[Advaita-l] Bhagavan Ramana and the pain of cancer

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 11:05 PM, V Subrahmanian
<v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> 2.
> http://www.writespirit.net/authors/ramana_maharshi/life_of_ramana_maharshi/
>
> // For the last 2 years of his life the Maharshi suffered from cancer and
> experienced great physical pain, but even towards the end he maintained the
> same tranquil poise and self same radiant smile. When he was suffering
> from cancer in the arm a disciple ran away crying because he could notbear
> to see his master in pain. Ramana only smiled and spoke to a disciple
> nearby.
>
> “Duraiswami is crying because he thinks I am suffering agonies! My body is
> suffering but I am not suffering. When will he realise that I am not this
> body?” //
>

Namaste.

This remark of Bhagavan is reminiscent of the Bhagavadgita verse:

 अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे ।
गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः ॥ 2.11

*2.11* You grieve for whose who are not to be grieved for; and you speak
words of wisdom! The learned do not grieve for the departed and *those who
have not departed.*

The Bhashya, in part, is:

 // Because, panditah, the learned, the knowers of the Self-panda means
wisdom about the Self; those indeed who have this are panditah, one the
authority of the Upanishadic text, '....the knowers of Brahman, having known
all about scholarship,....' (Br. 3.5.1) ['Therefore the knowers of Brahman,
having known all about scholorship, should try to live upon that strength
which comes of Knowledge; having known all about this strength as well as
scholorship, he becomes meditative; having known all about both
meditativeness and its opposite, he becomes a knower of Brahman.']-; na
anushocanti, do not grieve for; gatasun, the departed, whose life has become
extinct; agatasun ca, and for those who have not departed, whose life has
not left, the living. The ideas is, 'Your are sorrowing for those who are
eternal in the real sense, and who are not to be grieved for. Hence your are
a fool!.' //


Bhagavan Ramana's words are so instructive; they echo the words of the Lord
to Arjuna.

Grief with regard to the dead can be there because they are no longer
alive.  Grief with regard to the living can be there because they are
attacked by disease, old age, etc.  The Lord's teaching is: grief on both
these counts is unjustified; it is a mark of ignorance.

And, of course, the rest of the the Lord's teaching on the real nature of
the Atman, that it is beyond all modifications, injury, decay, etc. is
embedded in that remark of Bhagavan.  All modifications, decay, disease,
death, etc. can occur only to the prakRti-born body and never to the Atman.


Om Tat Sat