Arunachala! Thou dost root out the ego of those who meditate on Thee in the heart Oh Arunachala I The Mountain Path VOL. 18, No. Ill JULY 1981 Thou hast possessed me, unexorcizable Spirit! and made me mad (for Thee), that I may cease to be a ghost (wandering the world), Oh Arunachala! — The Marital Garland (A QUARTERLY) of Letters, verse 71 "Arunachala! Thou dost root out the ego of those who meditate on Thee in the heart, Oh Arunachala!" Publisher: - The Marital Garland of Letters, verse 1 T.N. Venkataraman, President, Board of Trustees, Vol. 18 JULY 1981 No. Hi Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvanriamalai. CONTENTS Page Editorial Board: EDITORIAL: The Tree of Bliss . 123 Kunju Swami's Reminiscences . 126 Prof. K. Swaminathan Sri K.K. Nambiar Sri Ramana Sandarsanamu Mrs. Lucy Cornelssen — Panthalu Lakshmi Narayana Sastri .. 129 Smt. Shanta Rungachary Dr. K. Subrahmanian The Teachings of Bramagna Ma Sri David Godman —David Codman . 132 Beyond the Mind — Dada .136 On Concepts—Walter A. Keers . 140 Managing Editor: How I Came to Bhagavan V. Ganesan, —Ramaswami Pillai .144^ Sri Ramanasramam, •Nataraja, Science and the Dance of Creation Tiruvannamalai —S!A. Naimpally . 147 Garland of Guru's Sayings—Sri Muruganar Annual Subscription: —Tr. by Prof. K. Swaminathan 151 INDIA Rs. 10 Conversations with Bhagavan FOREIGN £ 2.00 $ 4.00 —Swami Madhava Thirtha . 153 Life Subscription: The Treatise on Singleness Rs. 125 £ 25.00 $ 50 —Moyhiddin Ibn Arabi .156 Single Copy: Atthefeet of Bhagavan —T.K.S. 160 Rs. 2.75 £ 0.60 $ 1.25 Do You See What I See?—A Message from a Mystic -/ae I ah Noh .163 Introducing. Sri Natesan, Bhagavan's Barber. 166 All letters and remittances to be sent to: Book Reviews .169 The Managing Editor, "The Mountain Path", Ashram Bulletin .173 Sri Ramanasramam, P.O., Cover Design by Gopi Kamath Tiruvannamalai-606 603, S. 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This recognition of the historical milieu, it has an in-built mechanism essentially spiritual nature of mankind is not a for self-transcendence in the concept and the divine revelation, but the sober conclusion of occasional occurrence of the Jivanmukta, who historians and anthropologists who study religion fits into no category and can be an agnostic like as a part of human culture and social behaviour Lord Buddha or a devotee of Shiva like Shri within the framework of time and space. People Bhagavan. The Jivanmukta embodies pure all over the world, whenever they attempt to transcendence, infinitude, the ideally absolute; live authentically human lives, have had to but his followers, however earnest, are limited come to terms not only with their material by psychological, sociological and other con• circumstances but with their own spiritual tingent factors, by their knowledge, temperament essence and the spiritual nature of the entire and situation. "Every person is the child of his universe. or her times and this truth applies even to persons of faith, even though one's faith opens The universality of this spiritual element in one to what is timeless". human life is nowhere so apparent as in India where Sanatana Dharma, the faith that foreigners This elaborate explanation is called for by have termed Hinduism, has evolved naturally, the failure of some of our readers to understand collectively and anonymously. People in ancient the real purpose of the Editorial in our April India did not think of themselves as Hindus; no issue, 'Pitfalls on the Path'which madeastrictly one tried to be a Hindu. One tried simply to be mathematical and impersonal approach to the human, to live properly, adequately, truly, as phenomenon called Shri Ramana and the impact an individual, as member of a family, as practi• he could have on the followers of any traditional tioner of a profession, as a citizen of the world. faith. What Hindu devotees of Shri Bhagavan The Indian faith, which sustained, and was in tend to forget is that he was, in Shri Aurobindo's turn sustained by, the twin values of moksha words, the greatest impersonality of our times. and dharma and which can still ensure the He represents a ripe fruit on the human tree. 124 THE MOUNTAIN PATH Ju'y not merely the Indian tree. Buddhists, Christians, Brahman. Chapter 10of Ramana Gita and verses Muslims, historians and mathematicians, all 26 and 27 of the Supplement to the Forty enjoin are equally competent and eligible to taste the samanya dharma, while Bhagavan never en• sweetness of this fruit. In fact, he represents the couraged special life-styles for his followers. meeting point of the traditional religious and He made no distinction between religious the contemporary sciences of quantum physics, and secular; he brought all life, social as well as existentialist psychology and social anthro• individual, under the sovereignty of the spirit, pology. As Lucy Cornellson indicates in "Hunting and thus saved us from the "piety-fringed the 'V", man's identity with Awareness which worldliness" which has been the bane of all the race has been struggling to discover through societies professing without practising the higher thousands of years, young Venkataraman religions. He also saved us from that longing for realized in one courageous, clear-eyed half- individual salvation and those private marks of hour ofconscious self-enquiry. grace like sounds and visions which mislead One may say that the traditional religions the unwary from the goal of egoless ananda in correspond to the decimal system, admirable the performance of dharma. The grace or in itself and useful in its way, while Bhagavan's guidance of the sadguru operates freely in the teaching introduces the binary system where vyavahara or the empirical sphere which is the base or radix is two instead of ten. Here the only a manifestation of the ultimate reality. zero experience comes quite early, and egoless It is good for all of us, editors, contributors power is available for karma as for jnana, for and readers, to keep constantly in mind the the performance of dharma as for the enjoyment aims of this journal as formulated by its founder, of moksha. For breaking down the barrier Arthur Osborne; namely, (1) setting forth the between oneself and one's neighbour, one need traditional wisdom of all religions and of all not wait till one has got and gone through ages, especially as testified to by their saints samadhi.