4.
SRI RAMANA GIVES RAMA-DARSAN

IT was in 1908 I first contacted Sri Ramana Maharshi,
then in the Virupaksha Cave, when I was a boy of
twelve. Had you seen Him in those days, you would hardly
have taken Him for a mere human being. His figure was
a statue of burnished gold. He simply sat and sat, and
rarely spoke. The words He spoke on any day could easily
be counted. He was an enchanting personality, who shed
a captivating lustre on all, and a life-giving current flowed
from Him, charging all those nearby, while His sparkling
eyes irrigated those around Him with the nectar of His
Being.

      Peace, peace, peace. Now you have lost your
individuality in Him; He absorbs you, is your all, is the
All. I remember, how well! the first song I sang before
Him at that time; it was the famous Namasivayapadikam,
commencing "Matrupatrenakkinri", the gift of the great
Saint Sri Sundaramurti Swamigal. From then on He had
me linked inseparably to Himself. I know one and only
one thing, and that is that He alone exists as the Divine,
and all else has only the appearance of existence, but in
reality is not.

      I never had to leave Tiruvannamalai after my
nineteenth year. Sri Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni was at
that time in Tiruvannamalai; his Vaidika Sabha Society
was very active, and he gave a series of discourses on the
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Vedas. His magnetic personality and exposition of the
greatness of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi so deeply
impressed me that I decided to study the Vedas at his feet,
and was gladly accepted as a student. He was then living
in the Mango-Tree Cave below the Virupaksha Cave on
the Hill. Eight years I studied the Scriptures under him;
daily we visited the Maharshi together and enjoyed the
benefit of His presence.

      After the Maharshi's mother, Alagammal, passed away,
Sri Maharshi came down the Hill, and the present Ashram
came into being. Sri Kavyakanta and his pupils would come
down to the Maharshi's abode, when there would be
memorable and scintillating discussions. When the Muni
was in the Hall, Sri Maharshi could be seen in the full
bloom of His being. The discussions ranged over various
schools of thought and philosophy, and it was a period of
great literary activity at the Ashram. Besides Kavyakanta,
Kapali Sastry, Muruganar, Lakshmana Sarma, Arunachala
Sastriar of the Madras Gita fame, Munagala Venkataramiah
(the late Swami Ramanananda Saraswathi, the author of
Talks with Sri Maharshi), Sivaprakasam Pillai, and a host of
others, used to be in the Hall, which was open all through
the hours of day and night. It was then the World of Freedom
of Sri Ramana, our Lord, Guru and very Self. Our lives
were based and turned upon that one central Personality.
Nothing gave us greater joy than to be in His presence as
often as possible and to do His bidding.

      Thus did time pass till 1929 when, on leaving
Tiruvannamalai for good, Sri Kavyakanta made me over
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to the care of Sri Maharshi, and in the very first letter he
wrote asked Bhagavan to take particular care of me. I
was at school when that letter was received, and the
Maharshi tucked it under His cushion. He pulled it out,
read it to me when I returned from school, and said:
"Look here, you must not run away from here. I am
answerable to Nayana; he may come at any time and
claim you from me."

      Our happiness in the presence of Sri Bhagavan was
comparable to the joy of the hosts of Siva on Mount
Kailasa. Sri Bhagavan used to say, "Kailasa is the abode
of Siva; Arunachala is Siva Himself. Even in Kailasa
things are as they are with us here. Devotees go to Siva,
worship Him, serve Him, and hear from Him the
interpretation of the Vedas and Vedanta day in and day
out." So it was Kailasa at the foot of the Arunachala
Hill, and Arunachala Paramatma in human form was
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.

      In May 1933, on my 36th birthday, after the usual
bath and prayers, I sat in Sri Bhagavan's presence in a
pensive mood. I addressed a prayer in the Tamil viruttam
style to Sri Bhagavan, complaining: "O Bhagavan, I have
completed three and a half decades, and yet have not had
the experience of the real You. Pray let me have this day
the touch of Your Grace." Handing over this slip of paper
I prostrated before Him.

      Bhagavan bade me sit down and gazed steadily at
me; I was still in a pensive and meditative mood. All of a
sudden I lost body-consciousness, and was absorbed in
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Sri Maharshi. I was turned inward, and the voice of
Bhagavan bade me see whatever I desired, I felt that if I
could have the darshan of Sri Rama my life would have
been fruitful, as I was very much devoted to Sri Rama. I
had then immediately a darshan of Sri Rama, with Sita,
Lakshmana, Bharata, Satrughna and Hanuman. The
ecstasy of the vision defied description; I simply sat on,
with Maharshi perhaps gazing on me without my being
aware of His gaze. Two hours may thus have passed in
pin-drop silence, lost in the vision, until it vanished. I
prostrated at the feet of Sri Maharshi, with tears of ecstasy
in my eyes and my hair standing on end. To Bhagavan's
enquiry I replied that I of course had seen dear Rama.

      Bhagavan asked me to fetch the book Dakshinamurti
Ashtottara, which I had not read, and opening a page
therein He gave it to me to read. `The fifth name from
the last read "Om Sri Yoga Pattabhiramaya Namaha."
Bhagavan then said: "Sri Rama is Dakshinamurti, and
Dakshinamurti is Sri Rama. Do you know where Ayodhya
is? The Vedas say it is in the Sun, and describe it as
ashtachakra navadwara devanam Purayodhya (the Gods'
city is Ayodhya with eight corners and nine gates).
Arunachala is also astachakra puri (eight-cornered city),
and Lord Arunachala is Sri Rama as well as Dakshinamurti.
One has no need to go to the Sun to see Ayodhya or Sri
Rama, but one may see them here and now."

      Thus did Sri Ramana once appear to me as Sri Rama,
proving once again the age-old adage that Mahatmas can
give darshan as any Beloved form -- see Sri Ramana Gita,
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ch. 18 v. 26. In the Sri Krishna Avatara, did not Bhagavan
grant Hanuman the vision of Sri Rama? Later I realized
that the vision was given to me as painted in
Sri Tyagabrahmam's picture of Sri Rama, though not for
a moment can I equate myself with Sri Tyagaraja.

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