BHAGAVAN RAMANA MAHARSHI

By Dilip Kumar Roy

IN Pondicherry I happened at the time to be deeply dejected. I
yearned for peace, strained to meditate for hours, studied the
scriptures, appealed to Gurudev, Sri Aurobindo. . . but all to no
avail. I then recalled the joy I had enjoyed on my first visit to
the Maharshi and decided that I must try again to reach peace
of mind with the magic touch of his blessing. But there were a
few brother disciples who warned me that it would be a faux pas
to seek from an outside saint or sage what I could not get
from my own guru. Their arguments were powerful, the more
so as they stemmed from the love-lit gospel of guruvad (the
guru principle). But after a sleepless night I resolved to take
my chance and repair to the Maharshi's sanctuary.

This time I was the guest of a Parsi lady, one of his ardent
devotees. She led me straight to the sage and told him, "Do
you know Bhagavan, Dilip says you have a beautiful laugh".
He laughed and we all swelled the chorus.

But my doubts still gave me no respite. In the end I argued
that my friends in Pondicherry were right, that in all crises one
should appeal, first and last, to one's own guru and to no other.
I sat down in this distraught frame of mind and kept asking
myself how I could possibly come to port if I declined to accept
my great guru's lead. And so when I closed my eyes to meditate,
I felt miserable. Meditate on what? To pray? To pray to whom?,
and so on till, lo, after just five minutes, the three weeks' incubus
of gloom was lifted as though by magic and an exquisite peace
descended into me, entailing an ineffable ecstasy.

The next morning I went to him and made my obeisance.

His eyes shone like twin stars as he smiled kindly. I told him
what had come to pass -- a veritable miracle -- peace settling
in the heart of a storm! He nodded, pleased, but made no
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comment. I then asked him if it was true what people said
that he advocated jnana and disparaged bhakti ^[?]. He smiled,
"The old misconception! I have always said that bhakti ^[?] is
jnana mata (that is, bhakti ^[?], or love, is the mother of jnana ^[?],
knowledge)". When I heard this I was thrilled and understood
at once why I had felt in him not merely a great guru, come
with his kindly light to lead us back home, but a human friend
and divine helper rolled into one.

I asked him to explain what the writer of Maha Yoga quotes
as his considered opinion that no authentic sage ever
contradicted another, all illuminates being essentially one.

He answered me this time at some length, contending that
the paths may seem diverse, but when the pilgrims reach the
goal, the perspective changes and one sees clearly, that only
those who have lagged behind quarrel about the relative merits
of different roads, and that only the goal matters. "So it is utter
folly," he added, "to go on wrangling among ourselves, because
we were one in the beginning and shall be one again in the end.
Also, this oneness is so thrillingly real that one may say, if X
wants anything from Y then Y can hardly decline because in
giving to X, Y only gives to himself in the last analysis".

"But Maharshi," I asked after a hesitant pause, "why is it
that the bhakta ^[?] so often turns away from the jnani ^[?], even after
they have both attained the goal?" He smiled, "But your premise
is wrong, to start with", he said. "For, as soon as the bhakta ^[?]
arrives he finds he is at one with the jnani ^[?]. For then the bhakta ^[?]
becomes bhakti swarupa (the essence of bhakti ^[?]) even as the
jnani ^[?] becomes jnana swarupa (the essence of jnana ^[?]) and the
two are one, identical, although pseudo-bhaktas and pseudo-
jnanis may dub the idea `crazy' and start pitching into one
another". Then he added after a pause, "But such strifes break
out only among the followers of the illuminates. The Masters
always stay above the battle. I was reminded of Sri
Ramakrishna's joke about Rama and Shiva: "Even when they
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fight", he said, "the duel ends in perfect harmony, peace and
love. But Rama's soldiers, the monkeys, and Shiva's henchmen,
the ghouls, go ever on clashing and snarling and calling names".

On my second visit I asked the Maharshi if he was against
guruvad. On this point many an exegete has written and improved
a great deal. So I wanted to have his final verdict. He said:

I have spoken about it many a time. To some the One reveals
Himself as an outer guru, to others, as an inner one. But
the function of either is identical, in the last analysis. For
the outer guru pushes you inside whereas the inner guru
draws you inside, so the two are not incompatible. Why
then all this bother about His reality one way or the other?

Many a time have I been helped by his compassion and
wonderful parables. Here are two I have savoured most.

The Maharshi often says with an amused smile that we
can hardly afford to be vain of our so called knowledge when
we don't know even our own self, the self in whom we have
homed from our cradle. An authentic guru G told his disciple
D many a time about the tragicomedy of this human
foolhardiness. But D forgot and grew vain after ripening into
a resplendent savant. So the guru came disguised as a ne'er-
do-well and watched with him a royal procession. The king
was riding a grand caparisoned elephant and a seething crowd
flanking him on both sides, hailed and acclaimed him along
with D, entranced and proud to have been appointed the private
tutor of such an august king. G nudged him and asked him
what the ovation was about. D frowned and replied, "Don't
you see? Our great gorgeous king mounted on such a
magnificent elephant"!

G: But who is the king and who is the elephant, sire?

D: Idiot! Have you no eyes? The one on top is the king
and his mount below is the elephant royal.

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G: But sire, what is top and what is below?

D: (Annoyed, knocked him down and, sitting on his chest,
shouted) Here, see? I am on top and you are below.

G: But sire, who are you and who am I?

D: (shivered as though galvanised) I . . . I don't know.

G: And yet you are vain that you know all! May I ask what
is the knowledge you plume yourself on?

The second parable he related with such a lovely laughter!

I have rendered it in heroic couplets. I only regret I had no
tape-recorder at the time to register his beautiful laughter. Here
is the revealing parable:

In wrath, fierce Snake A bit the small snake B,
Who groaned and writhed and cried in agony:
"O merciful Mother! Soon I shall be dead!"
A third Snake C then drew near B and said
"Take heart, child `twill be all right -- wait and see!"
And he sucked the poison out at once till B
Was healed -- then the rattled A vindictively
Bit C who wailed: "Alas! now I shall die!"
A cursed "To hell! Do you not know that I
Am king of the snakes and so must ruthlessly
Do them to death who madly challenge me
And my royal verdicts". With this he went away.
Now whispered B to C: "Fear not, I pray,
For I'll now suck the poison from your wound
Until you, too, compassionate friend, come round".
Then they, cured, thanked each other in ecstasy
And the Yogi thanked the Mother of sympathy.

I feel led to include here, a relevant excerpt from my
reminiscences about one of my dearest friends and colleagues,
the great yogi Sri Krishnaprem. He visited me more than three
decades ago at our Pondicherry Ashram, whence he repaired
to Tiruvannamalai to pay his heart's homage to the Maharshi.

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On his return he spoke in a moved voice about the radiant
sage and what his grace had revealed.

"You know, Dilip, how profound is my admiration and
veneration for the sage. I whole-heartedly agree with Sri
Aurobindo's verdict that his tapasya is a shining light of India.
So I went to Ramanasramam in Tiruvannamalai to receive
his blessing.

"When, in the evening, I entered the hall where the Maharshi
reclines daily on his couch, I sat down in silence, along with
the others, to meditate at his feet. But believe it or not, Dilip, as
soon as I sat down I heard a voice questioning me over and
over again, `Who are you?, `Who are you?' I tried hard to ignore
it, but it went on and on like an importunate visitor, who
knocking at the door, insisted on being admitted. So, in the
end, I just had to formulate an answer, `I am Krishna's servant'.
At once the question changed, like a shape-changer, into, `Who
is Krishna?' I answered, `Nanda's son'. No use. The question
was repeated without pause. I thought up other answers like,
`He's an avatar, the One-in-all, the Resident of every heart',
and so on ... but the questioning would not cease, till at last, I
gave it up, left the hall and returned deeply disturbed, to
meditate. But I had no peace. The voice gave me no respite, till
in the end, I had to evoke Radharani who asked me very simply
what answers I had given. I told Her but She shook Her head
and then, at last, revealed it to me".

"She did?", I asked, thrilled.

He anticipated me, holding up his hand.

"No, Dilip, don't ask me, please! I won't tell you, for you
will tell everybody, don't I know you? But listen, there are
more thrills to come".

"Next morning", he went on, "when I sat down again at
his blessed feet, the Maharshi suddenly gave me a lightning
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glance and smiled. I knew at once beyond the shadow of a
doubt that he was the author of it all and that he also knew
that I had divined his part correctly. Then as I closed my eyes
to meditate, a deep peace descended into me and settled like
a block of ice as it were till my every cell was numb with an
exquisite bliss. Didn't you have the same experience, as you
wrote to me once"?

I nodded delightedly. "Yes Krishnaprem. If my memory
doesn't fail me, I think I wrote also in what context I had
received the boon from the Maharshi. I was so peaceless for
having gone to Tiruvannamalai, that I told myself I was a fool
to expect peace through his contact when I could not have it at
the feet of my great guru. And yet I did feel the peace percolating
through me like a scintillating light! I had an experience of
this indescribable peace three or four times previously. Only,
every time it had a different rhythm as it were, though the
melody was the same, to exploit a simile from music. What is
still more delectable is that sometimes I can almost recapture it
by meditating on his tranquil face with that faraway gaze. Once
or twice, this peace has soothed me, somewhat like the peace
that music distills. But perhaps you find this rather vague".

"Not at all, Dilip", he said, shaking his head and continued,
"As I meditated it was borne home to me through the mystic
silence, that though this peace stemmed ultimately from the
Lord Himself -- doesn't He say in the Gita that He Himself is
the primal source of all experience? -- the peace in this instance
was transmitted through His beloved agent the Maharshi".

"But isn't that precisely why He sends to us, as His
deputies, the great saints and sages, messiahs and avatars?"

"Of course He does. Didn't Ma explain to you the soulful
import of His naralila -- that is, why He comes down to
earth from age to age to play hide and seek with us humans,
as a human being"?

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He paused a little, then added with a quizzical look, "I feel
tempted to tell you the sequel".

"Only you have misgivings about confiding in me"?, I
finished for him, laughing.

"Well, I'll risk it", he laughed back. "For what happened
was too wonderful to keep back. So listen with bated breath".

I hung on his words, my heart going pit-a-pat. He said,
"As I went on imbibing this delectable peace, meditating at
his feet, I suddenly took it into my head to return the
compliment and prod him with a question in silence, `And
who are you, may I humbly ask?' It so happened that the next
moment I opened my eyes involuntarily when -- lo, I found
his dais empty"!

"You don't say so"!

"Yes, Dilip", he nodded enjoying my mystification, and
continued, "there was the dais where he had presided two seconds
before, but in the twinkling of an eye, as it were, he had vanished
-- just melted into thin air! I closed my eyes once more and
then, as I looked again -- lo, there he was, reclining, tranquil
and beneficent like Lord Shiva Himself! A momentary smile
flickered on his lips as he gave me a meaningful glance and then
turned towards the window, as was his wont".

I caught my breath, "Marvellous"!

"In all conscience he is a Mahayogi, as Sri Aurobindo told
you. You see the point of the miracle, don't you?"

"That he is beyond nama-rupa", I hazarded. "The nameless
and formless manifesting Himself through name and form"?

"That's right", he answered reflectively, "or, shall I say,
the One beyond all maya ^[?], the star beyond the phantoms, the
last reality beyond the ephemera, the silence beyond the songs.
You may exploit any simile you fancy. Personally, I look upon
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as a sign of his grace, his giving me the answer in a way only
he could have given".

I smiled, "So, he met you more than half-way"?

"He is compassion itself, don't you know"?

Yes, indeed. He was compassion incarnate as I have realised
many a time vividly, a realisation to which I have testified
gratefully in one of my ecstatic poems:

IN MEMORIAM
A face that's still like the hushed cloudless blue,
And eyes that even as stars drip holiness,
Won from a Source beyond our ken, a new
Messenger Thou, in this age, of a Grace
Men ache for and, withal, are terrified
When it shines too near -- wan puppets of fool senses,
They would disown the soul's faith -- even deride
The Peace they crave yet fear -- for Life's false dances
And siren tunes beguile the multitude!
And they woo mad Time's whirls and wheels -- for what?
At best a reeling moment -- an interlude
Of half-lit laughter dogged by tears -- of Fate!
O Son of Dawn! who only knowest the Sun,
And through His eye of Light see'st all that lies
Revealed -- a flawless Plenitude which none
Save Sun-eyed children ever might surmise!
For only the chosen few so far have won
The Truth that shines beyond world's wounds and cries;
Who hymn Thee, throned in the high dominion
Of Self's invulnerable Verities,
Are granted a glimpse of Bliss of the Beyond,
Thou singest: Nay, `tis here' -- yet without Thy
Compassion's pledge how few would understand?
Homage to Thee, O minstrel of Clarity!

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Sayings from Bhagavan

Recorded in June 1918 By C.V. Subramania Aiyer

1. Turn the mind inward and rest in your own Self.

2. Mind is the cause of bondage.

3. Give up one thing after another and rest in peace.

4. What we get, we shall lose, so desire not.

5. There are two kinds of meditation. The first is to be practised
by advanced aspirants -- nirguna dhyana -- where one seeks
to know the Meditator himself. The second kind is to be
practised by those less advanced -- a some what round about
course -- saguna dhyana -- where the meditator, meditation
and the object of meditation get merged ultimately into one.

6. When I come to know that I was never born, I shall never
die. Death is for one who is born. I was never born. I have
no body and so I shall never die. I am everywhere; where am
I to go and where am I to come?

7. When a man's mind is dead, he will not die again.

8. Attain the sushupti ^[?] (state of sleep) in the jagrat (waking)
state, and you become a jnani.

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