CHAPTER 1.1 THE MORNING STAR Aum bhoor bhuva swah! Tat savitur varenyam, Bhargo devasya dheemahi, Dhiyo yo nah prachodayaat! ॐ भभू वभु स्वः। तत ् सववतवभ रु ेण्यम।् भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि। धधयो यो नः प्रचोदयात ् ॥ “We meditate on that adorable Supreme Light of the effulgent Sun that illuminates our intellect in the three realms of consciousness”. -- Thus meditates a devout Hindu, standing on the banks of River Ganga, facing the rising sun whose radiant rays hold in warm embrace the whole of the universe. Since times immemorial, the same mantra has echoed and re-echoed on the banks of the holy river which has been perennially nourishing and nurturing the spiritual civilization of the Hindu race. And in the sacred waters of the river he sees the grandeur and glory of the whole nation: Gange cha yamune chaiva Godaavari saraswathee Narmade sindhu kaaveree Jalesmin sannidhim kuru र्गङ्र्गे च यमनभ े चैव र्गोदावरी सरस्वती। नमदु े ससन्धकभ ावेरी जलऽे स्स्मन ् सस्न्नधध िं कभरु॥ “Oh! Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri, thou all be present in this water.” -- He invokes the presence of all sacred rivers in the water. All these great rivers have on their banks the holy temples and sacred centres of spiritual learning. GLIMPSES OF A GREAT YOGI 3 Like the eternal flow of Ganga, the life of this ancient land is glorified by the advent of great sages and seers, saints and god men right from the days of the Vedas to the modern times. This sacred land, BHARAT -- “The land that revels in the light of spiritual wisdom” -- is the manifestation of the Divine Mother. Ratnaakaraa dhauta padaam Himaalaya kireetineem Brahmaraaja rishi ratnaadyaam Vande Bhaarata maataram! रत्नाकराधौतपदािं हिमालयककरीहिनीम ् | ब्रह्मराजवषरु त्नाढयािं वन्दे भारतमातरम ् || “I bow to the Divine Mother Bharat whose feet are washed by the great oceans, who wears the Himalayas as Her crown and whose neck is adorned with the necklace of pearls like Brahmarishis and Rajarishis.” The Vedic seers envisaged the role of this nation as the preceptor of the world. They called out to the mankind to learn the meaning and purpose of life from the great masters of this land. Beginning with Srimannarayana and Dakshinamoorti, with preceptors like Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva in the middle, we have a great and glorious guruparampara -- lineage of spiritual masters. Like the rain waters that come down from the skies take to different forms of rivers each one having its own course and ultimately merge in the same ocean, all these great archaryas have drawn their inspiration and gained spiritual insight from the Vision of Truth in their intuitive consciousness, though they have followed and also pronounced for the posterity different paths of god-realisation in order to lead all to the ultimate goal -- Sat-Chit-Ananda -- Existence- Consciousness-Bliss -- the Para Brahman. Even in this modern age of scientific and political revolutions and renaissance and reformation, Bharatavarsha’s stream of spiritual heritage has flowed uninterrupted, producing new visionaries, mystics and mahatmas. New India witnessed the advent of modern 4 PART 1 – SPARKLES FROM seers like Dayananda, Bankim, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Ramana. The age-old paths of Jnana yoga, Bhakti yoga, Raja yoga and Karma yoga found new exponents like Sivananda, Ramdas, Omkar and Sadhu Vaswani. In this line of great preceptors, we have in our midst today Yogi Ramsuratkumar, a mystic, saint, Siddha, Jnaani, an ardent Bhakta and a dedicated Karma Yogi -- all in one -- sanctifying by his divine presence the sacred spiritual centre Tiruvannamalai -- Arunachalam -- of Tamil Nadu. The Ultimate Reality is both static and dynamic. It is “That from which everything emerges, That by which everything is sustained and That into which everything merges.” The Consciousness- Force is represented as Siva- Sakti. Siva is Brahman, the static, and Shakti is the Prakriti, the energy form of Brahman. The two are inseparable like word and its meaning. ‘Aruna’ is Sun, a mass of energy, in constant motion. ‘Achala’ is the solid rock -- the grossest manifestation of energy, ever static. Arunachala is a wonderful conception of the inseparable unity of the dynamic and the static -- the Shakti and Siva -- Prakirti and Purusha. Legend is there that Siva appeared as a big flame on top of the Arunachala Hill on the Kritigai day of the Kartik month and asked Parvati to go round the hill, after which He absorbed Her in the left half of His body and became Lord Ardhanaareeshwara. The annual Deepam Festival in this sacred pilgrim centre reminds us that the Ultimate Reality is a Consciousness-Force and that Matter and Energy are not two different entities. The local legend says that Brahma and Vishnu GLIMPSES OF A GREAT YOGI 5 took to the forms of a swan and a boar respectively to measure the extent of the Light on Arunachala. Brahma flew up while Vishnu dug deep into nether worlds, but both of them could not see the limits of the light. That Infinite Light has attracted to this hill saints and sages through the ages. Saint Arunagirinathar spent his last days in this sacred place, taking to the form of a parrot, sitting on the Kiligopuram of the holy Arunachalaswara Temple and singing his famous Kandar Anubhooti. Many great saints like Guhai Namasivayar, Guru Namasivayar, Seshadri Swamigal, Ramana Maharshi and Iswara Swami have sanctified the place by their stay. Today the place receives a special significance on account of the presence of Yogi Ramsuratkumar. He lives like a mad, old beggar, like the Divine Mother Mayamma of Kanyakumari. Like Ramana, he has crossed the realm of speech. He never gives discourses, not even spiritual advices, but his vision into the philosophical verities is as deep as that of the noted philosopher J. Krishnamurti. He has not written any book or article, but he has plunged into the Supramental Consciousness as deep as Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo. He always remains in a state of Eternal Bliss, like the revered Acharya of Kanchi, Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati of Kamakoti Peetham. To him all are one. Yogi Ramsuratkumar is not dressed in the attire of a sannyasi. He has all sorts of cloth on his body -- turban, shirt, dhoti and shawl which have never seen a wash. He never takes a regular bath nor performs the nitya or naimittika karma, but he is always pure and unsullied in the spiritual realm within. He never carries a danda or kamandala. Instead he holds a funny country hand-fan, with feathers of birds, and a coconut shell as his begging bowl. He carries bundles of dirt with him and the place where he stays is always littered with rubbish. But he is the great launderer who washes the sins of devotees who throng around him. Sometimes he laughs hilariously like a drunkard or a mad man, but sometimes he gazes into the hearts of his devotees with a silent, chilling and penetrating look for long hours. He sings and dances like a child, chanting Ramnam. At other times, he sits alone in some corner and weeps within himself not 6 PART 1 – SPARKLES FROM able to bear the agony, pain, suffering and ignorance in which his countrymen are immersed. He apparently acts according to his whims and fancies and no one can predict what he will do or where he will go next. No one knows whether he will receive one or refuse an interview, however important a person the visitor may be. But he disciplines the lives of hundreds of his devotees who have, before coming into his contact, always been acting according to the impulses of their minds, facing consequent ups and downs in their lives, and he channelizes their lives into a higher spiritual path. Unlike orthodox sadhus and saints, he is a chain-smoker, but he burns into ashes the fetters of Karma that bind his devotees. Who is HE? CHAPTER 1.2 THE TWILIGHT Jaya jaya jagadamba! Shreegala shree jataayaam Jaya jaya jayasheele Jahnukanye! Namaste! Jaya jaya jalashaayi Shreemadangri prasoote! Jaya jaya jaya bhavye! Devi! Bhooyo namaste! “O Mother of the Universe! O Jagadambe! Revel in the matted locks of Sri Shankara! May’st Thou ever win, O Mother Victorious! O Jayasheela! O Daughter of Jahnu Rishi! O Jahnukanye! My prostrations unto Thee! The Divine Nymph born from the sacred Feet of Vishnu! May glory be to Thee! O Mother Divine! O Devi! O Mass of Auspiciousness! O Bhavye! Again and again I salute Thee!” -- So sings Swami Tapovan Maharaj of Uttarkashi, in his soul- stirring Hymn to Mother Ganges. He addresses Her as “Mother of Universe”. His illustrious disciple, Swami Chinmayananda, commenting on this verse, remarks: “She is ‘Mother of the Universe’, as She looks after the people of Bharata, as a mother would look after her children. She nurses and nourishes the Gangetic Valley and but for Her icy cold perennial stream, the Rajputana desert would have by now spread over to Delhi and even up north. Lastly, it is in Her valleys, up in the mountains, that the Rishis sat, lived, reflected and contemplated upon, soared in their meditations to heights of thinking, the altitudes of which have not yet been, even from a far, touched by any human generation even after, anywhere. And it is again the Gangetic valley of the North-Indian plains that the glorious Aryans selected to settle down, to live the Hindu Culture and grow, prosper and achieve a brilliant civilization of Peace, Love and Progress. Naturally, Ganga is addressed here as Mother of the Universe”. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru also remarks in his magnum opus, The Discovery of India: “The story of the Ganga, from her 8 PART 1 – SPARKLES FROM source to the sea, from old times to new, is the story of India’s civilization and culture, of the rise and fall of empires, of great and proud cities, of the adventure of man and the quest of the mind which has so occupied India’s thinkers, of the richness and fulfilment of life as well as its denial and renunciation, of ups and downs, and growth and decay, of life and death”. No wonder, the Sacred Ganga has been the worshipful Divine Mother to millions of Hindus in whose hearts the very mention of Her name evokes a spirit of awe and reverence. It is true that even in the modern period, the great sages and saints of India have been drawing inspiration and insight into spiritual realms, sitting on the banks of this holy river. The banks of River Ganga formed the cradle and playground of our hero and Master, Yogi Ramsuratkumar, in his childhood and, in his later days, Her turbulent waves carried his soul to the Ocean of Infinite Consciousness. As Truman Caylor Wadlington points out, “In Yogi Ramsuratkumar’s childhood the formative influences were his experience of the river Ganga and its holy men. In his youth there were certain experiences which revealed to him his spiritual nature and began to make him conscious of his destiny.” As a boy, while playing on the banks of Ganges, Ramsuratkumar heard the Voice of Silence form the inner cavity of his heart, echoing and re-echoing in the roar of the flooding waters of Mother Ganga. Varanasi, popularly known as Benares, is one of the seven sacred cities of Bharatavarsha. Situated on the banks of River Ganga, the city finds mention even in the most ancient scriptures like the Vedas and Upanishads and in the Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jain religious literature. It is a Shakti Peetha too. Shiva is said to have made it his permanent abode. Saints and sages like Adi Shankara, Ramananda, Kabir, Tulsidas, Madhusudan Saraswati and Panditaraj Jagannath and modern savants of Hindu culture like Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and Annie Besant have all glorified the sacred city. In the 18th century, Queen Ahalyabai Holkar rebuilt the sacred shrine of Lord Vishwanath in this sacred city, which was ransacked during the Mughal period. It was in a remote village near this holy city, Kashi -- the City of Light -- that Ramsuratkumar was born on the 1st of December, 1918. GLIMPSES OF A GREAT YOGI 9 Very little is known about the early days of our saint. Yet it is clear that his parents were very devout and he had his early initiation into the study of our sacred scriptures like the Ramayana and Mahabharata under the influence of his father from whom he used to hear the ennobling tales in these epics when he was a little boy. Though in his early days, hearing of these stories and tales were a pastime to the boy, the impress that it made on him was so deep that when he grew into a youth, he started understanding the profound meaning and significance of what he had heard in his childhood. This explains the deep interest that the Yogi evinces even today in men of letters, especially those who are well versed in the sacred lore of this ancient nation. Even when he was a boy, his favourite haunt was the banks of River Ganga. He would walk on the sands for hours together in the nights, gazing at the stars above and the rolling waves down below. At times, he used to fall asleep on the riverbank, inviting the wrath of his parents for keeping himself away from the home throughout the night. In due course, the parents too reconciled with the urge for wanderlust in the boy. But there was something peculiar in the perambulations of the boy. His interests were not in the usual games and sources of mundane pleasures to which most of the boys his age would get attracted. His favourite places of visit were the abodes of wandering monks and mystics who abounded on the riverside. He derived as much freshness and spiritual vigour from the company of these holy men as he received form the cool and fresh waters of the river. He used to spend several nights with them in their huts, sitting in front of an oil lamp and hearing wonderful tales and legends and thrilling spiritual experiences of great masters. His mind was always so attracted to such dialogues and conversations that as soon as he returned from the school, he would rush to these holy men. It was a favourite hobby of this boy to invite those holy men to his house for bhiksha. Not that his family was rich enough to afford such charities, but he had a deep urge within to be of humble service to seekers of God. Sometimes he would even forego his own lunch or meal to feed a wandering mendicant whom he found hungry and 10 PART 1 – SPARKLES FROM haggard. Even to this day this peculiar trait of extending hospitality to visitors is very predominant in him. Anyone who comes to him and spends some time with him never goes without partaking his food as prasad. In the lives of all saints, one or the other incident spurs the dormant spiritual urge in them and awakens them to the realities of life. Such a significant incident occurred in the life of our hero at the age of twelve. One evening, his mother sent him out to fetch water from a well. It was dusk and the cool moon was already up above the horizon spreading its milky rays. Enjoying the calmness and quietude of the atmosphere, the boy reached the well and dipped into it a pail tied to a rope. Just then a small bird came and sat on the opposite side of the well. With its intermittent chirruping it was disturbing the silence of the atmosphere. The boy, who was pulling up the pail of water, suddenly flung the loose end of the rope to the other side and it hit the bird. Whether it was a childish prank, an innocent impulse of the moment or an accident, the Yogi is not able to recall now. But it happened in a trice of a second and the poor bird fell motionless. The boy at once dropped the pail of water and rushed to the rescue of the dying bird. He took it in his palm, carried it to the banks of river Ganga and tried to resuscitate it with the cool and fresh waters of the sacred river. But all his efforts proved vain and he had to give an auspicious burial to the bird on the bed of the river. Tears trickled down his cheeks and a sudden wave of overwhelming emotion engulfed him. He felt as though a thick veil of darkness was wrapping up his soul. Sorrow and gloom pervaded his mind. Throughout the night he could not sleep as he felt that he had done something for which he could not forgive himself. This incident was an eye-opener to him. It changed the course of his whole life. He started feeling the unity of all forms of life. A deep spiritual urge to realize the oneness of all beings sprouted within him. He started becoming deeply introverted. The serene surroundings in the lap of Mother Ganga and the close association with seekers of Truth inculcated in him a spirit of renunciation.