The sage of Thiruvannamalai, India the great saint Ramana Maharishi has never revealed His true powers. But yet devotees were aware of His greatness.
At the time of His death the devotees got the firm confirmation that verily He is a great saint…
The ancient Hindu looked upon the Nakshatras (meaning Stars) as the abodes of the Gods.
The Taittiriya Brahmana (I.5.2.5) declares that “Devaktahaha vai nakshatrani”.
The Satapatha Brahmana also declares that the “stars are the lights of religious men”.
The great rishis believed that one day they themselves would pass on to one of the heavenly luminaries.
In this context let us see what had happened at the moment Ramana left his body.
In 1949 a small nodule appeared below the elbow of his left arm. This was cut. But within a month it returned and it was recognized as a tumour.
Aruthur Osborne in his biography of ‘Ramana Maharishi’ says:
Did Ramana really suffer? He said to one devotee: “Where is pain if there is no mind?”
He expounded a verse from the Yoga Vasistham: “The Gnani (meaning true Yogi) who has found himself as formless pure. Awareness in unaffected though the body is cleft with a sword. Sugarcandy does not lose its sweetness though broken or crushed”
Indeed when he was operated the doctors were amazed at Maharishi’s indifference to pain.
When doctors pronounced failure of the treatment, Ramana was asked to say himself what treatment should be tried. He said, “Have I ever asked for any treatment? It is you who want this and that for me, so it is for you to agree about it among yourselves. If I were asked I should always say, as I have said from the beginning, that no treatment is necessary. Let things take their course.”
April 14th 1950.
Osborne explains the last moments of Ramana:
A group of devotees sitting on the veranda outside the hall began singing ‘Arunachala Siva’. On hearing it Ramana’s eyes opened and shone. He gave a brief smile of indescribable tenderness. From the outer edges of his eyes tears of bliss rolled down. One more deep breath and no more. There was no struggle, no spasm, no other sign of death; only that the next breath did not come”
The time was 8.47 p.m.
At the very moment an enormous star had trailed slowly across the sky.
Many had seen it even as far away as Madras, and felt what it portended. It passed to the north-east towards the peak of Arunachala hill.
As per the Taittiriya Brahmana and the Satapatha Brahmana the greatest of the great saints, Ramana became a star
Indeed he has proved the ancient texts in modern times.
We can see one more incident to know who He is.
T.K.Sundaresa Iyer was an ardent devotee of Ramana, recorded an interesting incident in his book, ‘At the feet of Bhagavan’:
Once Ramana was in the Virupaksha Cave on the Thiruvannamalai Hill.
One evening after 7 p.m., they were all coming down the Hill to go round Arunachala.
The other devotees had all gone in advance; only Sri Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni was in the company of Ramana, and they were slowly climbing down the steps from the cave.
When they had walked a few steps, all of a sudden Ramana stopped, and with Him
Ganapathy muni as well. The full moon was shining bright in the last in the starry sky.
Pointing to the moon and the beautiful sky, Ramana said: “Nayana! (Ramana maharishi used to call him affectionately thus) If the moon and all the stars have their being in ME, and the sun himself goes round my hip with his satellites, who am I? Who am I?”
This remark of Ramana made his blessed disciple envisage the Master as Great Person of the Vedas, as described in ‘Sri Rudra’, the ‘Purusha Sukta’ and the ‘Skamba Sukta’,
and the Atharva Veda. He is verily all these and That beyond; there is nothing that is not He.
Ganapathy Muni later made this revelation known to all devotees.
Ramana’s powers are indescribable
Santhanam Nagarajan has written more than five thousand articles in Tamil and English. He has published 61 digital books so far. Thousands worldwide are reading his articles on Mantras, Tantras, Science and Hinduism. He has appeared in more than 130 TV programs. More than 140 articles have been published in http://www.ezinearticles.com
