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There was a particular
monk whom he visited often. They had been friends for
years and had come to have a deep love and respect to
one another. He was a venerable man with a long white
hair, gentle eyes and sturdy frame. His practical
understanding of spiritual life, his kind unassuming
personality and his deep knowledge of the ancient
mystical lore were a constant source of inspiration to
Ramsuratkumar. One night, after he and the aged saint
exhausted their conversation on the subjects of virtue
and wisdom, the saint advised him to go out alone into
the night. That night Ramsuratkumar understood that it
was time to leave home in search of a Master who could
light his way to God-realisation. For days he pondered
as to what he should do. Finally he decided to visit Sri
Aurobindo. He visited Sri Aurobindo Ashram in November
1947 with the hope that the Master would lead him beyond
his human limitations. What he saw in Sri Aurobindo’s
inspired him and increased his faith in men who have
realised Truth and for the first time he felt the
confirmation about the truth and reality of the
existence of a higher life. Then he visited Ramana
Maharshi staying at Tiruvannamalai. He stayed there only
for three days when a stranger presented him a newspaper
clipping about Swami Ramdas. He went to Swami Ramdas but
somehow he was not drawn towards him because unlike the
other spiritual Masters, Ramdas was living luxuriously
and people were serving him like a king.
He returned to North
India presumably to his home. In 1948, he went again to
the South. He went first to Sri Aurobindo Ashram but
could not stay there. Then he went to Tiruvannamalai and
stayed for about two months with the Ramana Maharshi. He
used to meditate sitting before the Maharshi. He
experienced an existence of himself beyond his physical
body. This experience had tremendous impact on him.
Living in the presence of Maharshi brought a spiritual
transfiguration of his innermost being. He visited
Ramdas after this, but it was not yet the moment to
recognise his spiritual Father. And he travelled again
to North. He recounted to Wadlington, “On April 4th,
1950 when this beggar was moving somewhere in the
Himalayas in search of Masters, Maharshi passed away. In
the same year, on December 5th, the other
great Master Sri Aurobindo also passed away. This beggar
felt a type of restlessness that he had lost the golden
opportunity of keeping company with these two great
Masters.” He now thought that he should try once more to
open himself to the other Master Swami Ramdas. The third
opportunity came in 1952. At the very first sight,
Ramdas told him about his life and mission.
Ramsuratkumar felt that he had come to a place where he
had a number of well-known intimate friends. From the
environment of the Ashram, he felt that Ramdas was a
great Sage. It was then that he recognized that the
great Master Ramdas was his Father. His yearning was
quelled only when he finally landed with Ramdas. Swami
Ramdas was actually awaiting his arrival and greeted him
just as a father would have received his own son. In
spirit they were, indeed, father and son.
Swami Ramdas seemed to
manifest conditions, which forced Ramsuratkumar to set
himself free from all authority, to stand on his own
feet, and to rely not on any human being, but rather, on
the wisdom and power of his own soul. There is no short
cut for the disciple. By the law of occult causation,
all progress on the path must be won by the individual
through personal effort. In the relationship established
between Ramsuratkumar and Swami Ramdas, there was little
philosophical thought or practical guidance given. It
was on much subtler levels bringing about actual
transformation.
According to
Ramsuratkumar, the period and guidance he had under Sri
Aurobindo and Ramana Maharshi was a period of maturation
and stabilisation. The consummation of their efforts was
taken up by Swami Ramdas, the true spiritual Father. He
once stated in a humorous vein, “Most men would not like
to say they had three fathers, but this beggar had three
Fathers. There was much work done on this beggar.
Aurobindo started, Ramana Maharshi did a little and
Ramdas finished.”
Swami Ramdas waited for
eight or nine days and then initiated him into the
repetition of Rama Mantra, “Om Sri Ram Jaya Ram Jaya
Jaya Ram.” There were no mystical rites. Ramsuratkumar
repeated the Mantra after Ramdas syllable by syllable.
Then Swami Ramdas ordained him, “Go and repeat this
mantra day and night, all the twenty-four hours.” With
this the relationship was bridged beyond the limits of
mere friendship to an everlasting partnership in Spirit.
This Mantra stirred up Ramsuratkumar’s emotions to
tremendous heights. Waves of rapturous love for God
swept over him. In the course of seven days and nights,
his personal ego was lost for ever in the flood of
Self-awareness, and his entire being swamped in the
energies of the Divine. He made the exodus from the
kingdom of man to the kingdom of God. After two months
Swami Ramdas asked him to leave. He brought him to
understand that his own nature and that of his spiritual
mission required him to enter into the tumult of the
world. Ramsuratkumar saw that his greatest potential as
a beneficent force in nature lay not in divorcing
himself from the world he sought to help, but
integrating himself with it. Previously several times he
had been offered the ochre robes of Sannyas but he
declined because he did not want to abandon the world
but to help save it. To him truth was not at all
something which could be divorced from life, rather it
had an inner and infinite bearing on life; it seemed to
be the mother of spiritual action.
Ramsuratkumar became Yogi
Ramsuratkumar. He left Anandashram. Providence was
guiding and illuminating his every step. He was led
across the whole expanse of India from Himalayas to
Kanyakumari for seven years before he landed at
Tiruvannamalai in the early spring of the year 1959.
Since then he remained there. For twelve years he took
shelter under the shade of a tree during the daytime and
slept on the verandahs of the shops closed for the
night. Later the devotees arranged a residence for him.
And then a beautiful Ashram was constructed on a
three-acre land, a little away from Ramana Ashram.
Devotees from all over the world came to him for
spiritual blessings. After guiding the devotees for
several years, Yogi Ramsuratkumar withdrew from the
physical world in February, 2001.
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