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Letters to Bhagavan
Aham Sphurana
A Glimpse of Self Realisation
New Book about Sri Ramana Maharshi
Available Worldwide
On www.openskypress.com and Amazon:
“In my opinion, Aham Sphurana, a Glimpse of Self Realisation, will become a Treasure Trove of Wisdom to the Seekers of Truth in general, and particularly to the devotees of Bhagavan.”
Swami Hamsananda – Athithi Ashram, Tiruvannamalai
Letters to Bhagavan
During the Master’s lifetime, the practise existed in the Ashram for devotees to send in letters asking for all manners and varieties of things. Most begged for Bhagavan’s blessings in their endeavours, and specifically would mention that the sheet carrying the reply be sanctified by his hallowed touch.
Many wrote wanting their prayers or wishes to be fulfilled. Others solicited clarification on doctrinal points. Yet other epistles carried doubts raised regarding practice. Sri Bhagavan was not in the habit of answering letters. An intelligent brahmin attached to the Ashram was in the habit of attending to the last two varieties of correspondence. Invariably most, letters written in European tongues would fall into his hands to be tackled appropriately. He would write and read out his replies to the Master.
When I was maintaining these diaries, I would write them down after a natural, syndicated fashion; thus in this manuscript, you behold amalgamated and mingled the content of these letters together with questions asked directly in the Hall. This need not be understood as causing any detriment in the authenticity of the content of these diaries. While it is true that the replies were drafted by another, the master listened to them with great keenness, and if he wanted any modifications, deletions, or additions to be made, he indicated so at once.
He did not mind delivering a rap on the knuckles to the man should Bhagavan in the slightest feel that there was any correction or other alteration required to be made. So, in substance, the answers given in the letters are also his words. Thus at the time of writing these diaries it never occurred to me to create a split on the basis of what would merely be a theoretical consideration exclusively. Now, whilst compiling this work, it occurs to me suddenly that certain readers might be anxious for such a bifurcation to be available from the text.
I have neither the resource nor the resourcefulness to re-type this manuscript ab initio; thus I have resorted to the following strategy: as to that part of this manuscript which falls on or before this date [of the diary-entry], a separate sheet has been attached specifying the identification-numbers of those pages and paragraphs which embody content that – to the best of my memory – represents the master’s ‘indirect words’, if one may so put it; and as to that part thereof which falls after, I am using an alternate type-basket of the font-variety Clarendon to mark out, as facilitated to be determined by an optimal capability of the faculty of my memory, distinctly such ‘indirect words’, whereas the rest of the matter is typed out as usual in the font-variety Frakturschrift.
Generally, a sizeable portion of long, lecture-like pronouncements herein are from the brahmin who was at the time in charge of the “doctrinal- and foreign-correspondence departments” of the Ashram. In truth, I am taking so much trouble to make this bifurcation discernible, only to satisfy a chance whim of any Ramana-devotee who might happen to have to be able to tell. Actually it is all thoroughly unnecessary, as far as my opinion goes; not a single letter could leave the Ashram without the master’s express imprimatur; and the master was not the sort to show neglect in any matter.
The brahmin was quite an educated fellow and had a brilliant insight into Bhagavan’s teachings, and frequently acted as his interpreter unto Caucasian visitors. Above all, he seems to have been personally selected by the master himself for the correspondence-management task in the doing of which he engaged himself; that ought to say the final word upon the matter.
BLUTKEIM’s Note: What you are reading is the content of text files – to be exact, .wsd files generated by WordStar, which had to be converted into text files so that they could be made intelligible to modern-day word processors. There is no font information available with me. No trace was found of the separate identification sheet mentioned above.
Edited by John David Oct 2021
40th Anniversary Event
Aham Sphurana
A Glimpse of Self Realisation
New Book about Sri Ramana Maharshi
Available Worldwide
On www.openskypress.com and Amazon:
“In my opinion, Aham Sphurana, a Glimpse of Self Realisation, will become a Treasure Trove of Wisdom to the Seekers of Truth in general, and particularly to the devotees of Bhagavan.”
Swami Hamsananda – Athithi Ashram, Tiruvannamalai
40th Anniversary Event
Late in the evening today, the sarvadhikari [manager] requested the master to formally oversee and approve of the preparations the Ashram has made, for the celebrations arranged for tomorrow. Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the day on which the master is said to have attained Eternal Union with Arunachala: 1st September, 1896.
Many devotees, Indians as well as Caucasians, have gathered together here now, and the place is overflowing with people. Many items required for the day have been procured from the town in a bullock-cart. The Hall has been decorated profusely with clusters of mango-leaves strung together with jute-yarn, and using wet-flour and red-dye decorative patterns have been drawn across the floor throughout the Ashram.
Amid all the hustle and bustle, Bhagavan’s thought is this: I observe him taking the sarvadhikari aside and telling him seriously,
‘Don’t forget to consider the monkeys, the cows, and the crows in planning tomorrow’s culinary arrangements; also, suitable additional quantity of vellachcheedais must be unfailingly prepared for the rats…’
The sarvadhikari merely nods meekly and says, ‘Yes, Bhagawan…’.
1st September 1936
The anniversary-event today went grandly. A shadow puppetry group from Madras, accompanied by a musical troupe, showed us all the different Avatars of Vishnu, which flitted by on a screen, which was a simple cotton vaetti [cloth]. The dark figures moved on the screen to the accoutrement of matching music from the instrument-players. The life of each Avatar went on for circa 10 minutes, the performance being given in the Hall itself.
The group had come on their own from Madras – nobody had invited them. The sarvadhikari was highly pleased. Bhagavan also seemed to like the show. Keeping time to the music, he went on tapping the ear-rings of the kumuti [metal stove] used to burn sambarani in the Hall. It was a great joy to watch his nimble fingers move back-and-fro, striking at the iron rings in perfect rhythm. He was being so sensitive in paying attention to the melody that according to the varying pitch of the music, different fingers were used to hit the rings.
Not once did those delicately beautiful fingers miss their mark; yet – all the while – he was looking exclusively at the vaetti, and never at his hands! The feat of concentration enthralled but did not surprise me; I am aware he is a proven sahasravadhani, which is not a fact that many people know about the master – and he, of course, would never call attention to himself; moreover: “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”
Chadwick: [ to SS Cohen] Mr . Prendergast exhausted half his film – roll yesterday on taking pictures of the anniversary celebrations. If he does not frank off the prints to the Ashram soon, the sarvadhikari will pounce on my throat and gobble me up alive, because he entrusted me with the responsibility of communicating to the fellow the rule at the Ashram that whatever photographs are taken here, one complete set of prints must be handed over. I told him once and reminded him twice, I think. Hope he does not let me down . . . [meanderingly] I have always been in support of their Saorstät cause, he ought to like me . . .
E.Z.: The Mees chap from Holland who visited early this year sent in his prints of Bhagawan promptly, I remember . . .
C.: Yes, he had a funny bellows – type machine of the olden – day variety, remember? I think it was a Tourist Multiple . . .
presently astonished the Hall by saying at this precise moment,
Oh! no; it was a Kodak Anastigmat. ”
All this while he had been fixedly staring into vacant space, and nobody would have guessed that he had been paying any attention to the usual trifling late – night chatter going on in the Hall! This is yet another instance which demonstrates that nothing and nobody escapes the attention of the master, although he might appear disconnected, aloof, or uninterested prima facie. .
Edited by John David Oct 2021
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Mixed Blogs
A Song by Leela
We are the ocean, love and devotion, let’s just surrender, always remember nobody ever was, life is but a dream.
J.Krishnamurti’s, Dissolution of the Order of the Star
Q.: I cannot so easily let go of everything as suggested by Bhagavan, because my family will raise objections if I try to renounce the world.
B.: There is no need to leave home. Discard the contents of the mind and thus throw the faculty of mind away. That is real renunciation. Physical renunciation will make you think, ‘I have renounced everything.’ Nothing could be more dangerous. Here we practise only mental renunciation.
A Dialogue with a Mature Visiter
Mind is only a notion. Have you ever investigated into what it actually is?
GL.: No… I seem to have taken its existence for granted so long.
B.: That is the mistake. The mind is accepted as being the Self. The Self is always – whereas the mind appears and disappears. Is there any mind in deep slumber? But your Self is always there. The mind, which has deluded itself into imagining that it is a mortal with a physical form living in an objectively real world as its perceiver, is beset with limitations.
On the other hand, pure Subjective Consciousness knows no limitation.
Illusion and the Body
Q.: Bhagavan asserts that ‘Awareness’ is the real nature of “I”. But what exactly is this awareness? Awareness of what?
B.: Do you exist or do you not?
Q.: Yes.
B.: How do you know?
Q.: I don’t understand what Bhagavan is trying to tell me.
B.: Do you need a mirror to be placed in front of your eyes in order so as to enable you to infer that you have eyes?
Devotion Opens the Heart
JD: Hello Bhakti, which is the Hindi word for devotion.
BHA: This is my treasure. In the first three minutes of silence, already I noticed I’m always just in thoughts.
So busy in the thoughts, and then I go more into myself and the tears came. If I hear you talking, then in just a short time I really can go into my heart. I appreciate this so much and I really recognise your energy, like a mystery.
An Open Heart Is Beautiful – be a Knower,a Jnani
We all know it’s beautiful when the heart opens and the tears flow, and the love is gushing out. What more could we want at that time? Because when we are in that type of love – which is devotion itself – there’s almost no mind. The mind just disappears in that love and in that devotion, but as one teacher said to me, “And in that place no one wants to enquire.”
The Aghori’s Death and Liberation
‘When coming into the presence of the Jnani, some sensitive minds might alacritously plunge into instantaneous introversion. Then, their vasanas would- suddenly- put up a great clamour for attention. Caught between the desire to remain in the newly-discovered blissful thought- free state and the urge to satisfy demands imposed by the vasanas, such persons might, for a time, exhibit abnormal behaviour. But soon God’s Grace would set everything aright, provided there is a sincere determination to escape from samsara…’
Love Is
Oh! Master of the Formidable Mountain! I was earlier like a filthy pig, consuming with eager relish the turds excreted by the sensory – organs. I came with a restless mind to impudently scrutinise your authenticity, but the moment your eyes fell on me, I became motionless like you, for you graciously annihilated my maleficent faculty of assertion – manufacture which arrogantly asseverated “I”, and immersed me in my own intrinsic inner state of Absolute Being, which in truth is only You.
I kiss the dust of your sacred feet everyday, for by drowning me once and for all in the unfathomable ocean of exultation which is verily You, you have devoured my traitorous mind forever.
The Simplicity of Being Here
Unfortunately we have been filled up in our education by all kinds of ideas. If we want to be really happy, then we have to be special, and if we do these special things, that will make us especially happy. So we aspire to having a big house or car or special clothes, because this is supposed to make us happy. This way of desire is actually the game of society, because societies are now-a-days based on this idea of desire.
But this game of desire simply doesn’t work, because it only can give you a feeling of satisfaction for a short moment.
My Job is to Destroy You
Then one day, this was the big change, I’ll never forget it, never to this day.
He sat up cross-legged on His bed and I was sitting on the floor in the hospital.
He drew a line and He said, “Look.” He said it like, “Look (gruffly), this is a line. On this side of the line is everything you’ve ever known, everything…
Schopenhauer and Renunciation
Q.: I have heard that Bhagawan once spoke highly of Schopenhauer.
B.: He has discovered that the world is an inherently and incorrigibly unhappy place; he has also discovered that man’s true purpose is happiness; furthermore, he states correctly that extirpation of one’s personal will leads to Emancipation. However, what seems to be missing is practical technique. How shall the wille-zum-leben, which is the cause for all suffering, be defeated and annihilated?
Limits of the Intellect
Of course I respect that everybody here has read the same books that I’ve read. We all read the same books so we all know what the books say but of course we don’t really ‘know’ from reading books.
Mrs. Piggot Introduces the Ashram And Bhagavan’s Meetings in 1934
I had visited India on several occasions prior to this trip, but this was
my maiden venture off the beaten track.
I was told of Sri Ramana Maharshi, and even from the little I heard, I knew I would travel anywhere and put up with any inconvenience in order to meet him and experience the sanctity of his presence. The friend who gave me the welcome news of the Maharshi’s existence offered to take me to him, and so we arrived at Tiruvannamalai late one afternoon.
Libelling Bhagavan
7th August, 1936
Early in the morning as usual the sarvadhikari [manager] arrives with wet dhoti [cotton wrap] and prostrates in front of Bhagavan whose eyes are closed. The meditating Aghori and myself are the only others in the Hall. Observing the master in a meditative inflection of comportment, I have, as always on such instances, closed my eyes. The sarvadhikari rises; he lingers for a fraction-of-a-second longer than usual. Then he moves toward the door.
Awakening to your Essence
The only true way to step out of all the stories and all the nonsense is to really see with great clarity that this ‘me’ that we are so fond of referring everything to, simply doesn’t exist. Once you see it doesn’t exist then the whole thing falls away. Everything just falls away and you’re left with what is.
Often there is a tremendous release of energy.