Swami B.V. Narasimha Says Ramana Maharshi Was Exposed To Swami Vivekananda Works As Early As 1901

Narasimha reports (p. 23) that from 1900, G. Seshier of Tiruvannamalai visited Ramana. Seshier was studying yoga, especially Vivekananada’s English lectures on Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga and an English translation of the Rama Gita. He brought these books to Ramana and mentioned his difficulties.

Ramana then went through each of them and wrote out in easy Tamil prose the gist of these works on bits of paper and answered similarly supplemental questions. Thus Seshier had quite a sheaf of these slips written by the swami in 1900, 1901 and 1902, and he copied them into a small notebook.

Narasimha says that it is from these slips and Seshier’s notebook that Ramana’s book Vichara Sangraha (Self-Enquiry) was published (pp. 73-74). This fact is of enormous importance, since it shows that Ramana was exposed to Vivekananda’s neo-Hinduism at a very early date.

Although Ramana was acquainted with the neo-Hindu ideas of Vivekananda as early as 1901, and although Ramana adopted some of their ideas, he also makes some very traditional advaitic statements that there is no external world to help. For
example, Ramana was asked by a disciple, “How can I help others?” Ramana replied:

Who is there for you to help? Who is the ‘I’ that is to help others? First clear up that point and then everything will settle itself.

Inasmuch as there is no ego in him, there are not others for him. When there is no mind he cannot be aware of others (Talks, 552; Dec. 20, 1938).

Sources:

1) Swami B.V. Narasimha: Self Realization: The Life and Teachings of Sri Ramana
Maharshi (Tiruvannamalai, 1993, first published 1931) [‘Narasimha’].

2) Paul Brunton and Ramana Maharshi by Dr. J. Glenn Friesen