NARAYANA IYER REMEMBERS SRI RAMANA

[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.

 

NARAYANA IYER REMEMBERS SRI RAMANA

 

 

 

R. Narayana Iyer did personal service to Sri Ramana. He wrote a

number of articles in The Mountain Path under the pen name Vishnu.

When he first went to Sri Ramana as a young man, he was a modernist

and a freethinker.

 

In 1929, when employed as Sub-Registrar at Chetput, a town 30 miles

from Tiruvannamalai, I was an out-and-out skeptic with no religion in

me, scoffing in my references to sadhus, sannyasis and swamis, whom I

considered impostors and parasites on society, who exploited the

credulous folk for personal ends.

My only friend and constant companion was Dr. Ramakrishna

Iyer, son of Lakshmi Ammal, a friend and playmate of Sri Bhagavan in

his boyhood days at Tiruchuzhi. He was well acquainted with Bhagavan

and an occasional visitor to the Ashram. He once asked me to

accompany him to Tiruvannamalai during the festival of Karthikai

Deepam.

The pomp and pageantry of the temple festival had no attraction for

me, yet I agreed, not wishing to hurt my friend's feelings. However,

I requested him to let me stay with my parents, who had gone for the

festival and were staying persons huddled in a small house in the

town, I consented to stay at the Ashram, which was less crowded. On

the way, I repeated my opinion about the so-called holy men and said

to Dr. Iyer, " I will not come in or join in any of your `foolish

acts'. If by chance I meet your Swami,I will not prostrate before

him. I mean no insult but I cannot do what is against my

conviction. "

We walked in. A man in a white loincloth, a towel suspended

on his shoulder, a kamandalu in one hand and a walking stick in

another, stopped in his walk on seeing us. My friend hastened his

steps and I slowly followed.He was greeted very kindly and was asked

about the welfare of his mother and brother. Out of courtesy I looked

at the Maharshi.What a wonderful face and what a welcoming smile;

bewitching, fascinating and a powerful look too!

In a moment I was at his feet on the gravel ground! I soon

regained my self-possession and felt ashamed. With a pleasing smile

he said, " You have a couple of days' leave, is it not so? You can

stay in the Ashramam. " I dared not say anything. I was dazed. Soon

I recovered and wanted to find out if he had written any books. I got

a copy of Reality in Forty Verses in Tamil. I tried to read the first

stanza. I could not follow. The words seemed too closely packed and

somehow jumbled together to form a stanza. I was

flabbergasted. " What " , thought I, " can he not say what he has to say

in some intelligible language? " Someone nearby said that it had been

arranged that the Maharshi himself would explain to us the Forty

Verses that night.

At night, the Maharshi sat on a dais inside a shed

containing his mother's samadhi.About half a dozen of us were seated

on the ground before him. A solemn stillness pervaded the air. There

was absolute silence. Maharshi read the first stanza.The mere

reading of the stanza made the meaning as simple as simplicity

itself! Stanza by stanza he read and explained in a voice that was so

sweet and melodious and coming as though from `somewhere'. The climax

came. Explaining one verse he said, " God cannot be seen with our

eyes or known by our sense perceptions.This is what is meant by the

saying: To see God is to become God. " A stalwart person with a severe

expression named Dandapani Swami, interposed: " Is Bhagavan saying

this out of personal experience? "

The question asked bluntly with such naiveté was answered

with equal candour: " Else would I dare to say so? " What takes so

much time to think flashed upon me in a moment. God cannot be known

by our sense faculties. The only way was to become God. If God were

to appear before one in flesh and blood here He is.My body

experienced a thrill from somewhere deep down in me.Again and again,

thrill after thrill quivered and shook my frame. I went out to

compose myself.

Well, I seemed caught in a net! The more I was with him; the

more I wanted to be with him. But I was shortly transferred to Arni,

another town within the same radius of thirty miles. Here I missed

the company of the doctor friend.Losing all delight in all other

things, I turned the monthly visits to the Ashram to weekly ones,

coupling Sundays with other holidays. And I was always welcome to the

Ashram.

Sri Bhagavan had his head shaved once a month on the full

moon day. Natesan was the barber who used to do this service.

Bhagavan sat on a stool and Natesan would stand and shave him. Once

Sri Bhagavan suggested to Natesan in all seriousness that it would be

more comfortable for the barber to sit on the stool while he himself

would sit on the floor!

I used to translate from Tamil to English Bhagavan's replies

to letters received by him.I had made friends with the attendants,

Madhavaswami, Satyanandaswami, Krishnaswami, Rangaswami and others.

They did not protest when I gradually introduced personal services

to Sri Bhagavan, such as massaging his legs,fomentations, etc.

There were occasions when his muscles became rigid or painful. After

his work like cutting vegetables and directing the task of the

kitchen workers in the early hours of the morning, he would be on his

couch in the hall sitting there or just reclining like a statue cut

in alabaster or like one posing for a painter or sculptor. Sitting in

this manner all day made his muscles hard and inflexible and so he

required some massage. Thus, by slow degrees a sort of familiarity

and intimacy grew up between Bhagavan and me.

Once I asked, " Bhagavan, you left your home in Madurai where

your relatives had been treating you with love and kindness and

spending money upon your education. You misappropriated their money

for your train fare to Tiruvannamalai. You sneaked your way to the

railway station so as not to be noticed by anyone. You posed yourself

as a pilgrim who had lost his kit. Was all this straightforward and

proper? " He was silent for a while and then replied, " This can be

explained. It is said in the Kural that even falsehood is akin to

truth when it is unblemished good and harms none. "

I once told Bhagavan, " I have been here for many years.

People meditate and get into samadhi. I close my eyes for a minute

and the mind travels round the world ten times and so many long

forgotten things come up. " Upon this he said, " Why do you concern

yourself about others? They may meditate or sleep and snore. Look to

yourself. Whenever the mind goes astray bring it back to the quest. "

Once a few very learned Sanskrit scholars were seated in the hall

discussing portions of the Upanishads and other scriptural texts with

Bhagavan. I felt in my heart, how great these people are and how

fortunate they are to be so learned and to have such deep

understanding and ability to discuss with our Bhagavan. I felt

miserable. After the pandits had taken leave, Bhagavan turned to me

and said, " What? " looking into my eyes and studying my

thoughts, " This is only the husk! All this book learning and capacity

to repeat the scriptures by memory is absolutely of no use. To know

the Truth, you need not undergo all this torture of learning. Not by

reading do you get the Truth. Be Quiet that is Truth. Be Still, that

is God. "

Then very graciously he turned to me again, and there was an

immediate change in his tone and attitude. He asked, " Do you shave

yourself? " Bewildered by this sudden change, I answered trembling

that I did. " Ah " , he said, " For shaving you use a mirror, don't you?

You look into the mirror and then shave your face; you don't shave

the image in the mirror. Similarly, all the scriptures are meant

only to show you the way of Realization. They are meant for practice

and attainment. Mere book learning and discussions are comparable to

a man shaving the image in the mirror. " From that day onwards my long-

standing sense of inferiority vanished once for all

 

Once I cried and told the Maharshi that I knew

nothing about Vedanta nor could I practise austerity, being a

householder. I prayed to him to help me by showing the Reality or the

way to it. I also frankly told him that his method of Self-enquiry

was too hard for me. He then graciously said, " You know Ulladu

Narpadu [Truth in Forty Verses]. It imparts Pure Truth, deals with

it and explains it. Go on reading it verse by verse. The words of

the verses will in course of time vanish and Pure Truth (sat) alone

will shine, like the snake relinquishing its skin and coming out

shining. "

One day I felt puzzled by the teaching that everything in

the world is maya or illusion.I asked Bhagavan how with the physical

existence before our eyes we can all be unreal and non-existent?

Bhagavan laughed and asked me whether I had any dream the previous

night. I replied that I saw several people lying asleep. He

said, " Suppose now I ask you to go and wake up all those people in

the dream and tell them they are not real, how absurd would it be!

That is how it is to me. There is nothing but the dreamer, so where

does the question of dream people, real or unreal, arise; still more

of waking them up and telling them that they are not real. We are

all unreal, why do you doubt it? That alone is real. " After this

explanation I never had any doubt about the unreality of the

objective world.

About the jivanmukta, Bhagavan said, " The jivanmukta is one

without any thoughts or sankalpas. The thought process ceases

completely in him. Some Power makes him do things. So he is not the

doer but the one who is made to do. "

Bhagavan's compassion has graced my life many times – On the

day my wife died, it rained in torrents. I was afraid that the

cremation would be delayed. Bhagavan sent some Ashram workers to help

me. When Bhagavan was told that the rain was too heavy for the

funeral, he said, " Go on with it, never mind the rain. " When the body

was taken to the cremation ground, the rain stopped, and after the

body was burnt to white ashes, it started raining again. In 1942, I

wanted to get my daughter married. I had a suitable boy in mind but

he raised some objections. Anxiously, I showed his letter to

Bhagavan, who said, " Don't worry, it will come off. " Soon afterwards

the boy himself came and the marriage was celebrated.

.. It is our greatest fortune that the Supreme Consciousness

appearing in the garb of a human body graciously undertook to come

down to our level of understanding and bore the tremendous task of

imparting to us the atma vidya. The contact and impact that I have

had with Bhagavan have been such as to make me feel that knowingly or

unknowingly I must have done something in the course of my lives to

deserve this unique blessing. (Source: Face to Face with Sri Ramana

Maharshi – the forthcoming publication of Sri Ramana Kendram,

Hyderabad.)