Bhagavan’s First Manuscript - Suri Nagamma Letters

When I was copying out Part II of these letters, beginning with “drishtim jnanamayim kritva,” I did not know where exactly the stanza occurred. I therefore went to the Ashram a little earlier than usual to ask Bhagavan. Bhagavan was seated at leisure and I approached and enquired in what book the stanza was to be found. He kindly told me that it was in the Tejobindu Upanishad and that Sankara had written the same thing in his “Aparokshanubhuti” of which the relative stanzas were:

†iò }anmyI k«Tva pZyedœ äümy< jgt!,

sa †iò> prmaedara n nasa¢avlaeikin.

†iò dzRn! †òIna< ivramae yÇ vE Évet!,

†iò tÇEv ktRVya n nasa¢vlaeiknI.

“Which means,” said Bhagavan, “that the aim (drishti) is not to concentrate on the tip of the nose or between the

eyebrows. It should be to concentrate on the place where all the attributes of the seer, the seen and the act of seeing are dissolved. The meaning is that, when the aim, jnanamaya, that is Realization is attained through meditation enabling a man to understand his own nature and to see the way to be united with the Supreme Spirit, then the whole universe appears to be full of Brahman.”

The ‘Aparokshanubhuti’ was in the library, but I hesitated to take it from there as I have to ask somebody to get it. At the same time, I did not remember the stanzas in full and was wondering what to do. Sensing the situation, Bhagavan asked one of the attendants to take out Palaniswami’s small notebook which was in the drawer. The attendant took it out, shook the dust off it and handed it to me. It is a very small notebook, written in Malayalam characters. Bhagavan took a pen and paper to write. I murmured, “There is a copy of the ‘Aparokshanubhuti’ in the library, I think.”

“Why bother?” said Bhagavan, “I will write it out myself.” And so saying, he copied the two stanzas from the notebook. I was overwhelmed with joy and asked him, “Have you copied the stanzas of Sankara as they are, or have you just written down their meaning in stanzas of your own?”

“I merely copied them from the book,” said Bhagavan.

“In most of the small books written by Sankara, the stanzas have been copied en bloc from the Upanishads. Palaniswami asked me to copy out and give him some stanzas of Sankara, but where were notebooks or paper with us at that time? I collected every scrap of paper I could, stitched them together into a notebook, wrote out the stanzas and gave them to him. In this small notebook, selections from about ten books of Sankara have been written.”

“So, this is the first book?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Bhagavan, “At that time we had nothing but a pot; we did not have even a towel then. In the early days of our stay in the Virupaksha Cave, Palaniswami alone had a towel to wrap round him. The cave had no iron doors then, it had a wooden door with a wooden latch. We used to bolt it from outside with a small stick, go round the hill, wander hither and yon, return after a week or ten days, when we would open the door with the help of another stick. That was our key at the time; no need to keep it anywhere! This notebook was the only article we took with us. As Palaniswami wore a towel, he used to fold the book and tuck it into his waist. That was enough for us. This book was the first beginning of our (book) ‘family’,” said Bhagavan laughing.

“Did you write this from the Nagari script?” asked another devotee.

“Yes,” Bhagavan told him, “and that too, only because Palaniswami asked for it. At that time, and even afterwards, I did not write anything of my own accord.”

“Why does Bhagavan require to do all this? He does everything for the sake of others,” remarked the questioner.

“Yes, that is so,” said Bhagavan, “and of the ‘family’ that has grown since then, this book is the first.” And he showed the book to us all.