72nd Maha Nirvana Day

om namo bhagavate śrī ramaṇāya

Dear brothers and sisters in Sri Bhagavan.

A very good morning to all our friends in the continent of Asia, and az very good evening to all our fellow satsangis elsewhere. What a wonderful function we are having so far. My humble thanks to all the participants, especially the children, who have taken so much time out of their lives to present such a tribute to the living presence of the Master, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Special thanks as always to Arunachala Ashrama for conducting this on a global scale; especially to Mohan Ramaswami, it's president for his untiring work.

Friends, the 72^nd

The event, telecast on youtube, was witnessed by over 10000 devotees, which was twice the number those who were here, live. Firends, though Aradhana is meant to be a day when Bhagavan shed his mortal coil, Bhagavan never associated himself with the body, after his first death experience at the age of 16. While recalling his death experience, as recorded in 'Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, Bhagavan says, "In the vision of death, though all the senses were benumbed, the aham-sphurana (self-awareness) was clearly evident; and so, I realized it was the awareness that we call 'I', not the body. The self-awareness never decays. It is unrelated to anything. It is self-luminesce. Even if this body is burned, it will not be affected in any way; Hence I realized on that very day so clearly, it was the 'I'. In Letters from Sri Ramanasrama, the authoress, Suri Nagamma contiues, "People like us are afraid of death. Why? Because the belief that we are the bosy is not gone yet. To those who know the real truth about the Self, the bosy itslef is a burden. So long as the twoi are together, some effort is inevitable for eating and sleeping. Even that is a disturbance to the bliss enjoyed by Jnanis, just as clothes appear to be a burden in mid-summer, especially in Tiruvannamalai. Under such circumstances, any efforts at serving such people will be like asking them to put on a three-piece suit in Tiruvannamalai, when they are anxious to remove even the existing clothing on account of the distress caused by contiuous perspiration."

Thus from the point of view of an ordinary person, or we can label them as ajnani, the view that "I am the body" is real and the fact that I am the immortal Self is just an illusion. From the viewpoint of the Jnani, having a nature that is absolutely perfect, that is the actual truth. While the thoughts that I am the body or the mind is acutally an illusion. If we start from the relative truth level, we engage in practices such as chanting, going on pilgrimage, meditation etc, so that we get closer and recognize the Self directly. However the primary prerequisite is a true guru - a Sat-guru. Adishankara whose Jayanti we celebrated recently, says in 'Sarva Vedanta Sara Siddhanta Sangraha', that one may have several teachers on the spiritual path.All of them a re to be considered with respect but the true Guru is the one who opends one's eyes to Jnana. He should be able to arouse in you the feelings of confidence and devotion so that you can willingly go before Him and in a child-like fashion, receive his teaching with 100% reverence and acceptance. You must be able to see with conviction, "He is the Guru for me, the One I've been searching for all my life".

Friends!, Bhagavan held the "I am not the body" ideal even for animals. I would like to illustrate the story which happened in 1908. This is a quote, from "The death of a Monkey". In 1908, Sri Bhagavan was staying in Pachai-amman temple, there were many tamarind trees in the surrounding area. The municipality gave the right to collect the tamarind to the highest bidder and during the period of Bhagavan's residence, the rights belonged to a local muslim. In order to protect his interest, this gentleman had to guard the trees from the monkeys and he used to drive them away by firing stones at them, with a sling taking care not to hurt them. Unfortunately, one such stone hit the monkey on its head and it died on the spot. He[?] dressed up the monkey, gathered the dead body, and screeching with both anger and sorrow they took the body to Sri Bhagavan. Their screeches grew louder in Sri Bhagavan's presence and their sorrow caused tears to trickle down sSri Bhagavan's face. Bhagavan's presence finally calmed the monkeys down and then they were quiet. He turned to them and gave a gentle upadesa, "For everyone that is born, death is inevitable. He who at who's hands this monkey died will certainly meet death one day. So, there is no need to grieve." The monkeys seemed pacified by these words, and they went away carrying the corpse with them. Two or three days later, the contractor became seriously ill, and since he had heard what Sri Bhagavan had said to the monkeys, he interpreted the words to mean that Bhagavan had put a curse on him. He told his family about the incident and since he was unable to travel himself, they went to the temple to beg Bhagavan's forgiveness and to remove the the curse cast on him - the imaginary curse. One of them said, "It is certain that your curse has hit him, so we beg you to be gracious enough to save him from death. Please give siome vibhuti (sacred ash) so we can apply it on his head and then he certainly will recover. Sri Bhagavan smiled at them and said "You are all mistaken. I never curse or bless anyone. I pacified the monkeys by telling them the simple truth that death, inevitably, occurs to all those who are born. Moreover I never give vibhuti to anyone. Please go home and nurse the patient whom you have left all alone now." The family however was not convinced and refused to move unless Bhagavan gave them some vibhuti. Finally, Bhagavan took some ashes from a nearby fire and presented them to the family. The family was overjoyed, they rushed home to apply the ash to the ailing relative. Needless to say the ailing contractor was back on his feet within a few days. Bhagavan says "If a man considers that he is born, he can not avoid the fear of death. Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. He will discover that the Self always exists; that the body that is born resolves itself into thought and the emrgence of that thought is the root of all mischief. Find wherefrom thoughts emerge, then you will be able to abide in the ever-present innermost self and be free from the idea of birth and, more importantly, the fear of death.

Friends, everything with an origin has an extinction. Every thought, feeling, sensation, memory arises and inevitably passes away. If we recognize them as mere reflections on the infinite mind, they leave no trace behind. The problem is our identificstion with such phenomena. And that is what sinks us into the ever-deepening minefield of samsara. The Self can be reached only by dying. Friends, this dying is not the destruction of the body, true death is the extinction of the ideas of 'I' and 'mine', 'I am the body'. I will illustrate, a few incidents from Sri Bhagavan. Mr.S.Iyer was an old devotee and a teacher in the local school. Once, forced by circumstances, to get employment outside of Tiruvannamalai, he became very dejected at the prospect of physically parting with Sri Bhagavan, whom he used to visit daily. He informed Bhagavan of this sad effect, The Master, seeing his woebegone look, turned to the devotees and laughingly said "Look at this swami, He claims to be my disciple of thirty years standing. No he feels desolate for he's going to a place where Bhagavan is not!" This had an electrifying effect on his mood and needless to say S.Iyer was able to relocate to a new location where Bhagavan is always present.

Next, news of someone's death was reported to Sri Bhagavan. He said, "Good!", then he continued, "the dead are indeed happy. They have gotten rid of the troublesome overgroowth of the body. The dead iman does not grieve. The survivors grieve for the man who is dead. Do men fear sleep? On the contrary, sleep is courted. and the man says that he slept happily. One prepares for sound sleep. If the man died while yet alive, he need not grieve over others' death. Once existence is evident with or without one's body in wakefulness, dream and sleep, then why should one desire continuance of this shackle that is this body? Let the man find out his undying self, die, and be immortal and happy."

Friends, Bhagavan demonstrated that he was different from his body, by his utter disregard and supreme inifference to [?]. His devotees often identified Sri Bhagavan with his physical frame. Sri Bhagavan always discouraged the devotion to his body. Bhagavan explained on many occasions, that sincere enquiry about the 'I-I' leads one away from the body consciousness and towards the atman, which is the source of everything. His indifference to the most painful form of cancer, sarcoma [bone cancer], on his arm, was the ultimate lesson to his devotees that he was not [?] the physical body. For several months in spite of the cwtremendousseverest pain, he was always cheerful and continued his daily activities. [?]. When devotees asked how he could ignore the tremendous pain. he brought their attention to a sloka in Yoga Vaśiṣṭha. "When a person realizes that he is not the body, he will not be conscious of the pain even if his body is cut to pieces. He is ever-happy and sweet as sugar-candy, which does not lose its sweetness even if cut into bits or powdered."

Moving to the present, 2022, it amazes me to the devotees who inspire us every day in the ashrama. The devotees visiting the ashrama have never seen Bhagavan physically, they have never heard his voice, or listened to his upadesa in person. But one finds them in deep meditation in the old hall, and when it is full, in the samadhi hall; even in the gardens in the ashrama. They are oblvivious to their surroundings, often one see them shedding tears of joy, and they seem to go around the shrine in constant ecstacy. What gives such exhillarating spiritual experiences to these ever-growing new visitors of Bhagavan, even in his physical absence ? As Bhagavan always said, "Is this body Bhagavan?" When somebody expressed sadness at having to go back home for the ashrama, Bhagavan said "What am I to do? You say this body is Bhagavan. I say that it is not! Now if you insist, what am I to do?" To others he would say, "Look! He says he is going to a place where I am not! Friends, the new devotees of Bhagavan, like the old devotees, are proof of his living legacy. It is Bhagavan's wonderful shakti that continues to draw people and keeps many sincere devotees at the foot of the Holy Hill. In fact, Sri Bhagavan's power and influence has continued to grow stronger since his Mahasamadhi. Muruganar once said, "Bhagavan's real power will be seen not now but only a few hundred year after his physical body is no more, but we will not be around to see those days."