EXTRAORDINARY SANSKRIT POETS LIKE Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni, Jagadisa Shastri, Kapali Shastri and Daivarata were devotees of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. So was Muruganar, arguably, one of the greatest Tamil poets of the last millennium. There was another equally great poet and scholar who became a devotee of Bhagavan. He was great not because he was famous, but because he completely renounced recognition for himself. So self effacing was he, that he wrote Maha Yoga, a masterly treatise on Bhagavan’s Self Enquiry, under the pseudonym ‘Who’. Only in the more recent editions of Maha Yoga do we find his name: Lakshmana Sarma.
A lawyer and a naturopath by profession, Lakshmana Sarma came to the ashram in 1928. One look from Bhagavan was enough to mesmerize him. One day, Bhagavan asked him, “Have you read Ulladu Narpadu?” Ulladu Narpadu consists of forty verses composed by Bhagavan in classical Tamil. The work embodies Bhagavan’s teachings on reality and the path to abide in it. Lakshmana Sarma replied that he hadn’t read the work, adding, “I do not know classical Tamil.” Being an ardent and astute seeker, he was quick enough to suggest, “If Bhagavan teaches me, I will learn it.” Truly has it been said that if we take one step towards God, he takes ninety nine steps towards us. Lakshmana Sarma’s response made it evident that he was making the effort and taking the first step. Therefore, the master gave him private lessons in classical Tamil. Bhagavan explained to Lakshmana Sarma the nuances of the Tamil language and he absorbed the teaching almost effortlessly. Soon, Bhagavan started explaining Ulladu Narpadu and its supplement, Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham. The relationship between the guru and the disciple is extraordinary because the satguru does not actually pass on information that the disciple does not know; what he does is, make the disciple aware that he is the truth and this is what Ulladu Narpadu reveals.
Bhagavan was as compassionate as ever and the daily sessions with Lakshmana Sarma were long and in depth. Later on, when the book was published — Lakshmana Sarma never intended for it to be a book — he described the sessions that he had with Bhagavan and how he worked on what Bhagavan taught him. During this time, Lakshmana Sarma lived in a hut in Palaakothu. Since he was a Sanskrit scholar, when he returned to his hut at night, he would compile all the knowledge that he had gathered into a verse in Sanskrit. He would show the verse to Bhagavan the next day and Bhagavan would read it and correct it. Occasionally, Bhagavan would respond with a look of dissatisfaction and then Lakshmana Sarma would rework that verse. Bhagavan never believed in criticizing anyone or pointing out their mistakes, but close devotees could read the expression in his eyes or on his face. This rigorous routine continued, not for a few days or a few months, but for three years. In today’s age of computers, we want everything, including truth, to be explained with the click of a mouse. But look at the enormous toil of Lakshmana Sarma in his attempt to unfold the truth!
To quote Lakshmana Sarma: “Bhagavan began to teach me. I needed to proceed slowly, going from one verse to another. I had to make sure that I understood what Bhagavan had taught me. So I composed verses in Sanskrit that embodied the meaning that he had imparted. Before proceeding to the next verse, I would submit the verse to Bhagavan to make sure that I had faithfully translated what he had said. If I didn’t get quite the approval I wanted, I would work on the verse again and again until he was satisfied. This is how I studied all the verses and translated them into Sanskrit. I was unable to stop with the first translation because Ulladu Narpadu had taken complete possession of me and I felt compelled to keep on revising the Sanskrit verses. After translating the first forty verses, I went back and reworked them. It seemed to me that no amount of time and labour would be too much for achieving the end I had in mind.” The Sanskrit text was given the title Sadarshanam (The Vision of Reality). Lakshmana Sarma put in such relentless work that Bhagavan, who rarely commented on people, observed, “For Lakshmana Sarma it is tapas. He revised the work again and again and lived by it.” The almost perfect and flawless rendering into Sanskrit was what Lakshmana Sarma strove for and achieved.
Around the time when Lakshmana Sarma had almost completed the Sanskrit verses, Kapali Shastri was also in the ashram. When he was asked to read the verses, he remarked, “I will send it to my master Kavyakantha Ganapathi Muni. He will go through the Sanskrit and suggest changes, if necessary.” The work was sent to Kavyakantha who was in Sirsi at that time. Kavyakantha was struck by the profundity of the subject matter in the forty verses. Being an extempore poet without parallel, he composed verses afresh, instead of editing what had been written. Some of his admirers had these new verses printed as a book titled Sadarshanam and sent it to Kapali Shastri who then wrote a commentary on it. This happened sometime around 1930. Though Bhagavan appreciated the poetic quality of Kavyakantha’s verses, Lakshmana Sarma found that the translation was not accurate. He went to Bhagavan and said, “Bhagavan, the translation has deviated from the original in many places.” Having worked for three long years on the content, both in Tamil and in Sanskrit, he was very convinced of what he was saying. Bhagavan’s attitude always was that it was better to state the correct facts than point out mistakes in something or someone. He told Lakshmana Sarma, “If you feel you can expound the teaching more faithfully, why not write your own commentary?” This encouraged Lakshmana Sarma to write the commentary based on the elaborate notes he had taken down while listening to Bhagavan.
The editor of a Tamil monthly magazine wanted to publish the commentary as a series. Every time the magazine came, Bhagavan would cut out the pages of the commentary and with keen interest, paste these pages on a sheet of brown paper and preserve them. Once the entire commentary had been published, he himself stitched these pages into a book. When the devotees noticed Bhagavan’s great interest in the commentary, they decided to get it printed. However, for some reason, the ashram was unable to print the commentary. So Lakshmana Sarma himself brought out a private edition of the book called Ulladu Narpadu Urai, not for personal reasons, but because of Bhagavan’s interest.
Soon after the commentary was published, an interesting incident took place. One day, Bhagavan’s brother Chinna Swami, the manager of the ashram, was busy in the ashram office with some clerical work. He was so absorbed in it that he did not observe Bhagavan patiently waiting to get his attention from behind a window. Bhagavan could have very well called out to him, but he would never do that. After some fifteen minutes, someone else noticed Bhagavan and told Chinna Swami, “Bhagavan is waiting for you behind your window.” Bhagavan then said, “Pichai,” (that was the way Bhagavan addressed his brother), “Everyone acclaims Lakshmana Sarma’s commentary on Ulladu Narpadu as the best so far. Nobody has studied the text the way Lakshmana Sarma has. I think it would be fitting for the ashram to publish the work.” Chinna Swami took the hint and the ashram published it immediately. Chinna Swami himself studied the work and recommended it to everyone, saying, “Please read Ulladu Narpadu Urai. It is a true reflection of Bhagavan’s teaching.” Ulladu Narpadu Urai was acclaimed the best publication of the year. Even today, it is considered a great Tamil edition.
Muruganar once told me, “Lakshmana Sarma lived Ulladu Narpadu.” When I asked him what he meant by that statement, he clarified, “Whatever was conveyed by the master in Ulladu Narpadu, Lakshmana Sarma practised to the core.” He lived, breathed and thought only about those forty, glorious and sacred verses. Since he was a scholar of English, Tamil and Sanskrit, he constantly kept translating the verses into these languages. The introductory sentences of his translation reveal the great adoration he had for the master: “The ancient lore, the Upanishads, has received a striking confirmation from the life and teachings of the sage of Arunachala — Bhagavan Ramana. To all his disciples, both from the east and the west, the written and oral teachings of Bhagavan are the primary revelations. The ancient lore is of value because it is found to be in full accord with the teachings of Bhagavan. But, even for those who look upon the ancient lore as the primary authority, the teachings of a living sage must be profoundly interesting. In these pages, a systematic presentation of the old and new revelations is sought to be given.” His English translation of his original Tamil book was titled Maha Yoga. For many years, this remained the only English book that was an authentic rendering of Bhagavan’s teaching of atma vichara or Self Enquiry. It was only after Bhagavan’s mahasamadhi that other English publications such as Arthur Osborne’s books and Munagala Venkatramiah’s Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi were made available in English. These books gave the English reading audience greater access to the direct teachings of Bhagavan.
What made Lakshmana Sarma give the book such a title? Towards the end of chapter nine of the book, a beautiful chapter called “The Quest”, Lakshmana Sarma reveals why he called it Maha Yoga. “Bhagavan once said that the question ‘Who am I?’ is the quest that one has to undertake. Since all the yogas are included in the question ‘Who am I?’ it is called Maha Yoga.” As usual, Bhagavan did not buy the published version of the book. He said, “Who has the money to buy it?” As was his wont, he bound the final proofs of the manuscript and preserved it since he himself had spent many hours correcting the proofs. Around this time, while going through the ancient Kurmapurana, Bhagavan found a Sanskrit verse which he transcribed at the bottom of the ninth chapter. The Sanskrit verse read, “The yoga in which one sees the Self and which Lord Siva declares is ‘me’, the one immaculate, eternal bliss, is considered to be mahayoga pertaining to the supreme Lord.”
Lakshmana Sarma and Muruganar were both great friends and ardent devotees of Bhagavan. These giants came to Bhagavan without any knowledge of Vedanta or Advaita. So, they could imbibe whatever Bhagavan told them. Muruganar had already written Guru Vachaka Kovai or The Garland of the Guru’s Sayings in the form of Tamil poetry. Muruganar and Lakshmana Sarma selected three hundred verses and the latter translated them into English prose. He named the work Guru Ramana Vachana Mala. Lakshmana Sarma also wrote Sri Ramana Hridayam in Sanskrit; he translated this into English and published it under the title Revelation. All these English books are of great value to those who know only English as it gives them direct access to Bhagavan’s teachings. When someone asked why he wrote all his books under the pseudonym of ‘Who’, he replied, “These books contain all that I have learned from my master Bhagavan and my friend Muruganar. So ‘who’ wrote them?”
Lakshmana Sarma believed in naturopathy and went back to his village in order to treat people. His book Nature Cure dedicated to Bhagavan is considered the most authoritative book on the subject. He also wrote a Sanskrit book on nature cure called Svadeena Svasthya Mahavidya. He is considered to be the father of naturopathy in India. Yet, his mind was always tuned to the teachings of Bhagavan. Even after Bhagavan gave up his body in 1950, he continued composing Sanskrit verses on the teachings of Bhagavan and gave his collection of 700 verses the title Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad. The ashram brought out the book in English. This ‘Upanishad of Supreme Knowledge’ is a boon to Ramana devotees. The following verses from Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad composed by Lakshmana Sarma, embody the teachings of Bhagavan beautifully:
Verse 479: “Just as waves are only the ocean and the dream world is only the seer of the dream and nothing else, so the whole world is only my Self and nothing more. This perception is the merging of the world in the Self.”
Verse 504: “Since the ancient declaration, ‘You are That’ settles one in one’s real Self, disentangled from the veiling sheaths, one is ever the supreme reality (the impersonal being) alone. Only through the quest of the Self, one experiences the identity of one’s Self and the supreme reality.”
Verse 505: “When through Self Enquiry one gives up the notion, ‘I am the body’ and seeks the Self, one becomes fully aware of one’s true nature and thus is firmly established in the Heart, where the Supreme Being shines as one’s true Self.”
Verse 506: “The quest of the Self alone is the direct path to right awareness of the Self. Meditation is only a preliminary aid to this quest by way of making one transcend the hurdle that one is the body.”
Copyright © V. Ganesan. From the book Ramana Periya Puranam: Inner Journey of 75 Old Devotees where it appears as the chapter entitled “K. Lakshmana Sarma.”
V. Ganesan is the grandnephew of Sri Ramana Maharshi and the former general manager of Sri Ramanasramam. For many years he was editor of the ashram’s quarterly journal, The Mountain Path.
