Swami Ramanagiri
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Born into a princely family (he was related to the King of Sweden) in 1921, Swami Ramanagiri was an only child. Coming across the book Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda he was able to at once, grasp and practice the truths contained in it. He waited for a suitable opportunity to come to India. As soon as the war ended, in 1949, he came and studied philosophy in Benares Hindu University. It was not long before he realised that the Ultimate Reality lay not in study but in practice. He gave up his studies, renounced property worth more than eight million and took sannyasa.
His diksha Guru (the saint who initiated him into sannyasa at Benares) stipulated that he should not ask anything for himself, but accept only what was offered to him. On the day following his diksha he passed by a friend’s house. The friend failed to recognize him because of his clean shaven head. On seeing the sannyasi he shouted to his wife, who was inside the house, “A mendicant is going. Give him the rotting bananas.” That was his first bhiksha. The very next day he was passing before the palace of the Raja of Benares. A durwan accosted him and asked him to step inside. Swamiji asked him, “Why?” The durwan replied that it was the practice of the King to offer oblation and food daily to the first sannyasi seen before the palace gate. So he was taken in, accorded a royal reception and given a kingly repast by the pious King himself When he narrated both the incidents to the Guru, he was told that both should be treated with equal in difference as food is only for sustenance. The command given by his diksha Guru not to ask for anything for himself he carried out till the end of his life. Similarly he never touched money.
Thereafter he practised intense sadhana visiting India’s Holy Shrines. In a pilgrimage to South India he visited Arunachala and was at once drawn to the ‘great magnet’, Bhagavan Ramana. Thus by the grace of Bhagavan and following the path of ‘Atma Vichara’ laid out by his Sat Guru he attained realization within 40 days. “On that day I became a fool”, was his favourite way of describing the event! Afterwards he would refer to himself as ‘this fool’ instead of ‘I’.
The faith he had in Bhagavan was total and his surrender utterly complete. He often said that even the breath he breathed was ordained by Him. After Bhagavan’s Mahanirvana, Bhagavan directed him, in a vision, to stay in the Sirumalai Hills, 20 miles away from Madurai. He spent most of his time there absorbed in bliss with little consciousness of his bodily needs.
In fact, he treated the body and the world around him with utter indifference. When he was in Perundurai Sanatorium (where he was taken for treatment) his body was found lean and, emaciated which filled his devotees with grief. Reading one of their minds he at once said: “It is the body which suffers. I am alright. Shakti is now stronger than ever before, and it is here” — he indicated the space between the eyebrows. It was the beginning of summer at the time, and mangoes were just making their appearance. A devotee had taken a few fruits and offered them. He ate one and said “I eat nice mangoes now and it becomes rubbish next morning.”
On another occasion a basket full of apples were sent or given to him by devotees. Swami did not eat any. When he was asked the reason, he said, that apples did not agree with him. It was suggested that he could ask for tomatoes and other fruits that would agree with his system. He replied that a sannyasi cannot ask, but accepts only what is offered.
He did not preach or have many disciples. He said no such mission was given to him by Bhagavan. However the few disciples he had he knew inside out. There was nothing they could hide from him. One day a devotee brought a Nandi for pooja. While buying the image it crossed his mind that it would be nice if Swami took the one he bought and gave him his own. When he finally showed the Nandi to Swami he immediately said; “I will keep this; you can take this one which is with me. “The devotee told him about his thought, but Swami simply laughed.
During a conversation this same devotee said ; “Swamiji there are ever so many who claim to be a saint. How can one know a real saint?” He replied, “In the presence of a saint you never have any evil thought.”
He had the vision of Bhagavan on many occasions. He said Bhagavan guided him in these visions. At the time he gave up his body, in his early thirties, it was clear that he had a vision of Bhagavan. For more than an hour before the event he was completely indrawn and in deep meditation. His hairs were standing on end. At the last moment he whispered, “let us go”. And that was the end of a brief but beautiful and remarkable life. Blood was then seen coming out of the Sahasrara.
The author of this article, a disciple of Swami Ramanagiri was blessed to have both the Swami’s silent and potent presence when he went to see him from Madras and his letters when he was not able to be physically present with him. From his collection of letters are extracted a few passages of Swami Ramanagiri’s words and experiences :
1. The only truth which becomes falsehood when expressed is Aham Brahmasmi or Sivoham,
2. Nonattachment does not mean indifference; Love does not mean attachment; Attachment is that which takes; Love is that which gives.
3. About your worldly troubles you must do as you think best yourself, but it is good policy to keep out from other’s plates however sweet and inviting it looks. Both sugar and arsenic are white.
4. When a soul turns his mind towards the Divine the following two things will happen — first he will get some joyful experience, which shows that he is on the right path and that he is progressing. Second when the asuric forces see that he is progressing they will put every possible obstacle before the sadhaka in the form of worldly troubles, mental botherations and sex urge. I think you have reached that second stage and would get further troubles. But don't mind. They are good as far as they make us fed up with the world. Three years back I found that letters from my previous family became an obstacle in the spiritual quest, so when any letter came I never opened it or read it and I experienced that the Divine was on my side in spite of my improper action.
5. In the course of sadhana — maya comes to a sincere soul first in the form of worldly troubles, second in the form of diseases and thirdly in the form of dear friends to keep him away from the quest. Our mind is the greatest cheater in this world, it will create thousands of different reasons to go its own way. There are three ways to handle this cheater who is nothing but a bundle of thoughts creeping up in the conscious mind. First to treat him as a friend and give him full satisfaction. This is a very long and tiresome way because he is never satisfied. Secondly to treat him as an enemy and with all your force try to get rid of him. This is only possible by the grace of the Divine because the mind has two very powerful weapons which are the discriminating intellect and the second the imaginative faculty. These two fellows can convince even God Himself that black is white. The third way taught by Sri Ramana, in the days of silence, at the foot of Sacred Arunachala and which has been adopted by this fool, is to treat him as a patient or rather several patients coming and troubling him with their different kinds of diseases. As a doctor is sitting in his room receiving different kinds of patients, this fool imagines himself sitting in the Sacred cave of the Heart receiving different thoughts patients. You know a sick person likes to bubble for hours about his complaint, in the same way a thought likes to multiply itself. But the doctor “always says, very good, take this medicine, thank you very much and then he calls another patient. Like that, this fool decides before meditation, (after having slowed down the breath as much as possible, without feeling uneasy) to receive 20 patients and then he closes the dispensary of the Heart. He calls and he waits till thought-patient number one has come inside. For example thought-patient one is like this “A is not well, B is worried”. Then this foolish doctor says, “Oh you are number one, very good. The name of Lord Muruga will cure you. Thank you very much.” Then he calls for number two and waits till the second patient enters the room. “C may get Moksha this life. Very good, you are number two. The whole world is benefitted if one soul gets liberated. Thank you very much.” Number three! and so on---. Then when ail the 20 thought-patients have come, the doctor closes the room to the Heart and no one is allowed to come inside. Now he is alone. Now there is time for Atma Vichara. He asks himself “To whom have all these thoughts come?”, three times slowly along with the outgoing breath. Then in the same slow manner he answers, “To me”, “To me”, “To me”. Then again he questions, repeating all the questions and anwsers three times, “Who am I?” Next he says,“This I is it not a thought?” then — “Who is the perceiver of this I thought” — “I” “I” “I” (now the mind is centralized on the source itself). Then “Who am I?” — “Who am I?” “Who am I?” Now the breath comes to an end and the attention is 100% concentrated on the sound caused by the palpitation of the Heart as if that sound would give the answer to our question. This is nothing but the Pranava itself. If during this time the Energy or Shakti which is static is converted to movements or becomes dynamic a trance will occur. If the primal Energy reaches the space between the eyebrows Savikalpa Samadhi will occur — this is, God with form will be seen. If the Energy rises up to the top of the head Nirvikalpa Samadhi will occur which is nothing but the Self Itself — but you also know, that even if the doctor has closed the dispensary door, some patients may come and peep through the window and complain about their ailments. And in the beginning of practising Atma Vichara, many patients come. In the same way, although the door to the cave of the Heart is closed, some thought may occur at the time of Dyana, for example “Sushumna Nadi is opened in the case of D”. As the patient has not come at the proper time the doctor doesn’t attend to him but continues in the Quest. “To whom has the thought of O come? To me, to me, to me. Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?”
6. The main thing with worship is not what we worship, but that we worship and if we have got love we can easily surrender the feeling of “I” which is the wall between ourselves and God.
7. The greatest service to humanity is Self-Enquiry and the greatest remedy for this world is Self-realisation but that does not mean we should not do anything for others.
... As long as we have not got the power to withdraw the mind from the objects of sense perception we should do and must do whatever we can for others. Selfless activity will soon give the power of introversion but when the mind once has become introverted, we should not spoil what we have gained by outward activity.
8. Perfection in any form is the manifestation of the Divine.
9. If the ego is allowed to play with our emotions it is capable of causing havoc. Only by drawing the ego to its source even the saddest feeling is converted into Ananda.
The above is reproduced from the Aradhana 1986 issue of 'The Mountain Path" magazine,