31Ramanamaharishi20110614
Ramanamaharishi31
Sakti Vikatan June 14, 2011
Revised June 23, 2018
Posted Date : 06:00 (14/06/2011)
SriRamaṇa Maharishi
‘I will make money from the visitors keeping you in the front. You
sustain no loss. Therefore, don’t stop me. You are my disciple,
understood.’ Said Balananda. Bhagavan did not say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ He sat
in peace.
This appeared to Bālāṉanda as a workable stratagem. He went around town
and came to the mountain. ‘Hey Boy! Take 100 rupee note from my pocket
and keep it outside. I will not touch money (now that I am a Sadhu). An
unknown devotee put the money in my pocket. What am I to do?’ said
Bālāṉanda with firmness. He
spent the money with pomp and an air of conspicuous consumption. When a
(nefarious) scheme gains currency in a transaction, that scheme sprouts
branches in other transactions.
Life becomes a tree of schemes. Scheme is antithetical to Truth.
It is an act of deception. That pretense becomes a gargantuan
monstrosity.
Wise men nip the malfeasance in the bud. The fools continue to dabble in
chicanery. Their currency is falsity.
These dissemblers continue to play on the unsuspecting. The
respect people give to the ochre-robed false ascetics evaporates and the
dissembler continues with his deceptive acts. The religion becomes weak,
faith in god is deflated resulting in the growth of weeds of atheism,
and people lose trust in real Sadhus: these are some of the dangerous
consequences wrought by the cheats, who do not worry about their
nefarious activities. Bālāṉanda was the perpetrator of such malfeasance.
Remaining at the entrance to the sacred Virūpākṣi cave, the dwelling of
Maharishi, Bālāṉanda contaminated and desecrated the entire area.
Bhagavan Swamy spoke no word. He moved away in silence. Bhagavan’s
devotee Pazhaṉisāmi collected the belongings of Bālāṉanda, threw them
out and cleaned up the place. When he saw his silk shirt and long
loincloth on the street, Bālāṉanda shouted with an effluence of
inauspicious words from his mouth. Bālāṉanda went to Bhagavan and
complained in anger, “You witnessed all these. When Pazhaṉisāmi comes up
the mountain, I knock the teeth out of his mouth and beat him to a pulp.
But, stoic Bhagavan gave no answer and kept silent: Bālāṉanda spewed his
anger like the volcano’s smoke and dust.
Bālāṉanda spit on the face of Bhagavan.
Bhagavan known as Brahmana Sami bore this insult with silence.
The bystanders showed patience and restraint. But all cannot be patient.
One Muthusamy living in Tiruvannamalai in the foothills hearing what
happened went up the mountain fast, came to the Virūpākṣi cave and said,
“Who is that who spat on our Swamy? Is that you? What audacity have you?
You act as if there is no one to challenge you.” Muthusamy twisted his
hand and slapped him. Others rose seething in anger at the spitter.
Finding out the powerful disapproval and opposition, Bālāṉanda went down
the mountain, declared loud, ’Tiruvannamalai is not the proper place for
me,’ and boarded a train with intention to leave for good. There too,
the bad Buddhi of the inveterate abuser showed up with a pair of married
people. They beat him up into shreds and shards. That thrashing, that
insult… brought some sense into him. He got off the train, went up the
mountain, cried before Bhagavan and said, “Do you know what happened.”
Prescient Bhagavan said in one short phrase, “Know it.”
Bālāṉanda said, “I needed this lesson. I
was wrong to spit on you. For that infraction, I suffered pain and
sorrow. Muthusamy did not know the how of beating the opponent. The rail
passenger knew his art of beating well. I have welts to show from the
beating. Please spit on me as an infliction of punishment and as an act of
expiation for me.” Taciturn Bhagavan maintained silence as usual because
he maintained the neutral position of a Witness remaining free of likes
and dislikes. Since he received beatings, Bālāṉanda, the persona non
grata was a little weak in body, mind and soul, which made him ask for
forgiveness. In truth, his mind did not change. Again, arrogance and
pomp in him popped the head.
He treated the VIPs and elders with disrespect.
He would suddenly leave his place and sit in the middle of the
silent VIPs. He staged shows telling, “Child, I will teach you
Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Come, hold my hand. Keep looking at my eyes.” He
continued, “There is something important happening. No one should stay
with the elders and VIPs. Get up now.” He admonished people like that.
“Keep looking at my eyes. Don’t let go. Continue looking at my eyes. Why
are you holding your breath? Give up breathing exercises. Look at my
eyes.’ These are the orders
he shouted. Once he stared
at a visitor’s eyes and fell asleep. Falsehood will not hold for long.
Needless swagger gives place to fatigue quickly.
Bālāṉanda’s nuisance value was continuous, high and irrepressible. The
devotees worried, ‘What dance and song repertoire he is going to play
today.’ Bhagavan sat there like a rock idol.
Maharishi considered going further up the mountain leaving the Virūpākṣi
cave. Then, Sadhu Yogāṉanda
knew Bhagavan well. He ruled out moving to another place. But the
devotees of Bhagavan opposed Bālāṉanda in various ways. Some insulted
him. Once Bālāṉanda ordered
another to fetch a Neem Stick for brushing the teeth. He brought a branch
instead of a stick. Bālāṉanda admonished him in a threatening voice
saying, “What is this?” The
Neem-Man said, “You are a respectable elder, you need a big stick
(rather than a small stick)”. And he threw the tree branch on the floor
with a thud.
Bālāṉanda
ordered another devotee to bring him a lighted stick for smoking. He
brought a flaming torch. The torch-man asked Bālāṉanda, “Which one you
want me to set fire to?” Bālāṉanda developed a sense of fear. Because of SriRamaṇa Maharishi, his devotees remained
quiet. Bālāṉanda discovered they would not remain patient any more.
He said, “My Sakti is leaving this place. Then, Ramanar is a mere
man.” Insulting Bhagavan like that, he went down the mountain.
He told a Tiruvannamalai shopkeeper proudly, that he cast a curse
on Bhagavan. The shopkeeper was a devotee of Bhagavan. Will he remain
quiet hearing this nonsense? He grabbed the neck of Bālāṉanda and threw
him out.
Thinking he could do nothing inimical to much-loved Bhagavan, he left
Tiruvannamalai and moved to another mountain. He never returned to
Tiruvannamalai.
Another Sadhu selected a comfortable place and sat there on the moutain.
If anyone moved near him, he cooked up a scheme and threw him out. He
would make them run in fear. After Bhagavan came to Virūpākṣi cave,
Bhagavan’s popularity increased. The scheming Sadhu, though Bhagavan was
not near him, was jealous of his popularity more than his, was ready to
use the tried and true scheme - to displace others - to drive out
Bhagavan from his cave. The
conniving Sadhu went up the mountain in the night and pushed the rocks
down the mountain. The rocks came nowhere near Bhagavan. He continued
his dastardly nightly rock-rolling down the mountain. One day, Bhagavan
secretly went behind the nefarious Sadhu and saw him roll the stones.
The rock-rolling Sadhu did not know what to do. He gave out a nervous
laugh and said to Bhagavan, “You discovered. I did it for play.”
Bhagavan maintained silence and went back to his place. Since then, the
rock-rolling Sadhu stopped it.
Another one was proficient in Upanishads. He lived on the mountain. He
went to another town, came back in a few days, sat before Bhagavan and
insisted on teaching Bhagavan Dattātrēya
Mantra. He continued, “It
is a short Mantra. Very few syllables. I will teach you.” Bhagavan
refused to take lessons from him. He invoked
Śiva and threatened, saying, “Śivaperumāṉ Himself sent me to you and
asked me to give you instructions on
Dattātrēya
Mantram. Therefore, without rejection, accept my offer.”
Bhagavan
told him, “When Sivaperuman who spoke to you comes to me and tells me to
learn the Mantra, I will learn it then.” The Sadhu became angry. The
Sadhu told all the visitors, “Do not go to the Brahmana Sāmy because he
knows nothing. By going to him,
you do not earn any merit. He does not have any Jñānam.”
Once, the Mantra-Sami sat with shut eyes in the plantain grove in
Tiruvannamalai. Suddenly Brahmana Sami appeared in his mind and
cautioned him, “Perfidy, don’t go.” He was surprised. He did not know
whether it was real or a dream. He ran to Bhagavan and told him what
happened. Brahmana Sāmy
said, “I do not do such Siddhi. This was not done by me. This was your
mental imagination.” Hearing this, the Mantra-Sámi
calmed down. The letters
addressed to Ramana Maharishi as Brahmana Sami were illegally opened and
read by Mantra-Sámi
and he even sent replies. When challenged, he said, “I am also a
Brahmana Sami on the mountain. Bhagavan SriRamaṇa Maharishi paid no
attention to it.
Scat was strewn at the entrance to Bhagavan’s cave, Bālāṉanda spat on
his face, harsh words were addressed to Bhagavan, someone called
Bhagavan a disciple, stones were rolled down towards his place, and
Mantra-Sami insisted on teaching him Dattātrēya Mantra, and Bhagavan did
not frown on them and got rid of them from his life with patience.
Where are those Sādhus?
What happened to them? What does the world know about them? What
happened to their progeny? But the world discovered Bhagavan. His fame
spread all over the world, which tried to follow his Tattvam to obtain
liberation. Truth never dies; its luster never fades. Those who shed the
self-conceit of “I” completely, no pain or sorrow will afflict them. The
perpetrators of pain will perish in very many ways.
Bhagavan SriRamaṇa Maharishi is not a pedagogue. He lived what he
taught. He was neutral. He is devoid of likes and dislikes.
He was the paragon of peace, modesty, and humility and showed one
can live with those qualities. If you study Srīramaṇar deeply again and again, it is certain that the mind will mature accordingly.
Let us receive Darśan.
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