Sri V.S. Ramanans Talk

[Guest guest]

SRI V. S. RAMANAN'S TALK

At Arunachala Ashrama on April 13, 1997

 

WHEN dear Dennis asked me the other day to talk on "Sri Maharshi, My

Grandfather," I readily agreed. Yes, I do belong to His lineage,

being the eldest grandson of Swami Niranjanananda, His younger

brother, whom I remember very well. Swami Niranjanananda's Ekabhakti

to Bhagavan never once demonstrated his family link with Him. He

always exhorted others to worship and cling to Bhagavan as the one

and only Master.

Ladies and gentlemen, I feel proud to call myself the grandson of

Swami Niranjanananda because he was one of the greatest devotees of

our Master. I distinctly recollect what he once told a relative who

prostrated before him. This relative, according to custom, was taking

her child to Lord Venkateswara in Tirupati to have the baby's hair cut

for the first time. The Swami advised her that "When Lord Venkateswara

is right HERE, why go to Tirupati at all!." Such was his unshakeable

faith in Bhagavan, his Guru.

To me, also, Bhagavan is not just the grandfather, but the Guru. If He

is my grandfather, He is the grandfather for all of us here. To

Bhagavatji, of course, He is the father!

Until I left for higher studies at a university, I lived with my

family in the then sleepy town of Tiruvannamalai. My first

recollection of Bhagavan is when I was about seven. On all Sundays,

school holidays and festivals our entire family was in the Ashram

from early morning until about 6 p.m. At that time the Vedic chanting

in front of Sri Bhagavan would be concluding with the chanting of

Bhagavan's Upadesa Saram. In those days I never failed to rush to the

Old Hall and recite Upadesa Saram along with the Veda Patasala boys.

It is the only composition of His I knew since my childhood.

Sri T. K. Sundaresa Iyer, my revered teacher, once dictated a story to

me and I wrote it down. He showed it to Bhagavan and told Him that it

was my handwriting. I was very happy to hear that Bhagavan said that

my handwriting was good. I may say here that it is not bad even now!

I also remember Bhagavan grinding chutney for the breakfast in the

long verandah east of the Ashram kitchen, and His offering a small

quantity of it with His own hand to me to taste! I can't claim I was

aware of His exalted state in those early years of my youth, but I

was certainly aware that He was always natural, and most of the

first-time visitors also felt that they somehow had always known Him.

As Major Chadwick observed, "He was like a mirror which seemed to

reflect back your own feelings." If you responded quite naturally to

the all-embracing love of His presence, he treated you as one of His

own.

Once a pair of pigeons were brought to the Ashram as an offering.

Although Bhagavan was at first reluctant to add to the Ashram duties

the care of the pigeons, He accepted them. He took them in His hands,

patted them affectionately and then became silent, absorbed in

samadhi. In the meantime it took the attendants nearly an hour to

find a cage for the pigeons and bring it to the hall. All that time

the pigeons quietly sat on the Maharshi's lap without moving, as if

they were themselves a pair of yogis similarly absorbed in samadhi.

Bhagavan said, "They came. They refuse to go back. Another family has

joined me - as if I have not enough family already."

Similar is the story of my own family. In 1938, when some devotees

proposed to Bhagavan that Venkatoo (my father) and his family could

come to Tiruvannamalai and work in the Ashram office, Bhagavan

agreed. Then from the year 1938 onwards, our family has been under

the care of the Ashram.

We all know He gave moksha to His mother while in Skandashram. My

daily prayer to Him ever since I came permanently to the Ashram in

1992, is: "Bhagavan, make me serve your devotees as the first servant

of the Ashram and when my end comes, liberate me as You liberated Your

mother."

I have often wondered about the great event which formed a turning

point in Bhagavan's life, the dramatisation of the act of death he

conducted about six weeks before he left Madurai for good. Was it

this dramatisation alone that transformed the school boy into a sage?

Was he not purna (complete) even from the instant of His birth on

December 30th, 1879? Did not the blind lady who delivered Him see a

bright light as he was born? Was there not a link between this light

and the meteor that cut a golden path across the sky and faded over

Arunachala at the moment of His passing? Did He not at the age of ten

contemplate on death when His father died? Was it not a fact that in

His youth nobody could wake Him up from sleep, even by severely

beating Him? I sincerely feel that out of compassion for us, and so

we may not swerve from His teachings, he chose to hide the

Supreme State He was experiencing from the very day of His birth. His

decision to wear only a kaupina (loin cloth) after throwing away all

his possessions on September 1st, 1896 was not for His own

edification. It was for us He did this. He Himself later observed

"Some power acts through the body of a Jivanmukta and uses his body

to get the work done."

When Paramahansa Yogananda asked Bhagavan why God permitted suffering

in the world. Bhagavan replied, "Suffering was the way for

realization of God." And when further questioned why should there be

suffering, His characteristic reply was "Who suffers? What is

suffering?" Bhagavan always takes us back to the single question "Who

am I?" - to cultivate Self-knowledge at all times. Self-knowledge

serves the practical purpose of destroying pain and suffering caused

by ignorance.

There is a poem composed by Bhagavan entitled Atma Vidya which begins:

"Lo, very easy is Self-knowledge, Lo very easy indeed - even for the

most infirm..." After hearing this poem, Prof. G. V Subbaramayya

asked Bhagavan why he was not getting it if it was that easy. Also,

Sri Balarama Reddy endorsed G. V. S.'s doubt by quoting a verse from

the Bhagavad Gita. Bhagavan looked at them with compassion and

confirmed "What is written in Atma Vidya is true. Why do you doubt

it? So real is the Self that compared with it even the gooseberry in

the palm of one's hand appears a mere illusion." This categorical

assertion is not only meant for those two great devotees, but for all

of us who have been attracted to Him and have experienced His Grace.

Yes, He continues to live in our midst as Awareness, as the Person in

all persons; He lives in all and as all life!

Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya!

 

 

THE MAHARSHI

May/June 1997Vol. 7 - No. 3

Produced & Edited byDennis Hartel