Sri Ramana's Realization

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Selected excerpts from

 

Bhagavan Ramana

by T. M. P. MAHADEVAN, M. A., Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy, University of Madras

 

 

It was apparently by accident that Venkataraman heard about Arunachala when

he was sixteen years of age. One day an elderly relative of his called on

the family in Madurai. The boy asked him where he had come from. The

relative replied "From Arunachala". The very name 'Arunachala' acted as a

magic spell on Venkataraman, and with an evident excitement he put his next

question to the elderly gentleman, "What! From Arunachala! Where is it?" And

he got the reply that Tiruvannamalai was Arunachala.

 

Referring to this incident the Sage says later on in one of his hymns to

Arunachala : 'Oh, great wonder! As an insentient hill it stands. Its action

is difficult for anyone to understand. From my childhood it appeared to my

intelligence that Arunachala was something very great. But even when I came

to know through another that it was the same as Tiruvannamalai I did not

understand its meaning. When, stilling my mind, it drew me up to it, and I

came close, I found that it was the Immovable.'

 

Quickly following the incident which attracted Venkataraman's attention to

Arunachala, there was another happening which also contributed to the

turning of the boy's mind to the deeper values of spirituality. He chanced

to lay his hands, on a copy of Sekkilar's Periyapuranam which relates the

lives of the Saiva saints. He read the book and was enthralled by it. This

was the first piece of religious literature that he read. The example of the

saints fascinated him; and in the inner recesses of his heart he found

something responding favourably. Without any apparent earlier preparation, a

longing arose in him to emulate the spirit of renunciation and devotion that

constituted the essence of saintly life.

 

The spiritual experience that Venkataraman was now wishing devoutly to have

came to him soon, and quite unexpectedly. It was about the middle of the

year 1896; Venkataraman was seventeen then. One day he was sitting up alone

on the first floor of his uncle's house. He was in his usual health. There

was nothing wrong with it. But a sudden and unmistakable fear of death took

hold of him. He felt he was going to die. Why this feeling should have come

to him he did not know. The feeling of impending death, however, did not

unnerve him. He calmly thought about what he should do. He said to himself,

"Now, death has come. What does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body

dies." Immediately thereafter he lay down stretching his limbs out and

holding them stiff as though rigor mortis had set in. He held his breath and

kept his lips tightly closed, so that to all outward appearance his body

resembled a corpse. Now, what would happen? This was what he thought :

"Well, this body is now dead. It will be carried to the burning ground and

there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death, of this body am I

dead? Is the body I? This body is silent and inert. But I feel the full

force of my personality and even the voice of the 'I' within me, apart from

it. So I am the Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the Spirit

that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means I am the deathless

Spirit". As Bhagavan Sri Ramana narrated this experience later on for the

benefit of his devotees it looked as though this was a process of reasoning.

But he took care to explain that this was not so. The realization came to

him in a flash. He perceived the truth directly. 'I' was something very

real, the only real thing. Fear of death had vanished once and for all. From

then on, 'I' continued like the fundamental sruti note that underlies and

blends with all the other notes. Thus young Venkataraman found himself on

the peak of spirituality without any arduous or prolonged sadhana. The ego

was lost in the flood of Self-awareness. All on a sudden the boy that used

to be called Venkataraman had flowered into a sage and saint.

 

 

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