Fillers

The Indweller - By Arthur Osborne

He? - You? - I? - That which is
Indwells this body, sees the living world,
And is the world it sees. Pure bliss of being,
As on a spring day, couched upon a bank
Of grass and flowers, watching the clouds sail by
For a brief moment thought - and fancy-free
But now no moment, now a well known state.

The Inner Shrine- By Sachal, Sufi poet-saint of Sindh.

We have seen the Kaaba in the heart, so what need is there to go to Mecca? My mind is the mosque, so why worship in an outer shrine? In every artery is He, so why pronounce the creed?

From the Well of Meditation - By Dorothy C. Donath

Dead-names and personal attributes
Belong neither to Action nor to Reality;
The perfect name is No-name,
And the perfect action is without motive.

Be relaxed in deep things
And quiet in little things,
Like a pond those shallow water
Pictures the still bottom as a glass admits light,
And whose deep water
Moves not with the ruffling wind.
Have no thought but to let the answer
Rise to the surface
As bubbles rise
From the lake-bottom springs.

The awakened mind
Neither thinks nor speculates
The awakened mind
Knows.
Silver and gold are kindred metals,
But who can strike a light from them?
The answer is given in an instant -
Without thought.

Understand without effort
And move without struggle
Thus does the mind manifest itself
And no thing is there to be manifested.

The awakened mind
Neither thinks nor speculates.
Void is it,
And without form
Void it is,
And no attribute is there.

The wind blows,
But no hand catches it
The thunder rolls,
But whither goes the sound?

Pride and ego mask the inner light,
And no cloud of earth can equal them
Rain falls from these clouds,
And the hours know but tears.

Who is it that weeps
And cannot move the barrier?
Find that one - if you can.
Heaven and Hell are not his hiding place,
Nor does the earth harbour him:
Only the shadows cover him,
And nothing is there.

The ball is tossed,
And the player catches it
But no hand catches
The answer to vain desires.

Under the mantle of Maya
Who can see the stars?
Under the ego-shadow
Who can find the light?
Silver and gold are kindred metals,
But who can strike a light from them?

Regard a woven garment -
Never can it clothe the mind.
Regard a valued trinket -
Never can it pay for wasted days.

The hand holds a key,
But the fingers close upon it
And it vanishes;
The mind holds an answer,
But thought grasps it
And there is nothing there.

Pay the price of silence
And a thousand voices answer
Speak,
And silence alone replies.

Great Space without
At first seems to be Voidness
But Voidness is within -
And only the mind can compass it.

This song is no-song -
Why seek for a meaning?
The questions were answered
Before ever a word was spoken

- By Courtesy, 'Golden Light', Penang.

Suffering - By Derek Southall - (Provoked by news of the Congo massacres)

Koan

How can one laugh at Lear or sense
God's mercy in malevolence.

Doubt arose, yawned, stretched, fed and grew
Until a torrent, ruthless, sped
To overwhelm the throbbing head.
Most strange because a while before
Rapture embraced the world in awe,
Such wonder, truth and reverence.

Delight, elated, mortal, soared
To passion's bourn and echoed back
Transformed into a humour black.
Now a sad, sour, desperate mood,
A bent, uncomfortable brood
Of indecision, greed and hate.

Well fed and warm I heard the news,
That sobered, sickened, took the breath,
Of mutilation unto death.
The hatchet cleaves the living flesh,
And all are tangled in the mesh
To bear the torment of mankind.

I could not repudiate guilt,
Responsibility or crime,
For that we all commit in time.
Violence, shrouded, septic, deep,
Lurking, simmering, half-asleep
Man's legacy, to be unleashed.

Or was an answer to be found
Anchored deep within the pool
Of me secret, quiet, cool?
Warning to be completely free
I then resolved simply to see
What reality was for me.,

Content within life's flowing stream
To experience not just to dream.

Suddenly from view to vision
The pain had passed and sanity
Saw sorrow and humanity
Reconciled yet not affected,
By understanding protected
Faith had joined doubt in harmony.

Stronger still my attention held,
Until from patterns in a dance,
A fragment of significance
Rose, lucid into brilliance.
Reality knows no substance
No separation, only change,

Yet separation is the sole
Spinner of self and suffering.
Rejoice therefore in furthering
The view, that in a concept tied,
With pain and self identified
Is man, true focus of the All.

Awareness properly centred
By mystic alchemy knows vain
Self to be the glory and pain
Of universal cells and stars
Bound not at all by ego's bars
Serene, intangible and free.

Self assimilation helps to raise
A melody from man's malaise.

The Lady of Shalott - By A. Rao

Where the mighty river flows
A bleak, grey prison-castle rose
Wherein a lady dwelt, they say,
On whom a lifelong curse there lay
Not to look out, not to go free,
Only a shadow-world to see,
Reflected in a glass,

Daylong a tapestry she wove,
With fantasy but without love.
Thus did the wise ones typify
The life of man, whose days flow by
In a shadow world of mundane things,
Weaving his vain imaginings, .
Watching the shadows pass.

Until she saw her love ride by -
Daring to look though she should die,
She rose, cast from her the pretence,
Leaped toward truth, with no defence
But love. The mirror cracked. A shiver
Split the grey walls. The broad river,
Sweeping all things along,

Now bore her on to her true lot
In many-towered Camelot,
To meet, the loved one face to face
And, dead to self, in mute embrace,
To find the two grown one through love
Beyond all joy for which she strove.
This was the ancient song.

The years flowed down upon the river,
And wisdom and all high endeavour,
Leaving a slum in Camelot.
A poet came and found the plot
And made a pretty tale of it.
Yet still the wisdom and the wit
Of the old sages shines in it.

The Fire - By Pranav

Lord, Thy messenger entered my kingdom
And enkindled a tiny flame. It has
Become a stupendous conflagration,
And I see the city that I had built
Now lies a heap of grey ashes.
No more shall bricks and mortar be. Instead
Where pines of aspiration, touch the Heaven
And where jasmin, lotus and lovely rose
Open to Thy red-golden smile at dawn.

Mother's Lament - Translated by Prof. K. Swaminathan, from the Tamil of Muruganar.

From all and sundry oft my child had heard
Of the dear might of Ramana. Much concerned,
I warned her to have naught with him. But she,
Brushing aside my fears as fancies, sought
To grasp and hold, clear, firm within her heart
His heavenly form. The world laughs now at her,
For she has tasted maddening bread, glimpsed Truth,
The poison whose sole antidote is more
And more of It, till one has eaten all.

Tranquil State - By Harindranath Chattopadhyaya

Vision is a virgin-fruited cloud
Under whose weight the tree of life is bowed,
Ichored with fluent lambency, no bough
Casteth no shadow now
Death, a transfigured bird of glory, sings
Of immortality to tired things,
Cleaving the shades of olden night
With sudden wings of light.
Waters with their heavy brooding roll
Become the shining shadow of the soul
Athwart whose rooted solitude the boat
Of stillness is afloat.
Whatever moves yet bears within its speed
High immobility of movement freed
And all that moves not brims with consciousness
Of movement none may guess.
Shape knows itself ensconced behind its shape
Through my new vision, in sweet self-escape.
Becoming is untrammelled into being
Suddenly through my seeing.
Let men believe that I have grown of late
Into an idle and unfruitful state,
That life for me is without flower or fruit,
Death-stricken at the root.
The few, the golden few who know me know
That what is whispered of me is not so,
That I who toil not yet am constant neighbour
To a true life of labour,
Producing, all unwearied, all the time,
Far-reaching consequence of song and rhyme
Which gradually essays to fulfil
Part of the arcane will.
Yes! Lone have been the roadways I have trod
Bringing me face to face with God;
And life, because I have become His guest,
Grows one long day of rest.

For one who knows that all is Brahman there is nothing to meditate upon and no one who meditates - MAHANIRVANA TANTRA.

"You have no need to seek deliverance, since you are not bound" Hui-hai speaking. Maharshi also. - WEI WU WEI

Maharshi states in 'Who am I?' "Everything offered to others is really an offering to oneself". This very great verity was noted by Brother Giles, one of St. Francis of Assisi's original disciples and co-founders of his Order, when he declared "Everything that a man doth, be it good or evil, he doeth it unto himself."

Pure bhakti perhaps, it is also pure jnana. But do we even enquire whether this great injunction works as well the other way round?

Should we not also enquire whether everything asked for from others, prayed for to An Other, whatever is Deified, prayed to and lauded, is not also an entirely autonomous performance?

Could it be that being congenitally or by conditioning unable to know what is our Self, unconsciously seek to approach our Self more nearly by objectifying it so that we may address it? Do we not even vicariously and ritually eat our flesh and drink our blood in this desperate attempt to attain to what we are? - WEI WU WEI.

Leave objects to look after themselves, if any, and recognise the absence of their subject as an object. - WEI WU WEI

He on whose destiny God has inscribed 'My Lover' rises above all ritual and laws of formal religion. The lover ignores worship in temple or mosque, being beside himself in God-intoxication. - SULTAN ABU SAID IBN KHAIR

Simplicity - A Note by Alan Chadwick

It seems to me that people make sadhana dreadfully complicated. They seem to believe that the more complicated it is the better. One reads so many unnecessarily complicated modern books and meets so many seekers who come to the Ashram but seem to find the absolutely simple and straightforward teaching of the Maharshi about the One Self too simple to be true. They find its very simplicity confusing!

Ashram Notices - New Books

Kaivalya Navaneeta

An ancient Tamil classic and a treatise on Advaita translated into English by the late Swami Ramanananda Saraswathi. It was previously translated into German in 1885 by Dr. Charles Graul DD of the Leipzig Luthern mission. The book though small, covers the whole range of practical Jnana Yoga briefly and lucidly. Practicants in the path of Jnana Yoga will find it illuminating Instructive and useful.

Crown 8vo. 74 pp. Price: Indian: Rs. 1/- (Postage extra) - Foreign: 2 sh. or $ 0.30 (Postage Free)

Golden Jubilee Souvenir

This souvenir published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Maharshi's advent to Tiruvannamalai contains contributions from famous Eastern and Western philosophers like Dr. Radhakrishnan, Dr. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyer, Dr. T. M. P. Mahadevan, Swami Nikhilananda, Kunhan Raja, Jung and Mees and several others giving pen-pictures of a Jnani who was in permanent oneness with the Supreme Spirit, and yet in social level with the ordinary man. A book that will help you to understand a Man-God.

Crown quarto 376 pp. - Price : Indian : Rs. 5/- (Postage extra) - Foreign: 12 sh. or $ 1.85 (Postage Free)

Maha Yoga - By "Who"

A book of supreme interest giving a clear exposition of the Maharshi's philosophy and teachings as expounded to "Who" by Sri Bhagavan Himself dealing with every aspect of the Yoga. A book that will clarify the cryptic teachings contained in the Forty Verses of the Sage.

Crown 8vo. 245 pp. (5th Edition) - Price: Indian: Rs. 3/- (Postage extra) - Foreign: 9 sh. or $ 1.35 (postage Free)

Tripura Rahasya

An ancient Sanskrit classic rendered into English for the first time by the late Swami Ramanananda Saraswathi - deals with instructions for practice of Self-realisation in detail; on how the world is a reflection on Consciousness and is illusory like the juggler's tricks: on the differences between sleep and samadhi and other very interesting matters; a chapter on Vidya Gita given out to an assembly of maharshis by Sri Devi Herself; a supplement to most of the chapters elucidating difficult points. The book is a mine of scriptural knowledge. Its worth far exceeds the price.

Crown 8vo. 258 pp. (2nd Edition) - Price: Indian: Rs. 4/- (Postage extra) - Foreign: 11 sh. or $ 1.65 (Postage Free)

Completion of construction over the Shrine of Sri Maharshi

An Appeal

The construction over the samadhi shrine of Sri Maharshi, which was started in 1952 and inaugurated by H. H. Sri Sri Ananda Mayee of Banaras and later graced by H. H. Sri Rama Devi of Mangalore in 1962, has been progressing rather slowly, much to the disappointment of Ramana bhaktas. Though the causes for the delay need not be analysed or discussed, it was mainly due to lack of funds. In the Ashram Bulletin of July, 1964, we published an account of how the work had progressed with photos.

Collections* are made in the name of Bhagavan for other causes. These may be noble and necessary, yet real Ramana bhaktas are pained to see the construction over Sri Maharshi's shrine still standing uncompleted. In response to them the management is making all possible efforts to complete the Mantap within a few months. All the materials have already been gathered and we are happy to announce that very soon the devotees will have the pleasure and privilege of taking part in the Kumbhabhishekam on the tower over the shrine of Sri Maharshi.

Some Rs. 25,000/- or more will be needed to fulfil this pledge of ours and we appeal to Ramana bhaktas and philanthropists, scattered over the globe, to take this opportunity of contributing to this noble cause.

Contributions may kindly be sent to: To President, Sri Ramana Mantapa Nidhi, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, S. India.

*The Ashram management is in no way responsible for or connected with, such collections made by individuals.

Special bumper Issue of The Mountain Path, January, 1966.
The entire issue is dedicated to 'Ramana Sat-Guru'

The Mountain Path is entering its third year, with the approbation of its readers and well-wishers, serving its high cause of spreading the teachings of Sri Maharshi through the world in an authoritative way.

This January, 1966 issue is to be brought out as a mark of thankful dedication to the Master whose blessings guide the journal on its triumphant course.

The special issue will contain, apart from other illuminating articles by illustrious authors, unpublished reminiscences of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, both from eminent scholars, philosophers, professors, politicians, etc., and from simple, unknown devotees.

The number will be printed on better paper, with two or more colour plates of Sri Maharshi, apart from numerous other illustrations.

It will have about 200 pages at no extra cost for subscribers.

Please renew your subscription forthwith to ensure a copy of this precious gem of a number.

Correspondence Network - In continuation of our previous list

Arunachala Bhakta Bhagawata
Arunachala Ashram
Room 624
258 Broadway
New York City
New York 10007
USA.

N. Tharmalingam,
43, N. Eliya Road,
Welimada,
Ceylon.

Forthcoming Festivals

SARASWATHI POOJA Sunday 3-10-1965
VIJAYADASAMI Monday 4-10-1965
DEEPAVALI Friday 22-10-1965
SKANDASASHT1 Saturday 30-10-1965
KARTHIGAI FESTIVAL (commences on) Sunday 28-11-1965
KARTHIGAI DEEPAM Tuesday 7-12-1965
JAYANTHI OF SRI MAHARSHI (86^th Birthday) Friday 7-1-1966
PONGAL Friday 14-1-1966