The Mountain Path, Sri Ramanas• Cles Should Not Exceed 10 Pages
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
" ' Thou hast realized the Self even without knowing that it was the Truth. It is the Truth Itself ! ' Speak (thus if it (A QUARTERLY) be so), Oh Arunachala ! " " Arunachala ! Thou dost root out the ego of those who — The Marital Garland meditate on Thee in the heart, Oh Arunachala ! " of Letters, verse 42 —The Marital Garland of Letters, verse 1 Vol. 11 APRIL 1974 No. II Publisher : T. N. Venkataraman, President, Board of Trustees, CONTENTS Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai. EDITORIAL : Page The Central Teaching of Bhagavan Ramana m — Viswanatha Swami 65 Publisher's Note 67 Editor : Ekatma Panchakam 68 There is nothing, Be ! — Sadhu Arunachala . 69 Viswanatha Swami, Centre without Circumference — ' Sein ' 71 Sri Ramanasramam, We are Always Aware — Sunya 73 Tiruvannamalai. Maya Panchakam — Shankaracharya 75 What Ami?- Wei Wu Wei 76 m Meditation — Alone-U do-N ath 77 Words of a Christian Friar — Era Giovani . 78 Managing Editor : Look For Yourself — Douglas E. Harding . 79 V. Ganesan, Despondency — /. S. Varghese 81 Sri Ramanasramam, The Non-path to No-where — Ronald Rose . 82 Tiruvannamalai. Sadhana without tears — Muz Murray 83 Sustaining Peace — Cornelia Bagarotti 86 A Study of Reality — Sqn. Ldr. N. Vasudevan 87 The Heart 88 Verses from the Nirvana Sutra 89 The Quest — Narayana 90 Annual Subscription : Mary and Martha and Good Works INDIA Rs. 6 — Marie B. Byles 91 FOREIGN £ 0.75 $ 2.00 Thermodynamics — B. A. H. 92 Paradoxical Activity of the ' Me ' Life Subscription : — Dr. M. B. Bhaskaran 93 Rs. 125 £ 12.50 $ 30 The Song of Teilhard De Chardin 94 Single Copy : — Gladys Dehm 97 Rs. 1.75 £ 0.20 $ 0.45 The Torah of the Void — Z. M. Schachter 98 Of Men and Mice — W. ]. Gabb 99 Garland of Guru's Sayings — Sri Muruganar How I Came to the Maharshi 101 — Chhaganlal V. Yogi CONTENTS — (Contd.) fountain Jatlj Page (A QUARTERLY) Stories from Yoga Vasishtha-I : King Janaka 103 Talks with a Python The aim of this journal is to set — Tr. Madguni Shambu Bhat 106 forth the traditional wisdom of all religions and all ages, especially Glory of Arunachala . 109 as testified to by their saints and Book Reviews - . HI mystics, and to clarify the paths Ashram Bulletin 116 available to seekers in the condi• Introducing . .. Sri Sadhu Trivemgiri Swami 131 tions of our modern world. Letters to the Editor . • 133 Contributors are requested to give the exact data as far as possible for quotations used, i.e. source Contributions for publication and page number, and also the meaning if from should be addressed to The Editor, another language. It would simplify matters. Arti• The Mountain Path, Sri Ramanas• cles should not exceed 10 pages. ramam, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. They should be in English All remittances should be sent to the MANAGING and typed with double spacing. EDITOR and not to the Editor. Contributions not published will be — Editor. returned on request. To Our Subscribers 1. The official year of the quarterly is from January The editor is not responsible for to December. statements and opinions contained 2. SUBSCRIBERS IN INDIA should remit their annual in signed articles. subscription by Money Order only as far as possible and not by cheque. The words ' subscription for The Mountain Path for year/years * should be written on the M.O. coupon and the full name and address written in BLOCK LETTERS on f -verse of the coupon. No payment is made for contri• Life . non should be sent by cheque drawn butions published. Anything herein favov ing The Mountain Path and crossed. published may be reprinted else• where without fee provided due The journal will not be sent by V.P.P. acknowledgement is made and the 3. FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS can send their subscrip• editor is previously notified. tion by International Money Order, British Postal Order or by Bank cheque or draft payable in India, U.S.A. or U.K. The subscription rates are for despatch of the journal by surface mail to all parts of the world. If despatch by AIR MAIL is desired the following Contributions are accepted only on condition that they do not additional annual amount should be remitted : appear elsewhere before being pub• £ $ lished in The Mountain Path. They (a) Pakistan, Ceylon Rs. 6.80 can be published later elsewhere (b) Aden, Kuwait, Hongkong, Malaysia, but only with acknowledgement to Indonesia, Phillipines 0.75 2.00 The Mountain Path. (c) U.K., France, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland, East, South and West Africa 1.10 2.70 (d) Australia, Denmark, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden 1.50 3.60 THE MOUNTAIN PATH (e) North, Central and South America, is dedicated to Fiji, Hawaii, New Zealand 1.85 4.50 Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshz The Mountain Path Vol. 11. No. II, April 1974 ^^NCE when Bhagavan was asked what his Editorial central teaching was, he replied that the By Viswanatha Swami Centre itself was his central teaching. By the Centre he meant the Heart, the Source of everything. Though we find mention about the Heart in the traditional scriptures, as for instance, " I am the (One) Atman everpresent in the heart of all beings." (XV. 15) " Iswara (God) dwells in the heart of all beings." (XVIII. 61) — The Bhagavad Gita. we do not find a satisfactory definition of it anywhere. Many take it as the physical heart. The Central Though life and death are due to its throbbing and stopping, it is not the spiritual Heart. Teaching of Then, what is the Spiritual Heart ? Here is the reply, as recorded in Chapter V of Sri Ramana Gita : Bhagavan " Wherefrom all thought-movements of embodied beings emanate, that is known as Ramana the Heart. The I-thought is the root of all thoughts and so, from where the I-thought springs up, that, in short, is the Heart." (V. 3) And so, Bhagavan directs us to watch the source from which the I-thought emanates. " The I-thought disappears as one searches for its source. This is Self-enquiry. " On the annihilation of the I-thought (by means of constant Self-enquiry) the Heart itself shines forth as ' I-I' and it is the Supreme Self, all-pervading." Upadesa Sara, verse 20, 66 THE MOUNTAIN PATH April The ego, I, as subject is always associated "By (constant) japa of mantras or even with an object, whereas the real I shines alone by the )apa of simple pranava alone as ' I-I', Pure Awareness, devoid of the thought gets turned away from objects mental subject-object split. And this pure and merges in the Self." Awareness is known as the Heart. The first is the Path of Self-enquiry and this " As Thou dancest in the heart of all is the Path of meditation. Both of them lead beings as ' I-Ithe Self of all, Thou to the same goal, the One indivisible Self of all. art known as the Heart." This merging in the Heart, the re-union with — Arunachala Pancbaratna, the ground of Being-Awareness, is of course verse 2. the heart, the core and the ultimate goal of every religion. That is why earnest seekers, Bhagavan has from his own experience whatever their religion, find Bhagavan's teach• revealed to us the location also of that Heart ing not only acceptable but the very essence of Centre. It is on the right side of the chest and their own tradition. not on the left. It is the centre from which the mind with its root-thought ' I' is born What makes the teaching most attractive is and it is the source of light and life in the that it is so clear, precise and definite and individual. It is the natural centre where comes from a realized Sage. Also it carries everyone feels his identity. The mind with• with it a sense of special urgency because it is draws into it during sleep without knowing it. accompanied by the safe and simple method If one consciously touches it seeking the of Self-enquiry (vicbara) which is the practical source of one's being, then one transcends and most useful side of Bhagavan's teaching. individuality. It is the centre from which the This method explained in Who am I ?, ego emanates and perceives the world. Upadesa Sara and Forty Verses on Reality is the final stage in the spiritual path, but all Withdrawing consciously into it one experi• other sadhanas like bbakti, dhyana, upasana, ences the Unity of the Self, in which all yoga and seva, prescribed by the various differentiation is lost and everything is experi• traditions, are recommended by Bhagavan as enced as nothing but the Self. That is blessed• helpful preliminary or supplementary disci• ness, and that is not only the summit of spiritual plines. Self-enquiry, whether taken up as the experience, but should be the quite normal main or a collateral method, forces the pace state of every being, the Reality of all beings. of self-surrender and the access of awareness. All suffering born of a false sense of separate individuality completely disappears and that The mutual re-inforcement of the two pro• is the state of unalloyed, perennial Bliss. cesses — extinction of the enquiring ego and merger in the cherished ideal — is well brought Those who find it difficult to follow this out in the contents and arrangement of the path of pure Self-enquiry may practise mental first two verses which form the Invocation of repetition (japa) of any Name of God or the Forty Verses on Reality {Sat Darsana). simple OM as representing the One Self of all, with jtheir attention focussed at the heart- " Without the Reality existing, can there centre.