The Devoted Dancer

SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI and DANCING GIRL RATNAMMA


There have been occasions in the recent history of our country when certain professions like dancing, acting, stage, dramatics, courtesan, Devadasi etc have been looked down upon as ignoble professions and their practitioners as sinful people. Even though no scripture prohibits any profession as long as it conforms to the Vrutti-Dharma [Professional ethics] it is unfortunate that the society views the practitioners of such professions with a needle of suspicion and labels them as immoral. The society tends to forget the innate Divinity in all of them and judges them by their profession. It has been the good fortune of our country that during such times, Pathfinders to the Eternal like The Buddha, Jesus Christ, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi appear on the scene and lead the society in the correct path.

Sri Ramakrishna used to say that when one stands on a plain ground and looks around, he sees the trees as tall and bushes as small. However, if one climbs to the top of a mountain and looks downward, all the height differences vanish and there is only greenery everywhere. Similarly, if the mind of a person rises to a higher level, it ceases to recognize social differences and looks upon all human beings as equal. It is for this reason that the Bhagavadgita identifies this state of equanimity of mind [Sthitha Prajna] as a mark of spiritually illumined souls.

When Sri Ramana Maharshi was staying in the hills, forests and such stray places before he finally settled down at the Sri Ramanashrama, Tiruvannamalai, there was a dancing girl by name Ratnamma, about 20 years of age. She was born in the caste of prostitutes, verily as a lotus amidst lush. She was deeply devoted to the young Ramana who was at that time staying in the Big Temple at Arunachalam. Those were the days when Ramana was mostly in-drawn [Antarmukhi] in atonement. But Ratnamma would wake him up by asking passers by to shout in his ears and if necessary, even to pull him up. Then she would offer food to him. She made it her resolve not to eat until the young Swami had his fill from her offering. Even when her mother pointed out to her the various predicaments and embarrassments in this, Ratnamma ignored and continued her feeding to the Swami. But not long after, the mother passed away and sometime later even Ramana moved out of the temple. While talking to Ratnamma at the time of his being fed, Ramana used to be touched by her sincere devotion that his voice would thicken and often falter and unshed tears would bedim his eyes.

Many years later, recalling Ratnamma and her association with him,, the Maharshi nostalgically remembered the past event in his own words in a talk on 12th April 1948 to his diarist Suri Nagamma :

“Another thing happened when I was living under the Madhuka tree. A twenty year old dancing girl by name Ratnamma saw me one day while going to and coming out from the temple after her dance. She gradually got devoted to me and sometime later got disgusted with her profession. She told her mother that that she would not take food unless she gave some food to the Swami. So, both of them brought food to me. But I was in deep meditation at that time and opened neither my eyes nor my mouth, even when they shouted. But somehow they woke me by asking a passer by to pull me by the hand. They then gave me food and left.

When Ratnamma insisted that she should daily feed the Swami before she took food, her mother said “You are quite young and so is the Swami. He does not wake until someone touches him and pulls him up. We can’t do that. What can we do?”. Ratnamma then asked a first cousin of hers for assistance and with his help she used to give me food daily. After sometime, the relatives of the boy felt that this work was undignified and so stopped sending him to assist Ratnamma. Ratnamma, however, would not give up her resolve to feed me. So, at last the mother herself came regularly and being elderly and thinking that there was no harm in it, she used to wake me up by shaking me and then I was given food. Shortly thereafter the old mother passed away and I also shifted to a distant place. Ratnamma could no longer travel that distance to come and feed me and so gave up her attempts.

Since she could not live unless she earned by her profession Ratnamma thereafter confined herself to only one man. What does it matter to know to which community she belonged. She was pure at heart. She had great non-attachment and great devotion. She had never liked her profession. As she did not want her daughter also to follow the same profession, in course of time she married her off.”

B.M.N.Murthy







ARTICLE NO. 555--Sri Ramana Maharshi and the Dancing Girl Rathnamma
Created: Friday, February 19, 2010 8:25 PM