27 February 2021

Nisargadatta Maharaj Website


Please bookmark to a resource website on Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj at this link here. The website includes a number of videos, interviews, photographs and information about books and DVDs of this great Saint.


"You are never without a Guru, for he is timelessly present in your heart. Sometimes he externalises himself and comes to you as an uplifting and reforming factor in your life, a mother, a wife, a teacher; or he remains as an inner urge toward righteousness and perfection. All you have to do is obey him and do what he tells you. What he wants you to do is simple, learn self-awareness, self-control, self-surrender. It may seem arduous, but it is easy if you are earnest. And quite impossible if you are not. Earnestness is both necessary and sufficient. Everything yields to earnestness." [Nisargadatta Maharaj]




Go to this link here to read a fascinating narrative by David Godman on Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. 


An excerpt concerning a portion of the narrative concerning Sri Ramana Maharshi is reproduced below:- 


Question: What was Maharaj's attitude to Ramana Maharshi and his teachings? Did you ever discuss Bhagavan's teachings with him? 


David Godman: He had enormous respect for both his attainment and his teachings. He once told me that one of the few regrets of his life was that he never met him in person. He did come to the ashram in the early 1960s with a group of his Marathi devotees. They were all on a South Indian pilgrimage tour and Ramanasramam was one of the places he visited. 

With regard to the teachings he once told me, 'I agree with everything that Ramana Maharshi said, with the exception of this business of the heart-centre being on the right side of the chest. I have never had that experience myself.' I discussed various aspects of Bhagavan's teachings with him and always found his answers to be very illuminating. He asked me once, 'Have you understood Ramana Maharshi's teachings?' Since I knew he meant 'Had I actually experienced the truth of them?', I replied, 'The more I listen to Maharaj, the more I understand what Bhagavan is trying to tell me'. I felt that this was true at both the theoretical and experiential levels. 

His explanations broadened and deepened my intellectual understanding of Bhagavan's teachings and his presence also gave me experiential glimpses of the truth that they were all pointing towards. 

I have to mention Ganesan's visit here. V. Ganesan is the grandnephew of Ramana Maharshi and in the 1970s he was the de facto manager of Ramanasramam. Nowadays, his elder brother Sundaram is in charge. Ganesan came to visit Maharaj for the first time in the late 1970s. As soon as he arrived Maharaj stood up and began to collect cushions. He made a big pile of them and made Ganesan sit on top of the heap. Then, much to everyone's amazement, Maharaj cleared a space on the floor and did a full-length prostration to him. When he stood up, he told Ganesan, 'I never had a chance to prostrate to your great-uncle Ramana Maharshi, so I am prostrating to you instead. This is my prostration to him.'

6 comments:

Meenakshi Ammal said...

I have been fortunate to have met some famous and wondrous saints and holy people. But the one that I truly would have appreciated meeting (but didn't) would have been Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Anonymous said...

David Godman writes so well.

Janet Woods said...

Hello, is that you David? Just kidding, totally agree with the comment David Godman really does write beautifully.

Anonymous said...

Loved the post on Nisargadatta!

I Exist said...

Sadly the link now takes me to some casino page. I believe this is Maharaj's way of telling me to look inside not outside

Meenakshi Ammal said...

I have deleted the previous link to the above posting and have now added a correct resource link to Nisargadatta Maharaj. Should work fine. Thanks for the alert. This update posting now appears on today's date.