[Chaturamnaya] Sri Ramana Gita as a Dialogue - 1

[S Jayanarayanan]

A series of articles from 'The Maharshi' newsletter published by the Arunachala Ashrama follows.
These dialogues are among the very best that were revealed by Ramana Bhagavan and made available
to posterity by His Disciples. Starting from the very basic to the advanced, all questions
have been answered by the Sadguru.
 
The series begins with an introduction to the history of the dialogue and its scribe.
 
 
http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2009/jul-aug.pdf
http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2009/jul-aug
 
The "Sri Ramana Gita"
 
of B. V. Narasimhaswami
 
THE following text is from an unpublished manuscript on Sri Ramana Gita that has recently
surfaced in Sri Ramanasramam. The manuscript contains typed and hand written pages by
B.V.Narasimhaswami, the author of Self Realization.
 
While BVN was residing at the Ashram, around the year 1930, he appears to have taken up
the project of recasting Sri Ramana Gita in its original conversational form. Some of
the answers in this new manuscript appear to be quite lengthy compared to the versified
text composed by Ganapati Muni. It is unlikely that BVN had access to any notes taken
on the occasion of the questions put to the Maharshi between the years 1913 and 1917,
so we can only assume, as he explains in his introduction, that the elucidations further
developed by the Maharshi in this new version must have come from subsequent questions
for clarification put by BVN himself.
 
Many years after BVN's preparation of this manuscript (which includes 36 typed
legal-size sheets, reproduced from 25 handwritten pages, and 18 handwritten pages never
put into typed format), someone began typing up an edited version of the first and second
chapters, five pages in all. For whatever reason, this short-lived project also ceased
and the manuscript was stored away. After BVN had typed some of his handwritten chapters,
he gave a number of these pages over to Bhagavan to read, correct and fill in the required
Sanksrit text, for which he left adequate space.
 
One such Sanskrit text beautifully written by Bhagavan on these pages is his famous verse
describing the means to enter the Heart (reproduced on page 2), which is verse two of
Chapter II in Sri Ramana Gita. This verse constitutes the basis for that chapter, titled
"The Three Paths".
 
{The famous verse by Ramana Bhagavan mentioned above:
 
 hR^idaya kuharamadhye kevalaM brahmamaatraM
 hyahamaham-iti saakShaad aatmaruupeNa bhaati .
 hR^idivisha manasaa svaM chinvataa majjataa vaa
 pavana ChalanarodhaadaatmanishhTho Bhavatvam ..
 
"In the interior of the Heart-cave, Brahman alone
shines in the form of the Atman with the direct
immediacy as I, I. Enter into the Heart with questing
mind or by diving deep within or through control of
breath and abide in the Atman."}
 
We do not know why BVN never completed this project, or how these manuscripts came to be
filed away and forgotten, buried in an uncataloged library cabinet of the Ashram. Perhaps
someone knows and will come forward with the information.
 
We do know, however, that after his stint with the Maharshi, BVN travelled north,
visited Shirdi and became a staunch devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba. He built a temple
dedicated to Baba in Chennai and spent the remainder of his life propagating his message
throughout South India. BVN's Samadhi tomb lies behind the temple he built in Chennai.
We can assume with the arrival of Baba in his life, his initial impetus to complete this
new format for the Sri Ramana Gita faded or was forgotten. His manuscript leaves out five
of the eighteen chapters of Sri Ramana Gita: chapters 8, 10, 11, 17, 18.
 
There is no doubt that Ganapati Muni's eight hundred verses in Sri Ramana Gita are the
distillation of all the dialogues he chose for the book. Nevertheless B.V.Narasimahan's
idea to recreate those chapters in their original conversational form has a singular value
for those aspirants who were not present – this includes all of us – on those days when the
questions were asked and answered by the Sage. In this unpublished manuscript, we can
possibly gain greater in- sight into the Muni's versified answers, discover teachings
of the Master not covered in Sri Ramana Gita and have an opportunity to discern the
extraordinary talent of the illustrious poet-disciple who composed this inspiring text.