Incidents Happened When Guru Ramana Stayed In the Small Temple of Gurumurtam and in the Mango Grove

[Guest guest]

Ramana when living in Subrahmanya temple after he shifted from Patala

Lingam.After spending some weeks at this shrine Ramana moved to the

adjoining flower garden.

 

Finally, Ramana moved to the hall where the vehicles for the temple

processions were kept (vahana mantapam).

 

After some time Ramana left the vahana mantapam and sat under the Illupai

tree which was inside the outer wall of the southern temple tower. The path

used for the temple processions passed nearby.

 

Here Ramana was fully exposed to the weather. Sometimes a cold wind blew and

his body would be covered with dew. To protect himself against the cold he

would cross his arms about the upper part of his naked body. Later he

reflected that no woollen blanket could compare to the arms laid across the

chest and that this was the first upper garment that he used.

 

At the following Kartikai festival Sri Ramana’s first disciple, Uddandi

Nayinar, arrived and became a permanent companion.He took care of his bodily

needs and prevented him from being disturbed or bothered. He settled down at

a short distance from him,observed the crowds of visitors for hours at a

time and drove away the urchins who found it amusing to cause trouble for

the young ascetic. He also cooked simple meals, which he shared with him.

 

It was because of Uddandi Nayinar that Annamalai Tambiran first noticed

Ramana.

 

One day, as he was walking past the Illupai tree he saw the young Swami

sitting there and was deeply impressed, from that day on he accompanied

Uddandi Nayinar.

 

Finally they both suggested to Sri Ramana that he should move to Gurumurtam.

There he could meditate undisturbed as the place was secluded and in

addition offered better protection from the cold. Ramana agreed and in

February 1897,not quite six months after his arrival at Tiruvannamalai, he

left the temple area and was brought to Gurumurtam by Tambiran and Uddandi.

 

At times Tambiran, due to his devout but excessive veneration,became a

nuisance to Sri Ramana. One day he made preparations to render homage to his

new guru like to one of the idols of the goddesses in the temple

(abhishekam). He obtained flowers, oil,sandal paste, milk and other

ingredients and actually wanted to pour this over the head of his “living

godâ€. To prevent this, Ramana took a piece of charcoal and the next day,

before Tambiran arrived, wrote on the wall in Tamil, “This [food] alone is

the service [needed] for this [body].â€

 

So Tambiran was forced to abandon his plan. Through this incident people

learned that the silent Swami was educated and able to read and write.

 

Amongst the admirers who had started to visit Ramana regularly,was a

highly-placed official called Venkataramana Iyer. When he realized that the

Swami was able to write, he felt he must find out his name and where he came

from. But Ramana, despite repeated questioning, remained silent. Iyer

finally explained that he would not leave until his questions were answered,

even if that meant that he would have to go hungry and get into trouble

because of his lengthy absence from his office. This moved the young Swami

and he wrote down the words, “Venkataraman, Tiruchuliâ€. The place,

however, was unknown to the official. So Ramana reached for the

Periyapuranam, which was lying at his side, and pointed out Tiruchuli as the

name of a village, whose temple was honoured in the famous hymn by

Sundaramurti (one of the 63 Tamil saints). Thus,not only the official but

Tambiram and all those present discovered his name and his origins. From now

on Ramana was no longer nameless and unknown.

 

Ramana was absorbed in deep samadhi most of the time unaware of his body,

which he neglected, completely disregarding his outward appearance. He was

filthy, his hair had grown very long and had become a dishevelled and matted

mass and his fingernails had grown so long and crooked, that he was unable

to use his hands for any useful purpose. Neither Tambiran nor Uddandi did

anything about this and he himself felt no need to change his bodily

condition. Only later, when Palaniswami took care of him, did the daily bath

become a routine.

 

Once, however, he was forced to bathe and on another occasion to have a

shave, “Even so, a lady, by name Minakshi, who used now and then to bring

food to give me, one day brought a large pot and began to boil water. I

thought it was for some use for herself,but, taking from a basket some oil,

soap-nut, etc., she said,‘Swami, please come’. I did not move. But would she

keep quiet! She pulled me by the arm, made me sit, smeared the oil all over

my body and bathed me. The hair on the head which had got matted for want of

care, was now spread out and hung down like the mane of a lion. … Shaving

was also like that. The shave I had on the day I came here has been

recorded; the second was after a year and a half. The hair had got matted

and woven like a basket. Small stones and dust had settled down in it and

the head used to feel heavy. I had also long nails, and a frightful

appearance. So people pressed me to have a shave, and I yielded. When my

head was shaven clean, I began to wonder whether I had a head or not, it

felt so light. I shook my head this way and that to assure myself that it

was there. That showed the amount of burden I had been carrying on my head.â€

 

The place where Ramana sat was infested with ants, but he took no notice of

them as they crawled over his body and bit him incessantly.After a while his

devotees sat him on a stool against the wall. To keep the ants away they

placed the legs of the stool in jugs of water, but to no avail, as the ants

merely ran up the wall and bit his back. To this day the imprint of his back

can be seen where he sat leaning against the wall.

 

During the first two months spent in Gurumurtam, Tambiram used to give him

some of the food which had been offered at the Gurumurtam shrine. But then

Tambiran went away, after first asking Uddandi to look after the Swami. He

promised to be back in a

week but, in fact, only returned a year later. Some weeks after he left,

Uddandi also had to return to his own math. So suddenly no one was there to

care for Ramana. But, as a result of his increasing fame, food was always

brought to him. After the departures of both Tambiran and Uddandi the only

problem was that there was no-one there to keep the crowds away. This

problem was finally solved when Palaniswami joined him.

 

Palaniswami was a Malayali from Kerala and at least 20 years older than Sri

Ramana. He paid homage to the idol of Goddess Ganesha in a temple in the

town. His only food was food which had been offered to Ganesha, which

consisted of a single meal a day, to which he added no spices, not even

salt. Someone noticed his devotion to the Goddess and said, “What is the use

of spending your lifetime with this stone Swami? There is a young Swami in

flesh and blood at Gurumurtam. He is steeped in austerities (tapas) like the

youthful Dhruva mentioned in the puranas. If you go and serve him, and

adhere to him, your life would serve its purpose.†Others also drew his

attention to the fact that the Swami was without an attendant at the time

and that it would be a blessing to serve such a great soul. Spurred on in

this way Palaniswami went to Gurumurtam.

 

Some time in May 1898, after a little over one year spent at

Gurumurtam,Ramana and Palaniswami moved to the adjoining mango grove. Here

they spent several peaceful months undisturbed by the numerous visitors, as

Venkataraman Naicker, the owner of the garden, let no-one enter who had not

been asked in. There they lived in two narrow sheds under a mango tree. Ramana

remembers,“Under a mango tree they erected something overhead to prevent

rain from falling on me. There was, however, not enough space under it even

to stretch my legs fully while sleeping. So I used to sit almost all the

time like a bird in its nest. Opposite my shelter Palaniswami also had a

small shed. In the huge garden, only two of us used to stay.

 

Palaniswami, who had access to a library in town, brought back a number of

books in Tamil on Vedanta, such as Kaivalya Navaneeta,Yoga Vasistha and

Shankaras Vivekachudamani.But, as his knowledge of Tamil was not very good,

he used to struggle through the scriptures word by word and often had

difficulties in understanding.Ramana read each of the books, immediately

grasped the meaning,remembered everything and imparted the essence of it to

Palaniswami. In this way Ramana gradually learned about all the important

Vedanta scriptures and discovered that his personal experience corresponded

with them. The experience he had had on the upper floor of his uncle’s house

in Madurai was exactly the same as the experiences he found described in the

scriptures.

 

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

 

--

à°“à°‚ నమో భగవతే à°¶à±à°°à±€ రమణాయ

à°ªà±à°°à°¶à°¾à°‚తౠజలసూతà±à°°à°‚

à°ªà±à°°à±‡à°®à±‡ శాశà±à°µà°¤à°®à±