Sages, Saints & Arunachala Ramana

Feroza Taleyarkhan

inward look

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To
My Lord Ramana of Arunachala and
Gracious Ma Ananda Mayi, this book
is dedicated  with love and devotion

Foreword

I have known Srimathi Feroza Taleyarkhan for many years and as far back as 1939 I had asked her to write her memoirs. Born in one well-to-do Parsee family and married into another, yet she has been from her childhood interested in the life of the spirit. She has been in contact with many persons of saintly disposition and for 32 years she served Shri Ramana Maharshi faithfully, She has converted his birth place into a temple and built guest houses.

I am glad she has now decided to write her memoirs and I am sure this will be of great interest. I Wish her well.

S.Radhakrishnan

"Girija"
30 Edward Elliot Road,
Mylapore, Madras-4,

Introduction

It is an unfortunate fact that we in India very greatly lack the historical sense, In fact, we had forgotten our own history, and the great figures of the past were mere faint names for us, when European scholars wicwthe great patience and: industry, recovered our past for usand made us proud of the great men and women cwwho had played there part in the evolution of our country in the parts of its national life. We eannot be sufficiently grateful to them for the work they have done for us.

Very few of us write diaries These diaries are really valuable documents and enable future generations not only to learn of individual lives but also about social life, economic conditions and the religious of the times in which those lived who have left there diaries behind, The art of biography is practically unknown to us and so we know little of our ancestors. The thought of writing an autobiography comes only to very few in the land and so when I come across the biography or autobiography of any person, I feel happy. This has so much to teach me.

I therefore, felt very happy when I learnt from Mrs.Feroza Taleyarkhan of Maharshi Ramanashram at Tiruvannamalai, (Tamil Nadu) that she was writing her autobiography, and I felt doubly happy later when she sent me her typescript, and asked me to write an Introduction to her book.

Readers will agree with me that it is a profoundly interesting piece of writing, Mrs.Taleyarkhan’s style is simple, and she has opened her heart and mind in a free and frank spirit for all to read, appreciate, understand and profit by. The book expresses the author's intense love for all, and her spirit of great devotion and dedication to her spiritual masters. In life she has always been ready to extend her affection and sympathy to individuals in physical or spiritual distress. Her book gives many examples of how she came to the succour of those who needed her care and attention.

Though I am sorry that I never had the privilege of meeting Ramana Maharshi of whom I had heard so much, I was glad to have had an opportunity of visiting his famous ashram at Tiruvannamalai when I happened to be Governor of Madras. I went there at the invitation of Mrs.Taleyarkhan who took me round the place, and told me a great deal of her Master from her own personal knowledge and experience.

She has put all her experiences very vividly in her biography. Apart from her great devotion to the Maharshi and the life at his ashram, she has also told us a good many things about herself. Born in an orthodox Parsi family, she tells us of her early life, her parents and relatives, the atmosphere that prevailed in the home, her education and a number of things that it is necessary to know to understand how the good Parsi people lived in the early years of the century.

Though born in a very wealthy family and having all the world’s goods at her disposal, it is clear from her writing that she had a spiritual bent of mind from the start. The family did not satisfy her and she had her difficulties and differences with her servants, husband and son. Her soul yearned for something very much more than what the home could give. Curiously enough, though belonging to the Zoroastrian faith, she tells us how she was attracted to the various founders and prophets of other faiths and was equally at home with Christian Saints, Muslim Pirs, Buddhist Bhikkhus and Hindu Sadhus. The two great spiritual figures that have most influenced her life and thought are Maharshi Ramana and Anandamayi Ma. She tells us a great deal about them in her book, and it is delightful to read all that she has to say about them. She too like others has had to face disappointments and frustrations at the hands of fellow humans who should have known better. But she has borne all with courage and fortitude, and always maintained her poise and equilibrium. Her great faith in God and her masters has helped her to face all obstacles and keep herself unruffled and unaffected.

She has always kept in touch with persons in all walks of life, high and humble alike, and she has met a large number of notable persons in the land. Her short sketches of them are most instructive, interesting and entertaining. On the whole the book makes delightful reading, and I do hope it will attract the attention of large numbers of persons who, I am sure, will greatly profit from all that she has to say about herself and her own experiences of life.

Sri Prakasa

Sevashrama
Sigra,
Varanasi-1,
22nd February, 1970.

Prologue

These pages contain my experiences in spiritual life. If even a few of the readers of this book take to the path of divine on the perusal of the contents herein, the friends who persuaded me or rather compelled me to write this book, will be more than rewarded.

I was most fortunate and privileged to have very intimate contact with such a teacher like the great Ramana Maharshi. Such a spiritual teacher is very difficult to find especially in this dark age. My memories of the long years spent in the presence of my Lord Ramana are so vivid that it is difficult for me to believe that they are real. It was a glorious Lila of His. What a wonderful grace of God He was to our country, in the present days of chaos, disaster and turmoil. Ramana was like a great Rishi of the ancient times. He was born for removal of human ignorance and putting an end to human misery. My Gracious Bhagavan’s most sunny and glorious smile and his sweet mellow voice used to calm our depressed souls and inspire us with a wonderful hope and feeling.

After Bhagavan’s Mahasamadhi I always felt that my time too was almost over. I have nothing left with me now, except the holy and the loving name of my Lord Ramana. It is my only consolation and a thing of interest to me in my life.

I have been impelled, my dear friends, to write this book, so that the readers may know about the life in the Ashram, the Sadhana and they may also come to know that the life is not a bed of roses.

My Lord Ramana was the true spiritual home, who brushed aside all the questions of discord and difficulties, by his single look, flooding the persons around with light and joy. Any words that His lips uttered kept one spell-bound and made one forget all ill effects of the useless and harmful talk one heard outside in the Ashram in His absence. Merely sitting in His presence was to get oneself spiritually uplifted.

Dear friends and readers will come to know how from time to time, different sages came to rescue me after my Lord Ramana left His body.

I am highly grateful to my very dear spiritual friends Dr.S.Radhakrishnan for writing a learned Foreword and Shri Sri Prakasa for writing an Introduction to this humble booklet of a modest Sadhaka like me.

I am most indebted to dear S.Kuppuswami. It was he who succeeded after 30 years of persuading me to write. He actually took it up after the great successful Kumbhabhishekam of Patala Linga temple on 3rd November, 1968. The work was started from 10th November, 1968; he worked hard, day and night, with such love and care, and had it not been for his zest, who knows if this book would have been out? Any amount of thanks is not enough for his loving work. Bless him.

I am also thankful to dear Rasna Dalal and Miss Villi Jamshedji for all their kindness and help.

I cannot conclude without my final thanks to Mr.C.M.Salis, Mr.R.Soundararajan and Mr.P.S.Ramaswamy of the staff of Orient Longmans without whose kindness and cooperation, I do not think I would have brought out this book. May God’s blessings be on them all.

It will be ingratitude on my part if I do not mention the most important person, Mr.M.Swaminathan of Amra Press, Madras, who has helped me in printing this book. With all his work, he has done me a great favour, and before I closed my eyes, he finished the book.

Ma.F.Taleyarkhan.

Prefatory Note

This book is just a personal narrative, drawing on my memories of a few sages and saints it was my privilege to meet. It has, if I may say so, no axes to grind. Autobiographies suffer from several disadvantages but principally from that of being regarded as exercises in self-projection prompted by inordinate vanity. Often enough they tend to present events and men from so subjective a standpoint that a great many of them may well be classed with fiction. I trust these few pages will not incur any of these charges. I have tried to tell an unvarnished tale and not to indulge in self-justification or in exaggerated self-projection.I have, however, let my feelings and enthusiasms show through for else, there would be no point in my putting pen to paper at all, I can also claim, most truthfully, that the idea of writing this book was not mine but Dr.Radhakrishnan’s. Those who have had the good fortune to count this truly great man as a friend will realise the difficulty of treating lightly, even out of modesty, a suggestion from a sincere seeker of the good in all human beings. I hope the story of my transformation from an affluent socialite of Bombay’s Parsi community into an earnest devotee of Bhagavan Ramana will help others to put away childish things and seek to know the Self.

Ma.F.Taleyarkhan

Glimpses into My Personal Life

SpirituaL Steps

Buddha Gaya

Home or Devotion

I Decide

Silken Bonds or Divine Love

Sacred Spots

Sri Chakra Puja and Veda Patasala

Ashram Buildings

Life in the Ashram

The Last Illness

After Mahasamadhi

Divine Mother Shri Ananda Mayi

Spiritual Personages

Spiritual Institutions

Political Leaders

Prominent Personalities

Friends

Artist Friends

Here and There

Epilogue

Appendix