To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/03/01 10:40
Subject: [K-list] Professor and The Sage
From: Harsha (Dr. Harsh K. Luthar)

Professor N. R. Krishnamoorthy Aiyer 's first visit to Ramana Maharshi. It
is a very funny account.

Harsha

Professor Krishnamoorthy Aiyer speaks in his old age: I am now ninety-two
years old and I first met the Maharshi in the summer of 1914.

I had a question for the Maharshi. At that time I was an agnostic. I thought
nature could take care of itself, so where is the need for a Creator? What
is the use of writing all these religious books telling 'cock and bull'
stories, which do not change the situation. I wanted to put to him straight
questions: is there a soul? Is there a God? Is there salvation? All these
three questions were condensed into one: Well sir, you are sitting here like
this - I can see your present condition - but what will be your future
sthiti ? The word sthiti in Sanskrit means 'state' or 'condition'.

The Maharshi did not answer the question. "Oho," I thought, "you are taking
shelter under the guise of indifferent silence for not answering an
inconvenient question!" As soon as I thought this the Maharshi replied and I
felt as if a bomb had exploded under my seat.

"Sthiti, what do you mean by the word sthiti!" he exclaimed.
I was not prepared for that question. "Oho, this man is very dangerous, very
dangerously alive. I will have to answer with proper care," I thought.
So I said to myself, "If I ask him about the sthiti or 'state' of the body
it is useless: the body will be burned or buried. What I should ask him was
about the condition of something within the body. Of course, I can recognize
a mind inside of me." Then I was about to answer "By sthiti, I mean mind,"
when it struck me what if he counter-questions with "What is mind?" This I
am not prepared to answer.
As all this was passing through my mind he was sitting there staring at me
with a fierce look.

I then questioned within me, "What is mind? Mind is made up of thoughts.
Now, what are thoughts?" I landed in a void. No answer. I then realised that
I could not present a question about a mind which did not exist!

Up to that point, the mind was the greatest thing that existed for me. Now I
discovered it did not exist! I was bewildered. I simply sat like a statue.
Two pairs of eyes were then gripping each other: the eyes of the Maharshi
and my eyes were locked together in a tight embrace. I lost all sense of
body. Nothing existed except the eyes of the Maharshi.

I don't know how long I remained like that, but when I returned to my
senses, I was terribly afraid of the man. "This is a dangerous man," I
thought. In spite of myself, I prostrated and got away from his company.

DISCLAIMER!

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