35. PUBLICATIONS
EVER since Bhagavan settled at Ramanasramam, thenumber of his devotees steadily increased which made
it impossible for all of them to listen to his teaching directly.
This necessitated the publication of books. By the time
the Maharshi came to the plains from the hill his
proficiency in languages was fairly high, and he could
write with ease in Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit and Malayalam.
Everyone felt that instead of others translating his works
it would be preferable to have him give his teachings in
his own words so that their purity could be preserved.
Apart from this it was also felt that Bhagavan's teachings,
hitherto in the form of poems, should be in the form of a
theory also. Further, there were any number of people,
who desired to know Bhagavan's theories, methods of
practice, new approach and his clarifications of complicated
matters of traditional scriptural literature. It became
necessary to contradict certain incorrect concepts of the
Advaita argument and lay strong foundations for Advaita
philosophy. Ramana Gita was there alright to satisfy those
interested in upasana and those who wanted a path but it
did not sufficiently contradict certain philosophic
arguments except sporadically. All these made it necessary
for Bhagavan to author some books. They became
invaluable. The books written by Bhagavan during his
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stay at Ramanasramam have pithy sayings of great import
, and effective refutations of other views. There was little
of emotion in them.
TAMIL WORKS:
Arunachala Mahatmyam: The Sthalapurana of
Arunachala was a very voluminous work and was not
easily accessible to all. Therefore Bhagavan selected some
slokas describing the greatness of Arunachala and rendered
them into Tamil as Arunachala Mahatmyam.
Sarvajnanotharam: This is a Saivite Agama .
Bhagavan translated into Tamil that part of it dealing
with Jnana, the Atmasakshatkara section. This could be
treated as an addition to Devikalotharam.
Atmavidya Kirtana: Several considered the technique of
Atmavidya to be too deep and incomprehensible. Among those
who disagreed with this view was Murugunar, the great poet,
who authored Ramana Sannidhi Murai . He placed a piece of
paper before Bhagavan one day on which he wrote the refrain:
Lo, very easy is self knowledge
Lo, very easy indeed.
As he could not complete the lyric he stopped with
the refrain. Bhagavan saw it and took upon himself the
task of completing the song.
Upadesa Saram: Muruganar looked upon Bhagavan
as Siva. He himself had written copiously in praise of
Siva. The theme of one of his poems was the Leela (sport)
of Siva at Daruka forest. Therein, Siva undertakes to teach
tatva to the Rishis. Muruganar wished to incorporate
Bhagavan's teachings as Siva's Upadesa. He wrote Siva's
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Leela in about seventy verses and requested Bhagavan to
complete the Upadesa [?] part of the poem in thirty verses. In
Tamil Nadu, from ancient times, a particular type of village
dance prevailed in which the pauses in the steps were
known as `Undipara.' A particular metre and rhythm had
also been prescribed for it. Bhagavan adopted that metre
for the poem which was titled in Tamil, Upadesa Undiyar.
As a devotee rightly commented, a writing full of analogies
might appeal to ordinary people but for those with a desire
to know the depths of philosophy only sentences ?
embodying the siddanta-would appeal. In this poem,
Bhagavan, expressed the siddhanta in a poetic form.
To begin with, there is a statement that the body or
karma [?] is insentient, the fruit of karma is granted by the
Lord-a refutation of the proposition in Poorva-mimamsa
. Gradually, the poem touches upon bhakti [?], yoga and jnana margas
and comes up with the essence of Advaita.
Bhagavan gave the title of Upadesa Saram in Sanskrit
for this compilation and sent it to Ganapati Muni who
was then at the mango tree cave, for his opinion. Ganapati
Muni was struck by the beauty of the poem and showed
it to several Sanskrit scholars exclaiming "Can any one of
us compose a single verse like this? Who among us has the
capacity to comment on these verses? Yet we all claim to
be Sanskrit scholars!" Soon thereafter, Ganapati Muni
wrote a brief commentary on the poem in just two and
half hours. That was translated into Tamil.
As the poem was not available in Telugu, Ramaiah
Yogi requested Bhagavan for one. Thereupon, Bhagavan
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himself wrote the poem in Telugu. With the help of
Ganapati Muni, Swami Pranavananda wrote a Telugu
commentary. Subsequently, Bhagavan himself wrote the
poem in Malayalam too.
Ulladu Narpadu: Muruganar used to ask Bhagavan
various questions on philosophic matters for which the
latter's replies were in verse form. Such verses added up to
forty (narpadu, in Tamil). Thereupon, at the suggestion
of Ganapati Muni, Muruganar arranged them in a
particular sequence. As the verses were about "What is"
or "Reality" (Ulladu, in Tamil) the poem was titled Ulladu
Narpadu (or, Reality in Forty Verses). Apart from these
forty verses, occasionally, Bhagavan would give replies to
Muruganar and others by translating into Tamil, some
verses from other languages. In addition, there were twelve
occasional verses written by Bhagavan. All these fell short
of forty. At the request of Krishna Bhikshu Bhagavan made
up the balance. These forty came to be known as
Supplement to Ulladu Narpadu. In Telugu, the Supplement
is known as Sookti Sudha.
At the request of Ramaiah Yogi, Bhagavan translated
Ulladu Narpadu into Telugu prose under the title Unnadi
Nalubadi. Later on, several people put them in verse form.
The book itself is pregnant with insight and is a guide to
jnana [?]. There are many arguments to refute the views
expressed against Advaita. The book is in simple style and
abounds in excellent similies.
Ganapati Muni translated the work (excluding the
Supplement) into Sanskrit under the title Sat-darsan. A
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commentary thereon, was written by Kapali Sastry, disciple
of Ganapati Muni. Kapali Sastry himself translated the
entire work into English.
Bhagavan wrote another poem in Sanskrit where the
four stanzas began with the expressions De'ham (The body)
Na'ham (I am not), Ko'ham (Who am I??), So'ham (That I
am). This was written at the request of Ganapati Muni.
Apart from these original writings Bhagavan also made
some selections from traditional texts and in some cases,
wrote Tamil translations for them. Among such works
may be mentioned Tayumanuvar (Tamil work) and others
like Vivekachoodamani, Sivananda Lahari, Yoga Vasishta,
Bhagavad Gita. Some other translations have been
incorporated in the `Supplement' mentioned above.
OCCASIONAL VERSES:
Bhagavan also wrote a few verses occasionally, some
of them were:
1) FROM RAMA GITA:-
"Even the conjurer deludes the world, but is not
himself deluded. How strange would it be if the Siddha
himself is deluded and adds to the delusion of the world."
— Translation - Collected Works
2) GANESA:
One day a potter brought and gifted a small image of
Ganesa to Bhagavan, at Virupaksha cave. On that occasion
Bhagavan wrote the following verse:
"He who begot you as a child you made
Into a beggar; as a child yourself
You then lived everywhere just to support
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Your own huge belly; I too am a child.
Oh child god in that niche! Encountering one
Born after you, is your heart made of stone?
I pray you look at me!"
— Translation - Collected Works
3) ARUNACHALA RAMANA
Sometime in 1914-1915 Amritananda Yati wrote on
a paper a verse asking Bhagavan to say whether he was
Hari (Vishnu) or Sivaguru (Subrahmanya) or Yativara
(Siva) or Vararuchi. Bhagavan wrote the following reply
on the same piece of paper
In the recesses of the lotus-shaped hearts of all, beginning
with Vishnu, there shines as pure intellect (absolute
consciousness) the Paramatman [?], who is the same as
Arunachala Ramana. When the mind melts with love of
Him, and reaches the inmost recesses of the Heart wherein
He dwells as the beloved, the subtle eye of pure intellect
opens and He reveals Himself as pure consciousness.
— Translation - Collected Works
4. THE STOMACH'S COMPLAINT
In 1931, on a festive occasion after a sumptuous meal,
one devotee quoted a poem of Avvayar the Tamil saint-
poetess, a complaint about the stomach, "You will not go
without food even for one day, nor will you take enough
for two days at a time. You have no idea of the trouble I
have on your account. Oh wretched stomach! It is
impossible to get on with you."
Bhagavan immediately wrote a parody thereon giving
the stomach's complaint against the ego:
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"You will not give even an hour's rest to me; you ego!
Day after day, every hour, you keep on eating! You have
no idea how I suffer. Oh trouble-making ego! It is
impossible to get on with you!"
— Translation - Collected Works
5) SIVARATHRI:
"The day on which the ancient and wonderful linga
of Arunachala took shape is the asterism of Ardra in the
month of Mrigasira. And the day on which Vishnu and
the other devas worshipped the Lord in the form of
effulgence is the day Mahasivarathri."
— Translation - Collected Works
In order to publish Bhagavan's works, Sri
Ramanasrama Granthamala was established. All of
Bhagavan's Tamil works and translations of those works
into other languages thus came to be published.
Bhagavan's biography in different languages like `Self
Realisation' (English) Sri Ramana Vijayam (Tamil) and
Sri Ramana Charitamrit (Hindi) got published.1 Lately a
lot of Ramana literature in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi,
Bengali and Kannada is also being published. Sat-darsan,
Sri Ramana Gita, Sat-darsana Bhashya, Sri Ramana
Chatvarimsat are some of the Sanskrit works published.
Bhagavan's direct upadesa, especially his Silent-
Upadesa [?], was the best. The books constitute the next best.
Of course, any number of writings by others are available
in different languages.