Fwd: A Sadhu's Reminiscenses of Ramana Maharshi, #7 (Somerset Maugham)

[Guest guest]

ThePowerOfSilence , " viorica " <viorica@z...>

wrote:

 

 

 

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In March 1939 Somerset Maugham came to the Ashram.

Many accounts have been given oh his visit and all of them

different. As I was the principal person in looking after him,

I have decided to give my own version.

 

He was brought to the Ashram by a friend of mine,

Mrs. Austin, wife of the collector of Madras.

The party had first gone to the Dak bungalow to

take their lunch, but finding it full, had come

on to the Ashram. He asked me if I could find

somewhere for them where they could have the meal

they had brought with them. I arranged for one of

the small rooms near my own. As I had already had

my meal , at their request I sat and talked with

them while they ate. Somerset Maugham asked

innumerable questions about my life and the Ashram,

apologizing for this inquisitiveness.

 

At the end of the meal which they have taken on

the verandah with Somerset Maugham sitting more

or less in the sun , he fainted. Many absurd

stories were circulated to account for this;

that he had seen Bhagavan and this was a state of

Samadhi brought on by the meeting , and such like.

Actually he had not seen Bhagavan at all.

It was probably a slight sun-stroke , though he

himself said that he had been liable to such

black-outs occasionally since birth.

 

We carried him to my room and laid him on my bed.

I then went to Bhagavan and told him what had

happened and asked him , when he went out for his

stroll at about 2 o'clock , to come to my room and

see Somerset Maugham who was now unfit to come to

the Hall , and Bhagavan agreed.

 

I met Bhagavan on the way and as we approached

my room Somerset Maugham was just coming out .

He said that now he felt better and was on his

way to the Hall. I told him to go back into the

room and sit down as Bhagavan had come to him

there instead. Bhagavan and Somerset Maugham

sat opposite to each other for about half an hour

without uttering a word. At the end of which

Somerset Maugham looked nervously across in my

direction and said ,

" Is there any need to say anything ? "

" No " , replied Bhagavan , " Silence is best.

Silence is itself conversation. "

 

After some further period Bhagavan turned to me

and in his childlike way said ,

" I think I should better be going , they will be

looking for me. " As no one in the Ashram knew

where he had gone except the attendant who always

accompanied him , this was correct. After Bhagavan

returned to the Hall the rest of the party remained

in my room for tea.

 

 

After tea Somerset Maugham , who was wearing a large

pair of boots, wanted to go the Hall and see where

Bhagavan usually lived. I took him to the western

window through which he looked for some time with

interest , making mental notes.

 

He says in his indifferent and quite uninspired

article " The Saint " , published in a series of essays

twenty years after the event , that he sat in

the Hall in Bhagavan's presence , but this is untrue,

because he could not enter with his boots; he only

gazed into the Hall from the outside. He has also

tacked a certain amount of philosophy which Bhagavan

could never have uttered in his life. But such is

the habit of famous authors , to put their opinions

into the mouth of others.

 

In this recent aricle Somerset Maugham says that

because of his fainting fit , which some Indians

regarded as a high state of Samadhi , which he

denies , he has been sent a mass of literature

concerning Maharshi . This may be true , but it

is certainly true that he wrote to the Ashram

and told them that he was going to write about

Bhagavan and asked for as much material as they

could send . He pointed out at the time that,

of course , if he wrote anything it would be

wonderful advertisment for the Ashram and the

Maharshi. As if it were needed !

 

He talks about Sankara and his philosophy of

Advaita , but does not seem to have a very clever

idea of what it means . He has jumbled together

a number of theories from various schools of

thought and then tacked them onto Sankara and

Bhagavan. One suspects a Theosophical influence.

He says that the two main principles of Sankara

are Brahman and Re-incarnation. This is nonsense

as neither of them has anything to do with Advaita

and both are dualistic concepts . Re-incarnation

was always dismissed by asking the counter-question,

" Find out if you are born now; if you are not even

born , how can you be reborn? "

Here we have the very core of the matter. For

ultimately we shall each find for himself that

there is only one " I " which appears as innumerable

egos , which are in fact quite unreal and nothing

but passing shadows.

 

 

Somerset Maugham says in another place , " When one

considers how full the world is of sorrow and

suffering , one can hardly refrain from thinking

that Brahman might have done better to leave well

alone. "

Really, Mister Maugham, is this your idea on Advaita?

Here again we must ask ourselves , " For whom is the

suffering ? " Is the Reality , the eternal " I " behind

all appearance , suffering ? Or is it only an imaginary

" I " that has no actual existence which is imagining

the suffering ?

 

Again , " To Maharshi the world was a place of suffering

and sorrow. " What absolute rubbish !

Bhagavan always insisted that there was nothing wrong

with the world. All the trouble lay with us.

 

On reading Somerset Maugham one comes to the

conclusion that he has again succeeded as a first

class writer of fiction .

 

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A Saddhu's Reminiscenses of Ramana Maharshi

by Saddhu Arunachala (A.W. Chadwick)

 

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