The Genesis^[1] of
Vasiṣṭha Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni's
śrī ramaṇa catvarīmśat

The author, one of the oldest living devotees of Sri Bhagavan, has given us a first person account of his association with Sri Bhagavan and the Ashram in the Aradhana 1998 issue of 'The Mountain Path'. He has been a regular inmate of the Ashram for long years.

The contact between Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi and his famous chela, seer-poet Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni on 18.11.1907 was historic. It has been described in detail by B.V.Narasimhaswami and other writers. On that memorable afternoon of 18th November, in the Virupaksha Cave, Kavyakantha wrote five verses in Sanskrit lauding Maharshi, proclaiming him Ramana and gave the paper containing the verses to the attendant Palaniswamy. As bad luck would have it, these verses have been lost to posterity for ever.

The Muni had the conviction from his earliest years that he was a partial incarnation of Lord Ganesa and so he could easily spot out his younger brother Lord Subrahmanya, whatever might be the disguise in which he might appear! An event of great significance took place at Pachaiamman temple at the foot of the hill during Maharshi's stay there along with Muni and other disciples for about three months from January to March 1908.

One early morning Muni and other disciples were all sitting before Maharshi, who was as usual indrawn. The Muni saw a sparkling light come down from the skies and touch the forehead of Maharshi six times. Immediately the Muni had the realization that Maharshi was none other than an incarnation of Lord Subrahmanya^[2]. The seer poet Ganapati Muni gave expression to this realization through the famous eight verses (Ramana Ashtakam) beginning with the words Yanayatra.

This was the first composition of Muni on Bhagavan after the five verses written in Virupaksha Cave on 18.11.1907 which were lost.

Later when Bhagavan was staying on the hill the Muni composed the ten verses beginning with the words Kathaya nijaya with a concluding verse for these ten as follows:

Ganapathy, son of Narasimha born in Vasiṣṭha Kula, praised the glory of his Master in ten verses in Thotaka Metre.

Again when Maharshi had his abode at Skandasramam, Muni compiled twentyone verses on the glory of Maharshi in two chapters. The first chapter covered the ten verses beginning with the words Kathaya. He added three more verses on Bhagavan to the eight verses already composed at Pachaiamman temple. He put these eleven verses in the 2nd chapter and completed the twentyone verses. He composed an upasamhara sloka (concluding verse) as follows:

Ganapati, the son of Narasimha and of the lineage of Vasiṣṭha, has thus adored Sri Ramana Guru, who is Skanda, in twenty-one verses.

Besides this Nayana (Bhagavan Maharshi used to call Ganapathy Muni endearingly as Nayana) composed three verses on Bhagavan on different dates when he was living at Skandashram. He composed one verse on Bhagavan on his 44th Jayanti day 3.1.1923, which was the first Jayanti celebrated at the present ashram. So there were twentyfive verses in all on Bhagavan when Nayana left for Sirsi in North Canara District (present Karnataka State) in March 1929.

From there he was writing weekly letters to Bhagavan in Sanskrit from 10th March 1931 for some months. Along with some of these letters he used to write one or more verses in praise of Bhagavan. He intended to compose in this manner a hundred verses on the glory of Bhagavan Maharshi in different metres consisting of ten dasakams (decads) that is, ten verses for each chapter.

Nayana, however, did not compose the intended ten decads in continuous fashion. He was capable of composing one or more verses in a particular metre at one time and in different metres at other times. Finally he used to edit these verses as per his plan. But to our misfortune he did not complete composing the ten decads as planned. He composed only fifteen verses from North Canara. Thus we get forty verses on the glory of Bhagavan, inclusive of the twentyfive verses he composed before he left for Sirsi in March 1929.

When Bhagavan came to know that Nayana intended to compose a hundred verses on him in ten chapters (ten verses per chapter) in different metres, he prepared a note book for writing down these verses. As soon as he got the verse or verses along with some letters, he used to note down immediately the verse or verses in the note book under the particular chapter as per Nayana's plan.

After the demise of Nayana on 25.7.1936 Bhagavan edited these forty verses for the 1st edition published in 1936.

It may be seen from the manuscript (pp.220-226 of this issue) that Bhagavan has noted on the left the number given by Nayana according to the chapter. On the right side Bhagavan has noted the number of the verse he allotted for his edited version. We see the rearrangement as explained below.

As the 1st decad was complete he retained it as it was (1 to 10). After that he put the 61st verse of the 7th decad as 11 and the 81st verse of the 9th decad as 12. He marked the 10 verses of the 2nd decad as 13 to 22. The 10 verses of the 5th decad were renumbered as 23 to 32. The first verse of the 6th decad was numbered as 33. Verses 34 to 36 were taken from 3rd decad. The 37th verse was the one composed on the Jayanti day, 3.1.1923. The only verse of the 8th decad was numbered as 38. The 2 verses of the 4th decad found a place as the last 2 verses i.e. 39 and 40.

Then Bhagavan also altered the concluding verse (2nd line) of the Ramana Ekavimsati suitably to suit the new arrangement as follows:

Ganapati, the son of Narasimha Sastry of the lineage of Vasiṣṭha, has thus adored Sri Ramana Guru who is Skanda, in forty verses.

Thus the 1st edition Forty verses in praise of Maharshi was published in 1936.

Another verse commencing with the words Vande Sri Ramana Risheh was added in the 2nd edition as an invocation:

I bow to the Lotus Feet of Sage Sri Ramana, the great Teacher, who showed me the effulgent Lord, transcending the darkness (of nescience).

It is explained below how it happened. Once Bhagavan engaged himself in collecting Sanskrit verses in praise of him by different devotees. I happened to be present at that time in the old Hall. I just mentioned to Bhagavan that Nayana had composed the verse quoted above.

Then Bhagavan asked me, 'Where did you get the verse and when it was composed by Nayana' etc. I replied that at the request of Sri Kapali Sastry and Sri S. Doraiswamy Iyer, in order to translate in Sanskrit the Mother written in English by Sri Aurobindo, Nayana heard the gist of that work from them and started the translation on 18.5.1928 under the title Matru Vyuha Chatushkam during his visit to the Aurobindo Asram. The verse under reference was an invocation for the proposed work. But he did not complete that work. Then Maharshi desired to see the note book containing the verse. The note book in Nayana's own handwriting was shown to Bhagavan the next day. Bhagavan at once copied this verse and said that this verse may be added to the Chatvarimsat in the beginning as an invocation in the 2nd edition, as the 1st edition was already published in 1936. Subsequent editions contain this verse.