GoldenJubilee

Souvenir

Sri RamanasramamTiruvannamalai - 606 603

INDIA

First Edition Published on1st September 1946

1,000 Copies

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BYTHE PUBLISHER

Second Edition Published on17th March 1949

2,500 Copies

Third Edition Published on5th March 1995

3,000 Copies

Printed bySri B. N. Nataraj

Sri Nithyananda PrintersBangalore - 560 050Phone: (080) 626027

CONTENTSDedicatory ...........................................................................9

Preface ...............................................................................11

On This Golden Jubilee DayEthel G. Merston, O.B.E. ..................................................20

Bhagavan Sri Ramana, God-Reality IncarnateSadhu Ekarasa (Dr. G. H. Mees, M.A., Ll.D.) ..........21

Prayer ................................................................................28

Bhagavan Sri Ramana, Sustainer of Spiritual RealityDr. S. Radhakrishnan, M.A., D. Litt., F.B.A. ............29

With Sri Ramana of Arunachala ........................................36

East And West Meet In MaharshiBanning Richardson, M.A., etc., ..............................37

The Gracious Master (Sanskrit and Translation) .................56

The Vedantic Tradition in Sri Ramana MaharshiSri Swami Siddheswarananda (Paris) .........................57

The Incomparable Ramana (Sanskrit with Translation) ......78

Bhagavan Sri Ramana and the Modern AgeB. Sanjiva Rao, B.A. (Cantab), I.E.S., (Retired) ........82

Bhagavan Sri Ramana, the Embodiment of Spiritual PowerDewan Bahadur K. Sundaram Chettiar Retired High Court Judge ............................100

Spirit Of PeaceVeronica Eyton, California .....................................113

Sri Ramana and His Message To Modern ManDr. C. G. Jung, (Zurich) ........................................114

4Hearts Homage To Sri RamanaSadhu Ekarasa (Dr. G.H. Mees, M.A., LL.D.) ........118

A Hymn To Sri Ramana (Sanskrit with Translation)Sri Malladi Suryanarayana Sastri ............................119

Ramana of the Sacred Heart (Sanskrit with Translation) ..120

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (An Acrostic)Sri Swami Rajeswarananda .....................................121

Our Homage to Sri Ramana MaharshiProf. B. L. Atreya, M.A., D. Litt. ............................122

The Tear-Drops in My Eyes, I OfferSadhu Ekarasa (Dr. G.H. Mees, M.A., LL.D.) ........125

Why We Come to Thee Sage Sri RamanaDilip Kumar Roy ...................................................125

My Humble Tribute to Sage Sri RamanaManu Subedar, M.L.A. (Central) ............................126

To Sri Ramana MaharshiDilip Kumar Roy ...................................................137

The Grandeur Of AdvaitaOlivier Lacombe, Lattache Culturel, Consulat General De France, Calcutta.) ........137

A Necklet Of Nine Gems in Praise Of Sri Ramana(Sanskrit with Translation) ......................................143

My Humble and Heart-Felt Homage to Sri Ramana MaharshiWilliam S. Spaulding (Jr.), New York City. .............147

Sri Maharshi, The AlchemistGirdharlal (Shri Aurobindo Ashram) ......................149

My Visit To Maharshi The Greatest Event In My Life .......Grant Duf (Douglas Ainslie.) .................................149

5Sri Ramana-Stava (Sanskrit with Translation)Sri Sundarananda Swami ........................................153

In Praise Of Sri Ramana (Sanskrit with Translation)Mahamahopadhyaya Mahakavi Sri Lakshmana Suri158

Sri Ramana MaharshiSri Dilip Kumar Roy (Shri Aurobindo Ashram) .....159

The Sage of ArunachalaThe Honble Mr. Justice N. Chandrasekhara Aiyar .179

Bhagavan Sri Ramana MaharshiK. S. Venkataramani, M.A., B.L. ............................183

Author Of Paper Boats, Murugan, The Tiller EtcFounder-Editor: The Bharata Mani ......................183

At Sri Bhagavans FeetD. Fuchsberger (Bratislava, Czechoslovakia) ...........187

Sri Arunachala RamanaDuncan Greenlees, M.A. (Oxon.) ..........................187

Liberated Ramana (Sanskrit with Translation)R.V. Krishnamacharya Swami.................................190

A Vision of the Absolute, Reflections After a Day atSri RamanasramamDr. C. Kunhan Raja ...............................................191

The Thrice Marvellous Master, Sri RamanaHarindranath Chattopadhyaya ...............................206

My Experience Of MaharshiRao Saheb Sri K. K. Nambiar, B.E, M.I.E.&c. .......207

Sri Ramana Bhagavan, the Kailasapati At ArunachalaGorkha Dakshina Bahu Sardar Rudra Raj Pande, M.A. (Nepal) ................................................217

6To Maharshi Ramana, The Merciful MasterSadhu Arunachala (Major A.W. Chadwick) ............231

SurrenderSadhu Arunachala (Major A.W. Chadwick) ............233

The Glorious Ramana (Sanskrit with Translation)R.S. Venkatarama Sastri, M.A. ...............................234

Sri Ramana, The Self SupremeK. Swaminathan, B.A. (Oxon.) ...............................235

Maharshi Sri Ramana, the Sage Of Mystic SilenceRai Bahadur Madam Mohan Varma, M.A., ............239

Sri Ramana, Vedic Rishi of Modern AgeDr. Sir Rm. Alagappa Chettiar, M.A., LL.D., D.Litt. ....................................249

Salutations To Sri Ramana (Sanskrit with Translation)Atmavidyabhushanam Sri Jagadiswara Sastri ...........251

To Beloved Bhagavan, the Lord Of LoveEleanor Pauling Noye (California) .........................255

The Sages Activity in InactivityElla Maillart (Switzerland) ......................................255

Bhagavan Sri Ramana, the Sage of Peace, Purity & LoveRajaseva Praveena, T. M. Krishnaswami Aiyar,B.A., B.L., (Retd. Chief Justice, Travancore State.) ..261

To Bhagavan Sri Ramana, the Leonine PowerC.S. Bagi, M.A., Vice Principal,Lingaraj College, Belgaum......................................264

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Light Of LightsDewan Bahadur K. S. Ramaswami Sastri, B.A., B.L.(Retired Cheif Justice, Pudukottah State) ................265

Sri Ramana MaharshiDr. K. C. Varadachari, M.A., Ph.D., (Tirupati) ......289

7To Sri Ramana, the Silence DivineC.S. Bagi, M.A., Belgaum.......................................300

Sri Ramanas Spiritual Philosophy & Modern ThoughtDr. M. H. Syed, M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt. (Allahabad) .301

There Is Nothing. Be!Sadhu Arunachala (Major A.W. Chadwick, O.B.E.) 311

Sri Ramana, the Sage of PeaceSir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, K.C.S.I., etc. ...............319

O Aruna Hill, I Bow To You ............................................326

Bhagavan Sri Ramana, the Typical RishiA.S. Panchapagesa Ayyar, M.A., Bar-At-Law, F.R.S.L. .....................................327

The Message of Bhagavan Sri RamanaSri Swami Rajeswarananda& Dr. T. M. P. Mahadevan, M.A., Ph.D. ................343

What I Saw In Sri BhagavanDuncan Greenlees, M.A., (Oxon) ..........................353

Sri RamanaThe Embodiment of Advaitic TruthSri Swami Madhavtirtha, (Gujarat) .........................367

To Sri BhagavanThe One Reality EternalC.S. Bagi, M.A., Etc. ..............................................382

Bhagavan Sri Ramana MaharshiH. Ghosh, M.A., Holkar College, Indore ...............383

Homage To Sri Ramana (Sanskrit with Translation)M. Ramakrishna Bhat, M.A....................................392

Easy To RememberImpossible To KnowB. S. Bagi, M.A.,(Vice-Principal, Lingaraj College, Belgaum). ..........393

8In Him I Cease To Be ......................................................406

Abhayashtakam (Sanskrit with Translation)Atmavidyabhushanam Sri Jagadiswara Sastri ...........407

Sri Ramana and Our Quest For HappinessB. C. Sengupta, M.A., B.L, Principal(K. C. College, Hetampur, West Bengal.) ...............411

The Sages Message The Need Of Our TimesDr. S. V. Ram, M.A., Ph.D., Head Of The Dept. Of Political Science Lucknow University. .....................................422

Bhagavan Sri Ramana, the White Radiance Of TruthK. Subrahmanyam, M.A., Vivekananda College, Madras. .....................426

The Place Of Bhakti in the Life and Teachings of Sri RamanaM. Govind Pai, B.A. (Manjeshwar).........................430

Victory To Sri RamanaSundarananda Swami & A. Bhakta .........................451

O Bhagavan!Chinta Dikshitulu, B.A., L.T. .................................452

A Lyric To Sri RamanaHarindranath Chattopadhyaya ...............................455

My Pilgrimage to Sri RamanasramamEleanour Pauline Noye (California) ........................457

A Rose-Petal a Day at Thy Blessed FeetMajor A.W. Chadwick, O.B.E. ...............................471

Sri Ramanas Wondrous Grace .........................................473A self-styled devotee

HUMBLY LAID AT THE LOTUS-FEETOF

BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANAS Realisation is unique andunparalleled in the annals of history. He realised in his boyhoodthe Eternal Truth, the Self Supreme, without the aid of initiationby any external Guru, without the need for a theoreticalknowledge or study of the Sastras and Scriptures, and withouthaving resorted to any kind of ritualistic form of worship, naywithout any kind of Sadhana other than his spontaneousrealisation of the eternal nature of the I, the Self Supreme.Half a century has passed since first he sat in the State ofTranscendental Silence at the Hill of the Holy Beacon.

ARUNACHALAM! What did it mean to the boy barelyfifteen years old, when he heard it uttered casually by some relativecoming from Tiruvannamalai? Outwardly and for the time being,there was no change. But inwardly, in his heart of hearts, youngVenkataramana was lit by the spark of devotion, an inwardawakening to the core of his being. Some five months later, hehappened to read the book Periyapuranam. It contains the livesof well known Saivite Saints. One reading of the book wasenough to make him sure that the life of a Saint is the noblestpossible. But the direct urge to BE the Truth Eternal came to himnot from any study of books indeed, apart from Periyapuranamhe did not study with attention any religious book at all till then nor from any external discipline, but as a result of the uniqueexperience of the eternal nature of the Spirit as the I apartfrom and independent of the physical body. He saw death come

PREFACE

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and go, while the I in him remained as the ImmutableAwareness.*

Always indifferent to his studies, this experience madeVenkataramana completely indifferent not only to his studiesbut also to everything in external life. Meditation on theDeathless I came naturally to the young Saint who never feltthe need to curb or control the mind, because it had alreadycome under the sway of the Self Supreme. Still he continued togo to the school for a few weeks more, to what purpose, hedid not know. In fact, he felt the lonely interior of Minakshi-Sundareswara Temple more congenial to his spirit than theboisterous atmosphere of the school and the playground.

Thus passed six weeks. One day at his home in Madura,while apparently engaged in his class-work, he put aside thebooks and sat up in his accustomed attitude of meditation.Observing him doing such things more and more often duringthe past few days, his elder brother took the opportunity toadminister a sharp rebuke to the younger one supinelyindifferent to his studies. He said Why all this (show of studyingin a school etc.) for one who behaves thus? The rebuke wenthome. It acted like an electric shock with an instantaneous effect.The propreity of the remark gave a quick and firm convictionto the younger one that his place was no longer in the home.

* For a verbatim report (as far as it was humanly possible under the peculiarcircumstances in which one had to give an English translation of the impersonalutterances of the Sage in Tamil) of the unique experience of death leading to theimmediate realisation of the deathlessness of the I, and the extraodinarytransformation this experience brought about in the life and outlook of youngVenkataramana, the reader must refer to V Chapter of SELF-REALISATION or theLife and Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.

That house in which young Venkataramana had this transcendental experience ofthe I Eternal, has been acquired recently for Sri Ramanasramam, and is nowmaintained as a place of worship and pilgrimage.

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Arunachala whispers, at the very next moment, his innervoice. That is my Home says Venkataramana to himself. ThereI must go at once. How? He does not know. He bundles up thefew books by his side, saying that he has to attend a special class athis school. Take five rupees from my box and pay my collegefees says the elder brother. Arunachala thus provides the trainfare!After a hasty meal, he turns the pages of an old school atlas to seewhich place on the railway line is the nearest one toTiruvannamalai. Tindivanam, he decides. Three rupees willsuffice; so, out of the five, he leaves two rupees with a small bit ofpaper on which he scribbles a few words to say he is leaving theplace for good. What for? In search of his Father! How else ishe to describe his mission, much more so, his destination, whichhe must not disclose if he is to succeed in his enterprise? As to thenature of this enterprise, he is sure it is a meritorious one.Therefore, why should anyone come in search of him, why wasteones money and energy in undoing a good act? These fewthoughts he expresses in fewer words, and leaves the place at once.It is already late, will he catch the train? That is the lookout ofArunachala. And when he reaches the station, he finds that thetrain is yet to come. He purchases a ticket to Tindivanam, and assoon as the train halts at the platform, he finds himself in acompartment. Young Venkataramana is on his way to Arunachala.

That was on the 29th of August 1896.Who can describe the state of Venkataramanas mind while

the train seemed out of the station? The past, even while it wasthe living present, had little charm for him; and, ever since hehad the death-experience, it became as unreal as the shadow ofa shade. During all his school-boy career he never cared for thefuture, and now he cared for it even less. He knew his Fatherwould take care of the future; because, was it not He that enticedhim from his home? That He did take such care of His son hadbeen repeatedly confirmed by the events that followed his

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decision to leave his Madura home. Another instance was soonto rise. The ticket he had actually purchased would take him toa place (Tindivanam) more than twenty miles away from thedirect route to Tiruvannamalai, and he did not know this, nordid he care to make enquiries of others. Undistracted by anythingthat took place around him and indifferent to the bustle andtalk in the compartment, he sat in silent contemplation ofArunachala. It was in search of his father that he had started onhis pilgrimage, and, from the moment he boarded the train, hebegan the search in right earnest within himself. Observing thesilent unconcern of the young traveller, a loquacious Moulvitravelling in the same compartment was impelled by curiosityto know his destination. Tiruvannamalai said the lad. TheMoulvi gave out that he too was going there, or rather to thestation next to it. Station next to Tiruvannamalai! wonderedVenkataramana. Did the train go in that direction at all? TheMoulvi then told him that he should get down at Villupuramand take the branch line, which his old school atlas did notshow. Surely, Providence was guiding his foot-steps, while hehimself remained indifferent to external life.

The train reached Trichinopoly some time in the evening.But for the hasty meal he took before leaving his home, he had hadno food since noon. Neither had he any relish for it, because ateach succeeding moment he reached new heights of ferventdevotion which consumed his very being. As to sleep at night, hewas already asleep to the outer world during the day-time. Hereached Villupuram at 3 a.m. At sunrise he walked into the townand had a meal in some hotel. When he offered to pay the fewannas he had with him, the hotel-proprietor, who had been watchingwith some admiration the demeanour of the bright-looking youth,declimed to take the charges for the meal. Young Venkataramanacame back to the station, and investing all the cash he had (just twoand half annas) he purchased a ticket to Mamblapattu from which

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Tiruvannamalai was still 32 miles away. On reaching Mambalapattu,the undaunted youth continued his journey on foot and reachedArayani-Nallur late in the evening on the 30th of August, thuscovering a distance of about ten miles.

The nearby temple on a rock attracted his attention. It wasthe temple of Atulyanatheswara, sanctified by Sri Jnanasambandhawho installed the Idol of Sri Arunachaleswara in one of the shrinesthere. It might have been on account of this and other ancientspiritual associations that when the youth, who had set out insearch of his Father, Sri Arunachaleswara, sat in meditation inthat temple, he had the vision of a dazzling light which filled thewhole place. It is an interesting fact to note that the temple ofAtulyanatheswara on the rock is the farthest shrine fromArunachala wherefrom one can see the peak of the Hill of theHoly Beacon. Hence it is also, perhaps, that Venkataramana hadthe vision of celestial light in that temple. Since none werepermitted to stay there for the night, he had to come out alongwith the priest and his party, who after conducting the eveningworship locked the temple doors. Only late at night near thetemple at Kilur could Venkataramana get some food, and fordrinking water he was led to the nearby house of a Sastri.

Next morning (the 31st of August) he was the guest of oneMuttukrishna Bhagavatar and since it was the day of Nativityof Lord Krishna, the lads arrival was considered auspicious. Hehad his first sumptuous meal since he had left Madura, devoutlyserved by the lady in the house, who also gave him a bundle ofsweetmeats intended as offering to Lord Krishna. Venkataramanahad still twenty miles to cover. He knew from the Moulvi thatthe train went up to and beyond Tiruvannamalai, but he hadno money. He had little use for the ruby-set ear-rings he wore.Why not get rid of them and get the trainfare? he thought.Accordingly he pledged the ear-rings and with the money theBhagavatar gave and the packet of sweets he went back to the

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station, where he had to wait till dawn next day to catch thetrain to Tiruvannamalai.

Early in the morning on the 1st of September, 1896, youngVenkataramana came to this holy place of Sri Arunachala. Fromthe station he went direct to the Temple. Strange to say, even atthat early hour all the temple doors, including those of theSanctum Sanctorum were wide open, as it were, for the Fatherto receive His Son immediately the latter reachedTiruvannamalai. Unhindered, unnoticed and unhesitating theyouth ran in and reported himself to his Father thus:

O Lord, obedient to Thy call,Here have I come, deserting all.No boon I ask, no loss bemoan,Take me in and make me Thine own.

That very moment all physical and mental excitementdisappeared, and he felt perfect peace and bliss unalloyed.

From that day to this, from the 1st of September, 1896 tothe 1st of September, 1946, all these fifty years, he has madeArunachala his abode. Having realised the Eternal Truth in histeens, the Truth that transcends time and space, he neverconsidered it necessary for him to leave the place and go aboutspreading his message of inward peace and realisation. This isunprecedented in the history of humanity; and unprecedentedalso is the fact that within the life-time of the Sage his messagehas spread even to such remote parts of the world as the FijiIslands in the East and California in the West.

In commemoration of that day, the 1st of September,1896, on which young Venkataramana reached Arunachala, andin devout and humble recognition of his fifty years oftranscendental life, is published this GOLDEN JUBILEESOUVENIR, being a chorus of tribute from some of hisdevotees, far and near.

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vNde Irm[;eRracayRSy pdam!,yae me=dzRydIz< aNt< XvaNtmtITy.

I Bow to the Lotus-feet of Sage Sri Ramana,the great Teacher, Who revealed to me the LordSupreme in His glory transcending darkness.

I kaVyk{qg[pitmuinivrictm!

A[aclezcr[aMbujySmr[aixFkilvar[ae muin>,zr[agtaitRhr[e=ip di][ae rm[kaiSt k[arsae!

vl>.Glory to Sri Ramana, the Sage, Who firmly

established in devotion to the Lotus-feet ofArunachaleswara, can undo the evil of the worldand the misery of those who take refuge in Him.Glory to Ramana, glowing with merciful love forall!.

I suNdranNdSvaim[Itm! Sundarananda Swami

Sri KavyakanthaGanapati Muni

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This day, just fifty years ago,What did it to the world portend?Who marked it when one slender youthFrom out his home slipped? Did it send

A ripple through the Cosmic MindOf joy that once again a manWas formed who knew his destiny,And would fulfil his Self-Lords plan?

The slender youth, who trudged on foot,For lack of fares, towards his goal,Kept straight, nor looked to right nor leftUntil the happy day His Soul,

His Self, dissolved his minds mirageAnd spread in all-pervadingnessThroughout the world of forms,Absorbing them. How then, address

Him from this world of forms? There is,He says, but one and only way:Seek ME, thy SELF, within the depthsOf thine own heart. And so, one day,

He promise makes, that by His Grace,If effort is made and will is usedTo focus mind on Self alone,Our minds will sink and vanish, fused

With Him, and me, and selves of all.Thus on this Jubilee of HisWe thank Bhagavan, our Lord, our Self,The only I we know that IS.

We thank Him, and are fain to wishHis form may long with us remain,Although we know He is within,The Lord of all, Immortal, One.

Ethel G. Merston.

ON THIS GOLDEN JUBILEE DAY1st September, 1946

(1996-1946)

SRI OM NAMO BHAGAVATE SRI RAMANAYA

BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANAGOD-REALITY INCARNATE

By Sadhu Ekarasa (Dr. G. H. Mees, M.A., LL.D.)

If a man were to do the greatest deed in the world andcome and sit in the presence of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshihe would realize that his deed was as nothing compared to theperpetual Deed of Self-realization of the Sage.

If a man were to write the greatest book in the world andcome and lay it as an offering before the Sage he would realizethat the Sage was a greater Book, which is written from day today, not with the medium of pen and ink and paper, but withoutintermediation, and even without any conscious effort, in theinner being of all who care to come and read it.

The request to contribute an article for this Jubilee Volumehas been received by the writer of this article with mixed feelings.An endeavour to write about the philosophy of Bhagavan SriRamana Maharshi is like painting the lily. It is impossible topresent the Maharshis philosophy in any better and clearer wayor form than he has done himself. There remains thepopularization of his philosophy. But that is like vivisection ofthe lily. A further difficulty is that the philosophy and the life ofSri Ramana Maharshi are inextricably connected. In the case ofother personalities it is always possible to make a distinctionbetween theory and practice, or between spirituality and intellecton the one hand and action on the other hand. With theMaharshi no such distinction exists.

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It is in accordance with the spirit of the time that everyman, thing or event of interest should be written about. TheMaharshi is above the spirit of the time. Long after the spiritof the time will have been succeeded by the spirit of anotherAge, Sri Ramana Maharshi will be remembered as anImmortal. His Immortality stands out from his every wordand look. It lives in the inner heart of all who have had thegreat privilege to come and sit in his presence. It is reflectedonly poorly in the books and articles that have been writtenabout him. How could it be otherwise? No one can trulydescribe God or Truth. Even so, no one can truly describe aSon of God and an embodiment of Truth. The Mounam(mystic Silence) which expresses God-Reality, is the fit way ofdescribing the Sage of Mounam also.

This article, therefore, can never do justice to thegreatness of the Sage. An attempt may be made, however,to say a few things about the uniqueness of the Sage, aboutthe Sage as Guru, and the significance of the presentcelebration.

After having studied the lives and ways of teaching ofSaints and Sages of the world, belonging to various traditionsand various periods of time, it strikes one that Sri Ramanafalls into a class of his own. No oneas far as one knowshasachieved God-Realization merely by hearing a name of Goduttered heedlessly and without any preliminary instruction inphilosophy or theology, without passing any traditionalinitiatory rites, without having a Guru, an inspirer or evenonly an instructor in traditional matters. But Sri Ramanareceived initiation by merely hearing the name ofArunachala, pronounced only for the purpose of conveyinginformation about a journey. Sri Ramana claimed his spiritualheritage without even having been told that there was aheritage to claim. He knew it of his own accord. He went to

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claim it without receiving any directions on his way. He tookit without any formalities.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana acts with regard to those who cometo him for realization, inspiration and instruction, accordingto his own being. As God, the Reality in the innermost Heart,worked and works His ways directly within the heart of thosewho consider themselves or aspire to be his disciples. For thishe needs no mantras, no verses, no ritual or conventionalformalities. For, he is a Guru in the true sense of the word.The word Guru means dispeller of darkness. The Darknesswhich needs dispelling is that of Ignorance of God-Reality.The Light that dispels it is the Light of the Ether,Quintessence, the Eternal Abode, the Natural State. TheMaharshis way is as direct as it is simple. But it is so profoundthat it fails to reach the consciousness of many. For manycome to him for something definite, or, in other words, finite.They desire knowledge, vision, grace, bliss, all kinds ofdirections, and numerous things more in terms belonging toall the languages of India. In the mind of the enquirer orsuppliant these things are mental concepts or thought-forms.He does not understand that they stand in between the trueInitiation into the Mystery of Being and himself. Only if he isable to ignore these concepts and surrender them, as it were,at the feet of the Maharshi, the continously radiating Light ofthe Maharshi will be able to penetrate the Darkness of hisconsciousness. It is often imagined that renunciation at thefeet of the Guru implies renunciation of worldly matters likeworries, family, occupation, sinfulness, and so on. But actuallyit implies renunciation of the mind, or, in other words, of allmental preoccupations, preconceived ideas, prejudices, dogmas,psychical attachments, tendencies and desires. For, thesevarious categories of thoughtforms form the props of theseparate I. Many times it has happened that visitor and

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resident disciples have asked Maharshi to vouchsafe theminitiation, grace, blessings or spiritual experience, and that hereplied, I am always giving it. If you cannot apprehend it,what am I to do? Often, however, the Maharshi, when hesees that a disciple does not respond to his Mounam, comesdown from his supreme level for the purpose of inspiring orinstructing the mind of a disciple by reciting a story, by writingverses or by explaining philosophical questions.1

Dwelling in the Eternal, the Maharshi makes nodistinctions of person, and looks with an equal eye on a learnedscholar and a simple peasant, a Maharaja and a sweeper, an oldman and a young woman, a man and a dog, a householder anda monk. But though Sri Ramana has realized the mysticequality of souls in God-Reality, he knows that in the worldof appearances, which those who have profane outlook considerto be the real world, no such thing as equality exists or canexist. Once a visitor said during a conversation: There shouldbe equality among men. Sri Ramana promptly remarked:Then let them go to sleep; in sleep all are equal.

In contradistinction to other Gurus of a less exalted level,who are inclined to be aware of their spiritual superiority inrelation to others, Sri Ramana Maharshi considers all beings tobe potential Jnanis with God-Reality shining within them, evenif they are not aware of it. Some of his utterances run parallel tothat of the eighth century mystic Hui Neng who said: Theonly difference between a Buddha and an ordinary man is thatone realizes it while the other does not. In one conversationSri Ramana said: Vivekananda asked Sri Ramakrishna: Haveyou seen God? I say: Is there anybody who has not seen God!

1. As a matter of fact, every world the Sage spoke, every line he wrote, he did soonly at the request of some devotee of some devotee or other who sought the Sagespresence for spiritual enlightenment.

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Sri Ramana proclaims that life is full of latent happinessfor those whose lot it is to struggle with the most depressingpropensities to the Samsara, because the Divine Heritage isever there, waiting to be received. God-Reality is ever presentwithin the Heart of all. The act of full surrender of the manof Darkness to the Lord of Light is bound to reveal it as thedawn dispels the darkness of the night. And just as the dawnis not the first dawn, but reveals the eternal light of the sun,the dawn of Self-realization is not a new creation, but theremembering of a lost state of consciousness. It is an enteringinto the ancient heritage.

In this connection Sri Ramana teaches that the Guru livesas the Immortal and Eternal Light within every being. The Pathto that Guru is the Guru in the world of Manifestation. ThePath to the Father is through the Son. To quote the Maharshisown words: One must not look upon the Guru as a person; heis not anything else than the real Self of the disciple. When thatSelf is realized, then there is neither Guru nor disciple.

Knowing the value of the tradition that he should notlook upon the Guru as a person, there is for a disciple yet a verysweet and wonderful element of hope and promise in it to thinkthat Bhagavan Sri Ramana, though a Son of God, is also a sonof human parents like himself. What a world of possibilities forhis own future is suggested by this knowledge! He has heard ofliberated Devas or Angels, but what use is their achievement tohim, for he is not one of them. But a liberated man is anothermatter!

In this light there is a good excuse (for fear of lookingupon the Guru as a person) for celebrating the great event forwhich this book sees the light of day. In this light the coming ofBhagavan Sri Ramana to Arunachala, and his fifty years staythere, assume significance not only for the spiritual children ofthe Maharshi, but for all humanity.

26

Fifty years! From the point of view of the restless worldlymind which delights in movement and change, an unbrokenstay of fifty years in one place seems to be a tremendousachievement. It is indeed unique. But surely Sri Ramana hasnever looked upon it as being in any way remarkable. He hasattained the Great Magnet of the World, the Centre of theHeart, and became as immovable as his Father, Lord Arunachala.How could the piece of iron leave the magnet of its own accord?It has no will of its own.

In a large number of traditional contexts the number 50suggests and symbolizes fullness and perfection, in connectionwith the World of Manifestation. In Hinduism it is found in the50 letters of the Sanskrit Alphabet, the 50 beads of the Varnamalaor Rosary of the Goddess Kali, and the 50 coils of Sakti. in Greek,Hebrew and Arabic traditions the number 50 symbolizes themanifestations of new life in spiritual birth and resurrection. InJewish tradition the number 50 finds expression in the mysteryof Pentecost, the 50th day of spiritual resurrection and joy, andin the Jubilee year, every 50th year, which was one in whichspiritually a new beginning was made in the World ofmanifestation. The very word Jubilee is derived from the Hebrewword Yobel, which is a word for the trumpet calling men toResurrection! The Jewish Jubilee was a commemoration of theOriginal State, the State of Paradise in which man lived as onewith God. Bhagavan Sri Ramana calls that state the Natural State.What has been called by older traditions the Resurrection fromthe Dead is nothing but the return to that Original State ofOneness in which there is no separateness, duality or multiplicity.The Resurrection from the Dead is the same as the attainment ofSelf Realization which is the reattainment of the Natural State.The end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end.

In the light of these old traditions the event that we arecommemorating assumes a special significance for all who are

27

celebrating it. In accordance with the tradition of the JubileeYear the event of fifty years ago is that of the Natural State ofBhagavan Sri Ramana, and the event at which it iscommemorated fifty years later is that of the spiritual renewalof his disciples and admirers, and, in a wider sense, of the world.

It needs high courage to receive Thy callAnd leap responding to Thy silver voice:It needs proud wisdom to give up our allAnd in a self-unprisonment rejoice.

We are in love with our unluminousFlesh-dungeon; we have grown afraid of light.Our fetters have become so dear to usThat we should not exchange them and our night

For freedom and dawn. From age to ageThe spirit has been captive in a cage.Our misery, how shall we break the barsAnd leap into wide heaven once again?How shall we make our weak wings woo the starsAnd rise out of this prisonment of pain?

We ask no mortal boon, we do not seekSuch earthly favours as but laugh for an hour.Master! we do not hunger for unique Distinctionsof fame, of wealth or power.We only beg the mastery to curbDoubt to deep faith, unpublished and superb.

Harindranath Chattopadhyaya

THE MASTERS CALL TO FREEDOM

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saxu va=saxu va kmR y*dacirt< mya,tTsv dyya naw g&ha[araxn< mm.

Kindly accept, O my Lord, whatever action,good or bad, I have done, as my humble adorationof Thee.

jgta< nayk Svaimn! deizk SvaTmnayk,aih aih kpaisNxae pUja< pU[Rtra< k.

Save us, save us, O Lord, O Master, Ocean ofMercy, Protector of all the worlds, Guide of thepure Self; and make this worship of our perfect.

}antae=}anta< vaip yNmyacirt< pura,tv kTyimit }aTva ]mSv rm[ae.

O Lord Ramana, forgive all previous actionsof mine, done consciously or unconsciously, takingthem as Thy own service.

Tpki[RkamXye }anen sh srae,ivz Tv< mhayaeign! svERR g[ESsh.

O Gracious Master, O Great Yogin, enshirineThyself in the centre of the cavity of my Heart-Lotus along with Self-realization and with all thehosts of Thy devotees.

. awRna.PRAYER

ITHE LIVING REALITY

It is somewhat surprising that many students of religionassume that the religious seers, the true representatives ofreligious genius, belong wholly to the past and we to-day haveto live on the memory of the past. If religion is a living truth, ifit has any vitality, it must be capable of producing men whofrom time to time bear witness to the truth and confirm andcorrect from their own experience the religious tradition. Whenthe springs of experience dry up, our love for religion is a mereaffectation, our faith a belief and our behaviour a habit with noreality behind it. In the Indian religious tradition religion hasmeant not an imaginative or intellectual apprehension of Realitybut its embodiment in regenerated living. Religion shouldenergise our consciousness, transform our character and makeus new men. The truly religious are those who have solid holdof the unseen Reality in which we ordinary men merely believe.They are not freaks proclaiming the reality of spirit, which isesoteric and intense. They tell us that they have a directknowledge of the Real of which we have indirect or inferentialknowledge. For them God is an Abiding Fact, a Living Presence,and in the consciousness of this fact their whole existence is

BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANASustainer of Spiritual Reality

ByDr. S. Radhakrishnan, M.A., D. LITT., F.B.A.

(Vice-Chancellor, Benares Hindu University)

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transformed. These artists of the inner life are of different types.Some are full of poetry and music; others are vigorous men ofaction; still others are solitary souls. Despite these differencesthey walk the same road, speak the same language of the souland belong to the same family.

The Indian tradition has been kept alive by seers who wereborn in every age and incarnated the great ideal. We have suchGod-engrossed souls even to-day. It is our good fortune that wehave with us to-day a living embodiment of God-centered life,a perfect image of the life divine in the mirror of humanexistence. Sri Ramana Maharshi is not a scholar; he has noerudition, but he has wisdom that comes from direct experienceof Reality, the wisdom we acquire through the discipline, not ofintellect but of ones nature, through chastity, poverty andobedience. The possession of this wisdom yields the fruits ofspirit, love and purity, courage and humility, courtesy andholiness.

II

HIS SPONTANEOUS REALISATION

Sri Ramana was born on the 30th December, 1879, witha latent disposition to religion. He was no good at studies becausehis heart was elsewhere. His reading of Periapuranam with itsaccount of the selfless devotion of bhaktas made a deepimpression on his devout nature. The change which took himaway from worldly pursuits is thus described in his own words:It was six weeks before I left Madura for good that the greatchange in my life took place. It was so sudden. One day I sat upalone on the first floor of my uncles house. I was in my usualgood health. But a sudden and unmistakable fear of death seizedme. I felt I was going to die, and at once set about thinking

31

what I should do. I did not care to consult anyone, be he adoctor, elder or friend. I felt I had to solve the problem myselfthen and there. The shock of the fear of death made me at onceintrospective or introverted. I said to myself mentally, i.e.without uttering the words, Now death is come, what does itmean? Who is it that is dying? This body dies. I at oncedramatized the situation. I extended my limbs and held themrigid, as though rigor-mortis (death-stiffening) had set in. Iimitated a corpse to lend an air of reality to my furtherinvestigation. I held my breath and kept my mouth closed,pressing the lips tightly together, so that no sound could escape.Well then, said I to myself, This body is dead. It will be carriedstiff to the crematory and there burnt and reduced to ashes. Butwith the death of my body am I dead? Is the body I? Thisbody is silent and inert. But I am still aware of the full force ofmy personality and even of the sound of I within myself, asapart from the body. So I am a Spirit transcending the body.The material body dies, but the Spirit transcending it cannotbe touched by death. I am, therefore, the deathless Spirit. Allthis was not a feat of intellectual gymnastics, but came as a flashbefore me vividly as living TRUTH, something which Iperceived immediately, without any argument almost. I wassomething very real, the only real thing in that state, and all theconscious activity that was connected with my body was centredon that. The I or myself was holding the focus of attentionwith a powerful fascination. Fear of death vanished at once andforever. The absorption in the Self has continued from that momentright up to now. 1

Growing absorption in spiritual matters made Sri Ramanaindifferent to his studies. When rebuked, he left his home onSaturday, the 29th of August, 1896, leaving a note behind. I

1. The Sage of Arunagiri (1945) pp.8 and 9.

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have in search of my Father, according to His command, startedfrom this place. On a virtuous enterprise indeed has thisembarked. Therefore, for this act none need grieve nor to tracethis out need money be spent. Thus under a sense of DivineCommand he left Madura, and, after some trouble, reachedTiruvannamalai on the 1st of September.

When he visited the temple he fell into a trance. In suchconditions a sense of oneness with the Ultimate Reality isproduced. Sri Ramana renounced the world and became anAvadhuta which is a compound word of four letters A-va-dhu-ta. The first stands for Aksharatva or imperishability; the secondfor Varenyatva or the summit of perfection; the third for thedestruction of the bounds which implicate us in the temporalprocess, and the last for the realisation of the truths conveyedby the great passage, That art thou.1 To attain such a conditionof harmonising consciousness has been the aim of religious men.If we lose ourselves in the hopes and desires, in the fears andcravings, which wax and wane with the accidents of the outerworld, if we yield to the chance allurements of time and space,we will lose our soul. Doubt which comes to us from outside isinsignificant as compared with the doubt that corrodes fromwithin. The true evil is not death of the body, but the failure ofones nature, the death of faith in the Ultimate Reality.

III

SPIRITUAL VALUE OF THE SAGES PRESENCE

In this thought, Sri Ramana adopts the metaphysical positionof Advaita Vedanta. He speaks to us of the Divine which is thepure subject from which all objectivity is excluded. The I is

1. A]rvad vre{yTvad xUts

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different from the me. The Self is not the body which perishes,not the senses which suffer the same fate as the body, not life, mindor intellect. It is the pure Spectator, the Sakshin, which is the samein all. We get to realise it not by metaphysical theorising but byspiritual discipline. Reality impinges on the unreality of life and todiscover reality, absolute concentration and consecration areessential. We have to still our desires, steady our impulses, tread theethical path. We cannot see so long as our vision is engrossed inouter forms, but those who turn their gaze inwards behold it. Noone can see properly so long as he remains divided and disintegratedin his consciousness. We must become inwardly whole and free.We cannot acquire this wholeness or integrity if we do not rootout our selfish impulses. We cannot know truly or act rightly solong as we are too afraid, too indolent or too self-centred. To seethe Real and not merely the things of the world, the eye must beinverted.1 God is within us.2 Not comfort but control is happiness.If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, says Jesus.Dedication to God means denial of the ego. We must empty theself in the abyss of God. This process is helped by the practice ofunselfish service (Nishkama Karma), devotion (Bhakti), mind-control (Yoga), and inquiry (Vichara). Inquiry into self, religiousworship, ethical service are means to this realisation. The end of allworship, puja, japa, dhyana, is communion with God. Withincreasing intensity in our devotion, the distance between the humanand the Divine diminishes. Indian thought believes in four stagesof God-realisationsalokya, where God and the worhsipper dwell inthe same world, samipya, where the devotee is near the Divine,sarupya, where the devotee assimilates more and more the formsand attributes of the Divine, and sayujya, where the devotee isunited to the Divine.

1. Aav&c]u>2. AaTmEv devta> svaR> sv AaTm-yvaiSwtm!,

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When one discovers the Divine within oneself, one mustdiscover it also in the outer world of men and things. Whilethe heights within are revealed to those who strenuously excludeall that lies without, the process of seeing all in the fullness ofthe Divine is more arduous. God is both eternal silence andperpetual activity, the unmoved witness and the ground of allthat is, the metaphysical Absolute and the personal Lord. TheDivine reveals itself anew in all life and existence. Nothingon earth is excluded from the Divine Consciousness. TheDivine is the life which gives birth to us all and is farther thanour farthest thought. Sri Ramana dwells not only in a worldof pure subjectivity but has also a sense of the Infinite that isin all. As he has eliminated his selfish ego he becomes theVoice of the whole, the Conscience of all that is. As he has noselfish desires and no sense of agency, he enters into the world-movement and carries out the functions expected of him bythat Universal Spirit. Honour and dishonour, praise and blame,do not move him. Actions are not subject to the necessity ofnature but are centred in the freedom of the Divine.

It is a false assumption to hold that the spiritually stronghave no patience with human weakness. They are not insensitiveto human sorrow. The rishis are revealers of Reality, which isall-bliss. They do not keep their discoveries to themselves. Theyhave a social significance. By getting into their company, we,ordinary people, realise the actuality of the world of spirit andcatch something of their fire. The great of spirit are ministeringangels who assist, protect and help those who are in need.Association with the holy people produces detachment fromfruits of action. Such detachment leads to desirelessness; fromdesirelessness arises stability of mind; Liberation in life is then

1. sTs

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achieved.1 The Upanishad asks the aspirant for spiritual life toapproach, fuel in hand, a teacher versed in scripture, steady inhis realisation of the Supreme.2 The teachers shows the path.His very presence radiates peace and joy. He refashions the soulsof those who look to him for help. With keen psychologicalinsight he understands the needs of those who approach himand satisfies them. Like all saints, he has the foundation in God;his surface is intertwined with everything that exists. He lovesall beings as he loves himself and cannot rest until everyonemirrors the Divine in his life.

The saints are the sustainers of society. Philo remarks:Households, cities, countries and nations have enjoyed greathappiness, when a single individual has taken heed of the goodand beautiful. Such men not only liberate themselves; they fillthose they meet with a free mind. The true sages possess theinner joy and peace which are independent of outercircumstances. Their happiness is not dependent on outer things.They have passed beyond the forms of social life. Theirrenunciation is spontaneous and does not involve any idea ofsacrifice. They work for the fulfilment of the Divine in theworld, for the good of all beings, for the fulfilment of the Purpose.They are one in consciousness and action with the Divine.

To suggest that the spiritual souls are expected to abstainfrom action in the world is incorrect. The opportunities whichthe world offers are to be used for self-development. Life is agame where we should act our parts. We are all cast for differentroles, and our business is to play them in the right spirit. Wemay lose the game but we should not mind it. It is the play thatmatters and not the score we make.

2. Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.12.

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IV

REALITY TO BE SOUGHT

If the world is to be saved, it can only be by the intrusionof another world into it, a world of higher truth and greaterreality than that which is now submerged by the overwhelmingdiscords and sufferings of the present time. Our failure to developcontact with this world of Reality is the cause of our malady.Men like SRI RAMANA recall us to that larger dimension ofReality to which we really belong, though we are generallyunaware of it.

WITH SRI RAMANA OF ARUNACHALA

Ive wandered far: yes I have been

From land to land to land:

Sages Ive seen, great king and queen,

The lowly, wise and grand.

But only there, at the Asramam

By Arunachalam,

Have I known that joy without alloy,

I am! I am! I am!

Grant Duff.(Douglas Ainslie.)

Can you imagine being influenced more greatly by a manyou have never spoken to than by any other man you have evermet? I am not referring merely to ideas or representation ofpersonality, as may be the case for instance with Jesus Christ andsincere Christians, or Krishna, Vishnu or Shiva amongst differentsects of Hindus, or of Mohamed vis-a-vis the majority ofMussalmans. It is possible, no doubt, to have a direct spiritual orpsychic experience of such personalities which will completelyalter ones life. For instance, the story of St. Paul is typical; butwhat we are concerned with here is ones experience of men inthe flesh.

Have you, then, ever been with a man almost constantly,during the daytime, for three days and never spoken to himbecause speech seemed superfluous; and yet have gone awaywith his image imprinted more firmly in your heart and mindthan those of persons you have known intimately for manyyears?

Had anyone asked me a similar question ten years ago, Ishould have doubted his sincerity, or I should have consideredthat the enthusiasm of a disciple was leading to poeticexaggeration. And yet, nine years ago, I had just such anexperience, and the spiritual influence of him who impressedme so deeply has increased with the passing years, though Ihave communicated with him rarely, and then only by letter;

EAST AND WESTMEET IN MAHARSHI

ByBanning Richardson, M.A., (Hons.) (Cantab), A.B. (Princeton)

38

and I have scarcely read his published works, because I felt noneed to do so.

Members of my fathers family have been wanderersfor many generations, as is the case with so many Scotsmen;so it is small wonder that I was born in England and educated,except for final years at Cambridge, in Canada and the UnitedStates. When I had just graduated from Princeton UniversityI was introduced to the first Indian I had ever met. He wasDhan Gopal Mukerji, author of that moving book MyBrothers Face. A Cambridge graduate himself, he had beenliving in America for many years. He was a master at theDalton School in New York; but I called on him at hissummer home in one of the beautiful river-valleys ofnorthern Connecticut. Ever since the age of nine or ten Ihad been deeply interested in religion, and during the yearsjust preceding our meeting, I was more and more drawn tobooks on occultism and mysticism; so when he said thatduring one of my vacations from Cambridge I should fly toIndia and visit some of the centres of spiritual teaching inthe Himalayas, I took the suggestion quite naturally and saidI would try to do so. Therefore, when, through a series ofaccidents I was asked to come to India for two and a halfyears to lecture on English literature at St. Stephens College,Delhi, I accepted immediately, as I had had no chance tocarry out Dhan Gopals suggestion while up at Cambridge.

Before sailing for India I returned to spend the summerin Canada and the United States. In America there is a pleasantcustom that when a friend or relation sails abroad, one giveshim a book or two to read on the voyage. Among the books Iwas given in New York when I sailed for India was one frommy godmother, a Roman Catholic by birth, and perhaps bybelief, in a vague sort of way. It was A Search in Secret India byPaul Brunton.

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The angels and spiritual guides who help us to fulfilour destinies must often chortle with a delight at the ironiesthey are instrumental in bringing about in human affairs.What could be more ironic than a Roman Catholicgodmother of a devout Protestant, going out to teach in aCambridge Mission college in India, giving him a bookwhich effected the first big step in turning him, first, fromorthodox Christianity to an heretical form, and, finally, tothe Religion of Self-Realization, if it can be so calledwithout doing it violence?

During the subsequent two years, up to the time of mymarriage, I was soaked in Christian atmosphere. I lived in achummery at St. Stephens College with four otherEnglishmen, of whom one was a parson, two had beentheological students, and the fourth was a convert toQuakerism, and so a student of Christian mysticism. Imention this fact only to show that when, twenty monthsafter arriving in India, I paid my first visit to SriRamanasramam, I had been virtually a theological studentfor the previous year and a half. However, though this tendedto make me see Sri Ramana Maharshi through Christian eyes,it also helped greatly towards my theoretical and practicalknowledge of religion, and made me more sensitive to andappreciative of mystical experience.

The India of fakirs, rope tricks and tigers had appealedto me in childhood, but as I grew up it was mystic India thatmade an appeal. Through my mother I had come into touchwith spiritualism of the finest type, and the teaching that Ireceived from spiritual Masters pointed eastwards, andspecially towards India. Books like the Life and Teaching ofthe Masters of the Far East, by Baird T. Spalding, wererecommended to me, and these developed in me the longingto sit at the feet of a great Indian sage. Therefore, when I

40

read A Search In Secret India on the ship, I was ravished byBruntons description of the Sage of Tiruvannamalai; andinspite of my orthodox Christian religion I determined toseek out this great teacher at the earliest possible date.

* * *

The opportunity came in May, 1937. I had been invitedto attend an inter-religious students conference at Alwaye, inTravancore, and I travelled south from Delhi during the Eastervacation, my head bursting with questions to ask Sri Maharshi.But the questions were never asked; though they have beenanswered, one by one, during the intervening years, by myReal Self. The reason the questions were never asked was thatwhen I was in the presence of the Master I was so filled with joyand peace that the desire to ask questions disappeared. Thishappened throughout the brief three days I stayed at SriRamanasramam, though admittedly a violent reaction tookplace immediately after I left.

II

It has been my fate that I should meet and know greatand famous men and women from all parts of the world,including saints like Sri Bhagavan Maharshi and MahatmaGandhi, religious leaders like the late Archbishop Temple ofCanterbury, Presidents of the United States, Ministers andPrime Ministers of Great Britain, France and other countries,great musicians like Toscanini, Chaliapin and Egon Petri,scientists like Fritz Haber and Lord Rutherford, and manyothers. In such circumstances one undergoes a process ofclarification of values and of realization of human failings. Ihave often been profoundly shocked by the pettiness andlack of spiritual understanding of some of these great men.

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The consequence is that one comes slowly to realize thatonly a saint can match ones idealization of human thoughtand conduct. So when one comes into the presence of aman who is good not merely because he shuns evil, butbecause his love is universal and falls alike on the just andthe unjust, then one experiences immediate recognition of asoul that is not great as the World values greatness, but greatwhen compared to an absolute standard of valuesa preciousstone, an emerald without flaw. It is a difference not merelyof quality, but of kind.

I have never been long enough with Gandhiji to saywhether my impression of his spirit is equally exalted, but inthe presence of Sri Bhagavan Maharshi I felt an inward joywhich suffused my consciousness and made thinking seemsuperfluous. One communes with the Divine; thought is usefulonly later when one seeks to analyze and understand thecommunion, and even then its value is much over-rated. It isover-rated because, more often than not, it leads one away fromones super-conscious apprehension of Being into a whirlpoolof egoism disguised as reality.

Such an experience was mine when I left Tiruvannamalai.So strong was my egoistic desire to explain all spiritual mattersin orthodox Christian terms, that, no sooner had I read that SriBhagavan had as a boy attended a mission school, than I insistedon explaining away his teaching as a mere adaptation of Christsteaching. I realize now how near I was to the truthtruth whichwould have revealed itself to me then had I felt the need ofdiscarding my pride in favour of humility.

It is of course true that Sri Bhagavan teaches what Jesusthe Christ taught. sTym! is @km! and He who taught 2000years ago that I am in my Father, and my Father is in me. I andmy Father are one, said in fact the same as He who teachestoday in Tiruvannamalai.

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See thyself and see the LordThat is the revealed word,and hard is its sense indeed,For the seeing Self is not to be seen,How then is the Sight of the Lord?To be food unto Him, that indeed is to see Him.

Only, their audiences were different, with different religioustraditions and at different levels of understanding. Had Christsaid See thyself and see the Lord, he would have beenimmediately attacked, even by moderate Jews for blasphemy ofthe worst type. Indeed, he was attacked when he went no fartherthan saying, I and my Father are one. But his very moderationhas led to later misinterpretation of his message as meaningI alone am and will be the incarnation of God.

III

Two main criticisms are levelled by Westerners against thetradition that has produced Sri Maharshi. The first is that of thematerialist and some Christians, and takes the form of acondemnation of what may be called the Sadhu or Sannyasintradition. The second is specifically Christian and asserts thatlack of the doctrine of Grace vitiates Hindu teaching.

The first argument is scarcely worth refuting, were it notfor the fact that it is so widespread, specially in England andNorth America, and till it is effectively controverted, there issmall chance of the West awakening to an understanding ofspiritual values. Taken in its crudest form it simply means thatunless one is doing something of utilitarian value he is a traitorto the service of humanity; and Christians underline thisargument by pointing to the active workhealing andpreachingwhich Christ carried on, as opposed to the passive

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attitude of Indian mystics, the majority of whom seemindifferent to the world. This argument is on a part with theWestern saying, Those who can, do; those who cant teach.In other words, those who have the ability to succeed in theworld, do so; those who cant, turn to teaching as a profession.Unfortunately this is to some extent true, in India as well asin Western countries. But, in the West it is connected with autilitarian philosophy of life which has led to Nazism andCommunism on the one hand, and to the self- indulgent,luxury-worshipping democracies on the other. Activity is thebasis of all life, but modern civilization has taken one particularform of activitywhat may be called the intellectual-physical,and made it the only recognized form of activity, thusneglecting the spiritual basis of the civilization on which it isfounded. This has been a gradual and cumulative process whichstarted in the Middle Ages when the so- called re-discovery ofGreek culture resulted in the raising of Aristotle to a positionof intellectual dominance.

Aristotle may be termed the first scientist of Westerncivilization. His conception of spirit was, like that of thenineteenth century evolutionists, that of an attribute whichemerges out of the primeval slime. So, when medieval Europeanscholars turned away from the truly spiritual tradition of Platoand his Alexandrian follower Plotinus to the scientific butfundamentally anti-spiritual Aristotle, they sacrificed the basisof their civilization along with a great deal of obscurantismwhich admittedly had to go.

With the coming of the Renaissance the next inevitablestep was taken,science was separated from religion, whichmeant that it became its own master, uncontrolled byspiritual direction. Finally, in the eighteenth century, whichmay be said to be the last peak of Christian civilization,religion was separated from philosophy and the devastation

44

was complete.The truly spiritual life became completely alien to the main

stream of civilization. Intellect, applied to the solution ofmaterial problems, reigned supreme. Marx and Engels,Schopenhauer, Neitzsche, Spencer, Huxley, Emerson, H. G.Wells and George Bernard Shaw are the prophets of this age ofdoom. Mans material condition has been raised to the positionof a god, and there is no limit to the greed for higher standardsof living, even after poverty has been abolished. There could beonly one logical outcome to such a false-based civilizationself-destruction; and the atom bomb is the instrument of suicide.

This is the civilization, these are the men that condemn theIndian quietist tradition, who would point to Sri Bhagavan asinactive. as doing less for mankind than Christ. But, accordingto such standards, the artisan should be considered the highest typeof man. The carpenter and the blacksmith do more for mankindthan the teacher and the priest. And indeed we find this is becomingthe case more and more. Now-a-days, in England, France andAmerica, the factory workers are being paid more than theprofessional classes. By such a standard certainly Sri Bhagavan is tobe considered not of much value. But such a standard, as I havetried to show, is based on a completely false view of life, which is asanti-Christ as it is anti-Sri Maharshi. By their fruits ye shall knowthem, cannot be taken to mean by the material goods theyproduce, but ratherby their thoughts and actions we shall knowtheir true nature. And the thoughts of Sri Bhagavan have now inhis own lifetime girdled the world and set men thinking againabout the real meaning of life. This is his form of service to mankind.Such truly creative activity dwarfs the feverish rush of lesser menwho dare to criticize Sri Ramanas inactivity.

A disciple once asked Sri Bhagavan why he didnt go aboutand preach the truth to the people at large. He answered,

How do you know I am not doing it? Does

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preaching consist in mounting a platformand haranguing the people around? Teachingis simple communication of knowledge; itcan really be done in silence only. What doyou think of a man who listens to a sermonfor an hour and goes away without havingbeen impressed by it so as to change his life?Compare him with another, who sits in a holypresence and goes away after some time withhis outlook on life totally changed. Which isthe better, to preach loudly without effect orto sit silently sending out Inner Force?

Again, how does speech arise? There is abstractknowledge, whence arises the ego, which inturn gives rise to thought, and thought tothe spoken word. So the word is the greatgrandson of the original source. If the wordcan produce effect, judge for yourself howmuch more powerful must be the preachingthrough silence. But people do notunderstand this simple, bare truth, the truthof their everyday, ever present eternalexperience. This truth is that of the Self. Isthere anyone unaware of the Self? But theydo not like even to hear of this truth, whereasthey are eager to know what lies beyond,about heaven, hell and re-incarnation.......1

Again, he was asked, Does my realization help others?And he answered:

Yes, and it is the best help that you can possiblyrender to others. Those who have discovered

1. Maharshis Gospel, I. pp. 16-17

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great truths have done so in the still depthsof the Self. But really there are no others tobe helped. For the Realized Being sees onlythe Self, just as the goldsmith sees only thegold while valuing it in various jewels madeof gold. When you identify yourself with thebody, name and form are there. But whenyou transcend the body-consciousness, theothers also disappear. The Realized One doesnot see the world as different from Himself.

The disciple then asked, Would it not be better ifthe saints mix with others? And quick thereply came, There are no others to mix with.The Self is the only reality...... Your duty isTO BE and not to be this or that. I AMTHAT I AM sums up the whole truth; themethod is summarised in BE STILL. 1

IV

With regard to the criticism that saints in the Hindutradition, like Bhagavan Sri Maharshi, dont do physical healing,nor has any of them risen from the dead like Jesus the Christ,one can only say this: Jesus was certainly an exceptionally greatspirit or, possibly, the greatest known to mankind. He wantedto make men realize that God was not the fierce God of theOld Testament Hebrews, but a living, merciful God. Secondly,He, like Sri Maharshi, wanted men to realize that the Kingdomof God lay within them and that if they would look within theywould be given unlimited power to help their fellowmen. The

1. Maharshis Gospel, I. pp. 36-47

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most striking means of such power was to be the healing of thesick; but He made it clear that those who had faith in Him (i.e.,in the truth of what He said and did, and of His divine nature)were to be given this gift only as a means of making men realizethat the real world lies behind the barrier of the flesh and thatmen must remould their lives and their philosophy of life ifthey would enter into this world.

In other words, Christ used healing as a sign of hope andof the reality of the Spiritual Kingdom. To say that all otherspiritual teachers must use the same method is, to say the least,narrow minded.

As for the resurrection of Jesus, an impartial study ofthe evidence suggests that it did take place. My belief isthat no sincere Hindu would find any difficulty in acceptingit, for it fits in with his tradition of divine beings assumingbodily form when necessary and convenient. Whether ornot we accept the Christian teaching that Jesus ChristsResurrection is the only one known to history, we mustadmit that it is the only one backed by considerablehistorical evidence. However, that its apparent uniquenes,therefore, affirms the unique nature of Jesus Christ doesnot necessarily follow.

Again, we must look at Christs intention in theResurrection. The Gospels are filled with prophecies of theResurrection, and their intention in this matter is clear, whenJesus says, Neither will they be persuaded, though one rosefrom the dead. (Luke, XVI, 31), as well as from otherpassages. The intention is, then, (i) to show finally andpositively that death has no reality, and (ii) that Jesus is theChrist, the Messiah whom the Old Testament Hebrewprophets had promised.

A very powerful Jewish sect, the Sadducees, at the timeof Christ denied the doctrine of the resurrection of the

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dead, and the existence of spirits. To disprove theirarguments once and for all, as well as to ensure thatmankind, or a part of it at least, should be turned from theworship of false ideas of God to a realization of the God ofLove in their own hearts, Christ had to resurrect his physicalbody. It was a particular act to meet a particular need. I amnot arguing that others have done or could do the same,but I would point out the logical fallacy of the opposite,the orthodox Christian argument, that therefore Jesus Christis proved to be not only an incarnation of God, but theonly incarnation of God.

This is not the place to go into this argument in detail, butone may point out that the conception of God is involved in it.I can find no fundamental difference between Jesus Christsconception of God and Bhagavan Sri Maharshis, but I find avery great difference between Christs conception and that ofthe Christian Church, in which the Jehovah of the OldTestament is inextricably confused with the Inner Spirit, who iswithin every man, of the New Testament.

V

Finally with regard to the doctrine of grace, Christiancriticism of Hindu theology asserts that Hinduism advocatespulling oneself up by ones own bootstraps without assistancefrom the love of God. Such a statement is, in my opinion,unfair; but let us look at one of Christs teachingsFor whosoeverhath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance;but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away eventhat he hath. (Matthew, XIII, 12). In other words, Inaccordance with each mans own efforts for spiritualenlightenment shall he be given assistance by God; and thosewho make no effort shall lose even what spiritual understanding

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they had. Surely this means that Divine Grace is dependenton effort; and what true Hindu, whether Shaivite or Vaishnavite,would deny such a teaching?

However, we are not concerned with a defence of orthodoxHinduism; in many respects it is farther from the truth thanorthodox Christianity. But Bhagavan Sri Maharshi answers thisriddle of self-help and grace in final fashion, in my view. In Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi we find:

Disciple: Then I can dispense with outside help and bymine own effort get into the deeper truth by myself?

Maharshi: True. But the very fact you are possessed of thequest of the Self is a manifestation of the Divine Grace, Itis effulgent in the Heart, the inner being, the Real Self. It drawsyou from within. You have to attempt to get in from without.Your attempt is Vichara, the deep inner movement is Grace,That is why I say there is no real Vichara without Grace, nor isthere Grace active for him who is without Vichara. Both arenecessary.

And there are several other similar examples in the samework and elsewhere in the Maharshis writings.

VI

To remove the blinkers from mens eyes, to take away theirspiritual crutches is a great, though painful, task. Men generallyare unwilling to surrender their long-cherished illusions, whetherbased on nineteenth century materialismstill so widespread and,indeed, spreading in Indiaor on orthodox religion. It is painfuland lonely to be told that you must strip your soul naked anddepend only on yourself and the divine inner Gracewhich Christcalled the Holy Ghostif you seek spiritual liberation; that noamount of prayers or saying credo can take the place of thislone pilgrimage.

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Most men are unwilling to make, or rarely feel the needof making such a search. To them one can only say Depart inpeace. For such persons it is useless to visit Sri Maharshis ashramfor darshan, in the hope that this in itself will liberate one. Thatis only a beginning, an inspirationthe long, stony path lies ahead.

It is a tenet of Hinduism that all spiritual paths lead tothe same goal. In a broad sense this is true, but also it hidesthe truth. For if one has followed one religion or another,one yoga or another, one has still in the end to go throughthe process of self-analysis, of inner search and surrenderwhich is best described in our time by Sri Maharshi. In otherwords, the goal is not a goal but a path. When one haslearnt everything that one can from ones inherited oracquired religion or spiritual discipline, he has to take thisprized possession and cast it to one sidethe most painful ofactsand, starting afresh, follow the simple, scientific methodthat the Saint of Arunachala teaches us.

VII

I have said that this saint is the greatest contemporaryexponent of this age-old teaching. This is as true for the scientific-minded Western as it is for the Easterner. Elsewhere in this volumeDr. Jung, who is unquestionably the doyen of psychoanalysts,writes The identification of the Self with God will strike theEuropean as shocking. It is a specially oriental Realization, asexpressed in Sri Ramanas utterances. No doubt suchidentification is shocking to the Western Christian or otherorthodox religionist, but as I have implied, it is consonant withChrists teachings, if they are approached afresh without prejudice.

If one examines the New Testament carefully one findsthat Christ is trying to convince a fanatically monotheisticpeopleas monotheistic as the Muslims are today that God

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could inhabit human form for a special purpose, and thatthe nature of God was not something different from mansbut that one could see the image of God in a perfect man.And He proclaimed himself to be a perfect being who hadpresided over human destiny since the world began. This initself was an overwhelming dose for the orthodox Jew toswallow. One would not therefore expect that Christ wouldgo on farther and show that this Perfect Being is latent inevery man, because God is in every man. But in fact he doessay this by implication, and sometimes directly, throughouthis teaching. Take for instance The Kingdom of Godcometh not with observation; Neither shall they say, Lo here!or lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.(Luke, XVII, 20 and 21.)1 In other words His first lessonwas, Heaven is within you and it is a spiritual state, not amaterial place.

Having made this clear, He goes on to say, Be ye thereforeperfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.(Matthew, V, 48). Thus He was saying in factGod dwells withinyou; you can become perfect like Him. This was revolutionaryteaching, and its full implications are only understood if onecomes into touch with the teachings of a Ramakrishna or a SriMaharshi.

But Christ went even farther than this. In verses 33-36of the tenth chapter of St. Johns Gospel we readJesusanswered them (the Jews), Is it not written in your law, Isaid, Ye are Gods.

If he called them gods, unto whom the word of Godcame, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whomthe Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world. Thoublasphemest; because I said, I am the son of God.

The Authorized Version of the Bible is used in these quotations.

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So we might ask today, Do you accuse Sri Maharshi ofblasphemy for saying that the True Man within us is God; whenChrist was executed on the same charge by part of the Jews2,000 years ago? Just because the Church has petrified Histeaching, as Judaism before His time had petrified the teachingof the prophets, do you expect those who feel God stirring withinthem to join the mob who cry Blasphemy?

And to pursue this arguement a little farther in order toreveal the basic similarity of Jesus Christs and BhagavanMaharshis teachings, one remembers that Christ answered therich, young man who came to Him and asked, Good Master,what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life, by saying Whycallest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.(Mark, X, 18,). This, taken with the questions alreadymentioned, clearly shows that He believed that God was in allmen and that all men could attain the perfection that He, Christ,Himself revealed, through following His path - i.e. activelyloving God and ones fellowmen and knowing that the Kingdomof Heaven is within each one of us.

Finally, this view is reinforced by, For it is not ye thatspeak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you(Matthew, X, 20). Could anything be clearer than this - thatChrist wanted men to realize, as does Sri Maharshi, that Godis not something apart from men to be worshipped and fearedat a distance, but the only true reality in each man; and thatmans work is to discard the false, imaginary ego which hehas allowed to deceive him and so to separate him from histrue Self, which is God. If that is blasphemy, then let usacknowledge ourselves, as Christ and His followersacknowledged themselves, to be blasphemers in the eyes ofthe world; for that way lies salvation.

gve;[aTaPy dNtr< tTptedhNta piruzI;aR,AwamNyTS)rit k< nah'kitStTprmev pU[Rm!.

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On reaching the interior of the Heart through search,The ego bows its head and falls.Then shines forth the other I, the Self Supreme,Which is not the ego, but verily the Perfect and

Transcendental Being.1

But in addition to being in the true line of spiritual teaching- the line that extends back to Gautama the Buddha and SriMahavir, the tenth and greatest Tirthankar of the Jains, in onebranch; and to Mohammed, Plotinus, Christ, Plato, Socrates,Pythagoras and Zoroaster in anotherI believe Sri Maharshi tobe the greatest living interpreter, and indeed, in a sense thefulfilment of modern psychology and psycho-analysis and thattherefore he must be taken seriously even by Western or Easternmaterialists.

Dr. Jung recognizes this when he says, The wisdom andmysticism of the East have, therefore, a very great deal to tellus, provided they speak in their own inimitable speech.... Thelife and teachings of Sri Ramana are not only important for theIndian but also for the Westerner. Not only do they form arecord of great human interest, but also a warning message to ahumanity which threatens to lose itself in the chaos of itsunconsciousness and lack of self-control.

These words were written some time ago. How terrifyinglythey ring in our ears todayin the ears of those who have towatch the bestiality and spiritual poverty of a world that hasbeen through the purgatory of two world wars in scarcely morethan a generation? And still rumors of war and revolution echoround the hollow shapes of bomb-blasted ruins.

Man is unquestionably at the cross-roads. He can choosethe path of materialistic phantoms, seeking only better socialand economic conditions, however desirable these may be

1. Sat-Darshana Bhasya, Verse 30.

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in themselves, or he can turn his face towards the old lightrising anew in the East, which, while by no means scorningimproved conditions of life for the masses, seeks to directmans inquisitive nature primarily towards the realization ofhis own being. Its aim is the same as ChristsSeek ye firstthe Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added untoyou, which has been read weekly in countless churches everyweek for nineteen hundred years. But faithless, worldlyminded mankind has considered this to be merely a pleasantmoral aphorism, not to be taken literally. Now men musttake it literally or be prepared for further destruction, andindefinite chaos.

Today and for many years to come, one prays, thismessage in the peculiarly beautiful metaphor of Indianmysticism sings out from a small town with a huge templein the heart of southern India, which somehow has preservedIndian thought and culture much more effectively thannorthern India. Not everyone can make a pilgrimage to thisspot, hallowed for all time by the life of Sri Ramana Maharshi,but everyone can follow the Maharshis precepts which are,in a strange way, ultra-modern in form. Even the Maharshicannot convey permanent blessedness; that we alone throughour own strivings can do. But he is a guide to be trustedabsolutely, whether our background be Hindu, Muslim,Christian, Sikh, Parsi, Jewish, Jain, Buddhist, confucian,agnostic or rank materialist. Each will find what he needs;all essential questions are answered, if we have ears to hear.It is the path of the Razors Edge we are called on to tread,but in fact, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

kraeim kmeRit nrae ivjanNbayae veTkmR)l< c ae m!,ivcarxUta id kt&Rta ceTkmRy< nZyit sEv mui>.

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He is bound to reap the fruitwho is fixed in the I-do-thought.The sense of doer lost by the search in the heart,Triple karma diesand that is Liberation.

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. sidanNdmUtI rm[>.

THE GRACIOUS MASTER

A[igirmupet< sidanNdmUitrm[ #it p&iwVya< iv&t< }ansUyRm!,ghndyiv*a< lIlya baexyNtoapaye visaNvyvam[ine vire. 9.

9. Those who by body, mind and possessions serve SriRamana, the Sage of Sonagiri, are, not withstanding theirignorance of scriptures liberated from the great fear oftransmigration. What doubt can there be for liberationfrom the misery of transmigration for others who cansteadily meditate upon the most excellent scion ofVashishthas line, Ramana, ever fixed in Brahman?

ae ae i]ae ktaeva=[igirkqka kaeva ivze;>kiiTsae dyalU rm[ #it sta< uimuidata,kSmadev< gu[ae=saE FinjtpsEver}anis(amuGxae u< gim:yaMyhmip trsa taz< yaeigrajm!. 10.

10. Question: O Bhikshu, wherefrom are you coming?Answer: From the slopes of Arunagiri.Q. What special attraction is there?A. There lives Ramana, a Sage, very kind, who bestows onthe deserving prosperity in this life and liberation after death.

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AabailpvEStvrEr_yCyRman< sumE-rasm&tcanIrlizt< iz:yErzUNyaNtrm!,AabamlrajyaegmiolezaNxkariCDd sm< dzirinv< suNdrae < StveN pirtklu;a> isimNtae mnu:ya>,yavIv< xr{yampirimtsuo< aPy dehavsaneJyaeitilRaitIrm[muinvravaaiNt isa>.

Those who everyday in the morning and evening read thisexcellent stotra of ten verses composed by Sundara, will be madefree from sins, will gain Self-Knowledge, will live here absolutelyhappy and, after death, by the Grace of Ramana of Arunachala,they will shine forth perfect.

I suNdranNdSvaim[Itm! Sri Sundarananda Swami

. Irm[Iym!.

In Praise of Sri Ramana

vNde=[igirizore itIym[aclezimv aNtm!,AanNdtuiNdl< I rm[mh;IRNyaegINm!.

1. Salutations to Sri Ramana who, being the best ofMaharshis and yogins and overflowing with Bliss, shineson the heights of Arunagiri even like another LordArunachala.

s jyit rm[ytINae injanuUTya saTma,ivyidv ySy n cetae aEitkdae;anubiNxinmuR m!.

2. Victorious is He, Ramana, the Prince of Ascetics, lit upwith His own experience of Reality with His mind free,and, like space, untainted by matter.

igirirv igirmUxRNykMPySvavaehr #v hrpaeR Sve]yaPlukam>,sttmip guhaya< avyNSv< guhaSwjyit rm[yaegI eyse Svaitanam!.

3. On the height of a hill and with nature firm as a hill, likeanother Siva by the side of Siva, by whose sight Kamawas burnt to ashes, in the Cave and ever at one with theLord of the Heart-Cave, Ramana lives glorious, for thehighest good of those who seek shelter in him.

mhamhaepaXyay mhakivI-lm[sUirivrictm!

Mahamahopadhyaya Mahakavi Sri Lakshmana Suri

It has been said that only a Christ could understand aChrist. And it is true. So I have felt I am essentially an anadhikari- that is to say, I have not a shadow of right to write about themessage or philosophy of a Sage of the type of Maharshi Ramana.For an ego-bound soul can hardly be expected to write anythingworth while about an ego-emancipated soul, such as the greatMaharshi is. So I hesitated when I was asked to write somethingon a figure which shines to-day as one of the few light-houses inthis global darkness which is the shadow of our primaryignorance of just the things that matter, or, shall I say, the onething that matters: the last clue to Immortality? Put it whateverway we will, Sri Ramana Maharshi stands out as one of thegreat Guides to the Harbour for which we all hanker - fromprince to pauper - tossed incessantly on the bursting crests ofour new-foaming ego. Go where we will, we find men arepuppets ultimately of desires in some form or other, gross orsubtle. We hear doctrines preached by doctrinaires of life andoperations recommended by surgeons of the soul to say nothingof panaceas advocated by politicians and scientists, artists andphilosophers. But in vain. The soul thirsts to be rid of the curseof suffering, the badge of all sentient life. To put in the languageof the Upanishad, to lay hold of the final remedy for the ills oflife we appeal in vain to the mantravit instead of the Atmavit.1

SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

BySri Dilip Kumar Roy

(Shri Aurobindo Ashram)

1. Vide Chhandogya (7. 1. 3.), where Narada says to Sanatkumara: Soham Bhagavomantravidevsmi natmavit which means All my erudition notwithstanding I amonly a man of science and not a sage.

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Mantravit, in modern English would correspond, roundly, tothose who possess scientific knowledge. But only the Atmavit,the Sage, can take us beyond the frontiers of darkness, he beingby definition the Treasurer of the House of Light, the Light ofSelf in full swing, stripped finally from the veils of the individualego. So Narada who went to Sanatkumara approached him as amantravit must approach an Atmavit. To his question aboutthe riddle of the universe Sanatkumaras answer comes to this,that, in the last analysis, the motive of all terrestrial action is toattain happiness; so the searchlight of enquiry must be focussedon the secret of happiness: suo< Tvev ivij}aist-Vym2.Whereupon Narada wanted to be enlightened again. It was onlythen that the great Atmavit told the mantravit that nothingshort of the Infinite will give the key to Happiness: (yae vE UmatTsuo< naLpe suomiSt) only That which is in its natureinexhaustible, has the power to deliver the goods, nothing cribbedand cabined, can be a boon-giver of the supreme Happinessour soul hungers for,the deathless Bliss, the cloudless Light.

Narada was convinced, because the one who talked to himabout Bhuma, the Infinite, did know what he was talking about.But when we, the modern Naradas, want to be so convincedwe seldom find an Acharya who is an indweller of the Mansionof the Infinite. That is why we remain for ever unhappy disciplesof the mantravits, the men of science or, in the last resort, spoon-fed children of philosophers and poets, because these satisfy usperhaps a wee bit more. Nevertheless, a time must come whenwe have all to sigh in chorus with the great alankaric AnandaBardhanacharya who, after having dealt with all the thrills thatart and philosophy can supply sang dolefully:

ya VyaparvtI rsan! rsiytu< i> kivna< nvaiyaR pirinitawRiv;yaeNme;a c vEpitI,

2. It means: only the lore of Happiness deserve to be studied.

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te e APyvl

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Till now when Im enmeshed thou comstAnd feedst on me, O Blessedness!4

Not for nothing does Ananda Bardhan sigh that we whohave not yet known what is this hearts devotion to the Lord ofthe heart may never win even a glimpse of it through art andphilosophy and science and what not.

But how few indeed are the Atmavit Masters who can testifyto a truth so convincing and yet unconvincing because it soundsso incredible almost too good to be true. For have we notwandered far from the Heaven which was our home trailingnot clouds of glory but rather exhalations of a sea of bloodwhich we have taken such enormous pains to replenish withour greed and science of ignorance and egoism!

I say this with some vehemence because just after the War,in 1945, I saw the Maharshi for the first time face to face. It wasa memorable evening for me. I may as well write about myimpressions of his personality since I am incompetent to writeabout his unsurpassed greatness. My apology at the start wasnot inspired by that hateful humbug, conventional modesty. Itis a sincere confession of a recent realisation of mine that thelikes of us can at best write hymns on such God-lovers butnever attempt seriously to appraise their consciousness with ours,even when these God-lovers assure us that all men are essentiallysustained by the same Divinity. One who has only peered at thestars through lenses however marvellous had better confess atthe start that the astronomer can divine but an infinitesimalpart of the truth about the stars. And men like the Maharshiare, if anything, even remoter from us than the sidereal zones,for they haunt worlds beyond all time and space where shineno suns nor moons nor stars, as hymned by the Vedic Sages.

4. Ibid, p. 23.

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I was a guest of the Asram and my comforts were attendedto by so many kind friends, among whom I must mention mydear friend Dr. Mahamad Hafiz Syed. It is no mean tribute tothe magnetism of the Maharshi that a man of the type of Dr.M. H. Syed should have settled in Tiruvannamalai after hisretirement from academic life. But let me cut short these detailsabout the charming personalities I met there (like Mrs.Taleyarkhan) in order to be able to devote more space to myimpressions of the Maharshi himself.

I entered the hall with a strange feeling of diffidence.Had I not heard from ever so many that though the Maharshiwas great (not one who met him even once ever denied himthis tribute), he was a Jnani (man of Knowledge) of theorthodox type as against a