MADHAVI AMMAL - THE LADY DEVOTEE WHO WRESTED DIKSHA FROM SRI RAMANA

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MADHAVI AMMAL - THE LADY DEVOTEE WHO WRESTED DIKSHA FROM SRI RAMANA

The following first person account by the devotee is from

the book The Silent Power, Sri Ramanasramam.

 

I knew fully well that Sri Bhagavan gave no formal

initiation, but I kept on asking for it whenever an opportunity

presented itself. Invariably, Sri Bhagavan used to reply: " Who is

the Guru and who is the sishya? They are not two. There is but One

Reality. It is in you and it can neither be given nor taken. "

Sri Ramana's insistence not to provide initiation is well

known. The first person to document it was Paul Brunton who wrote

the following after his first meeting with Sri Ramnana in 1930, in

his famous A Search in Secret India (Ch.xiv): " In my heart I know

that I come as one seeking to take up the position of a disciple,

and that there will be no rest for my mind until I hear Maharshi's

decision. I put my request briefly and bluntly. He continues to

smile at me but says nothing. I repeat my question with some

emphasis. There is another protracted pause, but at length he

answers me, disdaining to call for the services of an interpreter

and expresses himself directly in English. `What is all this talk

of masters and disciples? All these differences exist only from the

disciple's standpoint. To the one who has realised the true self

there is neither master nor disciple. Such a one regards all people

with equal eye'. I am slightly conscious of an initial rebuff, and

though I press my request in other ways, Maharshi refuses to yield

on the point. But in the end he does say: `You must find the

Master within you, within your spiritual self. You must regard his

body in the same way that he himself regards it, the body in not the

true self.' "

On March 12, 1934 I went to the hall. Only the attendant

Madhava Swami was there. When I made my usual request Sri Bhagavan

laid aside the newspaper he was reading and sat in padmasana, quite

absorbed. I then recited a hymn of praise to the Guru in Telugu and

also Aksharamanamalai [The hymn on Arunachala by Sri Ramana]. Sri

Bhagavan turned to Madhava Swami and said, " She has prayed to Sri

Arunachala " . This struck me as meaning that Sri Arunachala will

give the initiation and also that Sri Bhagavan and Sri Arunachala

are not two. Sri Bhagavan resumed his state of absorption and I had

my persistent request for upadesa. But he continued to sit

motionless. Finally, I begged of him saying: " Am I not a competent

person to receive upadesa? Sri Bhagavan should himself tell me

about this. "

Immediately on speaking thus, I found a bright light

emanating from Sri Bhagavan's face, and the effulgence filled the

whole hall. I could not see Sri Bhagavan's body but only the

brilliance. I shed tears in profusion. The whole incident lasted

for a few seconds. I prostrated to Sri Bhagavan. There was a smile

on his face but no movement otherwise. After a while he turned to

me as if to ask, " Are you rid of your mania? " He then took a piece

of paper, wrote a sloka on it and gave it to me saying, " You can

make use of it in meditation. " The sloka is: " I adore Guha the

Dweller in the Cave of the Heart, the Son of the Protector of the

Universe, the Pure light of Awareness beyond thought, the wielder of

the weapon of jnana sakti and the Remover of the ignorance of

blemishless devotees. " (The Silent Power is available at the

Kendram's bookstore.)

 

prof laxmi narain (prof_narain)

 

Source and courtesy: Sri Ramana Kendram, Hyderabad

This article was published in Sri Ramana Jyothi,

monthly magazine of the Kendram