Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-58

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Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-58

 

Physical Supports of Grace

 

By Arthur Osborne in "Be Still, It Is The Wind That Sings"

 

In every religion physical objects serve as a support of Divine

Grace. A tooth of the Buddha, a hair of the Prophet, a fragment of

the true Cross has been enough to draw pilgrims through the

centuries. At the time of the Reformation in Europe the attack was

immediately turned upon such physical supports— relics, shrines,

rosaries and so forth. The Reformers did not know that they were

undermining religion; they were earnest and devout; but what

resulted from the iconoclasm of the 17th century was the

rationalism, agnosticism and atheism of the 18th and 19th. They made

reason the arbiter of faith, rejecting whatever had no rational

explanation, and even today there are critics and historians who

praise this attitude, not seeming to realize that to subordinate the

spiritual to the mental is an inversion of the natural order of

things and leads inevitably to the rationalism that denies the

Spirit altogether.

 

Actually it may be possible to give a rational explanation of the

physical supports of Grace. It may be that they serve as radiating

centres equivalent in a sense to the transmitters of physical

radiation. However, those who attacked them knew nothing of such

possibilities, nor do those who admit such possibilities today

understand that spiritual forces stand in no need of their rational

explanations but work whether explained or not. Whether explained in

terms of radiation or not, Grace does emanate from a physical

support. Is it imagination? If Bhagavan had been asked he might have

agreed that it is, but only in the sense that the whole world

including one's own body, is imagination. It is as real as the mind

that questions its reality. Some, however, have wondered whether it

is legitimate to use physical supports of Grace on such a direct and

purely spiritual path as that enjoined by Bhagavan. It was with some

such doubt that an English devotee who had never yet been able to

come to Tiruvannamalai wrote to me asking for some object, such as a

small stone, from near the tomb but felt that his request might be

inappropriate. It was quite appropriate.

 

Although he taught the purely direct and spiritual path of vichara,

Bhagavan never discouraged any from observing the rites of their

religion or from using any physical supports so long as they were

helpful. The path he taught was universal; it included devotion and

disinterested activity as well as knowledge. Indeed his devotional

hymns to Arunachala are a constant support to the devotees. His very

coming there was a recognition of the physical manifestation of

Grace, since Arunachala has been through the ages the supreme centre

of silent initiation, of Shiva manifested as Dakshinamurti, teaching

in silence. No one could be more insistent on its actual sanctity.

He said: "Mount Kailash is the abode of Shiva but Arunachala is

Shiva Himself." He saw the sacred hill as the form assumed by pure

Spirit for the support and guidance of men. Now that the physical

body of Bhagavan—the most precious of all physical supports of Grace—

has been withdrawn from us, the Hill emits power and Grace for his

devotees even more than before.

 

When I was asked for some token from the hill I was able,

fortunately, to quote the approval of Bhagavan in a similar case.

Once when he was walking on the hill he said to Dr. T. N.

Krishnaswami who was with him: "Some devotee from a far-off land has

asked for a stone to be taken from the most holy part of the hill

and sent to him. He thinks that some part of the hill alone is holy;

he does not know that the whole hill is Arunachala; he does not know

that Arunachala Himself is the hill." And picking up a small stone,

he added, "I sent him a stone like this." Bhagavan would sometimes

give a devotee some object as a vehicle of Grace, but very seldom,

as he had normally nothing to give. In his youthful years he would

sometimes cut a stick from the hill, fashion it into a staff for

walking and give it to somebody. Sometimes also he would touch an

object that was shown to him and give it back. When I left for

Madras and showed him the life-size portrait of him that I was

taking with me he held it in his hands before giving it back and

said: "He is taking Swami with him!"

 

It may not be inappropriate to end this article with the strange

story of how I received a shoe-horn from him. We were sitting

outside the hall. Bhagavan was reclining on his usual couch. There

was a sudden clatter and we saw that a metal shoe-horn had fallen to

the ground near the couch. How it came to fall there no one could

say—there was no breeze and no monkeys or squirrels were playing

about. The attendant gave it to Bhagavan who examined it and began

demonstrating its use as a spoon. I was sitting in the front row and

explained its use as a shoe-horn. Bhagavan who did not like anything

to be wasted asked me whether I would like it. And so I received a

gift from him who had nothing to give; from the Divine Giver who had

all to give!