How the Maharshi got his name

[Guest guest]

How the Maharshi got his name

 

Ganapati Sastri quivered with emotion as he walked up to the Virupaksha cave.

Luckily for him the Swami was seated alone on the outer pial. Sastri fell flat

on his face and held the Swami's feet with both hands and his voice trembled

with emotion as he cried: "All that has to be read I have read. Even Vedanta

Sastra I have fully understood. I have performed japa (repetition of a holy

name) to my heart's content. Yet I have not up to this time understood what

tapas is. Hence have I sought refuge at thy feet. Pray enlighten me about the

nature of tapas." For fifteen minutes the Swami silently gazed at Sastri as he

sat at his feet in anxious expectation. None came to interrupt them at the

time. Then the Swami spoke in short and broken sentences in Tamil:

(translation)

 

"If one watches whence this notion of 'I' springs, the mind will be absorbed

into that. That is tapas. If a mantra is repeated, and attention directed to

the source whence the mantra-sound is produced, the mind will be absorbed in

that. That is tapas."

 

This instruction filled Sastri's heart with joy. He stayed for some hours and

ascertained the Swami's name from the attendant Palaniswami to be Venkatarama

Ayyar. Sastri immediately composed five stanzas in praise of the Swami in which

he contracted his name to Ramana which has stuck to the Swami ever since. In

the letter which Sastri wrote next day he added that he must henceforth be

called 'Maharshi' since his teaching was quite original.

 

Bouquet of Spiritual Instruction by Viswanathan Sri Ramanasramam

(http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Sp/Ramana/Ramana.htm)

 

 

 

____________________________

ifrance.com, l'email gratuit le plus complet de l'Internet !

vos emails depuis un navigateur, en POP3, sur Minitel, sur le WAP...

http://www.ifrance.com/_reloc/email.emailif