Guest guest Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 Does anyone have the questions(conversation) that Mahatma put forward to Bhagavan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 > Does anyone have the questions(conversation) that Mahatma put > forward to Bhagavan? Dear Max, I don't know if this is the specific conversation you had in mind - it is related. See below from Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Peter ----------- Talk 521. Some Congressmen handed over the following questions to Maharshi: 1. How long is India destined to suffer bondage? 2. Have not the sons of India made enough sacrifice for her liberation? 3. Will India get freedom during Mahatma Gandhi's lifetime? The above questions were not answered categorically. Sri Bhagavan simply remarked: M.: Gandhiji has surrendered himself to the Divine and works accordingly with no self-interest. He does not concern himself with the results but accepts them as they turn up. That must be the attitude of national workers. Q.: Will the work be crowned with success? M.: This question arises because the questioner has not surrendered himself. Q.: Should we not then think of and work for the welfare of the country? M.: First take care of yourself and the rest will naturally follow. Q.: I am not speaking individually but for the country. M.: First surrender and see. The doubts arise because of the absence of surrender. Acquire strength by surrender and then your surroundings will be found to have improved to the degree of strength acquired by you. Q.: Should we not know if our actions will be worthwhile? M.: Follow the example of Gandhiji in the work for the national cause. 'Surrender' is the word. The following slip was also handed over to Sri Bhagavan: " Four of us have come from Coorg and we had gone to Delhi to wait as a deputation on the Working Committee of the Indian National Congress and we are now going back. We are sent from the Coorg Congress Committee and so kindly give us some message to the Coorg District Congress Committee and the people of Coorg in general. " When this slip was handed over, Sri Bhagavan said that the same answer holds good here too. The message is contained in the word 'Surrender'. > > > On Behalf Of maxamehc > 29 April 2009 09:46 > > Mahatma Gandhi > > Does anyone have the questions(conversation) that Mahatma put > forward to Bhagavan? > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 Dear Pete yes - the "magic" word surrender is IT surrender we have to GD b u t to all GDS "sparkle of light" too t h i s is the "hard work" for us to do and for "whom" is this "hard"?????? please anser yours in bhagavan michael - Peter Wednesday, April 29, 2009 11:26 AM RE: Mahatma Gandhi > Does anyone have the questions(conversation) that Mahatma put > forward to Bhagavan?Dear Max,I don't know if this is the specific conversation you had in mind - it isrelated. See below from Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.Peter-----------Talk 521.Some Congressmen handed over the following questions to Maharshi:1. How long is India destined to suffer bondage?2. Have not the sons of India made enough sacrifice for her liberation?3. Will India get freedom during Mahatma Gandhi's lifetime?The above questions were not answered categorically. Sri Bhagavansimply remarked:M.: Gandhiji has surrendered himself to the Divine and works accordinglywithno self-interest. He does not concern himself with the results but acceptsthem as they turn up. That must be the attitude of national workers.Q.: Will the work be crowned with success?M.: This question arises because the questioner has not surrenderedhimself.Q.: Should we not then think of and work for the welfare of thecountry?M.: First take care of yourself and the rest will naturally follow.Q.: I am not speaking individually but for the country.M.: First surrender and see. The doubts arise because of the absence ofsurrender. Acquire strength by surrender and then your surroundings willbe found to have improved to the degree of strength acquired by you.Q.: Should we not know if our actions will be worthwhile?M.: Follow the example of Gandhiji in the work for the national cause.'Surrender' is the word.The following slip was also handed over to Sri Bhagavan:"Four of us have come from Coorg and we had gone to Delhi to wait asa deputation on the Working Committee of the Indian National Congressand we are now going back. We are sent from the Coorg CongressCommittee and so kindly give us some message to the Coorg DistrictCongress Committee and the people of Coorg in general."When this slip was handed over, Sri Bhagavan said that the same answerholds good here too. The message is contained in the word 'Surrender'.> > > On Behalf Of maxamehc> 29 April 2009 09:46> > Mahatma Gandhi> > Does anyone have the questions(conversation) that Mahatma put > forward to Bhagavan?> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.287 / Virus Database: 270.12.7/2085 - Release 04/28/09 18:02:00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 Some more info.On the night of January 30th, the news of Mahatma Gandhi’s death became known everywhere. I heard the news at home only, because women cannot be in the Ashram in the nights. I went at 7-30 next morning. A prayer was being broadcast over the radio. The news of the death was in the newspapers, and Bhagavan reading it and hearing the prayer,said, “This is the prayer of people who prayed like that throughout his life.” The song “Vaishnava Janato” was broadcast over the radio and Bhagavan listened to it sadly. At 9-45, Bhagavan was about to go out when a newspaper reporter came and requested him to give his views on the tragedy so that they might be published.Bhagavan, his voice choked with emotion, said, “For the Mahatma’s death in this tragic manner, every person’s heart is mourning. What is there in particular that I could say? Who is there who is not grieved? If I say anything, you will publish it and then, one after another, people will come and ask me. What is the good of it?”So saying, Bhagavan sent the reporter away and went for his walk. On his return, “Vaishnava Janato” was again being broadcast and tears fell from Bhagavan’s eyes.At 4-30 that afternoon, all the ladies began to sing “Raghupati Raghava Rajaram”.1 With tears in his eyes Bhagavan signed to us to continue. At 5 o’clock the conch shell blew and in view of the Mahatma’s death a special arati (waving of lights) was offered in the Mother’s temple. When the sacred ash and vermilion powder were brought,Bhagavan took them with great reverence. The day before yesterday, while reading the paper,Bhagavan remarked to someone sitting near him, “Look, didn’t a comet appear some time ago? It is written in this paper that the death of the Mahatma was due to that. So the first result of it is now over.” What exactly was in Bhagavan’s mind when he said that? Meanwhile, he took up another paper and on reading it,said, “The person who fired the shot, it seems, came up to the Mahatma and, after bowing down, asked him, ‘Why have you come so late today, Sir?’ The Mahatma replied that it was due to some work. The shot was fired immediately after.” Bhagavan then drew a parallel from the Ramayana, saying,“It seems that after Rama killed Ravana, he forgot that he,Rama, had to go to Vaikuntha. So the Devatas took counsel among themselves and then sent Yama, the God of Death,to him. Yama came in the garb of an ascetic, and respectfully said, ‘The work for which you have come is now over; please come to heaven’. This is similar; ‘Swaraj has been obtained; your work is over; why are you still here? Shouldn’t you go back? It is already late’. Thus the Mahatma appears to have been sent away.” I asked, “The story you have just told us is from the Uttara Ramayana, is it not?”Bhagavan: “Yes, but not only there. It has been written in another book that, in the case of Krishna, the arrow of Vyadha was the cause of His death; similarly it happened with the Mahatma.” Yesterday, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya2 showed a photo of Mahatma, and said, “It is a pity that there was never any meeting between Gandhi and Bhagavan.”Bhagavan: “Some time ago, he came to Tiruvannamalai.A meeting had been arranged for him to be held on the road around the hill, beyond the Ashram. People here thought that he would come to the Ashram on his way back, but owing to the pressure of the crowds it was impossible, and he went away direct to the station. It seems that he very much regretted this afterwards. Shankarlal Banker was very keen on bringing him here, and in 1938, when Rajendra Prasad and Jamnalal Bajaj came here and saw Skandasramam, they wanted to induce the Mahatma to stay there for some time.But it did not happen. If at Sabarmati, or at Wardha anyone said that he was mentally depressed, the Mahatma used to say, ‘Go to Ramanasramam and come back after a month’s stay there’.When Ramaswami Reddiar went to see the Mahatma immediately after taking office as Chief Minister, Madras State,the Mahatma, it seems, asked him for how long he had been going to the Ramanasramam. When he answered that he had been going there for over thirty years, the Mahatma said, ‘Is that so? I have tried thrice, but so far have not been able to go there’. What could he do? How could he come here when he was not left alone for one moment?” Bhagavan read in today’s paper a report to the effect that the Mahatma had had from a dream the night before the tragedy, a premonition of his death, and that therefore,he had quickly disposed of his papers which had caused the delay in his coming to the prayer. Bhagavan commented, “Yes. For enlightened people, will there not be that much of premonition? They will know, but will not tell others.” Source: Letters from and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam Book http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/ramana-maharshi-and-mahatma-gandiji.html FROM THE TEACHINGS OF RAMANA MAHARSHI By Swami Sadasivananda Giri Another Voice of the Spirit of the land, lost in the sea, calling the spirit of the 20th century. When India got her independence, she stressed her intention to play her part in the concert of nations as a secular state like all others, but did not proclaim any particular theoretical ideal. More gifted than others, she was able to personify her national intentions in a Triple Star of contemporary great souls: Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, and Sri Aurobindo,each of them a national and social beacon-light who at the same time stretched out a hand in friendship towards the world.Let us remember: Swami Vivekananda laid the foundation of the first nationwide organisation for the social uplift of the suffering masses at home, simultaneously carrying abroad the rich spiritual heritage of his country, which was then practically unknown outside India. Mahatma Gandhi brought the precious gift of national independence to his tortured native country by the proclaimed idea of non-violence, living himself as a personality of the highest human standard, so that the world bowed down to him in veneration when he laid down his very life in the service of his people. Sri Aurobindo, too, who retired finally for the greater part of his life to Pondicherry in the South, had been very active in the struggle for national freedom, before he took his eminent place beside the other two by his Maha-yoga and his immense literary work, in which he propagated a Divine Life on earth as the goal of human evolution. A noble vision indeed!When Mahatma Gandhi’s political career as such might be said to have begun, with the founding of the Natal Indian Congress, at his instance and with his active co-operation in Durban in May, 1894, when Swami Vivekananda had his marvellous success at the World Congress of Religions in Chicago in 1893, the boy Venkataraman, the later Maharshi Ramana, was still a schoolboy, more fond of games than of mathematics and English Grammar. When on his return in 1897 the Swami started his triumphal tour in the same region of South India and prophesied in one of his speeches that South India was going to take a leading part in the spiritual regeneration of the world, that in the 20th century there was going to rise in South India a flood of atmic power, which would inundate not only the whole of India but the entire world, that same boy Venkataraman, then in his seventeenth year, had already given up school, home and family, past and future, name and personality, and was living lost in the unfathomable Silence of Arunachala, the most sacred Siva lingam, and in contemplation of the Great Experience that had led him there. DAY BY DAY WITH BHAGAVAN RAMANA MAHARSHI 27-1-46 MorningKrishnaswami returned this morning, as he had promised to do. Bhagavan was making kind enquiries about his trip to see Gandhiji at Madras. K. said there were huge crowds in the train and that he had to stand all the way from here to Madras, that there again there was a crowd of more than a lakh, that there was an ocean of cars parked at one corner, that anyhow through the kind offices of some of our friends he sat quite near Mahatma Gandhi with a 6-rupee ticket, that later all the crowd rushed in breaking the gates, that Gandhi refused to speak in any language except Hindi, and so on. Bhagavan said, “You have seen Gandhi. Now you know and have enjoyed the pleasure to be got out of such trips,” and so saying he gave back the ticket with the remark, “Keep it safe. It is worth six rupees”. K. also brought a number of photographs, big and small, presented to him by Dr. T.N.K., in many of which he and Bhagavan are found together. In this connection, Nagamma told Bhagavan that Viswanatha Iyer’s mother wanted to see Bhagavan’s pictures taken recently at Skandasramam. He ordered the album to be brought and shown to the lady and it was done. 2-2-46 MorningA visitor told Bhagavan that he was working for Harijan uplift, that he and his co-workers in the cause had darshan of Mahatma Gandhi and got his blessings, that Mahatma Gandhi told them that if they could bring about marriages between Harijan girls and higher caste gentlemen, such marriages would have his blessings; and that he (visitor) would like to have Bhagavan’s views in the matter. Bhagavan said, “If Mahatma Gandhi has said so, we will all hear what he has said. What more is there for us to do? He is a distinguished man and is working in that field.What have we to do with that?” Turning to us, Bhagavan added, “If I open my mouth, something will appear in the papers that so-and-so has also said such-and-such a thing. The next day there will be people to criticise it. Our business is to keep quiet. If we enter into all these, people will naturally ask, and justifiably, ‘Why is he interfering in all these instead of keeping quiet?’ Similarly if Mahatma Gandhi keeps quiet leaving aside all his activities, they will ask, ‘Why is he keeping quiet instead of engaging in all these activities?’ He must do what he has come for. We must do what we have come for.” A GANDHIAN SOCIAL WORKER MEETS SRI RAMANA http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/02/gandhian-social-worker-meets-sri-ramana.html Source and courtesy: Sri Ramana Kendram, Hyderabad This article was published in Sri Ramana Jyothi, monthly magazine of the KendramK. Arunachalam hailed from Madurai. He served as chairman of the Madurai Khadi Board. In the summer of 1932, I was working with a group of young men in the slums of Bangalore. I had been to my village in Madurai district and was returning to Bangalore to resume my work in the Gandhi School run by the Deena Seva Sangh. On my way back, as suggested by a friend, I stopped at Tiruvannamalai to have Ramana Maharshi's arshan. I reached the Ashram and went to the hall where the Maharshi was seated on a sofa. In a corner of the hall, on the top of a cupboard, I saw an eighteen-inch statue of Mahatma Gandhi. I sat in front of the Maharshi along with several others in meditation. A few were reading silently some religious literature.The Maharshi himself was in samadhi. Some were reciting slokas in a soft melodious tone. On the whole, the atmosphere was an elevating one. I sat in silence for hours together. When it was time for the night meal, all the devotees got up and walked towards the adjoining dining hall. I also went with them. After the meal some of us went back to the hall. I decided to sleep in the hall as some others did. I could not sleep because I was inquisitive to know what the Maharshi would do. He got up from the sofa at 3 O'clock in the morning and walked towards the pond. After the essential morning routine he had a dip in the pond. He changed his kaupina (loincloth) and washing the used one, let it dry outside. Then he walked back to the hall and reclined on the sofa. After sometime, he got up, went to the kitchen and joined the group that was cutting vegetables.He supervised the breakfast and ate with the visitors and Ashramites.During the daytime there was a stream of visitors who prostrated before the Maharshi. Sometimes he opened his eyes and blessed them with a smile. Occasionally he spoke a few words. When the daily newspaper arrived, he glanced through its pages. Most of the time his eyes remained half closed. There was a calm peace in the whole environment that surpassed all understanding. I sat silently watching and enjoying the holy presence of the Maharshi and spent a full three-day period like this. Before leaving, I asked the Maharshi whom to follow. He enquired about what I was doing. I gave him an idea of the slum-settlement work in Bangalore and told him how we were engaged in harijan uplift and prohibition work. He blessed the work and asked me to continue it in the manner in which Mahatma Gandhi wanted such work done. I asked the Maharshi for his autograph. He did not agree but he wanted the sarvadhikari who was standing nearby to write my name.When I gave him my name without initial, the sarvadhikari asked my father's name.The Maharshi immediately said, " How can Arunachala have a father? " And he laughed. I requested the Maharshi to clear a doubt of mine. He showed his willingness by a broad smile. Taking courage, I posed the following problem: " The Maharshi by his example directs his followers to keep quiet, but Mahatma Gandhi whose statue is here, by his own example, goads everyone to be continuously active. " The Maharshi's face broadened with an unparalleled smile. He asked, " Who told you that I am sitting quiet? " I replied in all humility that I had seen it with my own eyes. He said, " Why do you think that what you are seeing with your physical eyes is the truth? " I had no answer for this question. I took leave of him and left for Bangalore. In 1951-55, during my tour of the southern United States I came in touch with a group of Whites who were deeply involved in the desegregation movement. They did not differentiate between one and another whether black or white. I found in the study room of the leader of this group a photo of Ramana Maharshi, whom he had never seen. He revealed that it was the Maharshi's teaching that was a driving force in all his activities undertaken for bringing about equality between the two races – the Whites and the Coloured. He evinced a deep interest in the Maharshi's mode of self-enquiry for self-realisation. Now I understood the true import of the Gita's teaching: " He who sees inaction in action and action in inaction is wise among men; he is a yogi who has accomplished all action. " (Source: Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Kendram's publication.) On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 10:26 AM, Peter <not_2 wrote: > Does anyone have the questions(conversation) that Mahatma put > forward to Bhagavan? Dear Max, I don't know if this is the specific conversation you had in mind - it is related. See below from Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Peter ----------- Talk 521. Some Congressmen handed over the following questions to Maharshi: 1. How long is India destined to suffer bondage? 2. Have not the sons of India made enough sacrifice for her liberation? 3. Will India get freedom during Mahatma Gandhi's lifetime? The above questions were not answered categorically. Sri Bhagavan simply remarked: M.: Gandhiji has surrendered himself to the Divine and works accordingly with no self-interest. He does not concern himself with the results but accepts them as they turn up. That must be the attitude of national workers. Q.: Will the work be crowned with success? M.: This question arises because the questioner has not surrendered himself. Q.: Should we not then think of and work for the welfare of the country? M.: First take care of yourself and the rest will naturally follow. Q.: I am not speaking individually but for the country. M.: First surrender and see. The doubts arise because of the absence of surrender. Acquire strength by surrender and then your surroundings will be found to have improved to the degree of strength acquired by you. Q.: Should we not know if our actions will be worthwhile? M.: Follow the example of Gandhiji in the work for the national cause. 'Surrender' is the word. The following slip was also handed over to Sri Bhagavan: " Four of us have come from Coorg and we had gone to Delhi to wait as a deputation on the Working Committee of the Indian National Congress and we are now going back. We are sent from the Coorg Congress Committee and so kindly give us some message to the Coorg District Congress Committee and the people of Coorg in general. " When this slip was handed over, Sri Bhagavan said that the same answer holds good here too. The message is contained in the word 'Surrender'. > > > On Behalf Of maxamehc > 29 April 2009 09:46 > > Mahatma Gandhi > > Does anyone have the questions(conversation) that Mahatma put > forward to Bhagavan? > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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