THE MOUNTAIN PATH JULY 1964

[Guest guest]

The Heritage of Sri Maharshi

By Mouni Sadhu

 

 

Mouni Sadhu is well known to many of our readers through his book 'In Days of Great Peace' (Allen & Unwin) in which he describes his stay at Tiruvannamalai during the lifetime of the Maharshi and the enormous influence that the Maharshi had on him.

More than sixty years ago, Swami Vivekananda expressed a far-reaching truth: "A good thought, even when generated in a secluded cave, will invariably have its repercussion throughout the whole world." In other words, spiritual energy like its junior sister material energy, does not go astray or perish.

At that time, the penetration of Eastern, especially Vedantic, philosophy into the Western world was only just starting. Vivekananda, with his world-wide travelling and lecturing about Yoga, was one of its ablest exponents in his own day.

Almost at the same time, in the silent caves of the holy mountain of Arunachala, a young ascetic - Venkataraman, the future Great Rishi of India, whom we know as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, started, his spiritual work for humanity.

The potent current of meditation born from his state of true Samadhi, has since enveloped our globe. If a single thought leaves its impression on the mental aura of a planet, we can hardly imagine the actual results of a constant stream of spiritual energy such as that which for more than fifty years radiated from Sri Maharshi.

In the early part of this 20th century the central Vedantic teaching of Self-Realization as a goal of man's attainment was little known in the West, although it had continued in an unbroken stream in India as well as through the Sufi saints of Islamic countries and the Buddhist Masters of various schools.

It was Sri Maharshi who made it known throughout the world in the form of the quest for the Self.

Acting for our present epoch as a supreme messenger of Truth, Sri Maharshi gave new life to the ancient teaching, and by his own example showed to us that Realization is possible here and now.

Books giving the Master's teachings and commenting upon them, are now spreading over the world. Little wonder then, that those who are ripe for it and whose destiny draws them to the quest of Realization, respond and accept the teaching given for this epoch. Thus they gradually become able to perceive the inner Light, the 'inner Guru' spoken of by the Maharshi.

Very striking is another phenomenon: in letters from all parts of the world, I can see that people have found the teachings of the Great Rishi and the idea of using the Vichara to be something they already knew in their own depths. They often say that, after reading a few pages, development and understanding flow as if through a riverbed prepared long ago. And they find that the teaching belongs to them. Truth is not discovered but recognised.

There are also those who have not yet encountered any of the Maharshi's teachings or read anything about him, and yet of themselves seek to penetrate into their own mysterious inner realm, in which to find the final enlightenment. They seek their Self. We know that there is no such thing as a result without a cause. A potent Cause must be behind the new trend in man's eternal Search.

To me it is utterly clear: it is the spiritual inheritance from one of the perfected, from a life manifesting Truth, a life which some of us were privileged to witness with our mortal eyes.

The 'I-current', to which the Maharshi's teaching turns us, works beyond the veil of religion. It reaches men of different denominations and speaks equally well to the Rishi's own countrymen, to Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and others.

Here we see another characteristic of the Master's inheritance: Sri Maharshi neither created nor propagated any new religion or philosophy. He did much more, giving us the key with which to open the hidden treasure of all true religions, to understand and then to practise them with inner enlightenment, and not with gloomy indecision, doubt and lack of faith as some may have done before.

The Master ever abides with us in his spiritual energy, permeating this world of relativity, as he told us before he left his body.

The immense spiritual accumulator he charged during his visit to our planet as a living man, assists and inspires seekers who are ripe enough to realize his teaching and message.