Ramana As Rama

SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI GIVES SRI RAMA DARSHAN.


In the latest issue of “Mountain Path” [July-Sept 2009] which is a Quarterly Journal of the Sri Ramanashram, Tiruvannamalai, there is an interesting narration about the experience of a devotee sometime in 1933, under the above heading The name of the devotee is Sri.T.K.Sundaresha who had met the Bhagavan for the first time in 1908, more than 100 years back. I am reproducing the relevant portions of the article which may interest you:

“It was some day in the month of May in 1933. I had completed that day 35 years and it was my 36th birthday. After a bath and usual prayers, I went to the presence of Bhagavan. I sat in pensive mood. I took up a slip of paper and wrote a prayer to Bhagavan. It was a Tamil Virutham [Tamil poetic metre]. I said in it “Oh Bhagavan, I have passed these three decades and five years and yet I have not had a real experience of you. Pray let me have this day a touch of your grace”. I handed over this slip of paper to Bhagavan and prostrated. Bhagavan asked me to sit down. I sat down while Bhagavan kept staring at me. I too was in a receptive and meditative mood. All of a sudden I was lost to body consciousness and absorbed in Shree Maharshi.I was turned inward. An endless silence serene was passing before me. Shree Maharshi’s voice said “Look and see what all you desire”. I seemed to say “What do I want? I shall have the fruit of my life, if I can have the darshan of my dear Sri Rama”. I was so much devoted to Sri Rama in those days. All of a sudden, I have darshan of Sri Rama, with Seetha, Lakshmana, Bharatha, Shatrughna and Hanuman. Oh the ecstasy of it, how to describe. I sat and sat. Bhagavan kept his intent look of grace, of which I could not be conscious. This lasted from 9 A.M. till quarter past eleven. There was pin drop silence in the Hall. Just about at that time, the vision vanished. I rose and prostrated at the Lotus feet of Bhagavan, with ecstatic tears and hairs upon their ends. Bhagavan says to me “What did you see?”
“Of course, my dear Sri Rama” was my reply in choking voice.

Bhagavan then asked me “Have you read ‘Dakshinamoorthi Ashtakam?’
I said “No, Bhagavan”. Bhagavan: “Then pick up that book”
The book was there near the sofa and I handed it over to Sri Maharshi. Bhagavan opened it at the proper page and gave it back to me. I read the last few names of Dakshinamoorthi and the fifth one from the last reads ‘Om Sree Yoga Pattabhiramaya Namah’. Bhagavan said “Sri Rama is Dakshinamoorthi and Sri Dakshinamoorthi is Sri Rama. Do you know where Ayodhya is? The Vedas put it in Suryamandala [solar system] and describe it as ‘Ashta Chakra Nava Dwara Devanam Puraayodhya’ [Ayodhya which is the city of Gods has nine gates and is situated over eight wheels] and Arunachalam is also Ashtachakrapuri [the city of eight wheels]. Arunachalam is Sri Rama and Dakshinamoorthi. One need not go to Suryamandala to see Ayodhya and Sri Rama. All may have it here and now”


Thus Sri Ramana Maharshi gave darshan as Sri Rama, proving the truth of the statement that the Mahatmas are capable of giving darshan in any form. Later I recollected that the darshan with which I was vouchsafed was the same as is famed in Tyaga Brahmam’s Pancharatna picture of Sri Rama. [Pancharatnam literally means five gems. These are five long songs on Lord Sri Rama composed in five different ragas by the saint composer Sri Tyagaraja]


B.M.N.Murthy

It may be noted that even in the Sri Lalitha Sahasranama Stotram, we come across the name ‘Dakshinamoorthi roopini’ [Name No.725] which means ‘Lalita Devi who is in the form of Sri Dakshinamoorthi’,


ARTICLE NO.511--Bhagavan Ramana gives Darshan as Lord Sri Rama
Friday, July 24, 2009 9:18 PM