Ramana as I know him - Swami Iswarananda

[Guest guest]

Swami Iswarananda

 

IT WAS IN 1934 that I had the privilege of meeting the great

sage of Tiruvannamalai. It was a long cherished desire of mine

to have a look at Sri Ramana Maharshi and study a jivanmukta

– for such was the descriptive term with which he was referred

to by the general public.

 

It was about ten o’clock in the morning when I entered

the large hall in which the Maharshi was. The hall was full of

devotees. I made my prostrations and stood up and found the

Maharshi completely unconcerned. I was even afraid whether I

had disturbed the intense silence that filled the whole

atmosphere along with the aroma of burning incense. I silently

moved away to one side of the hall and sat quiet, watching the

Maharshi. Now and then visitors entered the hall, some with

fruits, etc., made their prostrations, and silently went out or sat

with others. The attendants took away the offerings. The

Maharshi did not ask the devotees any questions as to who they

were, what they were or about their welfare. Nor did the

attendants introduce them to him. The devotees too silently

found for themselves a place in the hall where they would sit

and quietly watch the Maharshi or be meditating with closed

eyes. An attendant once brought to him some newspapers which

he went on reading. Another brought some proofs for correction

and he sat up and returned them corrected. He again relapsed

into a state of all-significant look, in a reclining posture. All

these went on silently till about 12 o’clock when the bell rang

for lunch.

 

After we had all returned to the hall and the Maharshi got

seated on his cot, some attendant introduced me to him as

coming from the Ramakrishna Ashram, Mysore. The Maharshi

asked me if I had any news of Swami Siddheswarananda who

had gone to Paris to start a centre of the Ramakrishna Mission

there. It so happened that I had a letter of his in my pocket

which I handed over to him.

The Maharshi went through the letter and expressed his

surprise at the fact that few Frenchmen living so near England

knew English.

 

The Maharshi enjoyed the humorous episode mentioned

in the letter which arose on account of this language difficulty.

Swami Siddheswaranandaji’s hosts did not know English. At

meals when his hosts brought him wine, he said no. They asked

him what he would take. He said milk. They brought him water

and then soda. He again said that it was not what he wanted.

They were puzzled. Then the Swami resorted to a gesture of

imitation of milking the cow. The hosts immediately understood

and the difficulty was got over. The Maharshi enjoyed this

immensely and recited the incident in Tamil and Telugu to the

audience in the hall with great glee.

 

After some time I asked permission to put a few questions

about samadhi, God realization, etc. In those days, the Maharshi

used to give only short replies and that too, long after the

question was put to him, so I was told. But in my case he

appeared to have made an exception and explained at length.

The Maharshi repeated his replies in Tamil and Telugu and

sometimes in Malayalam for the benefit of the others in the

hall. The hall was, again as usual, filled with silence. The Maharshi

again relapsed into his wonted silence and sublime look.

It was time for me to depart. I got up and prostrated and

told the Maharshi that I would now take leave. He seemed to

say ‘yes’ by his look and I came away with the satisfaction of

having had the privilege of contacting one who was reputed to

be a perfected Soul.

 

The silence which the Maharshi was steeped in pervaded

me and still haunts my soul even after twenty years.

 

 

taken from SURPASSING LOVE AND GRACE