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The traditional Indian point of view as expressed in most scriptures and voiced by supermen and sages, is that the initiation or intervention of a guru is essential before one attain self-realization. Shankaracharya, whose teachings and doctrine! greatly influenced Sri Ramana Maharshi, says, 'The wise man who strives for his salvation, renounces his desire for the el1joy- went of external objects and betaking himself to a true teacher accepts his teaching with an unshaken mind'. Again he says in one of his verses: 'Worship the guru's feet and free yourself from the world. Curb the senses and see the Lord within your heart'. Most saints like Vivekananda and even the great Shankara- ; charya himself, had gurus. In this sense the Maharshi was an exception, inasmuch as he did not have any guru in person. He claimed his 'guru' to be the holy hill of Arunachala. 'His Father in quest of which he set out in accordance with his command'. At the southern poil1t of the hill there was a stone hall known as the Dakshinamurthi Mantapam. The Maharshi took this to be the shrine of Shiva teaching in silence. In the Eight stanzas on Sri Arunachala, he wrote: 'Who is the seer? When I sought within I watched the dissappearance of the seer and what survived it. No throught of "I saw" arose, so how could the throught "I did not see" arise? Who has the power to convery this in words when even Thou couldst do so in ancient days by silence only? Only to convey be silence Thy State Thou standest as a Hill shining from heaven to earth'. It was believed, according to a legend that Lord Shivamanifested himself as the hill of Arunachala declaring' As the moon derives it. light from the sun, so other holy places shall derive their sanctity from Arunachala. This is the only place where I have taken this form for the benefit of those who wish to worship me and obtain illumination. Arunachala is Om itself. I will appear on the summit of this hill every year at Karlikai in the form of a peace-giving beacon'. Although it is obvious that the visitors and devotees who came to have the Maharshi's darshan regarded him as a guru, he himself was of the view that god's grace and the rea- lization of the Self is the greatest gurukripa (blessing of the guru). When asked what guru-kripa was, and how it led to self-realization, he answered: 'Guru is the Self...Sometimes in his life a man becomes dissatisfied with it, and, not content with what he has, he seeks the satisfaction of his desires, through prayer to god etc. His mind is gradually purified until he longs to know god, more to obtain his grace than to satisfy his wordly desires. Then god's grace begins to manifest. God takes the form of a guru and appears to the devotee, teaches him the truth and, more- over. purifies his mind by association. The devotee's mind gains strength and is then able to turn inward. By meditation it is further purified and it remains still without the least ripple. That calm Expanse is the Self. “The guru is both”external” and “internal”. From the “exterior” he gives a push to the mind to turn inward; from the “interior” he pulls the minds towards the self and helps in the quieting of the mind. That is guru-kripa. There is no difference between god, guru and the self. The Maharshi did not believe that mere formal intiating by the guru would be of any help. It as the usual practice for a disciple to take such initiation. ‘Does the guru hold you by the hand and whisper in the ear? You may image him to be what you are yourself. Because you think you are with a body, you think he has also a body, to do something tangible to you. His work lies within, in the spiritual realm’. The guru will be found when the devote has reached the adequate spiritual development, not before. And it will, the Maharshi believed, not be in the form of a person, but an inner power which will guide him on the right path and make him realize the truth. “The sastras say that one must serve the guru for twelve years for getting Self-Realisation” the Maharshi told a visitor and devotee. “What does the guru do? Does he hand it over to the disciple? Is not the Self always realized? What does the common belief mean then? The man is always the Self and yet he does not know it. The disciple surrenders himself to the master. That means there is no vestige of individuality retained by the disciple. If the surrender is complete all individuality is lost and there is thus no cause of misery. The eternal being is only happiness. That is revealed. “Without understanding it aright, people think that the guru teaches the disciple something like tatvamasi (“that thou art”) and the discipline realizes “ I am Brahman”, In their ignorance they conceive of Brahman as something more huge and powerful than anything else. With a limited “I” man is so stuck up and wild. What will be the case of the same “I” grows up enormous? He will be enormously ignorant and foolish! This false “I” must perish. Its annihilation is the fruit of guru seva. Realization is eternal and it is not newly brought about by the guru, He helps in the removal of ignorance. That is all’. Thus the guru's function is only to make the devotee aware of his own Self. 'Liberation is not anywhere outside of you' .., explained the sage to a visitor. 'It is only within. If a man is anxious for deliverance, the guru within pulls him in and the guru without pushes him into the Self, This is the grace of the guru', The essential thing was the devotee's own effort. The guru was doubtless 'a powerful aid', But as the Maharshi said 'an aid to be effective requires your effort also, Your effort is a sine qua non. It is you who should see the sun. Can spectacles and the sun see for you? You yourself have to see your true nature, Not much aid is required for doing it'. Once the effort is made by the seeker of the guru, the guru is eager to give his grace. When he was asked 'Has god or the guru any solicitude for us?' he said 'If you seek either-they are not really two but one and identical-rest assured that they are seeking you with a solicitude greater than you can ever imagine', In Who am I? The Maharshi says 'God and guru are not really different: they are identical. He that has earned the grace of the guru shall undoubtedly be saved and never forsaken, just as the prey that has fallen into the tiger's jaws will never be allowed to escape, But the disciple, for his part should unswervingly follow the path shown by the Master'. Another disciple asked him: 'How can the Silence of the guru, who gives no initiation nor does any tangible act, be more powerful than his word etc ? How is such Silence better than the study of the scriptures?' The Maharshi said 'Silence is the most potent form of work. However vast and emphatic the scriptures may be, they fail in their effect, The guru is quiet and grace prevails in all. This Silence is more vast and more emphatic than all the scriptures put together,' Despite the fact that the Maharshi was so emphatic that a personal guru was not needed for realization, there can be no doubt that he himself was the guru incarnate. But what he said about the guru working from the interior was certainly true in his case. Many of his disciples, and of them quite a few foreigners, were drawn to him as iron by a magnet. For some of them it might have been mere curiosity, but whatever the motive, the very presence of the sage for whom preaching was needless for the very spiritual force radiating from him was more potent than any instruction they could possibly have wished for, was enough. The first European visitor to the asharma, F.H. Humphreys, described his impression of the Maharshi thus: 'On reaching the cave we sat before him at his feet and said nothing. We sat thus for a long time and I felt lifted out of myself. For half an hour I looked into the Maharshi's eyes, which never changed their expression of deep contemplation. I began to realize somewhat that the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, I could feel only that his body was not the man: it was the instrument of god, merely a sitting, motionless corpse from which god was radiating terifically. My own feelings were indescribable'. Another visitor, who was greatly moved by the Maharshi's divine presence was the American journalist and author, Paul Brunton. He says: 'It is an ancient theory of mine that one can take inventory of a man's soul from his eyes. But before those of the Maharshi I hesitate, puzzled and baffled... 'I cannot turn my gaze away from him. My initial bewilderment, my perplexity at being totally ignored, slowly fade away as this strange fascination begins to grip me more firmly. But it is not till the second hour of the uncommon scene that I become aware of a silent resistless change which is taking place within my mind. One by one, the questions which I prepared in the train with such meticulous accuracy drop away. For it does not seem to matter whether they are asked or not, and it does not matter whether I solve the problems which have hitherto troubled me. I know only that a steady river of quietness seems to be flowing near me, that a great peace is penetrating the inner reaches of my being, and my thought- tortured brain is beginning to arrive at some rest,' Others felt, in their own different ways, the supreme magnetism of the Maharshi. 'I am not in the least bothered about the riddle of the universe; 'says Rao Sahib Sri K,K, Nambiar who came to visit him, 'it doesn't matter to me whether the world is real or unreal. All that I cherish most is to live and act in Sri Bhagavan and, with his image indelibly imprinted in my heart, to perform the duties allotted to me in life, for I trust and believe that sage Ramana is really God-incarnate.' K.S. Venkataramani says: 'Sri Bhagavan is an ocean of tranquillity. There is a Peace in his presence that passeth all comprehension. He greets you and clasps you not by the monkey-hand of the mind, but the invisible divine feelers of his heart. His entire approach to you is not objective, is not through the predatory mind, It is an all-inclusive grace. It is an embrace of his entire personality.'llo It would be mere repetition to detail the various impressions of the sage, recorded by those who entered his divine presence. They prove what he himself told his devotees-that the best initiation of the disciple by the guru is by silence. Did the Maharshi give initiation (diksha) in the usual manner of gurus? There does not seem to be any formal intiation of the kind, and he was himself non-committal about it. Mr Evans-Wentz- asked him 'Does Sri Bhagavan initiate his disciples?' The Maharshi did not give any answer, but a devotee who was present there, explained to the visitor 'Maharshi does not see anyone as outside his own Self. So there are no disciples for him. His grace is all-pervading and he communicates his grace to any deserving individual in silence.' Others were more persistent, The renowned musician, Dilip Kumar Roy asked him 'Some people report Maharshi to deny the need of a guru. Others say the reverse. What does Mabarshi say? 'The sage told him 'I have never said there is no need for a guru.' Major Chadwick questioned the sage very closely and minutely about it. Maharshi's biographer has given a complete account: Ch. Bhagavan says he has no disciples? Bh. Yes. Ch. He also says that a guru is necessary if one wish to attain Liberation? Bh. Yes. Ch. What then must I do ? Has may sitting all these years. been just a waste of time? Must I go and look for some guru in order to receive initiation seeing that Bhagavan says he is not a guru? Bh. What do you think brought you here such a long distance and made you remain so long? Why do you doubt? If there had been any need to seek a guru elsewhere you would have gone away long ago.".' The guru or the gnani (Enlightened One) sees... no differen(;'e between himself and others. For him all are gnanis, all are one with himself, so how can 'it. gnani say that such and such is his disciple? But the unliberated one sees all as multiple, he sees all as ," different from himself, so to him the guru disciple relationship is a reality, and he needs the grace of the ,,' guru to waken him to reality. For him there are t three ways of initiation, by touch, look and silence. (Sri Bhagavan hero gave me to understand that his way was by silence, as he has to many on other occasions). Ch. The Bhagavan does have disciples! Bh. As I said, from Bhagavan's point of view there are no disciples, but from that of the disciple the grace of the guru is like an ocean. If he comes with a cup he will only get a cupful. It is no use complaining of the niggardliness of the ocean; the bigger the vessel the more ho will be able to carry. It is entirely up to him. Ch. Then to know whether Bhagavan is my guru or no is just a matter of faith, if Bhagavan will not admit it Bh. (Sitting straight up, turning to the interpreter an. speaking with great emphasis). Ask him, does he want me to give him a written document .? That explains the Maharshi's views about the guru very fully and clearly. It reiterates that silence is the best, indeed the only, communication, between the guru and the disciple, As Farquhar says 'Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.' A true sage has no need to preach. Indeed there is nothing new that can be told. The gulf between good and evil, between sin and sinlessness, is so great that it would only be a fool or a villain who is unable to grasp it. As Tulsidasa says in the Ramacharitamanasa 'Everyone knows the difference between good and evil; What is needful is that the guru should be able to convey to the disciple the strength to do good and avoid evil. The extent to which the guru is able to do so depends to a large extent, as the Maharshi explained to Major Chadwick, on the disciple's receptivity. The Maharshi would begin by 'ignoring' the disciple. At least to the disciple it appeared so. But he was not really ignoring anyone of the multitude who flocked to the asharama. His keen penetrating glance was on each of them. But the rapport was established only with the one who was prepared for initiation. The merely curious person returned with his curiosity satisfied. But he gained nothing. After what might seem to the true disciple, interminable silence (Paul Brunton had to wait two hours before he felt the sage's grace seeking him), the mystic power of the Maharshi would seep through, uplifting, elevating and filling the devotee with bliss. This alone was initiation, as far as the Maharshi was concerned. It is customary for the Indian disciple to approach the guru with some fruits, flowers, or other gifts. The Maharshi disfavoured this practice, but it was such a customary one that he could hardly do anything about it. He gave a befitting reply when the question about presents was raised. A disciple said 'Is it not to obtain the guru's grace that presents are offered to him? So the visitors offer presents to Bhagavan. 'Why do they bring presents ?' the sage said. Do I want them? Even if I refuse, they thrust the present on me! What for? Is it not like giving a bait to catch the fish? Is the angler anxious to feed them? No, he is anxious to feed on the fish !' Mere learning gave the disciple no advantage. What was needful was the enthusiasm and sincerity of the devotee. A disciple asked the Maharshi 'Is not the literate man better qualified for Enlightenment in the sense that he standi in no need of guru kirpa?' The Maharshi told him, 'Even a learned man must bow before the illiterate sage. Illiteracy is ignorance and education is learned ignorance. Both are ignorant of the true Aim. The sage is ignorant in a different line. He is ignorant because there is no "other" for him.' In his views about a guru the Maharshi's attitude was unconventional. The usual practice was formal initiation allied with some kind of ceremony. According to him there was no need of a personal guru, even though disciples came to seek his blessings from all the corners of the world. As he himself said initiation could be by a touch, a look or by silence. He preferred silence. His disciples sat in his presence hour after hour. And with not a word spoken on either side, the light of Self-realization would shine. |