Bhagawan
Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Author.
P.V.S.SURYANARAYANA RAJU.
@ author.
Dr.PV.S.SURYANARAYANA RAJU.
SYAMALA CHILDREN HOSPITAL.
5-8-16,PARK STREET,
NARSAPUR,W,G.Dt,AP.INDIA.
PIN:534275.
PH: 918814-273430.
Email: drrajunsp@yahoo.co.in
Fax: 018814-277852.
Dedication.
This book is dedicated to Bhagawan
Sri Ramana Maharshi.
ARUNACHALAM-RAMANAMAHARSHI.
If we comprehensively encounter one experience, there is flowering of the art of self-enquiry.
Arunachala mountain is the gross form of the steady light of the pure conscious being of Siva. It is the heart of the earth. It appears as a hill with heaps of stones to those with a mind
contaminated by self-ignorance, but it appears as a column of light to those with a subtle mind with uncontaminated consciousness. This is the form of Siva. This is no mere theory. It is an actuality experienced by Jnanasambandar, Manikyavachakar and Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. The town where Arunachala is, is known as Tiruvannamalai, about 180 km south of Chennai. This town is like a Srichakra with nine nodal points. At this place, Siva is in the form of a hill, a linga and a siddha. On the northern tip of the hill, under a tree sits Siva as a siddha. The linga here is an agni- linga. Agni is the symbol of jnana. Those who wish to be liber- ated through jnana (Self-Knowledge) are drawn to this pilgrim centre. Pilgrims undertake a circumambulation of the hill. Those who come here are amply rewarded; non-believers become be- lievers, believers become devotees, devotees become sages, said Sri Bhagavan.
Deep within the hill is a separate world where there are siddhas doing tapas. There are rivers and streams, tanks, gardens and pathways said Sri Bhagavan who saw them. There are medicinal herbs on the hill and the breeze wafting across them cures people of several ailments. The circumambulation of the hill pre- serves mental health. The Skandapuranam extols the uniqueness of the hill. Skanda, Subrahmanya, Sanatkumara, Jnana Sambandar and Sri Ramana Maharshi are one and the same.
At the behest of Siva, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi as- sumed a human form and was born in the early of hours of 30th December, 1879 at Tiruchuzhi, a place near Madurai, under the asterism of Punarvasu, to the pious couple Sundaram Iyer and Azhagammal. Sundaram Iyer passed away when the boy Ramana
was twelve. Then itself Ramana pondered over the nature of death. In 1896 on Thursday 16th July Ramana had an unaccounted form of the fear of death. Then his body's age was only 16 years,
6 months, 16 days. He was then staying with his uncle in a house in Chokkappa Naicker Street, Madurai. On the onset of the fear of death, he investigated into it with an undisturbed mind. He thought thus "This body is dead, it will be taken to the cremation ground". His body was actually dead, respiration and heartbeat stopped. Even then he was able to feel the consciousness within. He had direct experience that he is the pure conscious being; later after twenty minutes, consciousness again entered the body and the body started moving. Such a thing has not happened in any saint's life before. Ever since then Sri Bhagavan abided in that consciousness only, a state known as Sahaja Samadhi. At the instance of Siva he reached Tiruvannamalai on 1st Sept. 1896 and taught Atma vidya (self-knowledge) to any one who cared for it. Several animals, like dogs, monkeys, peacocks, serpents, squirrels and cattle lived in close proximity to Sri Bhagavan. In Sri Bhagavan's holy presence his mother Azhagammal and the cow Lakshmi attained liberation apart from some others.
Places at Tiruvannamalai where Sri Bhagavan resided -
1896 - Arunachaleswara Temple, Patala Linga and
Temple towers.
1897 - Gurumurtham, Mango grove
1898 to 1899 - Pavalakunru, caves of the hill, Pachaiamman
Kovil
1899 to 1916 - Virupaksha Cave
1916 to 1922 - Skandasramam
1922 to 1950 - Ramanasramam
On 14 April 1950 at 8-47 p.m. Sri Bhagavan shed his mortal frame and a blue meteor-like light passed over and merged in Arunachala hill.
Sri Ramana Maharshi (December 30, 1879 – April 14, 1950), Venkataraman Iyer, was a Hindu spiritual master ("jnani"). He was born to a Tamil-speaking Brahmin family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. After experiencing at age 16 what he later described as liberation (moksha), he left home for Arunachala, a mountain considered sacred by Hindus. He lived at the mountain for the rest of his life. Although born a Brahmin, he declared himself an "Atiasrami", a Sastraic state of non-attachment to anything in life and beyond all caste restrictions.[1] Theashram that grew around him, Sri Ramana Ashram, is situated at the foothill of Arunchala, to the west to the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai.
Sri Ramana Maharshi maintained that the purest form of his teachings was the powerful silence which radiated from his presence and quieted the minds of those attuned to it. He gave verbal teachings only for the benefit of those who could not understand his silence (or, perhaps, could not understand how to attain the silent state).[2] His verbal teachings were said to flow from his direct experience of Atman as the only existing reality.[3] When asked for advice, he recommendedself-enquiry as the fastest path to moksha. Though his primary teaching is associated with Non-dualism, Advaita Vedanta, and Jnana yoga, he recommended Bhakti to those he saw were fit for it, and gave his approval to a variety of paths and practices.[4]
[ Life
]Family Background
Sri Ramana was born in a village called Tiruchuli (Tiruchuzhi) near Aruppukkottai, Madurai in Tamil Nadu, South India on Arudra Darshanam day, into an orthodox Hindu Tamil (Iyer) family, the second of four children of Sundaram Iyer (1845?-1892), from the lineage of Parashara, and Azhagammal (?-1922), and named Venkataraman at birth. His siblings were Nagaswamy (1877–1900), Nagasundaram (1886–1953) and sister Alamelu (1891/92-1953). Venkataraman's father was a respected pleader.[5]
[ Childhood
Venkataraman seemed a normal child with no apparent signs of future greatness. He was popular, good at sports, very intelligent but lazy at school, indulged in an average amount of mischief, and showed little religious interest. He did have a few unusual traits. When he slept, he went into such a deep state of unconsciousness that his friends could physically assault his body without waking him up. He also had an extraordinary amount of luck. In team games, whichever side he played for always won. This earned him the nickname 'Tangakai', which means 'golden hand'.[6] When Venkataraman was about 11, his father sent him to live with his paternal uncle Subbaiyar in Dindigul because he wanted his sons to be educated in English so they would be eligible to enter government service, and only Tamil was taught at the village school in Tiruchuzhi. In 1891, when his uncle was transferred to Madurai, Venkataraman and his elder brother Nagaswami moved with him. In Dindigul, Venkataraman attended a British School.
[ The Awakening
In 1892, Venkataraman's father Sundaram Iyer suddenly fell seriously ill and unexpectedly died several days later at the age of 42.[7] For some hours after his father's death he contemplated the matter of death, and how his father's body was still there, but the 'I' was gone from it.
After leaving Scott's Middle School, Venkataraman went to the American Mission High School. One November morning in 1895, he was on his way to school when he saw an elderly relative and enquired where the relative had come from. The answer was "From Arunachala."[8] Krishna Bikshu describes Venkataraman's response: "The word 'Arunachala' was familiar to Venkataraman from his younger days, but he did not know where it was, what it looked like or what it meant. Yet that day that word meant to him something great, an inaccessible, authoritative, absolutely blissful entity. Could one visit such a place? His heart was full of joy. Arunachala meant some sacred land, every particle of which gave moksha. It was omnipotent and peaceful. Could one behold it? 'What? Arunachala? Where is it?' asked the lad. The relative was astonished, 'Don't you know even this?' and continued, 'Haven't you heard of Tiruvannamalai? That is Arunachala.' It was as if a balloon was pricked, the boy's heart sank."
A month later he came across a copy of Sekkizhar's Periyapuranam, a book that describes the lives of 63 Saivite saints, and was deeply moved and inspired by it.[9]Filled with awe, and a desire for emulation, he began devotional visits to the nearby Meenakshi Temple in Madurai and, associated with this bhakti, later reported fever-like sensations.[10] Soon after, on July 17, 1896,[9] at age 16, Venkataraman had a life-changing experience. He spontaneously initiated a process of self-enquiry that culminated, within a few minutes, in his own permanent awakening. In one of his rare written comments on this process he wrote: 'Enquiring withinWho is the seer? I saw the seer disappear leaving That alone which stands forever. No thought arose to say I saw. How then could the thought arise to say I did not see.'.[6] As Sri Ramana reportedly described it later:
"It was in 1896, about 6 weeks before I left Madurai for good (to go to Tiruvannamalai-Arunachala) that this great change in my life took place. I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house. I seldom had any sickness and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it nor was there any urge in me to find out whether there was any account for the fear. I just felt I was going to die and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or any elders or friends. I felt I had to solve the problem myself then and there. The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: 'Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies.' And at once I dramatised the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out still as though rigor mortis has set in, and imitated a corpse so as to give greater reality to the enquiry. I held my breath and kept my lips tightly closed so that no sound could escape, and that neither the word 'I' nor any word could be uttered. 'Well then,' I said to myself, 'this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to the burning ground and there burn and reduced to ashes. But with the death of the body, am I dead? Is the body I? It is silent and inert, but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of I within me, apart from it. So I am the Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death. That means I am the deathless Spirit.' All this was not dull thought; it flashed through me vividly as living truths which I perceived directly almost without thought process. I was something real, the only real thing about my present state, and all the conscious activity connected with the body was centered on that I. From that moment onwards, the "I" or Self focused attention on itself by a powerful fascination. Fear of death vanished once and for all. The ego was lost in the flood of Self-awareness. Absorption in the Self continued unbroken from that time. Other thought might come and go like the various notes of music, but the I continued like the fundamental sruti note ["that which is heard" i.e. the Vedas and Upanishads] a note which underlies and blends with all other notes.".[11]
After this event, he lost interest in school-studies, friends, and relations. Avoiding company, he preferred to sit alone, absorbed in concentration on the Self, and went daily to the Meenakshi Temple, ecstatically devoted to the images of the Gods, tears flowing profusely from his eyes.[12]
Venkataraman’s elder brother, Nagaswamy, was aware of a great change in him and on several occasions rebuked him for his detachment from all that was going on around him. About six weeks after Venkataraman’s absorption into the Self, on August 29, 1896, he was attempting to complete a homework assignment which had been given to him by his English teacher for indifference in his studies. Suddenly Venkataraman tossed aside the book and turned inward in meditation. His elder brother rebuked him again, asking, "What use is all this to one who is like this?" Venkataraman did not answer, but recognized the truth in his brother’s words.[13]
The Journey to Arunachala
He decided to leave his home and go to Arunachala. Knowing his family would not permit this, he slipped away, telling his brother he needed to attend a special class at school. Fortuitously, his brother asked him to take five rupees and pay his college fees on his way to school. Venkataraman took out an atlas, calculated the cost of his journey, took three rupees and left the remaining two with a note which read: "I have set out in quest of my Father in accordance with his command. This (meaning his person) has only embarked on a virtuous enterprise. Therefore, no one need grieve over this act. And no money need be spent in search of this. Your college fee has not been paid. Herewith rupees two."[14]
At about noon, Venkataraman left his uncle's house and walked to the railway station. At about three o'clock the next morning, he arrived at Viluppuram and walked into the town at daybreak. Tired and hungry, he asked for food at a hotel and had to wait until noon for the food to be ready. He then went back to the station and spent his remaining money on a ticket to Mambalappattu, a stop on the way to Tiruvannamalai. From there, he set out, intending to walk the remaining distance of about 30 miles (48 km).[9]
After walking about 11 miles (18 km), he reached the temple of Arayaninallur, outside of which he sat down to rest. When the priest opened the temple for puja, Venkataraman entered and sat in the pillared hall where he had a vision of brilliant light enveloping the entire place. He sat in deep meditation after the light disappeared until the temple priests who needed to lock up the temple roused him. He asked them for food and was refused, though they suggested he might get food at the temple in Kilur where they were headed for service. Venkataraman followed, and late in the evening when the puja ended at this temple, he asked for food and was refused again. The temple drummer who had been watching the rude behaviour of the priests implored them to hand over his share of the temple food to the strange youth. When he asked for water, he was directed to a Sastri’s house. He set out but fainted and fell down, spilling the rice he had been given in the temple. When he regained consciousness, he began picking up the scattered rice, not wanting to waste even a single grain.[15]
Muthukrishna Bhagavatar was amongst the crowd that gathered around Venkataraman when he collapsed. He was so struck by Venkataraman’s extraordinary radiance and beauty and felt such compassion for him that he led the boy to his house, providing him with a bed and food. It was August 31, the Gokulastami day, the day of Sri Krishna’s birth, and the Bhagavathar's wife was delighted that a young Brahmin boy with the appearance of a mendicant had visited their home that day, and was only too happy to feed him. Afterwards, Venkataraman asked Bhagavatar for a loan of four rupees on the pledge of his ear-rings so that he could complete his pilgrimage. Bhagavatar agreed and gave Venkataraman a receipt he could use to redeem his ear-rings. Venkataraman continued on his journey, tearing up the receipt immediately because he knew he would never have any need for the ear-rings.
On the morning of September 1, 1896, Venkataraman boarded the train and traveled the remaining distance. In Tiruvannamalai he went straight to the temple of Arunachaleswara. There, Venkataraman found not only the temple gates standing open, but the doors to the inner shrine as well, and not a single person, even a priest, was in the temple. He entered the sanctum sanctorum and addressed Arunachaleswara, saying: "I have come to Thee at Thy behest. Thy will be done." He embraced the linga in ecstasy. The burning sensation that had started back at Madurai (which he later described as "an inexpressible anguish which I suppressed at the time") merged in Arunachaleswara. Venkataraman was safely home.[13]
[ Early Life at Arunachala
The first few weeks he spent in the thousand-pillared hall, but shifted to other spots in the temple and eventually to the Patala-lingam vault so that he might remain undisturbed. There, he would spend days absorbed in such deep samādhi that he was unaware of the bites of vermin and pests. Seshadri Swamigal, a local saint, discovered him in the underground vault and tried to protect him.[16] After about six weeks in the Patala-lingam, he was carried out and cleaned up. For the next two months he stayed in the Subramanya Shrine, so unaware of his body and surroundings that food had to be placed in his mouth or he would have starved.
From there, he was invited to stay in a mango orchard next to Gurumurtam, a temple about a mile out of Tiruvannamalai, and shortly after his arrival a sadhunamed Palaniswami went to see him. Palaniswami's first darshan left him filled with peace and bliss, and from that time on his sole concern was serving Sri Ramana, joining him as his permanent attendant. From Gurumurtam to Virupaksha Cave (1899–1916) to Skandasramam Cave (1916–22), he was the instrument of divine protection for Sri Ramana, who would be without consciousness of the body and lost in inner bliss most of the time. Besides physical protection, Palaniswami would also beg for alms, cook and prepare meals for himself and Sri Ramana, and care for him as needed.[17]
Gradually, despite Sri Ramana's silence, austerities, and desire for privacy, he attracted attention from visitors, and some became his disciples. Eventually, his family discovered his whereabouts. First his uncle Nelliappa Iyer came and pled with him to return home, promising that the family would not disturb his ascetic life. Sri Ramana sat motionless and eventually his uncle gave up.[18] It was at the temple at Pavalakkunru, one of the eastern spurs of Arunachala, that his mother and brother Nagaswami found him in December 1898. Day after day his mother begged him to return, but no amount of weeping and pleading had any visible effect on him. She appealed to the devotees who had gathered around, trying to get them to intervene on her behalf until one requested that Sri Ramana write out his response to his mother.[19] He then wrote on a piece of paper, "In accordance with the prarabdha of each, the One whose function it is to ordain makes each to act. What will not happen will never happen, whatever effort one may put forth. And what will happen will not fail to happen, however much one may seek to prevent it. This is certain. The part of wisdom therefore is to stay quiet." At this point his mother returned to Madurai saddened.[13]
Soon after this, in February 1899, Sri Ramana moved further up Arunachala where he stayed briefly in Satguru Cave and Guhu Namasivaya Cave before taking up residence at Virupaksha Cave for the next 17 years, using Mango Tree cave during the summers (except for a six month period at Pachaiamman Koil during the plague epidemic).[20]
In 1902, a government official named Sivaprakasam Pillai, with writing slate in hand, visited the young Swami in the hope of obtaining answers to questions about "How to know one's true identity". The fourteen questions put to the young Swami and his answers were Sri Ramana's first teachings on Self-enquiry, the method for which he became widely known, and were eventually published as 'Nan Yar?', or in English, ‘Who am I?’.[21]
Several visitors came to him and many became his disciples. Kavyakantha Sri Ganapati Sastri (literally, "One who has poetry in his throat"), a Vedic scholar of repute in his age with a deep knowledge of the Srutis, Sastras, Tantras, Yoga, and Agama systems, came to visit Sri Ramana in 1907. After receiving instructions from him, he proclaimed him as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Sri Ramana was known by this name from then on.[22]
[ Discovery by Westerners
It was in 1911 that the first westerner, Frank Humphreys, then a policeman stationed in India, discovered Sri Ramana and wrote articles about him which were first published in The International Psychic Gazette in 1913.[23] However, Sri Ramana only became relatively well known in and out of India after 1934 when Paul Brunton, having first visited Sri Ramana in January 1931, published the book A Search in Secret India, which became very popular. Resulting visitors includedParamahansa Yogananda, Somerset Maugham (whose 1944 novel The Razor's Edge models its spiritual guru after Sri Ramana),[24] Mercedes de Acosta, Julian P. Johnson, and Arthur Osborne. Sri Ramana's relative fame spread throughout the 1940s. However, even as his fame spread, Sri Ramana was noted for his belief in the power of silence and his relatively sparse use of speech, as well as his lack of concern for fame or criticism.[25] His lifestyle remained that of a renunciate.
[ Mother's Arrival
In 1912, while in the company of disciples, he was observed to undergo about a 15 minute period where he showed the outward symptoms of death, which reportedly resulted thereafter in an enhanced ability to engage in practical affairs while remaining in Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi. In 1916 his mother Alagammal and younger brother Nagasundaram joined Sri Ramana at Tiruvannamalai and followed him when he moved to the larger Skandashram Cave, where Bhagavan lived until the end of 1922. His mother took up the life of a sannyasin, and Sri Ramana began to give her intense, personal instruction, while she took charge of the Ashram kitchen. Ramana's younger brother, Nagasundaram, then became a sannyasi, assuming the name Niranjanananda, becoming known as Chinnaswami (the younger Swami).
During this period, Sri Ramana composed The Five Hymns to Arunachala, his magnum opus in devotional lyric poetry. Of them the first is Akshara Mana Malai (theMarital Garland of Letters). It was composed in Tamil in response to the request of a devotee for a song to be sung while wandering in the town for alms. The Marital Garland tells in glowing symbolism of the love and union between the human soul and God, expressing the attitude of the soul that still aspires.[26]
Mother's Death
Beginning in 1920, his mother's health deteriorated. On the day of her death, May 19, 1922, at about 8 a.m., Sri Ramana sat beside her. It is reported that throughout the day, he had his right hand on her heart, on the right side of the chest, and his left hand on her head, until her death around 8:00 p.m., when Sri Ramana pronounced her liberated, literally, ‘Adangi Vittadu, Addakam’ (‘absorbed’). Later Sri Ramana said of this: "You see, birth experiences are mental. Thinking is also like that, depending on sanskaras (tendencies). Mother was made to undergo all her future births in a comparatively short time.".[27] Her body was enshrined in a samadhi, on top of which a Siva lingam was installed and given the name Mathrubutheswara [Siva manifesting as mother].[28] To commemorate the anniversary of Ramana Maharshi's mother's death, a puja, known as her Aradhana or Mahapooja, is performed every year at the Mathrubutheswara.
After this, Sri Ramana often walked from Skandashram to her tomb. Then in December 1922, he came down from Skandashram permanently and settled at the base of the Hill, where Sri Ramanasramam is still located today. At first, there was only one hut at the samadhi, but in 1924 two huts, one opposite the samadhi and the other to the north were erected.
The Later Years
The Sri Ramanasramam grew to include a library, hospital, post-office and many other facilities. Sri Ramana displayed a natural talent for planning building projects. Annamalai Swami gave detailed accounts of this in his reminiscences.[29] Until 1938, Annamalai Swami was entrusted with the task of supervising the projects and received his instructions from Ramana directly.
The 1940s saw many of Sri Ramana's most ardent devotees pass away. These included Echamma (1945), attendant Madhavaswami (1946), Ramanatha Brahmachari (1946), Mudaliar Granny and Lakshmi (1948).[30] Sri Ramana was noted for his unusual love of animals and his assertion that liberation was possible not only for animals but also for plants: Ramana once spoke of a thorn bush gaining liberation by the Grace of a great saint.[31] On the morning of June 18, 1948, he realized his favorite cow Lakshmi was near death. Just as he had with his own Mother, Sri Ramana placed his hands on her head and over her heart. The cow died peacefully at 11:30 a.m. and Sri Ramana later declared that the cow was liberated.[32]
In 1939, at age 21, U.G. Krishnamurti met with Ramana Maharshi. U.G. related that he asked Ramana, "This thing called moksha, can you give it to me?" - to which Ramana Maharshi purportedly replied, "I can give it, but can you take it?". This answer completely altered U.G.'s perceptions of the "spiritual path" and its practitioners, and he never again sought the counsel of "those religious people". Later U.G. would say that Maharshi's answer - which he had originally perceived as "arrogant" - put him "back on track". "That Ramana was a real McCoy," said U.G Krishnamurti.
Sri Ramana was noted for his belief in the power of silence and relatively sparse use of speech. He led a modest and renunciate life, and depended on visitors and devotees for the barest necessities. However, a popular image of him as a person who spent most of his time doing nothing except silently sitting in samadhi is highly inaccurate, according to David Godman, who has written extensively about Sri Ramana. According to Godman, from the period when an Ashram began to rise around him after his mother arrived into his later years, Sri Ramana was actually quite active in Ashram activities until his health failed.[33]
[Final Years
In November 1948, a tiny cancerous lump was found on the Maharshi's arm and was removed in February 1949 by the ashram doctor. Soon, another growth appeared, and another operation was done by an eminent surgeon in March, 1949, with Radium applied. The doctor told Sri Ramana that a complete amputation of the arm to the shoulder was required to save his life, but he refused. A third and fourth operation were performed in August and December 1949, but only weakened him. Other systems of medicine were then tried; all proved fruitless and were stopped by the end of March when devotees gave up all hope. To devotees who begged him to cure himself for the sake of his followers, Sri Ramana is said to have replied, "Why are you so attached to this body? Let it go" and, "Where can I go? I am here."[12]
By April 1950, Sri Ramana was too weak to go to the hall, and visiting hours were limited. Visitors would file past the small room where he spent his final days to get one final glimpse. Swami Satyananda, the attendant at the time, reports, "On the evening of 14 April 1950, we were massaging Sri Ramana's body. At about 5 o'clock, he asked us to help him to sit up. Precisely at that moment devotees started chanting 'Arunachala Siva, Arunachala Siva'. When Sri Ramana heard this his face lit up with radiant joy. Tears began to flow from his eyes and continued to flow for a long time. I was wiping them from time to time. I was also giving him spoonfuls of water boiled with ginger. The doctor wanted to administer artificial respiration but Sri Ramana waved it away. Sri Ramana’s breathing became gradually slower and slower and at 8:47 p.m. it subsided quietly." Henri Cartier-Bresson, the French photographer, who had been staying at the ashram for a fortnight prior to Sri Ramana’s death, recounted the event:
"It is a most astonishing experience. I was in the open space in front of my house, when my friends drew my attention to the sky, where I saw a vividly-luminous shooting star with a luminous tail, unlike any shooting star I had before seen, coming from the South, moving slowly across the sky and, reaching the top of Arunachala, disappeared behind it. Because of its singularity we all guessed its import and immediately looked at our watches – it was 8:47 – and then raced to the Ashram only to find that our premonition had been only too sadly true: the Master had passed into parinirvana at that very minute."[34]
Cartier-Bresson took some of the last photographs of Sri Ramana on April 4, 1950 and went on to take pictures of the mahasamadhi preparations. The New York Times concluded: "Here in India, where thousands of so-called holy men claim close tune with the infinite, it is said that the most remarkable thing about Ramana Maharshi was that he never claimed anything remarkable for himself, yet became one of the most loved and respected of all.".[35]
[Teachings
Sri Ramana's teachings about self-enquiry, the practice he is most widely associated with, have been classified as the Path of Knowledge (Jnana marga) among the Indian schools of thought. Though his teaching is consistent with and generally associated with Hinduism, the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, there are some differences with the traditional Advaitic school, and Sri Ramana gave his approval to a variety of paths and practices from various religions.[4]
His earliest teachings are documented in the book Nan Yar?(Who am I?), first written in Tamil. The original book was published by Sri Pillai,[36] although the essay version of the book (Sri Ramana Nutrirattu) prepared by Sri Ramana is considered definitive as unlike the original it had the benefit of his revision and review. A careful translation with notes is available in English as 'The Path of Sri Ramana, Part One' by Sri Sadhu Om, one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramana. Selections from this definitive version follow[37]:
As all living beings desire to be happy always, without misery, as in the case of everyone there is observed supreme love for one's self, and as happiness alone is the cause for love, in order to gain that happiness which is one's nature and which is experienced in the state of deep sleep where there is no mind, one should know one's self. For that, the path of knowledge, the inquiry of the form "Who am I?", is the principal means.
Knowledge itself is 'I'. The nature of (this) knowledge is existence-consciousness-bliss.
What is called mind is a wondrous power existing in Self. It projects all thoughts. If we set aside all thoughts and see, there will be no such thing as mind remaining separate; therefore, thought itself is the form of the mind. Other than thoughts, there is no such thing as the world.
Of all the thoughts that rise in the mind, the thought 'I' is the first thought.
That which rises in this body as 'I' is the mind. If one enquires 'In which place in the body does the thought 'I' rise first?', it will be known to be in the heart [spiritual heart is 'two digits to the right from the centre of the chest']. Even if one incessantly thinks 'I', 'I', it will lead to that place (Self)'
The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry 'Who am I?'. The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre.
If other thoughts rise, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire, 'To whom did they arise?', it will be known 'To me'. If one then enquires 'Who am I?', the mind (power of attention) will turn back to its source. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.
The place where even the slightest trace of the 'I' does not exist, alone is Self.
Self itself is God[
Sri Ramana warned against considering self-enquiry as an intellectual exercise. Properly done, it involves fixing the attention firmly and intensely on the feeling of 'I', without thinking. It is perhaps more helpful to see it as 'Self-attention' or 'Self-abiding' (cf. Sri Sadhu Om - The Path of Sri Ramana Part I). The clue to this is in Sri Ramana's own death experience when he was 16. After raising the question 'Who am I?' he "turned his attention very keenly towards himself" (cf. description above). Attention must be fixed on the 'I' until the feeling of duality disappears.
Although he advocated self-enquiry as the fastest means to realization, he also recommended the path of bhakti and self-surrender (to one's Deity or Guru) either concurrently or as an adequate alternative, which would ultimately converge with the path of self-enquiry.[38]
[Sri Ramana's teachings and Advaita
Sri Ramana's teachings and the traditional Advaitic school of thought pioneered by Sri Adi Shankara have many things in common. Sri Ramana often mentioned and is known to have encouraged study of the following classical works: Ashtavakra Gita, Ribhu Gita and Essence of Ribhu Gita, Yoga Vasista Sara,[39] Tripura Rahasya[[40]], Kaivalya Navaneetam,[41] Advaita Bodha Deepika,[42] and Ellam Ondre.[43] However, there are some practical differences with the traditional Advaitic school, which recommends a negationist neti, neti (Sanskrit, "not this", "not this") path, or mental affirmations that the Self was the only reality, such as "I am Brahman" or "I am He", while Sri Ramana advocates the enquiry "Nan Yar" (Tamil, "Who am I"). Furthermore, unlike the traditional Advaitic school, Sri Ramana strongly discouraged most who came to him from adopting a renunciate lifestyle.
To elaborate:
The traditional Advaitic (non-dualistic) school advocates "elimination of all that is non-self (the five sheaths) until only the Self remains".[44] The five kosas, or sheaths, that hide the true Self are: Material, Vital, Mental, Knowledge, and Blissful.
Sri Ramana says "enquiry in the form 'Who am I' alone is the principal means. To make the mind subside, there is no adequate means other than self-enquiry. If controlled by other means, mind will remain as if subsided, but will rise again"[45]
[Teachers in his tradition
He considered his own guru to be the Self, in the form of the sacred mountain Arunachala. Sri Ramana did not publicize himself as a guru, never claimed to have disciples, and never appointed any successors. While a few who came to see him are said to have become enlightened through association, and there are accounts of private acknowledgements, he did not publicly acknowledge any living person as liberated other than his mother at death. Sri Ramana declared himself anatiasrama[46](beyond all caste and religious restrictions, not attached to anything in life), and did not belong to or promote any lineage. Despite his non-affiliations,[47] there are numerous contemporary teachers who publicly associate themselves with Sri Ramana, and some who assert being in his lineage.
His method of teaching was characterized by the following:
He urged people who came to him to practice self-enquiry;
He directed people to look inward rather than seeking outside themselves for Realization. ("The true Bhagavan resides in your Heart as your true Self. This is who I truly am.");
He viewed all who came to him as the Self rather than as lesser beings. ("The jnani sees no one as an ajnani. All are only jnanis in his sight.");
He charged no money, and was adamant that no one ever ask for money (or anything else) in his name;
He never promoted or called attention to himself. Instead, Sri Ramana remained in one place for 54 years, offering spiritual guidance to anyone of any background who came to him, and asking nothing in return;
He considered humility to be the highest quality;
He said the deep sense of peace one felt around a jnani was the surest indicator of their spiritual state, that equality towards all was a true sign of liberation, and that what a true jnani did was always for others, not themselves.
[edit]Notable followers
Over the course of Sri Ramana's lifetime, people from a wide variety of backgrounds, religions, and countries were drawn to him. Some stayed for the rest of their lives (or his) and served him with great devotion, and others came for a single darshan and left, deeply affected by the peace he radiated.
Quite a number of followers wrote books conveying Sri Ramana's teachings. Sri Muruganar (1893–1973), one of Sri Ramana's foremost devotees who lived as Sri Ramana's shadow for 26 years,[48] recorded the most comprehensive collection of Sri Ramana's sayings in a work called Guru Vachaka Kovai (The Garland of Guru's Sayings).[49] Sri Ramana carefully reviewed this work with Sri Muruganar, modifying many verses to most accurately reflect his teaching, and adding in additional verses. Sri Muruganar was also instrumental in Sri Ramana's writing of Upadesa Saram (The Essence of Instruction)[50] and Ulladu Narpadu (Forty Verses on Reality).[51] Sri Sadhu Om (1922–1985)[52] spent five years with Sri Ramana and about 28 years with Sri Muruganar. His deep understanding of Sri Ramana's teachings on self-enquiry are explained in his book The Path of Sri Ramana – Part One.[53] Suri Nagamma wrote a series of letters to her brother inTelugu, describing Sri Ramana's conversations with devotees over a five year period. Each letter was corrected by Sri Ramana before it was sent. Attendants of Sri Ramana included Palaniswami (from 1897), Kunju Swami (from 1920), Madhava Swami, Ramanatha Brahmachari, Krishnaswami, Rangaswamy, Sivananda, Krishna Bhikshu and Annamalai Swami (from 1928). The devoted ladies who cooked for Bhagavan and his devotees in the ashram kitchen includes, Shantamma, Sampurnamma, Subbalakshmi Ammal, Lokamma, Gowri Ammal and few others.
Paul Brunton's writings about Sri Ramana brought considerable attention to him in the West. Other Westerners who wrote about Sri Ramana include Arthur Osborne (the first editor of the ashram journal, The Mountain Path), Major Chadwick (who ran the Veda Patasala during Ramana's time), Ethel Merston, and S.S. Cohen. More recently, David Godman, a former librarian at the ashram, has written about Sri Ramana's teaching, as well as a series of books (The Power of the Presence) vividly portraying the lives of a number of lesser-known attendants and devotees of Sri Ramana. Swami Ramdas visited Ramana Maharshi while on pilgrimage in 1922, and after darshan, spent the next 21 days meditating in solitude in a cave on Arunachala. Thereafter, he attained the direct realization that "All was Rama, nothing but Rama".[54]
Maurice Frydman (a.k.a. Swami Bharatananda), a Polish Jew who later translated Nisargadatta Maharaj's work "I Am That" from Marathi to English, was also deeply influenced by Sri Ramana's teachings.
William Somerset Maugham, the English author, wrote a chapter entitled "The Saint" in his last book "Points of View." This chapter is devoted to Ramana Maharshi, whom Maugham had at one time visited before Indian independence.
Indian National Congress politician and freedom-fighter, O. P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar, who served as the Premier of Madras from 1947 to 1949, was also a devoted follower of Ramana Maharshi. Ramaswami Pillai, Balarama Reddy, Ramani Ammal, Kanakammal, Meenakshi Ammal, Perumalswami and Rayar are some of the other long standing devotees who came into the Sannadhi of Bhagavan during his life at Sri Ramanasramam.
Another famous follower of Sri Ramana Maharshi is Jinnuru Nannagaru (born Bhupathiraju Venkata Lakshmi Narasimha Raju),who has taken upon himself the task of taking people to a ‘sorrowless’, and ‘tension-free’ state.
[edit]Aksharamanamalai
Many of Ramana Maharshi's followers asked for a hymn to sing while on their rounds for alms. They felt this would help distinguish them from other hermits. After much persuasion, Sri Ramana Maharshi composed Sri Arunachala Aksharamanamalai (The Marital Garland of Letters) in praise of Lord Shiva, manifest as the mountain Arunachala. The hymn consists of 108 stanzas composed in poetic Tamil, praising the formless Shiva as Arunachala and the different aspects of life and salvation that it symbolizes.
[edit]Books
[edit]Teachings
The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi (ISBN 1-59030-139-0)
Be as You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, by David Godman (ISBN 0-14-019062-7)
Guru Vachaka Kovai (The Garland of Guru’s Sayings) by Sri Muruganar (ISBN 0-97113-718-8)[55]
The Collected Works Of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Contains compositions by Sri Ramana, as well as a large number of adaptations and translations by him of classical advaita works (ISBN 81-88018-06-6)
The Path of Sri Ramana, Part One and The Path of Sri Ramana, Part Two, by Sri Sadhu Om (ASIN B000KMKFX0)[56]
Happiness and the Art of Being: A Layman's Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of the Spiritual Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana (ISBN 1-4251-2465-8)[57]
The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi: A Visual Journey (ISBN 1-878019-18-X)
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, by Munagal Venkataramiah. Covers the period 1935 to 1939 (ISBN 8-18801-807-4)[58]
Reflections: On Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, by S.S. Cohen (ISBN 8-18801-838-4)[59]
Padamalai: Teachings of Ramana Maharshi, recorded by Sri Muruganar, edited by David Godman (ISBN 0971137137)
Sri Ramana Gita (The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi), translated by Sri Sankaranarayanan (ISBN 81-88018-17-1)
The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words, by Arthur Osborne (ISBN 81-88018-15-5)[60]
Day by Day with Bhagavan by A. Devaraja Mudaliar. An account of daily discussions during the period 1945 to 1947 (ISBN 81-88018-82-1).
Gems from Bhagavan, by A. Devaraja Mudaliar (ISBN 8188018058)
Maha Yoga, by 'WHO' (Lakshmana Sharma), (2002; ISBN 81-88018-20-1)[61]
Ramana Puranam, composed by Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Muruganar (ISBN 8162890599)
Origin of Spiritual Instruction, by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (ISBN 978-0970366733)
Who Am I?: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, by Ramana Maharshi, introduction by T.M.P. Mahadevan (ISBN 818801804X)
Ulladu narpadu = Forty Verses On Reality, by Ramana Maharshi, translation and commentary by S.S. Cohen (ISBN 0722401612)
[edit]Biographies
Self-Realization: The Life and Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, by B.V. Narasimha Swami (ISBN 81-88225-74-6)
Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self Knowledge, by Arthur Osborne (ISBN 0877280711; http://bhagavan-ramana.org/ramana_maharshi/books/pos/toc.htmlonline text])
Sri Ramana Leela, by Krishna Bhikshu (ISBN 8182880009)[62]
Timeless in Time: Sri Ramana Maharshi, by A.R. Natarajan (ISBN 81-85378-82-7)
Ramana Maharshi: His Life, by Gabriele Ebert (ISBN 978-1411673502)
[edit]Documentary
[edit]Reminiscences
Ramana Pictorial Souvenir Commemorating the Kumbhabhishekam on 18-6-1967. Tiruvannamalai, India: Board of Trustees Sri Ramanasramam. 1969.OCLC 140712. (Anonymously edited volume with many appreciations and reminiscences from others, plus many quotes from Ramana Maharshi)
A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi, by Major A. W. Chadwick (ISBN 81-88018-37-6)
Living By The Words of Bhagavan, by David Godman (no ISBN) about Annamalai Swami
The Power of the Presence, Part One, by David Godman (ISBN 0-9711371-1-0), about several devotees
The Power of the Presence, Part Two, by David Godman (ISBN 0-9711371-0-2), about several devotees
The Power of the Presence, Part Three, by David Godman (ISBN 0-9711371-2-9), about several devotees
Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma (ISBN 81-88018-10-4), contains 273 letters from the period 1945 to 1950, each one corrected by Sri Ramana.
A Practical Guide to Know Yourself: Conversations with Sri Ramana Maharshi (ISBN 81-85378-09-6)
Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi: On Realizing Abiding Peace and Happiness (ISBN 1-878019-00-7)
Guru Ramana, by S.S. Cohen (ISBN 81-88225-22-3)
Moments Remembered, Reminiscences of Bhagavan Ramana, by V. Ganesan (ISBN 978-8188018437)
Living with the Master, Reminiscences by Kunjuswami (ISBN 81-88018-99-6)
Sri Ramana Reminiscences, by G. V. Subbaramayya
[edit]For Children
Sri Ramana, Friend of Animals: Hobbler and the Monkeys of Arunachala (ISBN 81-8288-047-5)
Sri Ramana, Friend of Animals: The Life of Lakshmi the Cow
Ramana Thatha (Grand Father Ramana), by Kumari Sarada (ISBN 81-85378-03-7)
Ramana Maharshi (Amar Chitra Katha: The Glorious Heritage of India series) (ISBN 81-7508-048-5)
The Boy Sage, by Geeta Bhatt (author), S.K. Maithreyi (Illustrator) (ISBN 978-8182881129)
Sri Ramana Maharshi.
"Jnana is given neither from outside nor from another person. It can be realised by each and everyone in his own Heart. The jnana Guru of everyone is only the Supreme Self that is always revealing its own truth in every Heart through the being-consciousness 'I am, I am.' The granting of true knowledge by him is initiation into jnana. The grace of the Guru is only that Self-awareness that is one's own true nature. It is the inner consciousness by which he is unceasingly revealing his existence. This divine upadesa is always going on naturally in everyone."
-Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Guru Vachaka Kovai is a collection of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings that was recorded in Tamil verse by Muruganar, one of his foremost disciples. This translation, by Sadhu Om and Michael James, has never been published.
Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad is a presentation of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings that was written in Sanskrit verse in the 1950s by Lakshman Sarma, a devotee who had the rare privilege of having private lessons from Bhagavan on the meaning of his teachings. The translation and commentary are by Lakshman Sarma himself.
Ramana
Puranam is
a long Tamil poem that was jointly composed by Bhagavan and
Muruganar.
Arunachala
Pancharatnam is
a five-verse poem composed by Bhagavan. The item that appears here is
a commentary on it by Sadhu Om.
Who
am I? is
a translation and commentary on Bhagavan’s famous essay.
Upadesa Undiyar is the thirty-verse Tamil poem, composed by Ramana Maharshi, that is better known under its Sanskrit name, Upadesa Saram. The version I have posted here is a word-for-word translation by Sadhu Om and Michael James that contains additional commentary and explanations
Upadesa Tiruvahaval is the ninth poem from Sri Ramana Sannidhi Murai, a work by Muruganar that praises Bhagavan and records some of his teachings.
The remaining items are articles that I have written on various aspects of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings. Most of them have been published in The Mountain Path, the journal of Sri Ramanasramam.
Bhagavan the Atiasrami
(First published in The Mountain Path, 1991, pp. 112-21.)
Page 1
Sri Ramana Maharshi
In the 1930s a devotee called Perumal Swami, who had managed Sri Ramanashram prior to 1922, instigated a court case against Ramana Maharshi and his brother Chinnaswami. The latter had taken over the management of the ashram around 1928. Perumal Swami claimed in his submission to the court that he was still the legitimate manager of Sri Ramanasramam and attempted to support his case with some rather convoluted logic. Firstly, he declared that since Bhagavan was asannyasin, he could not legally own land or property. This being so, Perumal Swami argued, Bhagavan had no rights over the property known as Sri Ramanashram. Perumal Swami then went on to argue that since Bhagavan could not own any of the ashram's property, he had no authority to appoint his brother to manage it. He then advanced his own case by saying that since he had been the undisputed manager at Skandashram, where Bhagavan had lived from 1916-22, he must still be the ashram manager because neither Ramana Maharshi nor anyone else was legally competent to remove or replace him.
Perumal Swami's complaint to the court conveniently ignored two important points:
Bhagavan had never claimed that he was a sannyasin. Since he had never been formally initiated into any order of sannyasins, he was still entitled to own and dispose of property.
Perumal Swami had voluntarily relinquished the job of ashram manager in 1922. Since that date he had neither lived in the ashram nor taken any part in its management.
Under Indian law, the formal adoption of sannyasa means that thesannyasin can be legally regarded as being dead. He loses all rights to his property, which is taken over by his appointed heirs, and, if he belongs to some of the traditional orders of sannyasa, he has no rights to own or acquire property again. In order to refute Perumal Swami's case, Bhagavan had to demonstrate that he belonged to an asrama (that is, an accepted 'stage of life') that permitted its members to own property. Insannyasa, the fourth asrama, owning property is prohibited, but members of the other three asramas (brahmacharya, grihastha andvanaprastha) face no such restriction. However, instead of taking the easy course and declaring himself to be either in the grihastha(householder) or vanaprastha (meditating hermit) asrama, he declared that he was in atiasrama, which means 'beyond all asramas'. This category is so little-known, even in India, during his first encounter with Perumal Swami's lawyer he was asked to define the state and certify that it was backed by some scriptural authority.
Question: To which asrama does Bhagavan belong?
Bhagavan: Atiasrama.
Q: What is it?
B: It is beyond the four commonly known asramas.
Q: Is it sastraic?
B: Yes, it is mentioned in the sastras.(1)
This account in Talks was written down from memory by Munagala Venkataramiah, its compiler. A court stenographer also took down everything that Bhagavan said verbatim and the ashram's lawyer, T. P. Ramachandra Iyer, later made a copy of these answers for the ashram records. This copy, which has been preserved by the President of Sri Ramanasramam, contains many interesting additional remarks that are not to be found in the Talks account. (2)
Bhagavan began his testimony by talking about his early life and how he came to Tiruvannamalai. Since he had already seen Perumal Swami's complaint, Bhagavan knew that the court would want him to state whichasrama he belonged to. He therefore began his remarks in the following way:
I am of brahmin birth. When I came to this place I was seventeen years old. My upanayana [the brahmin thread ceremony] had taken place even before I came here. When I came to this place I had been living among people who were in the grihastha asrama. Within an hour of coming to this town I threw away my sacred thread and then had my head shaved. I arrived here with approximately three rupees. I threw away that money also.
In throwing away his thread he renounced his caste and in shaving his head he indicated that he had embarked on a life of physical renunciation without taking the formal step of adopting sannyasa.
After giving a few more details about his early life, he gave three answers that were partially recorded in the dialogue given above:
I remain in atiasrama, that is, not attached to anything in life.
Atiasrama is in the sastras.
I do not know of anyone else who is remaining in this asrama.
These answers were given on 15th November, 1936. A few weeks later, on 5th December, Perumal Swami's lawyer continued his cross-examination. This is the version recorded in Talks:
Question: You spoke of atiasrama the other day. Is there authority for it? Is it mentioned anywhere?
Bhagavan: Yes, in the Upanishads, the Suta Samhita [SkandaPurana], Bhagavata, Bharata and other works.
Q: Are there any restrictions or disciplines for that state?
B: There are characteristics of it mentioned.
Q: There are Gurus for each asrama. Is there a Guru for atiasrama?
B: Yes.
Q: But you do not admit a Guru.
B: There is a Guru for everyone. I admit a Guru for me also.
Q: Who is your Guru?
B: The Self.
Q: For whom?
B: For myself. The Guru may be internal or external. He may reveal himself internally or externally.
Q: Can the atiasrami own property?
B: There is no restriction for them. They may do what they please. Suka is said to have married and begotten children also.
Q: The atiasrami is like a householder in that case.
B: I have already said that he is above the four recognised asramas.
Q: If they can marry, own property etc., they are only grihasthas.
B: That may be your view.
Q: Can they own property and convey the same to others?
B: They may or may not. It depends on their prarabdha [destiny].
Q: Is there any karma for them?
B: Their conduct is not regulated according to rules or codes.(3)
The official court transcript that covers this part of the cross-examination contains a number of significant details that are not recorded in Talks. Only Bhagavan's answers appear in T. P. R.'s copy of the court document, but when these answers are correlated with the answers in Talks, the aim and scope of the questions can easily be inferred. The answers were:
Details about atiasrama are contained in the Suta Samhita.
The injunctions about atiasrama are set out in this work.
If those who are in atiasrama need property, they are entitled to possess it.
For any asrama a Guru is needed.
A Guru is necessary even for those who are in atiasrama.
For me Atma itself is the Guru. My Atma is Guru for my Atma.
I have read in the Puranas that those who followed atiasramaowned property.
These things are described in Suta Samhita, that is to say, in theSkanda Purana.
In atiasrama one can declare, 'This is my property'.
It has been declared that those who are in the state of atiasramacan dispose of their property to other people.
Whether grihastha and atiasrama are the same depends on the view of the man who is looking.
For those who remain in atiasrama, there is no need to performnitya karmas [daily rituals].
The court transcript reveals more clearly than the Talks account that the case was a property dispute and that its resolution hinged on whether or not Bhagavan could own and dispose of property. Bhagavan's claim that he could own property because he was an atiasrami was an unusual one, but he supported his claim by citing the Suta Samhita.(4) The Suta Samhita, which is part of the Skanda Purana, is little read nowadays, but in ancient times it had enormous authority and influence. In an introduction to an edition of this work that Bhagavan kept for reference, the editor notes that there is a tradition that Adi-Sankaracharya read the Suta Samhita eighteen times before he began work on his famous commentaries.
There are four verses in the Siva Mahatmya Khanda, one of the sub-divisions of the Suta Samhita, which back up Bhagavan's claim that one who has realised the Self has transcended all castes and asramasand is therefore not subject to any restriction such as asrama dharmas, the rules that members of each asrama have to abide by.
A person who has attained true knowledge [aparoksha vijnana] with the help of the vedantic vakyas [the four mahavakyas or great sayings of the Upanishads], and who experiences the Atmawhich is full of bliss, is not subject to any restrictions.
For the people who belong to castes, elaborate asrama dharmas[codes of behaviour for each of the stages of life] have been laid down by eminent persons well versed in the sastras. These rules are always compulsory for those people who have a caste and anasrama.
The caste and asrama dharmas do not bind those, either male or female, who have attained clear knowledge of Brahman.
If a person abandons his caste and asrama without realising the inherent knowledge of the Atma, his fall is certain
Although Bhagavan regularly cited the Suta Samhita when he was asked to produce some scriptural authority for the state of atiasrama, it cannot be said that he endorsed the second and fourth of these verses from the Siva Mahatmya Khanda in which it is stated that those who have not realised the Self should adhere at all times to their caste andasrama rules. During the Veda parayana, for example, which was conducted in his presence every day, Bhagavan allowed all visitors and devotees to attend, saying that it was conducive to meditation. This was a flagrant violation of caste rules since traditionally only the higher castes are supposed to listen to such chants. Bhagavan encouraged devotees to break this rule and refused to pay any attention to the complaints of the traditionalists who pointed out that he was deliberately flouting caste andasrama (varnasrama) rules. On one occasion, when a North Indian visitor challenged Bhagavan on this matter, Bhagavan curtly told him to sit down and mind his own business.(5)
In the dining room Bhagavan did not object if brahmins decided to eat with the non-brahmins (a very basic violation of varnasramadharma) so long as it was their custom to do so in other places as well. But if they observed caste eating rules at home, Bhagavan would often insist that they continue to observe such rules in the ashram.(6) Bhagavan did not want the ashram to be used as a platform for visitors who wanted to make political or sociological gestures. His often-repeated phrase, 'Attend to what you came here for,' was frequently directed at visitors who forgot to leave their politics and their opinions at home.
Bhagavan's seat in the dining room, neither in the brahmin nor the non-brahmin sections, was an outer symbolic indication that his realisation had placed him beyond the restrictions of caste and asramarules. In an amusing and instructive incident narrated by Krishna Bhikshu, Bhagavan once stated in the dining room that he was in effect anatiasrama because he no longer had the feeling that he was either a brahmin or a non-brahmin.
During the lifetime of Sri Bhagavan there was a screen across the dining hall separating the brahmins from the others. Bhagavan himself sat against the wall at right angles to both and in view of both. This is important to remember for the incident that follows. This screen implied an interdict on inter-dining between brahmins and non-brahmins. One day a relative of Bhagavan [and therefore a brahmin] demanded to eat among the non-brahmins but the Sarvadhikari [the ashram manager] would not allow it. They were disputing about it when Bhagavan came on the scene and asked what was the matter.
'He says that he has no caste,' the Sarvadhikari told him. 'That all are equal in the presence of Bhagavan and that he is simply a human being and not bound by the shackles of caste, creed, clime or colour.'
'Oh, is that so?' Bhagavan said, looking surprised. 'Then in that case you are wrong to insist that he should eat with the brahmins.'
But then, turning to his cousin, Bhagavan remarked, 'But you too are wrong. These people here feel that they are non-brahmins. You have no caste feeling. So how can you sit among them? There is only one person here who has the feeling of being neither brahmin nor non-brahmin, and that is myself. So,' calling the attendant, 'place a leaf plate for him by my side; let him sit with me.' The young man was shocked by the implication of this proposal and immediately took his place at the brahmin side.(7)
The disagreements about Bhagavan's real views on caste and asramaregulations have probably arisen because Bhagavan himself refused to endorse any of the conflicting views on the subject. In Day by Day, for example, we have the following exchange:
Another visitor asked Bhagavan if it was not necessary that the varnasrama [caste and asrama] difference should go if the nations was to progress.
Bhagavan: 'How can one say whether it is necessary or not necessary? I never say anything on such subjects. People often come and ask me for my opinion of varnasrama. If I say anything they will go at once and publish in the papers, ''So and so is also of such and such an opinion''.' (8)
Although Bhagavan declined to air his views on the subject (assuming of course that he had any!) it is clear from his actions that he often turned a blind eye when devotees violated caste rules, and occasionally he even encouraged them to do so. In an early issue of The Mountain Paththere is a comment by T. K. Sundaresa Iyer that places these attitudes in their proper perspective:
Bhagavan was above formal orthodoxy or unorthodoxy. Whatever he did was orthodox because he did it, since he was higher than Manu and was himself the source of orthodoxy. People who failed to see that were putting the letter above the spirit. (9)
One can extend this line of logic a little further by saying that if devotees took part in an activity, such as listening to the chanting of theVedas, which was sanctioned by Bhagavan, then, since Bhagavan is the source of orthodoxy, such activities become orthodox, rather than a violation of the rules.
Next: Many people tend to think that jnanis are omnipotent
(1) Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 281.
(2) Some of the answers from the court's record were incorporated in an article by Dr T. N. Krishnaswami that was published in The Mountain Path, 1967, pp. 150-151.