The Maharshi and The Path of Devotion¹

By A. Devaraja Mudaliar

Devaraja Mudaliar is one of the senior-most of Bhagavan's devotees. A lawyer by profession, he is precise in observation and clear in expression and was therefore often called upon by Bhagavan to act as interpreter in answering the questions of Western visitors. For some years he kept an Ashram diary which has been published in two volumes under the title 'Day by Day with Bhagavan'. He has also written 'My Recollections of Bhagavan Sri Ramana'. Both books are published by the Ashram. The above account might make him appear an intellectual, but he is at heart a pure bhakta, as the following article shows.

Not only in India but in all religions the path of devotion or surrender has been prized as a method for attaining to God or winning Liberation. The four main paths recommended in Hinduism are karma, bhakti, yoga and jnana — action, devotion, yogic development and knowledge; and it is held that man's business in life is to try to reach God by one or more of them. The above four include many varied techniques which different people practise in the hope of evolving spiritually and attaining perfection. Bhagavan Ramana has often said that all of them are good and all are difficult, only according to the temperament and ability of an aspirant one or another may appeal to him most and look easiest. He also said that whatever method one may practise one must eventually attain to Jnana, that is to Divine Knowledge of the Self, the Absolute.

It is well known that Bhagavan taught that the shortest and most direct way to attain Self-realization is to enquire who this 'I' or ego to which we refer at every turn, as 'I think', 'I want', 'I do', etc., really is and whence it arises. This 'I' is another name for the mind, which again is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. He taught that if, without allowing the mind to go outwards and indulge in thoughts of the world, we continuously and resolutely turn it back on itself to find the source whence it springs it will take us to the Self. This method is known as vichara or enquiry and comes under the heading of jnana marga.

It is not so well known, however, that Bhagavan was himself as much a bhakta as a jnani, a man of devotion as of knowledge. I could write at length on this subject, but it is hardly necessary. A perusal of his 'Five Hymns to Arunachala'² is enough to prove what a sincere and ardent devotee he was. What I wish to bring out here is that, when commending Self-enquiry and telling his questioner to ask himself 'Who am I?', Bhagavan often ended by saying: "If you say you have not the strength to do this, throw yourself on the one great Power which looks after all." I have heard him say this not once but a number of times. Even in his earliest book, that great little work 'Who am I?', he says: "God is prepared to take up all burdens, however heavy. Why not throw all your burdens also on Him and be free? Don't be foolish like the passenger in a railway train who carries his bag on his lap or shoulders instead of putting it on the rack." I have never heard him commend in this way, of his own accord, either karma marga or yoga.
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1 - Bhakti marga is known variously as the path of devotion, submission or surrender.
2 - See The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, Rider & Co., London and Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai.

In this connection, I would like to quote a stanza from a Tamil poem by the late Sivaprakasam Pillai,³ one of Bhagavan's oldest devotees and one whose authority to speak on Bhagavan's teachings it would be hard to dispute. "To all you give only the instruction: 'Ponder and find out who you are'. If, after that, anyone still submissively asks for more you say as your final advice: 'There is a power (shakti) which moves you and me and all; surrender your ego at the feet of that Mother.'"
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3 - For whom see Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge, pp. 85-90, by Arthur Osborne, Rider & Co., London.

Not only many ancient saints of our land, but even recent ones, such as Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Ramdas, to mention only two, have recommended the bhakti path of surrender. The Puranas have even gone further and laid down that for this spiritually dark age, the kali yuga, the path of bhakti is the best suited and the easiest to practise. Leave everything to God, throw yourself at His feet and just keep calling on His Name always. You need not do anything else. You will be saved. That is what they say.

But whatever any one may say, however easy at first sight the method may seem, once you begin to practise it earnestly you will find surrender, real and complete surrender, surrender without any mental reservations whatsoever, surrender to accept with joy, as coming from God, everything that befalls you, good, bad and indifferent, is a very hard thing indeed. But we are told that surrender will not work unless it is complete. There are two stories, one from the great epic, the Mahabharata, and the other told by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, that illustrate this. The first is that when Draupadi was left defenceless, her mighty husbands having by then lost their freedom, and the evil Duryodhana and his friends tried to disrobe her in court, she prayed to Sri Krishna as her last and only refuge; but help did not come from him until she had given up the natural and almost involuntary effort to hold on to her sari and prevent it from being removed from her waist. So long as she struggled to help herself, Divine Grace could not flow to help her. The story told by Ramakrishna is even more forceful. Someone picked a quarrel with a laundryman when he was washing clothes and began to beat him. The laundryman cried out to Vishnu for help. Vishnu was at that time disporting himself in paradise with his consort Lakshmi. On hearing the piteous cry of the laundryman he rose and started running towards the earth. A moment later, however, Lakshmi saw him strolling back in a leisurely way. "What is the matter?" she asked. "Why did you rush off so suddenly? And why do you now come back in no hurry?"

The Lord thereupon explained: "A devotee was beaten and prayed to me for help and protection, so I had to run to his rescue. But before I got there he took up a stick to defend himself, so why should I bother?"

This is what Bhagavan taught, that surrender must be complete or it will not be effective. It is clearly taught in our religious literature that before you can expect any progress in your spiritual state you must sacrifice or offer all you have, body, possessions and soul, to the Guru. We must also remember that God, Guru and Self are equated. Such surrender has been taught as a sure and sufficient means for the attainment of our spiritual goal, call it Mukti, Moksha, Nirvana, Liberation or what you will. Submission to the will of Allah is the basic command of Islam. Jesus said: "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Krishna said: "Abandon all your duties and take refuge in Me alone. I will free you from all sins. Do not grieve."

Sri Krishna definitely affirmed that if a man takes refuge at His feet and surrenders completely he need not do anything else, he need not bother about any other duties. This path of utter devotion and self-surrender has been proclaimed and followed by many a bhakta throughout India, especially by the great Saivite and Vaishnavite poet-saints of the Tamil land, by Tukaram, Eknath, Namdev and others in Maharashtra, and Chaitanya in Bengal. The Vaishnavites in particular have attached great importance to the path of surrender as taught in the 'Charana sloka', as it is called, of the Bhagavad Gita, which I have already quoted. They call this surrender 'Prapathi' and have developed its doctrine in great detail, showing how far-reaching its ramifications can be.

I shall refer only to one or two aspects of this 'Prapathi' path which especially appeal to me. They say, for instance, that while in other paths God is the Goal and various other things are used as means, on the path of surrender both the means and the end are God. Another thing they say is that whereas on any other path more than one means may be employed and may even be necessary, on the path of surrender no other means are necessary or even admissible, for that would imply that your faith in surrender was not complete, and therefore your surrender itself was not. One illustration they quote for this argument is that in the Ramayana Indrajit used a powerful weapon called 'Brahma Asthra' with whose divine power he bound Hanuman hand and foot. The Rakshasas, however, seeking to make doubly sure, began to bind him also with ropes and chains, whereupon the divine weapon ceased to act owing to their lack of faith in it. To throw oneself completely on God, secure in His love and mercy and power, and not to dream of being able to do anything except by His Grace and Will is the Prapathi method taught by the Vaishnavites, and it has great value for the really ardent devotee.

Even recent saints have, in their great mercy, told some lucky disciples that if they surrendered completely to the Guru they need not do anything else. Once when Girish Chandra Ghosh wept before Ramakrishna and declared that he could not follow any discipline, however simple or short, Ramakrishna was pleased to tell him: "Then give me power of attorney", meaning: 'Surrender and I will do the rest!'

I once told Bhagavan: "I am another Girish. You must save me yourself. Every saint must have a Girish."

Bhagavan replied But he gave power of attorney."

"I too have surrendered to the extent that I am capable of," I said: "What more can I do?"

Bhagavan said nothing.

It was not Bhagavan's way to say, "Surrender and I will look after you." However, the following incident is significant in that regard. About a year before Bhagavan left the body I said to him one afternoon: "I am going to sing Bhagavan three stanzas from a poem by Sivaprakasam Pillai because they express what I want to say better than I could." I then sang them. Their meaning is: "I have not followed your teaching or instructions; but is it proper for a Guru to get disgusted with his devotee as an incorrigible beast and to give him up? If you let me go my own way like this, what is to happen to me? I shall not reform and you will not correct or change me. Have I any other help in this or the other world except you, my Lord? What, then, is your idea" Is this right behaviour for you?"

Bhagavan did not immediately reply, which caused me some disappointment. After a minute or two he said: "Whether I do anything or not, your business is only to surrender and keep still."

Some friends have told me that I may take this to mean: "Don't worry; I know what to do and will do it." On the other hand, it may only mean: "If you really surrender you have no right to complain; so if a devotee complains it is a sign that he has not surrendered." In any case, I prefer to be an optimist and believe that, however incomplete my surrender may be, so long as his Grace is complete he will look after me all right.

I recently read in 'Bhavan's Journal' some of the teachings of Swami Nityananda who lived in Vajreswari for about thirty years and died a few years ago. A disciple asked him: "What should I do?" and he replied: "You need not do anything." I take that to mean anything except surrender and leave everything to the Guru.

Intellectuals may feel tempted to look down on the path of bhakti, but I think I have written enough to show that such an attitude is not justified. I will finish with one more story to illustrate this. Tota Puri was an Advaitin whom Ramakrishna took as his guru, having already had a tantric guru. He had no patience with people worshipping a Personal God and used to make fun of Ramakrishna for constantly speaking of Kali and worshipping her and calling her 'Mother'. He had never previously known ill health, when he was suddenly attacked by a severe and painful form of dysentery. It was so bad that after some days he decided to drown himself in the Ganges. He entered the river and walked towards the opposite bank, perhaps half a mile or so, only to find that the water never got more than knee-deep. Finally Kali, Ramakrishna's 'Mother', appeared before him and thus miraculously converted him.

Let no humble devotee, therefore, feel discouraged if some philosopher or even saint condemns the path of surrender. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. It has worked and produced results all over the world, not only with bhaktas in India, but with Sufis in Persia and mystics both in the East and West. Above all, Sri Krishna has held out the promise that He will save all who come to Him and take refuge at His feet. Let us not doubt, but let us surrender and achieve eternal Peace and Bliss.