Darshan of the Jñani ~ Part 1

[Guest guest]

Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Ramanaaya

 

Greetings.

 

I'd like to describe a personal experience of the efficacy of the Atma Vichara

Practise, drawing on the experience and instructions of three persons who have

attained Self-Realization.

 

The first is the well-known case of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, to whom this

list is dedicated. The story is well-known to members, and need not be repeated

here. The second is Sri Lakshmana Swamy; for the benefit of members who do not

know his story, it is related here briefly.

 

Sri Lakshman was born on 25th December, 1925 which was the confluence of three

major religious festivals, and is indeed considered most auspicious for many

devotees, Hindu, Christian and Muslim. Sadhana was the main driving force of

Swami's life, and he dedicated every waking minute of his time to meditation,

devotions, yoga and prayer.

 

About 1948, when he was approaching his mid-twenties, he came across a book on

Ramana Maharshi on a railway bookstall. This little book marked the real

turning point in his life, and from that time onwards, Ramana Maharshi and the

practise of Atma Vichara consumed his every waking moment. He found out that a

relative would visit Sri Ramanasramam from time to time, and so it was not long

before he'd made his way there with some members of his family and partaken of

the darshan of Sri Bhagavan. This had the effect of fermenting and synergizing

his devotions and practise even more, and the Maharshi was always on his mind,

perpetually within him through night and day.

 

By the following year, 1949, things had reached fever pitch with Lakshman; it

was widely known that Sri Bhagavan's body was in very poor health and that his

days were now numbered. As Lakshman had become desperate for the chance of one

more darshan with Bhagavan, he used the family connection to make another

visit, only to find that many others had also had the same idea and wish.

 

When he went for the darshan Sri Bhagavan, the hall had become so crowded that

it was quite impossible to get near Sri Bhagavan, so Lakshman went to sit down

outside the Hall, where he resumed his meditation of Atma Vichara. At some

point he did get a glimpse of Sri Bhagavan through the shifting crowds, at

which point a remarkable thing happened. Without any word or signal Muruganar,

who had been sitting next to Ramana Bhagavan, walked through the crowds and

came to sit right next to him, and it was during the next three hours that his

ego took many dives into the Heart. Finally, Lakshman's chest became filled on

the right side with a powerful icon-image of the Maharshi bursting with the

effulgence Ramana, and at this point his ego became drowned in the Self, never

to return. Muruganar, author of Guru vachaka koovai, had remained by his side

throughout the entire process.

 

Since that day, every second of Lakshman's life has been lived in the State of

the Self. These details are drawn from memory from the Chapter on David

Godman's The Power of the Presence, where the fuller version of the story can

be read and enjoyed.

 

At this point we'll roll the story on many years to December 2003, and that is

the posting with which this short story will be concluded.

 

anbudan

 

john

 

Siva—Siva

 

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