Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi reaction when a wrong biography is written on him

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Sri Niranjananda Swami, the Sarvadhikari of Sri Ramanasramam, desired that

the first major biography of Sri Bhagavan should be written in Tamil. But at

the time, B. V. Narasimha Swami was gathering information and facts in order

to write a good biography of Sri Bhagavan in English. However, even before

this English book was published, a Malayalam scholar came one day to have

darshan of Sri Bhagavan. As soon as he saw Sri Bhagavan he was inspired to

write his biography, since he had the habit of writing the life story in

Malayalam of any great soul he happen to meet. So immediately after arriving

he began to gather information from some local people, asking them, 'Who is

this Ramana Maharshi?' 'Where was he born?' and so on.

 

Not being familiar with Bhagavan or the understanding that the

Self-realization of a Jnani is itself his real greatness, some people

naturally imagined that Bhagavan should possess all sorts of supernatural

powers (siddhis) and they therefore spread rumors which attributed such

powers to him, thinking that they were thereby glorifying him. Though

Bhagavan Ramana taught that all siddhis are as trivial as straw and are to

be regarded as treacherous friends by the spiritual aspirant, even he was

not spared from the rumors created by such people. Unfortunately, it was

only from this type of people that the Malayalam scholar quickly gathered

biographical information on Bhagavan. Then, within a day, he edited all his

notes and completed writing the biography.

 

Now, according to his biography Bhagavan was a householder, a lawyer from

Madurai who had three children. It was also reported that Sri Ramana

exhibited a number of siddhis in various places. In this way, many fantastic

but untrue incidents were contained in that biography. When he had finished

writing it, the Malayalam scholar brought the biography to Sri Bhagavan.

 

Among those living with Sri Bhagavan at that time, no one knew Malayalam

except Kunju Swami, and he happened to be absent on that day. Therefore,

Bhagavan, who was himself well versed in Malayalam poetry and literature,

read the whole biography from beginning to end, stopping only here and there

to correct some spelling mistakes, and then returned it to the author

without altering even a single statement or idea. Thinking that the

biography he had written was correct in every respect, having been seen and

corrected by Sri Bhagavan himself, the author was very happy.

 

Soon the news spread among the devotees in the Asramam that the life of Sri

Bhagavan had been written in Malayalam. However, since no one knew that

language, they did not know what was written in it. The next day Kunju Swami

returned to the Asramam and the devotees all eagerly told him, " This new

devotee has written Bhagavan's biography in Malayalam. Bhagavan has also

gone through it and approved it after making all the necessary corrections. "

 

With great surprise and joy, Kunju Swami received the biography from the

Malayalam scholar and began to read through it. But when he saw the many

untrue reports written in it, he was unable to bear it. He went to the

author and tactfully said to him, " Many statements in this biography are

totally incorrect! I am afraid that you have not gathered your information

from the proper sources. "

 

But with great confidence the author replied, " There is not even a single

mistake in it. See, Bhagavan himself has corrected it with his own pen

wherever it was necessary. So I am confident that this alone is his correct

life history. "

 

Without saying anything further, Kunju Swami brought the biography to Sri

Bhagavan and complained, " O Bhagavan! Your own handwriting is found here in

many places, so you must have seen this. But how can this all be true? "

 

" Are all these other things true (pointing to the world), and is this alone

false? " replied Sri Bhagavan with a peaceful smile.

 

Though this sounds humorous, we should notice the profound teaching that

lies hidden in it. From his reply it is clear that the ever-attained

experience of Sri Bhagavan, who teaches that the world is a mere false

appearance, is that even the ego, the individual who sees the world, is

itself false. Those who do not know the Self cannot but feel slighted and

angry if some historical facts in their life, which would have otherwise

given them fame and glory, were omitted or written about in a distorted

manner.

 

In this world, which is full of so-called great ones who strenuously seek

praise and publicity for self glorification, how exalted is the greatness of

Bhagavan Ramana who was completely indifferent to any amount of disparaging

words written about him! In Bhagavan's view, even the biography we now have,

which records his life as we saw it with our own eyes, is as true as this

Malayalam biography. That is to say, in Bhagavan's view, even his birth, his

attainment of Self-realization, his renunciation and his life as Jagat-Guru

are just as real or unreal as this Malayalam biography!

 

Source: http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2005/?pg=jan-feb#article.2

 

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