INTRODUCTION

Vilasini. K. C. “The philosophy of Sri Ramana Maharshi - a study” Thesis.

Department of Philosophy, University of Calicut, 2001
 Chapter I

INTRODUCTION
1.1.Prelude

India has a glorious spiritual tradition. It is a chosen land -a land

blessed with the guiding presence of many Sages and Saints. The great

tradition of India has endowed her with a place of honour among the

nations of the world. The term tradition stands for the timeless, eternal

truth handed down by the seers to the seekers from the distant past. The

tradition which began in the pre-historic times is still current and fresh

since it is kept alive by Sages and Saints who are born here from time to

time. They are the embodiments of the greatest ideal of life, the fruition

of Indian culture. They kindle the spiritual insights in man and guide the

earnest seekers through the right path. They keep the torch of spiritual

tradition burn and pass on to the successors just as they have received it.

During the early part of 20h century the great Indian tradition is upheld

and sanctified by Maharshi Ramana, the Sage of Silence, who is adored as

the greatest Sage of modem India. Arunachala Ramana, as he is

popularly known, is the modern representative of the tradition. He not

only promoted our tradition but carried its glory to its zenith. Car1 Jung,
hailed Ramana as:

a true son of the Indian earth. He is genuine, and in addition to

that, some thing quite phenomenal. In India he is the whitest

spot in a white spot. . . . What we find in the life and teachings

of Sri Ramana is the purest of India; with its breath of world-

liberated and liberating humanity, it is a chant of milleniums.

This melody is built up on a single, great motif, which, in a

thousand colourful reflexes, rejuvenates itself with in the

Indian spirit, and the latest incarnation of which is Sri Ramana

Maharshi himself.'

The exalted place which Sri Ramana occupies in our tradition can be

discerned from the following statement of Sri Aurobindo: "Ramana was

a Yogi of remarkable strength and attainments and that his tapasya had

won glory for India."2 He characterised the Maharshi 'as Hercules

among Yogis'.3 Sri Raja Gopalachari in his speech on the occasion of

opening ceremony of Pathalalingam shrine, the earlier abode of Sri

Ramana, remarked: "Sri Ramana Maharshi has kept India's spiritual

glory alive in our generations. He had in his own way made the name of

India respected by the wise and enlightened men spread all over the
 world even as Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and other Saints did in

former times."4

The spiritual tradition of India finds its fullest expression in the life

and realisation of the sage. Viswanatha Swami, the former editor of the

Journal, 'The Mountain Path', wrote: "Thir Sage's attainment is not only a

fulfilment of the ancient tradition but also a reconstitution and renewal of

it for the benefit of modem seekers who can now test in practice and find

for themselves the truth that the spontaneous glow of ever present self is

the greatest Tapas."5 The appearance of a man of the spiritual calibre of

Ramana is a rare phenomenon. T.M.P. Mahadevan remarks: "It is not

often that a spiritual genius of the magnitude of Ramana visits on earth.

But when such an event occurs the entire humanity gets benefitted and a

new era of hope opens before it."6

1.2. Maharshi. The Saint and Philosopher

The Maharshi and his teachings are unique in several respects.

Though his teaching is simple and most direct, for a beginner on the path

of self-knowledge it may appear to be a riddle. This apparent

contradiction is due to several factors.

 Firstly Ramana is the most original thinker and what he taught is the

result of his steady rootedness in the self. He neither attempted to

interpret the teachings of the scriptures nor wrote elaborate

commentaries on them. His aim was to show the simple path of self

discovery. He attained the supreme state of self abidance without being

formally initiated into Sanyasa. He had not studied any scriptures. The

only religious book that he read was 'Periya Puranam'7 But later when

he went through these books he found that they confirmed what he had

already realised. He expressed this on one occasion thus:

I had read no books other than Periyapuranam, my Bible

lessons and bits of Tayumanavar or Tivaram. My notion of

God (or Iswara as I called the Infinite but Personal Deity) was

similar to that found in Puranas. I had not heard then of

Brahman, samsara etc. I had no idea then that there was an

essence or Impersonal real underlying everything and that

myself and Iswara were both identical with it. At

Tiruvannamalai, as I listened to Ribu Gita and other works, I

picked up these facts and discovered that these books were

analysing and naming what I had felt intuitively without

analysis and name. In the language of the books I should

 describe my mental or spiritual condition after awakening, as

suddha manas or vijnana, i.e., the intuition of the illumined.8

His realisation was spontaneous and he had not undergone any

spiritual discipline (Sadhana) preliminary to it. The following statement

of his discloses this truth "Some times I.would sit with my eyes closed

and some times with them open. I still do. But I know no mantra or yogic

exercises and would not have any use for them if I did."9

Secondly, silence is the core of Sri Ramana's teachings. Silence

implies cessation of all mental activity. It is pure awareness beyond the

comprehension of the mind. Silence as a discipline for the attainment of

spiritual experience was enjoined in the scriptures. Sri Sankara

emphasises the necessity of the control of speech for a spiritual aspirant

in his instruction that "the first means to yoga is control of speech."lO

Sri Ramana is the embodiment of the self. Hence the silence of

Ramana is the silence of the self, for self is silence. T.M.P. Mahadevan

observes "Maharshi seldom talks. He believes, like the Sages of Yore, that

the self is best taught in silence. Silence is the language of the spirit and

speech can give only a distortion of truth. The absolute self which is

beyond speech and thought can not be attained through these. It is

realised in the still silence where the storms of words and waves of

thought have ceased.""

The preliminary discipline of silence enforces control of speech to

limit mental activities. Silence as a discipline is forced and artificial. The

silence of the self is natural. Ramana states: "Mouna as a disciplinary

measure is meant for limiting mental activities due to speech. If mind is

otherwise controlled disciplinary mouna is unnecessary. For mouna

becomes natural."" As his supreme silence is incomprehensible to many,

out of his infinite compassion, he came down from that supreme state to

instruct his disciples by narrating stories, writing verses and explaining

intricate philosophical problems. It was to instruct Ganapathi Muni, the

great Sanskrit Scholar and poet, that he first broke his silence. The

instruction given to Muni constitutes the first oral teaching of the sage.

Since then Ramana assumed the role of universal teacher, "who pierces

through the dense darkness prevailing in human heart not only by the

word of mouth but also by virtue of grace imparted by his beneficent

glance"l3 Thus it was Muni who made Ramana and his teachings

available to all. It is right to say that "all generations of Ramana disciples

and devotees must remain indebted to Muni because it was for his sake
and seeing his spiritual hunger and ripeness that Ramana broke his

silence of eleven years and gave oral upadesa"'4

Thirdly Ramana had initiated no institutions in his name to

propagate self knowledge. Prof. K.Swaminathan remarks: "So egoless

was the Maharshi that he took no pains to establish any dharma or found

a new Sanga."l5 He never allowed people to collect funds in his name for

any purpose what so ever. But if anything comes on its own it was

acceptable to him. The construction of the Asram in his name, he

attributed to the work of divine plan. He said on one occasion "These

constructions were not done on my authority, but were treated by those

who did it as their own work. I did not tell them to build nor did I

prevent them. In this manner Skandasram, virupaksha cave and Sri

Ramansrama came into being."l6

Fourthly, Ramana never professed himself as the guru and was

reluctant to recognise anybody as his disciple. He said "The person may

call himself my disciple or devotee. I do not consider any one to be my

disciple. I have never sought Upadesa from any one nor do I give

ceremonial Upadesa. If the people call themselves as my disciples I do

not approve or disapprove. In my view all are alike"l7 For Ramana all
are self and all are self-realised. Master and disciple imply duality and

duality is illusory. He says as long as there is individuality Guru is

necessary for realisation. When the self is realised there is neither Guru

nor disciple for "Guru is none other than the self."ls

Maharshi, like the Upanisadic sages speaks out of the fullness of

his own experience. The words of Ramana have the same ring of

authenticity and directness of the upanisadic teaching. Atma Vidya or the

knowledge of one's own self is the theme of the Upanisads. Ramana

exhorts us to find out who we are. Knowledge of oneself or knowledge

of the knower should be the prime concern of the individual. On the

contrary if the self is known everything else is known. Mundaka

upanisad consider knowledge of the self as "the basis of all knwledge."'g

Ramana exposes the futility of all knowledge which excludes the

knowledge of the self as follows: "Is it not ignorance to know all but the

all knowing self? When the latter, the substratum is known, knowledge

and ignorance both disappear."M It is found that the teaching of Sri

Ramana is in concurrent lines with the Sruti. Sri Ranganathananda

Swami observes:
 We gain immortality by search for truth. That is the Atma

Vidya of the Upanisads, whose message we find glowing in the

teachings of the Maharshi . . . . Every word he spoke is charged

with the wisdom of atma Vidya. In the Upanisads we have the

same great utterance which bring to us the description of this

great experience. But they are all literature. Today's humanity

can see it realised in the personality of Bhagavan. He

exemplified the great teaching 'I am that'."

Sri Ramana taught through precept and by example the age-less

truth of non-dualism, which is the penultimate state of man's intuitive

experience. He categorically asserts that advaita alone is the enduring

truth and systems which speak of difference are the off-springs of the ego

which will disappear when maya ends. Guruvachka Kovai expresses the

truth in the following verse:

Many and various are the creeds

Crowning them all advaita stands
Supreme as silent pure awareness
Destroying and Surviving the Unreal
Ego, the deadly seed from which
Grow all these difference twixt creeds.2
 The teaching of Ramana transcends all temporal limitations as the

truth he revealed has a timeless character. It is relevant not only in the

present day world charactrised by self-interest and unsa&ble greed for

material gains, but for all ages to come. He says that the ego is the source

of all the trouble that we commonly attribute to the world and when the

ego is apprehended every thing is in its proper place. No one can correct

the ways of the world but can correct himself. If he looks at the world

from this renewed perspective he can understand that fault lies not in the

world but in us, as our ego. The comment of Maharshi is "as you are so

in the world."'?

1.3. The Philosophy of Ramana

It is difficult to delineate the philosophy of Ramana from his life

since they are inextricably connected. His life itself constitutes his

philosophy . The theoretical exposition of a doctrine is not the aim of his

teaching. On the other hand it is absolutely practical. It is intended to

guide the seekers of truth to the ultimate goal of self knowledge. His

teaching is based on his own intuitive experience of the truth which is

called self-realisation. Ramana the infinite self, assumed the human form

"to free vedic heritage from the morass of dry polemics and to reveal the
simple and straight path of self-enquiry based on his own direct

experience"z4

Sri Ramana represents the advaita tradition of vedanta. Kavya

kanta Ganapathi Muni25 hails him as the third Acharya of Vedanta

tradition, next to Vyasa and Sankara. To quote "The Seat of honour

reserved for the most worthy, once occupied by the great Vyasa who

classified the Vedas, and later bySankara of high wisdom who dispelled

the darkness from the world now awaits thee, oh Master.. . ..."26 His

teaching corroborates with the upanisadic non-dualism. Advaita or

non-dualism is the creed which maintains that the self alone is real, the

world is unreal if it is considered apart from the self and the individual

self is nothing but the absolute self itself.

Ramana exhorts one to find out his natural state. By 'natural'

Ramana means: "one's abidance in one's own nature as a flame of

knowledge after completely discarding sense objects"27 The individual is

not the body, mind or the senses. He is pure awareness which is one and

the same in all. Ramana declares that, "that which exists is awareness"28

Hence all are fundamentally one. This truth is not realised as long as the

mind is engrossed in outer forms. The mind must be turned inward to

the source of one's being. Ramana suggests self enquiry as the best

method for turning the mind inward.

What constitutes self-enquiry? Self enquiry is the enquiry into the

subject. 'I'. 'Know thyself is the ancient injunction given to man. Sri

Ramana gives a new orientation to this simple spiritual teaching. He asks

one to find out who he really is. 'Who am I' is the fundamental problem

to be solved. When this is done nothing else remains to be done. Because

it governs the life and destiny of the individual. The individual has to

find out that he is the deathless 'I' and not the mortal body as he takes

himself to be. The 'I' is beyond any change and it is not affected by old

age and death. When this is known everything is known. Thus all

problems revolves round the central 'question who am I'. Sri Ramana

never allowed to deviate from this crucial problem. As long as this basic

problem is not tackled the socalled knowledge hitherto accumulated by

man proves to be quite meaningless. Enquiry 'who am I' is the final

remedy that he suggested for all maladies of life.

The unity of Being, the accessibility of one's being and practical

path to realisation constitute the essential teaching of Sri Ramana.

Maharshi proclaims the unity of all existence in his declaration that we

are all awareness and this realisation is not a future state to be attained. It

is here and now. But a s long as man identifies himself with his body

effort is necessary to remove the obstacle to the realisation of his true

nature. Thus the path suggested by Sri Ramana is the path of Self

enquiry, or the enquiry 'Who am I'. His whole teaching can be

condensed into a single word 'Be'. 'Be still' is the message of Maharshi.

By the term 'still' Maharshi does not mean passivity or inactivity. On the

contrary it is the most active state, the state of one's true 'being or 'I am'.

He says stillness here means "Being free from thought" .B The

state of 'I am' is one's natural state of bliss. Muruganar expresses this

truth in the following verse:

"What our Master clearly teaches

By way of great, good, powerful tapas
Is only this and nothing more
Be Still
Apart from this mind has no task to do or thought to think"30

The philosophy of Ramana is universal in its import. He is the

universal teacher and his teaching is meant for the entire humanity.
"Universal because his teaching could be practised by all seekers of truth
regardless of their religious affiliations, regardless of geographical
locations, regardless of any circumstances.~~
1.4. The objectives of the study

The present study is an attempt to throw some light on the

magnificent personality of Sri Ramana the peerless sage of modem India.

It also tries to show that though the sage appears much later in the

history of our land, he belongs to the tradition of the classical sages of

India. Further the study tries to present the philosophy of Maharshi

comprehensively covering the different facets of his teachings. Though a

good number of books are available on the subject, majority of them give

only a piece meal account of his philosophy. Some books are biographical

depicting the Reminiscences of their authors of the Maharshi, yet others

are compilations. There are also independent commentaries on the major

works like Upadesa saram and Ulladu Narpadu. The present study

intends to bring out the philosophy Ramana comprehensively touching

almost all the salient features of his teaching.

1.5. Plan of the Study

The present study enunciated in the title 'Philosophy of Sri Ramana

Maharshi - A study' is an attempt to elucidate the philosophy of the sage

in the light of the study of his works and recorded conservation. The

second chapter titled 'Ramana: Life and Mission' is divided into four
quarters. The first quarter gives a brief sketch of the life of Ramana. The

second quarter reveals the magnificent personality of the sage. The third

quarter gives birds eyes view of his works. The fourth quarter brings out

the sigruficance of Maharshi's teaching.

The Third chapter titled 'The Nature of the Self gives an exposition

of Ramana's philosophy of self in the back ground of Upanisadic non-

dualism. Maharshi accepts the Upanisadic definition of self as existence-

consciousness and bliss (sat-cit-ananda) Upanisadic descriptions such as

self is self effulgent self is infinite, self is pure, self is the heart and so on

find room in the philosophy of Maharshi. Further, the Maharshi's unique

interpretation of the self as "awareness" calls for special attention and

that also is undertaken in this section .

The fourth chapter titled 'Soul, World and God' gives an analysis

of what is said to 'the not-self' by the vedantins. The seeker of truth

should understand through discrimination that the self alone is truth and

the knowledge of the world and God is not knowledge, but ignorance

Ramana is of the view that the self alone is truth and the soul, world and

God are not real.

 The fifth chapter titled 'Self Enquiry and Realisation' is focussed on

Ramana's unique method of self enquiry. The enquiry 'who am I' is a

holistic method since it comprehends all other methods such as Karma,

Bhakti, Yoga and Jnana. The whole philosophy of Ramana centred round

the problem of self identity which can be translated in the form of the

enquiry 'who am I'. Since the question 'who am I' is capable of silencing

every questioner it is characterised as the supreme weapon of Ramana.

The query 'who am I' is directed towards the questioner himself. The

seeker is urged to find out his own identity before he seeks to solve the

problems of the world. This is the master question because here in lies

the solution to all problems of life.

The concluding chapter presents a summary evaluation of the foregoing

discussion and points out the universal validity of Sri Ramana's message.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. C.G. Jung. "Sri Ramana and His message to modem man," Golden Jubilee

Souvenir, 1946, p. 95.

2 . Dilipkumar Roy. "With Sage of Holy Hill-11." Forever is in the now, ed.

A.R. Natarajan, p. 156.

 17

3. Ibid.

4. Bhagavan Priya Ma. F. Taleyarkhan, Sages, Saints and Arunachala

Ramana, p. 159.

5. Viswanatha Swami. "Divine Grace and Spiritual Experience," The

Mountain Path, Oct. 1974, Vol. 11, p. 202.

6. T.M.P. Mahadevan. Ramana Maharshi and his Philosophy of

Existence, p.3.

7. Periya Puranam is the song of the lives of 6.3 Saiviti saints of ancient
Tamils sung by the Poet Saint Sekkiar, who was the Prime minister in
the Court of Kulothunga Chola who reigned during the eleventh
century. It is held in great Veneration as a bookof Jnana and Bhakti
(Venkataraman,Forward to Periya Puram. Trans. R.Ranga Chari).

8. B.V. Narasimha Swami. Self realisation, p. 24.

9. Sadhu Arunachala. "Sri Dakshinamurti and Sri Ramana," The

Mountain Path, Vol. 32, June 1995, p. 8.

10. Sankaracharya. "Vivekachudamani," com. by Jagad Guru Chandra

sekhara Bharati, Eng. trans. P. Sankaranarayanan,v. 368, p. 356.

11. Swami Rajeswarananda. and T.M.P. Mahadevan, "The Message of

Bhagavan Sri Ramana," Golden Jubilee Souvenir, 1946, p. 327.

12. Munagala Venkataramiah. Talks with SriRamana Maharshi, p. 67.

13. Ganapathi Muni. Forfy Verses in Praise of Ramana, v.32, p.13.

 18

14. A.R. Natarajan. Timeless in fime, p.201.

15. K. Swaminathan. "Maharshi Ramana," The Mountain Path, Vol. 36,

June 1999, p. 9.

16. A.R. Natarajan. op. cit., p. 166.

17. Munagala Venkataramiah. up. cif., p. 238.

19. Sankaracharya. Eight Upanisads, trans. Swami Gambirananda,

Mundaka, 1-1,p. 79.

20. Sri Ramana Maharshi. Forfy Verses on Realiv, trans. S.S. Cohen, v.
11, p.15.

21. Swami Ranganathananda. "Bhagavan Ramana and His immortal

message," Forever is in the now, ed. Natarajan A.R. pp.45-46.

22. Muruganar. The Garland of Guru 's Sayings, v. 1235, p.236.

23. A devotee. "An Interview in 1931." Forever is in the now. ed. A.R.
Natarajan, p. 90.

24. A.R. Natarajan. Timelessin Erne, p.119.

25. Kavyakanta Ganapathi Muni. See Chapter 11. P.2 4

26. Kavyakanta Ganapathi Muni. Forfy Verses in Praise of Ramana, p. 8.

27. Kavyakanta Ganapathi Muni. Ramana Gita, trans. A. R. Natarajan,

1-14, p.14.
28. Sri Ramana Maharshi. Upanesa %ram, trans. Sadasiva Giri, v. 23,
p.16.

29. Munagala Venkataramiah. op. cif.,p. 458.

30. Muruganar. op. cif.,v. 773, p. 148.

31. A.R. Natarajan. Timeless sin time, p. 183.