Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
A GREAT YOGI
(Edited on 18-1-2010)
By
PROF. V. RANGARAJAN
Benediction By
SWAMI CHIDANANDA
V. RANGARAJAN
Price: Rs.
Published by
SISTER NIVEDITA ACADEMY
Typesetting by
SMT. NIVEDITA RAMESH
Printed by
BENEDICTION
HARI OM!
Rishikesh
23-11-1987
Swami Chidananda
PUBLISHERS NOTE
Madras
23-11-1987 -- SISTER NIVEDITA ACADEMY
PREFACE
He took the fan again into his hand and holding it by the
side of his ear, started staring into my eyes. After
sometime, he rose up and from out of the heaps of books
strewn around him, brought a few and gave them to me.
All those books were about him a biography titled Yogi
Ramsuratkumar The God Child, Tiruvannamalai by
Truman Caylor Wadlington, a few booklets, one of the
special souvenir publications brought out on the
occasions of his Jayantis and two books comprising
poems on him by the renowned Tamil writer, Ki. Va.
Jagannathan. He autographed all the books, some with his
name and some with my name remarking, There is
nothing in the name. Both are the same! He also
presented to me a beautiful colour portrait of his own self.
He rose from his seat and walked towards the door. I also
followed him. Coming out of the house, on reaching the
road, prostrated again to take leave of him. Unexpectedly
he caught hold of my hands and sat on the footsteps of
the house by the roadside. I was thrilled. Time rolled on
when the Yogi was immersed in samadhi holding fast my
hands. I too felt the inexplicable experience of being
dragged into a realm of bliss. With that superb climax,
my first visit to the Yogi ended.
On 12th of January, 1985, when all over the world, the
Jayanthi of Swami Vivekananda was being celebrated, I
presented myself again in the presence of Yogi
Ramsuratkumar. This time a devout couple from South
Africa, Smt. & Sri T. M. Moodley, had accompanied me
to Tiruvannamalai on a pilgrimage. In view of the
International Year of Youth, the Government of India had
declared that day as the National Youth Day. And we
found Yogi Ramsuratkumar Kumar in an ecstatic state.
Jubilantly he was muttering all the time: Oh! What a
great thing the Government has done! They have declared
Swami Vivekanandas birthday as the National Youth
Day! My Father blesses the Rajiv Government! What a
great thing it is! Oh! Swami Vivekananda! My Swami
Vivekananda! Like a little child revelling on receiving
some birthday gift, the Yogi was revelling on the great
news of the day. We could clearly see the patriot-monk in
him. He had nothing else to talk on that day except about
Swami Vivekananda. However, to please the visitors who
had come from a distant land, he enquired about the
political situation in South Africa and the welfare of the
Indians there. Yet he concluded the conversation by
appealing to them to carry the message of Swami
Vivekananda to their brethren in the distant continent. At
that time, I did not even dream that by his grace and the
grace of the Divine Mother Mayi, I myself would visit
South Africa, carrying the message on Swami
Vivekananda as desired by him.
Vande Mataram!
1
Oh! Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati,
Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri, thou all be present
in this water.
2
Dakshinamoorti, with preceptors like Shankara,
Ramanuja and Madhva in the middle, we have a great and
glorious guruparampara -- lineage of spiritual masters.
Like the rain waters that come down from the skies take
to different forms of rivers each one having its own
course and ultimately merge in the same ocean, all these
great archaryas have drawn their inspiration and gained
spiritual insight from the Vision of Truth in their intuitive
consciousness, though they have followed and also
pronounced for the posterity different paths of god-
realisation in order to lead all to the ultimate goal -- Sat-
Chit-Ananda -- Existence-Consciousness-Bliss -- the
Para Brahman.
3
The Ultimate Reality is both static and dynamic. It is
That from which everything emerges, That by which
everything is sustained and That into which everything
merges. The Consciousness-Force is represented as
Siva-Sakti. Siva is Brahman, the static, and Shakti is the
Prakriti, the energy form of Brahman. The two are
inseparable like word and its meaning.
4
last days in this sacred place, taking to the form of a
parrot, sitting on the Kiligopuram of the holy
Arunachalaswara Temple and singing his famous Kandar
Anubhooti. Many great saints like Guhai Namasivayar,
Guru Namasivayar, Seshadri Swamigal, Ramana
Maharshi and Iswara Swami have sanctified the place by
their stay. Today the place receives a special significance
on account of the presence of Yogi Ramsuratkumar. He
lives like a mad, old beggar, like the Divine Mother
Mayamma of Kanyakumari. Like Ramana, he has crossed
the realm of speech. He never gives discourses, not even
spiritual advices, but his vision into the philosophical
verities is as deep as that of the noted philosopher J.
Krishnamurti. He has not written any book or article, but
he has plunged into the Supramental Consciousness as
deep as Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo. He always remains in a
state of Eternal Bliss, like the revered Acharya of Kanchi,
Jagadguru Sri Chandra Sekarendra Saraswati of
Kamakoti Peetham. To him all are one.
5
launderer who washes the sins of devotees who throng
around him. Sometimes he laughs hilariously like a
drunkard or a mad man, but sometimes he gazes into the
hearts of his devotees with a silent, chilling and
penetrating look for long hours. He sings and dances like
a child, chanting Ramanam. At other times, he sits alone
in some corner and weeps within himself not able to bear
the agony, pain, suffering and ignorance in which his
countrymen are immersed. He apparently acts according
to his whims and fancies and no one can predict what he
will do or where he will go next. No one knows whether
he will receive one or refuse an interview, however
important a person the visitor may be. But he disciplines
the lives of hundreds of his devotees who have, before
coming into his contact, always been acting according to
the impulses of their minds, facing consequent ups and
downs in their lives, and he channelizes their lives into a
higher spiritual path. Unlike orthodox sadhus and saints,
he is a chain-smoker, but he burns into ashes the fetters of
Karma that bind his devotees. Who is HE?
6
CHAPTER TWO
THE TWILIGHT
Jaya jaya jagadamba!
Shreegala shree jataayaam
Jaya jaya jayasheele!
Jahnukanye! Namaste!
Jaya jaya jalashaayi
Shreemadangri prasoote!
Jaya jaya jaya bhavye!
Devi! Bhooyo namaste!
9
Very little is known about the early days of our saint. Yet
it is clear that his parents were very devout and he had his
early initiation into the study of our sacred scriptures like
the Ramayana and Mahabharata under the influence of
his father from whom he used to hear the ennobling tales
in these epics when he was a little boy. Though in his
early days, hearing of these stories and tales were a
pastime to the boy, the impress that it made on him was
so deep that when he grew into a youth, he started
understanding the profound meaning and significance of
what he had heard in his childhood. This explains the
deep interest that the Yogi evinces even today in men of
letters, especially those who are well versed in the sacred
lore of this ancient nation.
15
CHAPTER THREE
THE DAWN
Reflecting the rays of the Rising Sun the blue
ocean glistens like a jewel near a flame; a
transfiguring brightness beautifies it; and its
hastening waves sing the scriptures, and would
gladly embrace the shores of southern
Pondicherry, the nursery of ancient Tamil.
1
Translation by Prema Nandakumar
16
persuaded by Sister Nivedita, the illustrious disciple of
Swami Vivekananda, he plunged into the revolutionary
movement for the emancipation of the Motherland. He
wielded a powerful pen and his writings in BANDE
MATARAM, an English daily which he edited, stirred
the hearts of thousands of militant young men and women
of the country, inspiring them to offer their lives in the
struggle for the freedom of the Motherland. Incurring the
wrath of the British, he soon landed himself in the
Alipore Central Jail. While in solitary confinement in the
jail, Sri Aurobindo had the vision of Krishna Vasudeva.
A new light dawned on him. He came to realise that he
power of yoga could achieve the purpose of liberating his
country far easier than a political struggle. After his
release, he stayed in Chandernagore for sometime and
then shifted to Pondicherry where he started his severe
penance and sadhana. Soon emerged around him a
spiritual community, which has come to be known as Sri
Aurobindo Ashram. During the pre-independence days,
the ashram was a haven not only of spiritual seekers, but
also of patriots like Bharati and V.V.S. Aiyar who used to
sit with the Mahayogi immersed in research into the
Vedas and occult literature as well as ways and means to
mould the political destiny of the nation. No wonder the
country attained Independence, as envisaged by the sage,
on his very birthday in 1947. The goal aimed at by Sri
Aurobindo was not merely the liberation of the individual
or the nation from the shackles that fettered, but to work
the will of the Divine in the world, to affect a spiritual
transformation and bring down the divine life into the
mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity.
17
He said, The call upon us is to grow in the image of
God, to dwell in Him and with Him and be a channel of
his joy and might and an instrument of His works.
Realising the Supramental in his own body, Sri
Aurobindo attained Mahasamadhi on December 5, 1950.
18
Venkatraman, who later came to be adored as Ramana
Maharshi, was born to Sri Sundaram Ayyar, an
uncertified pleader and his wife, Alagammal, at
Tiruchuzhi, on the auspicious day of Arudra Darshana, on
29th of December, 1879. The early life of Venkatraman
had nothing significant in it and at school, he was not
much interested in his studies. But he had a prodigious
memory and he could remember anything that he heard or
read once.
20
Ramsuratkumar, who had the introduction of the divine
wisdom of the Supramental Truth from the writings of Sri
Aurobindo and the study of the inspiring personality of
the Mahayogi, now needed a guide to put him on the path
of rigorous spiritual sadhana to realise it. It was that role
that Maharshi had to play. Yet the time had not yet come
for the young devotee to draw his quota of spiritual
guidance from the Master. Hardly three days after the
aspirant came to the preceptor, a man known to him
presented before Ramsuratkumar a paper clipping about
another sage -- Swami Ramdas of Anandasharam in a
remote village called Kanhangad in North Kerala.
2
At the time of writing the book Mataji was the head. She was
succeeded by Swami Satchidananda and now the head is Swami
Muktananda.
22
beggar was not impressed with Swami Ramdas as he had
been with Ramana Maharshi and Aurobindo. This beggar
was not able to understand Ramdas at that time. He
understood immediately that the other two Masters were
spiritual giants. With Ramdas, however, it was different.
It was a kind of reaction. He was living luxuriously and
people were serving him like a king. Having found no
attraction to the new Master, Ramsuratkumar returned to
his home in Kashi.
27
The Master commanded the disciple to go and sit
chanting the mantra for all the twenty-four hours of the
day. Ramsuratkumar remained in an ecstatic state of God-
Consciousness for several days. He used to sing and
dance chanting the mantra. He had, by now, turned into a
mystic. He found the whole universe within himself. The
Dawn of the Divine Consciousness in him, heralded by
Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo was hastened slowly by
Maharshi Ramana and brought to its culmination by
Swami Ramdas. Referring to the role of the three
Masters, Ramsuratkumar remarks in a humorous vein:
Most men wouldnt like to say they had three fathers,
but this beggar had three Fathers. There was much work
done on this beggar. Aurobindo started, Ramana
Maharhsi did a little and Ramdas finished. Sri
Aurobindo gave him the Jnana to seek the Truth, Sri
Ramana led him in the path of Tapas and ultimately Sri
Ramdas gave him the Bhakti to soar into the realm of
Divine Ecstasy.
29
CHAPTER FOUR
3
At the time of writing this book, there was no Ashram
31
people suspect that I have hidden treasures and trouble
me. What will be my fate if I call myself a king?
40
CHAPTER FIVE
That Yogi is none other that our hero who never claims
himself to be a Yogi, nor demonstrates his powers, but
always calls himself a Beggar.
43
beggar. The Yogi called out to him, Go and share it with
all others sitting there (around the temple).
44
That which is night for all beings is the time when the
Self-disciplined is awake; that which is considered to be
waking state by the beings is just a night to the Seer.
(Gita II-69)
47
come to attain its home,.it is India Yes, Mother India
is, indeed, the Land of Light Infinite Bharat!
48
Yogi and Sadhu
49
CHAPTER SIX
51
both ends meet. They are not criminals. They beg as there
is no other go.
This writer told the Yogi that he had already quoted His
words in a write up for TATTVA DARSANA and he
would write an editorial too. The Yogi said, Yes, you
can write an editorial too. The Yogi said, Yes, you can
write an editorial for the urgent need. But you must make
a study of all law books like Manu Smriti, Yajnavalkya
Smriti and other scriptures and writings of Kalidasa and
others, gather material about the tradition of honouring
beggars in our country and write a good article on the
subject, Rangaraja. The Yogi exhorted again, Matru
devo bhava, Pitru devo bhava, Acharya devo bhava,
Atithi devo bhava -- this is our tradition, Rangaraja. We
must go out to find people seeking alms and entertain
them -- so says the Shastras.
* * * * * * * *
Come on, let us go there and sit. This beggar will spend
one or two hours with you.
Vande Mataram
61
GLIMPSES OF A GREAT YOGI
SADHU PROF. V. RANGARAJAN
A Scintillating Saga of
Yogi Ramsuratkumar
People forget great men soon after they depart was the
casual Comment made Sri Ramsuratkumar while
conversing about a philosopher who recently passed
away. This remark caused altogether an unexpected
reaction in the mind of Sri V. Rangarajan. He reflected
People fail to recognise great men even when they are
alive. If only to rectify the wrong the present generation
is about to do in regard to the living saint Sri Rama Surat
Kumar, the author undertook a delicate and difficult task
and the result is this elegant biography entitled
GLIMPSES OF A GREAT YOGI
-Gnana Oli
Bees rightly get the scent and reach the flower to draw it
fill of honey. Thus the spiritual bee -- Prof. V. Rangarajan
-- has sought out the unique Yogi Flower -- YOGI
RAMSURATKUMARJI -- in Tiruvannamalai -- the
abode of Mahatmas, and drawn out the honey of Wisdom
for our delight. Now it is up to us to grab the opportunity
and enjoy it.
- Religious Digest