STORY OF AN IRAQI JEW WHO BECAME A LIFE-LONG DEVOTEE OF SRI RAMANA (part – I)

[Guest guest]

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.

 

STORY OF AN IRAQI JEW WHO BECAME A LIFE-LONG DEVOTEE OF SRI RAMANA

(part – I)

 

S. (Suleman) S. (Samuel) Cohen, an Iraqi Jew, was a qualified

accountant. He came to India in 1927 in search of the key to the

mystery of life and worked in Bombay for a few years before joining

the Theosophical Society at Madras, where he heard of Maharshi and

read some of his books. This worked as magic and he adopted Sri

Ramanasramam as his home in 1936. He died in 1980. He is the author

of Guru Ramana, Reflections on Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi and

Residual Reminiscences of Ramana. He lies buried within Sri

Ramanasramam campus, an honour bestowed on very few devotees.

 

It was then the Ashram's custom to honour the new comer by giving him

his first meal in a line directly opposite the Maharshi's seat.

After food, someone announced that the Maharshi was coming to the

hall. I rushed there. Behind me calmly walked in the tall,

impressive figure of the Maharshi with leisurely though firm steps.

I was alone in the hall with him. Joy and peace suffused my being,

never before had I such a delightful feeling of purity and well-being

at the mere proximity of a man. After a while, I saw him looking at

me with large penetrating eyes, rendered divinely soothing by their

child-like innocence. I became absorbed in the entrancing

personality of this magnificent human magnet – Sri Ramana Bhagavan.

It is needless to say that from that day Ramanasramam became my

permanent home.

A few days after my arrival, I sat in the hall almost alone after the

Maharshi's return from breakfast. He saw a leather-bound book by my

side and asked me, " What book is that? " taking it, I guessed, for a

scriptural manual. I answered that it was a notebook. He chuckled and

said to the interpreter: " Vellai Karan (the white man) does not move

about without a notebook. " This opening encouraged me to broach the

subject of sex. I said, " Last night Mr.Brunton and myself had a

heated discussion on the question of sex and marriage, especially as

it affects the spiritual life, What does the Maharshi think about

it? " The Maharshi kept silent for a moment and remarked, " As far as

sadhana is concerned, brahmacharya means dwelling in Brahman, "

leaving me to take it as I willed.

I constructed a hut for my residence near the Ashram in March 1936.

I hardly stayed in it in the daytime: my mind was wholly fixed on the

Master. So I spent my days and a part of my nights in the hall, where

the Maharshi lived and slept. There I quietly sat and listened to the

visitors' talks with him and to his answers, which were sometimes

translated into English, particularly if the questioner was a

foreigner or a North Indian. His answers were fresh and sweet. His

influence was all-pervasive in his silence not less than in his

speech.

To the serious-minded, Bhagavan was a beacon light in an otherwise

impenetrable darkness, and a haven of peace.

Bhagavan was the most liberal of gurus. At no time did he consider

the need to frame rules and regulations to control the lives of his

disciples; nor did he believe in a common, enforced discipline, for

he himself had attained the highest without them. He left his

disciples completely free to mould their lives as best they could.

This physical freedom considerably helped me to tide over the first

few difficult months of my new existence.

The years 1936-1938 were very blissful indeed. We could gather

around Bhagavan's couch, speak to him intimately as to a beloved

father, tell him our troubles without let or hindrance. Bhagavan

related to us stories yielding to transportation of emotions when he

depicted a scene of great bhakti, or great human tragedies to which

he was sensitive to the extreme. Then he shed tears, which he vainly

attempted to conceal.

Some stories are memorable like that of Kabir who had siddhis yet he

earned his livelihood by weaving, which was his profession. One day,

when Kabir was working on his loom, a disciple entered in great

excitement and said, " Sir, there is a juggler outside who is

attracting large crowds by making his stick stand in the air. "

Thereupon Kabir, who like all true saints discouraged the display of

jugglery, wanting to shame the man rushed out with a big ball of

thread in his hand and threw it in the air. The ball went up

unwinding till the whole thread stood still stiff in mid air. The

people including the juggler were stunned in amazement, and

Bhagavan's eyes acted the amazement, while his hand stood high above

his head in the position that of Kabir when he threw up the ball.

On another occasion, Bhagavan recited from memory a poem of a

Vaishnava saint, in which occurred the words `Fold me in thy

embrace, O Lord', when the arms of Bhagavan joined in a circle round

the vacant air before him, his eyes shone with devotional ardour,

while his voice shook with stifled sobs which did not escape our

notice. It was fascinating to see him acting the parts he related,

and be in such exhilarated moods as these.

The notion that the guru always watched his disciples continued

lurking in my mind. But as I discovered later, Bhagavan was doing

nothing of the kind. He was Supreme Detachment incarnate. The strict

aloofness which appeared to me at first as sheer callousness on the

part of the Maharshi, turned out across the years to be more potent

in its action to purify, guide, reform and mature the disciples'

consciousness than the guru's conscious interference. Without this

detachment, the guru is bound to grow partial and discriminative.

Renunciation or surrender is the cornerstone of sadhana, and with

the Maharshi it was the completest. There were a number of deluded

deovtees who tried to ingratiate themselves with him, but Bhagavan

never deviated from the neutrality in his spiritual attitude towards

them. Answering spiritual questions he always did, but he never

attempted consciously to give Self-realisation to any in all the 14

years of my contact with him, either by touch or mental projection or

any other means.

Early mornings I went alone for Giri pradakshina – an eight-mile trek

around Arunachala hill, which took me almost three hours to

accomplish. This had its own special benefis. At that early hour I

generally was in a walking meditation mood, particularly as I

expressly made a habit of it. Another factor to a successful

pradakshina and, to me, the greatest, was the determination at the

very start not to retrospect – not to look back upon the past –

throughout the walk. I would never allow memory to ruin my

calmness. Each time I caught memory sneaking in, I immediately

brought my attention to the rhythm of my footfalls till the mind

regained its restful state. The partial fatigue experienced in the

latter half of the journey automatically induced this mental rest

without much effort.

Speaking of retrospection, sadhakas must be warned against the tricks

of memory. It cannot be too often recommended to them to forbear

looking into the past with its trials and errors, acts of omission

and commission, regrets, fears, passion, love and hatred, personal

tragedies etc. Everything is dust, everything transitory, including

the seemingly indissoluble human ties, more so wealth and fame, are

thus not worth a moment's regret. Nothing is changeless and lasting

but the natural state of Pure Being.

 

Three years rolled by. The Master used to pass by my hut almost

everyday. Often he took shelter from the midday sun on my verandah

for two or three minutes, during which I made myself scarce, in order

not to inconvenience him, till one day I foolishly placed a chair for

his use on the sly, which made him once and for all boycott the

verandah. Despite his full knowledge of our adoration for him, he

was extremely sensitive to the slightest trouble which might ensue

from him to us, or, for that matter, to any one: thus placing a chair

for him, or expecting him everyday at a fixed hour, he interpreted as

interfering with my rest, hence the boycott.

 

After three years' stay at the Ashram, I got Bhagavan's permission to

go on a yatra to the South. He smiled approval and enquired about the

date and time of my starting, and whether I had made arrangements for

my stay in the various places of my visit. Extremely touched by his

solicitude, I answered that I was going as a sadhu, trusting to

chance for accommodation. To be continued …

(Source: Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi – Enchanting and

uplifting reminiscences of 160 persons – a forthcoming publication of

our Kendram.)

 

Be in this world but not be of this world. – Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

 

The tragedy of human history is decreasing happiness in the midst of

increasing comforts. – Swami Chinmayananda

 

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, " thank you " , that

would suffice. – Meister Eckhart

 

A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy. – Alexander

Solzhenitsyn

 

Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be. –

Abraham Lincoln

 

I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think. –

Socrates

 

To understand completely is to forgive completely. - Anonymous

 

The Supreme dwells within the lotus of the heart.Those who reach His

splendid Feet dwell endearingly within unearthly realms. –

Thiruvalluvar

 

He who hates no single being, is friendly and compassionate, free

from self-regard and vanity, patient, contented, ever devout, fixed

on me in heart and mind, is dear to me. – Bhagavad Gita

 

Jnana is neither given from outside nor from another person. It can

be realised by each and every person in his own Heart. The jnana

Guru of everyone is only the Supreme Self who is always revealing its

own truth in every Heart through the being-consciousness `I am. I

am.'- Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

Mountains have peaks and valleys. Learning to enjoy the peaks and

valleys is a part of wise living. It is foolish to say – I will enjoy

only the peaks and not the valleys.When you enjoy both the success

and failure then you are an integrated person. – Swami Sukhabodhananda

 

 

If the mind, which is the cause of all objective knowledge and all

actions, subsides, the perception of the world will cease. Just as

the knowledge of the rope will not be obtained unless the knowledge

of the snake goes, so the realization of the Self will not be

obtained unless the perception of the world, which is a

superimposition, ceases. – Sri Ramana Maharshi