T.K. Sundaresa Iyer
IT WAS SIVARATRI DAY. The evening worship at the Mother's shrine was over.
The devotees had their dinner with Sri Bhagavan, who was now on his seat;
the devotees at His feet sitting around him.
At 8:00 p.m. one of the sadhus stood up, did pranam (offered obeisance), and
with folded hands prayed: "Today is the Sivaratri Day; we should be
highly blessed by Sri Bhagavan expounding to us the meaning of the Hymn to
Dakshinamurthy (stotra)."
Says Bhagavan: "Yes, sit down."
The sadhu sat, and all eagerly looked at Sri Bhagavan; Sri Bhagavan looked at
them. Sri Bhagavan sat in his usual pose, no, poise. No words, no
movement, and all was stillness! He sat still, and all sat still, waiting.
The clock went on striking, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, one, two and three.
Sri Bhagavan sat and they sat. Stillness, calmness, motionless-not
conscious of the body, of space or time.
Thus eight hours passed in Peace, in Silence, in Being, as It is. Thus was
the Divine Reality taught through the speech of Silence by Bhagavan Sri
Ramana-Dakshinamurthy.
At the stroke of 4:00 a.m. Sri Bhagavan quietly said: "And now have you
known the essence of the Dakshinamurthy Hymn?" All the devotees stood
and made pranam to the holy form of the Guru in the ecstasy of their Being.