Ramana Maharsi's Devotee From Poland

MAURICE FRYDMAN [ 1902-1976]
--Ramana Maharshi’s Polish Devotee

As a teacher who stressed the supremacy of Jnanamarga, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi was in the direct line of descendents from Yajnavalkya, Gaudapada and Acharya Shankara. Historically we may see that there has been no such emphasis on Jnana since Shankara as most of the religious movements after Shankara laid emphasis on Bhakthi Movement. The stress on the role of Bhakthi practiced and propagated by such sages and saints like Andal, Akka Mahadevi, Chaitanya, Guru Nanak, Jayadeva, Jnaneshwar, Kabir, Meera, Namadev, Narsi Mehta, Potana, Purandara, Tyagaraja , Tukaram and a host of others all over the country needs no repetition. Even when Hinduism was revived later, Bhakthi was emphasized by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa as the easiest way for liberation in the modern world. Against this vast and strong main current of Bhakti flow which has been generally in vogue as the normal trend of spiritual movement for several centuries, there stood Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi like a rock and uplifted the submerged Jnana Marga as an equally effective alternative to the Path of Realisation. He made a powerful plea for the ‘Vichara Marga’ which necessarily advocated the revival of the Jnana Marga.

True to the spirit of the age in which he lived, Ramana lifted the Vichara Marga out of the particular religion which had a monopoly on it and made it accessible to men of all faiths and all religions all over the world. This is the reason why Ramana’s disciples can be found among men of all faiths, religions and across the globe. Among such devoted and dedicated disciples was one Maurice Frydman, a Polish Jew who was working as an electrical engineer in a factory in France in the thirties.

Frydman was born in France in 1902 of Jewish parents. His father was a pharmaceutical chemist who died unfortunately when Frydman was still young. His mother brought him up. He had his early schooling in Poland and later he migrated to France, qualified as an electrical engineer and took up service as a research engineer in a firm manufacturing electrical machinery. In France he learnt both French and English. He made a name in the company as a research engineer and got a large number of patents under his name. He was an intellectual who, by nature, was spiritually oriented and developed an interest in mysticism, particularly among the sages and saints of India.

Sometime in 1935 Sir Mirza Ismail, the popular Dewan of Mysore State visited Europe to purchase some electrical equipment for the State. He went to Paris and visited the factory where Frydman was working. When Frydman came to know that an Indian was visiting his factory, he thought it was an opportunity to learn more about India. During the meeting with the Dewan, he asked a number of questions on India which impressed the Dewan very much. The Dewan asked him if he was interested in coming to Mysore and organise a firm [which is presently popular as ‘Mysore Electrical Industries Ltd’]. Frydman readily agreed, came to India in April 1935 and started his job under the Dewan of Mysore. He joined the firm as Technical Head on a decent salary and soon established himself as an efficient engineer and organizer.



During his stay in France, Frydman had read about Maharshi Ramana and was keen on meeting him. Six months after he reached India, he got the first opportunity to meet the Maharshi. Recalling his first meeting with the Maharshi, Frydman writes:
“Just six months after I came to India, I was left alone and had no friends. The person whom I loved died and I had nothing to attract me in my life. I went to Tiruvannamalai and direct went to the Swami and remained there for two hours. Then I understood that I had met someone the like of whom I had never met before. I did not then know what was meant by words like the Maharshi and Bhagavan. I had no preconceived ideas and yet I felt that there was something extraordinary in that man. I was told about his teachings but they were far too high for me. I did not understand what they meant but I felt a strong affection for him, just as a dog would have towards his master”.

The first meeting with the Maharshi had such an impact on Frydman that whenever he felt worried or depressed, he would go to the Ramanashram and spend sometime there sitting at the feet of the Maharshi. In course of time he became close to the Maharshi and elicited a number of replies from Bhagavan for his questions which later helped in framing many of the questions published in ‘Maharshi’s Gospel’ [1939].
Once, he wrote a few verses in English and submitted them to Bhagavan. Verses No. 8 and 9 read like this:

“So long have I been on the stage to please thee;
My eyes are blinded by the lights of the play;
My ears are deafened by the roaring thunders of thy laughter;
My heart is turned to ashes by the flames of dreary sorrows”. [8]
My lord, to please thee, I have made a fool of myself,
And now I am unable to stop the agony of the play,
My Lord, drag me down from the stage,
I have forgotten where is the way in and out.” [9]

Bhagavan was happy to go through these verses and observed; “The same has been said almost exactly by a sage, Appaiya Deekshitar, who lived a few centuries ago in one of his Sanskrit works. These verses are still only in palm-leaves, unknown to many. The purport of these are “ Just as a court dancer dancing in front of the King cannot stop till the King makes a gesture to do so, even though the dancer’s legs ache, O Lord, I am dead tired of having taken so many births and deaths. One glance of grace from you is enough to put an end to the dance of my births and deaths, which please grant”.
After a pause, Bhagavan continued “He [Maurice Frydman] belongs only here [to India]. Somehow he was born abroad, but he has come again here. Otherwise, how could he compose verses so similar to those of Appaiya Deekshitar!”






It was during the period of his stay that Frydman was attracted to Mahatma Gandhi and began to visit him in Wardha. He suggested and made many improvements to the Charaka [Gandhiji’s spinning wheel]. Gandhiji gave him the name ‘Bharatananda’, in view of his great love towards India. Even today, Frydman is known by this name in the Gandhian and Sarvodaya circles. When he was in India, Frydman came to know that his mother and sister had passed away and that he had lost all links with his mother country.

With the death of his mother and sister and with his spiritual leanings becoming stronger, a sort of Vairagya [renunciation] dawned on Frydman and he started almost living the life of a Sannyasi. He even stopped drawing the salary from the company in which he was working which put the Government of Mysore in a peculiar situation. But the Government was not willing to lose his services as they had very high regard for his abilities and integrity. They kept the salary due to him in deposit and when Frydman finally took the decision to resign, the Government paid him the entire arrears of his salary. This large amount of money he distributed to the most poor and needy workers who had looked after him when he was not drawing his pay. Frydman walked out empty-handed like a true Sanyasin. He always wore Khadi Chudidar and Kurta for which he used to spin the required yarn from his Charaka and weave the cloth. After resigning from the service of the Government of Mysore, Frydman went away to a small princely State called ‘Aundh’ near Poona to work for the upliftment of 72 villages in and around Poona.

Sometime in 1950, after the passing away of both Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, Frydman migrated to Varanasi and took up the work in the Rajaghat School. He then went to Bombay to work for the All India Khadi and Village Industries Board set up by the Government of India in 1953. All through his life, Frydman was so much devoted to Ramana that he had a large portrait of the Maharshi hanging on the wall next to his bed in his small Spartan room and practiced meditation in front of the Maharshi’s portrait everyday.

A true Karma Yogi, Frydman passed away on 9th March 1976 at Bombay, having made India his home for more than four decades.



B.M.N.Murthy




Fw: ARTICLE No. 546--MAURICE FRYDMAN, Polish Devotee of Sri Ramana
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 9:03 PM