Description

Swami Niranjanananda and T. N. Venkataraman (later Swami Ramanananda) whose life-stories are told in this book, in the words of Smt. Mangalam the grand daughter, in the case of the former and in his own words in the case of the latter were such luckiest ones who served a Supreme Jnani with all love for decades. Of course, they did not have to identify Him for when you see a meteor you don’t need a telescope to identify it. Bhagavan Sri Ramana was a spiritual meteor of the brightest lustre, He came as light, lived as light, left literally as a meteor and is ever present as the all-pervasive Light of Jnana.

Moreover, Swami Niranjanananda and T. N. Venkataraman did not have to travel, like the Three Wise Men did, guided by the Star of Bethlehem, to find the Master. They were blessed to be born in the same family as the Master, as brother and as the brother’s son. Even as Mother Alagammal realised that Ramana was not just her son but the spiritual Father of millions, the very symbol of Jnana and Non-dual experience, or, as poet Muruganar said, “The sure Satchidananda Siva Principle”, Swami Niranjanananda and T. N. Venkataraman took very little time, if at all, to see in Ramana the Bhagavan pure and simple. And how they served Him! How they effaced themselves totally in that service! It was an effacement which ennobled them, which made them worthy of their Master, for did he not often say, “Fame consists in effacing oneself”?

Neither of these two great devotees whose stories are told in this book were cut out for the Jnana Marga, the Path of Knowledge, for which their Master, Bhagavan Ramana is primarily known the world over. However, by dint of their ceaseless selfless service and flaming devotion to the Master, these two karma yogis par excellence fully reaped the fruits of jnana yoga.

pp. 84+viii