Wei Wu Wei on Ramana Maharshi

November 24, 2001

Action and Non-Action...3

The half-century during which Ramana Maharshi lived in a state of permanent

Illumination (Liberation, Satori, identified with Reality) presents a

remarkable picture of the dynamism of Non-Action.

From the records of his life (for instance 'Les Etudes sur Ramana

Maharshi', by five or six eminent observers and Arthur Osborne's admirable

biography) one does not have the impression that he was ever known to 'act'

in the sense in which that word is normally applied to human endeavour,

that is in the sense of 'do' which implies initiative and reaction. He was

the living example of the philosophy of Lao Tzu. Even when attacked by

ragamuffins, crooks, burglars, and hornets, he did not re-act; he rarely

seems to have given orders, correction, or to have made plans, yet far from

living in chaos and disorder his life and his ashram seem to have been a

model of harmony and precision.

Only in the interim between his illumination at the age of sixteen and the

emergence in him of a working-model of an ego for the purposes of human

contact did he find it necessary to act, and those few recorded actions are

worthy of study. From his life it would appear that the I-Reality does not,

perhaps cannot, act or re-act on the plane of seeming, and that the

dissolved ego being no longer available to that end, the living being

remains negative to the circumstances of life. The Maharshi had no wishes,

fear or anger; he merely did what he had to do with the directness and

simplicity of a young child, illuminated by an intelligence of rare lucidity.

His real action - Adequate Action, as we may call it - which is Non-Action

on the plane of Reality was in the medium of what we know as Silence. But

such Silence was not the negative state we associate with that word; on the

contrary it was highly positive, potent, dynamic. Constantly his

'radiation' was felt, very occasionally 'seen', and is even described as

'terrific'. Indeed for a number of people it appears to have been too

powerful - like a high-voltage current. And by means of it he administered,

directly to individuals, and generally to all, present and absent, what is

adequately described as his Grace - which was his guidance, more effective

than words, and which constituted his revelation.

His case, as far as one knows, is unique as a contemporary phenomenon

experienced by innumerable people now living, many still young, but its

importance may be regarded as a function of its uniqueness.

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