Letter 81

(81) SIVA BHAKTA SUNDARAMURTI
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26th January, 1947
Yesterday, while Bhagavan was going through Thiruchuli Puranam, spoke thus regarding the events connected with the visit of Sundaramurti to this holy place: “The venerable Sundaramurti, born in the amsa (part) of Aalaala Sundara, who emanated from the reflection of Lord Siva, with the Somasekhara (with moon in his crown), acquired the friendship of the Kerala king, Cheraman Perumal Nainar, in the course of his wanderings as a pilgrim. Then they both went to Madurai on pilgrimage. The Pandyan king, as well as his son-in-law, the Chola king, extended a very warm welcome to them and expressed their happiness at being their hosts.

Sundaramurti worshipped God Sundareswara, the husband of the goddess Meenakshi, and sang the praise of the god with his poetic skill. Accompanied by the Chera king he visited and worshipped at the sacred shrines of the south, namely Thirukuttralam, Thirunelveli, and Rameswaram. From there he visited the sacred shrine of Thirukkedeswara in Lanka Dwipa (Ceylon) and offered worship. There he remembered Thrisulapuram (Thiruchuli), which is the Muktinagar (city of salvation) and proceeded thither. As they approached that city, the crowds saw them both resplendent as though the sun and the moon appeared at the same time. Sundaramurti was happy to have the darshan of Lord Bhuminatha and offered worship with the song, beginning with ‘Unaiuyir puhalai’ and was overwhelmed with devotion. He decided to stay in that holy place for a while, and so resided in a mutt (monastery) on the bank of the river Kowndinya.

“One night during his stay there, Lord Siva appeared to him in a dream with a ball in his hand (ball is the symbol of kingship) and a crown on his head, as a youth of incomparable beauty and with a smile dancing on his lips, and said, ‘We stay in Jyotivana (Kaleswara)’. On hearing these words, Sundaramurti woke up with excitement, and recollected the glorious kindness of the Lord who appeared and showered benevolence on him, and narrated the wonderful vision to the Chera king with joy. There and then he sang, overwhelmed with devotion, the Thevara Pathikam on Lord Kaleswar, commencing with the words, ‘Thondar adithozhalum’.

“From there they started to visit the far off holy place, Thiruppunavayil, and even as they started, God Kaleswara, who had appeared in the dream of Sundaramurti, and Amba approached them in the guise of an old brahmin couple. When Sundaramurti asked them, ‘Who are you? Where do you come from?’ they replied, ‘We shall talk about that later. First give us food. We are hungry.’ Sundaramurti consented and got food prepared and looked for the couple to serve it to, but they were not to be seen anywhere. All the lanes and by-lanes of the village were searched but they could not be found anywhere. They came back to the mutt only to find that the food that was cooked had all disappeared and the leaves in which the food was eaten were thrown all over the yard.

Sundaramurti was wonder-struck and exclaimed, ‘Ah! What a wonder is this! What can this be except the leela (game) of the Lord of the Universe?’ As he arrived at this conclusion, he heard an invisible voice: ‘Where do you intend going without seeing us that reside in the Jyotivana?’ Sundaramurti was wondering where that Jyotivana was and how to go there, when the invisible voice once again said, ‘We are proceeding there on the vehicle of the sacred bull Nandi. You may also come there, following its footsteps.’

“Sundaramurti followed the footsteps accompanied by the devotees there; but suddenly the track disappeared. As he stood there in confusion, the invisible voice was heard to say, ‘Look carefully.’ As he followed carefully the footsteps he saw a particular place full of Siva Lingas. There was no space even for a single step forward and he and the other devotees stood there in confusion. Suddenly he saw a narrow footpath and they followed it, on and on until at last they beheld the temple of Kaleswara. They all took their bath in the tank in front of the temple and, as they were thinking of going into it, all on a sudden, the temple with its tower disappeared. Sundaramurti was wonder-struck and sang some songs in praise of the Lord, conveying the idea, ‘Is this the result of my not having come for worship in your temple before bathing?’ At once, a whole view of jyoti (light) appeared and the view of the peak of a temple tower and then the temple itself with its compound wall. He was overjoyed, had a darshan of God, worshipped Him and sang songs in praise of Him, and then proceeded on his pilgrimage. This is a wonderful story. There are many more stories of him,” said Bhagavan.

He is the same Sundaramurti that was referred to in my letter printed earlier under the heading, “Swami is everywhere,” (No. 70). His story is given in detail in the Sanskrit works Siva Bhaktha Vilasam, Upamanya Bhaktha Vilasam and in the Telugu works, Panditharadhya Charitra and Basava Puranam of the poet Palakurthi Somanatha.

Bhagavan told us once before that the devotion of Sundaramurti to the Lord is that of a friend, of Manikkavachakar that of the beloved, of Appar that of a servant, and Sambandar that of a son.

Please also see Spiritual Stories told by Bhagavan (53).

Letter 80

(80) ANECDOTES REGARDING LIFE AT VIRUPAKSHA CAVE
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25th January, 1947
Vasudeva Sastry who used to look after the routine work while Bhagavan was in Virupaksha Cave, came to the Ashram the other day and sat down in the presence of Bhagavan.

After the preliminary enquiries about his welfare, Bhagavan told us that it was this Sastry who started the Jayanthi celebrations. A devotee asked, “Is he the person who got frightened, and hid himself when a tiger appeared?” “Yes.

It is he,” Bhagavan replied. “During our stay in Virupaksha Cave, we were all seated on the front verandah one night when a tiger appeared in the valley below. We put a lantern outside the railings of the verandah as we thought that the tiger would not approach us because of the light. Sastry however was very afraid. He therefore crept into the cave and asked us also to do likewise; but we refused. After entering the cave, he bolted the iron-barred door and from there tried to frighten the tiger, like a great warrior, saying, ‘Look! If you come this way, take care. Take care of what I’ll do. Yes! What do you think! Bhagavan is here! Take care.’ All these heroics were from inside the cave and were like those of Uttarakumara (in the Mahabharata story). The story is, Uttarakumara, son of the ruling king Virata, started out with Arjuna, boasting of his prowess but took to heel when he faced the enemy. Arjuna finally won the battle. The tiger loitered about for a while and then went its own way. Sastry then ventured to come out --- a very brave man indeed,” said Bhagavan.

Photo of entrance to Virupaksha Cave, 2006

Sastry took up the thread of the conversation and said, “That was not the only occasion. Another time, in broad daylight, Swamiji and I were seated on a rock outside the cave. In the valley below, a tiger and a leopard were playing with each other and Bhagavan was smiling as he watched the friendly movements of the two animals. I was however in a terrible fright and requested Bhagavan to come into the cave. He was adamant and sat there motionless. As for myself, I sought the shelter of the cave. The two animals played about for a while, looked at Swamiji, in the same way as pets do, and without any fear or expression of anger, went their own way, one going up the hill and the other down. When I came out of the cave and asked, ‘Swamiji, weren’t you afraid when the two animals were playing about so close to you?’ Bhagavan said with a smile, ‘Why have fear? I knew as I saw them that, after a while, one of them would go up the hill and the other down. And they did. If we get frightened and say, ‘Oh! A tiger!’ they will also get frightened and say, ‘Oh! A man!’ and will rush forward to kill us. If we do not have that fear, they too will not have any fear, and will then move about freely and peacefully.” “In spite of all that Bhagavan had said,” Sastry added, “my fear never left me.”

“It was Sastry who embraced me and wept when my heart stopped beating,” said Bhagavan and narrated the incident thus: “One day I went to the tank in front of Pachiamman Koil with Vasu and others for a bath, and we were returning by a short cut, when, as we approached the tortoise rock, I felt tired and giddy and so sat down on the rock. My experience at that time has been recorded in my biography,* as you all know,” said Bhagavan. Taking up the thread of the conversation, Sastry said: “Yes. While all else stood at a distance weeping, I suddenly embraced him. I was a bachelor at the time and had the liberty to do so. No one else used to touch Swami’s body. He was in that state for about ten minutes, I think, and then gained consciousness. I jumped about with joy. ‘Why this weeping? You thought I was dead? If I am to die, will I not tell you beforehand?’ Bhagavan said, consoling us.”

Photo inside Virupaksha Cave of Bhagavan and Ganapathi Muni (taken Feb 2006)

---

* “Suddenly the view of natural scenery in front of me disappeared and a bright white curtain was drawn across the line of my vision and shut out the view of nature. I could distinctly see the gradual process. At one stage I could see a part of nature clear, and the rest was being covered by the advancing curtain. It was just like drawing a slide across one’s view in the stereoscope. On experiencing this I stopped walking lest I should fall. When it cleared, I walked on. When darkness and a fainting feeling overtook me a second time, I leaned against a rock until it cleared. And again for the third time I felt it safer to sit, so I sat near the rock.

Then the bright white curtain had completely shut out my vision, my head was swimming, and my blood circulation and breathing stopped. The skin turned a livid blue. It was the regular death- like hue and it got darker and darker. Vasudeva Sastri took me in fact to be dead, held me in his embrace and began to weep aloud and lament my death. His body was shivering. I could at that time distinctly feel his clasp and his shivering, hear his lamentation and understand the meaning. I also saw the discolouration of my skin and I felt the stoppage of my heart beat and respiration, and the increased chilliness of the extremities of my body. Yet my usual current of “Self-effulgence” (Atma-sphurana, Self-awareness) was continuing as usual in that state also.

I was not afraid in the least, nor felt any sadness at the condition of my body. I had closed my eyes as soon as I sat near the rock in my usual padmasana posture but was not leaning against it. The body which had no circulation nor respiration maintained that position. This state continued for some ten or fifteen minutes. Then I felt a shock passing suddenly through the body, circulation revived with enormous force, as also respiration; and there was profuse perspiration all over the body from every pore. The colour of life reappeared on the skin. I then opened my eyes, got up casually and said, ‘Let us go.’ We reached Virupaksha Cave without further trouble. That was the only occasion on which both my blood circulation and respiration stopped.” Then the Maharshi added, to correct some wrong accounts that had been obtained currently about the incident, “I did not bring on the fit purposely, nor did I wish to see what this body would look like at death. Nor did I say that I will not leave this body without warning others. It was one of those fits that I used to get occasionally. Only it assumed a very serious aspect in this instance.”

Letter 79

(79) OMKARAM --- AKSHARAM
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24th January, 1947
Recently, as I was returning home from the Ashram one evening at about 5 p.m., I heard two young men having some discussion between themselves. One of them said, “I questioned Ramana Maharshi very boldly as to what remains after the Omkaram is crossed. He was unable to reply and so closed his eyes and slept. It is all a pose with him.”

Though, at the outset, I got angry at their speaking disparagingly about my Guru, I subsequently felt amused at their foolishness and said in a mild tone: “Sir, why do you decry your elders? Do we know, first of all, what Omkaram is, that we should venture to ask what remains after Omkaram?”

The young man replied, “I asked him only because I do not know. Why should he not reply suitably?” I said, “Please do not be impatient. If you ask him once again, with patience, you will know.” They went away that day, but were present in the hall the next day. Unexpectedly, some one else questioned Bhagavan thus: “Swamiji, it is said that Akara, Ukara, Makaras make up Omkaram. What is the meaning of these three letters? What is the embodiment of Omkaram?”

Bhagavan replied: “Omkaram itself is Brahman. That Brahman is the nameless and formless pure SAT. It is that that is called Omkaram. Akara, Ukara, Makara or Sat, Chit, Ananda --- any three of these two groups is Brahman.

Omkaram which is beyond the speech or the mind and which can only be experienced, cannot be described by word of mouth --- one cannot say what its swarupa (shape) is.” This reply also served to clear the doubts of the two youths who questioned him yesterday evening.

Similarly, someone or other used to ask Bhagavan, now and then, “What is the form of Akshara? What does it look like? How can we know it?” Bhagavan’s reply to all such questions was: “In accordance with the saying in the Gita, ‘aksharam brahma paramam’, ‘that which is supreme and permanent is the form of Akshara’.

As for the question how we can know it, the SELF is Akshara. That which is indestructible is Aksharam. How to know it? That question should arise only if Akshara were different from the Self. But the two are not different, but only one. That which is, is only one. That is SAT. That SAT is SELF; there is nothing else other than the Self. The proper thing to do is to enquire and know who the Self is and to remain in the Self.

Letter 78

(78) ANDAVANE
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20th December, 1946

Shantamma (head cook, standing behind Bhagavan), Ramanatha Brahmachari (standing, extreme left), Annamalai Swami (middle on bench, left)

A telegram was received at about 9 a.m. today informing us that Ramanatha Brahmachari, alias Andavane, expired in Madras last night. Someone informed me about it as I was entering the hall.

Ramanatha joined the group of Bhagavan’s disciples when quite young, when Bhagavan was still in Virupaksha Cave. After that he never left Bhagavan except for short intervals of about fifteen days in the year. This staunch devotee and lifelong brahmachari went to Madras for treatment and we heard the news of his demise within fifteen days. I entered the hall, feeling sad that it had happened the same way as with Madhavaswamy some time earlier, and simultaneously feeling gratified that he had left his skeleton-like body without much suffering. Bhagavan said to me, “It seems that our Ramanathan is gone.”

Once before, when Madhavaswamy died and Bhagavan told me, “Madhavaswamy has gone,” and I asked him, “Where to?” Bhagavan replied, “Where to? There, leaving his body here.” So I did not ask him again this time, “Where to?” but merely replied, “Yes I have heard so.” In the afternoon at 3 p.m., two ladies, Uma and Alamu, began to sing the Tamil verses “Ramana Anubhuti”.

Bhagavan told me with some feeling, “Look! These are verses written by Ramanatha himself; there is also another song with the pallavi (refrain) ‘Thiruchulinathanai Kandene’. That also was written by him.

There is an interesting story in this connection. During my stay in Virupaksha Cave, on one full- moon day we all started out on a giri pradakshina. Chidambaram Subramanya Iyer was here at that time. The moonlight was bright and all were in high spirits. They all decided to hold a meeting and each person was to deliver a lecture on a different subject. Subramanya Iyer was elected chairman of the meeting. The first lecture was by Ramanatha. The topic chosen by him was ‘The similarity between the Paramatma dwelling in the cave of the human heart, Lord Nataraja in Chidambaram and Sri Ramana in Virupaksha Cave’. The chairman allowed him half an hour. There was no end to the points of similarity elucidated by him. When the chairman declared that the time was up, Ramanatha said, ‘Just half an hour more please’. It was a meeting of people who were continuously walking. Saying, ‘A little more time, sir, a little more’, he went on with his speech for full three hours, when the chairman firmly put a stop to his further talking. You should have seen the enthusiasm with which he spoke that day. Subsequently, he summarised the points of the lecture into a song of four stanzas entitled, ‘Thiruchulinathanai Kandene’. Since the words ‘Andavane’ had occurred in the song several times, Ramanatha himself began to be called ‘Andavane’. Pranavanandaji attempted to translate the song into Telugu but the translation did not come out well.” “Oh! Is that the reason why he is called ‘Andavane’?” I said and read the song. Though it may not be much from a literary viewpoint, it was pleasant to hear it as it was composed with a fullness of heart. Its purport is as follows:

“I saw Thiruchulinathan* and, being unable to turn back, stood there transfixed. He is the Lord that dances in Chidambaram and that protects the helpless and is merciful to them. The same Thiruchulinathan manifested himself as God in Virupaksha Cave on the hill in the sacred Tiruvannamalai.

“Jiva was ruling unjustly in the town called Kayapuri, with the karanas as his subjects and ahankara as his minister.

“After some time, jiva took up the sword of God’s grace and cut off the head of his minister, ahankara.

“Having so cut off the minister’s head, jiva stood with God who was dancing all by himself in the cave called Daharalaya.

“He is this Thiruchulinathan; I saw him and stayed there, being unable to get away.”

* Thiruchuli is the village in South India where Bhagavan was born; it is also said to signify ‘Srikara’ and ‘Omkara’.

Letter 77

(77) ATMAKARAVRITTI (THE SOUL, ITS FORM AND ACTION)
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19th December, 1946
The day before yesterday an Andhra gentleman came and handed over to Bhagavan a letter containing the following question: “Some say that the Jnani is in the Atmakaravritti in the sleeping state and others say he is not. What is your opinion?” Bhagavan replied: “Let us first learn to be in the Atmic state, while in the waking state. There will be time enough then to consider what happens in the sleeping state.

Is he who is in the waking state not in the sleeping state, as well? Are you now in Atmakaravritti or in the Brahmakaravritti? First tell me that.” “Swamiji! I am not enquiring about myself, but about the Jnani,” said the questioner. “Oh! Is that so? That is all right, but you who are asking the question, first know about yourself. The Jnanis can look after themselves. We do not know about ourselves but we enquire about Jnanis. What does it matter to us whether they are in Atmakaravritti or in Brahmakaravritti? If we know about ourselves, the question about them does not arise,” replied Bhagavan. “Swamiji, this question is not my own, but is sent to me by a friend,” said the questioner.

“Indeed?” said Bhagavan, “Friends have asked the question. What are we to reply? When we say vritti, duality is implied, isn’t it? But that which IS, is only one. The question then arises, ‘Without the consciousness of the Supreme Being, how can there be any movement from the past to the present and the future? That is why we have to call it by some name or other, such as Akhandakaravritti (Akhanda --- limitless) or Atmakaravritti or Brahmakaravritti, just as we say that the river is Samudrakara (the shape of the ocean). All rivers fall into the ocean, get merged, lose shape and become one with the ocean. That being so, what is the meaning of saying of the river that it is Samudrakara? Has the ocean any shape, such as so much depth and so much width? In the same way, people merely say that the Jnani has Akhandakaravritti or Atmakaravritti but, in reality, it is all one. All these are merely replies to questioners, but in the eyes of the Jnani the whole thing is only ONE.” “Have the Brahmavid, Brahmavidvara, Brahmavidvareeya and Brahmavidvarishta and others all got a satvic mind?” some one else asked. “It is all the same whether you say Brahmavidvarishta, Brahmavid or Brahman itself” Bhagavan replied. “Like Brahman means Brahman itself. We shall have to say that the above four have satvic minds in common parlance but, in fact, there is no such thing as mind for them.

Vasanas themselves are the mind. If there are no vasanas there is no mind. That which IS, is Sat. Sat is Brahman. That is self-luminous. That is Atman, and that is the SELF. Names like Brahmavid, Brahmavidvareeya, Brahmavidvarishta are given to those men of wisdom who, by Self-enquiry, realise the Truth and remain firmly in that Knowledge of the SELF. The day to day actions are said to be in Atmakaravritti or Akhandakaravritti.”