Guru Ramana - Memories & Notes, S.S. Cohen, #6

[Guest guest]

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Some disciples and his attendants used to sleep on the

floor of the hall at night. Bhagavan's sleep was very light: hewoke every now and then, and almost always he found anattendant nearby fully awake to say a few words to, and sleptagain. Once or twice he would go out for a few minutes, and,by 5 a.m., when the Veda chanters came from the township,they found him fully awake and chatting in a soft, subduedvoice. Now the parayanam would get started and go on for alittle less than an hour, during which everybody abstainedfrom talking, and Bhagavan often sat cross-legged andcompletely indrawn. Then he went out for bath, breakfast,and a little stroll on the hill, and returned at about 7.30,when visitors and devotees began trickling in - men, womenand children - till they filled the hall by about 9 a.m. Thismorning hour of the parayanam was the best time of the dayfor meditation: the congregation was small, women andchildren were absent, the weather cool, and the mind hadnot yet completely emerged to run its usual riot. Over andabove this Bhagavan then shone in the stillness of his samadhi,which permeated the hall and the meditation of the disciples.

But unfortunately I could not keep up this attendance, norcould I benefit by it even when present, for my mindremained in the fog of somnolence. Being a life-long badsleeper I never succeeded in making the requisite six-hoursleep before six in the morning. Another tendency which Icould not completely overcome was intolerance to noise, of

which the hall was seldom free. Apart from the free accessto it by all and sundry there was also the freedom of singing,which at times took one by surprise at a moment when thehall was plunged in silence and the atmosphere conduciveto meditation. All of a sudden a soprano voice rose fromsomewhere in the hall intoning some hymn or other, orreciting some shloka in a South-Indian language, to besucceeded by a tenor or another soprano, often the latter,in competition with a male of the species, till Bhagavanwent out at his usual hours. These were: 9.45 for a fewminutes, 11 o'clock for luncheon, followed by the middaystroll in Palakottu, evening 4-45 on the hill, preceding theevening Veda parayanam, and 7 o'clock for dinner. The bestI could do then was to remain in a semi-contemplative orreflective mood, reserving my serious meditation to the quietsolitude of my own room.

 

Major Chadwick, the only other foreign resident then, who had

preceded me to Ramanashram by exactly three months, used

to wonder how I could meditate in my room at all.

I reciprocated by myself wondering how he could seriously

concentrate amidst so much disturbance in the hall. Even in

as small a matter as this, it will be observed, individual

idiosyncrasies are apparent. These lonely hours I snatched

from the time when Bhagavan was out.

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