Paul Brunton - The Maharshi and His Message #22

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How has the Maharshi arrived at the strange power and

 

stranger outlook which he possesses? Bit by bit, from his own

 

reluctant lips and from those of his disciples, I piece together a

 

fragmentary pattern of his life story.

 

 

 

He was born in 1879 in a village about thirty miles distant

 

from Madura, which is a noted South Indian town possessing

 

one of the largest temples in the country. His father followed

 

 

some avocation connected with law and came of good Brahmin

 

stock. His father appears to have been an extremely charitable

 

man who fed and clothed many poor persons. The boy eventually

 

passed to Madura to carry on his education, and it was here that

 

he picked up the rudiments of English in a school conducted by

 

American missionaries.

 

 

 

At first young Ramana was fond of play and sport. He

 

wrestled, boxed and swam dangerous rivers. He betrayed no

 

special interest in religious or philosophical concerns. The only

 

exceptional thing in his life at the time was a tendency to a

 

condition of sleep so profound that the most disturbing

 

interruptions could not awaken him. His schoolmates eventually

 

discovered this and took advantage of it to sport with him. During

 

the daytime they were afraid of his quick punch, but at night

 

they would come into his bedroom, take him into the

 

playground, beat his body and box his ears, and then lead him

 

back to bed. He was quite unconscious of these experiences and

 

had no remembrance of them in the mornings.

 

 

 

The psychologist who has correctly understood the nature

 

of sleep will find in this account of the boy's abnormal depth

 

of attention, sufficient indication of the mystical nature which

 

he possessed.

 

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