Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The millions of hours spent pondering over these questions in
'Samadhi' in Himalayan caves have brought us no answers. No
prophet, mystic, guru or godman has got us out of the cul-de-sac
of our ignorance.
- Khushwant Singh,
We Indians
Truth can only be experienced, never explained. Explanations need
language, the subject and object of duality, and can thus never touch
the nondual. Otherwise so unerring in his assessments, Khushwant
Singh, one of India's greatest men of letters, is oddly, cantankerously
limited when it comes to mystical philosophy. Of meditation he
once said, 'You can wake up a man who is sleeping but not one who
is awake.' And, 'Mystic exaltation is no more rewarding than
euphoria produced by a slug of Scotch whisky.'
Every cell that constituted me seemed to hum now, as if my
entire being had just received a badly needed tune-up. The tranquil
little room suddenly looked very familiar. I noticed birds were
singing again. What really shocked me was that my watch showed
two hours had just passed. I'd missed lunch - not that this bothered
me or my alimentary canal. In a pleasant daze, I went to find that
man from the office.
He was just walking from the
mandir
, and, seeing me, he clasped
his palms in greeting.
'Was I right?' he asked, beaming. I nodded, tongue-tied. He
seemed to understand. 'Now you must visit Bhagavan's cave,' he
told me, producing a bunch of bananas. 'You missed your lunch, so
I brought you these. Oh, I am so happy you were able to come.'
The cave was reached by a fairly taxing walk up and around the
steep side of Arunachala. As caves go, it was roomy; but, like most
caves, it was also gloomy - a place of concentrated inner toil. The
necessary darkness before the dawn, perhaps, but that did not stop
there being something leaden and oppressive about it.
Ramana Maharshi is one of those Indian holy men within living
memory whose genuineness no one seems to question. As with
Ramakrishna, Yogananda, Shirdi Sai Baba, Aurobindo, Ananda
Moya Ma and Swami Ramdas, the Maharshi's picture is found in
