Upadesa Sara
Notes from talks by Swami Advayananda,
Chinmaya International Foundation
Talk 1: 15th May, 2022
Upadesa Sara is one of the most powerful texts that can lead a seeker into a path of Self Inquiry through simple, yet profound, ways suggested by the author, Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Talk 1 introduces us to stories from the life of Bhagavan Ramana and a few people who were the earliest ones to discover the greatness of the great Mahatma. It also gives us a glimpse of the personality of Bhagavan Ramana and how he sets up a direct path of inquiry into ‘Who am I?’ without getting into preliminaries that usually scriptures prescribe. It also leaves us with a lot of surprising questions like – how Bhagavan Ramana attained this Supreme Knowledge without the study of any Sastras, why did he remain silent for more than a decade, how did he know many languages without learning them, and more.
“Till one reaches the Truth, Shastra is the umbrella. Once one reaches the Truth, he becomes the umbrella of the Shastra (he comes the protector of the Shastra.”
~ Swami Advayananda
Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi was born on 30th Dec 1879 in Tamil Nadu. As a young boy, he was just like any other kid of his age who loved to play, swim and be merry. However, certain incidents in his life is said to have given him some jolts and they were very crucial in the process of him realizing the Truth and leaving his home later to revel in the Truth at the hill Arunachala in Tirunvannamalai, Tamil Nadu.
The story of Bhagavan Ramana getting engulfed by the fear of death as a teenager is famous. Around the age of 17, Bhagavan Ramana experienced a weird feeling in the body as though he was going to die. For some reason, he didn’t feel like telling this to his parents or friends and taking help from them, but thought that he should just follow the feeling and submit to it. He thought, a dead body doesn’t move, and it doesn’t breathe. He lied down with limbs stretched and lips tightly clutched so that he couldn’t breathe. For him, he was sure that he was dead. His breathing stopped and his body was motionless but he realized that ‘he’ still existed. He came back to normalcy and started contemplating – What is that in me that knows all the experiences I go through even if my body and mind stop functioning? This set him on a quest to the Self inquiry of ‘Who am I?’. He left home to Arunachala at that young age and the rest is history.
Before he was known to the world as Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, he lived in silence for about 11 years in the caves of Arunachala. One day, a great Mahatma ‘Sheshadri Swami’ saw young Ramana who was absorbed in deep meditation and who wasn’t even aware that his body was bruised after being pelted with stones by miscreant children in the attempt to wake him up. Bhagavan Ramana was almost in the state of dying after not having eaten for many days. He immediately lent himself to take care of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi who he understood was a Balayogi. He fed him, cleansed his body and brought Bhagavan back to good condition.
Another very important person whom we owe is a great scholar, yogi, tapasvin, an extempore poet, a Vedantin and an ashtavadhani – Kavya Kantha Ganapathy Muni. He when he saw Ramana Maharshi, he knew that he has found his Guru and he completed surrendered to Ramana Maharshi. He asked, “I have read and studied all that needs to be read. But I haven’t been able to understand the nature of Tapas. I am seeking refuge in you. Please enlighten me about the nature of Tapas.” It was then Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi broke his silence of 11 years and said, “If one watches from where the notion of ‘I’ springs, the mind will be absorbed in that. That is Tapas.” If a mantra is repeated and if one watches the source of the mantra within, that is Tapas. So, in this way, Jnanis like Ramana Maharshi who haven’t studied the Shastras but has the experience, realize the Truth. For those who are not Jnanis we have the Shastras that can lead them to the experience. For the ones who have gained the experience, they don’t need the Shastras. They become embodiment of the Shastras.
The story continues of how Kavya Kantha Ganapathy celebrated this teaching of his Guru on the nature of Tapas, by writing a work called Uma Sahasram (1000 verses about Devi). In fact, it was Kavya Kantha Ganapathy who gave him the name – Ramana Maharshi. ‘Ramana’ was taken from his original name. But why ‘Maharshi’? One of the most fascinating things from Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi’s life is that he did not study the scriptures. The Truth was revealed to him like the Rishis of the yore. Who is a Rishi? A Rishi is someone who experiences mantras. In that sense, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi was truly a Rishi who experienced the mantras and reveled in it.
There is another interesting story from Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi’s life. While Ramana Maharshi was becoming a little popular, many scholars started coming to meet him. One amongst them was Jagadisha Shastri. Jagadisha Shastri would give discourses on various texts in the scriptures at the ashram and Ramana Maharshi would sit at the back and listen to it. One day, somebody asked Ramana Maharshi, “What is the need for you to listen to all this? You have already realized the Self.” Ramana Maharshi said, “I’m just listening to whatever the Shastras are talking about me. And I see that whatever they are saying is correct.” That was the level of his abidance in the Self.
The discourses ended with a suspense note about a great saint, Tamil scholar & poet – Murugana who used to live with Ramana Maharshi. He was composing a work called ‘Ramana Sannidhi Murai’ which literally means ‘Homage to the presence of Sri Ramana’. While he was composing that there was one incident in the composition about which he said ‘I cannot write this and I need your (Ramana Maharshi’s) help. What was that incident? (Register for the online camp on Upadesa Sara from 15th to 25th May https://www.chinfo.org/home/event/upadea-sra/97 and the suspense will be revealed in the evening session of 15th May).