TABLETS OF FORGOTTEN TRUTH

Arunachala (The Hill of the Holy Beacon), is a name of the hill where Siva is worshipped as fire. Sri Ramana Maharshi was a sage who lived there for a long period, from 1896 to 1950 at the foot of it. Paul Brunton, Mouni Sadhu, Paramahansa Yogananda, names which need no introduction as seekers of truth met him, questioned him on various aspects. Ramana discussed with them about self-inquiry and guided them to the practice of it.

Mouni Sadhu wrote a book about the sage on the pages of In Days of Great Peace - the Highest Yoga as Lived. And Yogananda on his masterpiece:  Autobiography of a Yogi, mentions the teachings of Ramana in its pages.

In particular, the book A Message from Arunachala is a set of small essays of Brunton giving his reflections on various aspects of human conditions while living near the hill. Most of the essays are written in the period between two world wars. Gently, Brunton points the limitations of materialism, restricted rationalism, and the need for looking for spiritual meaning in life. Readers of this book are encouraged to read the selection from Paul Brunton's book (A Search in Secret India) which gives more details about this period. In this part, Ramana says to Paul Brunton “I was literally charmed here and the same force which drew you to this place from Bombay drew me to it from Madura.”

A Message from Arunachala contains the wisdom that emanates from the most illustrious inhabitant of this sacred hill in South India. It is a book which simply cries aloud for a quotation. It is a book of noble thought, more valuable than a hundred sermons. A book, in short, calculated to help us to “do noble deeds not dream them all day long.”

There is no news that Maharshi wrote anything, but left his message of life, his teachings, his simple and detached stance from the world; though living in the world, he left more wisdom than many who still asleep in spirituality, judging themselves to think of being spiritual.

Below follows one of his teachings:

 

“The greatest error of a man is to think that he is weak by nature, evil by nature. Every man is divine and strong in his real nature. What are weak and evil are his habits, his desires and thoughts, but not himself.

Man does not put the true value upon himself because he has lost the divine sense. Therefore, he runs after another man’s opinion, when he could find complete certitude more surely in the spiritually authoritative centre of his own being. The sphinx surveys no earthly landscapes. Its unflinching gaze is always directed inwards, and the secret of its inscrutable smile is self-knowledge.

The divine nature reveals itself anew in every human life, but if a man walks indifferently by, then the revelation is the seed on stony ground. No one is excluded from this divine consciousness; it is the man who excludes himself. Man make a formal and pretentious enquiry into the mystery and meaning of life, when all the while each bird perched upon a green bough, each child holding its fond mother’s hand, has solved the riddle and carries the answer in its face. That life which brought you to birth, O Man! is nobler and greater than your farthest thought; believe in its beneficent intention toward you and obey its subtle injunctions whispered to your heart in half-felt intuitions.”