Tiruvannamalai. On the edge of this modest sized Indian town in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India, about five hours on the local bus from Chennai, stands the renowned ashram of Sri Ramana Maharshi, the much loved teacher of Liberation, who has been adopted as the patron saint by the Western Advaita (non-dual) tradition, even though the saintly Ramana never referred himself as belonging to the Advaita tradition and dismissed advaita and vaita as relative concepts.
From late December to mid February, spiritual seekers from the international community, as well as thousands of India pilgrims, make their way to Tiru, to sit in the silence of the small hall where Ramana offered satsang, to make pradakshina (devotional walk) around Arunchala, the small mountain that stand immediately behind the ashram. In the past few years, Tiru has become the place for Advaitins – as Mecca is for Muslims, Rome is for Catholics and Jerusalem is for Jews. There are around 200-300 Westerners on a given day during the peak season with numbers fading away to a trickle before and after the season, except for the 50 to 60 Westerners who live near the ashram for the much of year.
Between January 15 to January 22 , we held a seven day dharma programme with talks, Dharma inquiry (Dharma vichara), meditation, dharma groups and yoga classes. Radha, Lila, Kailash, Rani, Jenny and all gave support to the programme with Dominika as manager from January 1. Tiriu has reputation for a proliferation of spiritual teachings, satsangs, public talks and workshops with a variety of enlightened masters, satgurus(teachers of reality) and realised beings. There is certainly a profusion of posters on every available wall in locations used by Westerners, but little on a given day even in the mid peak of “satsang season.” Mooji from Brixton, London, a follower of Poonja-ji of Lucknow (1910 – 1997), holds satsang five days a week, Karl from Germany offers public meetings and Werner offers satsangs twice a week.
We held our programme on the top of a guest house with bamboo walls and roof to protect us from the sun. Behind the bench that the teachers used, we hung a large photograph of Ramana Maharshi. Prior to the Gathering, I read Talks with Ramana Maharshi, a 640 page book of his dialogues with visitors between 1935 – 1939. I found some jewels of statements from Ramana and quoted him regularly in my talks. I will include a full selection of the quotes in a future Dharma e-News.
One evening, I invited Mooji and Werner (Karl had left Tiru) for a question and answer session. Around 250 people attended the event with people queuing down the street more than an hour before it began. The event became known as the “meeting of the three masters” – Advaita sometimes uses the flowery language of enlightened masters. Mooji and Werner responded graciously to the questions. The sound system was noisy so I did not record the session.
Prior to the meeting, I wrote six questions that Mooji, Werner and I answered. They did not know of the quiestions beforehand.
1. What dissolves the gap between Guru and disciple to realise the Non-Dual
2. Is attending satsang enough for full realisation?
3. Can a Master or Dharma teacher develop a relationship with a yogi?
4. Ramana said a toothache is a thought. Is ‘war’ a thought, as Ramana implied?
5. Is consciousness the absolute truth and do you agree there is “nothing to be done?”
6. What does ‘practice’ mean to you?
At the end of the meeting, I made short appeal for dana (donations) with two tins at the entrance. The dana amounted to around 200 to 300 rupees (€5.00) in grand total. There is not a tradition of dana in the way of the Buddhist tradition. We used the money to help cover the expenses.
Formal meditation, the disciplines of method and technique, love and compassion, inquiry into all the features of the noble path seem to hold little interest in the world of advaita. The question Who am I? appears paramount with the satguru endeavouring to point to the Self beyond the self that is identified with the mind and body. Dominika and I spent a week in Tiru in January 2008 and then a total of 16 days on this visit.
By the end of the visit, my voice was fading away due to the amount of daily talking and the heavy pollution in the air along the main road outside the ashram. We appreciated enormously the visit. Jaya, Gemma and Ajay continue to give their annual retreats in a beautiful location 15 minutes from the ashram and Radha will offer a programme in Tiru in 2010. On reflection, I decided not to return to Triu to offer a another Dharma programme so as not to add yet another period of time for teaching on an annual basis.