[Advaita-l] Ramana Maharshi - Advaitin or Neo Advaitin?

[Sujal Upadhyay]

praNAms,

I do not know whether the OP will take my comments :), but nevertheless,
will post them,

In order to study works of Ramana Maharshi, you need to be his 'Fan'. You
need not visit his Ashram. Ramakrishna and Ramana Mahrshi has great
influence on my sAdhanA, but I have never visited Dakshnineshwar or
Arunachala. I have never interacted with Monks of Ramakrishna Order.

However if after one had concluded that Ramana Maharshi's teachings are not
to be followed after studying his works, then it is a personal opinion.
Matter Ends here.

As said, Ramana Maharshi was not an AchArya, but a GYAnI. In my limited
reading of his discourses, he has never said anyone to discontinue karma
kANDa. He only focused on Self Enquiry. vedAnta too rejects karma kANDa and
asks one to practice neti-neti. Adi Sankara himself didn't do nay kind of
vedic yajna-s, not to my knowledge. But he himself didnt asked all of the
masses to reject them. He made only 4 disciples, not more. To give a
concession, add one of Kanchi matha. Still it is just 5, even after
traveling length and breadth of India.

Saints and Mystics have many qualities that are worth appreciating, but one
quality shine brightest amongst others. In case of Sri Ramana Maharshi it
was his dispassion. He never cared for his body. When someone brought his
biography for correction / proof reading, he simply corrected spelling
mistakes. Some biographies claimed that Maharshi was married and had
children. Even when someone presented translation of his works namely
satdarshan, he would simply make spelling corrections. When one of his
devotee asked him about his behavior and pointed out the flaws in
translations that were approved by him, Maharshi simply replied, everyone
interprets words as per their own understanding. The devotee then humbly
requested Maharshi to check the validity of contents. Maharshi replied,
till now, this is the best translation so far I have seen. Maharshi was
never worried about what others think of him. He only answered to those who
asked questions. Silence is also a way of answering. Infact one of the most
potent, as preached by bhagavAn dakshinamurtI.

Once Ramana Maharshi came to know that some of sevaka-s started charging
money to have darshan of Maharshi. At once he started walking without
giving any explanation and began to sit at another place. Those charging
money argued that the land belonged to them. Maharshi didnt reply back. He
simply changed his location. After realising what they have done, they
prayed to Maharshi to come back and assured that they will not charge
anyone to have his darshan, Maharshi came back.

He developed cancer, but didnt care to go to doctor. Some of his doctor
devotees forced him to undergo operation. Maharshi initially declined and
warned that after the operation problem will increase. Doctors still
pressed Maharshi to undergo operation (of his hand). Maharshi agreed but
asked them not to use anesthesia. Surprisingly, the problem aggregated
after operation.

What I mean to say that in case of Ramana Maharshi, his teachings are best
to read then judge actions and interpretations of others. Most info I gave
is either from any of his biographies or from net, probably from David
Godman's blog.

Maharshi never left Arunachala for preaching. He didnt care if someone knew
him or not.

Likewise, by seeing an Idol of Lord Buddha, one is immediately filled with
compassion. This quality shone bright in him.

Reading works of traditional acharyas is very good. However even vedAnta is
not for everybody. Only after having achieved sufficient inner purity, one
can actually in practice apply advaita. Advaita sits on top of karma kANda
/ smArta dharma. It is not a complete system in itself, but a part of
sanAtana dharma, which raises consciousness to the highest possible level
and free one from cycle of birth and death. This is the reason why in
almost all prakaraNa grantha-s pre-qualifications are mentioned.

OM


On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 10:03 AM, Praveen R. Bhat via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste Kripaji,
>
> On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 11:15 PM, Kripa Shankar <
> kripa.shankar.0294 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > Kripa : Apta vakya:) Credible source of information, the main source of
> > shraddha.‎
> >
>
> ​<Content Clipped>
>