Yogi Ramsuratkumar

Yogi Ramsuratkumar Yogi Ramsuratkumar Yogi Ramsuratkumar Jaya Guru Raya !!! " Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram " " This beggar prays to his Father to bless you all who have come here. My Lord Rama blesses you - My Father blesses you. Arunachaleswara blesses you". Yogi Ramsuratkumar was born in a village Nardara near Kashi on December 1, 1918. In his childhood, he loved very much to meet the yogis and monks. He was befriended by a number of holy men who built their huts on the Ganges shore or simply wandered nearby. He grew up as a Grihasta but eventually, the tugs of spirituality in his heart took over. In search of his "guru", he visited and spent time in the ashrams of both Sri Aurobindo and Ramana Maharishi. He later moved to Kerala at the ashram of Swami Ramdas. In his own assessment, Sri Aurobindo gave him Jnana, Sri Ramana Maharshi blessed him with tapas and Swami Ramdas gave him the nectar of Bhakti. Swami Ramdas initiated him into the holy mantra : " Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram ", by pronouncing it thrice in his ears. Yogi Ramsuratkumar often refers to this instance as his "death", since from this moment on, his ego no longer existed, and he had a profound spiritual experience. 'This beggar wandering here and there, tired of wandering but having no home - Arunachalesvara, in the form of this hill, had mercy on this miserable sinner. So he gives thanks, a thousand thanks, to this holy hill, this holy temple. Oh, the magnanimity of the Lord! He has given me shelter for twenty long years. Whereas others who come are enabled to stay only days or weeks . . . For thousands of years the hill has given shelter to so many dirty sinners like me - and Arunachala will give us shelter for thousand of years to come.' When Yogi Ramsuratkumar used to walk around the Hill, out of humility, he would always walk in the opposite direction of all the other pilgrims. Many times Yogi Ramsuratkumar would say: 'The mountain helps us.' He himself spent many years wandering on the mountain, taking shelter in its caves. Based on his own comments, his transformation seems to have been connected in part to his subtle relationship to the divine force within Arunachala. Where is the Fire? The Fire is there on the hill there. But I don't see it there. You can see it if you are really bent upon seeing it. Are you afraid of being engulfed by it? Then you can't see it Have courage, no fear You are sure to see it Yogi Ramsuratkumar The 'Fire' referred to by Yogi Ramsuratkumar (as poet) is the mystical Fire of Creation, the light that is perceived burning within Mount Arunachala as the embodiment of Shiva: 'This holy Fire burned at the core of the beggar's absolute certainty: his faith in a Power that governs everything, controls everything.' Yogi Ramsuratkumar Yogi Ramsuratkumar loved his devotees. He loved laughter. He loved conversation. He loved human company. He was always extremely available and accessible and open and communicative, and at the same time there was something of the magician about him. During these years he was available to 'friends' at almost any time of the day or night near the Temple Chariot, at the corners of the roads or under the trees at the Temple. Subsequently, accepting the entreaties of devotees, he moved into a house with a small room and veranda on Sannadhi street near the Arunachaleswarar Temple. People started to visit and spend hours discussing spiritual and personal problems with him. Yogi Ramsuratkumar resided at this house until autumn of 1994, when he became ill and thereupon accepted an alternative offer of shelter at Sudama House in Ramana Nagar some miles west of the Temple. When his fame began to spread, large crowds started to gather waiting for his darshan. The influx of devotees grew steadily in size creating the need for an ashram. Yogi who always verbally refused the role of Guru of Teacher, had previously refused offers of an ashram, but to fulfil the desire of devotees, in 1993 Swamiji acceded to the acquisition, enabled by contributions, of a site of 3½ acres once called Agrahara Collai close to the Sri Seshadri Swamigal and Ramana Ashrams. The construction of an Ashram started once the land was cleaned and prepared. Yogi Ramsuratkumar was involved in every step of the large building programme which at one point involved the participation of up to 250-300 workers working long hours. The first Ashram structure to be completed was a small stone thatched-roof darshan mandir which could sit 200 people. It was located by the front gate of the developing Ashram and was the location of Yogi Ramsuratkumar's regular darshans. The plans for the Ashram were elaborate and included a huge Temple, 350 feet long and 150 wide which would be big enough to accommodate 5,000 people, a kitchen and dining hall, cottages for ashram residents and guests, meditation hall, library, several buildings devoted to worship, and a Veda Patashala, which Yogi Ramsuratkumar was to say would be the 'heart of the Ashram', and was intended to be a place where visiting pandits and scholars could stay and conduct Vedic research. The ashram began to flourish. When it was first being built, Yogi Ramsuratkumar said that it was not just for Tiruvannamalai or India, but it was universal - a place of pilgrimage for all races and religions. From 1996 Yogi Ramsuratkumar started experiencing continuous bouts of ill health which included high blood pressure, stomach ulcers and diabetes. In July 1999 although he was diagnosed to have a tumour he refused to allow allopathic treatment or tests of any kind. Despite the tremendous suffering he was undergoing, he maintained his close supervision of various projects within the ever-growing Ashram. In spite of the pleadings of many of his devotees, Yogi Ramsuratkumar stood firm in his refusal to allow allopathic treatment to prolong his life, he consistently pronounced, 'Father will take care of this body'. By early August 2000 his health reached a crisis point and those who were caring for him felt he would die very soon without medical intervention. So on 17th August, after he had given a reluctant consent, he was taken to a hospital at Chennai (Madras) and surgery took place on 11th September. A devotee, Vijayalakshmi wrote about this time: 'In this period of one year, Bhagavan's enormous reserves of strength were tested again and again. The peace and love which he continued to radiate through the months of illness, was phenomenal. During the months of recover, while at the hospital in Chennai, there was daily satsang. Bhagavan's quotation from Tulasidas, Kabirdas, Mahaperiyaval etc., anecdotes from the lives of saints were feasts, which left one hungry for more. His cheerfulness and peace through all the extreme pain and suffering made one increasingly aware of this enormous presence in the form of Bhagavan. Perfect strangers were immediately attracted by him and wanted to serve him. His reiteration that one is not the body began to be understood' [2] He finally return to Tiruvannamalai on November 23, 2000. The surgery which doubtlessly prolonged his life for six months, also prolonged his suffering. 'Yogi Ramsuratkumar was a very long way from the ecstatic years on the streets when he was a hidden beggar saint, free to move and work as he wished. The story becomes thick with pathos . . . Perhaps if his destiny had not cast him into the hands of the world in the way it did, he would have simply lain down under a tree . . . and passed away from his body, but was obligated to act out his last days bound in the golden case of love. All this too was the will of God, the beggar's manifest destiny. The final result was that it gave a short reprieve from his impending death and made it possible for the enactment of the final play of his vast lilas.' By mid December, 2000, Yogi Ramsuratkumar gave his last two public darshans in the Temple where he was able to consciously interact with devotees. The last two months of his life were spent in an apartment open to the view of all. His devotees were allowed to come and stand outside the glass wall of his room and take his darshan whilst he lay on his bed amidst a plethora of tubes, nursing attendants and medical apparatus. Over the next weeks his condition quickly declined, until by mid-February it was clear that his physical death was imminent. Hearing of his serious condition many devotees came to say goodbye. For days Yogi seemed to hover back and forth between death and life. A few days before his mahasamadhi, while several devotees sat at his bedside, he suddenly opened his eyes, looked his devotee Ma Devaki in the eyes and said, 'I am everyone, everything, here, there, everywhere. I alone exist.' On February 20, 2001 at 3:19 a.m. in his Ashram at Tiruvannamalai, Bhagavan Sri Yogi Ramsuratkumar attained mukti. His body was kept in the vast hall of the Temple on the day of February 20 and thousands of people thronged the Ashram to pay their respects. The next day, February 21st at 3 p.m., his body was carried on a bier in circumambulation around the Ashram. Afterwards it was anointed with sacred substances, dressed and lowered, sitting in the lotus position, into the samadhi site at the Ashram Temple. '. . . And so a great beggar, a true Godman, was gone from this world in his physical form and reborn in the unseen worlds beyond the fives senses. His effulgent presence filled the vast sky and pulsed in the hearts of those who loved him. There was never a cessation of the communion of his heart with those who were receptive. To hear, in joyful silence, the sound of the beggar's laughter, which would resound in the world forever. His body, exuding the splendour and sanctity of the life that was lived, was laid in state in the temple, while thousands of people came to pay homage to a beloved son of Mother India, and to the great treasure that was his life - as one devotee said, “His life! His wonderful life, mother! Such a glorious life, you know1” ************************************************** There is one existence. MY SUPREME FATHER is EXISTENCE : Arunachala Shiva Arunaachala Shiva Arunachala Shiva Aruna Jata, Arunachala Shiva Arunachala Shiva Arunachala Shiva Aruna Jata! Blessings from Yogi Ramsuratkumar Yogi Ramsuratkumar Yogi Ramsuratkumar Yogi Ramsuratkumar -Partha.