Final Part - Tales Of Ramana Maharshi Recounted By Chalam

A devotee wanted to take a photo of Bhagavan together with Ganapati Muni. Bhagavan consented, and a carpet was spread near the well, on which a sofa was put for Bhagavan to sit on. Ganapati Muni sat down at his feet, but Bhagavan asked him to sit by his side. Ganapati Muni was reluctant, but Bhagavan lifted him up and made him sit on the sofa. The photo was taken, and some prints were made and distributed among
the devotees.

The Ashram authorities came to know about it when it was all over and, quite naturally, were indignant, for sitting on the same level with one’s Guru was a serious breach of custom, implying a claim for spiritual equality. The negative
and the prints had to be given up. But the man who had taken the photo refused to surrender his copy. It did not bring him any luck; shortly after he committed suicide. The question why Bhagavan forced Ganapati Muni to sit on the sofa was never answered. Maybe it was his way of bringing the deeply hidden weaknesses of everybody to the surface.

Bose and Yogi Ramaiah were accompanying Bhagavan up the hill. While they were waiting for him to return, Yogi Ramaiah told Bose that a cement platform would be useful
for Bhagavan to rest on. On his return Bhagavan was told of the idea and he said, “Don’t. If you construct a platform,somebody will erect a temple”.

Once a devotee asked Bhagavan, “Have you seen Shiva,Nandi and Kailas?” Bhagavan replied, “No, never. But the Self I see every moment”.

Source : RAMANA SMRTI Sri Ramana Maharshi Birth Centenary Offering 1980

Read More

Reasons why Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni Did Not Attain Liberation?

Author Of "Happiness And Art Of Living" Micheal James writes to me the reasons why Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni Did Not Attain Liberation recently.

----------

Arthur Osborne in Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge On page 106 of the 2002 edition it is written:

About 1934 Ganapati Sastri settled down in the village of Nimpura near Kharagpur with a group of followers and from then until his death some two years later devoted himself wholly to tapas (asceticism). Sri Bhagavan was asked once, after Sastri’s death, whether he could have attained Realization during this life, and he replied: “How could he? His sankalpas (inherent tendencies) were too strong.”

No one understood Kavyakanta as well as Bhagavan did, and he was very well aware of the fact that he had so many desires that he hoped to fulfil by his 'tapas'.

There are many examples in books and elsewhere of Bhagavan explaining what sort of character Kavyakanta was, and the following are just a few examples:

In Letters from Sri Ramanasramam Suri Nagamma records Bhagavan saying on 30th April, 1948 (Letter 185, p. 417 of the 2006 edition) that 'long before he began to write the Ramana Gita' Kavyakanta used to compose extempore verses and claim that they were from Ramana Gita, and Bhagavan commented about this, 'When he bluffed thus, no one dared to call his bluff, for he was a powerful personality, full of resourcefulness'.

In an article in his blog, The authenticity of Bhagavans writings and dialogues, David Godman records that Bhagavan told Swami Natanananda about Kavyakanta and how he came to write Sri Ramana Gita, 'They came to me, not to get knowledge of my teachings, but to convert me to their own. They tried to get me to agree with them, but I refused. Even though I wouldn’t say what they wanted me to say, they went ahead and published the book. This is a bit like a high-wire circus artist who falls off the wire, does a somersault on the way down to the safety net, and then pretends that falling off was all part of the act'.

In a series of articles that he wrote in the some of the 1954 issues of The Call Divine, Lakshmana Sarma ('Who', the author of Maha Yoga) writes many examples of what Bhagavan told him about Kavyakantha, particularly in the second of these articles in the August 1954 issue.

From the very beginning there were two schools of belief among the devotees of the Bhagavan. One school consisted of the famous Kavya Kantha Ganapati Sastri and his Disciples. These were adherents the Shaakta cult, which has tenets of its own, diametrically opposed to the Advaitic teaching of the Bhagavan. And they were actuated by a firm resolve to take over full control of the Bhagavan's teachings, so that they could interpret it in harmony with their own faith, or at least tone down the Advaitic trends of the teaching.

The Bhagavan Himself in due course explained the reason for this unexpected injunction. He knew - none so well as He - the besetting sin of the Kavyakantha School, namely their violent, fanatical hatred of Advaitic meta-physics, because they thought that it was inompatible with the tenets of their own Saakta cult. The fact that the Bhagavan imparted to this writer little by little narrating anecdotes exhibiting this serious drawback of the famous Ganapati Sastri.

One such anecdote related by the Bhagavan, was the following. A disciple and devotee of the Bhagavan, Swami Pranavananda, who was also a disciple of Ganapati Sastri prepared a Telugu translation of the Bhagavan's 'Who am I', and showed it to the Sastri for his approval. The latter after glancing through it, became aware of the unmistakable Advaitic trend of the Holy text. This roused his ire to the boiling pitch; he exclaimed: "I never expected that the Bhagavan would be guilty of partiality. I do not like this at all. Take this away." To give expression to the Advaitic Truth while instructing a devotee disciple was in his view 'partiality'.

Pranavananda in due course reported the whole incident to the Bhagavan. From this and other details narrated by the Bhagavan this writer came to understand the fact that the Kavyakantha group was incapable of giving a faithful interpretation of the Bhagavan's Teachings.

On the Sat Darsanam that was composed by the Kavyakantha, Kapali Sastri wrote a commentary in Sanskrit, and the two together were printed and published under the title Sat Darasana-Bhashyam. Later, English translation of the text and the commentary was prepared and that was also printed and published. The then Sarvadhikari of the Asramam demanded the surrender of the books and the copyright and this demand was complied with. Thus the Sat Darsana-Bhashyam was accepted as the authorised text book of the Asramam; presumably without the Bhagavan's approval being obtained.

All possible efforts had been made in this book to appear that the Master did not teach the Advaita standpoint. That standpoint was negated in every possible way. In the first it was made to appear that the Bhagavan did not teach the unreality of world. In the second place his teaching that the so-called individual is just an illusory being, a result of the wrong identification of the Real Self who is pure consciousness (Spirit), with the mortal gross body, was deliberately ignored, and in its place their own teaching was conveyed, that the individuality survives in the state of Deliverence as an entity distinct from God, who is the One Supreme Reality. That there is no place for this tenet in the Bhagavan's revelation is perhaps well known to the great majority of the Master's devotee-desciples.

These and other aberrations of the Kavyakantha School was later brought to the Bhagavan's notice, who explained that the Kavyakantha and his disciples were ardent adherents of the Saakta cult, implying thereby their unwillingness to allow Advaitic teaching to be conveyed as genuine teaching of the Bhagavan.

In translating one of the crucial verses of this revelation - the 13th verse - where it emphatically affirmed that the Real Self alone is the sole Reality, and that the world has no existence of its own, apart from that Self - there is an analogy given to make the teaching intelligible, namely jewels and gold; and there are adjectives unreal and real given in the text; the former qualifies jewels and the latter gold. The purpose is to show that in the Bhagavan's view the world is unreal and the Self alone real. If these adjectives be dropped, it can easily be made to appear that the world is real. And perhaps expressly for this purpose or because of KavyaKantha's ignorance of Tamil, these two adjectives are absent in the Sanskrit rendering of the text in the Sat-Darsana-Bhashyam.

Long after this book was published, the correct interpretation of the Ulladu Narpadu became available to disciples in the form of the book Maha Yoga where faithful translations of the relevant verses of this Revelation are given in their proper places. Before proceeding further it may be necessary to state that the Sat-Darsana-Bhashyam of the later has been modified by a disciple known as the Mouni, and so may not be as misleading as the first edition was.

The facts that Lakshmana Sarma wrote in these articles were known to many devotees who lived closely with Bhagavan, and I heard them confirmed by Swami Natanananda, Kunju Swami and others. From all that Bhagavan said about him, it is clear that Kavyakantha had many strong desires and ambitions that made it difficult for him to accept Bhagavan's teachings, and even more difficult for him to follow them. Therefore there is no wonder in the fact that Bhagavan said about him, 'How could he [have attained liberation]? His sankalpas were too strong'.

We cannot gain the real benefit of association with Bhagavan unless we are willing to surrender ourself entirely to him, which Kavyakantha was obviously not willing to do. What Bhagavan said in verse 152 of Guru Vachaka Kovai appears to apply to him:

Just as the dark shadow at the foot of a lamp ever remains unmoving, so delusive egos of some are not lost even though, due to their destiny [prarabdha], they live, grow old and die at the Feet of the Jnana-Guru, the unlimited Light of Knowledge; this is because of their immaturity.

Now regarding your more important question about work and renunciation, Bhagavan has made it clear that we must each do whatever work we are destined to do. For example, in the note that he wrote for his mother in December 1898, he said:

According to the prārabdha [destiny] of each person, God being in the heart of each person will make [him or her] act. That which is never to happen will not happen whatever effort [we] make [to make it happen]. That which is to happen will not stop whatever obstruction [or resistance] [we] do [to prevent it happening]. This indeed is certain. Therefore silently being [or being silent] is good.

Since we cannot do anything that we are not destined to do, and cannot avoid doing whatever we are destined to do, our outward actions do not bind us. What binds us is only the desire with which we do actions or refrain from doing actions. If we truly surrender ourself to his will, accepting with perfect equanimity whatever happens, then no action will bind us, but if we have even the slightest desire, aversion, like or dislike, we will be bound by our karmas.

Therefore we must completely surrender all our desires and ambitions (which Kavyakantha was unfortunately unwilling to do), and we can do this effectively only by surrendering the root of all desires, our ego. So long as we feel ourself to be a separate person, a body-bound mind or ego, we will constantly fall prey to desires. Therefore, to destroy all desires, we must completely surrender our mind or ego to Bhagavan, and the only way to do this is taught by him in the thirteenth paragraph of Nan Yar? (Who am I?):

Being completely absorbed in ātma-niṣṭha [self-abidance], not giving even the slightest room to the rising of any other cintana [thought] except ātma-cintana [self-contemplation or self-attentiveness], alone is giving ourself to God. …

In other words, the only truly effective means to surrender ourself completely to Bhagavan is to follow the simple non-dual path of ātma-cintana or ātma-vicāra that he has taught us. If we follow his teachings in this way, we will certainly attain liberation. Therefore can be no doubt about this.

Therefore let us each follow these simple teachings of Sri Bhagavan, and let us not worry about anyone else who happens to be unwilling to do so. Just as he has brought us to his path, he knows how to bring everyone to his path eventually, by gradually purifying their minds and freeing them from the desires that they have attached themselves to.

Though Kavyakantha did not attain liberation in this lifetime, his association with Bhagavan will not have gone in vain. Bhagavan will certainly do whatever is necessary to free him from all his deeply rooted desires and ambitions, and thereby to bring him eventually to practice the only real tapas, which is ātma-vicāra.

David Godman gives his views as below.

Yes, Bhagavan did say that Ganapati Muni did not realise the Self because his sankalpas were too strong. The incident was first recorded in the manuscript that later became Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. However, when it was first published in the 1950s, some of Ganapati Muni's followers persuaded Ramanasramam not to print it. I think the first time the story appeared in print was when Arthur Osborne put it in his biography.

Sources:

http://sites.google.com/site/tvmnotes/kls-calldivine-1stjun1954

http://sites.google.com/site/tvmnotes/kls-calldivine-1staug1954

Note: Readers should also note that we should not bother in detail about more reasons as we should remember that bhagavan says Each person had an allotted role to play in this world.

Below articles will give more information.

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/08/ramana-maharshi-says-each-person-had.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2010/03/ramana-maharshi-clarifies-regarding.html

Read More

Ramana Maharshi Devotee Kavyakanta Ganapati Sastry

IT was 1903. Bhagavan was seated at Adimudi shrine surrounded by disciples. A scholar from Andhra came and interpreted the famous invocatory sloka

“Suklambaradharam Vishnum sasivarnam catur bhujam prasanna vadanam dhyayeth sarva vighnopasantaye”

as if it applied to Bhagavan in this manner:“He also wears a white cloth (Kaupina); as he abides in the Self he is Vishnu (all pervading), he has devoured (destroyed)
Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara. He has a peaceful countenance, he removes all obstacles in the way of those who meditate.’’

The following year the same scholar visited Arunachala during Kritikkai and recited the one thousand slokas,entitled Sivasahasri, extolling the Deity. The listeners were
very pleased with the scholarship and beautiful style of the composition.

Everyone wondered who that person of simple appearance but with profound scholarship was. They came to know that he was from Andhra and belonged to Kaluvarayi agraharam near Bobbili. His name was Kavya Kantha Ganapati Sastry. They expressed their appreciation of the gifted and blessed being of rare talents.

Truly Ganapati was a blessed child. In 1878 his father Narasimha Sastry was performing japa at Kasi in front of Vinayaka’s image. He suddenly felt that a small boy was advancing towards him fromVinayaka. That was also the time when his baby son was born back home. The father named the child Ganapati.

Till he reached the age of five all kinds of ailments including dumbness troubled Ganapati. In his sixth year he was branded with a hot iron rod upon which all ailments left him. He was also able to speak thereafter.

He then began his studies. Thereafter his life was miraculous with unexcelled intellectual skills of great comprehension, phenomenal memory and amazing intuition.

There was nothing he could not understand, nothing he could not commit to memory after hearing once, no sastra that was not grist to his intellectual mill. By the time he was ten, he had memorized several kavyas. In Astrology he was capable of drawing up a panchangam.He also had the capacity to compose Sanskrit verses extempore. As he studied epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata two great ambitions arose in him.

One was to become a great poet like Vyasa and Valmiki - and why not, he thought, was he not already capable of composing poetry? The other ambition was this: in the puranas rishis like Viswamitra, and devotees like Dhruva had by the power of their japa become capable of creating a fresh world or obtaining an abiding place in the firmament.Why not he also become one like them? With such great ambitions the lad continued his studies.

By the time he was twelve, Ganapati composed a Sanskrit Kavya, Bhringasandesa in the mandakranta metre imitating the poet, Kalidasa. Within a couple of years he
was proficient in Chandas, Vyakarana, Kavyas, and Puranas. He was an extempore poet, an ashtavadhani and an orator.

In 1900, while he was at Kasi his friends encouraged him to visit Nawadweepa to participate in the scholars’ meet held there. At that meet of great and reputed scholars, he demonstrated his unmatched literary gifts and talents. Thus he earned the title “Kavya Kantha,” At that time, he was barely twenty two.

For the fulfilment of his second ambition, Ganapati got initiated in several mantras. Among these, his favourite was the Siva panchakshari. In order to perform japa in the
prescibed manner, he studied a number of agama sastras.He mastered all the spiritual literature in Sanskrit.

He got married at the age of eighteen but with the permission of his father and wife he left on a pilgrimage to the banks of Ganga, Narmada and Godavari to perform japa. He visited almost all the holy places of India twelve times, for performing japa. Though there were occasional spiritual experiences he did not obtain the darshan of Siva, which he desired ardently.

At Varanasi, the pleased goddess gave him honey in a dream. At Nasik the temple priest mistook him for a thief and the people of the place beat him up. In anger,he cursed that the people of Nasik should also be hurt like himself physically. Within one month, an unprecedented cyclone struck the town and hurt the people. He had divine powers but they were of no avail to himself!

As Ganapati Sastry was studying Vedic literature there arose before his mental eye the glorious Aryan civilisation where people lived in harmony and discipline and were
generally happy and peaceful. He compared it with the conditions obtaining in the country in his own time where people were rigid and lifeless. The people made themselves inflexible and bound themselves to various customs and above all, occupied the first place among the enslaved nations of the world!

He then resolved that he should reform society and restore ancient values. For this, he decided to bring together and lead young men dedicated to eradicating all the divisive forces in society and to performing mantra japa as the rishis of ancient times did so that a new Aryan society could be built. In this endeavour, Ganapati thought, mantra japa was the key.

Ganapati chanted the Sivapanchakshari a billion times; so also he wrote down the name of the Deity a billion times all of which had gone waste. In 1904 Ganapati was appointed as a Telugu pandit at Vellore. He began taking practical steps to realise his ideal and gathered a band of disciples round him. He spent his time in teaching than in imparting mantra japa to the students. He felt even that was not fruitful and decided to resume mantra japa at Arunachala and reached that place in 1907.

Even that was useless in that in spite of all his learning he could not grasp the implication of mantra japa. He was sorry that years of japa did not secure for him the darshan of his ishta devata.

He resolved to seek the Brahmanaswami’s refuge. He was not sure whether the Swami would still remember his interpretation of the sloka Suklambaradharam but thought
he would still seek the Swami’s guidance. The Swami was his only saviour, he concluded. Ganapati Sastry immediately set out for the hill in the hot midday sun.

By the time the emotion-charged Ganapati reached Virupaksha cave, the Swami was sitting alone on a rock.Ganapati prostrated before him and clasped his feet with both hands and in a choked voice said,

I have studied all that has to be studied. I have learnt Vedanta sastra completely. I have performed mantra-japa to my heart’s content. But till now I have not been able to grasp what tapas really means. I have now approached you to know what it is. Please enlighten me on the nature of tapas.

The Swami fixed his gaze on Ganapati for fifteen minutes. Ganapati was awaiting the reply anxiously. No one else intruded and disturbed them. The Swami spoke in Tamil- “If you enquire and observe where this I-thought arises from, the mind gets absorbed in it. That is tapas.While performing mantra japa if you enquire and observe where the sound of the mantra arises from, the mind gets absorbed in it. That is tapas.”


Ganapati Sastry stayed for some hours there and after ascertaining the name of the Brahmama Swami he composed extempore five slokas in praise of “Ramana”.At that time Sastry was not aware that Lakshmana Ayyar had referred to the boy Venkataraman as Ramana. Ganapati was instrumental in reviving the name which had fallen into disuse. The next day, Ganapati gave the upadesa to his disciples and told them that it was given by Ramana.

He also enjoined on them to refer to the Swami as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. This name became world famous.

In the first three months of 1908 the Maharshi,Ganapati, and other disciples stayed at the Pachaiamman Kovil at the foothill of Arunachala. Most of the expenses relating to the stay were borne by Ramaswamy Ayyangar,a devotee. During that period, Ganapati, took to meditation as taught by Bhagavan. One dawn, a brilliant light arose and touched the forehead of the Maharshi six times,Ganapati noticed this and also observed that the light got absorbed in the aura around the Maharshi’s head as six starlike formations.

Though he practised the Maharshi’s way Ganapati’s original ideals did not leave him. Towards the end of March (1908) he wanted to leave Arunachala and asked the Maharshi whether the enquiry into the source of the ‘Ithought’ would result in the fulfilment of his ideals or whether he had to do mantra japa also. The Maharshi replied that the former was enough. Ganapati also asked the Maharshi whether his intention was good, to which the latter replied “Leave everything to God, your burden will cease and He will take on your burden. He knows what to do.”

Much later Bhagavan said, “While God sustains the burden of the world, the spurious ego assumes its burden grimacing like an image on a tower seeming to support it.”

Reality in forty verses - Supplement verse 17
– Tr. K. Swaminathan

Kavya Kantha would visit Arunachala occasionally to have the darshan of Bhagavan. Between 1922 and 1929 he stayed at Arunachala with his family. Once, while at the mango tree cave the bones of his skull loosened and he experienced a softening of the area where the Brahmarandhra exists.

Ganapati himself confessed that however much he tried to follow the jnana marga he had not been able to achieve abidance in the Self. In the first years possibly the
latent tendencies proved to be insurmountable obstacles.Also, the activities of the sakti in the body were intense which it could not bear. On such occasions he would seek Bhagavan’s help and get over that.

Ganapati Sastry used to say that sakti was of two types- mahas and sahas of which the former was divine and that only when sahas got transformed as mahas the bones of the skull loosend. Because of this sakti he could not bear to touch any metallic object and he always had to wear sandals made of wood. A number of his disciples also had experienced that sakti. Any copper coin held in the palm became golden.

Bhagavan addressed Ganapati as “Nayana” as did the latter’s disciples. Ganapati was a great man with extraordinary foresight, and power of speech.

One may go to the extent of saying that he was a Vidyadhara in human form. His glory can be fully appreciated by going through Kapali Sastry’s Vasishta Vaibhavam. But for his ideals and love of the country which bound him, Ganapati would have attained Self realisation.

He wrote a lot of poetry in praise of Bhagavan, one of these poems, Sri Ramana Chatvarimsat was recited in Bhagavan’s presence every morning. It is still recited at Bhagavan’s shrine.

In order to realise his ambitions Ganapati participated in politics and social reform activities till 1930. Thereafter he gave them up and devoted himself to tapas. He left his mortal body on 25 July 1936 at Nimpura near Kharagpur in his ashram.

More than the service he did for Bhagavan, Ganapati’s service to the nation in propagating Bhagavan’s message is greater. The answers Bhagavan gave to the questions of the disciples were incorporated as slokas in Sri Ramana Gita composed by Ganapati Sastry. This book is an invaluable guide to all. Simirarly, he translated into Sanskrit Bhagavan’s Ulladu Narpadu under the title Sat-darsanam.

As early as 1903 Ganapati Muni, through his foresight, recognised the greatness of Bhagavan and spread the word. Under his guidance, his disciples Pranavananda and Kapali Sastry wrote commentaries on Bhagavan’s Upadesasaram and Sat-darsanam respectively. Kapali Sastry also wrote an excellent commentary on Bhagavan’s Arunachala Pancharatna. Ganapati’s disciples were all Bhagavan’s disciples too. They were spread all over the country and they carried forward Bhagavan’s message.

Source: SRI RAMANA LEELA (A BIOGRAPHY OF BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI) Telugu original Sri Krishna Bhikshu Edited and Translated by Pingali Surya Sundaram

Read More