Sadhus Reminiscences of Raman Maharshi

Author(s): Arunachal Sadhu
Publisher: Ramanasramam Tiruvannamalai

Page 21

A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi
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would not be disturbed and where he might enjoy Bliss. Actually he had reached that state where nothing could any longer disturb him, he was beyond such things. Boys threw stones at him and teased him, but he was quite indifferent. He was, however, not unconscious. Bhagavan's realization was not some featureless blank. Appearance continued for him but he knew it as appearance and was no longer deceived into thinking it was Reality. And here, I presume, lay his complete indifference to the world. It was all a dream anyhow, so why do anything about it? Just sit somewhere and enjoy the Self. What did teaching others and helping the world signify? There were no others. Besides if he was to live in the world, as appeared to be his Karma, then, before he could do so, he had to co-ordinate this realization with the world in which he did not really believe. And this must take time. This explains his apparent escapism. Though to talk about escapism with reference to a Realized Soul is a contradiction in terms for there is no longer anything from which to escape.
It was only after some time that people brought him books and asked him to explain them. Here he found the map of what had happened to him, here were recorded his own realizations. It came as a revelation to him. He had not known that what happened to him had happened to others before. Not only had it happened, but it had been deliberately sought and also recorded.
So engrossed was he in Reality that his indifference to his body became extraordinary. As he hardly ever, if at all, bathed, his hair became one matted lump. One day an