i am the nectar of the universe

[Guest guest]

(brought by harsha on nds)

Professor N. R. Krishnamoorthy Aiyer

..

MY NEXT VISIT to the Maharshi was in 1934 on a Jayanti Day. He was

sitting

on a raised platform under a pondal (thatched roof), specially

constructed

in front of the Mother's Shrine. As the celebration was going on, all

the

devotees were seated around him. While sitting there, my eyes were

intensely

fixed upon the Maharshi and I saw his form assume different

manifestations.

It first changed to the Avatar of Vishnu ( Vahar Avatar ). Then his

form

changed into that of Ganesha, the elephant God. Next it suddenly

changed and

I saw Ramana and Arunachala as one. Then I had the vision of the whole

Arunachala Hill - the top of the Hill was transparent and inside it I

saw a

Shiva Lingam, similar to what we see in temples.

 

Devotees were singing the Marital Garland of Letters. When they began

singing the last couplet, "My Lord let us exchange garlands - the

devotee

(the bride) garlands the Lord Arunachala (the groom), and the Lord

garlands

the devotee," I suddenly saw garlands of flowers all over the pondal.

The

Maharshi had a string of flowers garlanded around his neck, and all

the

devotees (including myself) had a string of flowers around their

necks. I

saw a large garland around the Shiva Lingam on the hill top. All these

garlands were shining with a dazzling brilliance. This experience

convinced

me of the existence of the deities mentioned in our ancient

scriptures.

 

Later that evening in the Old Hall I sat at the feet of the Maharshi.

He was

reclining on the couch gazing westward and I sat on the floor facing

him.

Our eyes fixed, one upon the other, were pinned together for quite a

long

time. I then saw the form of the Maharshi take the shape of

Ardhanareswara.

 

Ardhanareswara is one aspect of Shiva - one half is the Mother and

the other

half is the Father; one half of the form had a breast and the other

had a

trident. Around us the pundits were reciting Sanskrit verses.

As it went on, I began to witness certain changes in my body taking

place. I

saw a pair of serpents rising from the base of my spine in a criss-

cross,

spiralling manner. They rose to the crown of my head and spread their

hoods.

One was red; the other blue. The whole cranium became suffused with a

bright

light. My attention was fixed upon the point between my eyebrows

where the

serpents' heads were pointed.

 

All of a sudden there was a splitting of the skull from the top front

to the

back. This was followed by an upward gush of a reddish flame shooting

out

from the top of my head. While this was flowing out, a stream of

nectar

issued from the single breast of the Ardhanareswara form of the

Maharshi and

a second stream of nectar flowed out from the top of Arunachala. Both

streams landed on my head and sealed the break in my skull.

 

When the skull was sealed I experienced a brilliant light, like that

of an

arc lamp, and an indescribable joy and coolness filled my being. This

light

and joy continued for several hours. During this time I didn't move

about

and I was unconscious of what was going on around me. You may have

seen a

light focused on to a concave mirror. Its light is reflected with a

single

beam onto a point. Well, sometime about midnight all the light, like a

concave mirror, was focused onto the Heart. Then all the light

drained into

the Heart. The Kundalini was completely sucked into the Heart and the

Heart

was opened - that is the seat of Arunachala Ramana.

 

The Heart is normally closed, but when it was opened - I never knew

any of

these things and never read any theory. These are all practical

experiences - a flood of nectar gushed forth and drenched every pore

of my

skin, drenched my whole physical system. It poured out, out, went on

coming

out in a great flood. The whole Universe was filled with that Nectar.

 

The wonder of it was that my awareness was not in the body - my

awareness

was over the whole of the space filled with that Nectar. The whole

Universe

was Nectar. I call it Nectar; you could call it Ether, something very

subtle, attached with awareness at every point. And everything living

and

non-living was like snow flakes floating in that ocean of Nectar.

 

If you ask me what my body was, my body was the whole universe of

Nectar,

attached to awareness at every point. No particular association from

the one

body from where it started - this body was like every other body.

By morning everything subsided, though the underlying experience

remained. I

was totally unconscious of my body. I was moving around like an

automaton,

unaware of my body. In that state I returned to Madurai where I was a

physics professor.

 

This was during a Christmas vacation. For the next two weeks I

remained in

that state. With the opening of college I was scheduled to give

lectures and

my relatives became rather concerned, for my behavior had changed

considerably.

 

Professor N. R. Krishnamoorthy Aiyer