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TRANSCRIPT
THE RAMANA WAY MARCH 2011
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THE RAMANA WAYA Monthly Journal
Brotherhood based on equality is the supreme goaltto be attained by human society
- Ramana Gita X, 10
1981 to 2011 - Three Decades
Printed and Published by: Sarada Natarajan on behalf of
Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning, Ramana Maharshi Heritage Building,
Post Office Road, Sanjay Nagar, Bangalore - 560 094.
Ph:(080)23512639, Direct Fax:23512640
Managing Editor: Revathi Sankar: +919448853748
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ramanacentre.com, www.ramanamusic.com
Blog: ramanaway.org
Printed by: Ramana Printers,Bangalore. Design by: M.Muralidhara Hegde
Annual Membership: Rs. 250/-, Life Membership: Rs.2500/-
MARCH 2011
"Your grace it was I stumbled to your feetYour love that raised me up and made me yours,Chosen to serve, though not for service meet,Untutored save by grace that from you pours."
-Sri Muruganar,
Editor: Dr. SaradaAssociate Editor: G.Kameshwar
RAMANA WAY - CELEBRATING THREE DECADES
MARCH 2011 - 'ENJOYING SERVITUDE'
Bhagavan Ramana with Chinnaswami behind on his left
and Deivarata to his right.
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What service can we render to one by whose power alone all things move? AsMuruganar Swami sings:
"I too have seen all creatures live and moveNot of themselves but Self; all living proveThat I am nothing and can nothing do, andSo all my duties I have cast on you."How can we take His glory anew to anyone when He alone shiens as the very one
who thus 'takes' and the one who receives as well? How far can we 'spread' His Feet thatare already spread in the Heart of the fish and the fly and the lizard alike, and which ina trice He can reveal to the fish and the fly and the lizard too as He can to any one of us?
What then is 'service' to Ramana? It is simply a bubbling forth of the joy that HisPresence has brought to our lives. It is an exclamation of wonder at His magnificence.It is an outpouring of gratitude for His unconditional love that makes us proclaim toall to whom He gives ears to hear, again in Muruganar's words, 'Come, come, drinkyour fill. There is nectar here in Arunai, I tell you. This is the moment to drink to yourheart's content. Come! Come!'
True, He alone is the Actor and there is nothing at all for us to do. In fact, thevery sense that there is anything that needs to be done and further, that we are capableof achieving that goal by our power of action, is the basic illusion that keeps us for evertied to our shackles. Yet our longing for action will not wane so quick, will it? And sincewe cannot keep still, is it not best that we are engaged in the work that He assigns to us?
Service to Ramana is no doubt like a toddler helping her mother in the kitchen.A Mother allows her little one to help in her work not because she needs the help butbecause the child has a deep need to do as the mother does. Mother allows the child inher kitchen even though it is in actual fact an added task for her to clean up the messand the child after the job is done. She knows that one day the child too will bemother and shelets the child learn by being in her presence and striving to imitateher. Most of all, Mother allows the child to help because she spontaneously knowsthat the greatest good comes for the child by being with her.
Thus we try to find reasons for that which defies logic. Why do we wish to 'serve'knowing full well that no service can be offered? We have no answer except to surmisethat this too is a part of Ramana's divine play that He gives us the bliss of 'enjoyingservitude' as Sri A.R.Natarajan writes.
In this 'service' Bhagavan has allowed the journal 'Ramana Way' too, to play its partfor three decades now. As an expression of joy at this loving opportunity that He has given,we are bringing out six special issues this year(every alternate issue and every second issuewill carry the regular features). This first of the series has been blessed with articles by manysenior devotees who are serving Ramana and are messengers of His grace and differentCentre the world over. Each one is a rare gem and I am deeply indebted to them for theblessing. How inscrutable is Bhagavan's Grace, touching every nook of the Earth and beyond!
At this auspicious juncture I am also happy to welcome Sri G.Kameshwar whohas joined as Associate Editor and Ms.Revathi Sankar as Managing Editor.
CCCCCONTENTONTENTONTENTONTENTONTENTSSSSS
1. Enjoying Servitude A.R.Natarajan 6
2. Experiencing the Real V.S.Ramanan 10
3. My Great Blessing Alan Jacobs 17
4. The Fragrance and the Flowering V.Ganesan 22
5. Inconceivable, Yet Self-Evident Master Nome 28
6. My First Meeting With Satguru R.Venkatakrishnan 32
7. Stream of Grace Nochur Venkataraman 34
8. Arunachala and Sri Ramana Christopher Quilkey 39
9. Epitome of Cosmic Consciousness Dr.S.Ram Mohan 42
10. The Jnani With Concern for All Prof. Laxmi Narain 47
11. The Way Ramana Highlights J.Jayaraman 51
12. The Call of Arunachala and Ramana N.Venkatesan 57
13. A Dream Come True Savithri Cuttaree 60
14. How Bhagavan Came to Me S.Guruswami 64
15. From a Japanese Friend Sachiko Miyazaki 68
16. Bhagavan the Saviour Dr.M.D.Naik 71
17. Untutored Save by Grace Smt.Sulochana Natarajan 75
18. Whose Spreading Rays Dr.Sarada 77
19. Best Wishes V.S.Mani 81
20. RMCL News: Punaroddharana Revathi Sankar 82
21. Special Happenings 84
22. Ramana Seva 85
23. Your Dates With Ramana 86
EditorialEditorialEditorialEditorialEditorial
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The very word servile is obnoxious. To lose one’s dignity, to be
reduced to mere doormats, is unthinkable. To serve human masters
is bad enough. To obey the orders of their puerile and capricious mind
is anathema. But we often do. Why? Forced of course. Because fear
of the consequences of disobeying looms large. You cannot disobey
your boss without fear of losing your increment, promotion or even
your job if worse comes to the worst. So you obey and carry your
resentments, secreted in the inner recesses of your mind adding to
the load of hurts you have been harbouring.
Often our subordination in the hierarchical set up may be covered
up, may be camouflaged, in so called meetings, discussions and so
on. For one is always aware as to who wears the pants, who decides.
One is also aware that one’s own reservations about the wisdom of
the decisions is of no consequence. Most people are clogs in the
vast machine of industry, business and profession, servile not by
choice, not voluntarily, but because that is the general set up in which
one has to ‘get along’ in life. You slog away night and day for a few
crumbs in the form of salary, perquisites and bonuses.
This makes one wonder if there can be a servitude, which is to be
opted for, which is most welcome. There is one such. One might be
surprised at this assertion. For, servitude and joy are opposites, poles
apart. Where is one’s much cherished love of freedom which is being
trampled mercilessly, albeit with a velvet hoof? Yet there it is. This enjoyable
servitude: It is the servitude to Bhagavan Ramana. Oh, for the joy of it.
What nectarine bliss it is.
If one regards himself as Ramana’s servant, still there is the
ego-based relationship; Ramana the master and I the servant. That is
how one might begin, casting himself in that role. If the self-made
casting is to be perfect one should stand in attendance, looking out
for an opportunity to satisfy every wish, let alone orders of Ramana.
EnjoEnjoEnjoEnjoEnjoying Serying Serying Serying Serying ServitudevitudevitudevitudevitudeA.R.Natarajan,
Founder President, Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning
Sri AR Natarajan wished to live as a bondslave of his Master, Bhagavan SriRamana Maharshi.
With over fifty years of close association with Sri Ramanasramam, Sri ARNatarajan was a key force behind the Ramana movement in New Delhi, serving as theVice-President of Ramana Kendra, Delhi. He then went on to be the Founder-Presidentof Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning, Bangalore.
He has authored over thirty five books on the life and teachings of Bhagavan SriRamana Maharshi, including the classic biography, “Timeless in Time”. He served asthe Editor of ‘Mountain Path’, from 1982 to 1986. He actively encouraged his wife SmtSulochana Natarajan to spearhead the cause of Ramana Sangeetham. He dedicated hiswhole family to the cause of Bhagavan Ramana, to serve Him through dance, music,talks, seminars, meditation classes, writings, and public service.
His every breath, thought, and deed was for the cause of his Master, Bhagavan SriRamana. Closely associated with Swami Ramanananda (Former President of SriRamanasramam), Sri AR Natarajan has rendered yeomen service to Sri Ramanasramam,and to the Ramana Movement as a whole. The devotees of Karnataka feel speciallybonded to him for introducing them to greatest treasure in their lives, BhagavanRamana.
Sri AR Natarajan was absorbed in the lotus feet of His Master, on 23-Jan -2007,the day of Tai Poosam, sacred to Lord Subrahmanya, who is the divine aspect of HisMaster, Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
Sri A.R.Natarajan continues to remain the inspiring force that keeps the team ofRMCL untiring in its efforts to serve the Master as best as possible.
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This of course is a must. But it does not go far enough. “Thy will be
done” we say. That of course is the law. It seems necessary that one
has to take the self effacement even further and recognize that one is
an absolute Zero. The intelligence to act, the sustaining strength and
not only the results are Sadguru’s gifts. Constant remembrance that
he is the number one which adds value to the Zeros which follow is
needed.
If only we serve his devotees, how pleased would Ramana be!
In this regard Ramana’s own life serves as a standing example. What
motherly solicitude he would show in insisting on their having breakfast,
lunch or dinner at the Ashram? Nearly always a new visitor’s leaf
would be laid close to Ramana’s. Looking for opportunities to serve
the growing world-wide Ramana family seems to be the obvious thing
to do. Borrowing his own expression one has to be the “devotee’s
devotee”.
But if a servant of Ramana stops with this would it be service at
its best? Would it be enough if one washes his feet with tears of love?
Is it enough if one feels his presence in every pore of his being? Is it
enough if Ramana’s name thrills one to his core? Seems enough.
Does it not? But it is not enough. For Ramana himself has given the
ultimate test. It is to become food unto him, which is to lose the servant-
ego, to lose all identifications with the body, and with the mind. When
this happens, these limitations cease, there is only the limitless ocean
of consciousness, of intelligence, which the master is. Does this
happen by chance or through steadfast, vigilant self-enquiry? When
will it happen? One does not know. We know that it is only his grace,
indescribable grace, that makes possible this culmination of the
servitude to Ramana, that one has opted for, by steadily immersing
one in boundless bliss.
Should he not? But as soon as such an attempt is made one is
straightaway faced with the problem of dealing with a master who
has no wishes, no desires, and one who is ever content. Ramana’s
cup of happiness is full. His mind is dead. He is Bhagavan, the very
embodiment of plenitude. So we are at a loose end, in a fix to find a
way to serve him.
There is another difficulty too with this master Ramana. He
goes on giving, bestowing his bounties in endless succession
including the priceless treasure of an inner life. Instead of our pleasing
him with our service he seems bent on pleasing us, in making us
happy, in showering gifts asked and unasked.
Now what is one to do? What is the way to serve him? It is
only to attempt to glorify him even though really speaking he is
beyond all glorification. This takes one back to the first Ramana
Jayanti, the maiden celebration of Ramana’s birthday. A group of
devotees decided it was time that they expressed their feelings for
Ramana, their love and devotion. What better occasion could there
be than the birthday! So they decided to go ahead, in the quiet, lest
Ramana should negate any body-related celebrations. Ramana did
protest but allowed himself to be overruled when the devotees with
one voice said, “We want to have the joy of singing and dancing
taking your name. Your birthday is just an excuse. Why do you
protest? Why deny us this happiness?” All modes of enjoyment given
to man could be chanelled, to talk, about his sweet, exemplary life
of wondrous detachment, to set to music and sing his compositions
and the outpourings of Muni, Muruganar, Sadhu Om and others on
him. To make it possible to visualize his enchantment through dance.
To be joined in this service in common brotherhood with devotees,
with seekers of truth, to broadcast his grace in all the eight corners
of the world, would be an integral part of this mosaic of worship and
servitude to Ramana. As Muruganar sang, “His feet outspread he
placed for worship and, for those who worship grace”.
It is said that willing and unquestioning acceptance of the
results of our action, of the realities of life is an article of faith if one
has surrendered, if one is wedded to implicit obedience to the guru.
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When called upon to write for a magazine devoted to Bhagavan
Ramana, one can either try and write on the life and teachings of the
Master or on one’s own experience of them. I have grown up in and
around Sri Ramanasramam, I have had daily darsans of Bhagavan
for several years, I have listened to Old Ashramites and other devotees
talk about the Master and his teachings and I have gone through, and
am daily going through his works and those of his devotees. Like all
other devotees, I too try to be as true to his teachings as possible and
am reapinga good harvest of inner joy.
Experiencing the RealExperiencing the RealExperiencing the RealExperiencing the RealExperiencing the RealV.S.Ramanan, President, Sri Ramanasramam
Sri V.S. Ramanan is affectionately referred to as Sundaram. (Bhagavan’s father’sname). He took over as President of Sri Ramanasramam in 1994. He works literallyround the clock to serve Bhagavan’s devotees.
Advent centenary celebrations, rebuilding of the Paataalalingam and thousandpillared Mantapam in the Arunachaleswara temple, the celebration of 125th birth yearof Bhagavan and many other notable events have been organized under his leadership.For the 125th Jayanathi (2004), a Ratha Yatra of Bhagavan’s picture was organized. TheRatha started from Tiruchuzhi, Bhagavan’s birth place on 17th July, the day of Bhagavan’senlightenment, went to all important cities and reached Tiruvannamalai. It wentround the Arunachala Hill for 3 days and reached Sri Ramanasramam on 1st September,Bhagavan’s Advent Day. In November 2004 Kumbabhishekam was done toRamaneswara and Mathrubhutheswara on a grand scale.
Under his leadership Ariyanainallur Temple enroute Bhagavan’s journey toArunachala, and Pavalakkunru, where Mother Azhagammal first came and metBhagavan, have been renovated and are being maintained by Sri Ramanasramam. Theplaces related to great devotees Muruganar and Siva Prakasam Pillai and Mastan’sSamadhi have also been developed and maintained by Sri Ramanasramam.
Observing the smooth way in which Ramanasramam staff serve the hugelyincreasing number of devotees who visit Ramanasramam every day, one can surely saythat it is Bhagavan’s Grace that is operating through Sri VS Ramanan, in making allthis happen.
Sundaram Anna, as we know him at the Ramana Maharshi Centre, has alwaysshowered great love on the Centre and each and every member. He has been a sourceof constant support to the Centre’s activities, supporting them in every possible way.
The absolute surrender springing from devotion with which he and SusilaRamanan have taken their bereavement of their son Ravi is a shining example to eachand every member of the Ramana Family.
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Despite – or is it because of – all this, I feel at a loss for words.
As days go by, I increasingly see the truth of the Upanishadic mantra:
yato vaacho nivartantey apraapya manasaa saha (from where words
beat it back unable to obtain That with the mind). Bhagavan himself
once told a devotee “Where there are words, there I am not.”
He also once asked: “Have you ever seen anyone who changed
by listening to words?” He also said “The Atma is within and books
are without, how can you know the Atma through books?” I am not
quoting Bhagavan to justify my hesitancy in writing, the plain fact
perhaps is that writing is not my métier. However, the undeniable fact
is that words are shadows, Bhagavan is Light; words are limited,
Bhagavan is limitless, infinite. This is not to belittle the beauty and
value of the many books written on Bhagavan by many ardent
devotees or the talks given on him and his teachings by gifted, devoted
exponents. Hats off to them, but indisputably Bhagavan is
avaangmanogochara (beyond the reach of mind and words).
What can I write or say about one who, as a boy, took the Bull of
Death by the horns and finished him; of one who sat for weeks after
weeks in a dark, deserted underground cave unmindful of worms
eating into his thigh; of one who let hornets sting away his leg to their
hearts’ content merely because, by accident, he walked over them;
of one who talked to leopards and cobras, ate with monkeys, held
peanut parties (really satsangs) with monkey, goat and squirrel, who
saw men, women, children, birds and beasts with equal eye? What
can one write or say of one whose heart, on the Tortoise Rock of
Arunachala, actually stopped beating and his body turned blue for
several minutes and was deemed dead by two sobbing devotees
accompanying him, but who got up, after his heart started beating
again and body regained its normal colour, and walked on as if nothing
happened? What can one say of one who was at his humorous best
and cracked jokes when an incredibly painful form of cancer was
ravaging his body for fourteen months? Indeed, what can one say of
one who was beyond body and mind and is ever the Self of all? I
recall Rabindranath’s words: Lord, miraculous is the way songs come
from You, I only listen, listen speechless.”
But the great Poet did come out with more than 2000 exquisitely
lovely songs and he ‘lisped in numbers for the numbers came’ as
they did to Alexander Pope. Bhagavan himself was not only
speechless when he first saw Arunachala, but ‘the one who saw
was not’.
Bhagavan did not have to teach anything. He was and is the
teaching. ‘Teacher’ implies duality, as he told Paul Brunton. As
Bhagavan saw everyone as the Self and as there was none other
than himself, he never taught. His life was the teaching, a ceaseless
flow of grace. He did not discourse on non-duality, fearlessness
and so on. In his presence, as Old Ashramites said, everyone felt
a peace beyond words, and the world of names and forms was not
to be seen for everyone’s mind was in abeyance in that supreme
non–dual Presence. Bhagavan often talked about silent initiation
as the most powerful initiation, the other forms being of a lower
order. He said that the Guru’s silence was more potent than all the
scriptures put together.
How often has he not emphasized the importance of inner silence.
He said: “Let the sea of joy surge and speech and feeling cease”,
and
“If of yore, the first of teacher
Revealed it through unbroken silence
Who can reveal it in spoken words?”
He said that one day we will have to forget all that we have learnt.
I feel like doing what a close
devotee of Ma Anandamayi once
did, when he was requested to
write something about her. He took
a piece of blank paper and filled it
with the word Ma. He said that that
was all that he could write on her.
If I too likewise keep writing
Bhagavan’s name and thus be
free from my mind, I would gladly
do that.
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Many years ago, Professor K. Swaminathan once advised an
inmate of the Ashram to leave writing intellectually on Bhagavan
to others and, instead, to get totally involved in the routine work of
the Ashram. To another devotee, he said “You seem to be a thinker.
Stop thinking. You should cease to exist.” That devotee took these
words to be Bhagavan’s own words and gave up writing and
realized that it had an immense inward cleansing effect on him. Of
course, the Professor would not have offered the same advice to
all devotees of Bhagavan. I am sure that with us today there are
worthy successors to Swami Muruganar, Arthur Osborne, Suri
Nagamma, Professor K. Swaminathan and other devotees who
wrote or spoke on Bhagavan for they had to play that role and
they did it to perfection with complete humility.
We are too verbal a culture. I am sure that there are many
wonderful things in life for which there are no words and. therefore,
are lost to us, for if we cannot name a thing, the thing does not exist
for us! And if we don’t see a thing on the TV or computer screen, it
does not exist for us! We are deeply influenced by words and images.
Also, we have words for things but the word is not the thing. How can
then That or It, the Reality, be grasped by word and mind? If the goal
of advaitic sadhana is manonasa (ending of the mind), why should
we go on enriching the mind? If, as Bhagavan said, jnana is not about
acquiring knowledge but about being free from all that we have
acquired, then why pile up information and knowledge, why engage
the mind in analyses, exposition and exegeses? Unless, of course,
they flow from within us in a natural, effortless way.
Shamsuddin Tabriz, when he first saw Jalaluddin Rumi, his future
disciple, seems to have quoted a Persian couplet to him which meant:
“If a knowledge does not take you out of yourself,
Then ignorance is better than that knowledge.”
In a recent article, Muzaffar Ali, the well-known Indian cine artiste,
quotes Rumi:
“I shall put aside expressions, words and sounds,
So that, without all three, I carry on
intimate discourse with Thee.”
When true knowledge takes us out of ourselves, we have
continuous discourse with Him, we become One with Him.
Thayumanavar, the 18th century Tamil saint-singer, wrote: “If it is
said ’You are That’, the doubt will arise as to ’Which’. Therefore, leaving
even That, sages like Janaka sat like bees inebriate with honey.” An
old devotee says “We all sat like that in the Old Hall before Bhagavan.”
Words are perhaps more man-made than God-made. Yet, words,
like many other things earthly, can be very beautiful, but they are, by
their very nature, limited. If, however, words flow out of our actual
inner experience, they will have the quality of silence and deeply
touch the hearts of those who are truly receptive. But then those
who are thus receptive can easily pick up silent transmissions.
Buddha, Ramakrishna and Ramana spoke. Buddha gave discourses,
Ramakrishna talked a lot. He was a goldmine of exquisite parables.
Ramana spoke little but always answered sincere questions from
devotees and visitors. As Sri Sri Ravi Sankar says, Buddha’s
speeches create silence. So do Ramakrishna’s and Ramana’s words.
If Ramana’s silence was eloquent and dispelled doubts, his speech
had the depth and calm of silence. Once, when a North Indian
sannyasini was reading a book of Bhagavan, a saintly English lady
told her: “Don’t read Ramana’s work like a novel. Each word is a
mantra.” Truly, a word of Bhagavan can transform one’s life if one
lives by that word. In my own mother’s case, an advice given by him
to her soon after her marriage, religiously followed by her, blessed
her life with a peace and joy which no amount of scriptural reading
could have vouched her. In my own personal case, and that of my
wife, It is Bhagavan’s teaching and grace which enable us to bear
calmly the sorrow of last year’s bereavement and we realise that the
more we live by his words, the stronger and the freer we become.
I shall content myself with pointing out that the best way to share
our experience of Bhagavan’s life and teaching is to live by his words
as sincerely as we can. As the saying goes, “an ounce of practice is
worth more than tons of precept”. Just think of this: If Jesus of
Nazareth had only talked about the virtue of dying for one’s friends
and enemies, only talked of the salvatory role of suffering, of the
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My GrMy GrMy GrMy GrMy Great Blessing Feat Blessing Feat Blessing Feat Blessing Feat Blessing Frrrrrom My Beloom My Beloom My Beloom My Beloom My Belovvvvved Mased Mased Mased Mased MasttttterererererAlan Jacobs, President, The Ramana Maharshi Foundation, UK
Undoubtedly the greatest blessing that can befall any human
being in this often painful life dream, travelling through the dense jungle
of samsara is to be caught in the ‘jaws of the tiger’ lurking in the
undergrowth, as Sri Bhagavan picturesquely describes the Grace of
the Sat-Guru, when the Sat-Guru appears, and becomes the principal
force in a Devotee’s life, now fully dedicated to the study and practice
of His magnificent teaching.
Why this should happen is a great mystery! Tradition tells us that
some kind of karmic equilibrium has to have happened between good
and bad deeds, in previous lives, so that we are now ready to be
taken into the care of the Jnana Guru, who will gracefully and firmly
lead us on to eventual liberation from bondage.
Whether this is the truth or not, the fact remains that a powerful
link of devotion is formed between Teacher and Disciple, and from
this beautiful connection, there inevitably flows a complete re-
orientation of the whole life from which there can be no turning back.
The Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK is a registered charity. Membersendeavour to live by Bhagavan’s teaching faithfully, without the intrusion ofpersonalities, and to practise self-enquiry and surrender in all circumstances of oureveryday lives.
Monthly Satsangs are held on the second Saturday of each month, from 1.30 -5.30pm, consisting of bhajans, talks on Ramana’s teaching, silent group meditation,readings, tea and discussion. An Additional Satsang is held on the final Saturday ofeach month. A Study Group on the 40 Verses on Reality and other Core Texts is heldevery second and last Wednesday of each month.
A Silent Meditation Satsang for Ramana Devotees to scheduled be held everyThursday evening. The satsang will consist of two 45 minutes of silent meditationwith one short reading from Sri Bhagavan’s Teachings.
Alan Jacobs is President of the Foundation. He is the author of several booksrelevant to Advaita Vedanta and has been a long standing devotee of Sri BhagavanRamana Maharshi. He contributes to the Mountain Path and gives talks on Bhagavan’sTeaching in London and occasionally in India. He has presented a paper in theInternational Seminar on Bhagavan Ramana’s teachings in 1998 and recently gave atalk last December at the Ramana Maharshi Shrine which was greatly enjoyed by theseekers.
agony of Crucifixion and so on, would his words, however moving,
have had such a tremendous effect on mankind over two millennia?
Or, if Gandhiji had only talked and written about freedom, fearlessness,
selflessness, non-possession, non-violence and truthfulness and not
done what all he did in South Africa and later in India during a period
of thirty years, would he be such an abiding source of inspiration to
us? If Bhagavan had only talked about jnana, absolute surrender,
manonasa, equal vision, self-enquiry and Self-realisation, and not
lived the kind of life he did for 54 years in Arunachala, preceded by
his extraordinary experience in Madurai, would he be the supreme
symbol of direct, non-dual experience and Atmajnana that he is today
to mankind?
A devotee of Bhagavan will base his life on the Master’s words.
He will aim at becoming more and more impersonal, at attaining the
state where the ‘I’ does not arise. Mere refraining from using the first
personal pronoun will not be enough. It can be used in the knowledge
that we are not individuals but That. A devotee will always remember
that he is not confined to his body but is the Self which is the real
nature of everyone.He will never judge others for there are no others
when one wakes up. He will try to see Bhagavan in everyone, even
as Bhagavan saw Arunachala in everyone. He will ever remember
that there is no such thing as the mind and that all problems are in
the shadowy mind. If fear, sorrow, or conflict arises within him, he will
ask ‘To whom?’ and end them more and more effectively, more and
more quickly. His selfless action will lead to inaction, his expressions
will flower into silence, his life will be fulfilled ultimately in Absorption.
As Albert Einstein said ‘Die Wahrheit liegt in der Bewahrung’,
Truth lies in experience. Experience means going through, not just
talk, read and write about it. Eternal, absolute Truth cannot be known.
One can, thank God, be That, for That alone is. Bhagavan asks us to
offer ourselves as food to That, which is God, the Self. By becoming
the food, we experience That. Bhagavan called That Arunachala. We
call that Arunachala Ramana. That should be that.
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My f irst step after He appeared in my waking
consciousness, was to become thoroughly acquainted with
Bhagavan’s marvellous teachings, so clearly stated, and clearing
my mind of most of its ignorant misconceptions. From this one
began to understand that he was indeed Sat-Guru, dwelling in my
spiritual heart, and would surely lead me to the best and necessary
sadhana for my needs, walking on the mountain path towards
Liberation. Once I had this Faith, it turned out to be the truth and I
was miraculously led to the Eka Sloki and the great sadhana of
Diving Into the Heart which he once gave to Ganapati Muni in Ch.
2 V. 2 of the famed Ramana Gita.
For the benefit of other Devotees who may also wish to find a
sure and radical approach to Self Enquiry, I quote extracts from my
article on this practice which later appeared in the Mountain Path
and can be found in full on Luthar.com. It is the greatest blessing
given to me by Sri Bhagavan.
“IN THE INMOST CORE, THE HEART
SHINES AS BRAHMAN ALONE,
AS I-I, THE SELF AWARE.
ENTER DEEP INTO THE HEART
BY SEARCH FOR SELF, OR DIVING DEEP,
WITH BREATH UNDER CHECK.
THUS ABIDE EVER IN ATMAN.”
We find this Eka Sloki was mounted during Bhagavan’s
lifetime, obviously with his consent, above his ornate marble couch
in the New Hall, where the verse is engraved in Gold Sanskrit
letters on a tablet of polished black marble .
Now regarding breath control and breath regulation, the Eka
Sloki clearly states that this is an option. Diving can be practiced
with or without restraint of breath and breath regulation. Many
practitioners, however, especially those like myself with the usual
Western rajasic restless mind, find breath restraint invaluable.
Although Breath Control is summarised in ‘Self Enquiry’ from
verses 21-25, it is more fully detailed by Bhagavan in his answer
to the Muni and his disciples in Chapter Six of the Ramana Gita.
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A baffling question arises, however, insofar as even when reaching
the bottom of the abyss with concentrated attention, nothing is discovered,
and the space probed seems empty. Wise, experienced devotees with
whom I have discussed this question inform me that while the practice
is still done from the mind, nothing should be expected. But at a certain
point, after earnest and regular persistence in the practice, the enquiry
moves into the Heart, through Grace. Then atma vichara spontaneously
arises, and one is drawn into the Heart, when the source of the “I Thought”
may eventually be found with the necessary release. I have found this
happens to me more and more, but I have not reached the stage where
it becomes frequent or permanent.
Keeping in mind that one is searching for the root of the “I Thought”
with zeal, and holding the breath, one should not expect an answer or
result .The purification of latent tendencies, are buried deeply in the
subconscious, and what is happening can not be known by the reflected,
limited, normal consciousness of the empiric mind. I am totally convinced,
however, from my own experience, that Grace and effort are firmly
interlinked.
With this discovery Bhagavan
gave me a practical sadhana, to perform
Atma Vichara, with which I find it is the
easiest for me, and with which I am most
comfortable. I feel it is gracefully clearing
out the obscuring vasanas clouding the
Real Self, at a pace which would not be
too sudden for the nervous system to
stand. It is a merciful form of purification,
and I shall always be eternally grateful
for this greatest gift of Grace received
from my beloved Master, Sri Bhagavan
Ramana Maharshi.
In verse 7 we are asked to breathe out fully (Rechaka) with
the necessary time required, and then fully inhale for another unit
of the same time (Puraka). Then Kumbhaka or Retention may be
held for four counts of the time taken for inhalation. It is during this
period of holding the breath, that I find it is the best time to Plunge
or Dive into the Heart by entering the portal on the right side of the
chest using focussed attention, like a laser beam, from the chakra
between the eye brows, to penetrate as deeply as one can,
searching for the source of the ‘I Thought’, until one is forced to
fully exhale, with Bhastika or strong diaphramatic exhalation, with
a guttural or hissing sound, which, effectively, expels residual
thought and vrittis.
Chapter Nine of the Ramana Gita has a whole explanation on
the ‘Granthi Bhedam’ or ‘Cutting the Knot’. In verse three, Ramana
states that the association of the Self with the Body is called the
Granthi (Knot). It is my intuitive feeling that Bhagavan’s powerful
sword of Diving Into the Heart will eventually cut this identification
and sever the knot . A full explanation to the Granthi Bhedam can
be found in Spiritual Instruction Verse 12, in the Collected Works,
Ramanashramam Edition page 63.
Obviously experience will differ with each Sadhak, and no
Plunge or Dive, in the search for the source of the ‘I Thought’ can
ever be exactly the same for anyone at any time. I find that each
Dive is different in quality depending on the force of attention
gathered, like an artist, when he prepares to draw an object, or a
mathematician concentrating on a difficult problem, or gazing into
the wick of a lit candle.
In some cases one feels one strikes a wall , or sheath, and the
attention cannot penetrate .But invariably one finds one can penetrate
deeper and deeper until one reaches the abyss when one can go no
further. Then on the exhalation a great deal of residual thought or vrittis
are expelled. The more zeal, and determination one devotedly feels,
that this is the most urgent vital act and necessary effort one can
make, the deeper it goes. One is immediately detached from any
identification previously agitating the mind.
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THE RAMANA WAY MARCH 2011
Sri V.Ganesan grew up in the presence and proximity of Bhagavan Ramana tillhe was 14 years of age. His sacred memory of the Master is rich in its content, and, evenat that tender age he could see Sri Ramana as the greatest compassionate humanbeing. On April 14, 1950, the day the Master chose to leave the body, the adolescentGanesan stood near the entrance to the room where Sri Ramana was lying and wasfortunate to see the brilliant flash of Light, which later moved towards the top of theHoly Hill, Arunachala.
Ganesan obtained a Master’s Degree in Philosophy; and, then came for good toSri Ramanasramam, and dedicated himself to looking after the old devotees of SriRamana, as his sadhana (spiritual practice). In this process, he collected reminiscencesof Sri Maharshi never before recorded.
His close contacts with sages and saints, including J. Krishnamurti, NisargadattaMaharaj and Yogi Ramsuratkumar, has deepened and widened his understanding ofthe essence and true message of the Maharshi. He, however, feels himself to be aninsignificant dust at the Holy Feet of Bhagavan Ramana.
In his cottage – “Ananda Ramana” – he meets earnest seekers, sharing with themthe spiritual treasure entrusted to him by all these holy sages.
Sri V.Ganesan has played a pivotal role in the formative years of Ramana MaharshiCentre for Learning, taking an active interest in every aspect of the Centre’s activities.His valuable guidance was available to Dr.Sarada when the first issue of the ‘RamanaWay’ was published 30 years ago. For many years the journal had carried his articlesevery month which were later put together as the book ‘Purushottama Ramana’.
The FThe FThe FThe FThe Frrrrragagagagagrrrrrance and tance and tance and tance and tance and the Flohe Flohe Flohe Flohe Flowwwwwerererereringingingingingof 'Yof 'Yof 'Yof 'Yof 'You' intou' intou' intou' intou' into 'I Am'o 'I Am'o 'I Am'o 'I Am'o 'I Am'
V.GanesanIn the 1960s, I was blessed with the dream of Sri Bhagavan. I saw
Sri Bhagavan standing behind a thorny fence. Thorns did not distract
me, since Sri Bhagavan was ‘drenching’ me with His gracious smile. I
felt ecstatic – the dream was so vivid, picturesque and real!
That morning, when I sat in the Ashram office to attend to the daily
routine, the servant of Mrs. Roda McIver informed me that she was
very sick and bed-ridden and that she wanted to see me. I followed
him. Her home is situated opposite to the Ashram. When I went near
her bed, I was once again thrilled and awe struck to see next to her a
small framed photo of Sri Bhagavan. I had never seen that pose of Sri
Bhagavan in any photo ever before. The wonder of wonders was that
was exactly how Sri Bhagavan gave darshan to me the previous night!
The same gracious smile, the same fence, the same thorns!
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When Roda Ma saw that I was standing transfixed looking at the
picture, she said: “That photo was taken in 1937, at Palakottu, by
Pascaline Mallet, the French authoress. She was staying in my cottage.
She sent me this photo as an expression of gratitude and love!”
Forthwith, I requested her to lend me the framed photo, took a copy of
it, made many copies in various sizes and made this precious photo
available to all devotees. No need to say that I made a huge
enlargement of it, kept it in my room and offered prayers, every day!
The Supreme Master is ever so very compassionate that He
comes to you first, extending His Grace – unconditionally, unequivocally
and unexpectedly. Thus, Grace is thrust on you, drowning you in
ecstasy! Hence, every act of Guru’s Grace is unique, in as much as
each such experience of ecstasy is exclusively soul transforming!
On that day, while I was swimming in ecstasy still looking at the
picture of Grace, Roda Ma further thrilled me by recalling the following
two incidents, unknown to me!
Those two remarkable reminiscences of Roda Ma, I shared with
innumerable devotees and also published them in “The Mountain path”.
The uniqueness of these is that they both deal with and thereby
clear the two major impediments in the spiritual progress of a true
seeker:
i) the urge to guide other seekers and
ii) the urge to seek a ‘living Guru’ outside of oneself.
URGE TO GUIDE OTHER SEEKERS
Mrs. Roda McIver, the long-standing Parsee lady-devotee of Sri
Bhagavan, once brought a friend from Mumbai. Introducing him, she
told Bhagavan: “My friend has taken as his guru a man who is not
even a sadhu. I brought him here so that he would give up this guru
and follow you, Oh Bhagavan, as his Guru. Please make him do so”.
Sri Bhagavan replied sternly: “Who are you to say who is the
right Guru for him? By what power can you make out what a man
really is? And, are you sure that the Guru counts so much?
All depends on the disciple. Even if you worship a stone with
great devotion it will be seen as God”.
All through the ages, there has never been a dearth of genuine
Teachings, especially in India. We are thus proud to possess the most
authentic collections of teachings in the form of Vedas, Upanishads,Epics and Puranas.
The Bhagavad Gita is recognized as the spiritual treatise par
excellence, all over the world. Sages and Saints continue to adorn
Mother Earth, century after century.
Our tradition has handed over to mankind the gift of a ‘Golden Chain
of Eternity’ – made of links of perennial truth about God, Scriptures, Guru,
Teachings, Sadhana, Wholeness, Oneness, Fullness, Freedom, Release,
Moksha. Man too has all along revered it, wondering at its grandeur. Yet,
time and again, it has remained unused, for the simple reason that this
precious Golden Chain is disjointed and incomplete, as a vital link in it is
ever missing. That missing vital link keeps it away from man.
What is that missing link – the discovery and replacing of which
will complete the Golden Chain?
The missing link, is “YOU” – The “You” referring to every one of
us, individually. The “You” refers to one who is now reading this line!
Adding, joining this “You” to it – which means waking up to one’s own
inner Divinity, one’s own inner Reality – will alone make this Golden
Chain of Eternity complete!
Isn’t it amazing? Suddenly, the “You” becomes all important in the
scheme of Existence! Yet, it is absolutely true.
To understand it better, one has to raise the questions: “For whom
is the Teaching?” “For whom is the Teacher?” All along, we have been
stressing the importance of the Teachings and the Teacher. However
lofty the Teachings might be, it has value and meaning only to one who
imbibes it; isn’t it? Without the taught, where is the importance for the
Teacher? Who is the imbiber of the Teachings?
Oh reader – “You” – who are reading this line, it is for “You” that all
the Teachings and all the Teachers are intended. Your waking up to and
owning them is actually the restoring of the missing link to its rightful
place in the Golden Chain of Eternity. Be assured that till “You” wake
up, this precious jewel of a Chain will remain unused! Therefore, the
Scriptures proclaim: “Tat Twam Asi” “You are That”!
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Once in the presence of Sri Bhagavan at the Old Hall, College
Professors were assembled; one among them raised the doubt on
the structure of Yoga Vasista, wherein Sage Vasista gives spiritual
instructions to Lord Rama. The content of the doubt was whether the
Sage was instructing the Mukta (liberated) Rama or the Mumukshu(aspirant) Rama, as Lord Rama was ever esteemed as born liberated.
Sri Bhagavan smiled at the Professor and said: “It is neither for the
Mumukshu Rama nor for the Muktha Rama; the spiritual instructions
are intended only for ‘YOU’!”
The seeker of Truth – “YOU” – is, thus, all important to make
alive every Teaching and every Teacher. The ‘Teacher’, the ‘Teaching’
and ‘YOU’ are, therefore, the true Spiritual Trinity. The “You” referred to
here, points neither to you the body nor you the individual, but to the
‘simple pure being’, that you are.
“You” – the Awareness – alone is pointed out.
URGE TO SEEK A ‘LIVING GURU’ OUTSIDE OF ONESELF
After she came in contact with Sri Ramana Maharshi in the1940s, Mrs. Roda McIver permanently resided in the vicinity of SriRamanasramam, at her cottage, within the ‘McIver Compound’.For years, she was silently praying for an opportunity to put herhead on the sacred feet of her Satguru Bhagavan Ramana. Therules of the Ashram, however, strictly prohibited anyone touchingthe Maharshi’s feet! However, she did not give up praying andhoping.
Fortunately for her, one day after breakfast, the Maharshi was
walking alone through a small room and Roda rushed to Him and
was about to fall at His feet. The Maharshi gesticulated enquiring what
she wanted. She said: “Bhagavan! My life’s one prayerful ambition is
to put my head at the sacred feet of my Satguru Sri Ramana. Please
permit me and bless me, Bhagavan!”
The Maharshi, coming closer to her and pointing to His feet, said:
“Roda! Are these the feet of the Satguru? The Satguru’s feet are ever
here (pointing to her Heart)! Merge your mind in the Heart; that is
truly putting your head at the feet of your Satguru!”
The word “GURU” means ‘the dispeller of darkness’. ‘GU” is
darkness, dense darkness and “RU’ means the dispeller, the remover.
So, GURU is one who removes the darkness. What is the thickest of
densest darkness? The darkness that is within oneself is the most dense.
Such inward darkness is “ignorance”. Ignorance of what? Of one’s own
Truth, the Self. This is the densest ignorance. It is the ignorance of taking
oneself to be only the body, only the mind; and, forgetting that one is ever
the Self – the only Truth! Removal of ignorance through known means,
like reading the scriptures, observing austerities, resorting to religious
practices, has proved futile. It is almost impossible.
But the very thing which appeared impossible becomes very easy
when one is in the presence of a Satguru, a true Master. Satguru or
Master is not a status, a position, like the President of a country. It is not
even a state. It is the Truth itself. Satguru is the Self, the Truth. That is,
one’s own Self is the real Satguru. When one goes to an outer Guru, the
only teaching he imparts is in the form of awakening the “inner Guru” in
one’s Heart. The “GURU” being the Truth, for him, there exists no untruth.
For the Sun there is no darkness. The Guru ‘without’, invokes the Guru
‘within’. The “inner Guru”, as the Self, ever shines in one’s Heart. “God,
Guru and Self are synonymous”, said the Maharshi.
Sri Bhagavan
also said: “The only
purpose of life is to
realize the Self. All
other activities are
waste of time”.
Let us turn our
out-going mind within
and merge in the inner
Silence, the Self, the
Truth, the Inner Guru!
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Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya
His Silence, His Being, is ineffable, indeed, inconceivable. He is
known only by Himself. To Himself, He is self-evident. Where
differentiation is impossible, that in which there is nothing “else”
whatsoever, He is. If inconceivable, how is one to know Him? In the
disappearance of the illusion of existing as a separate individual, we
can be said to know Him, That, the sole-existent Reality. The Reality
is self-evident to itself. Who is to conceive otherwise? Only to an
illusion could the Reality of the Self appear as if unknown, but an
illusion is not real at all. So, how could its ignorance exist? He, the
inconceivable One, is the self-evident One.
Inconceivable, yet self-evident, is His teaching. Just as “there
are not two selves, one to know, or realize, the other,” as He has
instructed, so there are not two selves, one to be ignorant of the
other. The means to realize the Truth, which He reveals and is, is
summed up in the question “Who am I?”, yet the true significance of
Nome (born January 23, 1955) is a spiritual teacher at Society of Abidance inTruth, known by the acronym SAT, which established and maintains a temple forNon-dual Self-knowledge in California.
He, along with Dr. H. Ramamoorthy, translated into English the essential andclassic work of Advaita Vedanta, “Ribhu Gita”, which was highly recommended by SriRamana Maharshi. The English translation has been published by Society of Abidancein Truth and has since then been re-published by Sri Ramanasramam (Tiruvannamalai,India) and translated into Hindi and Italian. Nome is also a translator and author ofVedanta texts.
InconceivInconceivInconceivInconceivInconceivable, Yable, Yable, Yable, Yable, Yeeeeet Self-Evidentt Self-Evidentt Self-Evidentt Self-Evidentt Self-EvidentMaster Nome
Nome teaches Advaita Vedanta, especially as is contained in the teachings ofBhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. The teachings are presented in Satsangs and retreatsheld at the SAT Temple. Nome has also given satsangs at Ramana Maharshi Centrefor Learning in Bangalore. In March 1995, Nome discoursed at the Ramana MaharshiNational Seminar conducted in Bangalore.
At the invitation of Sri. V. S. Ramanan, President of Sri Ramanasramam, Nomespoke at the centennial celebrations of the advent of Sri Ramana Maharshi atArunachala, on the morning of September 1, 1996 at Sri Ramanasramam,Tiruvannamalai, India. Nome’s discourse actually commenced with silence, whichwas followed by a brief talk on the direct experience of Self-Knowledge as revealed bySri Ramana Maharshi.
Nome’s inner journey is written in the article “Timeless Presence”. It was writtenat the request of Sri V. S. Ramanan, President of Sri Ramanasramam in 1996 for thebook, “Centenary Souvenir Commemorating the Advent of Bhagavan Sri Ramana atArunachala,” which was released on September 1, 1996. The article has since been re-published by Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning and SAT. The book describes thetimeless presence of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Nome’s practice of Self-inquiry for hissteady abidance in Self-Realization.
Nome is married. His wife, known as Sasvati, is involved in many of thepublications of SAT, in the form of writing prefaces and the design and layout work forthe books.
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6 7
the inquiry is the inconceivable Knowledge regarding the self-evident
Truth of the Self. Every particle of His teaching shines fully with the
light of this Knowledge. The self-evident Truth is the ever-existent Self,
which, being of the nature of the innermost, nonobjective
Consciousness, is ever inconceivable. Transcendent of ideas learned
and forgotten, His spiritual instruction shines with the same full power
of His absolute Silence. His sparkling, eloquent, spoken and written
instruction, always brimming with exquisite, non-dual clarity that leaves
no darkness, reveals the formless yet exceedingly precise path to
realize the formless. His teaching is the shining of Reality, itself, and
reveals the self-existent, which is the self-evident. Who can say what
His teaching is? It is nonobjective and inconceivable, yet entirely real
and self-evident, the very revelation of Reality in which Being is
Knowledge. It is never a known or unknown concept, and it stands as
the eternal revelation of the eternal, the Self’s revelation of itself.
His life shines with a sublime holiness that is the pinnacle of
spiritual perfection. However much we laud it, our praise can hardly
describe it. All, and more, that is needed to wisely approach everything
in life is fully explained by His life. He may be said to be the very
manifestation of the unmanifested Brahman, the Self, yet His identity
as That renders even such a description futile, for it imagines
differences where there are none. Even still, He shows that life in
That, as That, is natural and innate, for such is “the egoless state, the
only real state that there is,” as He has declared. Yet, His life is the
Existence of the Self, which neither is born nor perishes. Unborn and
immortal, His Existence is inconceivable, yet it is self-evident, for He
is the Self of all forever.
His grace is immense, vaster than the vastest, with innumerable
manifestations, while its nature remains utterly transcendent. Did he
not declare that “grace is of the Self”? How can one conceive of such
grace? All the thoughts of it and different experiences of it are still
only an infinitesimal particle of it. As the Self is ever existent, so His
grace is ever existent. Just as one cannot actually be separate from
the Self, so it is impossible to be outside of grace. Knowledge of it in
any manner whatsoever is also His grace. For those who are devoted Written on this sacred Jayanti of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, December 23, 2010.
to Him, relying on His liberating spiritual teachings for their freedom
from all illusion, their hearts full of love for Him, depending on Him for
their peace amidst all experiences, seeking refuge in Him, and finding
bliss in Him, His grace shines as self-evident.
Inconceivable, yet self-evident is He. Bhagavan Sri Ramana
Maharshi: the inconceivable, self-evident One. Who can conceive of
Him, yet who can be apart from Him or not know Him? The Being of
real existence, the Consciousness of true knowledge, and the Bliss
of all happiness is He.
He, our only true Self, in us abides, and we in Him, the infinite,
dwell. He, the eternal, is always with us, and we, who are nothing
else, are ever in Him.
What little has been said here is only of Him. That He is utterly
inconceivable is quite self-evident. May we ever remain blissfully
absorbed in Him, the One without a second.
Om Sri Ramanarpanamastu
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8 9
Strangely, I am not able to recall the childhood days in my village
Krishnarayapuram (where we settled) although my forefathers lived in
Manavasi, a village near Karur. Nor am I able to recall any significant
event/s during my school days at Tiruvannamalai, when I used to visit Sri
Bhagavan daily with my father and stay in the evening during the
Vedaparayanam.
But there is one incident, when I was a mere toddler, that I remember
with electrifying vividness. . .What I am going to relate now is a direct first
person account.
It was the year 1929 I believe. I was three and half years old and was
returning with my parents after a pilgrimage to Tirupathi. We must have
been traveling by the meter gauge train starting from Renigunta to
Villupuram, and beyond to Katpadi and Tiruvannamalai. We must have
reached Tiruvannamalai early in the morning and proceeded to Sri
Ramanasramam by bullock cart, the only transport available at that time.
When we reached Sri Ramanasramam, I and my parents passed
through the old kitchen (now Sri Bhagavan’s Samadhi). I recall, open rice
bags stacked on both sides of the steps leading to the ‘old hall’. My Satguru
Ramana was seated on a deer skin or tiger skin spread on the floor.
There was no sofa or any furniture. The Hall was empty except the three
of us and Bhagavan. I cannot recall what my father was speaking. All I
now remember is Sri Bhagavan taking me with both hands and placing
me on his sacred lap. This is so clear to me that I and my mind must have
been one pointed with the grand sight before me.
WHAT A GREAT BLESSING AND BENEDICTION! I consider this
as the greatest moment of life.
Sri R.Venkatakrishnan is the last of five children and the only son of ManavasiRamaswami Iyer, a great devotee of Bhagavan. Once, when Manavasi Ramaswami Iyervisited Bhagavan in the Virupaksha Cave, by Bhagavan’s natural grace he wasmiraculously cured of a chronic illness that he suffered from. Manavasi RamaswamiIyer has composed several soul stirring songs on Bhagavan in Sanskrit and Tamil, andis well known to Ramana Bhaktas as the composer of the Sharanagati song.
Sri Venkatakrishnan recounts with joy how he and his sisters grew up basking inthe Supreme love of Bhagavan. One sister even had her hair plaited by Bhagavan,another played the veena in Bhagavan’s Old Hall to the tune of which the whitepeacock danced and earned for her the encomium from Bhagavan of having transportedall to ‘Gandharva Loka’. Here Sri Venkatakrishnan recounts his own first meetingwith Bhagavan in a most touching manner.
Sri Venkatakrishnan, now serves as the President of Ramana Kendra,Chennai.Ramana Kendra, Chennai was formed in the year 1978 at the residence ofLate Sri B. Ananthaswamy. Prof.K.Swaminathan was the driving force for the formationof the Kendra. Sri Swaminathan nominated Sri Venkatakrishnan as a member of thefirst Management Committee formed.
Due to a munificent donation by Late Sri Ananthaswamy and members of hisfamily, the Kendra moved into its own present premises in the year 1996. Consecrationof the shrine was performed in December 1997 by Swami Santhananda of Pudukottaiand Swami Ramanananda.
By the grace of Sri Bhagavan, as President of the Ramana Kendra, SriVenkatakrishnan has been actively participating in the activities of the Kendra forthe past 10 years and more. Sri A.R.Natarajan was the guiding force in assisting SriVenkatakrishnan in drafting the Trust deed. RMCL has been a close associate of theCentre from its inception. Spiritual workshops have been conducted for a number ofyears at the Kendra by RMCL. The Kendra has been successfully celebrating in afitting manner the Jayanthi and Aradhana of Sri Bhagavan. Other celebrationsinclude, Mother’s day, Cow Lakshmi’s day and the Consecration day. A Tamil Quarterly“Ramanodayam’ dedicated to Sri Bhagavan is published by the Kendra and has widecirculation.
My FMy FMy FMy FMy Fiririririrssssst Meet Meet Meet Meet Meeting Wting Wting Wting Wting Wititititith Satgurh Satgurh Satgurh Satgurh SatguruuuuuR.Venkatakrishnan, President, Ramana Kendra, Chennai
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10 11
“Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi” – The very name invokes the
deepest of our feelings, nay, it invokes our very divine depth! Bhagavan
is our inner Self, He is our inner guide – Guru the dispeller of inner
darkness – He is our Lord. He is the Supreme Being who tread the
earth to awaken the slumbering souls to their own inner glory. Swami
Ramdas, himself a great saint, wrote about Bhagavan:
“What shall I say to Him who towers high
A veritable Everest of spiritual glory –
A resplendent Sun who sheds light on all
He is our soul, our life and sole refuge”
Sri Nochur Venkataraman:
“To know one’s self isTo unlock the source of infinite energyTo know one’s self isTo lose oneself in infinite awareness”A native of Palakkad, Kerala, Sri Venkataraman is a post-graduate in Sanskrit.
He studied in Kalady, sanctified by the early life of Adi Sankaracharya. Sri Venkataramanhas studied deeply the Upanishads and other Vedantic texts. He is inspired by greatsages such as Adi Sankara, Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana Maharshi. For his advancedstudies in Sanskrit at Kalady, he took Bhagavan’s Sat-Darsanam as the subject andcompleted the thesis in just 5 days!! He has spent a great deal of time in Tiruvannamalai,where he has had personal contacts with some of the direct devotees of BhagavanRamana Maharshi. This has helped him to authentically understand the life andteachings of Bhagavan. Apart from this, his own devotion and constant practice ofself-enquiry has contributed to consolidation of the knowledge and his beingestablished in wisdom.
Sri Venkataraman has authored several texts and poems in Sanskrit, Malayalamand English, which are all inspired works. For over the past 15 years, he has beenspeaking to audiences in many parts of India. Wherever he speaks, he creates a deepimpact and leaves people spell-bound and inspired to continue the practice of self-enquiry and to understand the truth of one’s own nature. Those who have heard himeven once testify to the tremendous sense of peace that is experienced on merelylistening to the flow of words through him.
‘Nochur’, as he is now respectfully referred to, has currently managed to give aspace to RMCL amidst his hectic lecture tours and expounds the ‘Forty Verses onReality’ of Bhagavan for a 3 to 4 day session at least twice a year at the RamanaMaharshi Shrine in Bangalore.
Stream of GraceStream of GraceStream of GraceStream of GraceStream of GraceNochur Venkataraman
Sri Sarada Akka has asked to write about how ‘I’ came to
Bhagavan or rather how Bhagavan came into my life! Bhagavan, of
course, is that ‘Vasthu’ (Reality) which neither comes nor goes
(Pokkum Varavum Illaa Porul). He is our very being, the ever attained
Self. He as the Satguru has only one WAY – Revelation of the Ever-
Revealed. He , as the Lord, is the ocean of Grace – Arunachala Siva.
To write about my life in this context is a very difficult task. I have lost
trace of many incidents in the past. The blazing radiance of Sri
Bhagavan, the Inner Self, has made most of those memories to
evaporate. Only He remains. We are only appearances in HIM. Still a
long-standing devotee’s wish is Bhagavan’s command. Hence the
narration is attempted as precisely as possible - a small tale of
Ramana Kripa.
I was born in a very traditional village of profound Vedic culture. From
the very childhood, I had the good fortune of seeing Sri Bhagavan’s most
beautiful photo in the Sukhasana posture in one of our relatives’ house.
(Sri Seshamani Iyer, a very elderly devotee of Sri Bhagavan). Many times
I had dreamt Sri Bhagavan in my dreams. Right from the age of 14, I was
leading a life of deep contemplation. I used to frequent lonely places and
spend much of my time meditating and contemplating on the Upanishads
and Gita. Such an austere life had even invoked serious doubts about
the mental stability of the young boy.
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191819
'Who asked money from you? I am here, come with me ', he said. He
almost lifted me and put me on his motorcycle and drove towards the
Bus Station. After 12 hours of tedious journey through the dusty roads
of 80s, we reached Tiruvannamalai. By that time I was almost
exhausted. Why are we here with so much effort was my inner question.
We were not even aware that it was the most sacred Sivaratri evening!
Somewhere near Pali Theertham we got down from the bus.
Arunachala, unlike now, was only rocks and boulders. But the majesty
that unveiled before the eyes! The irresistible pull of something very
deeper was undeniable.
We entered Ramanasramam which was not at all crowded even
on that sacred day. As we had not informed Asram about our arrival,
rooms were not available. As we were from Palakkad, a devotee took
us directly to Kunjuswami. We went and prostrated before a very elderly
Sadhu who looked like a delightful child. Swami graciously enquired
about us and narrated some incidents in Bhagavan’s life. After that
Swami asked a person in the office to accommodate us. So we were
allotted the thatched shed in front of Bhagavan’s Samadhi. We just
kept our bags there and went to Bhagavan’s Sannidhi.
The parayana was on. It was the sacred twilight hour of Sivaratri.
I entered Bhagavan’s Samadhi Hall and just stood gazing at the
Sannidhi leaning on the left side wall. Some deep ‘innering’ process
was activated inwardly. A kind of swallowing was taking place. The
body started shaking and I almost swooned. Meanwhile my friend who
was standing behind me held me in his hands and took me to the
nearby room. The mouth was repeating some formerly initiated mantra.
But inwardly the current of ‘I’ ‘I’ was very clear. A kind of deep inner
merging was taking place. The mind was only a stream of energy. It
was not made of thoughts. It was like a fast running rivulet disappearing
in a bottomless source.
At night a devotee took us for Giripradakshina. He himself
assisted us to visit Skandasramam and Virupaksha cave. But all
these movements were only on the surface. On the depth
Arunachala Ramana reigned Supreme. After that there was no more
search for an external Guru or God.
I used to spend half of the day in the temple of Divine Mother
anthi Durga. Hours used to melt in the joy of inner silence and peace.
Those were the rainy days of Bhakti and the spring of Jnana.
Somewhere in those days when I was meditating very early in the
morning, i.e. about 3 AM – I was actually sitting in front of fire (intuitively
I always felt the presence of fire as a great help for invoking the inner
fire of the Self). At that time, suddenly a veil was lifted from the brain
and there was a clear perception of ‚deep sleep in the waking state ….
Deep Sleep! Yes, it cannot be put into better words. Actually I saw or I
merged in the absolute release of deep sleep while wide awake in that
pre-dawn hour. Sushupti (Deep Sleep) revealed itself not as a dull
state but as the profound substratum where the Self shines forth
bodyless, mindless, egoless…as Happiness itself. When I came out
of that state, there was a clear insight of the individuality, the I, emerging
from the abysmal depth of my being which was stillness and peace. It
was as if I was seeing my own birth from my own womb. The inner
witness, awareness, was watching the ‘I’ emerging and becoming the
personality.
The very next day the stream of Grace entered, i.e. I got Sri
Bhagavan’s biography and ‘Who am I’ in Malayalam. Those two books
confirmed and verbalised the route taken by the inner force on the day
before. Thus only after giving the clear glimpse of the Ramana Way,
Bhagavan appeared to me as Satguru. ‘The fruit comes first and then
the flowers’, says Sri Ramakrishna.
Although I had this insight, I was yet to come under the shade of
Bhagavan’s motherly love and compassion in his solid presence at
Ramanasramam. So there was still a deep driving force in the depth.
Was it a search for God or Guru or some fulfilment? I do not know.
Perhaps it was a search for anchorage. I was just in my teens – totally
inexperienced in the world, not at all interested in seeking job or money.
So the question of travelling from Kerala to Tiruvannamalai never arose.
But the magnetic influence of Bhagavan’s grace was operating
underneath. One of my spiritual companions who was like an elder
brother one day appeared in our house and said to me ‚'Come with me
to Arunachala.' 'I do not have a single pie with me' was my reply.
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20 21
Christopher Quilkey was born near Canberra, Australia.
He first came to Tiruvannamalai in 1975 and has been in residence at the footof Arunachala for much of the past 36 years.
He serves as a member of the editorial board of the Mountain Path.
We all know where Arunachala is geographically, but do we know
where Sri Ramana is in our heart? Of course, we are not talking about
the physical heart but the spiritual heart, which does not conform to
the rules of time and space of this physical body. When people talk
about someone just being in their head, we know they are describing
someone who lives in a world of concepts and more often than not,
cannot see what is right before their eyes. We describe a person as
having heart if that someone is open to new experiences and is
sympathetic to others. We can talk to them and know we will be
understood, even if our attempts to communicate are vague or
confused.
Arunachala is inscrutable: it stands before us and though we may
try to explain it, we invariably fail. Arunachala is not meant to be
understood with words and concepts. When Arunachala is recognized
and extolled in the heart, it overwhelms us with its radiance.
If we pause to consider, we realize it is impossible to pin down
the exact location within the heart where Arunachala-Ramana’s
presence is alive. It is like catching a slippery fish ¯ any attempt to
grab it fails. Instead we should reverse our point of view: it is not for us
to capture Arunachala but for Arunachala to consume us.
Bhagavan is our shining example of one who was devoured by
Grace. But is it true Bhagavan is alive and present now, or is it just
our imagination based on what we have read, what others have said
and what we would like to be? Can Bhagavan as our guide exist in
our heart? And if so, where can we find Him?
We all know where the hill called Arunachala is and how to get
there. We organise a vehicle or buy a ticket and we are taken there.
It is a question of time, money and being still as we are transported.
ArArArArArunacunacunacunacunachala and Srhala and Srhala and Srhala and Srhala and Sri Ri Ri Ri Ri RamanaamanaamanaamanaamanaChristopher Quilkey, Member Editorial Board, The Mountain Path
After that many Sivaratris have passed but Bhagavan’s
presence remains as powerful as on the first encounter.
Many ask me whether I have seen Bhagavan. Yes, I have seen
Him more intimately than any sensory perception. Actually it is He
who saw me and swallowed me, not I. Only He exists.
During these 20 years after that visit, many elderly devotees of
Bhagavan had poured their love and compassion on me. Actually some
of them took care of me like their own child. Only through them the
sweetness of Bhagavan’s personality and divine life became a reality.
In them I found that Guru Bhakti transcends even Self-Realisation.
Madhusudhana Saraswati says ‚Bhakti after Jnana is hundred times
sweeter !
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2322
In the same way, if we wish to be one with Bhagavan, there are
certain requirements, but here there is a paradox. For Bhagavan is
not to be found exclusively in a geographical place. He has
transcended the barriers of time and space while we, with our heavy
identification with a body-mind, are bound by our expectations and
the demands of family and work.
It is not a question of doing an action to achieve a result. When
we remain still in our body, heart and mind, there is the opportunity
for Bhagavan to emerge. Unless we are still, even if Bhagavan
energetically knocks on our door of perception, we will not hear him.
It is up to us to make the conditions right for His appearance. We
must learn to be still and listen for that subtle call. So, unlike travelling
to the physical Arunachala, we do not move when we seek Sri
Ramana.
There is the well-known saying that to be born in Tiruvarur, to
see Chidambaram, to die in Varanasi and just to think of Arunachala
is sufficient for liberation. What does it mean to think of Arunachala?
The easiest way is to come to Arunachala: the very sight of the holy
hill will spontaneously draw us inward to the heart. The other way is
to focus our attention on the image or memory of Arunachala and it
will spontaneously draw us near.
We all have encountered that magical upliftment of sacred
Arunachala and the grace of the samadhi of Sri Bhagavan in one
form or another. When we do, we know not just in our heads but
emphatically in our hearts with a certainty that cannot be shaken.
Yes, but for how long do we remain in that state of bliss before the
mind rears its head and tells us how much better it would be if this or
that was different and if only.... then everything would be perfect. It is
never perfect, as all who have gone to Arunachala have experienced.
Yes, there are those glorious moments when we are at peace, but
then the dormant vasanas, like steam in a kettle, come up and distract
us. We came for Bhagavan but where are we now with thoughts spilling
over one another? Back in Chennai or Bangalore planning the next
day’s work, wondering what the children are up to… The list can be
endless, for the mind is a factory that churns out thoughts ad nauseam.
The challenge we face is to hold onto that stream of Grace, but
not to stifle it by trying to possess it in an iron grip; rather, to flow
with it. When the seed of Bhagavan’s Grace is planted, it is no longer
a question of whether He will save us from the turmoil of samsaric
life but of when. Our job paradoxically is to stay out of our own way
by not impeding the flow of Grace. We learn how to listen.
In the presence of all the great saints, there is this quality of
stillness which effortlessly radiates peace and harmony. We are
healed of our sorrows and conflicts. Bhagavan is an expression in
human form of that pure awareness we call Arunachala and if we
but think of Him, He will think of us ¯ of that there is ample proof, as
all who rely on Bhagavan’s Grace will tell.
The reason we journey to Arunachala or live at Arunachala is
because we know that it is the easiest way to contact the power of
Bhagavan’s presence. However, we should be careful not to
preclude the possibility that Bhagavan can be contacted anywhere
at any time. There are too many stories from widely differing sources
which confirm the active, expansive nature of Bhagavan’s Grace.
When we gaze on Arunachala or think of it from afar, there is
no sense of distance. In the same respect, when we think of
Bhagavan, we use the idea of his physical form to ‘contact’ His
presence.This power is neither here nor there in our limited human
dimension. It is available anywhere we may be.
Once we take that step, we set in motion a set of actions that
draw us closer to the source. A higher power guides us if we but
surrender and listen.It all depends on us opening up our heart to
that divine presence so that it may both attract us from without as
well as pull us from within. Bhagavan in this sense is everywhere.
All that we need to know He has said in one verse:
“In the recesses of the lotus-shaped hearts of all, beginning
with Vishnu, there shines as pure intellect (Absolute Consciousness)
the Paramatman who is the same as Arunachala, or Ramana. When
the mind melts with love of Him and reaches the inmost recess of
the Heart wherein He dwells as the Beloved, the subtle eye of pure
intellect opens and He reveals Himself as Pure Consciousness.”
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The Upanishads, the Gita, Viveka Chudamani, Jivanmukti Vivekaand other works describe in detail the ways of the ‘one liberated in life’.
He lives in the world, but is not attached to it. He knows no fear and
none is afraid of him. Seeing him, hearing about him and thinking of him,
all beings are delighted and filled with faith, hope and courage. He forms
a living link between the Vyavaharika or empirical world of space and
time and the paramarthika world of transcendental awareness. He
enables us to share as a present aesthetic experience the ‘oneness of
all selves’ and he also convinces us of the practical possibility of our
own permanent abidance in the sahaja or natural state of pure awareness.
Dr.S. Ram Mohan is a former Addl. Member in Railway Board, India. He holdssix post graduate degrees and MBA and Ph.D. He is the editor of Tamil journal‘Ramanodayam’ and Co-editor for ‘Mountain Path’. He was the former Chairman ofComputer Society of India at Chennai. He is a renowned speaker and writer onspiritual and religious and cultural matters. He has lectured at several centres andUniversities all over the world. In recognition of his erudition he was conferredwith the award “PRACHYA VIDHYA PARANGATA’ (Expert in ClassicalKnowledge) by WAVES Organization of Scholars at Houston University U.S.A. Hewas sent to represent India by ICPR in the Conference of Intellectual Traditions ofthe World” at Maryland. He was the invited speaker at the World Congress ofReligious Diversity, International Buddhist Conference etc. He is a contributor tothe 100 volume encyclopedia on Indian Philosophy and Science on the topics “SaivaSiddhanta” and “Synthesis of Yoga” and Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Dr Ram Mohan serves in management of Ramana Kendra, Delhi and Chennai .
Delhi Ramana Kendra was the earliestRamana Organization in India started byrenowned Prof. K. Swaminathan. Sri MorarjiDesai, Sri M.L.Sondhi M.P., Sri A.R.Natarajan,La.Su.Rangarajan and scores of other devoteesparticipated in its activities, making it avibrant centre for Ramana Philosophy with amagnificent structure and Library. It had doneyeoman service to Ramana Movement andTamil spiritual world by bringing out the 10volumes of ‘Ramana Jnana Bodham’ byMuruganar. It is an actual Centre for practical
Philosophy with activities like spiritual lectures, yoga classes, music and study groups.
BhagBhagBhagBhagBhagaaaaavvvvvan Sran Sran Sran Sran Sri Ri Ri Ri Ri Ramana Maharamana Maharamana Maharamana Maharamana MaharshishishishishiThe Epitome of Cosmic ConsciousnessThe Epitome of Cosmic ConsciousnessThe Epitome of Cosmic ConsciousnessThe Epitome of Cosmic ConsciousnessThe Epitome of Cosmic Consciousness
Dr.S.Ram Mohan,I.R.A.S.,Governing CommiiteeMember Ramana Kendra Delhi, Ramana Kendra Chennai,
Editior 'Ramanodayam', Member Editorial Board 'The Mountain Path'
Sri Ramana Maharshi is an outstanding example of a Jivanmukta.
As Duncan Greenlees says: ‘I have taken all the descriptions of the
jivanmukta I could find in any scripture-Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian,
Christian, Muslim or Jain. I have watched Bhagavan under all kinds
of circumstances and checked up what I have seen with those
descriptions. He alone of all the men I have seen seems to dwell always
in sahaja (the normal, natural state of choiceless awareness)’.
Wei Wu Wei (Terence Gray), a prolific and precise writer on advaitaand Buddhism, found in the Maharshi a fusion of both these traditions
and admired in particular his soulabhya, his easy accessibility and
readiness to reveal the highest truth to all who turned to him. ‘Who
else is there to whom anyone can reasonably point, of our own days,
who lived for half a century, available to all at all times, in a state of as
perfect identification with Godhead as would seem possible to an
apparent individual manifestation? Hundreds of us knew him personally
as such, and of whom else can that be said? What a marvellous thing
it is to have had such a contemporary and to be able to compare his
words and his living of life with the words, and description left us by
scriptures, of past sages? In Bhagavan alone can we test those words
and those scriptures, and see for ourselves that they are not a dream
or a fantasy.’ In the words of Muruganar, ‘Seeing all beings in himself/
And himself in all/Humbler than the humblest/Through meekness the
Supreme/Conceals and yet reveals/His true supremacy.’
The state of a Jivanmukta cannot be comprehended by our relative
minds. The terms existence and non-existence, as we understand
them, cannot be applied to a liberated soul. All that can be said about
such a person is that he is forever freed from the spell of ignorance. He
has entered into the realm of Light, compared to which even the highest
knowledge of the relative world is sheer darknessIndeed, Sri Ramana’s
life and Upadesa exemplifies all the characteristics of Jivanmuktasdescribed in various scriptures.
Sri Ramana never identified himself with his body or sense and never
considered the rest of the objects of the world as separate from him. He, as
Brahman (the Supreme Consciousness) is the substratum of the entire world.
He always lived in Supreme Consciousness. He remains without any
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Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi awake. When there was some need
for him to go out at night, he would never like to disturb the sleeping
devotees. He used to focus the beam of the torch on his belly and
used to walk with the aid of that light, so that the devotees were not
disturbed. Such was his compassion. Vasishta further describes a Jivanmukta , “He is the Jivanmukta
who, although responsive to the spurs of love, hate, fear and the like,
is absolutely pure in heart as the Akasa (Laghu Yoga Vasishtam. 5.93).
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi here was absolutely pure like the
akasa. There were no waves of emotion in him; at the same time he
was not a dry-yogi. His immense jnana andlove enveloped the entire
world including birds, animals and trees. They were fond of him as if
he is one of their ilk. He In fact, during winter he used to keep small
puppies on his body while he was seated on the sofa and cover them
with the blanket, which was enveloping him. He used to let them go in
the early morning before anybody else came to meet him. Thus while
there was absolutely no disturbance of emotions in his heart, he was
totally responsive to spurs of love and compassion. A mother monkey
would come to show its new born child to him. Squirrels would climb
all over his body waiting to be fed by him. Cows and dogs would
refuse to go away unless he gave them feed or directed them to go.
This is a summit of universality he felt with the entire creation.
"He is the Jivanmukta whose inner-self is not affected by egoism
and whose mind is free from all modifications in spite of his being
engaged in sastric activities or not says Vasishta. (Laghu YogaVasishtam. 5.94). Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s enlightenment was
instantaneous, following his death experience. He had no exposure
to any religious or spiritual texts before his experience, except the
cursory reading of Periapuranam. However, as the Upanishad says,
through his Self-realisation he had known ‘THAT’ by knowing which ,
everything else is known. He delineates, “ in ‘Upadesasaram’ spiritual
knowledge as “Knowledge which is beyond knowing and not knowing”
Verse 24 as also in Ulladu Narpadu Verse 12. With a mere introduction
of the Sanskrit prosody on the Arya metre by Kavya Kanta, Bhagavan
Sri Ramana Maharshi was able to compose Arunachala Panchakam
thought of being or non-being, ego or non-ego, as pure existence only
(Laghu Yoga Vasistha, Chapter 43, Verse 43-77). Sri Ramana always
was in the Seventh Bhoomika which is called as the Turyatita (beyond
the transcendental) which is Supreme Consciousness itself. Bhagavan
Sri Ramana took no interest in any of the objects of enjoyment. He
faced old age penury and dreadful diseases as pleasantly as he would
welcome a Kingdom offered to him, which are described as the
characteristics of the Jivanmukta by the Mahopanishad Chapter II,
Verse 42, 54 & 55). Sri Ramana also exemplified what the Ribhu Gita,
Chapter II, Verse 28 says “I have no guru or disciple apart from me.
There is no transcendental knowledge apart from me”. He is a
true Jivanmukta who is abiding permanently in his Self (Ribhu Gita,
Chapter II, Verse 34). Ribhu Gita, Chapter II, Verse 47 says about a
Jivanmukta “I am not in delusion, I have no knowledge apart from me.
I have no secrets to hide. I have no lineage. I possess nothing”. The
one who contemplates thus is a Jivanmukta according to Ribhu Gita.
Sri Ramana never tried to hide himself. He was accessible to
everybody all the time of the day. He never observed any distinction
in conferring his grace upon the devotees. Yoga Vashishta 5.90,
says that he is a Jivanmukta to whom this world of senses has ceased
to exist, although he lives and moves in it, only an all pervading yeoman
transcendental knowledge exist in him. Bhagavan Sri Ramana
Maharshi when questioned, explained that, “for a Jivanmukta , since
there is no mental transformation ( having become non-existence) as
in deep sleep, the Self-effulgent - all pervading intelligence alone
remains”.
Vasishta further says, “ Jivanmukta is awake in deep sleep, for
whom there is no waking state and whose knowledge is devoid of
desires”. (Laghu Yoga Vasishtam. 5.92). For all of us, in the deep sleep
state, mind is not there, at the same time awareness is also not there.
But for a Jivanmukta like Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, there is
constant awareness as mind is free from all transformation and desires,
“Nirvasanabodah”. Fortunate devotees who were with him used to
say that in the Meditation Hall, they would be sleeping around his cot.
Any time of the night when they woke up by chance, they would find
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in the same metre flawlessly in a few minutes. All these have flown
from the inner fountain of the spiritual knowledge and not from the
egoistic phenomenal knowledge.
“The Jivanmukta is he who does not frighten the world nor is he
afraid of the world; he is free from joy, anger and fear as well” (LaghuYoga Vasishtam. 5.95). Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi has truly
exemplified this verse of Yoga Vasishta. Kunju Swamy used to say
that Bhagavan Ramana has so contracted his magnificence within
this mortal frame that devotees around him were not even aware of
his immensity. Kunju Swamy says that Bhagavan Ramana
deliberately hid his all-surpassing glow so that the devotees are not
frightened. Thus, he never frightened the world in any manner. Nor
he is the Samadhi where the body lies interred continues to confer
immense spiritual benefits to the devotees who come to the Samadhito pray. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad explains this phenomenon as
“The vital life –force and the Jivanmukta does not go anywhere else
after death but continue to be earthed and absorbed in that very
place(esoterically, in the omnipresent Brahman)” (Brihadaranyaka III– 2-11). This is a common experience of all those who were blessed
to meet Sri Ramana during his life time and those who throng to his
Samadhi even today.
SrSrSrSrSri Ri Ri Ri Ri Ramana tamana tamana tamana tamana the Jnanihe Jnanihe Jnanihe Jnanihe JnaniWith Concern for AllWith Concern for AllWith Concern for AllWith Concern for AllWith Concern for All
Prof.Laxmi Narain, Editor, Ramana Jyothi,Journal of Ramana Kendra, Hyderabad
Prof Laxmi Narain, Formerly professor and founding head, Dept. of BusinessMgt., Osmania University, Hyderabad, is presently serving as the Editor of Sri RamanaJyothi, monthly journal of Sri Ramana Kendram, Hyderabad. He has been associatedwith the Kendram for the last 20 years. He is the Author of tbe book 'face to Face withRamana Maharshi'.
In 1979, The President of Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, wrote to Dr.K.Subrahmanian, a devotee of Bhagavan, and professor of English at the CentralInstitute of English, Hyderabad, to celebrate birth centenary of Bhagavan at Hyderabad.The devotees of Bhagavan who got together for the purpose on 19th July, 1979, decidedto start a Ramana Kendram at Hyderabad, which has grown from strength to strengthsince then. The Kendram today has a double storey building of its own on a centrally-located 1000 yard plot of land.
Every Sunday 60-80 devotees meet for two hours to sing Bhagavan’s praise, listento his teachings and meditate.
The Kendram has a library with over 2000 books and a good reading room.
For the last 30 years the Kendram is bringing out a bilingual journal entitled SriRamana Jyothi, .
Some of the publications of the Kendram are: 1. Face to Face with Sri RamanaMaharshi (English and Telugu). 2. Upadesha Saram (Telugu) 3. Thiruvachakam (Telugu)4. Aksharamanamalai (English and Telugu).
Sri Ramana was unique in every respect. It is difficult to find in recorded
history a person who throughout his life remained totally unaffected by six
deadly enemies of every human being, namely, kama, krodha, mada, lobha,moha, and matsarya. After the mahashakti descended on him in July, 1896,
he remained jivanmukta and sthitaprajna, in the fullest sense of the terms,
throughout his life. He cannot be described forGod is beyond description.
No adjectives will ever be adequate for him. Some tributes by the devotees
mentioned below, speak for themselves.
Grant Duff, a British diplomat and a scholar notes: ‘The moment the
Maharshi looked at me, I felt he was the Truth and the Light. It did not take
me long to see that I was in direct contact with one who has passed beyond
the boundaries of the senses and was indeed already merged into the
Absolute of the true Self. Never perhaps in world history was the Supreme
Truth – Realty, Sat – placed within such easy reach of so vast a magnitude.’
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Upanishads with great enthusiasm and profundity. All, including Bhagavan,
appeared to be attentively listening to the interesting discussion when, all
of a sudden, Bhagavan rose from the couch, walked some distance and
stood before a villager who was standing looking lowly with palms joined.
All eyes turned to Bhagavan and the villager who was standing at a distance.
They appeared to be conversing. Soon Bhagavan returned to his couch
and the discussion was resumed.’
‘Being curious to know why Bhagavan had to go out to meet a villager,
I slipped away from the discussion and caught up with the villager before
he left the ashram. He told me, “Bhagavan was asking why I was standing
so far and also asked my name, about my village, what I did, and about my
family, etc”. I enquired, “Did you ask him anything?” The villager replied,
“When I asked him how I could earn his blessings, he asked whether there
was a temple in my village and the name of the temple deity. When I told
him the deity’s name, he said, go on repeating the name of the deity and
you would receive all the blessings needed.” I came back to Bhagavan’s
presence, but lost all interest in the discussions. I felt that the simple humility
and devotion of a peasant had evoked a far greater response from our
Master than any amount of learning. I then decided that though a scholar
by profession, I should always remain a humble, ignorant peasant at heart
and pray for Bhagavan’s grace and blessings.’
Human beings apart, Sri Ramana was no less considerate to theanimals.
Major Chadwick says in his biography of the Maharshi: ‘Bhagavan
was invariably kind to all animals. Snakes and scorpions were never allowed
to be killed. For dogs he always had a tender spot. At one time a small
puppy would always relieve itself near the office. The sarvadhikari got furious
and tried to drive it out of the ashram. Bhagavan came to its rescue saying
that if some child did the same thing nobody would be angry, and the puppy
was only a child and knew no better. He seemed specially to love monkeys
and often said that in many ways they were better than human beings.’
Regarding monkeys, Roda MacIver, a Parsi devotee, writes: ‘Attendant
Krishnaswami would beat monkeys who played mischief in the hall or tried
to stealthily take away the fruits. Once Bhagavan told him, “It is not the
monkeys that are receiving your beatings. It is I. The suffering is mine.”
The experience of Wolter Keers, a Dutch devotee, was no different.
He says, ‘The sight of him made me tremble all over because I had come
face to face with the Divine. Here before me was a human form that seemed
to be made of light itself. God became manifest before my eyes, announcing
His presence to me by radiating a blazing penetrating light, a light that went
right through me like x-rays. The light radiating from Bhagavan filled my
being, sweeping all my darkness in one stroke.”
Sri Ramana’s concern for allIt has rightly been stated that none was equal to Sri Ramana, but he
considered all to be his equals. His concern for others was legendary. Kunju
Swami, his attendant for 12 years, records in his biography of Bhagavan:
‘An old woman living near Arunachaleswara Temple and some other elderly
people in the town had decided that they would eat morning food only after
Bhagavan’s darshan at the Skandasram. One day the lady devotee could
not come. Bhagavan asked her the next day as to why she had missed a
day. She answered, “Realising my infirmity you gave darshan from near
my house, while you were sitting on the rock near the ashram, brushing
your teeth.” She added, “I am not able to climb the hill everyday, I would
now have your darshan from my house.” From that day onwards, even
when the weather was bad, Bhagavan brushed his teeth sitting on that
rock. This proved convenient to many other elderly devotees who wanted
to have his darshan but were unable to climb the hill.’
Sadhu Trivenigiri, who was on the ashram staff for long, writes:
‘Bhagavan always felt concerned about the welfare of his devotees. One
day, when Major Chadwick was down with fever, Bhagavan asked, “How
is he now?” When I replied that I did not know and had not seen him, he
directed me to go and see him. He added, “He left his country and travelled
thousands of miles, staying with us and making us his own. Should we not
take care of him and look after his needs?”’
Sri Ramana’s biographies are filled with his indulgence for theunder-privileged.
Prof. K. Swaminathan provides a touching account as to how Sri
Ramana would shower grace on the poor. In his words: ‘Once in the 1940s,
I was sitting outside the hall with many devotees. Bhagavan was reclining
on a couch. A group of learned pundits were discussing passages from the
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J Jayaraman is popularly known as ‘JJ’. With a degree in electronics fromIIT,Madras, he began visiting Ashram from 1976, in the midst of his career withcomputers.
Has been an Ashram resident since 1985 and continues to serve as Librarian.
Has served on the editorial board of The Mountain Path; contributed severalarticles and also for long handled its Book-Reviews column. He is an Advisor toRamanodayam, Tamil monthly of Ramana Kendra, Chennai.
Has an innate gift for music and metres, and has been an instrument ofBhagavan in bringing to fore the metrical rhythm in the Tamil Parayana group-chanting held daily before the shrine.
He has been actively involved in the NGO Annamalai Reforestation Society’spioneering of a natural forest now evident on the slopes en=route to Skandashram.
JJ has had the fortune of moving closely with several of Bhagavan’s direct disciplesin his formative years, the fruit of which is only now beginning to be appreciated, furthering the surrender through enquiry.
Before I am hauled up for a bit of bad grammar over the title, I submit
that I intend to convey two supplementary perspectives regarding our
Master.
Firstly in the sense of a Path. The ‘way to’ the abiding truth which the
sadguru conveys is primarily based on his own experience, and happens
to be in absolute accordance with the pulse of timeless tradition, wherever
nurtured. And naturally so, as His words of clarity, defining direction, and
His Look of grace granting a direct sampling of ever-present Mauna amidst
experiential noise,proceeded from the Heart-Self.... that transcendent space
immanent in manifestation, in which (as a quester holding on to sheer
subjectivity of the questing being) he gained entrance, and as which(swallowed by sheer non-dual gravity of the Heart’s dominant subject-
hood) he gained establishment.
Secondly, ‘way’ in the sense of intensity. The manner of his teaching,
throughout his ministry on earth was a near monotone, free of verbiage
and ambiguity; a relentless pitch, right on target, wholesomely scientific,
seamlessly relating God-above through Guru-in-front to the ever-abiding
all-encompassing Heart-Self within.
The WThe WThe WThe WThe Waaaaay Ry Ry Ry Ry Ramana Highlightsamana Highlightsamana Highlightsamana Highlightsamana HighlightsJ.Jayaraman, Librarian, Sri Ramanasramam
When some devotees complained to Bhagavan about their trouble with the
monkeys, he said, “All this land was once a jungle in which the monkeys
could roam about freely. It has been their natural habitat for centuries. We
are trespassers. Is it fair to complain? Why not put up with a little
inconvenience.”’
Bhagavan – the Self SupremeSri Ramana was God in human form. Harindranath Chattopadhyaya,
a great Bengali poet echoes this in the following words:
Eternity has worn a human face,
Contracted to a little human span,
Lo, the Immortal has become a man,
A self-imprisoned thing in time and space.
We have been indeed fortunate to have amidst us an incarnation of
the Almighty, who came to remind us that we should not become oblivious
of the obvious, that is, our real Self. He repeatedly emphasized the need
for discovering our true nature through persistent and sincere meditation
on the question of all questions, ‘Who am I ?’
What Einstein said about Gandhiji would in no less measure apply to
Sri Ramana: ‘Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as
this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.’
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Thus the path of self-enquiry is non-different from the path of devotional
surrender. Quest for Self necessarily demands inward gaze, which is won
only through the grace of one-pointed devotion to the truth of one’s immediate
Being, as that alone precedes and lends substance to one’s endless and
obsessed cycling through Being as Experiencer, Knower and Doer and
back. This Quest for the common denominator necessarily enforces a
surrendering by the questing-self of its fondly-held, and hitherto-greater
reality of its subject-hood (a status of dominance it rightfully holds only in
relation to objects illuminated in its out-going perception). Ramana testifies
to the surrender-process as one of being swallowed-up by one’s deeper
(ever-present, and hence absolutely dominant) Presence.
An elephant chained to a post, carved in bas-relief on wood, could
‘hide’ the wood. But the wood ever transcends that scenery though it is
immanent in every atom of the scene. If the Elephant exists ‘in’ wood-
space as a knower of duality, the non-duality of the Wood ‘has’ the capacity
to know. If the ‘arisen’ elephant-form were to seek the basis of its being, the
wood would dominate as the abiding presence.
So too the Self as abiding-Presence, automatically deprives the
objectively-seeking ‘arising-presence’, (provided it is inwardly-oriented), of
its status of subjectivity, on account of its being the ‘lesser’ subject, and
renders it toothless. In other words, the subject-hood of the ego, when questing
steadily and holding its bubbling point of origin, is swallowed up. More correctly,
the transient claimant of independent subject-hood is voided. Holding on to
The Feet, being the point of its arising, the object-dependent questing energy
is witnessed to be the duality-projecting mirage-mechanism that it is. The
ego no longer speaks for itself; it represents its master illuminator, Mauna!
Thus the Master was essentially redirecting the questioner-in-front to raise
the question “who am I?”, and the answer being, “I am the one raising the
question”, to follow it up again with, “Who is raising the answer?”. The answer
being,”I am”, returns the doer to the original questioning sequence. A doership
is thus held by its action to hold its arising.
This can generate in the purified mind, that special engagement of a
near-identical subject-object pair. An automatic confirmation of this extremely
subtle mental engagement being in the right ‘direction’ is the side-effect of
sensation in the right-side of the chest.
Holding steadily, one seeks the point of arising of the feeling of holding,
and even more subtly, of the feeling of the intention. This is done in utterdisregard of objective definitions that arise prompted by root-vasana,
and this includes the temptation ‘here’ to attend to the Heart-sensation
happening ‘there’.
This is the holding on to the Feet. This is the space of sphurana where
the ‘reduction’ of the questing-ego is consummated. This is the arena of
akhanda-aakaara vritti where the purified limited-mind plumbing inwards
without objectification, realizes unlimitedness, like a river ‘becoming’ the
ocean which it is even as the flowing river.
All of the above ‘travel-guide’ is sadly more grist for the dualistic-mill in
the absence of purification in mind. Purification begins with viveka, which
Ramana defines as development of dispassion towards transient things.
Anything false is necessarily transitory, and any arising must be false. The
waking-life story of the jiva is its own biased compiling of some of its states.
The waking is the state where the ego establishes itself as consciousness
limited to a changing body, in a changing, pre-existent world. It grants reality
to the waking-world, by dismissing post-facto, some states as false [dream
worlds]. And granting reality to waking-body, it regards its awareness as
secondary, by its inability to ‘objectively-experience’ dreamless sleep.
This self-feeding delusion is annulled only by the Ramana recipe: “go
back the way you came”. The determination of the exact direction of ‘back’
[going inward] is itself tricky. Ego can establish by observation that its world-
experience involves a dependent hierarchy, where its outer roles hide the
precedent ones. This is explained below:
We can, by self-observation see the self in three roles: Tamasic, as
experiencer of objects. Rajasic, when ego becomes doer. And finally
Sattvic, as analyzer, reporter and knower of mental states, as we are
doing presently!
We readily relapse into Tamas [laya mode], as beings are predisposed
to drift towards effortless reception of pleasant experiences. And when our
instinctual adjustments do not work, we turn Rajasic, and become
‘conscious’ Doers, employing karmendriyas. However upon re-
establishment of the pleasant ‘deliveries’, we relapse into the passive
‘expriencer’ role.
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42 43
Such observation as done here concerning mental activity,
being free of craving or aversion, is done by the Sattvic l ight of
mind.
Amidst worldly pursuits however, the results of analysis through
the Sattvic domain of mind are promptly ‘hijacked’ by the Rajasic to serve
ego’s Tamasic ends. This is the reason that evidence of strong bias for
abiding Truth [sat-vasana] countering in-born craving and aversion
towards sense-objects [malina-vasanas] in seekers, is a pre-condition
to the transmission of instruction.
With these facts on hand it can be seen that, the Doer hides
the Experiencer who hides the Knower who hides the Witness. The
inner direction is gleaned simply by looking out for the changeless
amidst the changing. To illustrate: I see a red flower and then a green
leaf. The two experiences are mutually exclusive. Even if I were
‘looking out’, and unaware of the fact of my gazing, the registering
of each v isual ob ject demanded that the v isual gaze was
necessarily ‘on’ at the time of the arrival of each object in my field
of vision. The seeing precedes, is ‘inner in direction’ to the visual-
object experiences, and is like a container to them. The seeing
being present unaffected within each experience, is like a witness.This ‘inner’ neutral-beam is hidden by the force of outer-vasana.
Similarly, the ‘beam’ of hearing is ‘inner’ to different sounds. Our
five sensing ‘beams’ are themselves insulated domains and so the mind
that reports so, is ‘inner’ to these.
Further, states like ‘I am now happy’, ‘I am now sad’ [with a strong
preference for one over the other] are indicative of a neutral ‘I’ that is
equally present and necessarily continually present even through
mutually conflicting experiences. This self is ‘inner’, is ‘witness’ and
[like space containing objects,] is ‘container’ to the emotional states
within the waking. However the ego as experiencer hides the ego as
witness, much like the hot-current ofoven and the cold current of the
freezer hide the temperature-freeelectric current within!
The witness is unbiased. The ‘manifesting’ of our inner witness is
proportional to removal of bias in our attachment to different objects. Non-
attachment is but equanimity towards all.
Further the waking and dream are mutually exclusive states. The sense
of our being awake [within our dream] is excluded from entering the sense of
being awake in waking, and vice versa. It is this that maintains the illusion of
being awake during mutually exclusive states. So too, dreamless-sleep [ego
embracing void as object] excludes the form-holding states, and vice versa.
The ‘inner-dimension’ to the ‘I’ of these states is that witness which,
‘space-like’ simultaneously permeates the forms and ‘contains’ them. This
simultaneously transcendent and immanent ‘beam of neutrality’ is hidden
by the states of bias riding on it! The unraveling of this requires absolute
consistency during all waking hours in cutting the feed-back loop that
reinforces dvaita-buddhi, the vasana that pleasurable objects exist
independently of one’s body. In other words, the karmendriyas [speech,
hands and feet] that a seeker employs in dealing with the outer world, are
the engines perpetrating the ‘leakage’ of the precious capital of advaitic
sadhana the seeker hopes to build by daily meditation. Our daily speech
and action, done unconsciously for self-advantageonly serves to thicken
the dvaita-buddhi and drains away the fruit of daily sadhana.
Given the above condition of purity, it is possible to observe the
functioning of the Sattvic domain of individual mind, whose role of being the
witness is otherwise hidden by Rajasic [‘compulsive doership’] and Tamasic
[‘experiencer’ and ‘auto-adjuster’] vasanas.
Sattvic is the field of ego as observer, knower, analyzer and reporter.
Independent of our control, sensations of relationship impinge on us from
without, and reactions arise from the chitta-memory within. If a reaction is
negative in value, and assuming we already are sattvic enough not to act
on this, we find a parallel thought-stream arising that regrets such arisings
and thus in conflict with the former. The observer/knower [sattvic] mind
can see that generating such parallel-streams is a fundamental mechanism
of vasanas of Rajasic domain, thus creating a self-functioning entity. The
subject-hood [drik status] in the reaction from within, is abducted by the
newly arisen conflicting-stream, reducing the former to the status of ‘object’
[drsya status]. One needs to observe every such conflicted arising, and
validate the operation of this Law. This establishes drik as ‘passive’ witness
in the Sattvic domain. The Rajasic stream robbed of feed of subject-hood
dies without ado by Law of starvation.
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The ‘knower’ in the Sattvic domain operates in dual mode. As ‘talker’
and as ‘hearer’. The Talker is perceived only when we catch ourselves
chattering within. A vasana during its germination, projects an ambiguous
form and the speech component generates associated naming. Thus talking
proceeds alongside the formal sequences, until the reverie runs out of ‘fuel’
or is aborted by the sattvic Hearer surfacing. When unruly chattering is
present, one initiates Japa or attends to the anahata within, and inheres
holding the Hearing. This ‘jams’ the chatter-audio and nullifies it. The seeking
of the Hearer is a step added.
‘I’ as Talker is tied to vasanas. ‘I’ as Hearer being inherently and passively
present, is tied to witness. The Hearer is to be held. When held, silence
[from vasana-driven Talk] ensues. The subject is then a Hearer of silence.
A Talking automatically arises to define this ‘activity’. The content of this
‘arising speech’ being itself a label for silence, reinforces the holding if the
subject-hood stays as Hearer. When held without ‘leakages’, Grace ensures
that such holding turns increasingly effortless, as the Talker purified re-
presents silence, and the Hearer presents silence, in the march towards
ever-present Mauna-Self.
Is it surprising that the Mandukya Upanishad calls the place of arisingof
subject-object duality cheto-mukhah [mouth of consciousness]?
Kena Upanishad [2.2] defines its ambience: I do not call it as an arisingof “I know”, nor do I call it as an arising of “I do not know”. He whoknows this truly knows.
Ramana echoes the eternal speech of His Mauna through verse 2 of
Arunachala Ashtakam:
Nearing [It], with subject-object mode stilled, I saw.
Seeking within that rising thought, as to “who sees this?”......
The seer ended; I saw the residuum....
[Even so,] the thought “I have seen” did not arise; [such being the
seeing] how then could the thought “I have not seen?” arise?
The Call of ArThe Call of ArThe Call of ArThe Call of ArThe Call of Arunacunacunacunacunachala and Rhala and Rhala and Rhala and Rhala and RamanaamanaamanaamanaamanaNatarajan Venkatesan , Ramana Satsang, Los Angeles
Mr Natarajan Venkatesan was born in Madurai and did his schooling in Madras.After completing his B.Sc (Chemistry) from Vivekananda College, University of Madrasin 1960, he went on to do B.Sc(Tech) from University of Bombay in 1962. He thenpursued research and completed Ph.D(Tech) from University of Bombay in 1967.
He then went to America where he worked as a Research Associate inBiochemistry in various US universities. Since 1996, he has been working as a ResearchScientist in Cancer Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
Ramana Satsang in Los Angeles was started on Dec 18, 2005 (Bhagavan’s Jayanthiday) with about 10 devotees. Los Angeles covers a large area, some devotees having totravel 90 miles each way. The number of meetings have been increasing over the yearsand presently 10 sessions are held each year with an interval of 5-6 weeks. Most of thedevotees are of Indian origin with a few North American members. The satsang nowhas about 20 devotees meeting on a regular basis.
For the first five decades of my
life, I had no interest in matters religious
or spiritual and had not heard of
Tiruvannamalai, Arunachala or
Ramana. The call of Arunachala and
Ramana was most likely pre-
determined and the seeds sown
gradually. After coming upon a book
on Ramana by chance, I became
interested in his teachings and decided
to visit Tiruvannamalai in 1998 although
I had little idea of giripradakshina or
Ramanasramam. The trip was not well-
planned and to my dismay, I could not
get accommodation either in the
Ashram or neighboring guesthouses
since I had not made reservations
earlier. The next day, I visited the
Asram for a short time after
giripradakshina and returned to
Chennai. I was disappointed at not
partaking in the activities and ambience
of the Asram and resolved to return soon
with proper planning.56 57
THE RAMANA WAY MARCH 2011
of instant culture looking for instant Self-realization. We are all confronted
everyday with the dilemma of how to reconcile the constraints imposed upon
us by society, our family or our own conditioned personality, with our inner
spiritual needs. The challenges one faces in USA are no different from what
one faces in India. Which path to choose, surrender or enquiry or both and
how committed are we are important questions. Bhagavan told Paramahamsa
Yogananda in 1936 that the spiritual instructions (and, by inference, the
practices) differ according to the temperaments of the individuals and the
spiritual ripeness of their minds. Thus, each of us has to figure out the path that
is appealing and incorporate it in the practice with all patience, sincerity and
dedication.
Two of my recent experiences are worth narrating. On the morning of
Mattupongal (the day dedicated to cow worship and following the day of
harvest festival) in mid- January 2005, I went to a bookstore opposite to the
Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore; however, the store was closed and I
decided to visit the temple instead. The bull (Nandi) facing the main deity
(Siva Linga) was elaborately decorated with fruits, vegetables, sandalwood
paste, sweets and miscellaneous snacks and worshipped in the traditional
manner. Soon after, a group of devotees started chanting Aksharamanamalai.This caught me totally by surprise and I sat down near a pillar with tears of
joy trickling down my cheeks. The closing of the store had serendipitously
led me to a blissful experience and this has reinforced my faith in Bhagavan.
A few months ago, I was afflicted with a serious illness. Constant chanting
of “ Arunachala Siva” and “ Sadguru Ramana” throughout all the painful tests,
procedures and harsh therapy gave me the strength and positive attitude to
face the physical and emotional challenges for the most part. However, when
I reached a nadir at times, I used to wonder whether my prayers were being
answered. The situation is similar to half a glass of water being considered
half-empty by the pessimist and half-full by the optimist.
This analogy helped me to reconcile that, but for the grace of Bhagavan,
things could have been worse. Was my surrender total? Not at all! Bhagavan
declared that the body itself is a disease and that one should not be upset if the
body is afflicted. My mind is not spiritually ripe to accept this yet. However, it is
my fervent hope that unfailing faith in Arunachala and Bhagavan and continued
practice will lead to increasing attention to the Self.
My first stay at the Asram was in January 2000 and since then, I’ve been
visiting the Asram almost every year. True to the origin of the word (A, not; Sram,
fatigue, weariness), Ramanasramam is a place of rest and a haven of peace. My
favorite time to visit is during the Tamil month of Marghazi (mid-December to mid-
January) when early morning chants start around 5 AM followed by the distribution
of hot Pongal Prasadam.
The entire operation of the Asram- efficiency, clockwork punctuality,
hospitality and cleanliness- is reminiscent of the days of Bhagavan. The library
is excellent and carries some rare books,hard to find elsewhere. Over the course
of the last few years, the vehicular traffic and noise on the Chengam road, south
of the Asram has increased considerably. Faced with that, I remember reading
that when Mother’s shrine was being built, there were complaints about the
background sound of stone chipping. In response, Bhagavan pointed out that
the sounds should be ignored by focusing attention on the enquiry.
So, how did I come to accept Ramana as my Manasika Guru and Arunachala
as Father? When I came to know of Bhagavan going door to door asking for
food (Bhiksha) in the twentieth century, communicating by silence, and of his
attaining self-realization instantly, I had no difficulty in choosing him as my Guru.
As eloquently expressed by Adyashanthi, “Ramana Maharshi’s gift to the world
was that he embodied the Self- realization so thoroughly. It is one thing to realize
the Self; it is something else altogether to embody that realization to the extent
that there is no gap between inner revelation and its outer expression. Many
have glimpsed the realization of Oneness; few consistently express that
realization through their humanness. It is one thing to touch a flame and know it
is hot, but quite another to jump into that flame and be consumed by it”. Since
Bhagavan regarded Arunachala as the embodiment of Siva and as his Guru, it
follows that I consider Arunachala as Father. Thus seeking the blessings and
grace of Ramana and Arunachala has become the very basis of my spiritual
practice.
The keystone of Bhagavan’s teaching is the annihilation of ego either
through complete surrender to the Higher Power or by tracing ego to its source
(self –enquiry). He made it a point to relate every incident or event to ego and
Self, so much so that he even composed a poem giving instructions for spiritual
development under the symbolism of making Appalam! As pointed out in the
editorials of Mountain Path (July-Sept 2005; Jan-Mar 2006), we live in an age
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I came to know about Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in
the early seventies through books which my husband had
borrowed from the Indian Embassy in Sweden. I remember I had
to take part in an exam and was doing some revision work, which
bored me after some time. Instead I took the book on Sri Ramana
and started reading.
The fact that a young lad of 16 years decided to leave everything
behind to go to his destination, Arunachala, who was also Father to
him, struck me and triggered a sense of curiosity in me that has
intensified over the years. Soon after, we ordered all books from
Sri Ramanasramam to know more about Bhagavan and his
teachings. Having been exposed to the Bhagavad Gita, to literature
Ms Savithri Cuttaree is the Secretary of Sri Ramana Maharshi Centre ofMauritius.
She first came to Sri Ramanasramam during the Birth Centenary Year of Bhagavanand has been a regular visitor to the Asram ever since. By her deep devotion toBhagavan, she has been the key instrument of Bhagavan in organizing and running avibrant Ramana Centre in Mauritius.
The programs at the Sri Ramana Maharshi Centre of Mauritius are as below.
A daily program consisting of Morning Puja and recitation of Catvarimsat.
A weekly class for adults run by Ms Savithri Cuttaree. on the Life and Teachingsof Bhagavan . She also runs a weekly class for children.
Three main functions : Jayanti , Aaradhana, Advent of Sri Ramana at Arunachalaare celebrated at the centre. Kartigai Deepam and Sivaratri are observed .
The Centre caters for a Reading Library both for adults and children .
A DrA DrA DrA DrA Dream Come Team Come Team Come Team Come Team Come TrrrrrueueueueueSmt.Savithri Cuttaree, Secretary,Sri Ramana Maharshi Centre, Mauritius
on Indian and Buddhist philosophies and to the life of sages among
others, my husband could grasp Bhagavan’s teachings and we
started practicing Bhagavan’s method of self – Enquiry
My husband having been ill for quite a long time passed
away in 1978, only after surrendering to Bhagavan thankfully. I
could only pray to Bhagavan to send a devotee with whom I
can share his glory. One day, on my way back home from a
satsang at Swami Muktananda’s centre, I was chatting with
someone and started talking about Bhagavan. I was surprised
and thrilled that my prayer had been realized when that person
told me that she had been to Sri Ramanasramam and knew Sri
Viswanatha Swami. She added that after she landed in India
she had fever, which only stopped when she arrived at Sri
Ramanasramam .
In 1979 I left Sweden for good. That same year I visited Sri
Ramanasramam for the first time which coincided with the Birth
Centenary year of Sri Ramana. I was fortunate to witness with
how much love, devotion and reverence the celebration of
Bhagavan’s life was organized.
From then onwards I went to the ashram every year travelling
alone by bus, which I can’t do anymore unfortunately. My stay
at the Ashram has been the best part of my life. I have met
many friends both Indians and foreigners and together we used
to do Giri Pradakshina or go up to Skandasram and Virupaksha
cave. I had the good fortune of meeting the direct devotees of
Bhagavan: Kunju Swami, Ramaswami Pillai, Natesa Mama,
Annamalai Swami. It was Ramaswami Pillai I visited the most.
He used to narrate with great enthusiasm his experiences when
sitting at the feet of Bhagavan. He once told how he wanted very
much to meet Bhagavan in Virupaksha cave. Not knowing what
to bring as offering, he bought a cucumber in town but was both
embarrassed and distressed when he found that Bhagavan had
toothache. As usual, Bhagavan had shared the cucumber with
all and ate a bit also to relieve the devotee of his sadness. Such
is the compassion of Bhagavan .
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The reminiscences of devotees, who have had the good fortune to
meet Bhagavan have contributed invaluably to the literature on Bhagavan.
Bhagavan excels in his actions. He lived what he taught, there was no
dichotomy between his ways of living on the one end and on the other the
universal teaching that God is all pervading. He had the same compassion
for animals, plants and human beings. Workmen were severely rebuked
when they brutally beat the leaves to pluck mangoes. Echamma learnt
from Bhagavan that she was hurting the leaves while plucking them. In
verse 5 of Upadesa Saram “ashta murti bhrt devapujanam”, Bhagavan
expresses the same concept that God resides in all forms .
This teaching as practiced by Bhagavan applies to adults as well
as children. Our children at the Centre are learning to be conscious of
the presence of Life, of God all around them. Whenever I listen to
discourses on scriptures, I always find the practical counterpart in
Bhagavan’s life. Swami Chinmayanandaji rightly said: “Sri Ramana is
the highest Reality and the cream of all the scriptures of the world: the
Bible, the Koran, the Upanishads. He was there for the ideal society to
see how a master can live in perfect detachment from the equipments
— though living in the mortal form, but living as the integrity, beauty,
and purity of the Infinite . Such a mighty Master was Sri Ramana”.
In 1981, Ramananjali , a group of devotional musicians came
to Mauritius on a World Tour Program in connection with the Birth
Centenary Celebrations of Sri Ramana under the leadership of an
exceptional devotee , the late Sri A.R.Natarajan, who was imbued
with all the qualities required to spread the teachings of Sri Ramana.
Smt.Sulochana Natarajan has during her stay in Mauritius never
missed an opportunity to express her wish for a Ramana Centre
in Mauritius.
Likewise, I can now recall Ramaswami Pillai always telling
me to form a group of women to share Bhagavan’s Teachings.
Their wish took shape in the form of a study group that was meeting
regularly to study the Life and Teachings of Bhagavan. We had
then started celebrating Sri Bhagavan’s Jayanti.
It was only years later, that the construction of a Centre was
considered. With the support and ideas of friends who had a vision
of the architectural design of the building, we decided to go ahead
with the project. A building contractor was selected and the
architecture was finalized .
By the Grace of Bhagavan, the long awaited day dawned on
October 24, 2004 when the Bhumi Puja was performed and the
construction started soon after. I found myself acting as supervisor
at times. I would like to mention that unexpectedly the concrete
roofing, which is an important phase in construction was laid on
September 1, 2005 which to me was a happy event as it is the
date when Bhagavan arrived at Arunachala.
On June 28, 2006, Bhagavan’s Shrine was consecrated, and
after the inauguration ceremony it was ready to welcome everybody.
Bhagavan has made a long hidden desire come true.
On this special occasion of 30 years existence of “ The
Ramana Way”, the President and members of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Centre, Mauritius ,wish to congratulate the President and members
of “ Ramana Maharshi Centre For Learning” Bangalore with a special
thought to the Founder President, Sri A.R.Natarajan for the service
rendered to disseminate the Teachings of Sri Ramana.
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HoHoHoHoHow Bhagw Bhagw Bhagw Bhagw Bhagaaaaavvvvvan Came tan Came tan Came tan Came tan Came to Meo Meo Meo Meo MeSri S.Guruswamy, President, Ramana Kendram, Madurai
Sri S Guruswamy joined the India Meteorological Department at LodiRoad, New Delhi in 1964.
Alongside his work, he served Ramana Kendra, New Delhi for 24 years,looking after various aspects such as the library, sales, administrations etc. BeforeBhagavan’s Shrine was constructed Ramana Satsangh was often held in hisresidence.
After his retirement in 1990, he started serving on the Executive committeeof Ramana Kendram, Madurai as its President in place of Sri S. Ramachandran,the then I.T. Commissioner.
The activities at Madurai, the place where young Venkataraman had hisSelf Realisation in 1896 and His Advent to Annamalai from the House atChokkappa Naicken Street on 29th August the same year, are worth mentioning.
To mark these two very sacred events, on July 16th and 17th everyyear Bhagavan's Enlightment Day is celebrated with a 2-day workshop onteachings of Bhagavan is conducted by the Kendram jointly with the RamanaMaharshi Centre for Learning. n On 29th August, annually a Sacred Yatra toTiruvannamalai is arranged by the Kendram, where about 50 to 60 devoteestry to follow the same route and style of Bhagavan's pilgrimage to Annamalaiin 1896.
The other major celebrations in the year are a 5- day Jayanthi celebration, andAradhana Day celebration is also arranged every year with feeding of the poor.
The Kendram organises two weekly SatSangs, one every Thursday and anotherevery Sunday. Once in a month on Punarvasu Nakshatra day(the birth Star of Ramana)special poojas are held with Sahasranama Archanai, chanting of Aksharamana malaiand rendering of devotional songs, followed by speech on the Life and teachings ofBhagavan Ramana Maharishi by Resource persons on the subject.
Ramana Kendram has been bringing out a Tamil Quarterly journal “Ramana Oli”for more than thirty years now. The publication is widely praised in Ramana Circlesand by the common public.
I am a native of Madurai and I studied here. Still I was not aware of Sri
Ramana who had his Education at Union Christian High School (Previously
American Mission School) here. I was not aware of His frequent visits to
Annai Meenakshi Amman Temple, standing before Nayanmars attentively
for hours, His attainment of ”Self realization” at 11, Chokkappa Naicken
Street. Nor was I aware of how he left Madurai for good to Tiruvannamalai
and his Advent at Arunachala. The last two important historic events that
took place at Madurai contributed to the life and teachings of the Maharishi.
I am proud of it as a Madurai devotee, though I heard and knew about
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi only at New Delhi when I attended a “Sat
Sang” at my respected friend Sri Subbaiah’s residence in December 1964.
In those days (1950s) at Madurai, elders mostly had a leaning towards
Congress party, and students like me were lured by volunteers from the
Self-respect Movement and later by Dravidian ideals.
So it was Delhi that made me deeply rely on and worship Bhagavan
whole heartedly along with my small family, consisting of my wife and a
little daughter. Of course, I had help and patronage of good Samaritans
there at New Delhi to initiate me and regulate my life in Bhagavan’s way.
Hence I would only say “ How Bhagavan came to me”, to see this humble
person in the society, instead of talking of “How I came to Bhagavan”.
As I said earlier, we had the very good company of Ramana devotees
at New Delhi like Prof. K.Swaminathan, Chief Editor Gandhiji’s 'Collected
Works', Sri A.R. Natarajan, Member Central Board of Direct Taxes,
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Like this Bhagavan has occupied our mind and hearts and dispelled
our desires, anxieties futuristic musings and kept us calm and quiet in case
of unexpected depression, loneliness etc. In my personal opinion and
experience, Bhagavan’s love and affection towards me, my family and all
devotees cannot be explained in words. Instead of our being “dasan” (slave)
to Bhagavan, HE came down and made himself “dasan” to us and made
His statement in Aksharamanamalai .
“Anbodu un Naamam Kel Anbartham
Anbarrukku Anbanyita arul
Arunachala”
Now, to continue to speak on my life in New Delhi between 1965 and
1986, we had the greatest advantage of kindness and concern of Sri A.R.
Natarajan about our welfare. Smt. Sulochana Natarajan took adequate care
of grooming her daughters Sarada and Ambika out and out by tutoring
Bhagavan’s Upadesam through her lovable music and affectionate words,
always quoting Bhagavan. The children from their age of 4-5 years had the
fortune of being fed by their mother, the Aval Payasam and Dahi bath, which
was very kindly mixed with the life and teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
My daughter Kala Rani who was also of their age-group and their intimate
playmate had her share of the benefits accrued through their illustrious
mother. All the three children took their doctorates in their respective
academic fields. I am proud to say they are very good assets in the Ramana
Movement.
I must humbly say that I had the good fortune of meeting and speaking
with Sri Muruganar and Sri Sadu Om with my wife and daughter, when my
daughter was just 12 years of age. We also met Sri Kunju Swami, Sri
Viswanatha Swami, Smt Suri Nagamma, Sri Ramaswami Pillai,
Smt.Kanakammal and other inner circle, senior devotees
To me it is surely the Lila of Bhagavan who comes to our recue always
and to whom our Guru Dakshina is thinking about him in each and every
moment of our life, each and every act that we do.
I sincerely pray to Bhagavan that He may continue to bless all the
devotees for all time to come.
Namo Ramana!
Sri T.M.Subramaniam Chief ,R.A.W., Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, eminent
Agricultural Scientist, Sri S. Guhan, Finance Secretary and so many great
persons, who had all put their soul and energy to constitute the Ramana
Kendra, Delhi and raised a good structure for Bhagavan’s beautiful shrine
depicting ‘ Virupaksha” cave at Tiruvannamalai.
While Prof.Swaminathan continued to be the Vice- President till his
stay in Delhi, other eminent and distinguished persons like Sri C.
Subramaniam, Dr. Karan Singh, Sri R.Venkataraman, Sri Morarji Desai, Sri
T.N. Chaturvedi, Governor of Karnataka and others have served as
Presidents of Ramana Kendra, Delhi. I and another humble devotee Sri
V.Mhalingam served on the executive committee for a fairly long time.
We all took this oppor tunity to learn about Bhagavan from
Prof.Swaminathan, who used to speak on the Life and teachings of Sri
Ramana Maharshi every Sunday in Ramana Kendra. Sri K.C. Subbaiah
gave discourses in Tamil, English and Hindi about Ramana’s teachings.
We became equipped with more knowledge on Bhagavan through the visiting
Swamijis from Ramakrishna Matt, Chinnmaya Mission and Sivananda
orders, the Sankarachacharyas of Kanchi and Sringeri. We also learnt from
many eminent speakers who came from all over India and overseas who
spoke on Bhagavan. International and National level Seminars were also
arranged to propagate the Teachings of Bhagavan Ramana through insightful
and scholarly speeches. Music, dance and drama programmes were held
through the good offices of Sri A.R. Natarajan, Prof.Swaminathan, Sri T.M.
Subramaniam and others.
I had been entrusted with the work of Social Service wing with Sri. S.Guhan
as its convener. We took Ramana’s teachings to the down-trodden, eking out
their lives in capital city, and there were ever so many who were all able to visit
the Shrine and participate in the important events as one among the devotees.
Ever since my journey in Bhagavan Ramana Movement began, I should
only say that we enjoyed the blessings and presence of our Great master
in all our activities. Ramana kept us always in peace, tranquility, happiness
and prosperity. With utmost humility, I say that Prof K.S. once in 1965 told
me that attending a Sat Sang on a Sunday would definitely be visited by a
good message or happening on the following day. This has truly happened
not only with me but in the case of all devotees there.
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Nippon Ramana Kendra, Japan (The Progress)
1981 : Foundation at ‘Tokyo’ by the first President, Dr. Sozo Hashimoco. Hehad introduced Bhagavan Ramana’s Teaching: meditation, self-enquiry.
1991 : The second President was, Prof. Tadashi Yanagida. He stayed atTiruvannamalai – 1994-1997
1996 : He had translated The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi’ toJapanese.
1997 : ‘A Pictorial Biography’ (We had translated to Japanese).
2004 : August 16th, President, Yanagida passed away. Sachiko Miyazaki has hencetaken over as the third President of the Kendra. She is also editor of the Kendra's18page quarterly newsletter ‘Arunachala’ from its inception in 1990 (at which time shewas a Yoga teacher).
FFFFFrrrrrom a Japanese Fom a Japanese Fom a Japanese Fom a Japanese Fom a Japanese Frrrrriend tiend tiend tiend tiend to Indian Fo Indian Fo Indian Fo Indian Fo Indian FrrrrriendsiendsiendsiendsiendsSachiko Miyazaki, President, Nippon Ramana Kendra
During the middle ages, the life Style of Japanese had meditation for
practices that helped one to strive for the silence of mind. It was the way of
Zen. And the follower, as a Samurai, his life was offered to the organization
which he belongs. It was his duty, therefore, to have an immovable heart or
indomitable courage, with no fear of death. At the samurai students’ school,
all mental training was in the life style itself. And the lifestyle is Zen. It was
called ‘The way of mental concentration’, ‘Mind-Body-Soul unification’. Final
destination is SaMÿadhi state , in which all objects disappeared. A samurai
said “If mind extinction is carried out, no mind and no brain, Fire is also
cool”. It is recognition for him that true existence is not this meat with form
but a soul (Self) of formless. “Therefore , I am not afraid of death”.The
same idea is required also of his wife too. Although, anything may happen
in her life , the mind must not be shaken. By such training one gains the
silence of mind. And it reflects in everything one perceives and does,
whether it is the Way of the Tea, Flower, Scent, Calligraphy, Gardening,
preparation of a meal, etc. In everything one is completely attentive to the
moment, every action done with complete attention. Everywhere, all the
time, everything is in a perfect harmony state as aresult of the spiritual
practice itself. In the way of Zen, in the beginning the pupils learn that practice
from of teacher. However, the instruction is made silently always. The pupil
wishes words, spoken lessons, language, from the teacher. But the teachers
say that most important thing which should be studied, is beyond the reach
of language. Because, there is no form in it.
This view of life and death has been lost in present Japan. Therefore,
what Bhagavan taught encourages us in the hometown of our Japanese
soul too.
0Bhagavad0Gita0ÿÿÿÿsays ‘Greater is their trouble whose thoughts
are set on0the Unmanifest;0for the Goal, the Unmanifest, is very hard for
the embodied to reach.’
But, it does not feel so difficult for me. It is not impossible if a powerful
guru helps with0Grace. Existence of Bhagavan is giving to us Japanese
devotees, courage, freedom and peace . It was Miracle for me in this my
life, in this time, that I was able to attain a true guru, Bhagavan Sri Ramana
Maharshi. There is no doubt. I think so. This is just a miracle.
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Reading from Sri Ramana’s words:The mind, turned outwards results in thoughts and objects, turned
inwards, it becomes itself the Self.Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that.When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires
that there is no such thing as mind. This is the direct path for all.The mind is merely thoughts, of all thoughts, the ‘I’, is the root.
Therefore, the mind is only the thought ‘I’.From where does this ‘I’ arise? Seek for it within. It then vanishes.
This is the pursuit of wisdom.There is no conflict between works and wisdom.The ultimate truth is so simple. It is nothing more than being in the
pristine state. This is all that need be said.Silence is the true upadesa. It is the perfect upadesa. Truth is beyond
words. It does not admit of explanation. All that is possible to do it is toindicate it.
There is no difference between God, Guru and the Self.
Shall we walk the Ramana path together, come!Step 1 ~ 3: Sravana, manana, nididhyasana
· The sadhana (of the self-enquiry) [Sadhana Charushtaya-Viveka,
Viraga, Sampatti, mumuksutva]. Our vasanas rise - it is a Test! Test! Test!
·
Factors of sadhanai) ‘Guru’s upadesa (from Bhagavan’s say, the books or meditation,
devotion, etc.)
ii) Tapas, our effort (devotion to the Self)
iii) Sat sang
‘Sri Ramana Seva Sangha’ came into existence about four decades ago in 1968in order to propagate the life and teachings of the great sage of our times Sri RamanaMaharshi. The efforts of Sri U. S. Chandavar, Dr. M. D. Naik, Sri K. P. Bhat and SriPranavananda Swamiji bore fruit when they started Sri Ramana Seva Sangha underthe able Presidentship of Dr. R. M. Masurkar as a result of the divine grace andencouragement of Sri Swami Rameshwar who had settled in Valgalli village. He hadintended that there ought to be a centre in Kumta through which people could benefitby knowing the life and teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Since then the Sangha is conducting programmes to celebrate His Jayanti,Aradhana and Advent to Arunachala every year. ‘Sri Ramana Satsang’ is held on everySunday at Sri Vithoba Temple thanks to the initiative f Sri R.S.Bhagawat, an eminentsocial worker. The Centre is publishing a quarterly magazine in Kannada “RamanaSandesha”, the only Kannada magazine solely dedicated to the life and teachings of SriBhagavan. Swami Pranavananda actively participated in the activities of the Sanghaand wrote and published books in Kannada like Ramana Vachanaveda, Ramanopanishad and Paravidya.
Dr. M. D. Naik, one of the founder members of the Sangha translated ArthurOsborne's ‘Sri Ramana Maharshi and the path of Self knowledge’ into Kannada whichwas published by Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai. The team of Ramana MaharshiCentre for Learning, Bangalore led by Sri A.R.Natarajan and Smt.Sulochana Natarajan,conducted many programmes of ‘Ramananjali’ music and dance ballets under thehospitality of the Sangha. These programmes had considerable effect on the public ofKumta which is a small town situated in the western corner of Karnataka. On oneoccasion, Sri V. S. Ramanan the present President of Sri Ramanasramam addressed agathering of devotees.
Bhagavan has now enabled the Sangha to have its own plot of land wherein theyhave a cherished hope of building a satsang hall, an effort which will doubtless bearfruit with the bounty of Bhagavan manifesting through the devotees and well wishers.
BhagBhagBhagBhagBhagaaaaavvvvvan tan tan tan tan the Sahe Sahe Sahe Sahe SaviourviourviourviourviourDr.M.D.Naik, Executive Committee Member,
Ramana Seva Sanga, Kumta, Editor 'Ramana Sandesha'I am a medical practitioner with M.B.B.S. degree practicing since
1963. I have been visiting Sri Ramanasramam every year since 1964.
When I was 28 years old, I was affected by a severe psychological
shock due to which I decided to commit suicide by jumping into the
sea near the Gateway of India at Bombay. Somehow there was a
change in my mind and I returned home to Kumta and started my
practice. During the time of this crisis, I came across the BhagavadGita which gave me solace and the courage to live. After a few days I
came across a small book about Bhagavan Sri Ramana and after reading
it the feeling of despair and psychological restlessness totally subsided
and I felt the book revealed the ultimate and the loftiest goal of human life.
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Since then my outlook in life has been slowly transformed. At the
age of 37 years, I had a very serious illness of relapsed typhoid
fever. I was unconscious for 2 days. During the illness I had a dream
in which I saw Sri Bhagavan and since then I started to recover
from the illness.
Again when I was 67 years old, I was admitted to a hospital
with acute Endocarditis. This is a very serious disease and the
outcome could have been death. Again by the grace of Sri Bhagavan
I was cured of the malady. Recently in January 2011, I suffered
from an impending heart attack and again by the grace of Sri
Bhagavan, a timely surgery saved me.
Previously I used to take mixed diet and after the influence of
Sri Bhagavan, for the last 47 years I take only vegetarian diet. Thus
He has slowly but certainly brought about changes from within in
my life.
Association with his devoteesIn Kumta, in the early forties and fifties, there lived one Shri
Rameshwar Swamiji who advised his devotees to go to
Tiruvannamalai and have the darshan of Sri Bhagavan. He virtually
forced one Dr. Masurkar to go to Sri Bhagavan for darshan as he
considered Him as ‘Paramatma in the human body’. Dr. Masurkar
later on founded 'Sri Ramana Seva Sangha' which is doing the work
of propagating the life and teachings of Sri Bhagavan in the
surrounding areas. As we are visiting the Asramam every year, we
had the good fortune of having satsang with Sri Sadhu Om, Sri Tinnai
Swamiji, Sri Michael James, Sri Dhakappaji, Sri S.S. Cohen, Smt.
Kanakamma, Sri Natanananda, Sri Muruganar, Sri Kunju Swami,
Sri Ramaswami Pillai and Swami Ramanananda. While at Bangalore,
I particularly visit the Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning every
year, to meet Sri A.R. Natarajan and his family.
Bhagavan the SadguruOne who has realized the Truth is the Guru. Sri Bhagavan did
not give deeksha openly but He used to say that deeksha can be
by touch, look and mouna of which he considered mounadiksha to
be the best. From his stand point, there is no guru, no disciple, and
no upadesha. Every thing is the Self. It was Major Chadwick who
made Him admit that he was the Guru. To his query Bhagavan
answered that he could not have stayed there for long if it was not
so. Any way to those who seek His protection and guidance, He is
the Guru and even now He continues to guide sincere seekers.
Right from the day of my being attracted to Him, I have accepted
Him as my Guru. Doubtless there are times when I did feel despair
and discouragement, thinking that Bhagavan has not accepted me
as His devotee. But those occasions were very few and short lived
and now I do not bother whether He accepts me or not. I wish to
cling to His feet until the end of my journey in life.
I feel many times disappointed that I could not have His
darshan when he was living in the sacred body. But slowly and
steadily He has made me feel His presence even after He discarded
His body. Whenever I met any of His disciples or devotees or those
who had seen him in person, I used to pester them with my question,
“Is it absolutely essential that a Guru must be a living human being?”
Many of them used to say that a living guru is necessary for the
spiritual path. One of them asked me bluntly, “When you get married
do you marry a living girl or not?” When I quoted this to another
disciple of Sri Bhagavan, he told me that the simile was very improper
as getting married and surrendering to a guru cannot be compared.
Now the doubt has disappeared because if I was not accepted by
Sri Bhagavan, I would not have continued to visit his Asramam
every year for 47 years. I do not undertake to go for pilgrimage to
any kshetra other than Arunachala. Whenever I prostrate before
any deity in temples, I imagine the image to be a form of Sri
Bhagavan. I am now sure that one day He will take me across the
ocean of samsara, may be after many lives, which He only knows.
If at all I deserve to have mukti, I want it from Sri Bhagavan only.
Even if any one else offers it to me I would reject it. Such is my
attitude.
People like Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, Goutama Buddha, Jesus
Christ and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa come to this world once
in thousands of years. Sri Bhagavan is one such example.
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Generation after generation people will remember Him and they will
rejoice at the purity of his life and the simplicity of his teachings.
‘Whosoever is born in His lineage will certainly be a Brahmajnani. He
tears off the knots of bondage and becomes deathless’ – so says
Mundakopanishat. Adi Shankara says – ‘The one who has his mind
dissolved in Parabrahma, the limitless ocean of Bliss purifies His family.
His Mother attains the real purpose of life and the land in which He is
born, becomes a meritorious land’.
A Sadguru is one, who has realized his Self and knows what is
Truth and what is untruth. Wherever He stays that land becomes a
sacred place.
The Parama Guru as described in the Guru Gita, the sthitaprajna
as described in the second chapter, the paramabhakta as described
in the 12th chapter and Gunatita of the Gunatraya Vibhaga yoga of the
Bhagavadgita, all remind us of Sri Bhagavan and His life history.
His teachings are unique and simple. He always encouraged
his devotees to aim at nothing short of Atmajnana or Self realization.
For this, he advocated the two principal paths, of self enquiry and self
surrender.
But above all it is His Grace which will lead us on, on our path
to Self Realization. I feel blessed that I am a devotee of Bhagavan Sri
Ramana Maharshi. May His grace flourish and I wish to remain forever,
a speck of dust under His sacred feet!
Smt. Sulochana Natarajan is the Director, Music Division, Ramana MaharshiCentre for Learning, Bengaluru.
By Bhagavan Ramana’s grace Smt. Sulochana Natarajan was born in a very specialmusical family in order to be an instrument in spreading Ramana Music. All theintense training in Carnatic Classical Music in her early years and the total exposureto the same was to fructify in the full unique formation of Ramana Sangeetham.
Her first Guru in Ramana Music was Manavasi Ramaswamy Iyer who spotted herat Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai in front of the sanctum sanctorum of BhagavanSri Ramana Maharshi more than five decades back in 1956 and taught her‘Ariyataramamo’ first and then his special miracle song ‘SARANAGATI’.
Going on to become the founder-leader of the music troupe Ramananjali, SmtSulochana Natarajan has dedicated her life to setting to music, annotating, publishing,recording, performing and teaching Ramana Sangeetham.‘Ramana Sangeetham’ is avast body of music encompassing many streams and styles of the music of India. Thewonder of Ramana music is that it encompasses everything that is Indian Music andcovers the learning system from that of beginners to very advanced level performers.
It may be defined as comprising primarily of:
a) All the poetic works of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in their originalTamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Sanskrit.
b) All/or a major part of the poetic works on Bhagavan Ramana by spiritualgiants like Ganapati Muni, Muruganar and others soaked in the Ramana experience.
c) The poetic and musical compositions not only of those contemporaneouswith Bhagavan but of ‘Post-Nirvana’ devotees as well.
d) Translations of many of the above by eminent poets into Kannada, Telugu,Hindi and English, and also a few in Gujarati, Marathi and Malayalam.
By the immense power of Bhagavan, and the affectionate encouragement of SriRamanasramam, Ramananjali has recorded more than 200 productions, given morethan 400 live programs and currently has about 2000 songs in its repertoire. For moreinformation on Ramana Sangeetham, visit www.ramanamusic.com
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In the year 1949 May I had the good fortune of having the Divya
Darsan of Bhagavan at Sri Ramanasramam along with my parents. At that
time Bhagavan’s gracious look had fallen on me even though I had not yet
realized the full impact of that; but I vividly remember looking at His face.
I was born and brought up in a family which was literally breathing
Carnatic Music all the 24 hours of the day. Obviously I was given thorough
training in the same till my marriage.
In the year 1952, it was the story of Bhagavan’s grace which got me
married to Late Sri A.R. Natarajan, founder President of Ramana Maharshi
Centre for Learning, Bangalore. A.R. Natarajan’s grandfather was a devotee
of Bhagavan and had acted as the first interpreter between Bhagavan and
Humphreys at Virupaksha Cave.
My granduncle was a great Ramana Bhakta and was uttering Ramana
Nama all the time. Both sides ancestors had Darsana of Bhagavan. But at
the time of our marriage all these never came to the forefront. ARN was
attracted to Bhagavan through Arthor Osborne’s Book in 1955. Surprisingly,
in ARN’s family he was the only person who had not seen Bhagavan. Then
Bhagavan slowly drew me to Him through Ramana Music. As ARN writes
in the book of miracles, from day one every step had been a miracle from
my birth up till date. How He had made me an instrument for Ramana Music
is amazing.
Other than me there have been 19 Music Directors associated with
Ramana Music. Surprisingly almost all of them have had the Darsan of
Bhagavan in their student days.
Bhagavan’s grace had given me alone the opportunity of using my
entire knowledge of Carnatic Music in Ramana Sangeetham. How it has all
come about without any preplanning is marvelous. At present, I am trying
to document the same. He alone who has brought me so far without any
effort of mine should give me the strength and ability to successfully finish
the task which He has assigned and bless me with Self-realisation in this
birth.
Namo Ramana,
Sulochana Natarajan, 13.03.2011
UUUUUntutntutntutntutntutororororored Saed Saed Saed Saed Savvvvve be be be be by Gry Gry Gry Gry Grace tace tace tace tace that frhat frhat frhat frhat from Yom Yom Yom Yom You Pou Pou Pou Pou PourourourouroursssssSmt.Sulochana Natarajan, Governing Body Member, RMCL
I often wonder how I can wonder about everything in the world except
about that which makes me know my wonder.
How magnificent is the world, how magical its infinite variety, its almost
unimaginable vastness and minute intricacy! We say ‘almost’ unimaginable
for, no matter how vast, we are still able to perceive the magnitude and marvel
at it. No matter how intricate, we are able to comprehend the intricacy and
wonder at it. How is it though, that we never pause to wonder about that light
which makes us aware of this extraordinary world picture?
There is a light that lights the seen world, this we know. But what is the
light that makes us know this? That we do not know, and very surprisingly, do
not seem to care that we do not know. When I see the immense beauty of the
sunset, what is it in me that tells me that I see? What is it in me that tells me the
sunset is beautiful? What is it in me that tells me I am happy on account of the
beautiful sight? Is it memory of earlier sunsets, earlier joy experienced at such
beautiful sights? Then what is it that made me know I was joyous the very first
time I knew joy? What is it that, itself remaining a witness to the experience,
said to me, ‘This is a good experience, you enjoy this, store it in your memory,
remember it well and try to regain it’? What is it in me that says ‘I am’, that said
‘I am’ even before I saw the sunset and that will continue to say ‘I am’ after the
sun has gone to bed and the stars are making merry in the night sky? What is
it that shines in me as the power of knowledge, and itself shining, makes all
things known by its light? Why do I care so much for the beauty that this light
reveals to me and so little for the light that reveals it?
I often wonder how I can be pained by so many things that happen and
do not happen to me, yet never be pained that I am totally in the dark regarding
that which goes by the name of ‘I’ and is witness both to the presence and
absence of pain.
Undoubtedly there are aspects of the world that are ugly. At least, there
are aspects of the world that seem ugly to each one of us. All around us we
see injustice and deceit and all the negative emotions that spring from enormous
selfishness, sheer callousness that can cause harm to untold number of living
beings and to say the least, leave our earth exploited and depleted.
Surely there is a light within us that makes us aware of all this, or else,
Whose SprWhose SprWhose SprWhose SprWhose Spreading Reading Reading Reading Reading Raaaaayyyyys Engulf All Thingss Engulf All Thingss Engulf All Thingss Engulf All Thingss Engulf All ThingsDr.Sarada, President , Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning
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THE RAMANA WAY MARCH 2011
how would we know? What is the light in us that makes us perceive, recognise,
classify and label each and every experience that we have, be it good, bad or
indifferent? Do we ever notice that this light is not ugly or selfish, do we realise
that it is simply aware of the ugliness as it is aware of the beauty, and do we
care to wonder what this light is? Whenever I see something irksome or painful,
what is it in me that tells me I see? What is it in me that says the experience is
horrible? What in me says ‘I am’ and had said ‘I am’ even prior to the perception
of some disturbing object? What in me will continue to say ‘I am’ even after the
pain of the negative experience fades away as it is bound to do sometime?
I often wonder about how I can seek happiness from any number of
things under the sun and never seek to know what in me is finally ‘happy’
when the experience actually happens.
In an experience that appears to have a physical basis, like eating an ice
cream, is it not very evident to me that it is not my eye that sees the ice cream,
nor the hand that holds it, nor even the tongue that licks it which experiences
the happiness? Wherein does the happiness lie? In me, surely. And what in
me is aware of the happiness? When I hold a child close to me heart, are my
arms that embrace the little one rejoicing or is my heart that beats fast rejoicing?
Or is it that little thought which comes round and round in my head saying ‘I am
happy, I am happy’? What is it then that lights even that thought?
I often wonder about the light in me that continuously shines as ‘I am’
regardless of the coming and going of experiences positive and negative and
how I remain completely regardless of it. Why am I so negligent about this light
which is my constant companion, about this light by which alone I recognise
my own existence?
As I go through the tumult of passing experiences which I call
‘life’, why does it never strike me to ask what it is that makes me so
intimately aware of each of these experiences? Why is it that I take
each of these experiences to be intimate, hug them to my bosom, both
the good and the bad, yet never wonder at that most intimate light
within me that reveals these experiences in the first place and reveals
my own existence as the basis of all these experiences? Why do I so
steadily ignore this light which sees me along with all my seeing, which
lives me with all my living, and which with absolute, unconditional love
accepts me in my entirety?
Bhagavan Ramana tells us that the whole of life is much like a huge film
show, we are constantly watching this show unravel. Of course, unlike the
films that we see in theatres till date, this movie called ‘life’ is a remarkable
experience of virtual reality with not only visual and audio effects but reaching
out to every sense perception. Nonetheless, it is no better than a film being
played out before us. At any given moment we do not know what lies in store,
hence it is the most exciting film show. And like exclusive designer clothes, it
is non-replicable, there is only one of a kind and there will never be another.
The funny part is that we believe we are players in the film, while in fact
we are viewing the entire show unraveling, not just watching but continuously
filming all the events too in our little mind cameras and storing away in memory
as well to rewind and replay at will. Do we care to know whether we are actually
two people pretending to be one person, one who is a character in this life film
and one who is simultaneously and always a spectator? What in me is aware
of every experience, aware of its rising, its existence and passing as well?
What in me shines as ‘I am’, at the core of every experience? Why do I treat
this as if it were utterly worthless? I long for experiences and I am given many
experiences as well, but I do not show the least trace of gratitude to that which
reveals each of these. I do not long for that which, by its very presence, enables
me to have each of these experiences. Why is it so?
Yet, if I would turn back to the light, in a trice the whole story of my life is
transformed, the whole of the universe is transformed, for everything then
becomes imbued with light. This turning back is what Bhagavan would often
quip as ‘go the way you came’, a vigilant movement in reverse gear. If only we
care to trace any one or all of our experiences to their source, we would find
that at the root of each and every experience is a thought. In fact, the moment
we move back slightly from the experience we discover that every experience
is for us nothing but a thought. Again, when we move back from thoughts,
seeing them to be mere thoughts that rise and set, the question ‘for whom are
these thoughts?’ will take us to their root. At the root of every thought we will
find the ‘I’-thought or the thinker. We find that every experience is for me, it is
indeed the sense of ‘I’-ness in me that permeates every experience. When
we take the courageous step of moving further backwards, in fact,
source-wards, then that life changing question, the question ‘Who am I?’
arises. This which I call ‘I’ is that also only a thought like all other thoughts?
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THE RAMANA WAY MARCH 2011
Or is it different from them? Does it too rise and set, or is it continuous? What
happens to this sense of ‘I’ in deep sleep? Where does it subside then?
Wherefrom does it rise again? When we closely and eagerly examine our
own sense of ‘I’ continuously and constantly, in itself, without allowing it to
hold on to any other object in the form of thought, then, says Bhagavan, a
magical thing will happen. This puny sense of ‘I’ will simply vanish and in its
place, the true source, the heart, the light will shine forth in all its fullness as ‘I’-
‘I’. This is the victorious path.
It is to show us this incisive path that the light that ever shines within us
has with great love donned the form of our beloved Sadguru Ramana. It is to
keep us on this path that he himself has enacted the enquiry in a flash as a
boy of sixteen, facing and questioning death and discovering his own true
nature as it were. It is to reveal to us beyond all doubt the immeasurable
beauty of the ‘goal’ that the path leads to, (if we can call it a goal, for it is ever
our very Self), that he bore the body for fifty four years after the enlightenment
radiating the supreme bliss of the Self every moment and proving the utter
insignificance of all else. It is to establish the universality of this experience
and its availability transcending all barriers of time and space, transcending
all forms of physical manifestation, that with full love transmitted from his
glance of grace he has showered this experience on every comer, human
and other, “by nature, not by choice” and ever continues to do so.
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Dear Dr. Sarada,
I am happy to greet & congratulate you on thethirty years of fulfilling progress THE RAMANA WAYhas made under your able, dedicated stewardship.May Bhagavan’s benign grace and Sri A.R. Natarajan’sbrilliant guidance be ever with you, all thecontributors and readers of THE RAMANA WAY.
With appreciation, affectionate best wishes,
V.S. ManiSri Ramanasramam
Sri V.S.Mani isAdministratror or Sri Ramanasramam. A silentpractitioner of the Ramana Way with rock-like stoic acceptance of the travailsthat life in the body can bring, and a tireless worker who works not for anyneed of his but simply because things need to be done.
He is largely responsible for reviving the presence of peacocks at theAsram which were dwindling pathetically before he came to join full timeservice. He has a keen interest in flora and in all probability knows every treeand plant in the Asram. In line with the family tradition of 'Chinna Swami'and Sri T.N.Venkataraman, like his brother Sri V.S.Ramanan and earlier SriV.Ganesan, Sri Mani takes affectionate care of practically every visiting theAsram.
THE RAMANA WAY MARCH 2011
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PunaroddharanaPunaroddharanaPunaroddharanaPunaroddharanaPunaroddharanaRRRRRejuvejuvejuvejuvejuvenation of tenation of tenation of tenation of tenation of the Rhe Rhe Rhe Rhe Ramana Shramana Shramana Shramana Shramana Shrineineineineine
Revathi Sankar(Pics by Venkatesh Deshpande, Vaishnavi Poorna, Revathi Sankar)
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The last week of February and first week of March 2011
were indeed glorious days in the annals of Ramana
MaharshiCentre for Learning. The rejuvenation of the shrine
brought joyousmemories to the senior members of the Centre of
the momentous5th of December in 1982 when the Shrine was
first opened. To others it was reminiscent of the day in 1993 when
the Panchaloha Ramana Vigraha, shining as if it were gold, to
remind one of the 'Gold Bright' form of Bhagavan. Yet to all th 27th
of February was charged with His Presence as the vigraha was
removed from the pedestal for purposes of rejuvanation.Bhagavan's Presence had
been invoked by the priests into
another small idol made from the
wood of a fig tree.
Nonetheless some of us had
tears in our eyes when the vigraha
of Bhagavan was lifted from its place
by the sthapathis. Soon, however, we
were very happy to be intimately
seated next to the Ramana Vigraha.
On 2nd of March, Mahasivarathri,
Bhagavan suddenly chose to physically
readorn the sacred pedestal. It reminded
us of Bhagavan pulling his sofa close
to the barricade on a special occasion
to be closer to the visiting crowd of
devotees and of his insistence on giving
darshan soon after his sugery, for the
rejuvenation work was still on in the
shrine and on the vigraha as well. How
loving and radiant Bhagavan looked!
The Sthapathi , it is said in the
Agamas, is accorded the place of
'mother'. Sri Ramachandran, the
s thapath i who worked on the
rejuvenaton of the Ramana Vigraha,
suggested that Bhagavan's vigraha
should remain wrapped in a shawl
until the actual day of rejuvenation,
like a new born baby, and so He
remained.
He was to be 're-born' to us on the 6th of March, Sunday, which with
no pre-planning happened to be a 'dvithiya thithi'. The 30th of December,
1879, when Bhagavan was born, was also the same thithi and Sri
Jagadeeswara Sastri hails Bhagavan as 'dvithiya thithi sambhutaaya
namaha' in the Ramana Sahasranama.
On the kumbhabishekam day,
after the morning japas by the priests,
the devotees were doubly blessed
to meditate on Bhagavan's
'Forty Verses on Reality -
Ulladu Narpadu' through the
moving talk by Sri Nochur
Venkataraman.
At the auspicious
hour one could literallysee light 'walking in' as it were, first enveloping
the wooden idol, then filling the shrine, welcoming all its 'newness'.
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THE RAMANA WAY MARCH 2011
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8584
Those wishing to participate in any of the above sevas may contactMs.Sandhya +91 9343174421 or Ms.Revathi +91 9448853748
SRI RAMANA SEVA
“You must help the man as ameans of worshipping God in thatman. All such service too is for theself, not for anybody else. You arenot helping anybody else, but onlyyourself”. - Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
SEVA DURING ANNUAL SPECIAL EVENTSRAMANA VIDYA SEVA 500/-PUSHPA SEVA 500/-SAMSKRUTI SEVA 100/-VEDA PARAYANA SEVA 1000/-ANNA DANA SEVA 3000/-
DAILY SEVA THROUGH OUT THE YEAR
POURNAMISEVA PER MONTH 1500/SAT-SANG SEVA PER WEEK 1500/SOUCHA SEVA PER DAY 500/-VEDA PARAYANA SEVA PER DAY 500/-PUSHPA SEVA PER DAY 500/-
SPECIAL EVENTS OPEN TO SEVA APRIL - JUNE 2011
APRIL14th,15th Aradhana Cultural Festival RMMH18th (to 14th May) Summer Camp for Children RMHAMAY14th Summer Camp Valedictory RMHA21st, 22nd Mother's Day Cultural Festival RMHHJUNE18th Cow Lakshmi Day Cultural Festival RMMH25th, 26th Workshop on Self-enquiry RMHH
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HHHHHaaaaappppppppppeeeeennnnniiiiinnnnngggggsssss
Sri Shadakshari spoke on the
second day of the festival about the true
meaning of worship and intimacy with
the Master. This was followed by a
RamanaSangeetham Karnatik classical
concert by Dr.Ambika Kameshwar.
WWWWWintintintintinter Fer Fer Fer Fer FesesesesestivtivtivtivtivalalalalalShrShrShrShrShrine and Meditine and Meditine and Meditine and Meditine and Meditaion Hall Annivaion Hall Annivaion Hall Annivaion Hall Annivaion Hall Annivererererersarsarsarsarsaryyyyy
On the opening day of the
festival Sri J.Ujwal spoke about
Ramana as the wish fulfilling tree who
swallows all our desires. The cultural
event was a Bharatanatyam recital
of Ramana Nritya by Revathi Sankar.
THE RAMANA WAY MARCH 2011
5150
Statement of ownership and other particulars about THE RAMANA
WAY according to Form IV, Rule 8 of the Registrar of Newspapers for
India.
1. Place of Publication : Bangalore
2. Periodicity of Publication : Monthly
3. a) Printer’s Name : Ramana Printers
b) Nationality : Indian
c) Address : Ramana Printers,
# 111/19, Anandagiri Road,
Ayyappa Layout, Cholanayakanahalli,
R.T. Nagar Post,
BANGALORE – 560 032.
4. a) Publisher’s Name : Dr. Sarada Natarajan
b) Nationality : Indian
c) Address : Ramana Maharshi Centre for
Learning,
Post Office Road, Sanjaynagar,
Bangalore – 560 094.
5. a) Editor’s Name : Dr. Sarada
b) Nationality : Indian
c) Address : Ramana Maharshi Centre for
Learning,
Post Office Road, Sanjaynagar,
Bangalore – 560 094.
I, Dr. Sarada Natarajan, hereby declare that the particulars given
above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Sd/-
Place: Bangalore SARADA NATARAJAN
Date: 01.03.2011 Signature of the Publisher
48
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Special Events of April
AT RAMANA MAHARSHI SHRINESundays:10.00 a.m. - 11.45 a.m. April 3,10,17,24
Satsang, Bhajans by Smt. Radha, Revathi & RMCL staff
Talk by Dr.Sarada (English)
Your Dates With Ramana
At Ramana Maharshi Heritage Building - SanjaynagarEvery Tuesday 7.00 -8.00 p.m. - Sri Ramana Maha Yoga Meditation
Daily (except Sundays) 11.30 a.m. -12.00 noon - Collective Chanting
POURNAMI - MOON MAGIC - 16th APRIL6.45 p.m.Ramana Music,
7.15 p.m. Aksharamanamalai - Around the Shrine
AT THE RAMANA MAHARSHI SHRINE & MEDITATION HALLRamana Aradhana Celebrations and Cultural Festival
14th, Thursday 10.30 a.m. Sahasranama
Daily 6.45 p.m.
14th, Thursday,Ramana Pada Pancharatnam and Arunachala Siva
15th, Friday,Ramana Music, Devotional by Vaishnavi Poorna
18th, Monday, Commencement of Summer Camp for children20th, Wednesday, Hamsa Ballet in Rama Mandir, Rajajinagar
RMCL - SATSANG CENTRE AT SOUTH BANGALORE& A RAMANA LIBRARY, MEDITATION/SELF-ENQUIRY FACILITY
Wednesday to Friday 6.30 - 7.30 p.m. - Sri Ramana Maha YogaMeditation
Saturday 6.00 p.m: Chanting, Reading, Talk by Sri K.G.Subraya SharmaPadmanabhanagar, Phone: 080 2639 0211 (Sri N.Nandakumar)
AKSHARAMANAMALAI SATSANG AT RAJARAJESWARI NAGARThursday 6.30p.m. Contact Sri Chandrashekar Ph:9448839594
AKSHARAMANAMALAI SATSANG AT RT NAGAR MONDAYS 6.30Monday 6.00 p.m. Contact Sri Marthanda Bhatta Ph: 080 23549064
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