Bhagavan the Atiasrami - 1

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Bhagavan the Atiasrami

(First published in The Mountain Path, 1991, pp. 112-21.)

Sri Ramana Maharshi

In the 1930s a devotee called Perumal Swami, who had managed Sri Ramanashram prior to 1922, instigated a court case against Ramana Maharshi and his brother Chinnaswami. The latter had taken over the management of the ashram around 1928. Perumal Swami claimed in his submission to the court that he was still the legitimate manager of Sri Ramanasramam and attempted to support his case with some rather convoluted logic. Firstly, he declared that since Bhagavan was a sannyasin, he could not legally own land or property. This being so, Perumal Swami argued, Bhagavan had no rights over the property known as Sri Ramanashram. Perumal Swami then went on to argue that since Bhagavan could not own any of the ashram's property, he had no authority to appoint his brother to manage it. He then advanced his own case by saying that since he had been the undisputed manager at Skandashram, where Bhagavan had lived from 1916-22, he must still be the ashram manager because neither Ramana Maharshi nor anyone else was legally competent to remove or replace him.

Perumal Swami's complaint to the court conveniently ignored two important points:

 

 

Bhagavan had never claimed that he was a sannyasin. Since he had never been formally initiated into any order of sannyasins, he was still entitled to own and dispose of property.

 

Perumal Swami had voluntarily relinquished the job of ashram manager in 1922. Since that date he had neither lived in the ashram nor taken any part in its management.

Under Indian law, the formal adoption of sannyasa means that the sannyasin can be legally regarded as being dead. He loses all rights to his property, which is taken over by his appointed heirs, and, if he belongs to some of the traditional orders of sannyasa, he has no rights to own or acquire property again. In order to refute Perumal Swami's case, Bhagavan had to demonstrate that he belonged to an asrama (that is, an accepted 'stage of life') that permitted its members to own property. In sannyasa, the fourth asrama, owning property is prohibited, but members of the other three asramas (brahmacharya, grihastha and vanaprastha) face no such restriction. However, instead of taking the easy course and declaring himself to be either in the grihastha (householder) or vanaprastha (meditating hermit) asrama, he declared that he was in atiasrama, which means 'beyond all asramas'. This category is so little-known, even in India, during his first encounter with Perumal Swami's lawyer he was asked to define the state and certify that it was backed by some scriptural authority.

 

Question: To which asrama does Bhagavan belong?

Bhagavan: Atiasrama.

Q: What is it?

B: It is beyond the four commonly known asramas.

Q: Is it sastraic?

B: Yes, it is mentioned in the sastras.

...... to be continued

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