Post No. 13,514
Date uploaded in London – 5 August 2024
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Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was suffering from cancer of the throat. Pandit Sasadhar, seeing his illness, asked him why do you not concentrate your mind upon the diseased part and thus cure yourself?
Paramahamsa said, How can I fix my mind, which I have dedicated to God, upon this wretched cage of flesh and blood?
Sasadhar ; Why don’t you to pray to Divine Mother for the cure of your illness?
Paramahamsa said, When I think of my Mother, the physical body vanishes, and I am entirely out of it. So it is impossible for me to pray anything concerning the body.
( In fact, all Tamil saints described the human body as dirty bag with nine holes or Nine Doors)
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Naked saint
Tamil Saint Sadasiva Brahmendral , like Trilinga Swami, wore no cloth. One morning the nude yogi absentmindedly entered the tent of a Muslim chieftain. Two ladies screamed in alarm; the warrior dealt a savage sword thrust at Sadasiva, whose arm was severed. The master departed unconcernedly. Overcome by awe and remorse, the Muslim picked up the arm from the floor and followed Sadasiva. The yogi quietly inserted the arm into his bleeding stump. When the chieftain humbly asked for some spiritual instructions, Sadasiva wrote with his finger in the sands:
“Do not do what you want, and then you may do what you like”.
The Muslim was uplifted to a purified state of mind and understood the paradoxical advice to be a guide to soul freedom through mastery of the ego. So great was the spiritual impact of those few words that warrior became a worthy disciple; his former haunts knew him no more.
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Adi Sankara explains towards the end of Viveka Chudamani (VC) how a saint or a man who has attained wisdom behaves. We see such behaviour in the life of Seshadri Swaikal of Tiruvannamalai, Sadasiva Brahmendral of Nerur in Tamil Nadu, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and many Siddhas of Tamil Nadu. They roamed like beggars or mad men. They slept in crematorium; they walked naked or semi nude; they ate anything they saw.
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Here are some slokas of Adi Sankara in VC
चिन्ताशून्यमदैन्यभैक्षमशनं पानं सरिद्वारिषु
स्वातन्त्र्येण निरङ्कुशा स्थितिरभीर्निद्रा श्मशाने वने ।
वस्त्रं क्षालनशोषणादिरहितं दिग्वास्तु शय्या मही
संचारो निगमान्तवीथिषु विदां क्रीडा परे ब्रह्मणि ॥ ५३८ ॥
cintāśūnyamadainyabhaikṣamaśanaṃ pānaṃ saridvāriṣu
svātantryeṇa niraṅkuśā sthitirabhīrnidrā śmaśāne vane |
vastraṃ kṣālanaśoṣaṇādirahitaṃ digvāstu śayyā mahī
saṃcāro nigamāntavīthiṣu vidāṃ krīḍā pare brahmaṇi || VC 538 ||
538. Men of realisation have their food without anxiety or humiliation by begging,
and their drink from the water of rivers;
they live freely and independently, and sleep without fear in cremation grounds or forests;
their clothing may be the quarters themselves, which need no washing and drying, or any bark etc.,
the earth is their bed;
they roam in the avenue of the Vedanta;
while their pastime is in the Supreme Brahman.
विमानमालम्ब्य शरीरमेतद्
भुनक्त्यशेषान्विषयानुपस्थितान् ।
परेच्छया बालवदात्मवेत्ता
योऽव्यक्तलिङ्गोऽननुषक्तबाह्यः ॥ ५३९ ॥
vimānamālambya śarīrametad
bhunaktyaśeṣānviṣayānupasthitān |
parecchayā bālavadātmavettā
yo’vyaktaliṅgo’nanuṣaktabāhyaḥ || 539 ||
539. The knower of the Ātman, who wears no outward mark and is unattached to external things,
rests on this body without identification,
and experiences all sorts of sense-objects as they come,
through others’ wish, like a child.
दिगम्बरो वापि च साम्बरो वा
त्वगम्बरो वापि चिदम्बरस्थः ।
उन्मत्तवद्वापि च बालवद्वा
पिशाचवद्वापि चरत्यवन्याम् ॥ ५४0 ॥
digambaro vāpi ca sāmbaro vā
tvagambaro vāpi cidambarasthaḥ |
unmattavadvāpi ca bālavadvā
piśācavadvāpi caratyavanyām || 540 ||
540. Established in the ethereal plane of Absolute Knowledge,
he wanders in the world, sometimes like a madman,
sometimes like a child and
at other times like a ghoul/ghost,
having no other clothes on his person except the quarters,
or sometimes wearing clothes,
or perhaps deer or tiger skins at other times.
क्वचिन्मूढो विद्वान् क्वचिदपि महाराजविभवः
क्वचिद्भ्रान्तः सौम्यः क्वचिदजगराचारकलितः ।
क्वचित्पात्रीभूतः क्वचिदवमतः क्वाप्यविदितः
चरत्येवं प्राज्ञः सततपरमानन्दसुखितः ॥ ५४२ ॥
kvacinmūḍho vidvān kvacidapi mahārājavibhavaḥ
kvacidbhrāntaḥ saumyaḥ kvacidajagarācārakalitaḥ |
kvacitpātrībhūtaḥ kvacidavamataḥ kvāpyaviditaḥ
caratyevaṃ prājñaḥ satataparamānandasukhitaḥ || 542 ||
542. Sometimes a fool,
sometimes a sage,
sometimes possessed of regal splendour;
sometimes wandering,
sometimes behaving like a motionless python,
sometimes wearing a benignant expression;
sometimes honoured, sometimes insulted, sometimes unknown –
thus lives the man of realisation, ever happy with Supreme Bliss.
निर्धनोऽपि सदा तुष्टोऽप्यसहायो महाबलः ।
नित्यतृप्तोऽप्यभुञ्जानोऽप्यसमः समदर्शनः ॥ ५४३ ॥
nirdhano’pi sadā tuṣṭo’pyasahāyo mahābalaḥ |
nityatṛpto’pyabhuñjāno’pyasamaḥ samadarśanaḥ || 543 ||
543. Though without riches, yet ever content;
though helpless, yet very powerful,
though not enjoying the sense-objects, yet eternally satisfied;
though without an exemplar, yet looking upon all with an eye of equality.
अपि कुर्वन्नकुर्वाणश्चाभोक्ता फलभोग्यपि ।
शरीर्यप्यशरीर्येष परिच्छिन्नोऽपि सर्वगः ॥ ५४४ ॥
api kurvannakurvāṇaścābhoktā phalabhogyapi |
śarīryapyaśarīryeṣa paricchinno’pi sarvagaḥ || 544 ||
544. Though doing, yet inactive;
though experiencing fruits of past actions, yet untouched by them;
though possessed of a body, yet without identification with it;
though limited, yet omnipresent is he.
अशरीरं सदा सन्तमिमं ब्रह्मविदं क्वचित् ।
प्रियाप्रिये न स्पृशतस्तथैव च शुभाशुभे ॥ ५४५ ॥
aśarīraṃ sadā santamimaṃ brahmavidaṃ kvacit |
priyāpriye na spṛśatastathaiva ca śubhāśubhe || 545 ||
545. Neither pleasure nor pain,
nor good nor evil, ever touches this knower of Brahman,
who always lives without the body-idea.
This is a beautiful description of a Gnaani (one who realised the Brahman)
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Seventh century Tamil saint Appar alias Tirunavukkarasu also said the same thing about Bhakti/ devotion in his Thevaram verse. It is like a girl falling madly in love with a youth. Then she sees him everywhere and in everything. We have lot of such references in the Sangam Tamil literature as well.
“To begin with, she heard of His name;
She heard of His way of life;
Then she heard of His Town (Aroor);
Yet she became mad after Him;
She quit her mother and father that very day;
She forsook the mores of the worldly;
She became oblivious of herself; she became nameless;
The woman was oned with the feet of her Lover.”
–Appar/Tirunavukkarasar Thevaram, The Sixth Book, verse 258 Appar
அப்பர் தேவாரம்
முன்னம் அவனுடைய நாமம் கேட்டாள்
மூர்த்தி அவனிருக்கும் வண்ணம் கேட்டாள்
பின்னம் அவளுடைய ஆரூர் கேட்டாள்
பெயர்த்தும் அவனுக்கே பிச்சியானாள்;
அன்னையும் அத்தனையும் அன்றே நீத்தாள்
அகன்றாள் அகலிடத்தே ஆசாரத்தை
தன்னை மறந்தாள் தன் நாமங் கெட்டாள்
தலைப் பட்டாள் நங்கை தலைவன் றாளே
—–தேவாரம், ஆறாம் திருமுறை, பாடல் 258 Appar Tevaram
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Narada on Behaviour of a Devotee
Narada Bhakti Sutram and other Sanskrit texts also explain it beautifully: —
Sravanam: Hearing about God
Kirtanam: Reciting God’s name
Sramanam: Remembering him in everything he sees or hears
Padasevanam: Service of him as manifested in all beings
Arachanam: Worshipping him in images and holy places
Vandanam: Showing proper respect to all holy images, holy persons, symbols
Dasyam: Feeling as his servant
Sakhyam: Treating God as his intimate friend
Atma nivedanam: Surrendering oneself to Him.
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Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says
Be Mad for God
If you must be mad, be it not for things of the world. Be mad with the love of God.
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He who feels thirsty does not discard the water merely because it is muddy, nor does he begin to dig a well to find clear water.so he who feels spiritual thirst does not discard the religion near at hand nor does he create a new religion.
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He who has seen God roams about , sometimes like a mad man, sometimes like an unclean spirit, feeling no distinction between cleanliness and its opposite. Sometimes like an inanimate object, being struck dumb by seeing God within and without. Sometimes, like a child, he attaches his mind to nothing, and goes about with his clothes bundled in his arms. But when he works for the goo of others, he is as brave as a lion,
—From Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna
—subham—
Tags- Gunas, behaviour of saints, realised ones, Ramakrishna, his cancer, Adi Sankara, Viveka Chudamani, Narada, Appar, Lover, God, Sadasiva Brahmendral,
Tamil and Vedas 