Bhagavan Ramana, the last days

“If you want to be a sannyasin you must get rid of your clock and your mirror.” , said Swami Chinmayanandaji . Beyond time , and ego.this great sage transcended both. Being timeless and deathless, his samadhi day, or mahanirvana Day is celebrated as Aradhana day, on the 14th April 1950. Aradhana means when the thought flow is towards the higher.a description of him discarding the body reads... “There was no struggle or spasm, no other sign of death; only that the next breath did not come.” A French photographer, Henry Cartier Bresson , rushed in to ask the exact time of his gentle passing. When Bresson was told, he said that at that exact time “an enormous star had passed slowly across the sky! Many had seen it; even as far away as Madras.”

When devotees requested him to keep his body ,he said, “This body is our greatest burden. Who would be anxious to keep it on? You attach too much importance to this mortal frame. They say that I am going away, but where to?” ? When his cancer became too painful , he was asked if it was extremely painful.

He replied like a true Gyani , “There is pain, but not suffering.” See, pain belongs to the body , but suffering is an affair of the mind. So, he lay in pain , in his little simple room ,gracefully smiling , face and eyes alit with bliss but never forbid the stream of devotees from Darshan, as his grace spread arms of love to all .

Vijay Vancheswarji writes, “Like a leaf that is undisturbed as it gets blown in the wind, Sri Ramana was unaffected by praise, criticism, happy or unhappy occurrences.” Isn’t that the description of a man of perfection in the Bhagavat Geeta?

Prarthna Saran, President Chinmaya Mission Delhi. Email: prarthnasaran@ gmail.com