SARANAGATI JANUARY 2023

SRI RAMANASRAMAM VOL. 17, NO.1

D. Thiyagarajan
JANUARY 2023 IN THIS
VOL. 17, NO.1 ISSUE

Dear devotees,
As the year comes to a close, early morning Margarzhi
pujas are taking place in Bhagavan’s Shrine and
In Profile: Shanta Rungachary 3
preparations are underway for Bhagavan’s upcoming
143rd Jayanti to be celebrated on the 7th January. Bhagavan’s Handwriting: ‘Decad of Miracle’ (v. 6) 4
Meanwhile the Ashram’s medical staff is alerting Announcement: Sri Bhagavan’s 143rd Jayanti Celebrations 5
devotees to a possible Covid surge in Tiruvannamalai Events: Arunachaleswarar Pradakashina 6
during the coming weeks and advising precautionary Events at Sri Ramanasramam: Lucy Ma Day 7
steps such as mask use and social distancing. In the Frame with Bhagavan: Archival Listing GRO 32 8
In this January 2023 issue we read the life story of
From the Archives: Karthigai Deepam in the 1930s 9
Shanta Rungachary who came to Bhagavan at the age
of 12 in what would be a life changing experience (p. 3). Sri Bhagavan’s Ayurvedic Recipes: Eladi Kuligai 9
Also this issue, see photos from the Ashram archives Events at Sri Ramanasramam: Pandaveswarar Kumbhabhishekam 10
(pp. 8-9) and learn of the recent Ashram-sponsored Announcement: Sri Ramanasramam’s Centenary Year 10
Mahakumbhabhishekam of Pandava Kovil (p. 10). Events at Sri Ramanasramam: Deepam Nights 11
For videos, photos and further news of events, go to Announcement: Ashram Calendar of Events for 2023 11
https://sriramanamaharshi.org or write to us at Announcement: Daily Live Streaming 11
saranagathi@sriramanamaharshi.org.
In Sri Bhagavan,
Saranagati

Calendar of Ashram Events

6th Jan (Fri) Full Moon, Natarajar Abhishekam 17th Jan (Tues) Arunachaleswarar Pradakashina
7th Jan (Sat) Sri Bhagavan’s 143rd Jayanti 19th Jan (Thu) Pradosham
9th Jan (Mon) Swami Ramanananda Day 3rd Feb (Fri) Pradosham
12th Jan (Thu) Sivaprakasam Pillai Day 4th Feb (Sat) Punarvasu/Full Moon
14th Jan (Sat) Bogi; Ramaswami Pillai Day 5th Feb (Sun) Full Moon Sri Chakra Puja
15th Jan (Sun) Makara Sankaranthi Pongal 7th Feb (Tue) Swami Rajeswarananda Day
16th Jan (Mon) Maattu Pongal 18th Feb (Sat) Mahasivaratri
 desperately needed a confidante, an adviser, somebody preferably
outside the family, and out of the blue the name of Ramana
Maharshi came to me. His was the only name I had ever
heard my father — a stubborn, intolerant sceptic — mention
without any codicils. I decided, therefore, to write to the sage
of Tiruvannamalai secretly. After a number of unsuccessful
attempts, I finally sent off a letter asking the Maharshi directly to
‘please, I beg of you, help me with my temper problem.’ Within a
week I received a reply signed by the Sarvadhikari, informing me
that my letter had been received and placed before the Maharshi
and that his message to me was that if I myself made a constant
and earnest effort to overcome my temper I would rid myself of
it, and that he sent me his blessings. My first reaction was one
of astonishment at being treated like a grown-up, since I had
always been told what to do, guided, instructed, warned, but never
challenged except on Sports Day. And here was this great Guru
as good as telling me: ‘It is your temper, isn’t it? So, you yourself
must deal with it.’ He had simply batted the ball back into my
court in the nicest possible way by treating me as an individual in
my own right. I rather liked that.
his correspondence was just the beginning, and it
T
IN PROFILE was not long before the family would pass through
Tiruvannamalai and make a short stop at Sri
Ramanasramam:
Shanta Rungachary
Ramana Maharshi entered my life again a year or so later when
my sister took our whole family on a pilgrimage. The entire
thing was going to take less than a week and we were to stay at

F ollowing a tragedy, children may sometimes Tiruvannamalai for only two days. But as it turned out we stayed
at Ramanasramam for the whole week and I wept like a lost
exhibit adult behaviour. When the world they
child when we had to leave. The visit to Ramanasramam was a
grew up in is suddenly taken from them, they can
shattering experience for me. I do believe I literally fell in love with
raise mature questions and develop an emotional Ramana Maharshi. I was in a daze, my mind was gone; I was in a
literacy which under normal circumstances would not state of dumbfounded ecstasy. This love which had been awakened
come about until a much later age. was the kind which totally bypasses the physical plane and creates
Such was the case of Shanta Rungachary who lost an awareness of a different kind of consciousness which can only
her father at the age of twelve. In 1934 she made an be described as a mindless rapture, pure joy. It is an unlocated,
appeal by letter to the Ashram: ‘Personal and Private pervasive state of being sparked by some kind of recognition and it
to Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi at Tiruvannamalai’. stays with you and you are never the same again.
Her letter contained no inquiries about how to manage he original intention to visit the Ashram may have
T
loss and grief but rather concerns about her irascible been rather casual but as soon as the family entered
temperament, the tendency to get angry, and the effects the Ashram compound in the pre-dawn silence that
such behaviour was having on others, not least of all, first day, they perceived that this would not be just
on her mother. Shanta recalls this period in her life: one of a string of stops in their pilgrimage:
It was a bad time for me. I had just lost a father I had worshipped. We arrived at Tiruvannamalai just before dawn. After reaching
I was twelve, going on thirteen and at once all has been said. I the Ashram we bathed and had our breakfast, and then made our

page 3
 way to the Hall. My mother, brother and sister went ahead and
quickly disappeared into the Hall. I hung back, unaccountably
apprehensive. Then, as I at last composed myself and got to the
door and looked in, I saw reclining on a sofa, a golden-brown
figure with the most radiant countenance I had ever seen before or
since and, as I stood there riveted to the spot, the Maharshi turned
and looked at me. When I remember it even now, more than forty
years later, tears come to my eyes as they did then. I stood there,
God knows how long, just looking at that face. Then, as in a
trance, I moved forward deliberately towards him and touched
his feet. Fighting my way through the disapproving glances that
followed, I then made my way to a place near the window. Once
I was seated, I let my tears flow. I remember I spent a good part
of that morning wiping my eyes. They were not tears of grief nor
were they tears of joy. Maybe they were for something which I saw
in the Maharshi fleetingly and which I also want and shall forever
seek. Yes, I cried for myself then and I still do it now. Never
before had I seen in a human countenance a more intense, inward
life and yet one which remained so transparent and childlike.
Shanta’s responses strike one as coming from the
mind of someone much older, someone fully grown. Arunachala, ca. 1935
Bhagavan was able to see beyond the packaging of
the souls that came before him, and instead of seeing rendition of Tyagaraja’s Vinanok koni Yunnanura, keeping
a little 12-year-old girl, he saw a soul that was ripe for time softly with my fingers on my knee. The audience sat still
the path. For her part, she recognized the Master’s and unresponsive. The total lack of reaction to my performance,
greatness at once: should in reason have embarrassed me, but I was away in a state
There was about him an irresistible and indefinable spiritual of mind which recognised nobody except that reclining figure on
power which simply overwhelmed me. I was conscious of people the sofa. After a few minutes I threw myself with another gush
sitting all around me but was totally incurious about them. After of abandon into Thelisi Rama Chintana. As I began the
an hour or so of silence I suddenly felt like singing. Without anupallavi which exhorts the mind to stay still for a moment and
hesitation or embarrassment, I lifted my 12-year-old voice in a realise the true essence of the name Rama, I saw the Maharshi

Bhagavan’s Handwriting: Sannidhi Murai’s ‘Decad of Miracle’ (v. 6)

Nenjam ondri-naan nigazh-uru neri-yidai/Ner-tadaikku aat-traadu
Tanjam endralun taazh-tidaan veera-maart/Taanda Venkata devan
Unju pom-vazhi yoodu-pondu alaip-purum/Ut-pagaikku
ualindu-poi/Anju raadu-enakku abaya nangu aruliya/Arpudam ari-yene.

Although being a wholehearted ascetic, the uncontrollable latent

tendencies drew me back to an infamous state. From this fallen
state, I sought refuge at his feet without neglecting the valorous
Sun of Consciousness, Venkata Deva who protected me. In my
pursuit to attain Self-knowledge, when I got distressed by the
rancorous ego, he urged me saying, ‘Fear not’, and graciously
offered me refuge at his feet. How did this miracle happen? —

page 4
 turn his eyes upon me with that impersonal yet arresting look of
his, and my heart soared and I thought: ‘I want to be here for ever
and ever.’
S hanta sat in the Hall at Bhagavan’s feet for three
hours each morning and three hours each evening. It
soon became apparent to the family that they should
try and extend their stay for as long as possible:
After the first day my family had, without any discussion, silently
and unanimously agreed to change our planned programme and
requested and got extension of residence. I sat in my seat near
the window still and thought-free, just gazing at the Maharshi.
Occasionally somebody would ask a question and the Maharshi
would turn and look at him, and you got the feeling that the
question had been answered. Or somebody would ask for the
meaning of a particular phrase in a Sanskrit or Tamil stanza,
and the Maharshi would answer softly, briefly.
He was not a man of many words. His long years of practised
detachment from people made him laconic in speech. His knowledge
of classical Tamil religious literature was considerable; he could
himself compose verses and he did. His enlightenment had not
been directed by a Guru but had come from within. It was all
Yogi Ramaiah and devotees in the Ashram, ca. 1935

Announcement: Sri Bhagavan’s 143rd Jayanti Celebrations

page 5
 there lighting him up from inside and his most effective form of That was a strange experience for me, that in the presence of
communication was intra-personal through the sense of sight and Maharshi, speech seemed redundant. I was totally and blissfully
the medium of silence. He was a very human being, who laughed satisfied just being in his presence.
and joked occasionally, but he could suddenly plunge deep into The youngster clung tightly to her daily schedule
himself while sitting in a hall full of people and rest in that during the allotted week-long stay. Sooner than
stillness of spirit, which as he himself said, was being in God.
hoped, the appointed time for leaving arrived:
hen a devotee appeared with some verses to show
W
I practically did nothing else but sit in that Hall. We attended the
Bhagavan, the Guru made a brief comment and Vedic recitals at dawn of the students of the Ashram Patasala.
narrated a story from Yoga Vasishtam: My brother and I watched every morning the Maharshi’s gangly
I listened – and felt that I could understand the words that were walk up and down the hill and I remember, on one memorable
being spoken though I really could not have grasped their meaning. occasion, the gentle sage himself smilingly stood still for a couple
I wondered in retrospect years later when I myself read that book, of minutes as he saw my brother adjusting his camera. I had
at the delightful ease and simplicity with which the Maharshi had never before spent so many days talking so little, just sitting
narrated that story, going straight to the spirit of it like an aimed around so much, or so lost in a single-minded pursuit of the
arrow, and then lapsing into what I can only describe as a speaking Maharshi. The evening we finally left, my brother and I kept
silence. In those eloquent silences that punctuated his brief coming back to look at the Maharshi ‘just one more time’ as
remarks, one seemed to feel unspoken thought flowing around the he sat in the enclosed veranda beside the hall having a light oil
room touching and drawing everybody into its illuminating course. massage. I finally said: ‘We will go only after he turns his head

Events at Sri Ramanasramam: Arunachaleswarar Pradakashina

O nce in Bhagavan’s time when on the second day after the Deepam flame had been lit as per tradition, Arunachaleswarar
and Apithakuchambal were going in procession round the Hill. When they reached the Ashram, devotees offered
garlands, coconut and camphor, and then took the flame to Bhagavan in the Old Hall. When they waved the flame before
Bhagavan, he exclaimed, “Why all this? The Son is included in the Father (appavukku pillai adakkam).”
This year Arunachaleswarar and Apithakuchambal reached Sri Ramanasramam around 10 am on the morning of
8th December and were enthusiastically greeted by devotees and staff. —

page 6
 and looks at us once more.’ After a minute or two the Maharshi want to go away somewhere, away from home, family, friends,
turned full face towards us and looked at us and without a word book, mistakes, fears, sorrows, my mind automatically turns to
we turned and walked away. Ramanasramam. And my body follows. I make the journey to
Years later, Shanta reminisced about what all this meant: Tiruvannamalai, walk into the Ashram, enter the Hall, and I
I shall not claim that my whole life was transformed after this am ‘home’ and totally at peace.
meeting. No. I went back to school and then to college, got Every human being has really only one Guru like one mother.
married, set up house, had children, and started a journalistic Some are fortunate enough to meet their Gurus, some pass them
career. My grihasthasramam became my main preoccupation. by, like ships in the night. I stumbled upon mine when I was
But my visit to Ramanasramam had done something to me. It twelve. I now stand alone in myself. In a sense I am twelve-
had left a mark on my mind and heart. The picture of the going-on thirteen all over again, standing on another threshold,
Ashram and of the Maharshi was always in my mind like remembering, waiting. —
the background curtain of a stage. Whenever I was tired or [Shanta settled in Calcutta where she and her husband
dispirited or perplexed the wish to go to Ramanasramam would wrote for The Statesman. Shanta was honoured to be
possess me like a hunger. Even when I was so busy that I did not
chief columnist on the respected newspaper’s ‘Edit
know whether I was coming or going a sudden look at a picture
Page’. Meanwhile, she authored numerous books,
of the Maharshi hanging on the wall would momentarily root me
to the spot and my mind would suddenly go blank. among them, one on Gandhi (Pilgrim Centenary: A
I did go to Ramanasramam a fortnight before death claimed the Remembrance, 1973), another of traditional stories for
Maharshi’s frail human body. Because of the vast crowds which children (Tales for All Times, National Book Trust,
had come to visit him, the Ashram authorities had made special 1971) and a translation of Kedari’s Mother, Kalki (from
arrangements for everybody to get darshan of the white-haired the Tamil, 1966). Since no photograph could be
smiling figure who sat on an easy-chair on the veranda of the traced, a snap from Chennai, 1954, is included below
room in which he later breathed his last. For a brief moment I picturing Shanta as Queen Gertrude in a performance
stood below and looked up at that benign countenance, the eyes of ‘Hamlet’ (top row, third from left) with members
so bright and serene, and knew it was the last time I would be of the Press Club at the Museum Theatre.]
looking at the living Maharshi.
I went to the Ashram again some years later. As usual, as soon
as I passed through the Ashram gates, its peace closed around
me and emptied my mind. I sat on a veranda where I had only
to turn my head to the left to see the mountain and bring my
eyes back to the samadhi to see in my mind the Maharshi sitting
on his sofa. I sat there the whole of that day doing nothing, not
reading, not writing, not eating, not thinking, not remembering,
not wondering why it was so quiet or where everybody was, and
the voice of a young lad who came running through the gate
screaming: ‘Nehru has passed away’ was just an incidental
sound. During all those hours I never for a moment wanted
to be anywhere else or doing anything else. Whenever I feel I

Events at Sri Ramanasramam: Lucy Ma Day

O n the last day of the year, devotees

gathered at Lucy Ma’s samadhi to sing
Aksharamanamalai. The recitation was followed
by arati and distribution of prasad. When Lucy
Ma’s daughter, Heike Hildebrand was asked to
sing afterward, she immediately sang a lullaby attributed to Mozart. —

page 7
 In the Frame with Bhagavan: Archival Listing GRO 32
(At Ramanasramam in 1934, just the year before Shanta Rungachary’s visit. Left to right (seated): 1. Niranjanananda
Swami [Chinnaswami]; 2. (in front) Yogi Ramiah; 3. (behind) Dr. W.Y. Evans-Wentz; 4. Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi;
5 (behind) Grant Duff (Douglas Ainslie); 6. (front) Munagala Venkataramiah (compiler of Talks). 7. Sub-registrar
Narayana Iyer; Standing; middle row: 1. Nondi Srinivasa Iyer; 2. Krishnamurti (office attendant); 3. Somasundara
Swami (Book-Depot); 4. K.R.V. Iyer (Calcutta); 5. Sama Iyer; 6. Ganapati Shastri (Head Accountant; Taluk Office); 7.
Vishwanatha Swami; 8. T.K. Sundaresa Iyer; 9. Father of Ranga Rao; Standing; back row: 1. Rangaswami (Attendant);
2. (behind) & 3. Unidentified; 4. Ramaswami Pillai; 5. Ramakrishnaswami; 6. Subramaniam Swami; 7. Kumaraswami
(Stores); 8. (behind) Ranga Rao (Cook); 9. (in front) Unidentified; 10. Annamalai Swami; 11. Madhava Swami.
Yogi Ramiah: Hailed from Nellore District, when Yogi Ramiah took up sadhana at 18, he had an experience where there was no ‘I’.
Inquiring of it with local pundits brought no satisfactory reply. But in 1925, he asked Ganapathi Muni about it in Bhagavan’s presence.
“The subject is of course different from the object”, replied the Muni. Ramiah was disappointed and looked to Bhagavan who added, “subject
and object are distinct in the phenomenal world but in samadhi they merge and become one.”
Dr. Walter Y. Evans-Wentz: The American anthropologist who published The Tibetan Book of the Dead in 1927
studied religion and philosophy at Stanford, did his graduate work at Oxford and was influenced by T. E. Lawrence, William James and
W. B. Yeats. He collected Pali texts in Sri Lanka and travelled across India, “seeking wise men of the east”. He met Bhagavan in 1935.

Munagala Venkataramiah: Born 1882, studied industrial chemistry and after being awarded the Arni Jagirdar Gold Medal,
commenced a career as Lecturer in Chemistry. When his daughter passed away in 1918 at a young age, he discovered Bhagavan at Skandasramam
and commenced an intensive spiritual search which included the study of Vedanta. In 1932, he came to Bhagavan for good and from 1935-1939,
recorded conversations in the hall which formed the collection, Talks and translated various books, e.g. Tripura Rahasya into English. —

page 8
 From the Archives: Karthigai Deepam in the 1930s

T he eighth day of the Karthigai Deepam festival in procession with elephant around the Four Streets in the 1930s.
Lower left, Yogi Ramiah, Muruganar and Kunjuswami atop the Hill with the Deepam flame smouldering behind
them. Lower right, pilgrims awaiting the mounting of the deities on their respective vehicles for the procession. These
photos belong to the Paul Brunton Collection, taken during the 1930s and preserved in the Ashram Archives. —

Sri Bhagavan’s Ayurvedic Recipes: Eladi Kuligai

Ēlādi Kuligai nālāṉa dirāṭcai palam-oṉḏṟē yāgu
ēlādi kuḷikaiyadu miyambak kēḷā naltēṉā nāṟcāmam araittu nelli
yēlamoḍu pattiriyē paṭṭai yuntāṉ pōlāga uruṭṭi irupōdu uṭkoḷḷap
kālāgum palamaraiyā maricit tipli pōkkumē kayakāsa rōgam ellām.
kaṟkaṇḍu matimaduraṅ karccū rakkāy
nālāṉa dirāṭcaipala moṉḏṟē yāgu Ingredients: cardamom (9 gms); paththiri (9 gms);
naṯṯṟēṉā ṉāṟcāma maraittu nelli cinnamon stick (9 gms); rice pippali (9 gms); sugar
pōlāga vuruṭṭiyiru pōduṭ koḷḷap candy (18 gms); licorice (18 gms); dates (18 gms);
pōkkumē kayakāsa rōga mellām. raisins (36 gms)
Ēlādi kuḷikaiyadu iyambak kēḷāy
Preparation: Grind and mix well then add honey and
ēlamoḍu pattiriyē paṭṭaiyum tāṉ store for 12 hours.
kālāgum palamaraiyām aricit tippili Benefits: One heaping tablespoon can be taken twice
kaṟkaṇḍum atimaduram karccū rakkāy daily for tuberculosis and asthma. —

page 9
 Events at Sri Ramanasramam: Pandaveswarar Temple Mahakumbhabhishekam

T he Pandavas are the five brothers in The Mahabharata, Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva.
Though sons of Pandu (‘pandava’ means descendant of Pandu), the King of the Kurus, they were fathered by
five different Gods. When tricked into surrendering their kingdom, the five brothers went into exile and wandered
with their wife Draupadi. During twelve years of exile in the forest, they prepared for the Kurukshetra War with
Krishna’s help. In their wanderings, they made their way all over the land of Bharat and are said to have come to
Tiruvannamalai where they took up residence on the Holy Hill just up from the current day Ramanasramam.
In recent years, the temple that bears their name was in need of restoration. Owing to its proximity with the
Ashram and given the history of the temple’s tirtham which Bhagavan sometimes swam in, the Ashram fully funded and
supervised the extensive renovation of the ancient site. Mahakumbhabhishekam was performed on 12th December. —

Announcement: Sri Ramanasramam’s Centenary Year

(September 2022 - December 2023)

S ri Ramanasramam’s Centenary celebrations called, Ramanasramam: The Next One Hundred

Years, which began 1st Sept 2022 and will continue over a 16-month period until Jayanti,
28th Dec 2023. It is recorded in one place that Bhagavan came down the Hill to stay
permanently ‘about one week’ before Jayanti which fell that year on 3rd January 1923. If
so, this means the Ashram would have been established with Bhagavan’s arrival around the
28th of Dec 1922. Ashram President Dr. Venkat S. Ramanan invites devotees to send their
suggestions for this Centenary Year to him directly at <posrm@gururamana.org>. —

page 10
 Events at Sri Ramanasramam: Deepam Nights

F rom the night of 6th December, Arunachala regaled us with his glorious brightness each night from 6 pm. Devotees
gathered in front of Bhagavan’s Hall at 5.40 pm to intone Aksharamanamalai and continued the recitation right up
until the lighting of the flame. This nightly rite was performed right up until Saturday night the 16th December. —

Announcement: Ashram Calendar of Events for 2023

Announcement: Daily Live Streaming

Ramanasramam is live streaming the Tamil Parayana and Vedaparayana each day, Mon-Sat, 5-6.45 pm
IST. To access Ashram videos, go to: <https://youtube.com/@SriRamanasramam/videos>
To subscribe, go to: <https://youtube.com/@sriramanasramam?sub_confirmation=1>

page 11