BOOK II
APPENDIX
BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI BY SRI SWAMI SIDDESHWARANANDA
Sri Swami Siddheswarananda was an erudite scholar of the Vedanta and a distinguished member of the Order of Sri Ramakrishna Mission, and was in charge of its branch at Paris.
While in India, he was a frequent visitor of the ashram, and was an ardent devotee of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi whom he adored as the living incarnation of the Truth, one with the universe as a whole, the Self of All.
This article is condensed from the English translation done by Major A. W. Chadwick, O. B. E., of the original article in French.
SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI EXPOUNDS A system of thought and philosophy of life, which incarnates the essence of Vedantic teachings. In India a philosophy of life can have absolutely no influence except when it is reflected in the life of the one who expounds it. We ought also to say that it is the life of an individual and his `realizations' which give opportunity for the construction of a philosophical system, and such a life brings an understanding and opens a horizon which affects society as a whole and improves the relationship amongst men.
When the prophets of ancient India attained the ultimate truths which they expressed forthwith in Vedic
hymns and the teachings of the Upanishads [?], they were looked upon as the salt of the earth, because they became lighthouses which guide hesitating humanity on its path. The truths which these great beings discovered are hidden in their soul. And what they teach man is only the means of penetrating into himself to bring forth into the day the secret treasure which all possess. It is the aspect of the right of each one to make his own introspection which confers dignity on man's efforts, because Truth is our legitimate inheritance.
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The Upanishads address themselves in these terms to all those who aspire after the Truth: "O, ye inheritors of immortal bliss!" Can anything more encouraging exist than these words of hope? It is not in the original sin that man finds the basis of his existence, it is in the golden flame of the light of Atman.
The Maharshi has discovered this; he found it of his own accord, without any exterior help. A very young scholar, he was overtaken by a fear of death. He threw away books, which veil more often than they reveal the Truth; he extended himself on the ground, closed his eyes and imitated all the symptoms of death.
The following is what he himself has said about this experience:
Now death has come, what does it mean? What is it that has died? The material body dies. I at once dramatized the scene of death. I extended my limbs and held them rigid. I held my breath. `Very well,' I told myself, `this
body is dead, they will come and take it to the cremation ground and reduce it to ashes. But when the body is dead, am I dead? This body, is it I? It is inert, and moreover I feel my personality independent of it. I am then the deathless Spirit transcending the body which alone lives and dies'. All this rose before me intensely, without having to be expressed, as living truth perceived immediately and almost without argument. The fear of death disappeared entirely and definitely. This conscious and immediate presence of the `I' or Self altogether independent of the physical body, has continued ever since.
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This direct experience of the Self is called
Aparokshanubhuti [?]; it is distinct from all knowledge obtained by intellectual effort which always implies a relation between the subject and object, and consequently is limited by space and time, and is without any transcendental value.
He who has had this direct experience of the Self is considered to be Liberated even while he is still alive. He is called a Jivanmukta [?]. The existence of such individuals who are living incarnations of the Truth, renders this Truth demonstrable. The Vedantic realization of these great beings gives in effect the possibility of a practical application, and their realizations raise the level of human consciousness.
It is this aspect of Vedanta [?] which has attracted towards its teachings the attention of savants. Vedantic research goes much deeper than all objective analysis of matter, it
goes to the fundamental basis of perception and as such gives us a synopsis of the Truth rather than a curtailed view. The interest that the West takes in the life and teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi proves the universal attraction of Vedanta, which one can see embodied in the Sage of Tiruvannamalai.
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In an article on Indian Yoga, M. Lacombe of the
Paris University has written about the Maharshi:
His person sheds a force consisting of intelligence and mastery of the Self. A flashing eye, intense and fixed without hardness, Olympian softness of gesture, slender and delicate in an immobile body, he is considered by excellent judges to be a very authentic Yogi [?] and to have reached the highest Realization.
I cite this passage only to show the impression produced by a visit to Maharshi on one who appreciates the atmosphere that surrounds the Sage.
It is, however, very difficult for an European, moulded in the traditions of Theology and Western Philosophy, to have any contact whatsoever with the conception of Maharshi's life.
I would respectfully observe to the learned professor that the Maharshi is much rather a tattva jnani than a yogi; his conception of life embraces all life, which for an Indian embraces the three states, jagrat, svapna and sushupti [?]. The yogic is the experience of `I' as cosmic identification which takes the jagrat [?] as the essential field of experience. If one
would find examples of this cosmic and universal experience of the `I', as M. Lacombe calls it, there is no lack of mystics in India who have reached sufficient realization on this basis of experience.
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But the Maharshi is above all a tattva jnani and the field of his search and experience is much greater than that of a mystic. The Sage transcends the limits of the three states.
The Maharshi accepts the terminology sanctioned by tradition and always employed by the sages of India since the time of the Upanishads.
The teachings of Maharshi are in perfect accord with the philosophical and spiritual scriptures of ancient India and proceed directly from the great Sages of the past.
Whoever has occasion to examine at first hand the
Maharshi, knows full well that he is neither an `extrovert' nor an `introvert'. He is the most normal man that one could ever find. He is in effect a sthitaprajna, a man whose intelligence is solidly founded. I have seen him apparently plunged in himself, when everybody believed him to be absorbed in his own Self, but when at this moment someone at the end of the hall made a mistake in the recitation of certain Tamil verses, the Maharshi opened his eyes, corrected the mistake, then again closed his eyes and returned to his former state. I have already stated that one cannot say that the exterior world does not interest him. He has reached an extraordinary degree of concentration, and as that concentration perpetually rests
on an habitual state of life in jnana [?] or — as the Sage calls it — sahajasthiti, he is neither an introvert nor an extrovert. Just simply, he IS. And by his knowledge of the ultimate Reality he is one with That in its expression of multiplicity of manifestation, he is one with the Universe as a whole.
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When I saw him I found in him the perfect example of the description which Sri Sankaracharya gives in his Vivekachudamani, when he explains what characterises a Jivanmukta. Verse 429 reads:
"He who even when his mind is merged in Brahman, is nevertheless entirely awake, but is at the same time free from the characteristics of the waking state, and whose realization is free from all desire, should be considered a man liberated while still alive".
The notion of introversion and extroversion cannot be applied to one whose philosophy of life reposes uniquely on the experience of the waking state.
In the Panchadasi, which is an authoritative work on Advaita [?], we find in Verse 13 of Chapter VI, a statement which is extremely important on this point. The author, Vidyaranya, says:
"The destruction of the world and of the jiva [?] does not signify that they should become imperceptible to the
senses, but there should arise a determination of their unreal nature. If such is not the case, people may find emancipation without making any personal effort, as in dreamless sleep or in a swoon (when all perceptions disappear completely)".
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As the Gita [?] says, the Atman, forgetting its real nature, believes that it is the ego and the author of all actions, which is the cause of all misunderstanding. A man like the Maharshi, who has transcended the ego, is considered by the Upanishads to be the Self of All.
If we could but spend sometime by the side of the
Maharshi, we should then be able to understand better in the light of words spoken by the Sage on philosophical problems that life of illumination, like the great fire which burns on the Hill Arunachala, is a veritable lighthouse for those who wish to find in modern India the revivifying effects of the teachings of the Upanishads consecrated by time.