An Article from 'The Hindu' -24 Dec 2004

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Excerpt from 'The Hindu' dated 24 Dec 2004

 

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He communicated through silence

 

The 125th birth anniversary of Sri Ramana Maharishi will be

celebrated on December 28. LAKSHMI DEVNATH underlines the essence of

Bhagavan's philosophy.

 

 

Sri Ramana Maharishi

 

"IT IS an ancient theory of mine that one can take the inventory of a

man's soul from his eyes. But before those of the Maharishi I

hesitate, puzzled and baffled... I look at the Sage himself. He sits

there on Olympian heights and watches the panorama of life as one

apart. There is a mysterious property in this man, which

differentiates him from all others I have met. I feel, somehow, that

he does not belong to us, the human race, so much as he belongs to

Nature, to the solitary peak which rises abruptly behind the

hermitage..." Thus wrote British philosopher Paul Brunton in the

1930s, after his historical first meeting with the Sage of

Arunachala — Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi. Brunton, with uncanny

accuracy, had arrived at the truth on both counts. For, the sage was

a unique manifestation of the divine, the likes of whom history, in

its endless flow of time, rarely witnesses. His chosen abode, the

sacred hill of Arunachala or Tiruvannamalai was not just another on

the earth's vast landscape but a vibrant living presence, indeed the

Sage's very soul. Years later, talking about the hill, Bhagavan

remarked, "Someone from abroad has written asking for a stone from

the most sacred part of the hill. He does not know that the whole

hill is sacred. It is Siva Himself. Just as we identify ourselves

with a body, so Siva has chosen to identify Himself with the hill.

Arunachala is pure wisdom in the form of a hill... The seeker will

obtain guidance and solace by staying near it."

 

The Maharishi was convinced that Arunachala was the spiritual centre

of the universe and paid his respects to it in the form of several

verses that he composed in later years. In the course of a

conversation, the Maharishi once remarked to Brunton, "I was

literally charmed here" (Tiruvannamalai).

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The entire article is available in this link

 

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2004/12/24/stories/2004122400371400.htm