A meeting with Yogi Ramsuratkumar Michel COQUET (Shiva Shankar)

Without a doubt, India is a country which has a significant number of saints and spiritual seekers of every kind. It is there that we find many realised beings, although we find a large number of pseudo-masters who profit from the suffering and ignorance of the people.

I wish to present a teacher master who is recognised as a liberated one. This wise man is called Yogi Ramsuratkumar. Some of his followers call him Ramji and this is how I will call him though I am not one of his thousands of disciples.

Twice I had the privilege of meeting this illustrious person. The second meeting, for various reasons, was quite exceptional.

My wife and I asked for a meeting, but the sage shouted in English from inside his house, "Come back at 4 P.M. " And that is what we did.

Ramji made us come into his modest house near the Big Temple of Tiruvannamalai. The inside of the small room where Ramji receives his followers is more than modest. It is empty except for a mat for himself and another for visitors. They file by continuously. The sage lets them come in, one, by one, except for couples. As is customary, we presented the sage some offerings. Usually he gives these offerings back to other visitors. As soon as we arrived, he made us sit in front of him. Most of the time, he keeps people only for an instant or a few minutes. In every case, we wait for his decision, as to whether we can stay or leave. During my first visit, the sage's eyes -- powerful and omniscient but also humorous and full of love -- had impressed me very much. His look immediately conquered me.

We sat face to face. During the first hour Ramji only raised his finger and his arm in our direction, as if scrutinising our past which seemed to hold no secrets from him. Nothing was said about my past but a few times Ramji restrains himself from laughing. Mv wife, on her part could not stop herself. I tried, with some difficulty, to be a taintless mirror face-to-face with a liberated soul who, I felt and knew was penetrating my innermost thoughts. Sometimes it looked as if Ramji had some difficulty in scrutinising my consciousness, but perhaps I could be mistaken, because we cannot judge a liberated one on mere appearances which he has long transcended.

From time to time a little mouse would come out of its hole and try to cross the room. This would make him laugh. Then he would become serious again and continue his investigation. During this entire time, Ramji never stopped smoking except for short periods. According to his faithful disciples, every time Ramji inhales the smoke of his cigarettes, he burns a small part of the karma of the person in front of him.

Then he asked us some questions. Having found out that we were French, he inquired about our respective professions and was very happy to know that I was a writer of some books on Hinduism.

After more than an hour and a half, Ramji made some movements with his hands in our direction, as if he was trying to choose something. Afterwards, he recited the mantra "Jaya Rama." for a few minutes. Then, two hours of contemplation had gone, our eyes looking into his eyes, he asked me to come and sit down beside him, which I did immediately.

I was suffering from congestion of the IYI"PH glands, following intense sadhana. At once, the Yogi gave affectionate slaps and began to touch some of the glands. Then, in the same way, he worked on my left hand, observing with attention the palm, the wrist and the forearm.

I was very touched and felt privileged to receive this interior. Suddenly, I had a strange experience. Something was changing in my consciousness, and without My perception My memory was being changed or awakened at once to another dimension.

In him I recognized somebody who, in the far past, was my father and I recognised myself as being his son. It was a marvellous and touching moment. I restrained tears of happiness. He asked me to light his cigarette. We stayed again a long time pressed close to one another. He was now very happy and full of tenderness for me. His eyes were not investigative but a flowing river of love.

Then came the moment of leaving. Ramji stood up and came with us to the door, making a gesture of farewell until we disappeared around the corner of the street.

I had then, and I still keep the feeling of again losing somebody who in the past was very important for me. The impression of him that he gave me remains today, and the remembrance of a being who is rare to meet even in India.

The Sage of Tiruvannamalai, Yogi Ramsuratkumar, was born in a village far from the saintly city of Benares on the 1st of December 1918. We know little about his yputh except that his parents were great devotees. He studied all the sacred books, the Mahabharat and the Ramayana, which explains his great interest in pandits and others erudite in the' sacred scriptures.

When he was very young, he used to play near the Ganga and was different from other children. Most of his play consisted of talking with passing wise men, saints and sannyasins. When he was free of school, he invited sadhus to come and eat in his house. As his parents were not rich, he often shared his own food.

One day, when he was drawing water from a well, a bird came there and began to sing, breaking the profound silence. Instinctively the boy became irritated and threw the rope at it. The bird was hurt and remained without life. The child went to it and tried to resuscitate it in the water of the Ganga but without success. He was crying and emotion clouded his aching soul. So much remorse burned in his consciousness that he could not sleep.
This instance, he says, made a radical change in his understanding of existence. He began feeling the unity of life and at the bottom of his heart was growing an intense spiritual aspiration. Me separated from the outer world and concentrated his consciousness inside himself. Renunciation grew within him.

At sixteen Ramji left his home to find a larger reality (truth). Destiny favoured his impulse, for he met a man who gave him a ticket for a station near Benares. The teenager walked to the temple of God and worshipped the Lord of the Universe. Thus when he entered into the sanctum sanctorum, his consciousness expanded. In ecstasy he spent one week in the enclosure of the temple. During this contemplative period he visited the town of Sarnath, where Buddha delivered his first sermon.

Ramji finished his secondary school education in 1937. According to Swami Vimalananda, the Head of Sivananda Tapovanam (Madurai), the Yogi received a higher education in Lucknow. His deep erudition and his knowledge of historical and philosophical literature of the Orient as well as the Occident, his mastery of English and his interest in political, social and scientific affairs shows that he had a strong and superior education.
But such a high soul could not satisfy himself with studies. His aspiration to find God and obtain liberation were too strong. His search led him to a liberated teacher. The young man had a friend who was a monk, in whom he confided and asked many questions.

One night in 1947 his friend said to him not to search outside for what was inside. "Then" he said, "you will find the answers to your questions". But the teenager needed a guide. Having heard of Sri Aurobindo he decided to go and visit him. His friend was happy and suggested that he go to see another wise man. Put Ramji forgot the name of this person. It was later that he remembered that it was Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Ramji arrived at Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry in November 1941. At that time Sri Aurobindo was at his spiritual zenith. The young man was hoping for special instruction from the master and prepared himself by studying his writings. Meanwhile Sri Auronbindo was near the end of his life and was seldom available.
It was at this time that Yogi Ramsuratkumar became close to a young brahmachari ascetic who advised him to go and visit Ramana Maharshi. Already possessing important intellectual knowledge, he now needed a purely spiritual master.

Put the ways of God are not known, and three days had not passed when he heard of another wise man, Swami Ramdas. He had an ashram in a little village called Kanhangad in the north of Kerala. Ramji was not impressed by Swami Ramdas. His manner of living seemed too comfortable to him. Moreover, he was being served like a king! If Ramji had known of hispast and his greatness he would have reacted differently. But at that time he returned dispirited to Benares.

In 1948 Ramji went to see Sri Aurobindo but did not stay a long time with him. Then he came and saw the Sage of Arunachala.

Sri Ramana Maharshi was one of the purest representatives of non-dualist thought (Advaita Vedanta). Ramji spent a month with the sage and it was during this time that, in the presence of the master and with his grace, the truth of the Self became progressively a reality for the young man.

On one day in particular, when he was seated near the master and through his silent grace, the consciousness of Ramji rose up to a level never before reached. Since that day he was completely changed, and his life became one of total renunciation and investigation centered on the Self (Atma Vichara).

After this the impulse to leave pulled him again to Ramdas. But fate did not make it possible, and in the end he lived for some time at Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh.

In April 1950, he heard about the nirvana of Ramana Maharshi and Aurobindo. He had the feeling of missing great opportunities and did not want to miss the third. So he went to see Ramdas in 1952.

The master received him in an extraordinary manner. He welcomed him as a prodigal son. Ramji had then reached a very high level of realisation but he wanted to go beyond the veil. Ramdas saw that. He bid him to sit down and initiated him into repeating namasmarana of the great mantra SRI RAM JAYA RAM JAYA JAYA RAM. At once he had the awakening of the Kundalini Shakti and had the same experience that Ramdas had previously in his time.

Ramji remained lost in ecstasy for some days and soon became a wise and perfectly realised yogi. After two months Ramdas made him understand that he had nothing more to give him and that now he was his own master.
The Yogi left and chose to go and stay in Tiruvannamalai at the sacred Hill of Arunachala where Ramana Maharshi's Ashram was. This trip took nearly seven years during which he visited the most important sanctuaries, from the Himalayas in the north to the tip of South India (Kanyakumari). He reached the feet of the mountain dedicated to Shiva in the spring of 1959.

Today Yogi Ramsuratkumar has thousands of followers in India and in the West. Some have procured him a house near the big temple of Tiruvannamalai which he uses as a reception hall for darshan. When he is not at home he is usually in a public place or inside the large esplanades of the temple.

Ramji is quite uncommon. His attitude is one of excessive discretion and he never shows his powers. He delivers no discourses but whosoever approaches him with sincerity receives peace and light.

Many ask him why he makes others call him "beggar". To these he answers, "Even when I call myself a beggar the world suspects me to possess a treasure and envies me. What would be my destiny if I called myself a king?"
Ramji doesn't moralise, doesn't give any teachings and hasn't written any books. He wears only tatters which are never washed. He himself washes very seldom. Put strangely enough his body emanates the most subtle perfume. In himself is incredible purity. Another peculiarity is that he doesn't wear the objects loved by ascetics. Instead of this he carries a fan in his hand, feathers of a bird, and a coconut shell as a beggar's bowl.

His behavior is bewildering. Sometimes he dances and sings "Ram Ram". No standards can be applied to him. He is indescribable and nobody can predict what he will do - receive the inquisitive visitor or refuse a meeting. No human laws condition him. He lives in divine consciousness and acts always from the present instant.

Ramji is very interested in the restoration of spirituality in India. In 1972 he met Swami Gnarananda Giri of Tirukoilur and together they strove to promote a large spiritual impulse in the area in order to restore the Sanatana Dharma. But Gnanananda died in 1974.

On the 26th September 1976, the Divine Mother of Kanyakumari, discovered by Swami Gnanananda met Ramji in front of the temple of Arunachala and offered him sacred food. She stayed inside the temple and silently took communion the whole night with Ramji who was outside. The next day they exchanged jokes and views of the work that might be done. Then the Mother left for Kanyakumari.

The first group of followers was constituted with this sacred mission for God at the time when followers celebrated for the first time the birthday of Ramji (60 years). On the occasion the Jagat Guru Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati sent his benediction. And at the moment when the Puja was done to the Yogi all could feel the grace and power of His realisation while He was residing in the high state of divine contemplation.

India is surely still the only owner of such jewels. And the truth must be found within thyself. Such wise men show us the right way to it.