Tinnai Swami

[Guest guest]

I received the following email from David Godman:

 

"Dear Michael,

I just read your posting about 'Bench

Swami'. Yes, it is true that he passed away of Deepam

day, but the information you posted about him is a

little inaccurate. I told Jerry Jones, the compiler of

>From Here to Nirvana about Tinnai Swami, but he

misrecorded several important details when he compiled

his book. A tinnai is the platform outside Tamil

houses where people sit and where visitors you don't

want to invite into your house are entertained. Tinnai

Swami acquired this name because he sat or lay on one

of these tinnais for decades. He was not a postmaster,

as reported in the book. He was a science professor

who was a regular visitor to Bhagavan in the 1940s. He

lived in Madras and he would come to Tiruvannamalai at

weekends. Each Sunday afternoon he would ask for

Bhagavan's permission to leave and each time Bhagavan

would say 'yes'. That is, until the last occasion when

Bhagavan merely said 'Iru'. This one word apparently

put Tinnai Swami into a state in which he was no

longer capable of functioning in the world. He went

back to his house and remained there in a

semi-catatonic state until his family came. He refused

to leave, and he spent the remainder of his life in

Tiruvannamalai. He was revered as a jnani by everyone

in Sadhu Om's compound, and the people there looked

after him for the rest of his life."

 

Best Wishes David Godman

 

****************************************************

 

I went to see Tinnai Swami in 2001.

He was talking to himself.

There was no one else there in the small room

but he and I, and he was not talking to me,

because he was just staring at the ceiling talking.

I don't understand Tamil,

so I did not know what he was saying.

 

After I was there for around 10 or 15 minutes,

a woman came and said to me:

 

this is not a meditation hall.

You come, you see Swami and you go.

 

I compared notes with Susan and Peter, a couple

from Poland who had also visited Tinnai Swami,

and they told me the woman came in

and told them the same thing using the same words.

Only Susan managed to stay there one hour

before the woman came in and spoke the line.

 

I have removed the house where Tinnai Swami was

from the Sri Ramanasramam neighborhood map

on the Direct Path Links Directory,

because now there is no reason to go visit that house.

 

Sri Sadhu Om's Samadhi, which is nearby,

is still on the map.

 

Thinking of Susan and Peter

brings fond memories to mind.

I first saw them attending the satsang of

Sri Ganesan in Tirvannamalai.

They had already been there in Tiru a long time,

maybe a year, back in December of 2001.

 

I always enjoyed talking with Susan and Peter.

Peter would often be in Silence

and be writing in a book.

Peter once showed me the book,

with so much writing in it and then he wrote:

"Some silence?".

I found that quite funny.

I have forgotton the exact words that Sri Ramana used,

but I remember him saying about the vows of silence

that people make, of what use is it not to speak

but to let the mind run riot?

 

I wish I had acted on Susan and Peter's good advice

and warnings. I wonder if they are back in Poland now

or still in Tiruvannamalai. I should have asked the

man who called me yesterday if he had seen them.

It is hard to think when one first wakes up in the

morning and being awakened by a phone call

demonstrates that well. For a moment it is difficult

to think of a response to what the person is saying,

because thought doesn't want to move upon first

awakening. That is one of the reasons why it is good

to start inquiry immediately upon the first sign of

waking. The other being the famous I-I.

 

The man who phoned me yesterday was using the

telephone in the internet shop that is directly across

the street from the Sri Ramanasramam gate.

He and I had noticed that in that shop

there is quite a strong feeling of peace there.

We discussed that last time I was there

in Tiruvannamalai and wondered about it.

If you are ever there in that shop,

waiting for one of the computers to become available,

or even while sitting at one of the computers,

shut your eyes, and tune into your feelings.

He and I had both independently noticed

the powerful sense of presence or peace there,

and I half jokingly suggested that it should be

a place of meditation instead of an internet shop.

 

Take care,

 

with Love,

 

Michael L.

 

 

 

 

 

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