THE CALL
By I.S. Varghese
THE Divine Call comes to man in several guises. It may be
through a devastating incident in life; it may be through
admonition from a very insignificant quarter; it may be
through a `small voice' speaking to one from the depths of
the heart; it may be through anything. But the common factor
is that the person to whom it comes recognises it
unmistakably as the Divine Call.
This is closely connected with a basic axiom of Hindu
religious thought, that anyone or anything can serve as Master
(Guru). In common language this just means that one may
learn a profound spiritual truth from anyone or any quarter.
This is a fact, however much some people have tried to
represent truth as confined to their own pet scriptures and
premises. The former President of India, the late Dr
Radhakrishnan, very aptly expressed this fact when he wrote,
"It is a persistent delusion of the Semitic race that a particular
theology is necessary for salvation". This delusion has been
the cause of much conflict and cruelty and the loss of
innumerable lives throughout history. That the guru may be
anyone or anything has been explicitly stated by Sri Ramana
Maharshi in his reply to Dilip Kumar Roy, the famous singer
of Sri Aurobindo Ashram:
What is a guru? Guru is God or the Self. . . He need not
necessarily be in human form. Dattatreya had twentyfour
gurus -- the elements, etc. That means that any form in
the world could be his guru.
In the case of Sri Ramana Maharshi he had no visible
guru. He was initiated by God Himself. The call name to
him in July, 1896, when he was a boy of sixteen years. It
was in the form of a confrontation with death which drove
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him inwards into the innermost recesses of his being till he
realised that he was the Atman (Spirit or Self) and not the
body or the mind. In his own words, he came to the conclusion:
So I am the Spirit. All this was not a feat of intellectual
gymnastics, but came as a flash before me vividly as living
truth, something which I perceived immediately, almost
without any argument. `I' was something very real, the
only real thing in that state, and all the conscious activity
that was connected with my body was centred on that .
The `I' or myself was holding the focus of attention with a
powerful fascination. Fear of death vanished at once and
for ever. The absorption in the Self has continued from
that moment right up to now.
Young Ramana's conviction that he had received the call
is reflected in the message he left for his relatives before
leaving home for Tiruvannamalai:
I am starting from this place in search of my Father and in
obedience to his call. This is a virtuous enterprise. Therefore
none need grieve about this, or spend any money to trace
this out.
There are many touching anecdotes about the Divine Call
coming to mortals who appeared to be quite unworthy by all
human standards. We have the case of Arunagirinathar, who
was called when he was a riotous and dissolute young man
always full of strong drink and profanity and addicted to
visiting wayward women. One day he wanted to visit one of
his paramours and worried his sister for money. She got so
annoyed and disgusted that she cried out in anguish, "I know
why you want the money. If you are so much in need of a
woman, take me". This utterance penetrated the heart of the
young man. The enormity of his sinful life was brought home
to him. In great remorse he rushed away shedding copious
tears and went straight to the Arunachaleswara temple of
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Tiruvannamalai. He climbed one of the gopurams of the
temple and cast himself down to end his miserable life. The
invisible Lord supported him and he came down slowly, as if
he were a feather, and landed softly on the ground. The grace
of God overwhelmed him. He used his own sister's words,
"Lord! Here I am, take me". He was called indeed. Today his
soul-stirring devotional hymns and the story of his life move
devout hearts and he is venerated as one of the Saivite Saints.
There are other such cases among the twelve Alwars and
sixtythree Nayanmars (saints) of South India. In the Christian
tradition we have St. Paul, who as Saul in his purvasrama
(previous station in life) persecuted the early Christian Church.
He had a vision on the road to Damascus and was transformed
into the main apostle of Christ in person. It is significant that
about half the New Testament is made up of the epistles of St.
Paul. Coming nearer our times, we have the case of Bernadette
Soubirous of Lourdes in France (later St. Bernadette), the poor
asthmatic girl whose father was a labourer and mother a
washerwoman, who was graced with a vision of St. Mary, the
mother of Christ. Now Lourdes is a premier place of Christian
pilgrimage in the world, second only to Jerusalem, and it is
the venue of small and great favours from above to all and
sundry without distinction of caste, creed or race.
In the case of many, the Divine Call does not come as an
overwhelming experience but as messages to lead them on
the road to sanctity. It is just as Jesus Christ has said, "The
wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.
It is the same way with everyone who is born of the Spirit".
As for Tiruvannamalai, the holy hill, it is very significant
that Sri Maharshi was called to take his abode there and be
there continuously for a period of over fifty years, thus
confirming the sanctity of the hill. There is nothing peculiar
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about a place being considered holy. In the Old Testament of
the Bible there are many references to God declaring Zion in
Jerusalem as his holy hill and as His abode. In Exodus we get
the account of Moses facing the burning bush and God asking
him to remove his shoes as he was standing on holy ground.
Tiruvannamalai has been calling people continuously to the
life in the Spirit, more loudly after Sri Maharshi made it his
abode. The place has unmistakably shown truly evangelical
characteristics -- the signs of Divine presence -- peace,
healing and amendment of life.
The call of Tiruvannamalai has been mainly through the
printed word and oral testimonies. The very first devotee of
Sri Ramana Maharshi of whom we have record, Sivaprakasam
Pillai, who approached him with some doctrinal questions in
1901, had come to know of the Maharshi from oral testimony.
So also, the first Western devotee, Frank Humphreys, Assistant
Superintendent of Police, came to know of the Maharshi in
1911 from his Telugu tutor, one Narasimhayya. A very large
number of people, especially Westerners, came to know of
the Maharshi through that remarkable book, A Search in Secret
India by Paul Brunton, the well-known writer on religious
and esoteric subjects. From then onwards the name and fame
of Tiruvannamalai and the Maharshi have been spread abroad
by many Ashram publications and innumerable visitors from
all parts of India and abroad.
There is no doubt that many have been called, and out of
those the fortunate ones have responded. It is for them to heed
the advice given to St. Bernadette by her Father Confessor,
"Great grace has been shown to you -- should you not try to
deserve it?
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