Incidents related to Ramana Maharshi stay in Patala Lingam

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One day, while Ramana was sitting absorbed in meditation in the

thousand-pillared hall, he was pelted with stones from behind,which,

fortunately, did not hit him. As a result he nevertheless decided, in order

to escape such troubles in future, to withdraw to a windowless underground

vault under the thousand-pillared hall,known as the Patala Lingam (patala =

snakes cave, underworld, a kind of hell). There was a Shiva lingam, behind

which he sat down,leaning his back against the wall. The cellar was never

used or visited and therefore never cleaned. The rays of the sun never

penetrated here. It was also damp and overrun with vermin such as woodlice,

ants, bees and wasps. Despite being bitten by mosquitoes Ramana sat unmoved

in yoga posture with legs crossed, impervious to the world. His thighs,

where they met the ground, were soon covered with ulcers, from which blood

and pus oozed. The scars were to remain visible for the rest of his life.

 

Here the children left him in peace. He reported, “Children used to run

after me, and when I hid myself in Patala Lingam, from the outside they

would pelt me with stones and potsherds, but none of it reached me as I used

to sit in the south east corner. The urchins never dared to come in because

of the extreme darkness that prevailed

in the pit, the broken steps of which could not even be seen from the

surface.â€

 

A pious woman named Ratnammal found him there, she spoke to him and brought

him something to eat. She urgently begged him to leave the place and come to

stay at her home. But the young Swami made no reply, either through words or

gestures. She laid a

clean piece of cloth beside him and bade him to use it as a bed or to sit on

to keep at least some of the vermin away, but he took no notice and did not

even touch it. He also made no effort to obtain any food. People therefore

used to place food in his mouth, but he was not aware of it. When later he

was asked if he had any food

during the time of his stay in the vault, he answered, “Food was forthcoming

– milk, fruits – but whoever thought of food?†Sri Ramana neither spoke

nor

moved. People who saw him like this thought he was practising an intense

kind of spiritual exercise

(tapas).

 

Because he was silent, people were of the opinion that he had taken a vow of

silence (mauna). But for him all this was no spiritual exercise at all, it

was merely something that happened to him, “I have never done any sadhana. I

did not even know what sadhana was. Only long afterwards I came to know what

sadhana was and how many different kinds of it there were. Only if there was

a goal to attain, I should have made sadhana to attain that goal.There was

nothing which I wanted to obtain. I am now sitting with my eyes open. I was

then sitting with my eyes closed. That was all

the difference. I was not doing any sadhana even then. As I sat with my eyes

closed, people said I was in samadhi. As I was not talking,they said I was

in mauna. The fact is, I did nothing. Some Higher Power took hold of me and

I was entirely in Its hand.â€

 

 

There is little or no information about how long Ramana stayed in samadhi in

the Patala Lingam. It was probably several weeks. One Venkatachala Mudali, a

visitor to the temple, finally brought him out of there, after Seshadri had

drawn his attention to the alarming bodily condition of the young

Swami. Venkatachala

Mudali reports,“One day, going near the thousand-pillared hall, I found a

group of boys, mostly Moslems, hurling stones in the direction of the pit.

Enraged at the sight I seized a twig, and ran towards the young scamps who

fled promptly. Suddenly from the dark recesses of the hall there issued

forth the figure of Seshadri. I was taken aback, but, soon recovering

myself, enquired of the Swami if the stones pelted by the boys had hurt him.

‘Oh no,’ replied the Swami, ‘but go and see the Chinnaswami there’,

pointed

towards the pit, and went away. Proceeding inside, I could make out nothing

for a while, as I was coming from the glare into the darkness.In a few

minutes, the faint outlines of a young face became discernible in that pit.

Somewhat frightened, I went out to the adjoining flower-garden where a sadhu

was working with his disciples.Mentioning the facts to them I took some of

them with me. Even then the youthful figure sat motionless and with closed

eyes, despite the noise of our footsteps. Then we lifted the Swami from the

pit, carried him from the hall up a flight of steps and deposited him in

front of a shrine of Subrahmanya. The Swami still remained unconscious, his

eyes closed; evidently he was in deep samadhi.

 

We noted the large number of sores on the nether side of his thighs and

legs, with blood and pus flowing from some of them, and wondered how any one

could remain unconscious of the body amidst such torture. Regarding it as

irreverence, nay impertinence,to make any further noise in such presence, we

bowed and came away.â€

 

Source: Ramana Maharshi: His Life A biography by Gabriele Ebert

 

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