Fw: [MillionPaths] David Godman-Ramana's books:authenticity and reliability

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- viorica weissman

MilliopnPaths ; NamoRamana

Monday, May 27, 2002 6:44 AM

[MillionPaths] David Godman-Ramana's books:authenticity and reliability

dear friends ,

I have the great pleasure and joy to post this precious gift from

David Godman on the list, - every time amazed by his friendly style

and openess - together with his best wishes ;Today is a special day !

 

love Ramana, viorica.

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John Maynard:

Which books do you feel are the most genuine documentations of

Ramana’s words and teachings? Even the Talks was published several

years after his death, though it reads consistently throughout. I

have only seen the original translation of Who am I?, the small green

booklet, and was unaware that there are other translations. How do

these all compare for authenticity and clarity

David Godman:There have been several translations of Who Am I?, some

better than others. There are also several versions of the original

text, which complicates matters. It has appeared as a

question-and-answer version with the number of questions varying from

thirteen to thirty. The essay version composed by Bhagavan himself is

the most authentic because the original question-and-answer version

that appeared in 1923 was composed and edited by Sivaprakasam Pillai

and was not shown to Bhagavan prior to its publication. Bhagavan’s

essay version came out in 1926. Though this should have superseded

the earlier version, variations on the question-and-answer edition

have continued to appear, often in a modified form that brought them

closer to the essay that Bhagavan had composed.

You want to know which of the books that record Bhagavan’s words and

teachings are the most reliable. This is a complex question, to which

different people will give different replies, but I will give you my

own views, along with the reasoning behind them.

The list must be headed by the works that Bhagavan composed himself.

These can be found in Collected Works. I would qualify this by saying

that the first piece, Self Enquiry, does not contain his own

teachings. It is, rather, a summary of other people’s teachings that

Bhagavan did for Gambiram Seshayyer, a devotee who was not able to

comprehend the difficult Tamil in some of their books. I would not

regard this as an authentic Bhagavan work since (a) the philosophical

views expressed there are not always his own and (b) both the

question-and-answer and essay versions of the work were edited and

written by Sadhu Natanananda, not Bhagavan.

Next, in order of authenticity and reliability, there are records of

conversations that appeared during Bhagavan’s lifetime and were

checked and edited by him prior to publication. This list includes

the original Tamil version of Guru Vachaka Kovai (the first 800

verses of the modern edition), Maharshi’s Gospel and Spiritual

Instruction. I would also include the dialogues that precede Sat

Darshana Bhashya since I know Kapali Sastri read them in Bhagavan’s

presence and incorporated a few changes that Bhagavan himself

suggested.

Sri Ramana Gita, which was published during Bhagavan’s lifetime, is

more problematic. It was not shown to Bhagavan prior to its

publication, and G. V. Subbaramayya has recorded an incident in which

Bhagavan wanted to change the original Sanskrit of one verse because a

particular term was inappropriate. Bhagavan told Sadhu Natanananda

that his teachings had been accurately recorded in Sri Ramana Gita,

but Bhagavan then added that the questioners had not been interested

in his real teachings. They had instead tried to get Bhagavan to

agree with theirs, which he refused to do. Despite these drawbacks,

Bhagavan carefully supervised the translation of this work into other

languages, so it is possible that these versions are more reliable and

accurate than the original.

With regard to expositions of his teachings, one commentary stands out

above all the others: Lakshman Sarma’s commentary on Ulladu Narpadu.

Lakshman Sarma had private lessons on Ulladu Narpadu from Bhagavan,

and in the 1930s he summarised the explanations he had received in

this work, which was first serialised in a weekly Tamil journal.

Bhagavan cut out the articles as they appeared and pasted them in a

scrapbook. If visitors asked Bhagavan for an explanation of a

particular verse, he would turn to the appropriate page of the

scrapbook and show it, making it clear that these were his views.

When Lakshman Sarma privately published the commentaries in a single

volume, Bhagavan asked the ashram manager to take it over as an

ashram publication, adding that it was the best commentary. This book

has never been translated into English, although Maha Yoga, Lakshman

Sarma’s other book on Bhagavan’s teachings espouses very similar

views.

Lakshman Sarma’s Sanskrit rendering of Ulladu Narpadu (entitled

Revelation in English) can also be regarded as highly authoritative

since it was done under Bhagavan’s direct supervision. The author had

to make many, many revisions before Bhagavan was finally satisfied.

Before I move onto the other large compilations of Bhagavan’s

teachings (Talks, Day by Day, etc.) I feel I must mention the

biographies since some were checked and approved by Bhagavan, and

some were not. The original English biography, Self-Realisation,

which became the basis of all the other books on Bhagavan’s life was

not shown to Bhagavan prior to its publication, and he said in the

1930s that it was not entirely accurate. Tamil (Sri Ramana Vijayam)

and Telugu (Sri Ramana Leela) versions of Bhagavan’s life appeared

soon after Self-Realisation, and both depended heavily on it for

their material. As the years went by the author of the Telugu work,

Krishna Bhikshu, corrected and updated his version, whereas the other

two remained the same. In the late 1940s Bhagavan himself, when asked

about the discrepancies between the different biographies, said that

Sri Ramana Leela was more reliable since the author read the whole

work out in his presence each time a new edition came out, allowing

Bhagavan to correct any errors that crept in. Surprisingly, this book

has also never been translated.

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi was never checked by Bhagavan. I have

seen a part of the original manuscript. There are a few handwritten

editing changes, but none were written by Bhagavan himself. I have

been told that he once read a few pages of it, but he never went

through the whole work, and never took the trouble to edit it in any

way. There are several factors that need to be considered in

evaluating the reliability of this work:

No one ever recorded Bhagavan’s voice. All the dialogues that appear

in ashram books were written down from memory. Munagala

Venkataramaiah was not always allowed to write down what Bhagavan

said at the time he said it. For some time Chinnaswami enforced a

rule that no one was allowed to take any notes in the hall. During

these periods MV had to wait till he got back to his room, often

several hours later, before he could commit his memories of

conversations to paper. MV had a reputation for adding comments of

his own when he acted as Bhagavan’s translator in the hall. It is

possible that these additional comments also found their way into his

manuscript. MV was not the sole recorder. Visitors who had had

conversations with Bhagavan when MV was absent sometimes wrote up

their own versions of these conversations and passed them on to MV.

These contributions can only be as reliable as the people who made

them. MV sometimes edited these contributions, and sometimes

incorporated them without changes. Talk numbers 530-47, for example,

were recorded by Annamalai Swami in his own diary. MV heavily edited

many of these entries. Other people such as S. S. Cohen who were also

recording dialogues during this period sometimes have quite different

versions of the same conversation.

Despite these reservations, which are quite substantial, I think that

Talks is the best collection of recorded dialogues available. It

cannot be said that it is a wholly accurate record of what Bhagavan

said, but the essence of his teachings and his teaching style is

conveyed very well.

Day by Day with Bhagavan was also not checked by Bhagavan. Devaraja

Mudaliar showed the first few pages to Bhagavan when he started

compiling his record, but dropped the habit soon afterwards. DM

operated under the same constraints that the compiler of Talks did,

so the same qualifications must also apply. One plus in favour of

this work is that Bhagavan publicly pronounced himself to be highly

satisfied with Devaraja Mudaliar’s skill as an interpreter.

The letters that comprise Letters From Sri Ramanasramam were published

in a Telugu journal during Bhagavan’s lifetime, but there is no

evidence that Bhagavan ever checked the material before it went to

the press. Balaram Reddy told me in the 1980s that there was a

rivalry between the various 1940s recorders (Krishna Bhikshu,

Devaraja Mudaliar and Suri Nagamma) with each accusing the other of

transcribing irrelevant or inaccurate material. Bhagavan, following

his usual habit of non-interference, refused to take sides or

intervene in this.

This leads me onto another factor that has to be considered. Bhagavan

would often read material that devotees had submitted and return it

without making any corrections, even if the material was wildly

inaccurate. The most famous instance of this was a Malayalam

biography that was written while Bhagavan was still at Skandashram.

It was a complete fantasy, compiled by a railway clerk who had

several children. In the book Bhagavan was presented as an ex-railway

clerk with several children who had miraculous powers that he

frequently exhibited.

When Kunju Swami asked Bhagavan ‘Is any of this true?’ Bhagavan

apparently replied, ‘It’s as true as all this,’ waving at the world

around him.

So, knowing that Bhagavan read something doesn’t necessarily mean that

it has his imprimatur. However, if Bhagavan did take an interest in

something that was shown to him, he could be a fiercely

uncompromising editor. Lakshman Sarma had to recast his Sanskrit

translations of Bhagavan’s Tamil verses many, many times before

Bhagavan pronounced himself satisfied. Muruganar’s first draft of

Guru Vachaka Kovai was extensively reworked by Bhagavan before it

went to the press. Translations or presentations of his teachings by

close devotees always received special attention. G. V.

Subbaramayya’s book gives a good picture of how seriously Bhagavan

took these projects.

If I may summarise all this:

The material composed by Bhagavan himself that contains his own

teachings, rather than summaries or translations of other peoples’,

are the most reliable and authentic. The works that Bhagavan took the

trouble to edit, correct or supervise himself can all be regarded as

highly reliable sources. These include Maharshi’s Gospel, Spiritual

Instruction, Revelation, Guru Vachaka Kovai in Tamil, Sri Ramana

Leela, and the conversations in Sat Darshan Bhashya. This category

would also include translations of ashram texts that Bhagavan

supervised and edited. The remaining sources of the teachings may be

reliable, but they were not checked by Bhagavan and they may contain

errors that resulted from the transcribing conditions prevailing in

the ashram.

I have only dealt with titles that were published during Bhagavan’s

lifetime or which were based on material that was recorded by

devotees prior to Bhagavan’s passing away. In subsequent years many

devotees wrote their own accounts, many of which contained their

experiences with Bhagavan, the stories he told and the teachings he

gave out. These can only be as reliable as the memories of the people

concerned. However, some of these books contain records that were

written down on the day that the events were witnessed or the talks

heard. S. S. Cohen (Guru Ramana), G. V. Subbaramayya (Sri Ramana

Reminiscences), and Annamalai Swami (Living By The Words Of Bhagavan)

all kept diaries that recorded Bhagavan’s teachings. I would have to

assume that the material written down on the day it happened is

intrinsically more accurate than a memory written down decades later.

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