker had 1 A book review by George Wolff in the German experiences of different kinds. One of them Magazine Der Spiegel,

" The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao ; - The name that can be named is not the unchanging Name." — " Tao Te Ching " 262 October Mr. WU! IS....

By Wei Wu Wei

Mr. Wu ! All ' you fs can "hear ', Madame, but only I can Listen. / have no name, Madame, but Here I Am. But I can do it also, Mr. Wu !

Yes indeed, Mr. Wu, and it is always a All ' you's can ' do ', Madame, but pleasure to see you ! only I can Act.

Thank you, Mada?ne, k is indeed 1 Could you mean, Mr. Wu, that only objects Who am Looking. suffer ? Subject Acts, Madame, only the But, Mr. Wu, I can see as well as you can ! objectified experiences. All ' you 9s can see, Madame, but only I can Look. But when I understand, Mr. Wu, my experience is happy. At least I can hear your words, Mr. Wu, and Yes, indeed,- Madame, I am. what that makes me happy. . . 'Being9 IS. .

MIND STUFF

By Joseph M. Heikoff

Neither you nor I Then all vanish . are real as the unreality they are, Except as thought waves Only the Self remains, in the mind. which IS and ever was. How, then, distinguish (The mind understands ; friend from enemy, Or them from you ? The body sits in contemplation, but dreams away ; Ego, body, and world arise as modifications of mind. Habits of mind persist Still the thought waves, and attain true silence, And ignorance prevails.) 1978 INTRODUCING....

Sri K. Natesan and Smt. Jnanambal Natesan

J^EVOTEES who attached themselves to in front of Him almost daily. After getting Sri Bhagavan in the early days hailed a diploma in Engineering (in Madras) he was from different walks of life and their approach constantly at the Ashram between 1935 and to the Master was each in its own way unique. 1945. Though he was employed off and on A special feature of Sri Bhagavan is that He in various places, he would resign his job and absorbed into the spiritual fold any sincere return to the Ashram. His attachment to seeker, irrespective of his stage in life, with• Bhagavan was such that he could not remain out making him a sannyasin or sadhu. in employment continuously, until Sri K. K.

Suit. Jnanambal & Sri K. Natesan

Sri K. Natesan, an ardent devotee of Bha• Nambiar, in 1945, got him absorbed into the gavan and a native of Tiruvannamalai, comes Corporation of Madras, where he stuck on till of a very orthodox Brahmin family. His father, his retirement in 1969. He assisted Sri Vai- Brahmasri Krishna Ghanapatigal, was a great dyanatha Sthapati, who built; the temple of Vedic scholar and was teaching Yajur Veda in Bhagavan's mother at the Ashram, when the the local Veda Pathasala for 30 years. construction was going on. Natesan first had darshan of Bhagavan at Skandashram in 1921, when he was 8 years Natesan has been deeply interested in the old. Sri Vasudeva Sastri, one of the earliest works of Sri Bhagavan, both in Tamil and devotees, who was then teaching him Sanskrit, Sanskrit. In fact, he was prominently present took him to Bhagavan. Later when Bhagavan during the daily Tamil parayana which was came down to the present Sri Ramanasramam, taking place every evening in the presence of even though Natesan was studying in the Sri Bhagavan, Bhagavan has several times school, he used to visit the Ashram and sit given him the work of copying verses submit- 264 TM£ MOUNTAIN PATH October

ted to Him in the Ashram Bound Notebook. used to remark that they (Sri T. K. S. and He would also ask him to copy out verses and Natesan) would always be found together. supply them to devotees at the latter's request. After retirement from service, he has come In 1942, Natesan got married to Jnanambal, back to the Ashram to serve the devotees. He who is also deeply devoted to Sri Bhagavan, is very useful to the new devotees since he having had his darsan as a girl of eight years. could function both as a receptionist and an Major Chadwick, who was a close friend of instructor. His cordiality is appreciated by Sri Natesan, congratulated him on the marriage guests and visitors. The Ashram President, and the appropriateness of the bride's name, Sri T. N. Venkatraman, being a close friend saying, " jnana you wanted and jnana you of his, has entrusted him with the accounts of have gained." During their stay in Madras The Mounlain Path too. Genial in tempera• both of them took keen part in the activities ment, Sri Natesan is also very helpful to the of Raman a Bhakla Sab ha in the house of old devotees who have had the privilege of Professor Swaminathan. living with Bhagavan and who now live at the Ashram. Natesan is deeply interested in the works of Sri Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni and has with The entire family of Sri Natesan is devoted him the manuscript copies of almost all the to the Maharshi. Suit. Jnanambal Natesan works of the Muni. He has had the privilege looks after the family in Madras and thereby of moving with Sri Ganapati Muni and being enables her husband to continue his sadhana initiated by him. Sri T. K. Sundaresa Iyer, and service at the Master's abode. one of the oldest devotees of Sri Bhagavan, helped him to understand the teachings of Bha• We wish this dedicated couple length of gavan and the works of the Muni. Bhagavan years and all that is best in3 life.

FORTHCOMING FESTIVALS

NAVARATHRl FESTIVAL (commencing on) Monday 2- 10- 1978 SARASWATI PUJA Tuesday 10- 10- 1978 VIJAYADASAMI Wednesday 11- 10- 1978 DEEPAVALI Monday 30- 10- 1978 SKANDA SASHTI Monday 6- 11- 1978 KARTIKAI DEEPAM Tuesday 12- 12- 1978 SRI BHAGA VAN'S JAYANTHI Saturday 13- 1- 1979 PONGAL Sunday 14- 1- 1979 CHINNASWAMY ARADHANA Sunday 11- 2- 1979 MAHA SIVARATHRI Sunday 25- 2- 1979 SRI VIDYA HAVAN Friday 16- 3- 1979 TELUGU NEW YEAR (.Lunar) Thursday 29- 3- 1979 TAMIL NEW YEAR (Solar) Saturday 14- 4- 1979 1978 265 BOOK REVIEWS

THE HUNDRED THOUSAND SONGS OF Together with joy, the simplicity of the Way is MILAREPA : Translated by Garma C. C. well-transmit ted in these stories. This quality, Chang. Boulder and London : Shambhala, Mr. Chang notes, is reminiscent of Hui Neng's 1977. 2 volumes, 730 pages. $6.50 per vol. Ch'an Buddhism in China. This stress on simpli• city can be taken as Milarepa's expression of the The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa is the Mahamudra Path (the Path of Liberation in Tibe• first complete translation into English of this work tan Tantrism) of which the primary concern is effort• that has been treasured in Tibet for eight centuries. lessness — " to instruct the yogi on how to relax Called traditionally the Mila Grubum, this is a his mind and thus induce in him the unfolding of collection of sixty-one groups of wonderful songs his Primordial Mind." The more formalized invo• of instruction attributed to the famous Tibetan yogi cations and the many references to techniques for Milarepa (c. A.D. 1052-A.D. 1135). To quote the " taming the Prana " are taken from the Path of translator, Garma* C. C. Chang, this book " has been Means which compliments the above-mentioned Path read as the biography of a saint, a guidebook for of Liberation in forming the basic teaching of devotion, a manual of Buddhist Yoga, a volume Tibetan Tantrism. of songs and poems, and even a collection of Tibe• tan folklore and fairy tales." In the foreword it is As examples of the work, hundreds of pieces claimed, " Beyond doubt it is one of the greatest could be cited, telling fascinating tales of miraculous religious classics, ranking with the Mahabhara'.a, the encounters, giving beautiful descriptions of the set• Avatamsaka Sutra, the Old and the New Testaments ting of a story, or conveying profound Tantric and the like. But at the same time it is far more teachings. The following passage, wherein the Guru — a different kind of book in its own right. . . speaks to his foremost disciple in a beautifully un• adorned manner, may serve as an introduction to Mr. Chang lived and studied in Tibet for several the clear-hearted world of Milarepa : years, becoming quite qualified to do the work. Even so, he humbly writes, " My greatest desire is I am well and happy to see that this pioneer translation, imperfect as it Without ' gab ' and 4 babble \ may be, rouses a wider interest in the work itself, For I do not want proud talk. and thus serves as a prelude to more and better I am well and happy translations of the Mila Grubum to follow." Without plans or schemes, For my mind is free from fraud. Reading The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa I am well and happy, for I never one notices immediately that the writing combines Involve myself in slanderous gossip two marked styles of expression. There is as a And I desire no fame or glory. formal background the well-developed doctrinal Where'er I stay, what'er I wear language of Tibetan Tantrism which is combined Or eat, I feel truly happy. with a simple and joyous singing out of the appli• At all times I am happy and well. cation of these Buddhist ways in the lives of Mila• repa and his disciples. This latter element of joy The joy that this book inspires, the ardour for the is dominant throughout and will certainly provide Path, reveal it as a masterful work indeed. It will the introductory bridge for those who may find the surely be a blessing for all who have a chance to technical side of the work a little difficult to jump read it. into. For this very suitable mode of expression JOHN HARPER. we are indebted to the wisdom of the original author-compilers, one of whom wrote, after relating SWAMI VIVEKANANDA : MEDITATION AND a story of Milarepa : ITS METHODS : Edited by Swami Cheta- nananda. Pub. : Vedanta Press, Hollywood, I have not added to this story Calif., USA. P. 127. Price: $3.50. For fear of losing and forgetting it; But for the benefit of disciples in the future " Do you see a light when you are falling I have written this tale asleep ? " In my Guru's words. " Yes, I do. Doesn't everyone ? " 266 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

That was Sri Ramakrishna asking and boy Viveka- Have patience : at first there will be wonderful nanda answering. Later he was to explain : " From manifestations, but they will all cease. This is the earliest times that I can remember I used to see the hardest period, but hold fast; in the end the a marvellous point of light between my eyebrows gain is sure if you have patience. as soon as I shut my eyes to go to sleep, and 1 Do not spend your energy in talking. Accu• used to watch its various changes with great atten• mulate power in silence. tion. That marvellous point of light would change The Guru is indeed important. But the disci• colours and get bigger until it took the form of a ple has first to fulfil his conditions. Among the ball; finally it would burst and cover my body from more important are : * Intense desire to know the head to foot with white liquid light. As soon as Truth, to want only God. Restraining the mind that happened, I would lose outer consciousness and from going outward, restraining the senses, turn• fall asleep. I used to believe that that was the ing the mind inward, suffering everything without way everybody went to sleep. Then, when I grew murmuring, fastening the mind to one idea, think• older and began to practise meditation, that point ing constantly of your real nature.' of light would appear to me as soon as I closed my eyes, and I would concentrate upon that." A most useful handbook for every seeker,

This is one of the reminiscences of Swami Vive- THE WISDOM OF THE EARLY BUDDHISTS: kananda narrated by the editor of this compilation By Geoffrey Parrinder. Sheldon Press. P. 87. on Meditation and meditative experiences. He has Price : £ 1.50. arranged the extracts in two sections, the practice The Gospels came to be written some three and the philosophy of Meditation. He explains, in decades after Christ. The Buddhist canon took the words of Swamiji, that meditation is meant to about five centuries to form. Nobody knows what stop the waves in the lake of the mind so that the exactly was the Teaching of the Great One. Natu• placid waters may reflect the full orb of the lumin• rally there are traditions and traditions, and con• ous Self. troversies over such fundamental questions as the The environment must be carefully chosen, sancti• existence of the soul, the precise content of the fied and maintained in its purity, physical and term Nirvana, and so on. Dr. Parrinder makes a psychological. The best timings are 1 when night representative selection from the various texts to passes into day, and day into night', when Nature is bring out the salient features of the Message and calm and helpful. When one sits for meditation, the life of the Enlightened One. the thoughts should be allowed to run! on, but with• In his introduction, he quotes with approval the out participation ; slowly they decrease. A helpful observation of Prof. Edward Conze, ' Buddhism hint is given : ' Think of space in your heart and bases itself first of all on the revelation of the Truth in the midst of that space think that a flame is by an omniscient being . . . and secondly on the burning. Think of that flame as your own soul spiritual intuition of saintly beings.' It is not a and inside the flame is another effulgent light, and man-made system for self-salvation but a revela• that is the Soul of your soul, God. Meditate upon tion of Truth. And what is this Truth? There are that in the heart.' One must cultivate cheerfulness four basic Noble truths : ' The universal fact of for that is conducive) to the expression of the innate suffering ; the cause in craving ; its cessation by the nature of the Self, the uncaused bliss. On this stopping of craving; and the way to achieve this point, Swamiji reminisces : "I have been asked by the Noble Eightfold Path. The Path is in eight many times, ' Why do you laugh so much and make terms of Right : right views, motive, speech, action, so many jokes ?' I become serious sometimes — livelihood, effort, mindfulness and contemplation.' when I have stomach-ache ! The Lord is all bliss- The Buddha, it is pointed out, never taught that the fulness . . . the nearer you are to Him, the less self is not but only that it cannot be apprehended. you will have occasions to cry or weep." The Buddha taught methods of meditation which Among the several precautionary hints and warn• means here the four-fold' setting up of Mindfulness : ings that are given are : to detach oneself from the body and remain self- possessed and mindful; to detach oneself from feel• When the Kundalini traces back its course, it ings, thoughts and ideas ; to hold the body erect rouses violent lust in the individual. and make the mindfulness alert; to breathe in and Don't leave out a single day. If you have too out consciously. much pressing work, go through the spiritual Austerity of self-mortification is deprecated. exercises for at least a quarter of an hour, " Such an ascetic becomes complacent, exalting 1978 BOOK REVIEWS 267 himself and despising others, he attracts gifts and the monastic goal o£ Buddhist Nirvana, Hindu MukH fame; . . .he becomes greedy and selective of and Christian Salvation. foods." The author's presentation of the subject is scho• The passing of the Buddha is described in larly and characterised by a painstaking effort to moving terms : objectively clarify the fundamentals of these three " The dying Buddha said to Ananda : it may be faiths. The comparative study at the end of the that some of you will think that the word of the work is very good especially when he points out Master is ended and you have a Teacher no longer. that the present barriers between these faiths should But you should not look on it in this way. The be removed in the monasteries so that humanity Truth, and the rules of the Order, which I have may feel one family though belonging to different set out and laid down for you, shall be your Teacher faiths. Written in an easily intelligible style the after I have gone. . . . book is bound to enlarge the intellectual horizon of readers of these three faiths. All composite things are decaying. Work out your salvation with diligence. . ." PHILOSOPHICAL TRENDS IN MODERN There arose a dispute over the relics. The Elders MAHARASTRA : By M. R. Lederle. Popular divided them into eight portions and distributed Prakshan, Bombay-400 034. them among different places. " Gods and kings and men bowed with clasped hands, for it is hard Dr. Lederle is a member of the Jesuit order and indeed to meet with a Buddha and only once in is living in India, since 1951. He is an Indian centuries does it happen." citizen from 1956 and is now the Director of Sneha- dasan, a centre of inter-religious dialogue in Pune A book that ennobles, In the work under review, he gives an account of M. P. PANDIT. the modern Maharastrian philosophy dating from 1818. But the exposition covers also social and MONASTICISM : CHRISTIAN AND HINDU- individual philosophy. In the eleven chapters cover• BUDDHIST : By Anthony Eienjimittan. ing his theme, he starts from the history of the state Pub. : Aquinas Publications, Mount Mary, and gives in succession the several phases of its Bandra, Bombay-50. Price : Rs. 4.00. philosophy. B. G. Jambhekar " the pioneer of The author is well known not only for his several Renaissance in Western India " and the first social books which evince a keen interest in inter-religious reformer in Maharastra was the most conspicuous understanding, but also for his philanthropic activi- person who was followed by R. G. Bhandarkar and vities. He runs the Welfare Society for destitute M. G. Ranade. The Prarthana Samaja was estab• children in Bombay and has earned high apprecia• lished in Bombay in 1867 which taught that God is tion from eminent persons including Pope John one and without form and that idolatory is an aber• XXIII. The present work is claimed by the author ration and an insult to God. Ranade who was the as a bridge between fellow tramps in Hinduism, life breath of the reform movement in Western Buddhism and Catholicism. It has 19 chapters and India along with Bhandarkar organised it as a very deals clearly with such topics as initiation, novi• vital force. Ranade was a typical Hindu who had tiate, ordination, meditation, monastic and religious the capacity to identify the most important charac• vows and lastly the monastic goal. Father Elenji• teristic our religion and in one of the lectures said, mittan discusses the monastic life as it should be " Change for the better by slow absorption — this and not in its degenerate aspects, though occasio• has been the characteristic feature of our religion." nally he contrasts the ideal aspect of monasticism Though N. N. Goreh, a Brahmin convert to Chris• with what it is in actual life. He stresses in parti• tianity, attacked Hinduism on many grounds, there cular the importance of meditation in all these three was little impact. In chapter IV the author discusses orders and displays a very good knowledge of the the growth of liberalism which owed a great debt Hindu-yoga meditation. Chastity, obedience and to G. K. Gokhale, " the prince of Indian liberal• poverty as monastic virtues are discussed at great ism." This was the period when such giants as length. The first is the monastic vow while the K. T. Telang, Jotiba Phule, G. G. Agarkar, B. G. other two are religious vows. He describes also their Tilak, Vitthal Sinde and B. R. Ambedkar flourished. inner significance in detail. He correctly states that Ambedkar who joined Buddhism in his late years, the obligation to study the scriptures, theology, the author tells us reinterpreted Buddhism in the philosophy and culture of the respective religions direction of utilitarianism and man's welfare. Dr. is the common essential The last chapters examine Lederle says that he subordinated religion to social 268 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

progress and quotes from his book The Buddha and the Sage and was told by him to '* get away "-and His Dharma," It is necessary for you to change your then asked him in return whether the body or the religion for your spiritual (meaning here mental awareness was to get away. In each of these five and human) and also for your temporal profit" verses, it is declared that one who has realised that (page 177 f.n.). But M. S. Gole wanted to review he is none but Brahman is the real Guru whether he orthodox Hinduism on a rational basis and the Arya belongs to the lowest class or the highest. Swami Samajists headed by Swami Dayananda reacted Isvarananda Giri exhaustively analyses the implica• against idolatory and the Bhagavata Purana but tions of the verses. accepted the infallibility of the Vedas and the The talks, though discursive, are highly learned Samhitas rejecting the Upanisads and the Puranas. without being pedantic and abstruse. The Theosophical movement now made its appear• ance and greatly stimulated Hinduism since it deli• berately incorporated Hindu religious elements in THE PHILOSOPHY OF VIJNANA BIKSHU : its system of thought. By Jadunath Sinha. Pub. : Sinha Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 39, S. R. Das Road, Calcutta 26. Very soon the influence of Sri Ramakrishna and Price : Rs. 12. Swami Vivekananda reached Maharastra. B. G. Tilak was one of the great sons of Maharastra whose Dr. Jadunath Sinha is a very prolific writer on monumental labour in religion, philosophy and social Indian philosophy. In the present work the philo• reform made him a land-mark in the state. He sophy of Vijnana Bikshu is presented in five chapters, was not only an ardent nationalist and a great dealing respectively with Brahman, the individual patriot but also a great scholar devoted to Vedic self, bondage and release the world and a general research, an Indologist and a philosopher. V. D. critique of the philosophy. Vijnana Bikshu probably Sarvarkar became the leader of revolutionary acti• belonged to the sixteenth century and his philosophy vities against the British rule and later became the has a definitely theistic character. Like his more President of the Hindu Mahasabha. The author famous predecessor, Vacaspati Misra, he has com• describes at great length the work of Mahatma mented on the Samkhyapravacanasutra, the Yoga- Gandhi including Ranade and Vinobhaji. The last bhasya and the Vedanta Sutras. He is also the chapter is devoted to discuss the spirit of modern author of two more works Samkhyasara and Yoga- Maharastra. sara. That Brahman is an object or knowledge, that the creation of the world by Brahman is real, that The author has taken considerable trouble in the created world also is real, that Brahman is noting the details of all these eminent sons of non-different from the modifications of prakrti and Maharastra who have played a great part in the from souls, that the individual soul is a part of resurgence of the modern Maharastra and his Brahman and hence both different and non-diffe• account of each of these personalities is fair and rent from It, that karma and jnana combined will fairly comprehensive. The style is easy and natural effect release, are some of the conclusions of Vijnana and not cramped. The author deserves our warm Bikshu. Dr. Sinha promises a second volume on appreciation for his analytical treatment of these Vijnana Bikshu's treatment of Samkhya philosophy. several movements of social reconstruction and religious reinterpretation. Maharastra is but a part PROF. S. RAJAGOPALA SASTRI. of India and the intellectual, social and religious changes reflect the changes in the rest of India. THE WORLD OF GURUS : By Vishal Mangal- wadi. Pub. : Vikas Publishing House Private PORTRAIT OF GURU : By Swami Isvarananda Ltd., 5, Ansari Road, New Delhi-110002. Giri. Pub. : Swami Sadhanayana Santa Sarovar, Pp. 267. Price : Rs. 40. Mount Abu (Rajasthan), India, 1975. Pp. 138. How and why did the institution of the Guru Price : Rs. 6.50. arise in India and become acceptable in the West ? The book consists of the six talks on the Manisa How can we know which guru is true ? Is Sathya Pancakam of Sri Sankara delivered by Swami Isva• Sai Baba an avatar of Shiva and Shakti and a rananda Giri at Ahmedabad. The talks emphasise reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi ? What is TM ? the Samvit Marga, which somewhat resembles the Has science proven its effectiveness ? Why does school of Zen Buddhism and also extols the impor• Bhagawan Rajneesh believe that one can realize God tance of the Guru in spiritual realisation. This through sex ? How does Swami Muktananda arouse famous work of Sri Sankara was composed when the Kundalini Powe,r ? What is the secret knowledge God Siva in the form of a chandala encountered through which Divine Light! Mission and Radhasoami 19U BOOK REVIEWS 269

Satsang help one to ' see' the Divine Light and THE UPANISHADS — Isa, Katha, Mundaka, ' hear ' the Divine Sound ? What is Krishna Cons• Mandukya : By Anthony Elenjimittan. Pub. : ciousness ? Why does it not appeal as much Aquinas Publications, Mount Mary, Bandra, Bom• to Indians as it does to Americans ? What is the bay. Pp. 237. Price : Rs. 8. Truth ? How can we know it ? This book contains new translations of four of The World of Gurus answers such questions. the ten well-known Upanishads, with separate com• It is a deep and thought-provoking study which mentaries on all the verses. The translator is a examines " guruism" from the socio-historical, whole-hearted admirer of the philosophy of the cultural, philosophical and religious perspectives. Upanishads and the scheme of liberation propound• Thej author proposes a criterion of Truth and applies ed by them. But, in his anxiety to avoid literalism, it vigorously to the teachings of individual gurus. he has made his translation a little too free. This The author, however, is not satisfied with the was hardly necessary and his commentaries are full principles and procedures of the traditional schools and explain in detail his interpretation of every of Indian religion or the teachings of the new Gurus, passage. There are many references to parallel with or without miracles, who have now come on passages in the Christian scriptures. the Indian scene. He has raised several doubts but has not found any solution for them. For instance, ALL ABOUT HINDUISM : By Swami Sivananda. he complains that in advaita there is no experiential Pub. : The Divine Life Society, P.O. Sivananda- proof in support of the philosophy. He feels that nagar — Dt. Tehri Garwal, U.P. Pp. 374. Price : the expression Sat-Chit-Ananda is a contradiction of Rs. 12. absolute monism. He is also worried about the problem of harmonising belief in Karma and trans• GURU TATTVA : By the same author and publi• migration with the Advaitic system. He argues that shers — Pp. 104. Price : Rs. 3. if individuality is false, and there is one conscious• ness in the universe which has come under the spell WHAT BECOMES OF THE SOUL AFTER of maya, then when one realises truth the whole DEATH ? By the same author and publishers — consciousness should be able to realise it. Pp. 271. Price : Rs. 7.50. These doubts have all been examined and explain• ed by Sankara and his successors in several places. ETHICAL TEACHINGS : By the same author and The two concepts of empirical and transcendental publishers — Pp. 196. Price: Rs. 8.00. truth are not fully appreciated by such critics. The These are all new editions of Swami Sivananda's world is an illusion only after all duality has works which were first published several years ago. vanished. It is not correct to say that Advaita The general reader will find in them a good deal has no experiential base. On the contrary, advaita of interesting information which is not easily acces• is based more on personal experience, aliubhava, sible elsewhere. than on any tenets. Sri Ramana Maharshi taught M. C. S. no doctrines, but spread peace and bliss by his silent presence. About the other Gurus and sects which claim to THE FOURTH ESTATE: Pressures and Privi• have discovered the essential truth about the universe leges: By "Argus". Pub.: The Indian Insti• and God, we can only say that in Hinduism there is tute of World Culture, Post Box No. 402, Basavan- ample room for differences of doctrine and even gudi, Bangalore-560 004. Pp. 30. Price: Re. 1. of experience. To the jaded westerners, tired of This is the J. Srinivasan Memorial Lecture deli• material possessions, many of these Gurus promise vered at the Indian Institute of World Culture, Ban• a release which is satisfying for the moment. galore by ' Argus ' (S. Sundara Rajan) in May, '78. The difficulty experienced by the author is mainly A journalist long connected with various publicity due to his pre-oecupation with quick results, the media, he speaks knowledgeably. longing for salvation in this very life and without He pleads for an independent press, free from a long and arduous discipline. Government control. S. Y. KRISHNASWAMY. L. P. K. The Birth Centenary of Sri Bhagavan coming off in January, 1980 is to be celebrated in a fitting manner.

The event is to be commemo• rated by something concrete apart from publishing a Souvenir, which is also contemplated as one project. Any other project such as new publications, reprints, or fresh translations of works on and by Sri Bhagavan or even any charit• able activity, will be appropriate to the occasion.

Devotees are requested to send suggestions so that a consensus can be arrived at and activities planned in time.

We are also planning to form a Committee to be entrusted with this laudable work.

Suggestions may please be sent to : Sri T. N. Venkataraman, President, Board of Trustees, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai-606 603, South India ASHRAM BULLETIN

SRI MURUGANAR'S BOOK OF POEMS RELEASED

Of the profuse poetic output of Sii Muruganar a considerable portion still remains unpublished. The Ramana Kendra, Delhi, has taken upon itself the laudable task of bringing out these Tamil poems (about 14.000 lines), in a number of volumes.

The whole series arranged by Sri Sadhu Om, will go under the name FC SRI RAMANA JNANA BODHAM '. The first volume entitled ' Mei Thava Vilakkam ' (The Elucidation of Real Tapasj has been published by the Kendra and was released in front of Sri Bhagavan*s shrine on September 3, by Sri Sadhu Natananandar who formally presented a volume to the President of the Ashram.

Sri Sadhu Natananandar, who has contributed He complimented Sri Sadhu Om on his scholarly introductory verses to the Volume, extolled in his services in preserving carefully, classifying properly speech the vastness and variety of Muruganar's and presenting accurately the poet's ^hitherto un• poems, which in a million lovely words convey the published works. message of the One Word. 272 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

in Madras and Sri K. Natesan chanted Siva Puranam (from Sri Manickavachakar's Tiruvachakam) and Aruna• At a special function held in the Madras Kendra chala Aksharamanamalai. The function came to A on September 3 the Volume Mei Thaya Vilakkam close after A a rati and distribution of prasadam, at was released by Sri K. V. Jagannathan, Editor, Kalai- ten in the morning. magal, an old friend and admirer of Muruganar and the editor and publisher of the very early collec• RAMANA KENDRA. DELHi tion, Sri Ramana Deva Malai. Sri Jagannathan com• mended the project of bringing out all the works Ramana Kendra, Delhi, celebrated Vidyodaya Day of Sri Muruganar in seven or eight volumes. on July 23. Appropriately on the occasion, a number of poor school-going children were presented note• in Delhi books, fountain pens and tiffin boxes. * * :!: On Muruganar Day on 3 September, Sri Danda- pani Oduvar thrilled the! audience by rendering a few Brahmachari Sri Yagna Chaitanya of Chinmaya songs of Poet Muruganar, Mr. Justice P. S. Kaila- Mission gave an illuminating series of eleven lectures Sat Darsan ,? sam, of the Supreme Court, who presided over the in English on " in July/August 1978. function, released the book entitled Mei Thava With his deep erudition in Sanskrit, the speaker pro• vided massive traditional support and apt illustra• Vilakkam 1 and congratulated the Kendra and Pro• fessor K. Swaminathan on this noble endeavour. tions for Sri Bhagavan\s teachings. The lectures Dr. K. Arumugham, of Delhi University, and were listened to with great pleasure and profit. Mrs. Soundaram Kailasam paid glowing tributes to & £ * Muruganar as a devotional and philosophical poet At meetings held on August 25 and Septem• and to his mastery of a Tamil style at once beauti• ber 16, the Governing Body of the Kendra consi• ful, chaste and moving. dered steps to be taken in connection with the cele• bration of Bhagavan-s Birth Centenary in 1980. * # * The Kendra has launched a scheme for financing weekly meetings and recurrent special functions BY accepting donations of Rs. 500/- each from devo• tees, and investing them in fixed deposit in A nationalized bank,

ARUNACHALA ASHRAMA, CANADA As reported in our July 1978 issue (p. 202), A devotee-member of Arunachala Ashrama, Sri Jim Grantj is at the Ashram going through the old manu• scripts preserved from the days of Sri Bhagavan. His assistance is highly appreciated. * * a-.

Miss Darlene Delisi, an active member of the Canada Ashrama, spent six weeks at the Ashram in quiet meditation. She was often seen gazing at the Arunachala Hill even at noon and if asked why she was not taking rest she would exclaim that she was having only? six weeks and she wanted to devour Arunachala \ She was associating with old devotees, Sri Muruganar particularly Sri Kunju Swami, and was immensely happy when they started telling her their reminis• SRI MURUGANAR5S ANNIVERSARY cences of the Master. She went round the Hill several times and also visited every place up and The annual function commemorating Sri Muru- around the Hill where the Master had stayed. Be- ganar's attainment of samadhi in 1973 was held on September 2, 1978. The abhishekam and con• 1 Copies available for sale at Sri Ramanasramam nected rituals were performed by Sri Thiagarajan Book Depot., Tiruvannamalai and Ramana Kendra, of the Ashram Book Depot, while Sri Kunju Swami Lodi Road, New Delhi-3. Price: Rs. 5, 1978 ASHRAM BULLETIN 273

fore leavings she expressed her intense gratitude to the President and other members of the Ashram for making her stay comfortable and fruitful. CENTENARY Dr. J. S. S. Lakshminarayana, another enthusias• tic member of the Canada Ashrama, visited the CELEBRATIONS Ashram with his wife and mother. He writes : " It was only in 1973 that my heart and soul were caught up in the grip of peace and love of Sri Arunachala Ramana. The chanting of Arunachala Siva, Aruna• chala Siva at Annapolis Valley of peace and love, Nova Scotia, Canada, made me dedicate myself to His Lotus Feet. My whole family was drawn into the fold of Sri Bhagavan. His immense grace enabled us to visit Sri Ramanasramam. The Ashram President and the inmates of the Ashram gave us accommodation, and attended to all our daily needs. I and my wife, Sita Devi, shall be grateful to them for ever.5' * * * Sri Yashwant Rai and his wife, enthusiastic sup• porters of Canada Ashrama, visited the abode of Sri Bhagavan. Though their visit was short, they felt blessed by the Master's Grace. TO START WITH SEPTEMBER I — HOLY DAY

We have received a letter from Sri Dennis Hartel As directed by the Board of Trustees of Sri from Arunachala Ashrama, Canada, which reads : Ramanasramam, Sri V. Ganesan, our Managing " With the Grace of our Master Ramana, we Editor, made a tour in northern India, meeting celebrated the Advent Day of Sri Bhagavan at devotees at Bombay, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Kanpur Arunachala from September 1 to 3. The devotees and Delhi, enlisting their support and discussing here and those who travelled from New York to various suggestions regarding the celebrations of attend, took this opportunity to intensify their aspi• Sri Bhagavan's Centenary in 1979-80. Before going ration and express their devotion to Sri Bhagavan. on this tour, with the help of Sri K. Padmanabhan "On Friday (Sept. 1), most of the day was spent, and Sri A. R. Natarajan, he had drawn up a list of inside Sri Arunachala Ramana Mandiram, reciting suggestions already received from readers of the prayers, conducting pujas and silent meditation. Mountain Path and others. Dr. J. S. S. Lakshminarayana was the priest who Wherever he went, devotees expressed their with intense devotion performed pujas which lasted for nearly five hours. On Sunday (Sept. 3) about eagerness to co-operate with local committees and 60 visitors arrived to attend the two hour prog• the All India Committee to be set up for the ramme. Dr. Lakshminarayana, Sri Yashwant Rai Centenary Celebrations. and Darlene Delisi who recently visited Sri Rama• We are thankful to all iwho gave help, support nasramam, gave their impressions of their visits. and suggestions to Sri Ganesan. In particular, we " Sri S. B. Potdar of Nagpur, who is here express our gratitude to : Sri N. D. Sahukar and since the end of April, sang some devotional bhaja- Sri P. V. Somasundaram df Bombay ; Sri K. Siva- nas during the Sunday celebration, and throughout RAJ, Smt. Sarojini Hat he e Singh and Sri Suresh the whole function as well. These songs sung with Khanna of Ahmedabad ; Sri H. C. Khanna, Sri his mastery were much appreciated by all. Satyanarayana Tandon, Sri N. Sinha, Sri Kokker and u The celebration concluded with arati and was Sri K. C. Kapur of Kanpur; and Sri Kailash followed with distribhtion of prasad (food), offered Khanna, Professor K. Swaminathan and other mem• to Sri Bhagavan.J> bers of Ramana Kendra, New Delhi, 274 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

KHANNA FAMILY : (/ to r) Maid-servant, Lakshmi, Nmruta, Smt. Premi, Dr. Kishan Khanna. with Gautam (after mundan). Sri T. N. Venkataraman, Smt. Nagalakshmi Venkataraman.

A MUNDAN CEREMONY Dr. Kishan and Premi are very proud that their son could have this function in front of Sri The members of the Khanna family, scattered at Bhagavan's samadhi. various places, flock to the Ashram on every avai• Two other grandsons of Sri H. C. Khanna will lable opportunity. soon follow suit! Dr. Kishan Khan• na, a Dental Sur• geon, arrived at the Ashram from Kanpur, in the third week of August, with his wife CORRIGENDA P r e m i, daughters Nmruta and Lakshmi. While Introducing Stilt. Maui Sahukar and and son Gautam. This Sri Sahukar (pp. 187-88 of our July '78 issue), time it was for the we wrongly mentioned Sri Sahukar's occupa• mundan (tonsure) tion as ' General Manager of the Godrej Group ( ceremony of Gau• of Companies' which should be read as Sri tam. Sri H. C. Khan• N. D. Sahukar, now the Manager (Corporate na, the head of the Services) of Godrej <£ Boyce Mfg. Co. Pvt. family, has initiated Ltd.* custom of having the mundan ceremony of On p. 200 of Ashram Bulletin of our July his grandchildren per• "78 issue, in the caption of the photo-block formed at the Ashram. under Bombay Ramana Jayanti, the third from left (after H. H. Nisargadatta Maharaj) should be read as SRI JAMNADAS K. LADIWALA, instead of Sri Harilal B. ' Baby ' Gautam Dresswalla. before ' mundan ' devotedly seated in front of We regret these errors. Sri Bhagavan's Samadhi. 1978 ASHRAM BULLETIN 275

SRI H. R. CHADHA

AN ANNOUNCEMENT III is with deep sorrow that we record the passing For the CENTENARY YEARS OF away of Sri H, R. Chadha, Bhagavan SRI Ramana Maharshl, IT IS one of the staunch devotees proposed that practically all the articles of Sri Bhagavan, A suc• in The Mountain Path during the years cessful businessman of 1979 and 1980 will he on or ahout Sri Calcutta, Sri Chadha was the Vice-President of the Bhagavan. We request devotees to con• Ramana Kendra from its tribute articles in 1500 to 2000 words or inception, In him Calcutta less on Sri Bhagavan and His Teachings Kendra has lost a stalwart and their reminiscences of the Master. and the devotees of Bha• gavan a devout brother- pilgrim. Sri H. R. Chadha May his SOUL rest in OBITUARY Eternal Peace at the Lotus Feet of Ramana Bhagavan. SRI S. P. PANDIT

* * *

SRI T. R. G. KRISHNAN

Sri T. R. G. Krishnan of Bangalore, a staunch devotee of Sri Bhagavan, passed away after pro• longed illness. He was working with the Binnys as an Engineer. He was equally devoted to the Shankaracharya. The entire family of Sri Krishnan are devoted to Sri Maharshi. We offer our condolences to the family. May he rest in Peace at the Lotus Feet of Sri Bhagavan !

SRI RAMANASRAMAM FREE Sri S. P. Pandit DISPENSARY

We record the passing away of Sri S. P, Pandit, Donations in kind and in cash are Sirsi (Karnataka) on July 1 after a long illness. He was one of the first disciples of Bhagavan from invited from philanthropists and devotees West Coast. He came into touch with Bhagavan for running the Ashram Dispensary. through Vasistha Ganapati Muni and Sri Kapali Sas- Cash Donations are exempt from triar in 1931 and turned to spiritual life despite his Income Tax. Please send them to : keen interests as a prominent lawyer, co-operator and public man. He rendered service to the Ashram The President, in several silent ways and cherished the Grace of Sri Ramanasramam Charities, Bhagavan throughout his exemplary life. Sri Ramanasramam P.O., May he rest at the Holy Feet of the Lord. Tiruvannamalai-606 603, Tamil Nadu. 276 October Letters to the Editor

THE LIGHT AND THE SHADOW ment in my life. For that I turn to you for help. Please write to me how I am to continue without I am writing this to you with two purposes. The a guru in this path. Is it necessary to practise first is to tell you what happened to me about a Hatha Yoga ? Please tell me if it is possible to month ago. My mind was completely confused. I make progress in Jnana Yoga in the materialist world had a terrible headache and I did not know how without a guru ? to solve the many problems which surrounded me. JOHN DOBRIK, Zilina, Czechoslovakia. I sat down and asked for Sri Bhagavan's help. When doing this a miracle happened. I saw Him standing // is not easy to advise you without further details and His arms, which were multiplied in hundreds, about your intentions and about the way in which were moving in all directions and this relieved me you tried to proceed, about what kind of exercises of my1 headache. Next I felt little by little that the for concentration you attempted and what progress stress, the tension I was involved in, was disappear• you expected. ing too. At last, I felt an enormous peace inside me. I have been always seeing Sri Bhagavan beside The only purpose of the practice of concentration me. I see Him in front of me on my right side, is to quieten the restless mind, so that the ceaseless leaning on a shepherd's staff, as if to guide me. stream of thoughts cease to disturb the natural clarity of consciousness. This clarity is necessary Secondly, sometime ago I felt the necessity of to recognise our own wrong attitude towards our• doing some more charity, and then I joined a group selves, our neighbours and our circumstances, JNANA which was practising the spiritism, which is very means ' right knowledge > as opposed to ' wrong much in vogue here in Brazil. I would like to ask knowledge* or ignorance. And all spiritual practice you and the old devotees who had had the holy is meant only to change our wrong attitude •— likes contact with the Maharshi to explain if anything is and dislikes, desires and fears of the individual ego. wrong with spiritism. Please advise me whether I For this purpose you need not practise Hatha Yoga. should continue my interest in spiritism or should And you need not worry about a Guru, if you are I continue to include all human beings in my prayers. serious and patient in your practice, this effort itself DAGMAR DE CARVAI.NO, will bring the Gum to you, if you need a human Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Guru. Meanwhile every body and every thing can become a Guru to you in your everyday life.

We feel glad that you have been relieved of your Study and practise the teachings of Sri Ramana had head-ache and other troubles by the Grace of Maharshi which are available in your mother-tongue. Sri Bhagavan and that you are feeling His Presence. All that you need to clear your inner confusion is to It is a very auspicious augury. be found in the Maharshi's Search for the Self and Feel your unity with Sri Bhagavan and all crea• in His conversations with earnest aspirants. But, tion and try to be of help to those who are ifi need a thorough change of attitude requires time and per• of if. Charity helps both, giver and receiver. But severance. Trust your Innner Guru, who has brought do not have anything to do with the world of you to the Path; he will guide you further, may be spirits. That will disturb and mislead you. Try in some unexpected way. to understand Sri Bhagavan and follow His teach• X * * ings. Devotion to All-pervading Pure Awareness, the common Reality of all and goodwill towards YOGI AND JNANI all — that is enough. Do not give room for dis• turbing thoughts or contacts. I am a novice on the spiritual path and I want you to clear my doubt which arose when I read * * * Maha Yoga, an Ashram Publication (Ch. 4 — 4 Authority' — Pp. 38-39): CONCENTRATION AND JNANA YOGA " The evidence of the Yogis is unreliable, Though I am practising the path of concentration because they have not transcended the realm as taught in Jnana Yoga, I do not see any advance• of ignorance. This is seen in the fact that they 1978 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 277

differ among themselves.-* " The experience of the or even to your close inner connection with Bhagavan Yogis are highly complex and therefore their des• Ramana. Sri Maharshi has never commented on criptions have an irresistable fascination for us. such experiences. They may be due to not under• But the fact is, they are not even conscious of standing the teachings properly or to overstrain. It the empire that the ignorance has over them. is better you check up your physical condition as Their goal is not the ending of the ignorance, but well. Self-enquiry, when properly pursued improves the attainment, within the realm of the ignorance, one's health and mental peace. It may take time of a glorious status that seems to them worthy of to gain perfect clarity and tranquility. All spiritual being striven for." practice begins with being RELAXED in body and mind. We advise you, before* you proceed with your But in the Git a there is a passage in which Krishna chosen SADHANA, to pit quietly in a comfortable asks Arjuna to be a Yogi. The following is the 'posture and observe simply the process of relaxation, passage : until it becomes a habit. After all spiritual life is " The Yogi is greater than body-disciplining the most natural life, which demands for patience ascetics, greater even than the followers of the rather than strenuous effort. If the symptoms path of J nana, or of the path of Karma; be then, mentioned in your letter persist, have a medical 0 disciple Arjuna, a Yogi." check-up and follow medical advice. Does the author of Maha Yoga mean' that ALL Yogis are not men of realisation ? * * * *

R. RAMACHANDRAN, Calicut, A TRIBUTE In the BHAGAVAD GITA verse referred to by you — that the Yogis) is greater than Jnanis — the term ' Bhante? Kassappa and I have just returned to ' JNANIS 9 stands for those who have only book- Sri Lanka, after an extended tour, of Beloved India. learning about JNANA; The term Yogi refers to one As Buddhist monks we were so happy to be so practising Yoga, The confusion is due to the vari• graciously received by all the various spiritual insti• ous senses in which the terms J NAM and YOGI are tutions in India, especially the Advaita Ashrams. We used. The author of MAHA YOGA means by Yogi felt so welcome. Good. This. is as it should be.. aspirants for powers, etc. There is no difference Even in these often apathetic times, Indian people between a real YOGI and a real JNANL They both still offer warm hospitality to proper sadhus, to those are firmly established in the one all-pervading Self in pursuit of Truth. of all Sri Ramanasramam in particular unfolded its radiance to us during our ten-day visit with gene• rosity and acceptance and accommodation. We both A REMEDY would like to thank you for your careful conside• ration of our needs as yogis. From time to time 1 have been studying the Maharshi's teachings and we would like to send to you some of our earnest many of the things so studied have gradually begun pupils so that they might experience Bhagavan's to happen. Now even more drastic changes axe Grace as they continue their practice of ' Vipassana' occurring. I seek your advice. No matter where I meditation (which means 'insight and inquiry'). am or what I am doing, sleep overpowers me. It Many Buddhists believe Bhagavan Ramana to have stands in the way of my carrying out my responsi• been a full e Arhant9 and ' Bodhi Sattva \ along with bilities. This does not appear to be a medical pro• our own saints. Sri Ramana was a fully perfected, blem. There comes also much dizziness and a dras• a Living Buddha. You are all so fortunate to have tic loss of physical energy as though something in been in His presence and Grace. Please continue the centre of the head was closed. Does this make to send us Mountain Path as it means much to our any sense ? Has the Maharshi ever commented on practice. these things ? INA ZELL. Brooklings. U.S.A. AKASA BHIKKHU. RockhilJ. We are rather worried over these symptoms of Hermitage at Wegirikanda, disturbed health which you ascribe to your SADHANA Hondiyadeniya, Sri Lanka. 278 THE MOUNTAIN PATH October

Sixth Edition! TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

A faithful record of Talks with the Maharshi by numerous devotees, some of them from far-off lands, on their personal spiritual problems, covering a period of about four years, 1935 to 1939.

" This is not a book to be lightly read and laid aside ; it is bound to prove to be an unfailing guide to increasing numbers of pilgrims to the Light Ever-lasting... .Sri Ramana's teachings as found in the "Talks" will bring

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SKI RAMAN AS RAM AM BOOK DEPOT, SRI RAMANASRAMAM P.O., TIRUVANNAMALAI - 606 603, S. INDIA.

New Edition RAMANA MAHARSHI By K. SWAMINATHAN

We are happy to announce the latest biography of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi by Prof. K. Swaminathan, Editor of The Mountain Path. As Professor of English in a College in Madras for years, he had the unique opportunity of visiting the Ashram for short or long periods and of coming into close contact with the Maharshi. This new biography lays special emphasis on the inner core of Bhagavan's Teachings and Sadhana. The Book is a publication of National Book Trust, India, New Delhi. Crown Octavo. 150 pp.

Price: In India: Rs. 5.50 (Postage Extra) Foreign: £ 1/- or $ 2/- (Postage Free)

Please write to : SRI RAMANASRAMAM BOOK DEPOT, SRI RAMANASRAMAM, P. O., TIRUVANNAMALAI-606 603 South India,