Table Of ContentCHAPTER 1.1
THE MORNING STAR
Aum bhoor bhuva swah!
Tat savitur varenyam,
Bhargo devasya dheemahi,
Dhiyo yo nah prachodayaat!
ॐ भभू वभु स्वः। तत ् सववतवभ रु ेण्यम।्
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि। धधयो यो नः प्रचोदयात ् ॥
“We meditate on that adorable Supreme Light of the effulgent Sun
that illuminates our intellect in the three realms of consciousness”.
-- Thus meditates a devout Hindu, standing on the banks of River
Ganga, facing the rising sun whose radiant rays hold in warm
embrace the whole of the universe. Since times immemorial, the
same mantra has echoed and re-echoed on the banks of the holy
river which has been perennially nourishing and nurturing the
spiritual civilization of the Hindu race.
And in the sacred waters of the river he sees the grandeur and glory
of the whole nation:
Gange cha yamune chaiva
Godaavari saraswathee
Narmade sindhu kaaveree
Jalesmin sannidhim kuru
र्गङ्र्गे च यमनभ े चैव र्गोदावरी सरस्वती।
नमदु े ससन्धकभ ावेरी जलऽे स्स्मन ् सस्न्नधध िं कभरु॥
“Oh! Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu and
Kaveri, thou all be present in this water.”
-- He invokes the presence of all sacred rivers in the water. All these
great rivers have on their banks the holy temples and sacred centres
of spiritual learning.
GLIMPSES OF A GREAT YOGI 3
Like the eternal flow of Ganga, the life of this ancient land is
glorified by the advent of great sages and seers, saints and god men
right from the days of the Vedas to the modern times. This sacred
land, BHARAT -- “The land that revels in the light of spiritual
wisdom” -- is the manifestation of the Divine Mother.
Ratnaakaraa dhauta padaam
Himaalaya kireetineem
Brahmaraaja rishi ratnaadyaam
Vande Bhaarata maataram!
रत्नाकराधौतपदािं हिमालयककरीहिनीम ् |
ब्रह्मराजवषरु त्नाढयािं वन्दे भारतमातरम ् ||
“I bow to the Divine Mother Bharat whose feet are washed by the
great oceans, who wears the Himalayas as Her crown and whose
neck is adorned with the necklace of pearls like Brahmarishis and
Rajarishis.”
The Vedic seers envisaged the role of this nation as the preceptor of
the world. They called out to the mankind to learn the meaning and
purpose of life from the great masters of this land. Beginning with
Srimannarayana and 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.
Even in this modern age of scientific and political revolutions and
renaissance and reformation, Bharatavarsha’s stream of spiritual
heritage has flowed uninterrupted, producing new visionaries,
mystics and mahatmas. New India witnessed the advent of modern
4 PART 1 – SPARKLES FROM
seers like Dayananda, Bankim, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda,
Aurobindo and Ramana. The age-old paths of Jnana yoga, Bhakti
yoga, Raja yoga and Karma yoga found new exponents like
Sivananda, Ramdas, Omkar and Sadhu Vaswani. In this line of great
preceptors, we have in our midst today Yogi Ramsuratkumar, a
mystic, saint, Siddha, Jnaani, an ardent Bhakta and a dedicated
Karma Yogi -- all in one -- sanctifying by his divine presence the
sacred spiritual centre Tiruvannamalai -- Arunachalam -- of Tamil
Nadu.
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.
‘Aruna’ is Sun, a mass of
energy, in constant motion.
‘Achala’ is the solid rock -- the
grossest manifestation of energy, ever static. Arunachala is a
wonderful conception of the inseparable unity of the dynamic and
the static -- the Shakti and Siva -- Prakirti and Purusha. Legend is
there that Siva appeared as a big flame on top of the Arunachala Hill
on the Kritigai day of the Kartik month and asked Parvati to go round
the hill, after which He absorbed Her in the left half of His body and
became Lord Ardhanaareeshwara. The annual Deepam Festival in
this sacred pilgrim centre reminds us that the Ultimate Reality is a
Consciousness-Force and that Matter and Energy are not two
different entities. The local legend says that Brahma and Vishnu
GLIMPSES OF A GREAT YOGI 5
took to the forms of a swan and a boar respectively to measure the
extent of the Light on Arunachala. Brahma flew up while Vishnu
dug deep into nether worlds, but both of them could not see the limits
of the light.
That Infinite Light has attracted to this hill saints and sages through
the ages. Saint Arunagirinathar spent his 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 Chandrashekarendra Saraswati of Kamakoti
Peetham. To him all are one.
Yogi Ramsuratkumar is not dressed in the attire of a sannyasi. He
has all sorts of cloth on his body -- turban, shirt, dhoti and shawl
which have never seen a wash. He never takes a regular bath nor
performs the nitya or naimittika karma, but he is always pure and
unsullied in the spiritual realm within. He never carries a danda or
kamandala. Instead he holds a funny country hand-fan, with feathers
of birds, and a coconut shell as his begging bowl. He carries bundles
of dirt with him and the place where he stays is always littered with
rubbish. But he is the great 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 Ramnam. At other
times, he sits alone in some corner and weeps within himself not
6 PART 1 – SPARKLES FROM
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?
CHAPTER 1.2
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!
“O Mother of the Universe! O Jagadambe! Revel in the matted locks
of Sri Shankara! May’st Thou ever win, O Mother Victorious! O
Jayasheela! O Daughter of Jahnu Rishi! O Jahnukanye! My
prostrations unto Thee! The Divine Nymph born from the sacred
Feet of Vishnu! May glory be to Thee! O Mother Divine! O Devi!
O Mass of Auspiciousness! O Bhavye! Again and again I salute
Thee!”
-- So sings Swami Tapovan Maharaj of Uttarkashi, in his soul-
stirring Hymn to Mother Ganges. He addresses Her as “Mother of
Universe”. His illustrious disciple, Swami Chinmayananda,
commenting on this verse, remarks: “She is ‘Mother of the
Universe’, as She looks after the people of Bharata, as a mother
would look after her children. She nurses and nourishes the Gangetic
Valley and but for Her icy cold perennial stream, the Rajputana
desert would have by now spread over to Delhi and even up north.
Lastly, it is in Her valleys, up in the mountains, that the Rishis sat,
lived, reflected and contemplated upon, soared in their meditations
to heights of thinking, the altitudes of which have not yet been, even
from a far, touched by any human generation even after, anywhere.
And it is again the Gangetic valley of the North-Indian plains that
the glorious Aryans selected to settle down, to live the Hindu Culture
and grow, prosper and achieve a brilliant civilization of Peace, Love
and Progress. Naturally, Ganga is addressed here as Mother of the
Universe”. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru also remarks in his magnum
opus, The Discovery of India: “The story of the Ganga, from her
8 PART 1 – SPARKLES FROM
source to the sea, from old times to new, is the story of India’s
civilization and culture, of the rise and fall of empires, of great and
proud cities, of the adventure of man and the quest of the mind which
has so occupied India’s thinkers, of the richness and fulfilment of
life as well as its denial and renunciation, of ups and downs, and
growth and decay, of life and death”. No wonder, the Sacred Ganga
has been the worshipful Divine Mother to millions of Hindus in
whose hearts the very mention of Her name evokes a spirit of awe
and reverence. It is true that even in the modern period, the great
sages and saints of India have been drawing inspiration and insight
into spiritual realms, sitting on the banks of this holy river.
The banks of River Ganga formed the cradle and playground of our
hero and Master, Yogi Ramsuratkumar, in his childhood and, in his
later days, Her turbulent waves carried his soul to the Ocean of
Infinite Consciousness. As Truman Caylor Wadlington points out,
“In Yogi Ramsuratkumar’s childhood the formative influences were
his experience of the river Ganga and its holy men. In his youth there
were certain experiences which revealed to him his spiritual nature
and began to make him conscious of his destiny.” As a boy, while
playing on the banks of Ganges, Ramsuratkumar heard the Voice of
Silence form the inner cavity of his heart, echoing and re-echoing in
the roar of the flooding waters of Mother Ganga.
Varanasi, popularly known as Benares, is one of the seven sacred
cities of Bharatavarsha. Situated on the banks of River Ganga, the
city finds mention even in the most ancient scriptures like the Vedas
and Upanishads and in the Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jain religious
literature. It is a Shakti Peetha too. Shiva is said to have made it his
permanent abode. Saints and sages like Adi Shankara, Ramananda,
Kabir, Tulsidas, Madhusudan Saraswati and Panditaraj Jagannath
and modern savants of Hindu culture like Pandit Madan Mohan
Malaviya and Annie Besant have all glorified the sacred city. In the
18th century, Queen Ahalyabai Holkar rebuilt the sacred shrine of
Lord Vishwanath in this sacred city, which was ransacked during the
Mughal period. It was in a remote village near this holy city, Kashi
-- the City of Light -- that Ramsuratkumar was born on the 1st of
December, 1918.
GLIMPSES OF A GREAT YOGI 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.
Even when he was a boy, his favourite haunt was the banks of River
Ganga. He would walk on the sands for hours together in the nights,
gazing at the stars above and the rolling waves down below. At
times, he used to fall asleep on the riverbank, inviting the wrath of
his parents for keeping himself away from the home throughout the
night. In due course, the parents too reconciled with the urge for
wanderlust in the boy.
But there was something peculiar in the perambulations of the boy.
His interests were not in the usual games and sources of mundane
pleasures to which most of the boys his age would get attracted. His
favourite places of visit were the abodes of wandering monks and
mystics who abounded on the riverside. He derived as much
freshness and spiritual vigour from the company of these holy men
as he received form the cool and fresh waters of the river. He used
to spend several nights with them in their huts, sitting in front of an
oil lamp and hearing wonderful tales and legends and thrilling
spiritual experiences of great masters. His mind was always so
attracted to such dialogues and conversations that as soon as he
returned from the school, he would rush to these holy men.
It was a favourite hobby of this boy to invite those holy men to his
house for bhiksha. Not that his family was rich enough to afford such
charities, but he had a deep urge within to be of humble service to
seekers of God. Sometimes he would even forego his own lunch or
meal to feed a wandering mendicant whom he found hungry and
10 PART 1 – SPARKLES FROM
haggard. Even to this day this peculiar trait of extending hospitality
to visitors is very predominant in him. Anyone who comes to him
and spends some time with him never goes without partaking his
food as prasad.
In the lives of all saints, one or the other incident spurs the dormant
spiritual urge in them and awakens them to the realities of life. Such
a significant incident occurred in the life of our hero at the age of
twelve. One evening, his mother sent him out to fetch water from a
well. It was dusk and the cool moon was already up above the
horizon spreading its milky rays. Enjoying the calmness and
quietude of the atmosphere, the boy reached the well and dipped into
it a pail tied to a rope. Just then a small bird came and sat on the
opposite side of the well. With its intermittent chirruping it was
disturbing the silence of the atmosphere. The boy, who was pulling
up the pail of water, suddenly flung the loose end of the rope to the
other side and it hit the bird.
Whether it was a childish prank, an innocent impulse of the moment
or an accident, the Yogi is not able to recall now. But it happened in
a trice of a second and the poor bird fell motionless. The boy at once
dropped the pail of water and rushed to the rescue of the dying bird.
He took it in his palm, carried it to the banks of river Ganga and tried
to resuscitate it with the cool and fresh waters of the sacred river.
But all his efforts proved vain and he had to give an auspicious burial
to the bird on the bed of the river. Tears trickled down his cheeks
and a sudden wave of overwhelming emotion engulfed him. He felt
as though a thick veil of darkness was wrapping up his soul. Sorrow
and gloom pervaded his mind. Throughout the night he could not
sleep as he felt that he had done something for which he could not
forgive himself.
This incident was an eye-opener to him. It changed the course of his
whole life. He started feeling the unity of all forms of life. A deep
spiritual urge to realize the oneness of all beings sprouted within
him. He started becoming deeply introverted. The serene
surroundings in the lap of Mother Ganga and the close association
with seekers of Truth inculcated in him a spirit of renunciation.
