Guru Ramana - Memories & Notes, S.S. Cohen, #12

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5

MASTER'S INFLUENCE

 

The influence of Sri Maharshi on genuine seekers, who

leave the world behind and turn pilgrims on the path of theAbsolute, is great indeed; for such aspirants touch asympathetic chord in his soul, evoking spiritual responses ofgreat magnitude.

A close friend of mine once related to me his experience

when a brief talk with the Master made him stop his fruitlesspursuit of the "occult" and take to the path of knowledge(Jnana), which Bhagavan propounds and which has provedof immense benefit to those who had followed it. I let himuse his own words:

“On one of those happy days of July .... I decided at last

to acquaint the Maharshi with the disturbed state of my mind,after a number of months' stay in the Ashram, during whichI had listened, reflected and argued with myself. Having beena keen student of Theosophy for twelve years, I had imbibednotions and theories which conflicted in almost everyimportant respect with the Maharshi's teaching. Theosophyand Vedanta, I discovered, notwithstanding the claim ofTheosophy to the contrary, run along parallels which nevermeet. "Occult" Theosophy speaks of spheres and planes, ofjourneys into planets, of invisible Masters, hierarchies, Adepts,rays, supersensuous initiations and meetings, and hardly, ifat all, of the Reality, with which the Vedanta and Maharshiexclusively deal, namely, the one Self, one Life, one Existence.

 

In fact seekers are again and again reminded that occult powersare diametrically opposed to the truth they seek.

"I was finally convinced that the Maharshi spoke from

direct, valid experience, and on that day I made up my mindto speak alone with him, before the hall filled with devotees.

"It was eight in the morning. Sri Bhagavan had just

entered and had hardly settled in his usual place, when I drewnear his sofa and squatted on the bare floor. The attendantalone was present, keeping alive the incense fire and fixingnew incense sticks in their silver stand, but he did notunderstand English. Nothing I knew gave greater pleasure tothe Maharshi than to listen attentively to his devotees' spiritualdifficulties and give his advice. This knowledge encouragedme to explain to him slowly and briefly in clear, simple Englishthe agitations of my mind. After I finished, he remainedpensive for a few seconds and, then, in the same languagebut with considerable deliberation, said: 'Yes, you are right;all preconceptions must go. Practice alone will show you wherethe truth lies. Stick to only one form of sadhana.'

"That was a clear pointer. But apart from the words he

uttered, I was suddenly gripped by an overwhelming urge tosurrender unreservedly to him to guide me in my spiritualhunger, abandoning all the methods I had previously followedand all the beliefs on which I had built my hopes. My fateand all that I was, passed from that moment into the sacredhands of Sri Bhagavan for ever."

 

But this was not the only case of spontaneous surrender.Spiritual surrender, we are told, is not a mental, still less

an oral act, but the result of Grace, which comes in its owntime and of its own accord, to cause the automatic subsidenceof that self-asserting element in the sadhaka's nature, whichstands in his way to ultimate realisation. Sometimes it is

 

sudden, and sometimes so gradual, that the devotee himselfmay not become aware of it. Grace, though it comes fromthe Guru by his very presence, is not fortuitous, but fullyearned by hard internal fight, by long periods of suffering,prayer, self-purification, and intense yearning for release.Suffering turns the mind inward and eventually draws outthe cry from the depths of the soul for the liberating light ofTruth, and for the appearance of the Divine Teacher, whoalone can lead to it and, thus, to Redemption.