Sadhus Reminiscences of Raman Maharshi

Author(s): Arunachal Sadhu
Publisher: Ramanasramam Tiruvannamalai

Page 15

A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi
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life, a short period of meditation should be practised each day, preferably in the early morning.
That the method that I devised of stilling the mind and concentrating on my own essential core, which I had decided was God, differed little from the method of seeking out the Self by constant enquiry and search for the Witness as taught by Bhagavan, there can be no doubt. I was lucky that the Truth came to me so easily. Of course it bore out Bhagavan's saying that, “Chadwick was with us before, he was one of us. He had some desire to be born in the West, and that he has now fulfilled.” So it seems that the memory of the teaching given in a previous birth was bearing fruit in this.
I arrived at Tiruvannamalai by the early morning train. It was a bright clear day at the beginning of winter and I was immediately struck by the wonderful atmosphere of the place, which one almost felt that one could take hold of, so potent was it. I was met at the station by Ganapathi Sastry. I had asked the Ashram to send someone to meet me and so naturally concluded that this was the person, but it transpired that, though he had once been one of their men, at the time he was out of favour and had no authority to meet me. The emissary sent by the Ashram never showed himself when he saw someone else looking after me. Why trouble?
Ganapathi Sastry had once been a local magistrate and had been a devotee of Bhagavan for years. He had a special liking for a white face and would attach himself to any European or American that came to the Ashram. But