LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT. 45. SRI RAMANA LITERATURE-1.

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT

45. SRI RAMANA LITERATURE- 1.

The only purpose of religious literature is to provide guidance to righteous living and attaining the purpose of human birth.The four aims of Vedic religion- Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha- show how to live in this world without sacrificing the ultimate goal.  In course of time, the aims got confused and dharma degenerated into mere karma, and speculative philosophies provided conflicting ideas about the goal and the way.

 Arjuna became a victim of such a trend and pleads with Krishna: ' I am confused as to the right course of action. Please tell me decidedly what is good for me'. The result is the Gita, where Bhagavan sums up the entire wisdom of the Vedic religion, reconciling all seemingly disparate or contradictory elements and tells Arjuna: 'You have heard me; now do as you please'.  And Arjuna submits: 'Gone is my confusion; I have regained my memory. I will do as you have instructed.' ( karishye vachanam tava.) And what is this 'vachanam'? It is not just 'vachanam' but " paramam vacha:" -the supreme word, which is also "sarva guhya tamam" ie  the profoundest or the greatest secret. Then in two verses (18.65,66) the Lord tells him that he has to occupy his  whole mind and being with the idea of God and surrender to Him completely. The Lord will free him from all sins.This is the high note on which the Gita teaching concludes..

Yet, our people's propensity for argument and speculation is so intense, even the Gita has been subject to all sorts of interpretations; forgetting the supreme word and the profoundest secret, all lanes and by lanes and even side shows are touted as the teaching of the Gita. 

In modern times, it was given to Sri Ramakrishna to bypass the pundits and reveal the real message. He said that the real message of the Gita is what you get by repeating the word: Gita,Gita, Gita....becomes Tagi,Tagi, Tagi ( just like mara, mara mara became Rama, Rama, Rama for Valmiki!) So, 'tyaga' is the message of the Gita. But what is this tyaga? What did man bring with him, what really belongs to him that he can give up? Everything belongs to God, but man possesses this Ego which makes him feel that he owns everything! So, giving up the ego is the real tyaga. The way prescribed by Sri Ramakrishna was bhakti- devotion and surrender. He said everyone should take up some sadhana to practise and realise God.

Alas, like it happened in the case of Gita, Sri Ramakrishna's simple and straight message has been maimed, mutilated and obscured by punditry and "monkery." How can movements  and organisations flourish unless they complicate matters?

It is here that Sri Ramana enters the scene, as if in direct succession to Sri Ramakrishna. Born in 1879 as the second son of  an unlicensed pleader of modest circumstances, but generous disposition, he grew up with his uncles after the death of his father. He was a normal middle-class Brahmin boy on whom the hopes of the family rested for economic relief, through education and employment. But he was more interested in sports than studies, though intelligent. He was quite healthy, but one day in his 17th year, he was suddenly seized with the fear of death. He was alone, and immediately he spread out a mat on the ground, lied down and enacted what it was to die: the dead body would be taken to the burning ghat and burnt; but he was somehow alive.He did not die with the death of the body! He was not the body! In less than 20 minutes, the boy Venkatraman died, and there emerged a nameless Sage- it was years later that he was called "Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi".

What little interest he had in studies and the world around him left him. He became indifferent to life, and sat absorbed. One day his elder brother taunted him: why should some one who was like a sadhu sit at home? Venkatraman felt it was true and quietly left home, leaving a note in Tamil saying that he had started in search of his father; it was a noble enterprise and nobody need grieve or waste money to find 'it'! He set out for Arunachala, about whose greatness he had an intuitive grasp. He did not know the route, but reached it after some adventures on the way on 1 September 1896. For the next 54 years, till his Nirvana on 14 April 1950, he did not leave the place!

The boy sat absorbed in the Bliss of the Self, unaware of the surroundings. But such are the ways of Providence that some simple but pious souls found him and took care of him, forcing some food into his mouth. He sat still- people said he was doing tapas. He was not inclined to speak, people said he was observing mauna. He wandered on the hill, staying wherever he could be free of the urchins. Gradually, word spread about this "Brahmana Swami" about whom no one knew anything. He had lost his faculty of speech due to disuse. His uncle and mother came to know about his whereabouts and made efforts to take him home. But he stood firm, writing out his first message- to his mother: things happened according to prarabdha, as directed by God, and it was better to reconcile.

Soon people started gathering round him and some sort of group living developed, till it reached the proportions of 'Sri Ramanasramam' at the foot of the hill, near the samadhi of his mother twenty years later.

Sri Ramana had not studied any religious book, except Periyapuranam, and bits of the Bible at school. He did not know and had not studied Vedanta or any other scripture. He taught what he had experienced. It was when 'learned' people came to him later with their books and doubts that he came to know how the scriptures had recorded what he had experienced!

Being based on his experience, his teaching was simple, straight and direct: Find out who you are. This is not a matter of study, meditation or speculation, but 'enquiry' into the source of the 'I' feeling. This enquiry is not a mental or intellectual exercise, but paying attention to the source whence the feeling of 'I' arises.  In our normal awareness, we take our ego to be our self; if we probe the reality of the ego, we will discover our real Self. It is indeed "dis-covering"! The Self is covered by the ego; if the ego is pierced ie its reality is probed, the ego disappears and the Self which is the only reality shines of itself, as ever!

For 54 years, the teaching did not vary or undergo any 'development'. People did approach him, saying the teaching was difficult to follow or practise. To such people, he said: Either 'Enquire' or 'Surrender'. There is no other way. Both involve giving up or going beyond the ego. 

Sri Ramana was not inclined to write anything, but he was forced to write. While living on the hill by begging, the followers wanted some hymn which they could sing on their begging rounds. Ramana said that there were the great hymns of the earlier saints. But one day, while doing 'giripradakshina', words poured out of him, with great torrents of tears blocking his sight. Thus was born the 'Marital Garland of Letters'. Soon, four other collections of hymns followed- all dedicated to Arunachala. They were collected later under the title "Five Hymns to Arunachala." People who consider Bhagavan Ramana as a Jnani should read them, and they will realise what a great Bhakta he was!

Bhagavan never once talked about philosophy on his own; he never once sought to convert any one to his way. He was a natural poet, and at times in fun, he used to write stray verses. Once Muruganar, a great Tamil scholar in the classical mould ( I will have to write about him separately) saw them; he felt that if Bhagavan wrote 40 verses like this, they would become a collection , like the classical Tamil collections of 40 verses, like 'Inna Naarpadu', Iniyavai Naarpadu, etc. Muruganar's only query was: "What is the nature of Reality and How to attain it?" (meiyin iyalbum athai mevum tiranum). As Bhagavan wrote the verses, Muruganar selected and arranged them in some order, thus making the collection: "Vulladu Naarpadu" = "Reality in Forty Verses". Later, a supplementary collection of 40 verses was made, containing some translated verses.

Muruganar composed poems in praise of Ramana, called "Ramana Sannidhi Murai". There in one section, he sang of Bhagavan as all the Avatars. While he was describing the Lila of Shiva, he came to the portion where the Lord teaches the Rishis of the Daruka forest , of the errors of their addiction to karmakanda. He felt he could not write  the teaching and requested Bhagavan to write out this portion. Sri Bhagavan again obliged him and wrote out 30 verses, giving the gist of religious/spiritual practice. These are known as "Upadesa Undiyar". 

For Ramana devotees, the Five Hymns constitute Stotra, and the Reality in Forty Verses and Upadesa Undiyar constitute Sastra literature. Later on, Bhagavan translated some hymns and works of Sankara, and also some Agamas. All of these were brought together in a publication " Ramana Nool Thirattu" - The Collected Works. This too has an interesting history.

About the year 1927, the book was being readied for the press. It is a tradition that a publication should have a preface. Some devotees felt that this book too should have a preface. But who could write a preface to the work of Bhagavan?  Devotees and pundits gathered there were discussing this issue late into the night, but no one came forward to write it. Bhagavan was watching all this silently and when one of the devotees , T.K.Sundaresa Iyer came out and passed by where Bhagavan was sitting, he asked Iyer why he could not write it and told him to write it, saying it would come all right. So Iyer sat down and completed the draft by 2.00 am and took it to Bhagavan. He read it, and approved it as it was. Sundaresa Iyer took it back and went a few steps when Bhagavan called him and asked  to be shown the draft once again. In conclusion, Iyer had written  that " it is hoped"  ( NAMBUKIREN in Tamil) that the book would confer on the aspirants Bhagavan's grace in the form of the Bliss of Liberation. Bhagavan said: 'why have you said 'it is hoped', and why not say 'it is certain?' So saying, he changed just one word "NAMBUKIREN"  into " TINNAM".

This is one of the rare instances in history where the words of a Sage or Saint have come down to us in an undistorted form. The words attributed to the Buddha or Christ are not their own, nor were they recorded during their lifetime. The words of Sri Ramakrisna were recorded by M . It is only in the case of Bhagavan Ramana that we have his words, recorded by himself!