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

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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 comeon to the Ashram. He asked me if I could findsomewhere 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 hadmy meal , at their request I sat and talked withthem 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 ofSamadhi 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 hadhappened and asked him , when he went out for hisstroll at about 2 o'clock , to come to my room andsee Somerset Maugham who was now unfit to come tothe 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 hisway to the Hall. I told him to go back into the room and sit down as Bhagavan had come to himthere instead. Bhagavan and Somerset Maugham sat opposite to each other for about half an hourwithout 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 knewwhere he had gone except the attendant who alwaysaccompanied 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 largepair 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 uninspiredarticle "The Saint" , published in a series of essaystwenty years after the event , that he sat inthe 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 alsotacked a certain amount of philosophy which Bhagavan could never have uttered in his life. But such isthe habit of famous authors , to put their opinions into the mouth of others. In this recent aricle Somerset Maugham says thatbecause of his fainting fit , which some Indians regarded as a high state of Samadhi , which hedenies , he has been sent a mass of literature concerning Maharshi . This may be true , but itis 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 theycould 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 andBhagavan. 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 Advaitaand 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 thatthere 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 sufferingand sorrow." What absolute rubbish !Bhagavan always insisted that there was nothing wrongwith the world. All the trouble lay with us. On reading Somerset Maugham one comes to theconclusion that he has again succeeded as a firstclass writer of fiction .-------A Saddhu's Reminiscenses of Ramana Maharshi by Saddhu Arunachala (A.W. Chadwick)