Desirelessness and Devotion

To the extent to which the conviction grows stronger in us that all the extroverted activity of the mind is only misery, to that extent the desire and love to turn within will also increase. And to the extent to which the strength to attend to Self increases in us, to that extent the conviction will grow that attending to anything other than Self is useless. Thus each one of these two (namely vairagya or desirelessness towards external objects and bhakti or the love to attend to Self) is an aid to increase the other.

~ Sri Sadhu Om, Sadhanai Saram, verse 56

To obtain his Sat-sanga, we have but to think of Him, pray to Him, read His teachings, reflect on them and practise them.

"Sri Bhagavan's help and guidance is never lacking or insufficient," Sri Sadhu Om used to tell people, "indeed, His Grace is the sole existing reality in this false world. There can never be any need of any devotee of Sri Bhagavan to go to any other God or Guru. No intermediary is necessary between Him and us. Of his own accord, He directly contacts the heart of each devotee who comes to Him, without the need for any intercession from others. To obtain his Sat-sanga, we have but to think of Him, pray to Him, read His teachings, reflect on them and practise them. Such mental contact with the Sadguru is the best Sat-sanga. And if at all we want Sat-sanga with His physical form, He is and ever will be standing here in the form of Arunachala. In his works Sri Bhagavan has revealed that Arunachala is Himself, and He has said that just as we identify our bodies as 'I', so Lord Siva, the Supreme Reality, who is none other than Sri Bhagavan, has chosen to identify this Hill as 'I' in order to guide us and give us solace. Arunachala is the foremost physical embodiment of the reality or Sat, so there is no better form of outward Sat-sanga than to live in Tiruvannamalai and to do Arunachala-pradakshina."

Sri Sadhu Om truly stood as a peerless example of perfect Guru-bhakti. Though there were some people who wished to take him as their Guru, he always steadfastly refused to accept for himself the position of Guru. He often used to point to the shining example of Sri Muruganar, who was the foremost disciple of Sri Bhagavan yet who never accepted for himself the position of Guru even after Sri Bhagavan had left the body. Sri Sadhu Om used to say that one of the most important signs of a true disciple of Sri Bhagavan is that he will never accept for himself the position of Guru but will always encourage all devotees to take Sri Bhagavan alone as their Guru. Occasionally people used to ask Sri Sadhu Om whether it is not necessary for an aspirant to have a living Guru, but he always replied, "The Guru alone is living, we are all dead. If by the term 'living Guru' you mean a Guru whose body is living, then such a living Guru will one day become a dead Guru. What is the use of such a Guru who will not be living forever? But if you take Sri Bhagavan alone as your Guru, then you will have an ever-living Guru, because Sri Bhagavan is the ever-existing Self shining in the hearts of all people.

~ Michael James, "Sri Sadhu Om: An Exemplary Devotee"

The mind is destroyed only when it turns toward the first person!

~ Sri Sadhu Om, The Path of Sri Ramana -- Part One

unnecessary running

An invitation once came to Sri Swamigal [Sadhu Om] from an earnest seeker in the U.S.A., "Will you not come to the West and guide us?"

His attitude is shown clearly in his reply, which ran as follows:

"...It is therefore unnecessary for the Reality to run after the world. Moreover, according to the great truth discovered and revealed by Sri Ramana Bhagavan, a good person leading a simple yet highly spiritual life and passing away unknown to the world does far more good to the world than all the political and social reformers and all the platform-heroes of philosophy. A truly enlightened life will surely help earnest seekers even though they may be living in a remote corner of the world and even without any physical contact, communications, magazines or writings. This is Sri Ramana Maharshi's method of teaching the world through speech-transcending Mystic Silence, the greatest Power. Is it not up to us to follow the footsteps of our Guru, Sri Ramana? ... So why should I think of going anywhere? As He who has guided me to His home is the Father, Lord and inmost Self of one and all, does He not know best how to guide home earnest seekers, wherever they may be? Why then should an ego rise with the thought 'I should guide people'? If such an 'I' were to rise, would it not be a self-conceited attempt to belittle the Grace of Sri Ramana, the one reality? Therefore, the thought of going to the West or the East, or here, there or anywhere else, has never occurred to me and will never occur to me!"

~ from the Preface to the Fourth Edition of Sri Sadhu Om's The Path of Sri Ramana

witnessing thoughts and events?

The practice of witnessing thoughts and events, which is much recommended nowadays by lecturers and writers, was never never even in the least recommended by Sri Bhagavan. Indeed, whenever He was asked what should be done when thoughts rise (that is, when attention is diverted toward second and third persons) during sadhana, He always replied in the same manner as He had done to Sivaprakasam Pillai in 'Who am I?' where He says:

"If other thoughts rise, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire 'To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires 'To whom did this rise?', it will be known "To me'. If one then enquires 'Who am I?', the mind (our power of attention) will turn back (from the thought) to its source (Self)".

Moreover, when He says later in the same work, "Not attending to what-is-other (that is, to any second or third person) is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]", we should clearly understand that attending to (witnessing, watching, observing or seeing) anything other than Self is itself attachment, and when we understand thus we will realize how meaningless and impractical are such instructions as 'Watch all thoughts and events with detachment' or 'Witness your thoughts, but be not attached to them', which are taught by the so-called gurus of the present day.

~ Sri Sadhu Om, The Path of Sri Ramana, chapter 7

But that is what actually happened

When in ancient days even Sri Dakshinamurti the Adi-guru, guru of all gurus was able to reveal the truth of that one Self only through silence, the speechless speech, who else can reveal it through speech?

In this connection, Sri Bhagavan once told the following story to Sri Muruganar. When the four aged Sanakadi rishis first saw the sixteen-year-old Sri Dakshinamurti sitting under the banyan tree, they were at once attracted by him, understanding him to be the real Sadguru.

They approached him, did three pradakshinas around him, prostrated before him, sat at his feet and began to ask very shrewd and pertinent questions about the nature of Reality and the means of attaining it. Because of the great compassion and fatherly love (vatsalya) which he felt for his aged disciples, the young Sri Dakshinamurti was overjoyed to see their earnestness, wisdom and maturity, and hence he gave apt replies to each of their questions.

As he answered each consecutive question, further doubts rose in their minds and still they asked further questions. Thus they continued to question Sri Dakshinamurti for one whole year, and he continued to clear their doubts through his compassionate answers.

Finally, however, Sri Dakshinamurti understood that if he gave more answers to their questions more doubts would rise in their minds and hence there would never be an end to their ignorance (ajnana). Therefore, suppressing even the feeling of compassion and fatherly love which was welling up within him, he merged himself into the supreme silence. Because of their great maturity (which had been ripened to perfection through their year-long association with the Sadguru), as soon as Sri Dakshinamurti thus merged himself, they too were automatically merged within, into silence, the state of Self.

Wonder-struck on hearing Sri Bhagavan narrating the story in this manner, Sri Muruganar remarked that in no book is it mentioned that Sri Dakshinamurti ever spoke anything.

"But this is what actually happened" replied Sri Bhagavan.

From the authoritative way in which Sri Bhagavan thus replied and from the clear and descriptive way in which he had told the story, Sri Muruganar understood that Sri Bhagavan was none other than Sri Dakshinamurti himself.

~ Sadhu Om, from The Silent Power

The waxing of this thought 'I' is indeed the waxing of misery! This thought 'I' alone is what is called the ego. It is only because of non-enquiry that this 'I' has come into existence and is flourishing! If, instead of being favoured, it is enquired into, 'What is this I?', it will disappear, losing its existence.

~ Sri Sadhu Om, Atma Vichara Patikam

Sadhu Om's love for Muruganar

The intimate spiritual and literary friendship, which existed between Sri Muruganar and Sri Sadhu Om was forged by Sri Ramana Himself on the very first day in 1946 that Sri Sadhu Om came to Him.

On that day Sri Sadhu Om sang before Sri Ramana the song Kuyilodu Kooral, which had spontaneously surged forth from his heart a few days earlier and in which all his feelings of intense longing to see Sri Ramana were expressed in a most heart-melting manner; after hearing that song, Sri Ramana read through it carefully and asked Sri Sadhu Om to show it to Sri Muruganar. Thus started the deep and intimate friendship between these two great poet-saints, which in course of time proved most fruitful.

...

The great love and high regard which Sri Sadhu Om had for Sri Muruganar can clearly be seen in all his Tamil prose writings about him, selections from which have been compiled, translated and included in this book under the title ‘Sri Muruganar - The Right Hand of Sri Bhagavan’, but perhaps his love can be found expressed most poignantly in two verses which surged in his heart during the night after Sri Muruganar left his physical body. In the first verse, addressing the contemporary world, which had failed to understand the greatness of Sri Muruganar, he sang:

“The cuckoo who sang (in your midst) for eighty-three years with a sweet voice of cultured, spiritual, ancient Tamil has gone, flying off into the great space of Sri Ramana, the exalted treasure of austerity with which the world has been blessed. What will you do now?”

In the second verse, addressing and consoling those Ramana devotees who had true love for Sri Muruganar, he sang:

“Does ‘Muruganar’ mean the four-cubit body? O you who have love for Muruganar, who is Muruganar?

Know that Muruganar is only the Eye of Self-Knowledge given by Annamalai-Ramana,
the ancient Siva.”

~ from the essay "Sri Muruganar and Sri Sadhu Om" by Michael James, in Ramana's Muruganar, compiled and edited by A. R. Natarajan

unfailing guidance

In accordance with this teaching of Sri Ramana, Sri Muruganar exemplified the humble state of being a true disciple, and hence (as I have explained elsewhere*) he never allowed anyone to consider or treat him as guru. Even after Sri Ramana had left his physical body, Sri Muruganar discouraged devotees from considering either himself or any other disciple of Sri Ramana as guru, saying that for devotees of Sri Ramana no other guru is necessary, because he is always living within each one of us as our own self, guiding us unfailingly towards our final goal, the egoless state of true self-knowledge.

~ Michael James, from the Introduction to Guru Vachaka Kovai (the one translated by Michael James and Sri Sadhu Om ... please see: http://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2007/09/guru-vachaka-kovai-e-book.html)

*Sri Sadhu Om often said that no true disciple of Sri Ramana can be a guru, because Sri Ramana alone is the guru of all who are attracted to his teachings. Whenever anyone asked him whether it is not necessary for us to have a 'living guru', Sri Sadhu Om used to laugh and say, "guru alone is living, and we are all dead", and he explained the real guru is not a physical body but is the ever-living spirit, the infinite consciousness of being that exists within each one of us as our own true self.

Advaita within the Heart

This is taken from the end of an essay on David Godman's site in which he explains verse 39 from Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham:


Keep advaita within the Heart. Do not ever carry it into action. Even if you apply it to all the three worlds, O son, it is not to be applied to the Guru.



Extending this analogy into the spiritual realm, the disciple may have attained oneness with his or her Guru, but the behaviour he or she exhibits is always reverent and deferential. This is what Sadhu Om has to say on this point in his commentary on this verse:



When the Sadguru has destroyed the ajnana that is his disciple’s individual consciousness; when he has graciously bestowed upon him the experience of non-duality; and when he has made him one with himself in the state where duality is no more; even then, such a disciple will always serve his Sadguru and show for him a fitting respect, and will continue to venerate his name and form. Although, in an inner sense, it is not possible to show a reverence that is dualistic in the state of oneness where duality is not present, still, that disciple will show respect outwardly, just as a wife acts respectfully toward her husband.

... as long as the Guru and disciple appear in the perceptions of others as separate individuals, possessing individual minds and bodies, it will always appear to others that they are, in reality, separate from each other. Therefore, even when this perfected disciple who knows reality attains the non-dual state in which, in his Heart, he and his Guru are one, he will always conduct himself in a subservient and deferential manner toward his Sadguru, such that other disciples, taking him as an example, will follow him and behave in a fitting manner.(17)



I have found this to be true with all the great teachers and enlightened beings I have been associated with. Nisargadatta Maharaj, for example, did an elaborate Guru puja every day of his life, long after he had realised the Self. One morning, just before he started, he paused to give an explanation of this daily ritual.

‘I don’t need to do this at all. There is nothing that I can gain from it because I know who and what I am, and what I am cannot be added to in any way. My Guru asked me to do bhajans and puja every day, and even though I no longer use them to attain a spiritual goal, I will continue to do them until the day I die because my Guru asked me to do them. In carrying out these orders I can show not only my respect for his words but also my continuous, undiminishing gratitude to the one who gave me the knowledge of who I really am.’

Muruganar wrote thousands of verses in which he thanked Bhagavan for bestowing the state of liberation on him, but he still did elaborate full-length prostrations whenever he came into Bhagavan’s presence. Sometimes he would remain lying on the floor after his namaskaram was completed and talk to Bhagavan while he was still prostrate at his feet. Viswanatha Swami used to make fun of Muruganar for this, calling the resulting conversations ‘lizard talk’.

Once, while I was sitting with Papaji, someone asked him if he had any regrets about his life. At first he answered ‘no,’ but after a few seconds’ reflection he added, ‘Actually, I do have one regret. Because my legs are now almost paralysed, I can no longer throw myself full length on the floor at the feet of my Master.’ In his later years he had to be content with a standing ‘namaste’ whenever he wanted to pay his respects to Bhagavan’s image.

And what about Bhagavan himself? His respect and veneration towards Arunachala, his Guru, were legendary. However, I will just mention one interesting point. When he composed his philosophical works such as Upadesa Undiyar and Ulladu Narpadu, his tone was non-dualistic. The verses were an uncompromising expression of what the Anubandham verse calls ‘advaita within the Heart’. However, when Bhagavan wrote about his Guru, Arunachala, in his devotional poems, he often adopted the pose of the loving, grateful devotee, a standpoint that enabled him show proper respect and veneration to the form and power of the mountain.

One final story about Bhagavan: when Arunachaleswara (the God Arunachala who is the principal deity in the Tiruvannamalai temple) was being taken in procession around the hill in the 1940s, it stopped outside the gate of Sri Ramanasramam. Bhagavan noticed it as he was taking a walk to the cowshed. He sat on a bench to watch, and when devotees brought him vibhuti as prasad, he applied it reverently to his forehead and remarked, ‘The son is beholden to the father’.

(for the whole essay, see http://davidgodman.org/rteach/unverse39.shtml)