Today, the 12th Feb. 2013 is Munagala Venkataramiah Day. He is known to all Sri Ramana devotees as the recorder of The Talks,
a book of gold as mentioned by Chadwick.
The Talks has been a source of perennial inspiration to generations of spiritual seekers all over the world for more than six
decades now. Its sweetness was first savored in 1936, when extracts from it were published under the little Maharshi's Gospel.
Its extraordinary drawing power and pull places each of us, you, me and everyone of us, in a deep debt of gratitude to the
'recordist' of the Talks. The great ones prefer to remain anonymous and wish to hide their identity behind a pseudonym, be it
'M' (Mahendranath Gupta) to whom we owe the classic Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna or Munagala Venkataramiah, who just called
himself 'Recorder'. But for Major Chadwick, the identity of the recordist might never have been known. It is a vast galaxy of
'chosen ones'. The Muni, Muruganar, Narasimha Swami, Paul Brunton, Munagala to mention a few. Sri Ramana used them as
the pure channels of His power, as communicators of His Teachings.
Destiny's ways are strange. While Venkataramiah's elder brother and three younger brothers went to Veda Patasala, he alone
received English education. Was he not o be cast in the role of interpreter and translator to Bhagavan? But having born in a family
steeped in Vedantic tradition, understanding of the various Advaitic works, which he studied later, was easy for him and was of great
use in his future assignment.
After a brilliant academic career, he worked for several years as a lecturer in Chemistry and later as a head of a government factory
at Madras. Life was proceeding on an even keel. Even so he felt an urge to read the scriptures. He mastered the ten principal
Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita under Sri Suri Babu Narayan of Bengal. The ground was being prepared. He was
getting qualified for the monumental work to come.
He had first darshan of Sri Ramana, in 1918, when Sri Bhagavan was at Skandasramam, and later in 1927, with his family. But it was only five years later, in 1932, that he was ready to surrender himself to the Sadguru. We have the parallel in the case of Ganapati
Muni who had met Sri Bhagavan round the turn of 20th century, but became His man, His devotee only in 1907. The time has to ripen.
Suddenly without notice, in 1932, his job was terminated. He had a daughter to be married and young sons to be educated. He was
left high and dry and penniless. Apparently fate had dealt its worst blow. In reality, however, it was the greatest good fortune which
caused the event.
(Source: A.R. Natarajan)
contd.,
Arunachala Siva.
