Final Part - Bhagavan's Attendant Venkatarathnam Recollects His Experiences

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Sri Venkatarathnam lived with Bhagavan from 1944 to 1950. During the last

year he served as one of his personal attendants. Neal Rosner came to Sri

Ramanasramam from the USA in 1968, attached himself to Venkatarathnam and

diligently served him until his passing in 1976. Nealàs immersion into the

spiritual heritage of India under the guidance of Venkatarathnam is

elaborately described in his book On the Road to Freedom: A Pilgrimage in

India. He now resides at Amritanandamayi Ma's Kerala Ashram and is known as

Swami Paramatmananda. In the following article, details regarding the life

of Venkatarathnam have been extracted from a 25-page essay written about

Venkatarathnam by Neal Rosner. He presented this manuscript to us thirty

years ago at Sri Ramanasramam.

 

Wanderings and Company of Saints

 

DURING the subsequent ten years after Bhagavan's Mahasamadhi, Venkatarathnam

spent his time going on pilgrimage, meeting with devotees, mahatmas and

saints, but always returning to Arunachalam and Bhagavan's s ashram. In 1956

Sri Venkatarathnam went to Kerala on foot and took a vow not to ask anyone

for food or water and to only accept whatever was given unasked. He also

chose not disclose his identity as a disciple of the Maharshi to anyone

during his travels in Kerala, and he did not carry money with him. He spent

about six months like this, depending entirely on God, in order to test how

deep his surrender actually was.

 

Back in Sri Ramanasramam

 

In 1967 the Mahakumbabhishekam of Sri Ramana Maharshi's Samadhi was

performed and Venkatarathnam was then requested to serve in the Ashram. He

continued this service until September 1969.

 

Routine in the Ashram

 

At this time Sri Venkatarathnam was very busy with his daily routine which

was roughly as follows: 3:30 a.m. got up, swept the room, went to the

latrine, etc.; 4:30 a.m., finished bath, sandhya (puja), japa and cleaned

his altar; 5:15, went to Bhagavan's Samadhi, cleaned and swept it, and then

arranged for the 6:15 puja. From 7 to 8:15 he performed his own Panchyatana

puja, 8:15 to 9:15 he did Samadhi puja and from 9:30 to 11:30 did japa and

studied the Srimad Bagavatam. Then he partook of food. From 12 to 2 p.m. he

rested or spent the time in visiting and meeting devotees. 2 to 4 p.m., he

wrote letters, etc; 4 p.m. bath; 4:30 to 6:30, Samadhi Shrine work, Veda

Parayana and puja; 6:30 to 7 p.m., sandhya and japa; 7:30 was mealtime; and

8 to 11 p.m., miscellaneous activities or satsang; 11 p.m. sleep.

 

Frequently he would go on Giripradakshina during the nights after 8:30,

usually returning only the next morning, and then again start the daily

routine without even resting.

 

In 1967, on May 14th he met with H. H. Sri Chandrashekharendra Saraswati

Swamiji, Jagadguru Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, for the third

time and received from him mantra diksha of Siva Panchakshari mantra. He

also received a Hayagriva Salagram from His Holiness. After this he used to

daily repeat 2,000 - 3,000 Gayatri mantras and 5,000 - 10,000 Panchakshari

mantras. By the middle of 1969 he had done 14 lakhs [1.4 million] of the

Panchakshari mantra. In August 1969, he decided to somehow complete the

minimum number of japa as recommended by His Holiness and proceed to

Hyderabad to perform the yearly sraddha of his parents. To do this he had to

sit for japa eight hours a day and after finally finishing it he had a

physical breakdown. After some days bedridden, he left for Hyderabad in

October 1969.

 

Hospitalization

 

When I[Neal Rosner] came to Hyderabad to meet him, I[Neal Rosner] found him

in Osmania General Hospital with a fractured right hip. Riding as a

passenger on a scooter he was struck by a taxi. When I[Neal Rosner] asked

him how he had such an accident he said, " What accident? Is birth an

accident? Is there any such thing as an accident for a bhakta? It is the

sweet will of the Lord, that is all. "

 

The area around his hospital bed literally became an ashram, with photos of

Sri Ramana and Arunachala, observance of occasional festivals like Ramana

Jayanti and Karthik Deepotsavam. There seemed to be a continuous stream of

devotees from 9:00 a.m. till midnight, or later. Usually in the nights

I[Neal Rosner] expected that I could get some rest, but at that hour the

attending physician, who was a bhakta, used to come and enjoy the satsang

till midnight or 1.00 a.m.

 

After four months he was discharged from the hospital and stayed at Malakpet

with Sri V. Srinivasan, who was the Inspector General of Prisons at that

time. He and his wife treated Sri Venakatarathnam with the fullest

hospitality and affection for more than two months. For the rest of his life

he was grateful to them for the love and concern which they had showered on

him at that time. This was May 1970.

 

Pilgrimage to the Himalayas

 

From Hyderabad we traveled north with Swami Avadhutendra Saraswati and

eventually reached Nepal in August 1970. After Swamiji left us in Kathmandu,

we flew to Pokhara and from there walked seventy miles into the Himalayas to

Muktinath, the Abode of Muktinarayana. This place is sometimes called

Salagrama Kshetra and is the 107th Dham on earth, Vaikuntha being the

108th. This

walk was extremely difficult. We often got lost in the forests and were

caught in darkness before we could reach the next village.

 

One night before reaching Muktinath, Sri Venkatarathnam suddenly got up and

was loudly repeating Vishnu Sahasranam at about 1 a.m. In the morning he

told me that he had a vision of people with water pots on their heads, going

from a river to a temple which had a big Chakra in front of it. He had woke

to the loud sound " Narayana, Narayana " ringing in his ears, as if someone

were shouting it in the room. It was then that he started doing the Vishnu

Sahasranam. He said that usually when he gets within a certain distance of

the destination, he will have a dream about the deity of that place and the

name Siva or Narayana will be ringing in his ears. When they finally reached

Muktinath, sure enough there was a big chakra in front of the temple as he

had seen in the vision.

 

Muruganar

 

In August 1973, Sri Muruganar, one of the intimate sishyas of the Maharshi,

attained Siddhi in the Ashram. Venkatarathnam personally performed the

40-day puja at his samadhi and also the Mandalabhishekam. During all this

time he suffered from chest pain and weakness but nevertheless finished his

duty to a brother bhakta.

 

Source: http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2007/?pg=nov-dec

 

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