The Past is Past, Now, be here:

[Subramanian.R]

(An article by john Grimes, in Mountain Path, Apr. - June 2015)


There is no Jnani, only Jnana.  There is only the Self, the Heart, The One pristine Self. Be still.
Find out who you are.

     -Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.


Shortly after having moved back to Chennai,I paid a visit to Professor R.Balasubramanian, one of
my Vedanta professors at the University of Madras. He said, 'I can't seem to find someone to write
a volume on Sri Ramana Maharshi, for a series I am the General Editor of, The Builders of Indian
Philosophy Series.  Would you like to do it?  I would like the financial manuscript in nine months time.'

I Immediately said yes. Not only was I thinking about love and respect I have for Sri Ramana and
His teachings but, I felt something special would happen in the writing.  To be presented with the
opportunity to plunge deeply into Sri Ramana's teachings was too good to pass up.

contd.,

Arunachala Siva.           

[Subramanian.R]

All the books on this Series, have philosophical format.  The first chapter is a short history of the
philosopher's life.  The second chapter is an overview of what will follow.  Then come chapters on
epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, spiritual practices, jivan mukti, and an evaluation vis a vis the
philosopher being covered.

What an incredible time I had writing the book.  From Sri Ramana Maharshi's perspective, there
is no teacher, no taught, no birth, no death, no enlightened individual, no unenlightened individual,
no path to enlightenment, there is no knower, no known, and no means of knowledge.   Obviously
Sri Ramana was not a philosopher in the traditional sense of the word.

As Sri Ramana said, 'I was indeed fortunate that I never took to philosophy. Had I taken to it, I
would probably nowhere, but my inherent tendencies led to directly to inquire, 'Who am I?'
How fortunate!'  What is astonishing is Sri Ramana's teachings emerged spontaneously as the fruit of
his Great Awakening and only subsequently, almost by accident, did He learn of the ancient Upanishadic
and philosophical teachings. Even more astounding is that His words are almost, word for word, identical
with those found in the Scriptures.                     

contd.,

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

Every time I had a question in my mind as how to approach or deal with relating to Sri Ramana to
Advaitic philosophy, I would drive to the Asramam and, sit in Sri Ramana's shrine or on the slopes
of Arunachala, and contemplate.  I was given nine months with which to complete the book and
thus I was extremely focused during that time.

In the beginning I had the thought that Sri Ramana had called me to write the book.  After it was
completed, I understood that Sri Ramana did not need another book written about Him and that
it was really Arunachala that was calling me, not by book.

Since 1973, my sister, Farion, had made numerous trips to Sathya Sai Baba. She would fly into Bangalore,
taxi to Puttaparthi, and / or Whitefield, and then fly out of Bangalore back to California.  This visit
she asked me if I would take her to Tiruvannamalai.

After spending a few days in Puttaparthi, my sister and I drove together to Chennai. Along the drive
we had a rather deep discussion about the nature of Reality and whether Advaita presented an accurate
description of It.  There are most definitely any number of philosophical theories. All are true and all are false.
There are those who say, 'Take the one that most appeals to you.'

contd.,

Arunachala Siva.         

[Subramanian.R]

Theories are but ways of putting words together.  Theories are neither right nor wrong. They are
attempts to explain the inexplicable. The theory does not matter half so much as the way it is being tested,
put into practice.  Sincerity, earnestness, and full of concentration are what counts, not the theory itself.

After a few days in Chennai, we drove to Tiruvannmalai.  For the first two hours of the drive,our discussions       
continued.  Back and forth our presuppositions flew, often wrestling like two mad monsters!

At once moment, about five or so kilometers from Arunachala, we simultaneously looked up and, there it was,
Arunachala, looming auspiciously through the front windshield, towering right in front of us.  It was my
sister's first darshan of Arunachala.  I had previously seen it on numerous occasions,seen it exclusively
as a mountain.

contd.,

Arunachala Siva.     

[Subramanian.R]

We both went dead silent.  The silence hung thick in the air for a few minutes.  Then,  I said to my sister,
'Do you feel that?'  She replied, 'Yes.'  I asked, 'What does it feel like to you?'  She said, 'There is a
force field all around me.  The silence is overpowering.'  I said, 'There is a force field all around me.
The silence is overpowering.'  I said, 'I feel something like liquid plastic permeating the air and there is
energy pulsing through it.  It is like a liquid, tangible Consciousness.'  I really cannot come up with a
physical example that accurately depicts this force field.

We drove to the Sri Ramanasramam.  The force field was still palpably felt.  It was so strong and so tangible
that it was easily felt wherever we went.  It was as though we had entered into the aura of Arunachala
and the experience continued.  The incredible thunderous silence continued.

We went into Sri Ramana's shrine and it was there.  It was there in the Mother's temple. It was there
in the accommodation office.  Then we walked up the Caves where Sri Ramana had spent twenty three
years.  We entered the Virupaksha Cave and it was there.  We entered Skandasramam and it was there.
The force field and silence ever present, a physical Presence.

contd.,

Arunachala Siva.           

[Subramanian.R]

Interestingly, while in Skandasramam, my sister remarked that the energy in the Cave began vibrating
in a horizontal manner.  In the Cave I remarked that the energy seemed to start vibrating in a vertical
manner. In Virupaksha Cave, our experiences reversed with my sister feeling the energy vibrating vertically,
with blue light, and myself horizontally. Except in these two instances, the force field vibrated in all directions,
simultaneously. 

We remained in this force field for two days.  As we drove away from Arunachala and back to Chennai,
the force field gradually dissipated.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana sang a song about Arunachala in his Eight Stanzas to Sri Arunachala, verse 1:

Look, oh, great wonder!  There it stands as of insentient.  Mysterious is the way it works, beyond all
human understanding. From my unthinking childhood the immensity of Arunachala had shone in my
awareness, but even when I learned from someone that it was only Tiruvannamalai, I did not realize
its meaning. When it stilled my mind and drew me to itself, and I came near, I saw that it was the
Immovable, stillness absolute.

contd.,

Arunachala Siva.             

[Subramanian.R]

For some thirty five years I had been visiting Tiruvannamalai solely for Sri Ramana and Sri Ramanasramam.
I came to sit in Sri Ramana's shrine and to absorb Sri Ramana's teachings.  I paid little attention to the Hill.
It is true that I had performed many a pradakshina around Arunachala.  However, I did this, because
Sri Ramana highly recommended people to do it.

By luring me, again and again, as I worked on the Sri Ramana book, and by the good fortune of having a sister
whose presence was required, I eventually had Arunachala's darshan.  As Sri Ramana sang,

The mountain is mysterious and mysterious in the way it works.  It is not just an insentient pile of earth and
rocks. It is Lord  Siva, the One Self, standing there in all its glory for those who are given eyes to see.

At times seekers ask the question: 'How does the Sage give instruction?  Is it from the state of ignorance?
If this were so, the mind would not have been dissolved, the three fold differentiation of the knower,
knowledge, and the known could not have been merged. So what would the Sage be able to give you?
Where could He lead you?  But there is a stage where this question does not arise.  Is it the body that is
the obstacle to the Supreme Knowledge?  Is there even question of whether the body exists or not?
At a certain level this question is simply not there. On the plane where this question arises, one is not in the
state of pure Being, and one thinks this question can be raised and also replied to.  But the answer lies where
there is no such thing as questioning and answering, where there are no 'others', no divisions - only
the Self, Sri Ramana, Arunachala.

concluded.

Arunachala Siva.