G. Ramachandran’s Vision of the Ultimate Reality

Sister Mythili

GOOD morning and greetings to everyone on the dais and greetings
to all sitting before me to hear our speech.
I hope you must have seen the panels hung in the opposite hall depicting the life and work of Dr. G. Ramachandran. Ramachandran wasHindu, born in Kerala as the third child of their parents. His mother Smt
Madhavi Tankachi, was pious lady and father was a very strict disciplinarian. He educated his children with perfect English and modern system of education in Mission schools. Ramachandran was wrapped byChristen teachings in CMS High School, Kottayam. At that two might
figures came into his widening horizon. One was VIVEKANANDA—areligious leader. The other was MAHATMA Gandhi—a political leader.
The remarkable qualities of utter realism, courage and selflessness in
Gandhi’s speeches had a blend of both religious depth and politicalknowledge. From that time his vision of the ultimate reality started blossoming. You can read all about his childhood stories from the book “TheStory of Dr. G. Ramachandran.”
Today my duty is to express our GR’s vision of the Ultimate Reality
from my perspective.
I joined in my Comrade Guru GR, when he was 73 and mine was 28.
From my 13th year I was searching something knowing which, we canknow everything. I was reading all sorts of books, tried to do all sorts ofpractices to understand for what my mind longing. Dr. GR used to givetalks every evening after the inter-religious community prayer at Gandhigram. One day as a worker, I requested him, “I want to know in amathematical way to reach the Ultimate Reality you are talking about.”
That day he gave me the book “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Sri SriParamahansa Yogananda, to read. That night itself I finished reading thebook. He after a detailed evaluation made me a member of YOGODA.
He was a guard by my side guiding my sadhana. He used to address all
the Yogoda meetings we conducted. At that time it did not occur to mymind to enquire, what the concept of Almighty he had in his mind.
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dran began writing his autobiography ‘ADVENTURING WITH LIFE’.
I was surprised to understand that he at his age of 18 was an intellectual
being who questioned everything and anything and naturally about theconcept of GOD.
When he was in this third year in Viswabarathi, his Professor C.F.
Andrews was summoned by Shri Maulana Mohammed Ali to take careof Gandhi during the famous 21 days fast at Dilkush in Delhi. At his call
Ramachandran went to assist his Professor in Delhi.
The young Ramachandran saw for the first time, the Roman figure ofMotilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajaji, Chitaranjandas, Sarojini
Naidu, Ali brothers and many other leaders. He did not have a dharsanof Mahatma till then.
On the 13th day of the fast he accompanied his Professor C.F.
Andrews to attend the evening prayer. In that room every one and everything was silent. A frail thin figure of Gandhi was surrounded by Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Hindu leaders. The prayer started and ended
with every one in complete silence.
Ramachandran started watching the scene and heard the prayers withall his critical and intellectual awareness. In that young mind somethingcame like a flash of light and illuminating Ramachandran’s inner world
and changing it forever. Let us hear that beautiful experience in hiswords:“I said to myself that I should not be swept away. I tried to keep a holdon myself. But even as the prayers were going on, something began topound inside me. It was not a physical experience, but a mental one
completely. I saw the frail figure on the bed and looked the manymighty men of India’s destiny sitting with heads bowed in reverence
around that central figure on the cot. The question came to me: how did
this little man succeed in becoming the unquestioned leader of India’s
political revolution and how did he perform the miracle of linking thatrevolution with non-violence? How could, at all a man of prayer
become the leader of revolution? All distinctions of caste, religion andcreed melted away in the power of devotion to the unseen God. My
mind caught fire.”“This truth came to me in a flash that God existed and ruled the conscience of mankind. The intellect might not reach God and reason mightalso fail to know God.
But, God did exist. No Myth could hold and rule the hearts of millionsof men and women.
God was truth and love in one. He who lay on the bed fasting, so that

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Hindus and Muslims might come together in good will, peace andunderstanding, was the symbol of that truth and love.
The spirit of God appeared to hover close with in that room.
This MAN had brought GOD into the room. I felt it unmistakably
within my mind.
I said to myself, I may never see God, nor know God, but this humansymbol proved the truth of Godhood. I would follow the man who hadbrought God into the room.”“More than once during these last many years, I have sometimes
shocked or amused my friends by telling them that if I had not known
Gandhi, I would have been life-long atheist. The moment I understoodthat a man of God could at the same time become the unhesitant andvaliant leader of a great political and social revolution, I ceased to be anatheist.”

Ramachandran kept the pledge with all his strength till his last breath.
The second expression of the experience of God he speaks in hisbiography was in Jamia. Let me quote from the book the story of GRMama.
The usual story was that Islam was forced upon people. But, Ramachandran discovered on the contrary that Islam was a powerful liberalising
influence bringing to the common people the message of the equality and freedom of man before God.

He used to recite Muslim prayers. I have heard him reciting Bismilla ir
Rahmanir Rahim just as a good Muslim. He appreciated that prayer verymuch.
A very pleasant memory was the celebration of Ramzan. Ramachandran took no time in deciding that since he was living within a Muslim
community of fellow teachers and students, he should also join the fastand prayers. Prof. Mujib welcomed the idea. It was a wonderful experience to keep the fast and to break it at the proper time.
Ramachandran joined the prayers. He had the same sense of ecstasy
as in the prayers in Sabarmati. Ramachandran used to remember thisexperience again and again. He clearly said with conviction:“The outward forms were different but the inner core was the same,
devotion to the one and only almighty God and the determination to live
according to HIS will.”

He never bothered about the stir among the Hindus outside the Jamia.
With the Santiniketan and the Sabarmati traditions in his mind

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Ramachandran was convinced that he was doing the right thing. He wasvery happy to share in the religious devotions of Ramzan.
In the same way Ramachandran when he studied in Kottayam andNagarcoil in Christian missionary schools and when he was with SK
George enjoyed the Bliss in Christian Dharma.
Of course, in his childhood he used to attend on his beloved motherwhile she was doing her elaborate puja. In those days he never thoughtof the almighty but only about his mother’s devotion. After that herecollects at his age of 10 or 11 that one young sanyasin similar toMahavatar Babaji, the great Guru of Yogananda, called him and gave
a practice of pranayama saying that would help him during him
stomach upsets. He remembered the technique while he got a stomachache in Santiniketan. Poor child; he was far far away the house becauseof his own will; when he was ill, he may be while brooding over the past
he might have remembered the sanyasin’s words. But it cured him. Not
only in that occasion but during his Jail periods stomach upsets were thesufferings and he came out. [These are the stories he told me whenever
we sit outside the house for an hour or two in the evening.]
Thus started the faith of God in the young Ramachandran’s mind.
In the ninety years of life his faith in God was experimented, sharpened, polished and given a shape—GRian concept of Almighty.
HE - who rejected his aristocratic life for the service of Nation
HE - who joined Mahatma in the freedom struggle
HE - who had gone to jail during freedom struggle 11 times for 7 years
HE - who met almost death more than once in his adventures
HE - who dared to accept his failures bravely and was ready pay thepriceHE - who had collected so much wisdom and knowledge in that bald
head
HE - who was moulded like gold in the fire of life
HE - who adventured with life to gather vast experiences
That “HE” appeared to me as a great Saint and Sage of our ancient India

He must have thought about and experienced the bliss of Almighty
many times and at the last phase he was merged in that supreme bliss
almost all the 24 hours. We used to ask him when we see him sittingwith folded hands “what are you doing Mama?” With a childlike smile
he used to reply “talking to God, my child.”
Now let me come back to topic GR’s concept of Almighty:
He was never interested in identifying himself with religious namesand forms. He sought the ultimate truth; he said “you do not have to172

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profess any particular religious belief; the important thing is to know themethod of contacting God.”“GOD is the most familiar word we have, yet very few people realise
its importance. Even though the scriptures say that God is beyond thecomprehension of mind and senses, He is knowable through the intuitive
perception in man” explains GR.
Like developing all the powers of senses GR wants us develop thesixth sense—intuition. Intuition is the all-knowing faculty of the soul.
Intuition is the sixth sense that comprehends those truths beyond thegrasp of the five physical senses.
By reading his writings, hearing his speeches and personal conversations Mythili understands the following about what he thinks about God:
The usual conception of God is that He is superhuman, infinite,omnipresent, and omniscient; but in this general conception there aremany variations. Whatever conception we have of God, if it does not
influence our daily conduct, if our everyday life does not find an inspiration from it, and if it is not found to be universally necessary, then thatconception is useless. If God is not conceived in such a way that we cannot do without Him in the satisfaction of a want, in our dealings withpeople, when earning money, in reading a book, in passing an examination, in the doing of the most trifling or the highest duties, then it is plainthat we have not felt any connection between God and life. We readabout God in the various scriptures. We hear of His presence and listen
to His praise in the sermons of religious men and saints.
We imagine Him behind the veils of the beauty of Nature.
We think about His existence through the logic within us.
But all of these windows, through which we try to see God, are fittedwith an opaque glass of uncertain inference drawn from untested, unscrutinized data. We cannot have full or direct knowledge of God
through the limited powers of the intellect, which give only a partial andindirect view of things. To view a thing intellectually is to view it bybeing apart from it. It is by intuition that God consciousness is realised.
God is bliss. He is ever increasing heart-bursting joy—“Satchitananda.”
GR Mama loved that word.
God is that invisible factory of “intelligence” from which all manifest
things are created, born and harmoniously developed. Why do the seasons come on time? Why do we have hunger in the body and food out-

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side to satisfy that hunger? If there were no Cosmic Intelligence, wemight have hunger but no food. Throughout the universe—in spite of themany mischievous pranks of nature—there always seems to be arhythm, and all things are products of the one factory of One All-ruling
intelligence.
God is the Supreme Intelligence that governs everything.
GR Mama used to admire the energy concept in Nature. Even if you
destroy things in this world, they blossom in some other manner. From
where does this energy comes GR used to wonder. He used to explain
this cosmic energy bubbling through every thing. Thus
God is the reservoir of energy—macro cosmic energy.
After explaining the concept of almighty in these three sentences he
explains the truth that “God has made us in his image.” It is not about
the physical body he used to ponder over this. THE JOY, INNATE
INTELLIGENCE AND THE ENERGY all these three are in any
living thing. That is what is meant by saying God has made us in hisown image.
I used to ask him about the material possessions and attachment.
GR used to quote from Esopanishad:“Attachment to possessions and not possession itself is the source ofmisery. In this world we do not own anything; some have more to use
than others; but remember the millionaire and poor man alike have toleave everything all possessions when death comes. One should not live
a one sided life thinking only of God and neglecting one’s duties in theworld. You keep your attention on God; and yet devote part of yourattention to thoroughly performing the God-given duties of maintaining
yourself and other given into your charge”

Regarding discrimination, cultivating good habits and curbing bad ones,
and about the day to day life GR had given us clear-cut formulae. Theseare explained well in his writings.
GR Mama never missed a day without prayer. He encouraged groupprayer—community prayers. He would wait even for the servant maid tojoin the prayer. His faith in prayer is beyond comprehension. His own
prayer was a strange but a sweet one. He talks to God as if He is hisbeloved.

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Deivame, Jagadheesane, Karunya roopane, karunakarane,
Ninre karunyam onnu kondu mathram Jeevikunna adiyankale Kaathu
rakshikkenume.
“Beloved Almighty, Ruler of this universe, Compassionate and embodiment of love, because of your compassion alone we live & please blessus and protect us.”His soul left the body on Thaipoosam full moon day, a very auspicious
day for Hindus, 17th January, 6:05 am after uttering the above prayer.
GR had no blind belief. Unless the concept is clear he would not
accept or act.
GR always wanted every one to use their reason and intelligence.
The service to mankind gave him peace and happiness especially service for suffering women and children.
He never went to any temple to pray.
But at the same time to comfort us he used to come with us to theKrishna temple Neyyattinkara on his birthday kanni-choti. [Kanni name of Malayala month and Choti - name of the star on which he wasborn.]
During the last visit, he told that it was the last visit.
He might have known the fact that he would merge with macrocosmic
power soon.
He gave a special advice to us: There are three types of LAWS.
1. Man-made law; 2. Social law; & 3. God’s law. You can break a
man-made law for the sake of Keeping up Social laws. And if it comesto the God’s law, all social laws can be broken and we should abide byGod’s Law only—GR used to say.
Occasionally when I lacked the moral courage needed during thestruggle of maintaining an organization, he used to comfort me saying.
“This is so with most of us, our moral courage fails sometimes and webecome afraid. The only remedy is prayer to GOD. Prayer is not amechanical process. When prayer comes from the depth of our spiritthen it never fails to give us the moral strength from which we mightslip. You have enough foundational moral courage to build upon. Do soconsciously in your prayer and meditation.”

He was fearless to the core. And he wanted us to be free, frank and fearless. Always he quoted the message from his Master Gandhi:“Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality.
The coward can have no morals.”

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We have to be afraid of fear only. Overcome FEAR; Overcome
ANGER.
Were the repeated mantras of GR.
In the same way GR never liked rituals. Religion minus rituals is spirituality he used to say. One should raise their minds above these rituals
which were made just to purify oneself in the beginning and not toimmerse themselves only in the rituals and forget the Almighty.
He explained idol worship of Hindus as the one which goes beyond
the idol to the ideals for which it stands.
I consider my beloved Mama as a great man—great Rishi of theSanadhana period, who had qualified himself as the Sthithaprajngnyai.e., a man with equanimity of mind.
Just because of the right understanding of the macrocosmic power
GR’s life had become a whole life.
About death also he explained a lot.
About rebirth or post birth he never argued.
“I do not know about these; so we do not discuss these” he replied.
Let me give the essence of G. Ramachandran’s vision of Ultimate
Reality—GOD:“God is the Supreme bliss,
The reservoir of Cosmic Energy &The Supreme Intelligence
which governs every thing in this Universe.”