First Meetings with Ramana Maharshi (First Person Accounts)

$15
Item Code: NAC113
Author: A.R. Natarajan
Publisher: Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning, Bangalore
ISBN: 8185378444
Pages: 127
Cover: Paperback
Other Details 8.5 Inch X 5.5 Inch
Weight 170 gm
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Shipped to 153 countries
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Book Description
Back of the Book

Ramana Maharshi was equally available, round the clock, to the ignorant and he wise, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the meek. Hence many have basked in the healing balm of his perennial grace. The rapport once spontaneous and long lasting.

This book covers twenty three first person accounts of their first meetings with the Maharshi. The memory of their meeting with him never faded for it was indelibly engraved on their hearts. The list includes some well-known names – Swami Ramdas, Paul Brunton, Osborne, Papaji, Mouni Sadhu, Cohen, Walter Keers and Swaminathan. These autobiographical accounts have one thing in common. They very reading of these emotionally surcharged narrations thrills one to the cor. They have the aroma of eternity, Ramana Maharshi is brought closer, made intimate and verily our own.

For those looking for his teaching there I plenty of it too for awakening and nurturing the growth of the inner power.

Introduction

When Ramana arrived at Tiruvannamalai, on the 1st of September 1896, he was only about seventeen years old. But he had already become a person of steady wisdom, a jnani. His body became unkempt, he had matted locks, his nails had grown long and he wore only a cod piece to cover his nakedness. Yet the radiance of Self-knowledge was such that he instantaneously attracted people. He was then known as the Brahmana Swami. Practically every visitor to this holy place would make it a point to have his daresay not withstanding his observance of silence for a few years. This continued in the years he spent on the sacred Arunachala hill, in the Virupaksha cave, Skandasramam and later at Sri Ramanasramam. In the meantime the Muni had proclaimed to the world that he should be called Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi for he was God incarnate, the sweet one and a preeminent seer of truth. This increased the continuing flow of devotees, and seekers. People were eager for his benediction and to share the bounty of his grace.

The reason for this perennial flow is to be found in his all embracing love. He was equally available to the ignorant and the wise, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the meek. Distinctions of any kind did not exist for him. “He would solve the doubts, agonies, the loss of faith of people of many types-often with a word, often with a moment of healing silence and soft look in his unmoving gaze’. After spending month after month over the years Duncan Green lees remarks, “I have found no other human being who emanates his grace that can take the ordinary man and plunge him deep in the ecstasy of the timeless, omnipresent being”.

The healing balm was the natural consequence of Ramana’s complete identification with the persons who sought his grace. He thought and felt from the heart, without any kind of mental barrier, Therefore the rapport was at once spontaneous and long lasting. In this book we have a most touching first person narration of a lady tossed about in mental distress, Eleanor Pauline Noye, who had travelled all the way from California, USA. She had spent eight blissful months with Ramana. The time to depart was approaching. Those were heart-breaking days. On the last day she walked up the hill with Ramana. The little monkeys were all lined up on the path. Bhagavan told them to come and say ‘goodbye’. For he knew she too loved them. “On reaching the hail, 5hagavan read a few comforting passages from psalms, Chapter 139, Verses 7,8,9 and 10”. There are so many emotionally charged first person accounts of the ‘blessed joy’ Ramana showered on all comers.

Another unique feature about Ramana was his round the clock accessibility. He did not reserve any time for himself. All his time belonged to ‘others’. Many like Paul Brunton and Chadwick, just to mention a couple of names, would slip in even in the ‘hot mid- afternoon’ confident that he was theirs at that time also. Ramana was particular that none should be denied his darsan, the opportunity to meet him and to seek his guidance. It was the 14th of April 1950. Everyone could guess that it would be the last day of his earthly sojourn. His body’s condition had been precarious in the preceding few days, it was racked by the excruciating pain of sarcoma. The doctors who knew their medical books forbade him from giving darsan for it meant his turning to the side for hours on end. But Ramana was aware of the grieving hearts of the thousands who had gathered pining for his compassionate look which would pour forth his ‘directed grace’ on them. So till the penultimate day before Maha Nirvana he would make nothing of his unbearable pain and allow morning and evening darsan ‘reclining on the cushion to enable his looking at the devotees’. It was the same story even earlier when two major operations were performed in August and December 1949.

This might have been because the main mode of communication of Ramana’s grace was through his potent silence and the penetrating, powerful look of his eyes. The recipient of grace would unfailingly recognise it. We have seen many pictures of Ramana which speak, which converse, which enthrall. But when we read a first person account of the breathtaking charm of his presence, we cannot help feeling how fortunate those devotees were. True, where can he go? This timeless one! He is very much alive today, as then, for the hearts which can behold his beauty, for the minds which attune themselves to his all pervasive presence. The thought of him is nectarine. Yet one likes to read the descriptions. Let a few extracts speak: “It seemed to me that I had never before known what a smile was”, “I began to realise that the body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost I could only feel his body was not the man, merely a sitting motionless corpse from which God was radiating terrifically”, “The blazing presence that radiated through everything”, “His presence made me glow with happiness and made my heart jump into the sky”, “My mind was caught and held in that peace, in a blissfulness it had never known before”, and so on. The limitation of vocabulary, of words steps in when one tries to describe the indescribable. Not withstanding this fact, the very reading of these autobiographical accounts makes one’s hairs stand on end, and transports one beyond the fetters of the mind.

Nothing happens by accident in the divine scheme of things. Some like Eleanor Noye came to him totally unprepared for such a joyous take over of their lives. Some like Paul Brunton came in spite of themselves, battling against themselves. Some like Chadwick came through reading books about him. Some Like Mouni Sadhu and Arthur Osborne came after practising the direct path of self-enquiry in some form or the other. But all found one thing in common, the blissful atmosphere which surrounded him, the ecstasy of his grace. The radiation from his heart held them in the sweep of its vastness. From then on Ramana became the central figure of their lives, the very core of their being. The memory of their meetings with him never faded for them for they were indelibly engraved on their hearts.

As for teachings there is plenty of it in these narrations. To Walter Keers Ramana has emphasised the immediacy of Self-Knowledge: “You are looking for your glasses and they are right on your nose”. To Humphreys he talked about unitary vision: “Do not fix your attention on all these changing things, on life, death, phenomena. Do not even think of the actual act of seeing them or perceiving them but only on that which sees all these things. That which is responsible for it all”. Or we could refer to the advice given to Viswanatha Swami: “It is only on the awakening of a power mightier than the senses and the mind that these can be subdued. If you awaken and nurture the growth of that power within you everything will be conquered”.

The relationship between the Sadguru and his disciples, devotees, and even stray visitors has a fascination of its own, Hence one would readily lap up reminiscences about Ramana’s life and teachings. But when we have first person accounts about first meetings with Ramana one is totally taken in. Their attraction grows as one reads and re-reads over and over again. The first meeting stands apart. When one records what happened then it comes straight from the heart unpolluted by thought. It has the aroma of eternity. Ramana is brought closer, made intimate, and verily our own. One feels his strong physical presence, his life giving smile, his lustrous eyes are there with us restoring to us what we have lost- the fullness of natural happiness.

Publisher’s Note

Sri V.S. Ramanan, President, Sri Ramanasramam has kindly permitted the use of the material in the Ashram publications. Swami Ramanananda has given his full support. Dr. Sarada has been helpful. Smt. Sulochana Natarajan has corrected the proof with care. Sri Muralidhara Hegde has designed the beautiful cover. Aridra printers have done an excellent job of type setting and printing the book. To all of them the Centre offers its heartfelt thanks.

Content

Introduction i
Publisher’s Note v
Ecstasy of Grace: Viswanatha Swami 1
Suffusion of Joy: S.S. Cohen 8
Away From Him There is No Life: Sundaresa Iyer 11
God Radiating Terrifically: Frank H. Humphreys 15
In Flesh a Master: Duncan Greenless 19
Vividly Engrained: Mouni Sadhu 24
The Silent Gaze: Papaji 31
The Experience: Annamalai Swami 37
To See Him is to Love Him: Eleanor Pauline Noye 39
The Greatest Adventure: Grant Duff (Douglas Ainslie) 47
Nectar Drops: Ramanananda Swarnagiri 49
Light Itself, Blazing Light: Walter Keers 53
Brilliance of the Sun: Swami Madhavatirtha 63
The Revelation: Arthur Osborne67
A Timeless Relationship: Major Chadwick 73
Living Maharshi: K.K. Nambiar78
Another Son Has Come: Kunju Swami 82
Here Lies the Heart 87
In His Presence: Professor K. Swaminathan 95
Like a Child to its Parents: G.V. Subbaramayya 102
Indelible Impression: Sri Swami Ramdas 106
Boundless Joy: Ramana Dasa Sadananda 108
The Maharshi: Paul Brunton 111
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