DAVID GODMAN, WHO HAS SURRENDERED TO SRI RAMANA

January 12, 2008

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prof,UNEXPECTED_DATA_AFTER_ADDRESS@.SYNTAX-ERROR. wrote:LIFE SKETCH OF DAVID GODMAN, WHO HAS SURRENDERED TO SRI RAMANA

The following first- person account of the U.K.-born Godman,[Hisfamily name], the best-known biographer of Sri Ramana devotees,based on his replies to questions, and not something written byGodman himself. For details see: www.davidgodman.org.

Godman who has written thousands of pages about Sri Ramana and hisdevotees, has at one place dedicated his work to Bhagavan ashis "own personal act of worship" in the following manner -- Wordsare the only jewels I possess./ Words are the only clothes I wear. /Words are the only food that sustain my life. /Words are the onlywealth I distribute among people. [A poem by Saint Tukaram]

Godman's books include: Be As You Are, No Mind – I Am The Self,Papaji Interviews, Living By The Words Of Bhagavan, Nothing EverHappened [An over 1200- page biography of Papaji in threevolumes], Annamalai Swami: Final Talks, and The Power of thePresence, Part one, Two and Three. He has also edited Sri RamanaDarsanam [A book by Sadhu Natananda], Padamalai [which means agarland for the feet] which contains 3059 verses by the great poetMuruganar, and Sorupa Saram, a hundred-verse poem on the advitaexperience composed by the 16th century Tamil guru – Sorupananda.Godman says:

I was born in 1953. My father was a schoolmaster and my motherspecialized in treating physically handicapped children. Aftergetting educated at local schools, I won a place at OxfordUniversity in 1972. Sometime in my second year I found myselfgetting more and more interested in Eastern spiritual traditions. Iseemed to have an insatiable hunger for knowledge about them. Oneday, I read Arthur Osborne's The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi in hisOwn Words. Reading Ramana's words for the first time completelysilenced me. By the time I put the book down, it had completelytransformed the way I viewed the world and myself.

The experiences I was having made me understand how invalid were theacademic techniques of acquiring and evaluating knowledge. I droppedout in my final year at Oxford and went to Ireland with my Ramanabooks, and spent about six months reading Ramana's teaching andpracticing his technique of self-enquiry. This was in 1975. When Idecided to have a quick trip to India and Ramanasramam, I figuredout the costs and found that I would need another pound 200 for thispurpose. I decided that if Bhagavan wanted me to go to India, hewould send me the money. Within a week, I received a letter from mygrandmother's lawyer that he had just found some shares that sheowned, and that my share of them would be pound 200. I came toIndia, expecting to stay six weeks, and have been here more or lessever since.

I did find it hard to practise self-enquiry merely by reading books.Arthur Osborne seemed to think that concentrating on the heartcenter on the right side of the chest while doing self-enquiry wasan integral part of the process. But when I read the books Talkswith Ramana Maharshi and Day by Day with Bhagavan, I got a correctunderstanding of the method of self-enquiry. I feel that if theattitude is right and if the practice is intense enough, it doesn'treally matter what you do, when you meditate. The purity of intentand purpose carries you to the right place. I consider self-enquirya bit like swimming or riding a bicycle. You don't learn it frombooks. You learn it doing it again and again till you get it right.

In Tiruvannamalai, I spent my first 18 months just meditating,practicing self-enquiry, and occasionally walking around Arunachala.I looked after Sri Ramanasramam library from 1978 to 1985. In thelater 1980s and early 90s I also devoted a considerable amount oftime to looking after Lakshmana Swamy and Saradamma's garden. Theybought land in Tiruvannamalai in 1988 and I ended up helping todevelop it. In 1993 I went to Lucknow and spent four years withPapaji, where I wrote Nothing Ever Happened. Since my return toTiruvannamalai in 1997 I have been writing and researching new bookson Sri Ramana.

Regarding the financial means to maintain him, Godman said: Gracehas supported me. I have found that if you give all your time to Godand his work, then He looks after you. I came to India in 1976 with$500. I didn't earn money for twenty years, but always had enough tolive on.

When I first came to Arunachala I fell in love with the place andwanted to stay as long as I could. I knew that I didn't have enoughmoney, but I wanted to make it last as long as possible. There wasmeter ticking away in my head: I have so much money, I am spendingso much per day, and that means I have so many more days here. Thosenumbers, those equations were there all the time. Then, one day, asI was doing pradakshina of Arunachala, it all dropped away. It wasnot a mental decision; I stopped walking, turned, and faced thehill. I knew in that moment that whatever power had brought me herewould keep me here until its purpose is finished. From then on Istopped caring about money. In the period when I was worrying aboutmoney, all that I had was spent. When I stopped caring, completestrangers would come up to me and give me money. Whenever I neededmoney, money just appeared out of nowhere

Nowadays, I am not supported by any institution, so I publish my ownbooks and live off the proceeds fairly comfortably.

(David Godman lives in Tiruvannamalai and can be contacted on e-mail:davidgodmanor care of Sri Ramanastramam)

prof laxmi narain (prof_narain)

Source and courtesy: Sri Ramana Kendram, HyderabadThis article was published in Sri Ramana Jyothi,monthly magazine of the Kendram.