Arthur Osborne - Sri Ramana Maharshi [2]

[Guest guest]

 

BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

 

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Before going any further I will try briefly to elucidate the

differences of meaning in the terms ‘saint’, ‘mystic’, ‘initiate’,

‘yogi’, and ‘sage’. It will help to show what we implied by using

the term ‘Bhagavan’ and what Bhagavan prescribed and therefore

will not really be a digression. These terms, of course, are not

rigorously precise definitions; neither are they mutually exclusive;

nevertheless they do indicate real differences, even though there

may be overlapping.

 

Imagine people living in a miasma at the foot of a

mountain, stunted, undernourished, wasted by disease. They

have been told that there is a wonderful plateau on the

mountaintop, with fruit and flowers, invigorating air and cool,

fresh water. But the ascent is arduous and they would have to

leave their hovels and their few miserable possessions behind,

so they stay where they are. Only a few of the more enterprising,

either seeking the mountain summit or simply striving to rise

above the heat, miasma and mosquitoes of the plain, have

climbed up some distance and made themselves dwellings on

the hillside. The plain-dwellers would refer to them all alike as

‘people of the hill’ and yet there would be endless differences

among them. Some might have developed a farmstead and have

fruit, milk and grain to give away to the sick and needy below,

while others might be resting in a cave with a little more than

their immediate needs. Some might have set forth on a deliberate

enterprise to attain the summit, while others were driven merely

by the urge to get up higher into cooler air and more beautiful,

health-giving surroundings, not even knowing that there was a

summit to attain. Even among those who started out with a

plan of ascent, some might have put it aside till a later, indefinite

date, once they had made a home somewhere along the path,

while others might regard each pleasure-grove they came to as

no more than a resting place from which to plan the next stage

of the ascent.

 

No less varied are the people known as ‘saints’. Not only

in their level of attainment do they vary but in their

understanding of the goal and their dedication to further striving

towards it. Also in the powers they manifest and the benefits

they bestow. Only the Roman Catholic Church officially

canonises saints; in other religions they are simply recognized.

One criterion the Church demands is the performance of

miracles. Power may flow through a saint, but it is by no means

necessary that he should be interested to manifest powers. Also,

the possession of powers is no proof of sainthood. This the

Church recognizes. Not only that, but Christ himself warned

against false prophets who would perform signs and wonders.

The mention of powers invites consideration of a slightly

different category, that of the yogi or initiate (for the yogi is simply

an initiate of one particular type of Hindu path). There is no

clear demarcation; indeed, a saint may be a member of an initiatic

order, while an initiate who has attained to a higher state will be a

saint. Nevertheless, the accent here is rather more on powers and

faculties and less on sanctity. The initiate is following a definite

technique intended to cause changes and development of mind

and character and ultimately to lead to beatitude; the saint also

may be, but he may have been swept up by the sheer force of his

aspiration and devotion, not knowing in theory whither he is

being borne or by what means. There were initiatic sciences

(hermetic or alchemical) in mediaeval Christendom and still are

in India (yogic and tantric sciences) which develop powers and

faculties in a man such as would be generally termed supernatural.

 

Purity of character and motive are supposed to be essential in

these sciences, but unfortunately there are people who practise

them without and become rather occultists than saints. I myself

have seen people in India who could perform wonders, and there

was nothing spiritual about them. The great Tibetan Buddhist

saint Milarepa (whose life has been translated into English by

Evans-Wentz) first attained occult powers for the egoistic purpose

of revenge on relatives who had dispossessed his mother and

himself; when he turned to a genuine spiritual path he had to

undergo terrible austerities to purify himself from this aberration.

 

The meaning of ‘initiate’, therefore, ranges all the way from ‘saint’

on the one hand to ‘occultist’ on the other, apart from the many

initiates, indeed the great majority, who achieve no recognizable

development at all as a result of their initiation.

 

The term ‘mystic’ also is vaguely used. Both a saint and

the initiate may be a mystic — in fact it might be held that the

genuine saint and the successful initiate must be. However, there

can be mystics who are neither saints nor initiates. The emphasis

here is rather on intuitive knowledge, vision or ecstasy than on

either sanctity or powers. Moreover, it may be a passive state

without either the theoretical understanding or the practical

disciplines of the initiate and without the saint’s striving for

purity. What is held to characterise it is the occasional largesse

of vision or beatitude, descending unearned. Even here there is

a very wide range of what the mystic glimpses, from pure Selfrealization

to sensual visions and divine visitations.

 

There is one flank of the mountain where the ascent is

sheer, with no pleasant groves to rest in on the way, where, to

compensate for this, the path is direct and the crest already

visible from the plains below and throughout the ascent. This is

the direct path taught by Bhagavan. There are no stages on this

path. Indeed, followers of Bhagavan are apt to be impatient

when they hear of stages or degrees of realization upon some

indirect path and to say: ‘What does all this mean? Either a

man has realized the Self or he has not.’ This attitude is right as

regards their own path but not necessarily as regards others, for

there are paths on which the wayfarer does not aim at realization

of the Self, the ultimate end of Supreme Truth, or at any rate

not directly, and the term ‘realization’ is used with a different

meaning, to signify merely the attainment of some higher state

which, however, is equally transient and illusory within the

ultimate reality of the Self.

 

However, although the wayfarer on the direct path does

not attain to any higher states along the way, he may be blessed

with glimpses of pure Self-realization, beyond all states, which

will suffuse and irradiate his whole life. Speaking of pure Selfrealization

and the direct path to it, Bhagavan affirmed quite

definitely both, that there are no stages in Realization and that

Realization is not normally permanent when first attained. It

may come in occasional flashes but cannot be permanent until

the vasanas (inherent tendencies impelling one to desire one

thing and shun another) have been eradicated.

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taken from Arthur Osborne's My Life & Quest