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Aha, aha, Shri Sadguru ...
The pursuit of three gems cannot be done without the benefaction from the Sadguru, without his guidance. Never has any jiva been able to step on the path to sadhana without seeking refuge with the Gurudev. If the Gurudev's kindness prevails, the disciple can even attain Kevaljnana.
It is seldom heard or seen that some great man attained selfrealisation even without the guidance of a Guru. Srimad Rajachandraji, who gifted us the Atmasiddhi Shastra, himself did not have any Guru in this present birth. Yet the level of his self-pursuit was of a very high order. When we consider this, it may occur to us that if he could perform such a sadhana without a Guru, then can we not do it?
In the very recent past, there was one such yogi Maharshi Ramana, of the Mount Arunachal. He had wonderful abilities. His childhood had been very ordinary, like other children, without any noteworthy events. Yet at the age of 18, he suddenly realised his self at his residence. He experienced the trance of the atma. In fact, at that time, Maharshi himself had not realised what was happening to him. He was even unaware of the terms atma and paramatma! The thought - 'what is the pursuit of the atma?', had never ever occurred to him. Yet there was an experience and he walked out of his home. An irrepressible attraction of the Arunachal Mountain of southern India was drawing him to itself. He reached the cave on the Arunachal Mountain near Tiruvannamalai, and remained there for years in total silence.
His constant state of self-realisation was of such high order that the feeling of total detachment was naturally abounding in him. This simple, natural state of his remained with him constantly. He himself used to say that the realisation - experience which occurred at home, at the age of 18, continues to abound even to this day'. He remained at Arunachal for 50
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