Our Bhagavan-Stories

[Subramanian.R]

Once Swami Rajeswarananda had planned to take a big party of pilgrims with Bhagavan in their midst.  Bhagavan Ramana said:  "I did not consent to go and the thing had to be dropped.  What is there
I could go and see?  I see nothing.  What is the use of my going anywhere? Nothing can be seen by me. 'Paarthal Ondrum Terihiradhu Illai'."

This is one of the self-revealing statements which escape Bhagavan's lips. 

The following remarks were also made by Bhagavan, on the same night.

"The Jnani sees he is the Self and it is on that Self, as the screen that the various cinema-pictures
of what is called the world pass.  He remains unaffected by the shadows which play on the surface of that screen.  See with the physical eye, and you see the world.  See with the eye of realization, everything
appears as the Self, Brahma-mayam."

"To see an object that is in the dark, both the eye and the light of the lamp are required.  To see the
light only the eye is enough.  But to see the Sun, there is no need of any other light.

(Source: Day by Day, Devaraja Mudaliar, 21st November
1945.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

When Bhagavan Ramana was in His last days on this earth, [ He had pain, which should have been
unbearable for anyone else], the attendants asked Him:  "Bhagavan!  Is it paining too much?"
Bhagavan Ramana said:  "Yes, the body is paining!"  He was not the body or the mind.

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

On June 19, 1945, G.V. Subbaramayya wrote his 'Farewell Prayer' in six Telugu stanzas.
This was titled "Abhayam",  Rassurance and Refuge:

The courage that never quails under any distress,
The equal bearing of honor and shame,

The same benevolence towards all,
The gratitude for others' good deeds,

The sense of fullness that Thou art everything,
The eternal devotion to Thy lotus-feet,

The knowledge that every occurrence is Thy doing,
The wisdom that everything happens for the best,

The inquiry "To whom are all these thoughts", "To me"
"Who am I?"

The consequent subsidence of all thoughts
And flash of Reality as Self Realization,

"O Father Ramana, grant to Thy child!"   

(Source: Arunachala's Ramana, Boundless Ocean of
Grace, Volume 5. Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Balaji]

Bhagavan: When I was staying in the Skandashram I sometimes used to go out and sit on a rock. On one such occasion there were two or three others with me, including Rangaswami Iyengar. Suddenly we noticed some small moth-like insect shooting up like a rocket into the air from a crevice in the rock. Within the twinkling of an eye it had multiplied itself into millions of moths which formed a cloud and hid the sky from view. We wondered at it and examined the place from which it shot up. We found that it was only a pinhole and knew that so many insects could not have issued from it in such a short time.

That is how ahamkara [ego] shoots up like a rocket and instantaneously spreads out as the universe.

[Subramanian.R]

In 1945, there was in the Asramam, a small, sickly, lame, puppy that we feared would die at
any moment.  But under Bhagavan's constant care, he not only recovered health but began to eat
iddlies [rice-cakes] daily with so much relish that Bhagavan nicknamed him Iddli Swami.  Relating
this incident, I wrote on June 15, 1945, a Telugu verse meaning:

"O Ramana, you once [as Lord Krishna] straightened
and beautified the hunchback woman of your abounding
Grace. So now you have reared this little lame puppy to
a fine Iddli Swami. How wonderful!"

Two days later, Subbaramayya also composed couple of
verses reading as under:

1. "Seeing you caress peacocks, squirrels, cows, dogs
and monkeys and children with such tender Grace, anyone
must melt to his bonds. O Ramana!"

2. "So many birds and animals coming to you, have attained
deliverance.  Likewise do bless us with Grace this human
animal that has sought refuge at your feet, O Ramana!"

(Source: Arunachala's Ramana, Boundless Ocean of Grace,
Volume 5. Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai.)

Arunachala Siva.   

[Subramanian.R]

A vistor came to the Asramam on 10.2.1946 with a book called Sri Ramanopakhyanam. 
His name was Thangavelu Nadar.  Bhagavan Ramana told Devaraja Mudaliar that it was not about
anything about His teachings but the one which contained some stanzas found in some Nadi horscope
of Bhagavan Ramana, with notes and commentaries of another gentleman who was then editing
a Tamizh paper.  Bhagavan added that besides this version, some other Nadi version of Bhagavan's
horoscope have been traced and sent to the Asramam by different devotees.  Bhagavan Ramana added
that there were various people in the country who claimed to have various Nadis.  We don't know whether they are correct or not.  This Thangavelu Nadar was originally from Kumbakonam.  There also used to
be one Swami at Tindivanam.  When anyone went to him, he used to tell them:  "You must go
and have darshan of Ramana Maharshi, at such and such time, on such and such date."  This gentleman's name is also indicated in the Nadi horoscope and they used to come here and tell me about it!

(Source:  Day by Day, Devaraja Mudaliar.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Balaji]

Sri Ramana Maharshi's life and teaching emphasize the permanent gain of liberation. He taught us how to remain peaceful after placing all our burdens at the feet of the Lord of the Universe. In Day by Day with Bhagavan we read how His inherent divinity granted relief to the loved one's of devotees.

About 10-30 a.m. Mrs. Taleyarkhan came near Bhagavan, stood at his feet and asked, May I say a few words, Bhagavan and continued, I have a great friend, Mrs. W., wife of a prominent official in Los Angeles. In 1942, when I was here, I received a letter from her while I was sitting in this hall. It was a heart-rending letter in which she detailed how her husband fell in love with another woman, got a divorce decree and married the new woman. She was a most beautiful woman, Bhagavan, and they had already a girl about seventeen years old. She was a great society woman and it was impossible that any event of any social importance would take place without her being there. So she felt the grief immensely and wrote it all. I was moved terribly and keenly felt for her and prayed mentally to Bhagavan for her relief. I wrote back to her, sending her a small photo of Bhagavan, and told her, Don't be downcast. Your husband will come back to you. I am now with such and such a great personage. I am sending you a small picture of him. Have it on your table. I shall daily pray to him on your behalf. You too pray to him. You will see that you get relief. But the friend - what do they know about Bhagavan and such things - was disconsolate. She wrote back, What you say is impossible. He wont come back.

 I wrote again, Nothing is impossible with our Bhagavan. So just go on as I have advised you to do. And now, Bhagavan, I have her letter by air-mail today that her husband has come back to her and she is going to set up a new home again. She writes, The impossible has happened. Your gentleman (meaning Bhagavan) has really worked a miracle. Now, I and my husband must come and see him. We want to fly and visit your Master, though the passage costs a lot. Please let me know whether there is a hotel there where we can come and stay. I have always been praying to Bhagavan for this friend and I am glad Bhagavan has done this for her. I feel so grateful and was moved to tears when reading this letter here now.

I added, What is there impossible for Bhagavan?

from the  fb Ramana Maharishi

[Subramanian.R]

The question we need to ask is: what is the most important thing that we need to do with our lives?
Leave aside the duties of supporting and raising a family.  Leave aside the necessity of earning a living.
The most important duty we have to ourselves is to be true to our nature, our "swadharma",
and this at whatever the cost for who does not agree with.


Thoreau's observation that, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the
song still in them."

Bhagavan Ramana did not encourage people to renounce the world.  He advised dispassion and
questioning of the assumptions we automatically make ourselves and others.  We lead for the
most part a mechanical existence whether we are aware of it or not.  We take our opinions from
newspapers and TV news channels.  What Bhagavan Ramana advised was discrimination
between what is eternal and what is ephemeral.

We should be wary of an easy escape by thinking that we can do nothing.  Thoreau said:
 "As if you could kill time, without injuring eternity!"  Time is precious.  Bhagavan's daily
routine was fixed by the clock.  He would go for days without speaking and yet the asramam
would be unaffected because there was a discipline and purpose to each activity, which gave
the day momentum and meaning.  In the midst of activity Bhagavan sat in silence and moved
as if alone.  There was a solitude to Him which was impervious to the round of events.  He was
the Sun around which the devotees spent their days and thoughts. His constant and unfathomable
abidance in, for want of a better word, what we call the Self, was a source of joy and awe for
those who were open to its manifestation.  The few words He spoke, the small amount of literature
He wrote, were all cherished for nothing was wasted.  Each word was meant, each gesture had
significance.

One wonders what Thoreau would have made of an encounter with Bhagavan.  One imagines
Thoreau would have found in Bhagavan the answer to his search for meaning and in a face to
face encounter words would have been discarded.  For Thoreau wrote: "Could there a greater
miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?"

During his last years, Thoreau suffered from incurable tuberculosis, and slowly faded away
over a number of years. But he was writing articles for journals even in bed as an invalid.  When
his aunt asked him: "Whether he had made peace with God", Thoreu replied:  "I did not know we had
ever quarreled!"

Among his last dying words were:  "Now comes good sailing!"

Let us leave Thoreau the final word:  "It is not what you look at, that matters, it is what you see."

(Source: As indicated in Part 1 of The Power of the Presence.)

Arunachala Siva.   

[Subramanian.R]

Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni had a vision of six stars raising from Bhagavan Ramana's head and he
found Him to be an avatara of Skanda.  He also took pride that he is Ganapati, the elder son of
Siva and elder brother of Skanda.  In later years, Kavyakanta wrote Sri Ramana Chatvarimsat.
Actually, he had planned to compose 100 verses on Bhagavan Ramana, but fate willed it that
he could not complete.  As and when he wrote a sloka, he had sent it to Bhagavan along with a
Sanskrit letter.  The total verses came to 40 and Bhagavan Ramana arranged them in proper order
and thus came Sri Ramana Chatvarimsat.  This composition is chanted even today in the mornings
in Sri Ramanasramam.

In one sloka, Ganapati Muni says:

"He is Skanda without Spear, Rooster Banner and Peacock vehicle.
He is the dear son of Uma. The One who vanquished Tarakasura
and other demons, is residing here wearing a simple codpiece.
He is the celibate, without liking and disliking, without respect
and disrespect, without self-respect and self-defeatism.  In His
eyes resides Sakti, in His face Lakshmi and in His tongue, Saraswati, goddess of learning.
It is my good fortune that I got Him as my Guru.  I shall prostrate at His lotus feet!"

(Source:  Spiritual Stories about Bhagavan Ramana, Banu
Ramachandran, Tamizh.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

Bhagavan Ramana's own philosophy [which is of course, the only true philosophy of this universe],
is reflected in His own works.  But in His life, He had to meet several people, with different backgrounds
/levels of maturity. Therefore He had to water down the message depending upon the devotee.
These replies, should not be taken out of context. One cannot pick up one or two replies
and say that this is the final teaching of Bhagavan Ramana. Take this illustration:-

1. Once Dilip Kumar Roy sang some nice songs and then asked Bhagavan whether the music alone
sung in devotion to god, would confer him liberation.  Bhagavan Ramana said:
"Why not? Pursue this with conviction."

2. To Devaraja Mudaliar, who got excited by some Tiruppugazh songs which were sung in the Hall,
asked Bhagavan Ramana, whether singing Tiruppugazh alone could take one to liberation.
Bhagavan Ramana said: "O Mudaliar! Go behind these songs and see the mounam, Silence which
is all pervading." 

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

Guru is even greater than God.  When one insults God, Guru will save him.  But if one insults Guru,
even God cannot save him.  There are several devotees who prayed only to Guru with utmost faith
and got deliverance.  We have seen the story of Appoothi Adigal, though a brahmin,
never did much of ritualistic prayers, but prayed only to Tiru Navukkarasar and built food choultries
and Vedapatasala in the name of Tiru Navukkarasar.  Neelakanta Yazhpana, an out-caste who could play
Yazh, an instrument like violin, and went behind Tiru Jnana Sambandhar and made music
for his songs, got liberated with his service.  We know the famous story of Pundalika who made
Panduranga to wait on a brick, while he was serving his parents, who were his Gurus. Bhagavan Ramana quoted the story of a disciple of Ramanuja.  He was heating up milk for Ramanuja, his guru and Ramanuja called him to come see the procession of Ranganatha, the local Narayana deity, which was coming
to the street.  The disciple said:  "Let Him come, I have got work for my Guru."  He never turned up
till the milk was got ready!

(Source: Day by Day, Devaraja Mudaliar, entry dated
4th January 1946.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

Visions while in Arunachala:

 
Yes.  Bhagavan Ramana and several other yogis and jnanis
who had lived in Arunachala had such vision.  Ordinary
mortals cannot have such experiences.  But people have
strange experiences in Arunachala.  Once a Keralite, Sukumaran,
told me, that while in a room, he had a sudden call from Ramana
in the early morning around 2 am.,  [not in dreams] to go round the Hill immediately to have his problems solved.  He took his bath and went around the Hill immediately.

Arunachala Siva.

[Balaji]

A Vaishnava devotee, who was a high official  at Simla, brought all the idols that he worshipped daily, and handed them to Sri Bhagavan, probably desiring the sanctity of Sri Bhagavan's touch. Sri Bhagavan seemed much interested in examining them. The devotee said, `Bhagavan, people scoff at me, calling me a "superstitious idolater".

Sri Bhagavan told him, 'Why don't you retort by calling them worse idolaters? For do they not wash, dress, embellish, feed and thus "worship" their body so many times every day? Is not the body the biggest idol? Then who is not an idol worshipper?'
Though Bhagavan occasionally made disparaging remarks about traditional practices such as idol worship, he did not like his devotees to criticise such activities. If they did, he would not support them.

Once, for example, someone asked Bhagavan, 'Is it not foolish to make idols and worship them when we know that God is formless?'

Bhagavan answered in a characteristic way by saying, `Who is not doing idol worship? From the moment of waking in the morning, everyone is engaged continuously in idol worship. How? By taking the body, which is only a mental image, to be real and by treating it like a temple statue. You bathe it, comb its hair and offer food to it three times a day. Who has escaped from this idol worship?

GVK 36

[Subramanian.R]

That is again one way of looking at the mystery of Arunachala. It baffles people, both believers and non-believers.  And that is true.  There are a lot of particles whose nature and structure
science is yet to unfathom.  In the Swiss-French border, people are working at 'discovery' of God's
Particle or Higgs Particle, the primary Source, from which the entire universe took its birth. 
This project is called Large Hadron Collider Experiment and they have so far failed.  Stephen Hawking
the author of the famous science books [not fiction], like the Brief History of Time, the illustrious
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in Cambridge, has said that god's particle can never be unravelled.

Because to search for God outside is a waste becaue the god is within you.  That is why Brahma
Jnanis have found the universe within them and if they have done it, why not Arunachala can
contain the entire universe, with all its riches and pleasures. [Arunachala Mahatmyam].

Bhagavan Ramana said that Arunachala is the axis of the earth and there must be some mysterious
hill on the other side of the earth, to balance.  Major Chadwick tried to find out from some
books on geography, but could not succeed.  But now after 60 years, some scientists have found
out one Mount Pacchu, near Peru in South America, which is very powerful religiously as per the
aborigines of that place.  I have written sometime back about the latitude and longitude details of
this Mount Pacchu, in the Forum.

Jnanis words never fail.

Arunachala Siva.     

[Subramanian.R]

In one of the recent comments it was stated that Bhagavan was an avatar of Subrahmanya,
the second son of Siva. This was a widely-held view in Bhagavan?s time, primarily because
Ganapati Muni had confidently made this assertion in the eighteenth chapter of Sri Ramana Gita.
Krishna Bhikshu, Bhagavan?s Telugu biographer, accepted this claim and devoted several pages
of his book (Sri Ramana Leela, chapter 49) to a series of examples and arguments which he said demonstrated that the claim was a genuine one.

Ganapati Muni?s conviction that Bhagavan was an avatar of Subrahmanya arose from an incident
that occurred in March 1908 when he was with Bhagavan at Pachiamman Koil, a temple of the
outskirts of Tiruvannamalai. Early one morning he saw a bright light appear and touch Bhagavan?s
forehead. The light enveloped Bhagavan, and within that glowing effulgence Ganapati Muni discerned
six stars of different colors which eventually merged into a single light.

Subrahmanya was created from light that came out of Siva?s third eye. Siva gathered this light in
his hands and passed it on to Vayu, the god of wind. The power of the light was too much for Vayu,
so he gave it to Agni, the god of fire, who deposited it in the Ganges. Ganga, the goddess of the Ganges,
was also unable to bear the power so she carried it to a small pond and left it there. In this pond the
light transformed itself into six babies. Parvati subsequently joined the babies together in a form that
had one trunk, twelve arms and six faces. This is Lord Shanmukha, ?The Lord with Six Faces?.
His name Skanda means ?the joined one?, a reference to the way Parvati amalgamated his bodies.
The six visible stars of the Pleiades are known as ?Karthika? in India; Karthikeyan is another of
Subrahmanya?s names. When Ganapati Muni saw six stars merge into one in Ramana Maharshi?s
form, he naturally came to the conclusion that Bhagavan was a manifestation or avatar of the God.

A few years before Seshadri Swami had also come to the conclusion that Bhagavan was Subrahmanya, although there appears to be no record of how he came to that conclusion. Seshadri Swami identified
himself with Parvati, Siva?s consort and decided that Bhagavan was ?her? son, Subrahmanya.

Proponents of the avatar theory have drawn up long lists of facts and coincidences to demonstrate the validity of their belief. For example, Bhagavan?s occasional references to Arunachala as his ?father? are taken to be proof that he must be one of Siva?s sons. For those who are interested, there is a list in chapter 49 of Sri Ramana Leela, and an even more exhaustive compilation in an article by Ra Ganapati that appeared in a 1984 edition of The Mountain Path.

Since the original claim can be traced back to Ganapati Muni?s vision, I should like to make a few comments about the nature of jnanis and visions. Bhagavan appeared on several occasions to devotees in forms that they desired. He had the power both to grant visions (see, for example ?Bhagavan gives Rama darshan? by T. K. Sundaresa Iyer) and to manifest in a different form. The following story is narrated by K. Vithoba Kamath:

I used to sit in the hall in the last row. One day an idea flashed that I should see Lord Krishna. I intently looked at Bhagavan and saw a dark cloud engulfing him and within that emerged the Lord. I was at my wit?s end. I thought it was a hallucination and a projection of my own mind. I wanted to try again. This time I thought of Gandhiji. Ramana was nowhere, but in his place there was Gandhiji. Being bewildered, I looked at Bhagavan. There! He was looking straight at me with a benign smile on his face. I felt highly blessed. (Arunachala?s Ramana, Vol. V, pp. 114-123)

(David Godman's Compilation)

Arunachala Siva.