from fb David Godman
Over the last few weeks I have been working on new editions of The Power of the Presence. The materials I used for previous reprints were damaged during a flood at a press in Pondicherry. Since I never had digital files for these books, I decided to start from scratch and make new editions that would have photos to illustrate the text, as well as a little extra information and updated translations of some of the texts I cite. Today I was working on the chapter by and about Sadhu Natanananda.
Sadhu Natanananda was my neighbour when I first lived in Tiruvannamalai in 1970s. I was occupying a room in the Osborne house while he had a room in the neighbouring compound that was owned by Dorab Framji. We would occasionally pass on the road, but he would never acknowledge my existence. It wasn't just me. He tended to ignore everyone when he was out, even devotees he had known for decades.
Over time I came to learn that he had compiled the excellent booklet Upadesa Manjari (Spiritual Instruction) that has appeared in many editions of Bhagavan's Collected Works. This was not his only contribution to the book. He edited the question-and-answer version of Vichara Sangraham (Self-Enquiry) and wrote the essay version of the same text, the one that now most frequently features in editions of Collected Works. At Bhagavan's request he edited the first Tamil edition of Guru Vachaka Kovai, and in the 1950s he wrote Sri Ramana Darsanam, a Tamil book that contained teachings he had heard and events he had witnessed during Bhagavan's lifetime.
About fifteen years ago T. V. Venkatasubramanian asked me to help him bring out an English edition of this book. I agreed and we, along with Robert Butler, spent a couple of months working on the text,. It was a dense and linguistically complicated book: sentences occasionally sub-claused their way through a couple of pages, and the footnotes were so long and extensive, there were even footnotes on some of the footnotes. I showed our finished manuscript to Sundaram, the Ramanasramam president, who took it home to read. The next day he told me how delighted and excited he had been to go through the manuscript.
But haven't you read the original I asked, rather innocently.
Of course not, he replied. No one can understand a word of what he is saying in Tamil. His language and style are too complicated.
The English translation was eventually published by Sri Ramanasramam.
At the end we included two poems that had not appeared in the original book. They had been preserved in the Ramanasramam archives as manuscripts. In contrast to the prolix and interminable sentences of the book, these were simple two-line verses that occasionally spoke movingly of the grace that Bhagavan had bestowed on him. I should like to give a few of these verses, but before I do, I will post a brief account that Natanananda wrote in which Bhagavan appeared to promise him that he would attain liberation in his current life:
On one Vyasapumima day [a festival that is celebrated on the day of the July-August full moon], Ganapati Muni, Kapali Sastri, along with a group of Sanskrit scholars, were walking around the mountain. They stopped off at the ashram to pay their respects to the Maharshi. When they were seated in the old hall, they started discussing philosophy in Sanskrit. I was listening to the discussion, and I knew that they were discussing philosophy, but I could not follow the meaning. Because of this my mind began to wander and I became quite agitated, wondering when the day would dawn when I would have the experiences that they were talking about. My longing for these experiences was so intense that I lost all consciousness of the body. I was not sure how long I remained in that state, but suddenly a voice brought back my normal consciousness. All the others had left and only Bhagavan remained in the hall.
Why are you so dejected said the voice. If you were really unfit to realise the Self in this life, then you could not have come to this place at all. The power that drew you here will make you realise the Self. If not today, it is bound to fulfil its commitment. There is no reason why you should feel dejected.?
?It was these gracious words that brought me back to life, and peace entered my soul immediately. (The Mountain Path, 1981, p. 235)
It was not an idle promise. After Bhagavan passed away, Natanananda composed these verses and included them in a poem entitled Tiruvarut Selvam, which means The Wealth of Grace. There are 108 verses in total. These are the ones that deal with his direct experience of the Self and the role that Bhagavan played in revealing it to him.
48 On that day when I caught hold of your feet, saying, You are my refuge, you granted me freedom from fear by saying, Fear not.
49 I rid myself of burdens by surrendering my life to the guardianship of Sri Ramana. Responsibility for my life became his, and I attained salvation.
50 When I realised that no actions were my actions, and that all actions were actions of the Lord, I was freed from ego.
51 Only the thought of Siva-Ramana made my mind clear, dispelling completely the fear of birth and death.
54 By getting rid of oppressive attachments, I died. What is now animating the body is being-consciousness, that which abides as my Lord.
57 To me who had the conceit that I knew everything, my Lord, dispelling ignorance, gave the eye of jnana.
67 Consciousness, manifesting within and becoming my Guru, perpetually prevented me from identifying with sense perceptions.
68 Losing Self-awareness, I was chained in the body by the vile senses. I was liberated by consciousness that manifested in my Heart as the soul of my soul.
69 When I was surrounded by illusory darkness, remaining in a state in which I was unable to bloom, the sun of truth-grace made me blossom.
72 What excellent deeds did I, a dog, perform in the past that enabled me to come into contact with him who has no equal, and by doing so attain salvation?
73 Acting through ego-consciousness, the mind used to suffer by jumping out through the five senses, but now, through being-consciousness, it remains as sat [reality].
75 The body was formerly an abode for disease, the enjoyment of sense perceptions and the ego ghost. Now it has become the dwelling place of the Lord.
78 As desires ceased through the blessings of my Master, the mind, which was never previously satisfied, now attained fullness and completeness.
79 Having succeeded in getting the good fortune of practising devotion to the feet of the Lord in whom grace is abounding, the soul, which was merged in dark delusion, attained the Heart state.
80 To my eye of jnana, which has seen the truth, the Self appears everywhere. The illusory objects perceived by the senses, which I saw when I was deluded, no longer appear.
81 When the glittering sun appears, no stars are seen. Similarly, when my godliness arose, no thought appeared.
82 Jnana did not shine as long as the ego manifested. When the Self appeared, ego disappeared by itself.
85 By thinking without thought of the one [Bhagavan] who, like Arunachala, abides without movement, I sank into the Heart.
89 Appearing as the Guru outside and as consciousness within, he weeded out the illusory mind and revealed my real nature.
100 Becoming the Heart-space where my Lord dances, I remained permanently sunk in the ocean of bliss.
105 Your great and wonderful statement ? those who are caught in the net of the gracious glance of the sword-like eyes of the Guru will never escape ? has now become true.
106 By getting the rare-to-attain human birth, and the longing for supreme bliss and the difficult-to-find grace of the Guru, I arrived at true life.
In 1969 the French film-maker Louis Malle came to India and made a documentary about its ashrams. On his visit to Sri Ramansramam he talked to Sadhu Natanananda and filmed the exchange. Unfortunately, most of what Sadhu Natanananda said on that occasion was subsequently dubbed into French, so his original words cannot be discerned. Here is the clip from the film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch v=3sdkqQerIOg
If anyone connected with Louis Malle or the French film industry gets to read this, I would love to know if there is any surviving material from the Ramansramam visit that didn't make the cut. It might be interviews with other devotees, film of Ramansramam and its environment, or possibly an extended version of this Natananananda talk that has his original words.