,,»,»•« »••••••»»••>»•••«•>• < y»»»«»#»«•»••••••»»•••••»•• * % •••«»»»••»••••••••••>•><1 iMMtlillMMIiMIMIMi <| llltlMIIMIIIMIIIM • ) MH M Itl I I ! I I I t II I '«»»»»#»!••»»«•»»»> I I It I I I I I I II I > 'MIIIIMIII 'IIIIIIIIH • «•«•• I I ( *»••»•»» HI»»•• I I .i» * • * » i « • I 3^ V1 Arunachala! Thou dost root out the ego of those who meditate on Thee in the heart, Oh Arunachala/ The Mountain Path Vol. IV JANUARY 1967 No. 4 SRI RAM AN AS-RAM AM, TIRU VAN N AMALAI " Significance of OM unrivalled — unsurpassed ! Who can comprehend Thee, Oh Arunachala ! " (A QUARTERLY) —The Marital Garland of Letters, verse 13. " Arunachala ! Thou dost root out the ego of those who meditate on Thee in the heart, Oh Arunachala ! " —The Marital Garland of Letters, verse 1. Publisher : JANUARY 1967 No. 1 T. N. Venkataraman, Vol. IV Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai. CONTENTS Page EDITORIAL I The Problem of Suffering 1 Sorrow — ' Alone ' 4 Editor : Bhagavan on Suffering 5 Arthur Osborne, The Four Noble Truths — Bodhichitta 8 Suffering, its cause and cure, according Sri Ramanasramam, to the Isha Upanishad — Madguni Tiruvannamalai. Shambhu Bhat 10 Theory and practice according to Sri Ramana — N. Ramasubramanyam 11 The Nature and Significance of Tap as — G. V. Kulkarni 12 Vicarious Suffering — /. Jesudasan, SJ. 16 In Brief — G. N. Daley 22 Managing Editor : ASPECTS OF ISLAM - XII I V. Ganesan, " Which, then of your Lord's bounties Sri Ramanasramam, will you reject ? " Tiruvannamalai. — A bdullah Qutbuddin 23 ARROWS FROM A CHRISTIAN BOW - XIII : The Cult of Suffering — Sagittarius 25 Minnows in the Seven Seas — An Anonymous Annual Subscription : Seeker 27 Pain and Pleasure — Prof. Eknath Easwaran 29 INDIA Rs. 5 The Supreme Vehicle is. — Wei Wu Wei . 31 FOREIGN 10 sh. $ 1.50. Morita Mental Therapy — Marie B. Byles . 32 The Death-Wish — H. Sebastian Gubbins 38 Life Subscription : Brief Eternity — Dr. Robert Fuchsberger 39 Rs. 100 : £ 10 ; $ 30. The Need for Suffering — Cornelia Bagarotti 40 Padre Pio of Pietrelcina — Gladys de Meuter 41 The Use of Suffering — D. J. A. 46 Single Copy : The Suffering of a Realized Man Rs. 1.50 ; 3 sh. ; $0.45 — Alan Chadwick 48 The Unreality of Evil — Joel S. Goldsmith . 49 Tears of Sympathy —• T. P. Ramachandra Iyer 54 CONTENTS— (Contd.) Page 3Up <Jlmmtam f aitj How I Came to the Maharshi — D. S. Sastri 55 (A QUARTERLY) How the Maharshi Came to Me — G. N. Daley 57 # The Elixir of Youth (Poem) — Arthur Osborne . 58 The aim of this journal is to set The Bhagavad Gita— Tr. by Prof. G. V. forth the traditional wisdom of all Kulkarni & Arthur Osborne . 59 religions and all ages, especially Like a Moth (Poem) as testified to by their saints and — C. Narayanan Nambudiripad . 63 mystics, and to clarify the paths Garland of Guru's Sayings (Poem) available to seekers in the condi• — Muruganar , . 64 tions of our modern world. Book Reviews . 65 # Ashram Bulletin . 73 Introducing... 82 Contributions for publication Letters to the Editor . 84 should be addressed to ' The Editor, Life Subscribers and Life Members . 89 The Mountain Path, Sri Ramanas• ramam, Tiruvannamalai, Madras State'. They should be in English and typed with double spacing. Contributions not published will b- To Our Subscribers returned on request. 1. The official year of the quarterly is from January to December. 2. SUBSCRIBERS IN INDIA should remit their annual The editor is not responsible for subscription by Money Order only as far as possible and not statements and opinions contained by cheque. The words 'subscription for The Mountain Path in signed articles. for year/years' should be written on the M.O. coupon and the full name and address written in BLOCK LETTERS on the reverse of the coupon. Life Subscription should be sent by cheque drawn favouring The Mountain Path and crossed. No payment is made for contri• butions published. Anything herein The journal will not be sent by V.P.P. published may be reprinted else• 3. FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS can send their subscrip• where without fee provided due tion by International Money Order, British Postal Order oi by Bank cheque or draft payable in India, U.S.A. or U.K. acknowledgement is made and the editor is previously notified. 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 additional annual amount should be remitted : Contributions are accepted only £ $ on condition that they do not <a) Pakistan, Ceylon Rs. 4.00 appear elsewhere before being pub• (b) Asia, Egypt, Indonesia 12s. 1 .80 lished in The Mountain Path. They (c) Europe, Africa (excluding Egypt) 18s. 2 .70 can be published later elsewhere (d) Australia, New Zealand, Fiji 24s. 3 60 but only with acknowledgement to (e) North & South America, Hawaii 30s. 4 50 The Mountain Path. (QUARTERLY) Editor: ARTHUR OSBORNE Vol IV JANUARY, 1967 No. 1 THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING (EDITORIAL) Some modern Christian writers are perfect life ? If God could arrange for disturbed by what they call ' the problem everyone to get by as easily as that would of suffering The philosopher Hume even he have done his job ? Would he be accept• thought he had discovered in it a weapon ed by such critics ? Then why did Christ to destroy religion. God, he argued, in order tell some of his followers to give up their to be God, must be both good and omni• possessions and become mendicants ? Why potent, but the existence of suffering proves did he draw men to a life in which, he that God either does not want to prevent it warned them, they would be persecuted and or is unable to, that is to say is either not even killed ? Obviously he had a totally good or not omnipotent, and in either case different conception of values. is not God. Therefore there is no God. The question of suffering is bound up Certainly one can agree that there is no with the question of values, and this is anthropomorphic God of the sort that Hume dependent on the meaning or purpose of envisaged, no kind old man sitting in a back life. ]g)o those who complain of suffering room working out men's destinies and recognise any meaning or purpose at all? allotting rewards and punishments. There If their aim is not merely to get by without is no God with a human scale of values, no too much hardship, what is it ? To serve God made in the likeness of man. To others ? That would mean to help others to postulate such a God would mean that the get by without too much hardship, so that object of human life is mundane happiness ultimately it comes to the same thing. Is and that God's job is to ensure it. There are there anything for which it is ultimately people who get through life with no great worth while facing suffering ? If not, life suffering — no actual hunger, no lack of would indeed be dismal. The answer is con• clothing or shelter, reasonable security, tained in a brief description of a fore- fairly friendly relations with those around glimpse of Reality from our issue of July them, few long or painful illnesses, and 1964 (p. 140) by a person with no doctrinal finally death while sleeping. Is that the understanding. 2 THE MOUNTAIN PATH January " I am not the mind, nor the body •— found Presumably imprisonment is a form of myself in the heart; that me that lives suffering, yet a monk's cell can be as bare after death. There was breath-taking joy in and his life as austere as that of a prisoner. the feeling ' I am', the greatest possible Certainly the regime of the 4th Century earthly joy, the full enjoyment of existence. Christian anchorites in the Egyptian desert No way to describe it—the difference between was far more harsh than anything inflicted this joy and complete happiness of the mind on modern prisoners. And yet it was volun• is greater than between the blackest misery tarily chosen. Was it suffering ? And when and the fullest elation of the mind. Gradual• Christ told his followers that they would be ly — rapidly — my body seemed to be persecuted for His sake was He inviting expanding from the heart. It engulfed the them to a life of suffering ? It was not com• whole universe. It didn't feel any more. The pulsory. Anyone who decided that the only real thing was God (Bhagavan, Aruna• suffering in it outweighed the advantages chala). I could not identify myself as any was free to leave. It was not any scripture speck in that vastness — nor other people •— but Shakespeare who said that "there is there was only God, nothing but God. The nothing either good or bad but thinking word '1' had no meaning any, more; it makes it so ", but it is profoundly true and meant the whole universe — everything is must govern the definition of ' suffering '. God, the only Reality." Could it be defined as ' unwelcome dis• tress ' ? In that case it would be impossible What prevents this glorious supernal to speak of suffering in connection with the happiness here described from being one's saints or with any who have submitted to normal state ? Obviously the ego, with its the Divine Will. And indeed, it will be attachment to things of the world. There• noticed that they themselves never speak fore it is the ego that is the enemy of true of it. A saint may undergo imprisonment, happiness and the cause of suffering. That sickness, persecution, but one never hears is the sane and realistic approach.