Ramana Maharshi was a great saint who lived amidst some of us till recently. He passed away in 1950. There are many people alive even today who have seen and interacted with him in a place called Arunachala in Southern India.
For the western world, Ramana was known as ‘the who am I swami’ since his pet path to ultimate realization was an incessant inquiry about who you really are. Keep pondering about who you are and finally you come to the realization that you are none other than the Atma that we have been talking about! There is no need to borrow that idea from any scriptures such as Upanishads. It just pops out on its own when you reach a certain stage of your self-enquiry.
Actually, that is what Ramana did to attain self-realization. As a young boy he ran away from home with a strong urge to know his true self. He had hardly read any scriptures at that young age. He spent several years meditating in the caves in a hill called Arunachala. Finally, one day he attained the realization that he is none other than the Atma from whom this entire world has emerged.
Ramana always used to say that this world is a ‘creation of the mind’. It appears only when the mind is functioning. And when you stop this mind through meditation, the world vanishes, leaving behind only you and nothing else. That is, one would realize the same truth that the Upanishads declare, namely ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ – I am that Brahma or Atma. The ‘I’ referred to here is not the body with a name Ramana. It is the all-encompassing ‘I’ which the Upanishads talk about as the Atma.
There is a nice and hilarious story which seems to convey this unification experience attained by Ramana.
Once a Swami from Ramakrishna order went to meet Ramana in Arunachal. This swami had heard so much about Ramana that he was very eager to see this realized person. So, he went to the Ashram in Arunachal where Ramana lived. He asked someone about Ramana and where he can be found. That person told the swami that Ramana is in the kitchen!
The swami was puzzled. What a realized person is doing in the kitchen! But he was keen on meeting him. So, he went to the kitchen. There was nobody in the kitchen except a lean man wearing just a loin cloth. This man was stirring something in a big cauldron kept on fire. The swami went near this man and asked him where Ramana is.
That man just pointed to the cauldron and said that is Ramana! Swami was a bit confused. He looked at the cauldron. On the cauldron was written ‘Ramana’!
It is a common practice in many Indian households to write the name of the owner on the utensils, so that none could steel it. They would be caught if they did. This pot belonged to the Ashram of Ramana. So, it was but natural that the name ‘Ramana’ was written on this particular cauldron too.
But the Swami was asking for the person Ramana and not a pot labeled as Ramana. Was this some kind of joke? Probably the swami was a bit irritated by the joke of this scantily clad man. Luckily, someone else entered the kitchen at that time and through him the Swami came to know that this scantily clad person was none other than Ramana himself!
Through a simple joke Ramana was trying to convey the profound message to the Swami that whoever he has come to see as Ramana is just a body that is labeled as ‘Ramana’, just like the pot is. And that everything in this world is just a form with a name!
That is the ultimate truth of the Upanishads which Ramana conveyed in his own witty way! It probably took quite some time for the swami to get that point.
Ramana always kept saying that it is the mind that brings in the concept of the world. His logic was something like this. When you are in deep sleep state, there is no world. So also, when you are in deep state of meditation or Samadhi. In both cases, the mind stops. That is when the world also disappears.
I have mentioned about this theory of Ramana in one of my blog posts and pointed to inaccuracies in Ramana’s logic. In deep sleep as well as in Samadhi, the world disappears only for you. But it does not disappear for others who are not in those states. Also, when you come out of the deep sleep state or Samadhi, you yourself would find the world almost in the same state as you left it before. So, it is only the perception of the world that ceases and not the existence of the world itself. That was my counter.
I don’t know what Ramana really meant when he said ‘world disappears’. I hope that he meant that perception of the world disappears. If Ramana really believed in nonexistence of the world, as it appears from his statements seen superficially, he would not have been so concerned about the people in the world around him.
On one incident, when Ramana was seriously ill, his disciples tried to restrict people meeting him by closing the door of the Ashram during certain time periods. They did not want anyone disturbing him. But Ramana quietly expressed his disagreement about such restrictions and started sleeping outside the Ashram so that anybody could visit him whenever they found a need. He was quite concerned about the people who came to him seeking solution to their miseries.
Not that he suggested any remedy to their problems. His way was to nudge them into a state that brings them out of their over involvement in their role as an individual. He used to suggest them to realize that they are not the form they think they are, but the one that has taken the form. ‘Ask who you really are’ – was his way to come out of the miseries of the world. It is like reminding an actor who has taken his role a bit too seriously.
That does not mean that Ramana used to be indifferent to the world just because he is a realized person. He played his worldly role as a ‘form called Ramana’. He used to take part in all ashram activities including mundane things like cooking. He never was against the rituals performed in the temple attached to his Ashram since he believed that such things are necessary for people who are yet to attain the realization. Why would he do all that if he considered that this world is just an illusion as some modern Advaitis claim in the name of Sankara.
What is more important is - when his end finally came because of cancer, Ramana neither did some magic to cure himself nor was he untouched by the ailment. People who saw him at that time told me that he was wailing out of unbearable pain like all other humans do. After all, the one called ‘Ramana’ was a form bound by causality and restricted in its abilities. Ramana did not want to transgress that script of his drama of life!
All this should clear misconceptions about Advaita, because of the concept of Maya.
While we are at that, let us see a couple of more such cases, where other highly revered and realized souls also played their roles. Please join me in the next episode where I will talk about them.
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