RAMANA GITA STUDY-EXTRACTS FROM KAPALI SATRIARS' DIARY Part 1

[Guest guest]

Extracts from the Diary of Kapali Shastria Part 1

 

I thought it would interest members to read exctracts from 'K' 's diary when he

presented Ramana

with his Commentary on his Gita .It is quite long so I will post in Parts on a

daily basis .Alan

 

 

 

SRI KAPALI SHASTRIAR wrote his Sanskrit commentary on the Ramana Gita in 1941,

and paid a visit to

Sri Maharshi to dedicate the work to him. And on his return, in response to a

pressing request

for a full account of the trip, he gave a rapid narration which was recorded.

When the

typescript was ready and shown to him, Sri Shastria prefaced it with a note:

 

"The following was dictated in response to Madhav's request that

I must narrate to him as closely as possible all about my trip to Tiruvanamali

 

Naturally, this personal and intimate account was not meant for publication,

and as such was not

revised by him. However, some extracts from it are included in this section as

they would be of

special interest to the reader.

Kapali Shastria had intended to render his Commentary on the Ramana Gita in

English, but this

never took place in his lifetime. In 1998, an English translation was at last

prepared, and is

now available, published by Ramanasramam

 

*

I

T WAS on the morning of 10 October 1941 that I started for Tiruvannamalai,

taking the 7.40 am

train. Fortunately I got a compartment all to myself, and after arranging my

things I took the

manuscript in order to check up and correct the possible slips therein; for

when I was writing

out the commentary I did not look back at what I wrote ... The train reached

T.Malai in time,

perhaps a few minutes before time. I took a Jutka2 and it was 12.45 pm when I

reached the Ashram.

When the carriage turned to enter the Ashram, I saw an arch in bold letters:

SRI RAMANASHRAMAM

- it was not there ten years ago when I last went there ...

I could not recognise the surroundings, that it was the Ashram ... R.took me

to a building which

I later learnt to be what they call the Office of the Sarvadhikari. When I

turned to my left,

the old lady Echhamma was sitting there with her usual rosary. Being very old

she invited me

with nods. I expected change in her, and for her age she did not look older.

 

* * *

 

 

I stood at the threshold of the Hall, one foot outside. Somehow my legs

would not move

forward. The head hung down. Feelings overpowered me, perhaps pent up for

ages they now found

their vent. I muttered something, with effort raised my head , moved forwards

and saw the figure

of Sri Maharshi reclining on the sofa as usual. Our eyes met. He nodded and

said "Hm. Hm.",

as if to say "Why so much, why so much!"

 

I prostrated myself, and as I was doing so, he said to an attendant close

by, "This is Kapali

Sh ...". When I heard my name being uttered by Maharshi, my mind jumped back

to the old moments

and there were corresponding emotional experiences. I spoke not a word and

stood up. He asked

me if I had taken food. "Yes," I replied, "I will take a little rice with

buttermilk."

 

"The train came just now?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Come so soon?"

"I got the Jut immediately."

"You were expected. Then, just take food - you can have whatever you

like."

There was a feeling of satisfaction and peace. I came out; to Echhamma

who was waiting

there I was not in a condition to speak.

 

 

* * *

It was now 3.05pm when I went before Sri Maharshi. I handed the manuscript

and prostrated

myself before him, then approached him close, explaining to him how unlike in

Sat-Darshana-Bhasya

3 I had closed the concluding portions with a conspectus of the work and an

epilogue, in all

twenty couplets. I further stated that in one of the couplets I had stated that

my commentary is

the lustre of the pearls which are the composition of Ganapati strung together

on a thread which

is the import of Sri Maharshi's teachings.

 

He graciously smiled; looking into that particular verse he read it aloud

appreciatively

while I remained quiet standing quite close by, as I had something else to tell

him.

 

I told him that I had written in the next verse that the work was offered on

10 October 1941,

and as such it had to be offered then; but I had still to go through the book

to find out if

there were slips, as I had no time to look back as I went on writing the 243

pages continuously

for twenty days and more, in addition to my routine work.

 

"That can be done. Would you like to take it now?" he asked.

"No, not now; when it is not being read it can remain with me."

Then he asked me about the colophon; I told him I had left space to write a

few words there.

"Yes, I shall write," he said, "you can call it Bhasya."

"Anyway, as the Maharshi pleases," I replied.

 

But in the Introduction I had written the title as Ramana Gita Prakasa

Pithika.4 He

immediately saw that and said "Then, as you have already named it, you can call

it so."

 

Then he turned to the end of the book and wrote after Kapalinah krtih,

prkasakhya vyakhya, and

filled up the word samapta. Then the Maharshi audibly read out the twenty

couplets and

significantly accented the last line:

matrbhutamahesaya Ramanaya namo namah.

 

It looked from the manner of his reading as if he had read it before.

 

Just at the time when we were talking about the closing verses, a gentleman

was standing

outside whom the Maharshi could see through the side window. Addressing him,

he said "Come in,

here is come" (showing the book in his hand). In a minute I saw him entering

the hall, coming

closer to me. Pointing to him the Maharshi asked me "Do you recognise who it

is?"

 

I looked at him scrutinisingly. "Ah, is it J ...?" I exclaimed, for with

difficulty I

recognised him to be the same boy who used to come twentyeight years ago to the

Virupaksha Cave

when we were meeting at the feet of Sri Maharshi. Afterwards he went out,

studied Vyakarana and

specialised in Vedanta; later he became Pundit in the Shankara Mutt in

Kumbhakonam. Later, once

I saw him sitting mute in a corner of the hall at the Maharshi's, but that was

only for a few

minutes in a crowded gathering ten years ago. We had no opportunity even then

to converse. It

seems he had to leave the Mutt due to some misunderstanding and a few months

back he came to

Tiruvannamalai and is making a temporary stay. Sri Maharshi's question to me

was significant;

the significance was lost upon me at the time. Later I came to know it when

people told me about

the extraordinary crisis which would have easily led to a fatal end.

 

"How is it he looks so weak?" I asked.

"He is very healthy and strong now," Maharshi replied, "if you had seen

him a fortnight ago

.... Oh! Everyone thought he would not live. There was only bone and skin.

Now, somehow he is

there."

 

One word about this. Sri T.K.Sundaresa Iyer and Sri A.R.Duraiswami gave me

some details

about the crisis. There was a general talk and everyone was saying that it was

an extraordinary

thing that J. was alive today.

 

A few months back he was seriously laid up in bed with complicated illness

including

temperature. Later, it was found to be cancer in the abdomen; and as is well

known, medical

science has not definitely succeeded in finding a cure for cancer, and he was

given up for lost.

He was taken to the hospital from his lodgings, doctors were changed, and one of

the doctors, a

local man who seems to be a devotee of the Maharshi, is reported to have said

that it is not a

question of days but of hours being counted, and humanly speaking there was no

hope; but of

course if he was to come back to life at all from his death-bed, then it could

be only by the

Maharshi's help. Sri Maharshi kept quiet, but asked them, significantly, to do

something.

Immediately, the doctor got unusual courage, did something which might mean

anything, and which

proved that the advice of the Maharshi was not in vain and meant much more than

what was said.

Naturally, the boldest among the unbelievers pauses, bewildered.

 

My book was still in Sri Maharshi's hands; he was glancing through the

pages and as already

said, read aloud the twenty verses concluding the book. Then he kept it on the

shelf; J. who

was sitting there wanted to see it. The Maharshi hinted that it was not ready

to be seen; in

fact he said to J.: "He has yet to go through them once."

 

J. kept quiet for a minute, again he asked, "I shall just see only the

Pithika."(Intro-duction).

Sri Maharshi found him obviously to be a little insensible; he looked at

me, I was waiting

to hear what he, Maharshi, would say, for that was an interesting situation;

but J. came to the

rescue of the Maharshi by almost removing the manuscript from the shelf,

repeating what he said a

minute earlier. Sri Maharshi had to gracefully say "Yes". Then J. took it and

began to read.

 

* * *

 

 

J. went on reading, then and there expressing his opinion or raising some

objections, pausing

and looking at me questioningly ... On one or two occasions I met the

objections as they

apparently merited an answer. Later I directed him to go on whenever he

stopped, and I found his

questions meaningless ... While starting, I had a presentiment that some

obstruction might

present itself, and I was determined not to give way to impatience, and it is

this attitude that

helped and reminded me also of the significance of the flower Divine Solicitude

which the Mother

(Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry) blessed me with when I took leave of her.

 

* * *

 

 

It was not J.'s fault if he could not follow the sense of certain passages.

It is due to

the unthinking habit of many of these people in cramming the standard works of

Shastras. I had

stated that the Sciences, in the world, were imperfect, continuously changing,

developing, while

the Science of the Atman is asserted by its sponsors to be not so. This idea

was quite foreign to

his culture. I would not say all Pundits are like that; my own Guru, Vasishta

Ganapati Muni may

be considered an honourable exception. But Sri Maharshi appreciatively nodded

when the passage

was read by J. himself. And the great Tamil scholar and poet Muruganar sitting

by me (who by the

way is not a Sanskrit Pundit) could not only follow but explain to J. what was

meant. This was

because the esteemed friend had a cultured mind.

 

* * *

 

After the Veda Parayana, conducted by Sri Raju Sastri in the evenings, was

over, he - Raju

Sastri - came to me. Both of us were taken by the Sarvadhikari to his office.

Ordering the

door to be bolted he looked around cautiously to see if there was anyone who was

not in his

confidence. I believe there was none else excepting one or two other than we

four, including

T.K.S.

 

Having assured himself that we were safe, he requested Raju Sastri to take

out the thing. I

was wondering what he was going to do. From the mandahasa(medium sized cupboard

in which

household idols are kept for worship), Raju Sastri took out a plate and handed

it to him, and he

in turn placed it in my hand. It was a few inches square, but its weight

betrayed to me the

metal even before I saw it scrutinisingly; indeed, it was solid gold. The

diagram was Sri

Chakram; I saw the whole thing, it was neatly done. It cost a thousand

rupees. Then there was

another, a smaller plate; that too was taken out. The third one contained

letters inscribed in

the diagram; it was Subrahmanya Yantra.

 

He spoke to me how he was able to get it all done, why so much care for

safety had to be taken

etc. We all came out and he took us to another hut where I was shown Meru in

sila (solid rock).

I do not remember to have seen such a big sized Meru in rock though I have

myself worshipped one

made of gold(small size.)

* * *

 

 

OCTOBER 11:

J. was reading the Fifth Chapter by now.

This is a chapter in which Maharshi gives a disourse on the subject of

hrdaya of his own

accord - not in answer to any question from anyone - and this is a very

important chapter, as the

distinctive features of Sri Maharshi's realisations are expressed in unequivocal

terms. When a

particular passage came, Maharshi asked me:

 

"But is it called hrdayakasa1 or merely hrdaya(referring to anahata2 )?"

I replied, "I have written hrdayakasa for anahata also. My impression is

that the anahata

is also called hrdayakasa in some of the Tantric works."

 

Maharshi paused and looked at me, meaning "Are you quite sure?"

"Anyhow," I said "I shall note and find out; if necessary I shall quote the

text."

"Yes, that would be better."

After a minute the full significance of Maharshi's questioning became

evident to me and then

I said "I think it is better, when there is so much doubt, to remove the akasa

and simply call it

hrdayam."

 

"Yes," he said "that is right."

 

Immediatedly I took the manuscript from J. and removed the word askasa

leaving it as hrdayam.

Just here, there had to be a halt in the reading of the manuscript, for the

Maharshi began to

speak about the 'Heart', and there was general discussion in which he was the

main speaker; he

quoted many of the ancient texts from Tamil and Sanskrit to show that the hrdaya

which he speaks

of is the seat of the Self. Located on the right side of the chest is the

hrdayam of the

Upanishads and it is recognised to be such by Appar and other Tamil saints,

whereas the hrdayam in

the middle of the chest anahatam is called hrdayam by Tantrics and some of the

yogins. But it is

not hrdayakasa, it is only hrdayam, the Maharshi continued.

 

He took out a manuscript of Rajayogasara of Nayana3 and read a few lines in

Sanskrit stating

that the pascanmarga hrdaya is on the back-side while the puromarga hrdaya is in

the front. Again

he took a book in which he had written in his own hand some sentences in English

culled from an

American journal. That was the JOURNAL OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

started in 1872

in Philadelphia. It seems in 1931 there appeared in November or so (I do not

remember the exact

month) an article in it describing the Heart, the true Heart, to be on the right

side, and it was

later confirmed in another article which appeared in 1934 in the same Journal.

 

The sentences read by Sri Maharshi clearly conveyed the idea that the Heart

described was the

deepest and the innermost psycho-physical and spiritual Centre of man. The

Maharshi said:

 

"I made enquiries about it to get the whole article and that particular

number of the

journal, and I think somebody also wrote to that address which I have noted here

(pointing to the

note book in his hand), but nothing has been heard. Someone from Lahore said

that he would try

to get that number so that one could see the whole article and the means by

which the experiment

was carried out leading to the definite conclusion that the centre of the Self

or Heart is located

on the right side of the chest."

 

In this connection I reminded Sri Maharshi of what some people once talked

about this in

light vein ridiculing the idea of hrdayagranthih.4 Indeed they, L and N,

almost in the hearing

of the Maharshi once asked me in 1931 "What, your chest is not burst as yet?"

 

The Maharshi replied, now in a jovial tone reminiscent of olden days "They

can afford to

talk; but if one is hit (or caught in the net) then he can know."

 

 

 

=====

alan

 

 

 

 

 

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