In the ashram a lot of random things get said. Different ashrams have different levels of crap being spoken in a very normalized fashion. From a friend who had apparently been to another hippie place (not sure it can be called an ashram) said that Isha is really good in that respect that they very actively keep this random grapevine low.

I don’t know. I personally don’t face a lot of this nonsense conversations in places, even outside the ashrams, possibly because innately I am a certain way so completely discourage this kind of conversation. Now if I identify some people as blabbers I remain fairly cautious with them in that regard.

Here was one tale I heard in the Ramana Ashram,about Mahatma Gandhi & Ramana Maharshi….

I don’t know if it is true or whether Ramana actually said this. Since I heard it via the devotee grapevine. Those grapevines can easily exaggerate, distort the original stories quite a bit.

But anyway, on this 150th birth anniversary of the Gandhi, here goes,

In the 1930s, Gandhiji visited Tiruvannamalai. This was when Ramana Maharshi was still alive and his ashram had now been built at the foothills of the Arunachala (earlier he stayed on the hill). As the story goes, Gandhiji, was in Tiru to give a speech. And he passed very close to the Ramanasramam and wanted to meet Ramana. But the person with him opposed the idea. Whether this person was against Ramana or whether he just didn’t want to take a chance of Gandhi having a change of heart and leaving the freedom struggle half way, I don’t know.

Stories differ in their details – some suggest Gandhi was very keen to meet Ramana while others suggest he was only considering it less keenly.

Eventually whatever the case, Gandhi didn’t meet Ramana. This was a key shift in his life. Because Gandhiji is considered a very spiritual person. And with the right trigger he may have become a full out sanyasi and not a political leader. If he would have met Ramana, he might have left his social efforts and dedicated himself to inner enlightenment.

On Quora, I read that Ramana has made this comment,

‘Gandhi would like to come here but Rajagopalachari was worried about the consequences. Because he knows that Gandhi is an advanced soul, he fears that he might go into samadhi here and forget all about politics. That is why he gestured to the driver to drive on.’

Since I haven’t personally read the book, I am not sure if this is as published in the book.

There is also another online thread which talks about Ramana’s comment on Gandhiji’s sudden death,

At 9-45, Bhagavan was about to go out when a newspaper reporter came and requested him to give his views on the tragedy so that they might be published. Bhagavan, his voice choked with emotion, said, For the Mahatma’s death in this tragic manner, every persons heart is mourning. What is there in particular that I could say? Who is there who is not grieved? If I say anything, you will publish it and then, one after another, people will come and ask me. What is the good of it?

Interesting, huh?

The thing is,

Gandhiji was already in touch with Shrimad Rajchandra. And from what I understand he was also an enlightened person. So, if he was to go through a transformation into a spiritual seeker and not social activist, wouldn’t he already have when he came in touch with Shrimad?

Interesting to note, how in the spiritual circles, social/political activism is not valued highly. Spiritual enlightenment is the primary goal, and often social do-goodness doesn’t help. I wrote more on this earlier – exploring the nature of Karma Yoga.

Similarly, the social/political activists often despise spiritual folks because they “waste” their time doing nothing for the betterment of others.

Gandhiji’s Weird Spiritual Experiments

Since I have already penned down a post about Gandhi, here are a few thoughts on his many ‘spiritual experiments’ which bring him the ire of a lot of people. For example,

I hear that he denied kasturba gandhi, his wife, a pain killer when she was dying. Apparently he wanted her to go through the pain, which would build her tolerance or improve karma or something. And Kasturba begged for pain killers but he refused on some moral spiritual grounds.

I also hear that he would ask many women to sleep around him naked, as a way to test his bhramacharya.

The only comment I have on it is that,

people who do have a real spiritual seeking and thirst within themselves, but if they fail to find the right Guru/path for themselves, then they may end up doing weird experiments. They are truly seeking spiritual enlightenment (aren’t perverts) but they don’t have a clear path, so they will come up with their own path themselves. The problem is that such a path only works to some extent. Only a true Guru can offer a truly spiritual path through and through which addresses all aspects of the seeking.

That’s my understanding of it.

So I don’t call him a pervert, but I do feel he should have had a proper spiritual guru.

Even with Shrimad Rajchandra, it never became a Guru-Shishya relation for him. This has been recorded explicitly in their correspondences to each other from what I have heard.

So in that way, may be Ramana could have become his ‘Guru’. But sadly he never met Ramana.

Yes, I say sadly, because probably from my position as a spiritual seeker, I do consider not meeting ones possible Guru a very sad thing.

What would have happened to the Freedom struggle, if he had veered off the path?

I cannot say.

But I have always been amazed with Ramana for this same reason. When the country was in such shambles, captivity and the painful throes of freedom struggle…. here in this quiet mountain town, a silent yogi set such a stellar example for all humans. As if none of these social realities even mattered!

Bowing down to all such great people, who set their own stellar examples, in the various spheres of their life.

In a way, Gandhi did that too, in his sphere of social activism.

🙂