Bhagavan's parting gift to N.R. Krishnamurti Aiyer

[Guest guest]

This is N.R. Krishnamurti Aiyer's report about his experience he had

on 14th April 1950 (Sri Ramana's Mahanirvana)

and the following days.

He was at the time of Sri Ramana's death in Madras for conducting the

BA degree examinations in a college:

 

"On the 14th, after a hard day's work, I had an early meal, went to bed on a bench on the

veranda at about 8 p.m., and fell fast asleep. Suddenly I woke up with a start and rushed

headlong into my room. A sudden blinding flash of lightning had enveloped me and the

vast space around me. It was this startling phenomenon that had caused me to wake up

in a panic. Once I reached the room the brilliant flash of light confined itself to my chest.

It then subsided into my heart-centre, which began to throb continuously with the sound

'Arunachalam, Arunachalam' in the same way that it used to throb with the sound 'Rama,

Rama'. The vibrations of that sound were so violent they shook my whole body. How ever

much I tried, I could not stop that powerful reverberation. Fortunately, by the time the

following day dawned, the throbbing had subsided of its own accord.

 

I went out to take my morning coffee in a neighbouring hotel at daybreak. Goint out onto

the road I saw a wall poster announcing in big letters: 'Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi

attained mahanirvana last night at 8.48 p.m.'

I felt an anguished cry within me: 'I have lost the delight of my eyes, that charming

figure of my Bhagavan, for ever!'

 

That day my co-examiner was alive to my situation. He seated me in a corner of the

examination hall and completed the day's work all by himself. The next morning, Sunday

the 16th, I arrived at the ashram only to find the blessed body hidden away from human

sight forever inside the samadhi cell. However, standing beside it I felt the thundering silence

of peace eternal. Bhagavan's parting gift to me had been an infusion of grace that had

touched the core of my Heart, revealing to me the eternal silence that had always been there,

and that will always be there. Through that grace I finally understood who Sadguru Ramana was

and is, and I understood directly what I had been striving for during all my years of sadhana.

 

The next day I returned to Madurai. I was then in an infinite ocean of pure being that was aware

of nothing other than itself. The nescience of sleep was lost for ever. I am now that screen of

consciousness on which this endless shadow-play of the world is going on, with a shadow

body carring the label N.R.K. actively engaged in singing the five hymns on Arunachala and

Ramana by turns. It has now made this record of its sojourn on earth. In due course this screen

and all its contents will disappear into the one Self that stands alone as pure Awareness-Being.

 

Jai Sri Ramana! Jai Sri Arunachala!

 

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Godman: Power of the Presence, Part I, p. 174f

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