Fillers, Short Articles and Poetry
The following short sections are the various 'fillers' used to complete unused page space in this edition.
Note on Names
The names 'Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi' and 'Arunachala' will occur frequently in this journal. We are therefore inserting a note on their meaning and pronunciation for those readers who are not familiar with them.
'Sri' pronounced 'Shree' is a Sanskrit honorific signifying 'blessed' or 'auspicious'. It has now lost much of its meaning and come to be used before names, much like 'Mr.' in English. Before the name of a Swami or holy place, however, it still has its original connotation.
'Ramana' is an abbreviation of the personal name Venkataramana. The accent is on the first syllable.
'Maharshi' is a contraction of 'MahaRishi', meaning the 'Great Rishi' or 'Great Sage'. The accent is on the second syllable.
'Bhagavan I is the word commonly used for 'God'. It is applied by common consent to one who is recognized as a Divine lncarnation and is the same as the appellation of the Buddha which is commonly rendered in English as 1 The Blessed One'. It was usual to address the Maharshi in the third person as 'Bhagavan'. He accepted this usage and sometimes referred to himself so. The accent is on the first and last syllables, the second being slurred over.
Various meanings are assigned to 'Arunachala', the name of the sacred Hill. The third and last vowels are long, the accent being mainly on the third.
A remark may also be in place on the form 'Ramanasramam', which may confuse some readers. The word 'ashram' has found its way into English dictionaries and is therefore the correct English form, whether a correct transliteration of the Sanskrit or not , however, 'asramam' is the Tamil form, and this ashram is registered under that name, which is therefore used for its address.
A Beacon Still
By S. P. Mukherji
We have not seen you, Bhagavan;
We have not approached your lotus-feet,
Yet do we find
The now and the then are the same for us,
The body-presence, the presence in the heart,
These are the same.
One thing only do we know
That Ramanashram is a beacon still.
The author explains that 'we' is used instead of 'I' in order to include his wife, who settled down near Sri Ramanasramam with him after the death of the Maharshi. (Editor)
All religions postulate the three fundamentals, the world, the soul and God, but it is only the one Reality that manifests itself as these three. One can say ' The three are really three ' only as long as the ego lasts. Therefore to inhere in one's own Being, where the 'I' or ego is dead is the perfect state.
- Ramana Maharshi-Forty Verses, v. 2.
The entire world is God : This is the core of my teaching. First banish egoism ; then you will come up to this test. Would you like to know the core of Divine Wisdom ? This is my certain answer. Tuka says Rise above the mind to destroy the ego.
- Tukaram
The result of Knowledge is identity with all ; the result of ignorance is identity with the limited being of one's body.
- Shankara, Commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
The Atman (Self) is never born and never dies. It is beyond time, unborn, permanent and everlasting. It does not die when the body dies.
- Kathopanishad.
When the ego-sense of the individual me vanishes there springs up within me an endless current of 'I-I', conferring unique and transcendental bliss which engulfs all my knowledge and ends in Silence. How then can Silence be expressed?
- Tayumanavar.
It is only because of ignorance that the Self appears to be finite. When ignorance is destroyed the Self which does not admit of any multiplicity whatsoever, truly reveals Itself by Itself, like the sun when the cloud is removed.
- Shankara.
Although the scriptures proclaim 'Thou art That', it is only a sign of weakness of mind to meditate 'I am That, not this', because you are eternally That. What has to be done is to investigate what one really is and remain That.
- 'Forty Verses on Reality', v. 32, from The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, Rider and Sri Ramanasramam.
If it is said that Liberation is of three kinds, with form or without form or with and without form, then let me tell you that the extinction of the three forms of Liberation is. the only true Liberation.
- Forty Verses on Reality ", v. 40, from The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, Riders and Sri Ramanasramam.
Mind is the Buddha, while the cessation of conceptual thought is the Way. Once you stop arousing concepts and thinking in terms of existence and non-existence, long and short, other and self, active and passive, and suchlike, you will find that your mind is intrinsically the Buddha, that, the Buddha is intrinsically Mind, and that Mind resembles a Void.
- From The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 67, translated by John Blofeld, Riders.
Self -Realization does not depend on any kind of consciousness ; its very nature is Awareness or Consciousness.
- Shankara, Introduction to Commentary on Kena Vakya.
Tinier than the tiniest atom, Tuka is vast as the sky I swallowed and spat out the body - the very image of worldly delusion. I have abandoned the triplets (of knowledge, knower and known). The light is lit within the lamp. Tuka says : I now remain only for the service of all.
- Tukaram
Your true nature is something never lost to you even in moments of delusion, nor is it gained at the moment of Enlightenment. In it is neither delusion nor right understanding. It fills the Void everywhere and is intrinsically of the substance of the One Mind.
- From The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 93, translated by John Blofeld, Rider.
I gave birth to myself! I was conceived within my own body. Now all vows are fulfilled; all desire is extinguished. I have become well and strong. I died away that time. I look on both sides. Tuka is what he is.
- Tukaram.
The purpose of Atma Jnana (spiritual knowledge) is to remove the illusory self created by Avidya (ignorance). The attainment of Self by Divine Knowledge means only the removal of the illusory, self created by ignorance through the superimposition of the body as the self.
- Shankara, Commentary on the Taittiriya Upanishad.
The Vedantic texts teach that although Brahman is One he is regarded both as possessing attributes and as free from them. In the former sense He is the object of meditation, in the latter of Knowledge.
- Shankara, Commentary on the Brahma Sutra, 1-1-12.
My death is dead-and gone! I have been made immortal. All sense of body is wiped out root and branch. The deluge came and went. I clung to life with courage. Tuka says: The foundations have been truly disclosed.
- Tukaram.
The Golden Master
(Composed by the eminent poet Harindranath Chattopadhyaya in the Ashram Hall, crowded with devotees on the night when death had claimed the body of Sri Ramana.)
Grief bath grown silent with its own excess
And will not weep lest it betray his trust
Even in this dark hour of dire distress
He lights the flame of knowledge through our dust.
Illumining its blindness wide and far
He glitters from his heaven of deathless grace.
In every speck and stone, in every star
We see the lonely wonder of his Face.
Ignorance rumours that our King departs
Where can he go, O where? - the being moans,
He who has made rich kingdoms of our hearts
And of our thoughts his countless jewelled thrones?
May he forgive our wavering faith, forgive
The folly of our doubts whose eyes are dim
How dare we move or breathe except through him?
How could we live if he should cease to live?
The Few
By Arthur Osborne
No argument can pierce the shuttered mind.
Let truth shine forth resplendent as the sun,
Still, crouched in their dark corner, will they find
Some guttering candle till life's day be done.
Even though we sang like angels in their ear
They would not hear.
Those only in whose heart some inkling dwells,
Grown over though it be, crushed down, denied,
Will greet the pealing of the golden bells
And welcome truth when all around deride.
Yet sight has laid a debt upon their will
Not all fulfil.
For even of those who see, only a few
Will have the intrepid wisdom to arise
And barter time's false values for the true,
Making their life a valiant enterprise
To vindicate their heritage long lost,
Nor count the cost.
And out of that so noble fellowship
Questing the Graal upon the mountain peaks,
Well is it if it meet the expectant lip
Of even one persistently who seeks.
Yet is this quest the glory and the goal
Of the awakened soul.