A Polish Devotee - Effect of Maharshi's Picture

May 28, 2005

Effect of Maharshi's Picture,

A Polish Devotee

I met him in a bookshop, opening a book at random - Sri Ramana Maharshi! For the first time in my life the buying of a book seemed a painfully protracted business. I could scarcely believe that one could buy this book like any other, that it was really for sale. To leave the bookshop quickly with this book in my hand - my own - not to be taken away, was unbelievable!

On my way home I opened the book several times to be sure that I was not dreaming, that the picture of him was a sbeautiful as when I saw it first. I looked at it sidelong, almost furtively, afraid to frighten away the beauty, to lose it irretrievably.

Who was he?

Others have felt the same: I was not suffering from any hallucination. In her book, The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi, the Polish devotee Uma Devi writes: "Strange things happen to quite different people coming from different social circles. They need not have mystic leanings or be peculiarly sensitive. A look at Maharshi's picture, however accidental and casual, creates in them an upheaval and a permanent inner change, shallow or deep according to the individual. Hence the innumerable requests for a copy of the picture which finds its way into many homes, offices and workshops. Wherever it goes it exerts its fascination, rationally inexplicable, nevertheless real."

I look at the picture... he is so near and so beautiful. What is this light that shines through so many layers? How can one disbelieve the many stories about the Maharshi, the testimony of people who have seen him with their own eyes, who lived with him for days and months and years? People of various religions and races - Hindus, Muslims, Christians, some of them simple folk and some highly educated? Who can express in words the infinite silence, depth and power of his presence?

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