SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

Sri RamanaMaharshi (1879-1950) is a great spiritual teacher. He realized the Self in his seventeenth year. Self-Realization happened to him naturally on its own unaided by external instructions or guidance. A near-death experience took place in him one day and a profound transformation took place in him. He is completely and irreversibly transformed and became a Realized Self and has been so for life.Sri RamanaMaharshi is born at Tirutcchali, near Madurai and studied up to IX class at Madurai during which time he had the near-death experience.He left home shortly after that and reached Arunaachala – Tiruvannaamalai  (in Tamilnadu) his favorite and most dear place and lived there till his death.

“Brahma vit Brahma evabhavathi”, meaning, “The Knower of Brahman (Self) becomes the Brahman (Self)” is a famous expression. Sri RamanaMaharshi is a standing example for this statement.  Brahman is He. He is Brahman. He is Atmaaraamam and Raamabrahmam.  He is unoccupied, peaceful, blissful continuous awareness.

The Self Realized Seers:(i) have compassion for all beings-sentient and insentient, (ii) possess lot of patience, (iii) do not have jealously, (iv) are clean physically and mentally, (v) do not strain body and mind and are always relaxed, (vi) are always auspicious in thought, word and deed and always act selflessly for the welfare of others, (vii) do not have miserliness and are full of charitable disposition and (viii) are always dispassionate in Unoccupied Awareness ( nispruhasyatrunamjagat – to the dispassionate the internal mental world and external world are insignificant and valueless like grass). All these are the natural qualities of the Brahmajnaanior Aatmajnaani(The Self-Realized Seer.) Sri RamanaMaharshi has been a personification of all these auspicious traits. They dwelled and shined in him.

“Vairaagyamevaabhayam – Dispassion cultivates fearlessness” has been his life, life-style, essence of life and life-message.

 

“Iswaroguruhuaatmaitimoorthibhedavibhaaginevyomavat (sky)vyaapyadesaaya (space) (dehaaya – body or form) Sri Dakshnaamoorthayenamaha – is a profound and meaningful saying about Spiritual Teacher.

Meaning: 

The Spiritual Teacher,as our favorite deity like Siva, Vishnu, …., our chosen teacher in human form living or existed prior to our birthlike many seers and saints of all faiths, and finally we ourselves in the form of our intuition, guides us in spiritual path and to such Teacher I salute, who is the personification of Sri Dakshinaamurthi(Lord Siva as Spiritual Teacher according toSaivaite tradition. Lord Vishnu as Hayagrivais Spiritual Teacher according toVaishnavaite tradition). This teacher is spread as Awareness throughout our body, our mind and the external world as sky (aakaasa) is spread as space throughout the Universe.

Sri RamanaMaharshi is an apt description of this significant utterance. Thus Sri RamanaMaharshi is Sri Dakshnaamurthi Himself. In Tamilnaadu there lived 63 naayanamaars – great Siva devotees, philosophers, spiritual personalities. 

Sri TirugnaanaSambadhar is one among them. TirugnnaanaSambandhar has the Vision of Lord Siva and Parvathi as an infant, when he was crying with hunger and the Divine Couple appeared and served him with milk. TirugnaanaSambandhar has son-father-love for Lord Siva and his padikams (ten line spiritual expositions) reflect this, starting from the firstpadikam. Many assume that Sri RamanaMaharshi is a reincarnation of TirugnaanaSambandhar for the similarity of their son-father-love for Lord Siva. As VenkataRaaman (as Sri RamanaMaharshiis called in his boy-hood days) he considered Lord Siva as his father and is devoted to the Lord in that relationship. He was used to prostrate and stand before Lord Sundareswara (presiding deity of Madurai MeenakshiSundareswarar Temple) with tears in eyes and pray to the Lord, of course in silence after the near-death experience. He lost all interest in worldly things and affairs and was completely lost in the meditation. 

When he reached Arunaachala immediately after and visited the Grand Siva Temple there for the first time, he said “I have come, Father!” standing before Lord Arunaachaleswara – the presiding deity of Arunachala. Even though he lived in Arunaachalafor the rest of his life he reentered the Temple premises once or twice only for other reasons of participating in some functions that too incognito, but seemed to retain his son-father feeling for the Lord. KaavyakanthaSri VaasishistaGanapathi Muni, a great scholar, his elderly contemporary and disciple, whom Sri Maharshi used to address as “naayana” (meaning in Telugu as father or endearing address of elders to youngsters), who named Brahmana Swami ( as is RamanaMaharshi is known and called in Tiruvannaamalai till is named as RamanaMaharshi) as Sri RamanaMaharshi, declared that Sri RamanaMaharshi is an Avatar (incarnation) of Lord Skanda (Lord Subrahmanya, the younger son of Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathi).

Sri RamanaMaharshi has attained Self-Realization and possessed the mind of a Seer as described in Ribhu Gita (a spiritual book on self-realization). As described earlier he attained self-realization without his knowing, concern, will or effort. Lord Siva presided over that aspect as mother cat takes care of the kittens on its own, very affectionately and concerned (maarjaalakisoranyaaya). This incident is the Lila (Divine Sport) of Lord Siva which transformed VenkataRaaman into RamanaMaharshi. This act of the Lord gave us RamanaMaharshi and we are all blessed by this benevolent action of the Lord. Sri RamanaMaharshi is Lord Siva Himself in spirituality.

DaharaaVidya is an Upanishadicmeditation technique. During this meditative process we question ourselves “who am I?” and try to know and merge our apparent identity - with our body, mental traits and all related things from this “I”, “me”, “mine” – collectively our self-consciousness and its relation to external world and persons (called technically ‘false I’), with the Unoccupied Awareness (Real I or Pure Consciousness) which sources and generates our self-consciousness and the “false or unreal I”.

While questioning like this and meditating we will be rid of false identity and transcend our “I”, “me”, “mine” and shine as our Real I. According to UpanishadicMahaVaakya (profound sentence) “Aham Brahma Asmi” we are all aware that this Real I is – the Brahman or Atman - our True Self. This Real I is Sat-Chit-Aananda (Being-Pure Consciousness-Bliss – Asti-Bhaati-Priyam, Nitya-Suddha-Buddha-Muktam- all meaning the same) the Brahman or Atman. We will become aware of this truth and get illumined. We then are effulgent source of mind, the pure consciousness, the Real I and get identified with it. Peace-Bliss-Silence fill our mind.

Sri RamanaMaharshi’s teaching is almost similar and refinement of this Upanishadic meditation technique: 

He asks us to: 

(i)                 Find out wherefrom this ‘I’ springs forth and merge at its source; that istapas (meditation):

(ii)               Find out wherefrom the sound of the mantra in japarises up and merge there; that is tapas (meditation).

Sri RamanaMaharshi though is a Jnaani and professed the path of knowledge (jnaana yoga) is also a yogi of karma (action). Like Sri AadiSankaraachaarya, he too took care of his mother and served her. He used to cut the vegetables in the Ashram Kitchen getting up at 4 A. M. On one occasion he took a cane, polished it and gave to the shepherd boy for his use – as an example of nishkaama karma (dispassionate action). 

Sri RamanaMaharshidemonstrated through his living and actions that a Jnaani is never dissociated from the society. He is part and parcel of society. He used to say that a Realized Self silently guides the society. He informs by his engaging in karmas (actions}, that it is a vain feeling that Jnaanis need not do any karmas(undertake actions). He thus dismisses and dissolves the illusions and arrogance of many “Jnaani’s” that they are a cut above ordinary people and through their renunciation of karmas they are superior. Sri RamanaMaharsgi has also composed hymns in praise of Arunaachala Siva and Dakshinaamurty. He has great compassion and showered it on the animals too that lived in the Ashram. The love and affection shown on Lakshmi, the Ashram cow is one example for this.

Sri RamanaMaharshi informs us through his life that we must all be in samsaara and simultaneously make efforts to realize the self. [The actual meaning of samsaara is – sukha-dukha-anubhavam- experience of happiness and unhappiness- and not merely family life and its associated joys and sorrows – and sanyaasis (monks) too can have samsaara (happiness and unhappiness) which we are observing in the case of many genuine and fake swamis of today]. 

He said that each life takes its own course and one cannot and must not compare one life with the other and that he renounced the world does and need not mean that every spiritual aspirant must do so. He used the technical word praarabdham – pra+aarabdham (which is started) to describe the difference. Each one of us will have a different praarabdham and hence different kinds of lives and living. All UpanishadicSeers are householders. Some have two wives too (Yagnavalkya). 

Brahmacharyam means – moving or residing in the (or as) Brahman- and not abstaining from sex or practicing celibacy as is generally believed. This aspect is many times stressed by Sri RamanaMaharshi.

Sri RamanaMaharshi believed in and used to say that the practice of spirituality, and living as a house-holder must go on hand in hand in parallel. There is no spiritual life devoid of or dissociated or different from normal family life. Both exist as one, like milk and water; sweetness and honey. Spirituality does not exist separately and alone from family life. Family life must be made spiritual. But many present fake swamis are making spiritual life as family life and still are professing us to shed family life and associated worldly activities and longings is a different matter.

Thus Sri RamanaMaharshi has lived the life of True Jnaani and left a lot of literature also for our study and use. Persons interested in knowing more about Sri RamanaMaharshi can read the book in English entitled “RamanaMaharshi” by Arthur Osborne (Jaico Publishing Co.) or many other books both in English and regional languages published by Sri Ramana Ashram Publishers, Tiruvannamalai, Tamilnaadu.