Arthur Osborne - I become a writer...(5)

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Arunachala Hill, with the town of Tiruvannamalai at its

foot, is one of the most ancient spiritual centres in India. It is

peculiarly associated with the direct path of Self-enquiry and

the silent initiation connected with this. Indeed, it is the

traditional centre of Dakshinamurti, who is Siva teaching in

silence in the form of a youthful Guru with aged disciples. That

is why Bhagavan was drawn there and made it his home and

why he wrote hymns to Arunachala as a form assumed by Siva,

the Formless God. Perhaps it is also why Arunachala has

been less well known than other centres such as Benares

and Mt. Kailash — the direct path of self-enquiry has been

less accessible and less widespread than other, indirect paths.

Now, however, since Bhagavan has restored it and simplified it

to suit the spirit of our age, Arunachala has once again become

the active spiritual centre. Bhagavan has said that it is the centre

of the world. People who come here feel a potency and beauty

and a tremendous vibration of peace.

 

After his death I wrote a number of articles about Bhagavan

for my own paper and others. The ashram wanted to continue

publishing as a sign that it was still flourishing, and I collected

these together and edited them to form the chapters of a book

which I called Ramana Arunachala and gave to the ashram to

publish, taking no royalties for it. So, almost by accident, my

first book was published.

 

There already was an official ashram life of Bhagavan, but

it only went up to 1936 and was written in a florid Indian

imitation of Victorian verbosity. I was asked whether I could

revise it and bring it up to date. At first I agreed, but when I got

down to work I found that so much needed to be changed,

both in style and structure, that the only thing to do was to

write a new book. So my second book came to be written,

Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge, the first half

of it largely, though not exclusively, based on the previous ashram

biography. Before it was ready for publication some one told

Gerald Yorke of Rider & Co. about it and so he wrote to me

suggesting that I should get it published in England, so that it

could be given proper publicity and serve to make Bhagavan

and his teaching known outside India also. I immediately agreed

and gave the royalties of this book also to the ashram.

 

Rider’s were at the time publishing rather second rate

occultist stuff, and I was not pleased to have a life of Bhagavan

brought out by them; but Yorke was reading manuscripts for

them and trying to raise their standard. A year or two later he

became publications manager for the firm and, with the help of

others on the staff, succeeded in his efforts so considerably that

they became one of the most outstanding publishers of books

of real spiritual interest and a pleasant firm to deal with in every

way. My correspondence with Yorke continues and I always

found him friendly and helpful. Several times I was able to

refer people to him when they wrote to me from England about

the possibilities of spiritual affiliation.

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* Arthur Osborne: My Life & Quest *

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