THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY GREETINGS Very many thanks to all those dear friends who kindly sent me birthday greetings- many too many to answer individually. But I must tell you all that I feel about my true birthday the same as my beloved Sat Guru Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. He wrote: On one of my birthdays while I was in Virupaksha Cave, probably in 1912, those around me insisted on cooking food and eating it there as a celebration of the occasion. When the cooking and eating were over, Iswaraswamy who used to be with me in those days, said, `Swamiji! this is your birthday. Please compose two verses and I too will compose two. It was then that I composed these two verses which I find in the notebook here. They run as follows: 1. You who intend to celebrate the birthday, first ascertain as to whence you were born. The day that we attain a place in that everlasting life which is beyond the reach of births and deaths is our real birthday. 2. Even on these birthdays that occur once a year, we ought to lament that we have got this body and fallen into this world. Instead we celebrate the event with a feast. To rejoice over it is like decorating a corpse. Wisdom consists in realising the Self and in getting absorbed therein. This is the purport of those verses. It appears that it is a custom amongst a certain section of people in Malabar to weep when a child is born in the house and celebrate a death with pomp. Really one should lament having left ones real state, and taken birth again in this world, and not celebrate it as a festive occasion. Sri Ramana Maharshi (Letters from Sri Ramanasramam; 24th February, 1947) I have written an 85th Birthday Sonnet . I will all thats happened in my strange life, As its Gods Will and must be obeyed, Whether great children or sadly lost wife, all must be welcomed. Be never afraid. Our given life is predetermined as Grace ByGod, for souls spiritual growth, One day to know know my Selfs original face, rejecting ego minds habits which I loath. A Hindu Sage walked into my heart, He taught me Advaita Vedanta, Aiding my quest, He did never depart, His name was Sri Bhagavan Ramana. To wake up from sleep is our sacred task, What more from a life could one possibly ask? AJ Much love with renewed thanks to all, Yours in His Grace, Alan
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 06:58:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015