8.
BHAGAVAN TELLS OF
KANNAPPAR THE SAINT
DEVOTEES of Bhagavan Sri Ramana know well thatthe one book which radically influenced His inner
life while He was still at school was the Periapuranam in
Tamil, written by the poet-saint Sekkilar. This book
contains the lives of the sixty-three saints of Tamil Nadu
who, by their acts of supreme devotion or merit, won
Siva's Grace and came to the state whence one never again
returns to worldliness. Bhagavan never made distinction
between bhakti [?] (devotion) or jnana [?] (knowledge), provided
this true State is thereby obtained: "In that state bhakti [?] is
no other than jnana [?], jnana [?] nothing else but bhakti [?]"; this
is Bhagavan's experience of them both.
In His perpetual silence, Sri Ramana was looked upon
as Sri Dakshinamurti, and His teachings always emphasised
the Karya-karana (cause-and-effect) aspect. The emphasis
on this aspect was so great that there seemed to be no
room in His teaching for anything but pure reason. People
even used to feel that it was all cold and heartless logic.
But those who have lived with Bhagavan know only too
well that Bhagavan's heart -- a strange term, this; is
Bhagavan different from Heart? -- was full of feeling for
suffering humanity. His great disciple, Sri Kavyakanta
Ganapati Muni, used to say that Bhagavan had the light
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of the Teacher Sri Adi Sankara, the heart of
Sri Ramanujacharya and the analytical powers of
Sri Madhvacharya. Be that as it may, on several occasions
Bhagavan revealed in His life the aspect of true Bhakti.
Once, on the night after the Karthikai Deepam, the
deities Arunachala and Apithakuchambal were in
procession round the Hill. When the procession came in
front of our Ashram, we offered flower garlands, coconut
and camphor, and after being waved before them, burning
camphor was taken to Bhagavan on His seat in the Old
Hall. The devotees took this camphor, along with the
ash-prasad (vibhuti) of Arunachaleswara, and began to
wave it before Bhagavan. But He exclaimed, "Why all
this? The Son is included in the Father!"
Once someone placed the Periapuranam in Tamil
prose in Bhagavan's hands, and He began reading out of
it. Now Bhagavan was a past master in story-telling, and
he used to tell stories in hundreds. His solo-acting was
ever the admiration of His devotees; His modulation of
voice for different characters, suiting gestures and postures
for each incident, was wonderfully effective. His devotees
never missed a chance of being in the Hall on such
occasions, so as to enjoy and benefit by the recitals.
Bhagavan began to read out the life of Kannappar,
the great devotee saint. He went on reading incidents in
his early life, and how he went to the forest and found
Kudumi Devar, the Sivalinga, his Lord, up the Kalahasti
Hill in the Chitoor district (of Andhra state). Then he
told how Kannappar worshipped the Sivalinga with water
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carried in his own mouth, flowers taken from his own
hair, and the well-cooked and tasted beef prepared for his
own meal -- knowing no better and having no better to
offer his beloved Lord. The way in which the ordained
priest, Siva Gochariar, resented the intruding defiler of
the sacred Sivalinga was so characteristically brought out
by Bhagavan, with His own explanations of the rites and
the meanings of the mantras used in the worship, that it
enriched the recital greatly to the benefit and admiration
of the devotees.
Then came the scene of scenes, when the Lord in
that Sivalinga tested Kannappar and incidentally revealed
to Siva Gochariar the intensity of the forest hunter's
worship from a place of hiding. He saw the unexpected
trickling of blood from one of the eyes on that Sivalinga;
he saw Kannappar running to and fro for herbs, and
treating the Lord's eye with them. Then he saw how,
finding them all useless, Kannappar plucked out one of
his own eyes and applied it to that in the Sivalinga; then,
seeing the treatment was effective, he ran into ecstasies of
joyful dance.
When Bhagavan came to the story of how Kannappar
was plucking out his second eye to heal the second of the
Lord, and of how the Sivalinga extended a hand to stop
him, saying "Stop, Kannappar!" Bhagavan's voice choked,
His body perspired profusely, His hairs stood on end,
tears gushed out from His eyes; He could hardly utter a
word, and there was silence, pin-drop silence in the Hall.
All were dumbfounded that this great Jnani could be so
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overpowered by emotion and ecstasy at the great hunter-
saint's devotion. After a while Sri Bhagavan quietly closed
the book, dried the tears in His eyes with the ends of His
towel, and laid aside the book, saying, "No, I can't go on
any further."
Then we could realise the import of His words in
Aksharamanamalai: "Having become silent, if one remains
like a stone, can that be called real silence?" His blossomed
Heart had in it the perfect warmth of devotion, no less
than the supreme light of Knowledge.
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