In the heart of New York City’s Lower East Side on Sixth Street near First Avenue there is a small, unobtrusive storefront meditation center known as Sri Arunachala Ashrama, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi Center, Inc. Few are the people who pass across the threshold for the nightly practice and fewer still are those who stay, yet the doors are wide open every evening at seven for every one wishing to come.
The history of the Center in New York City is the life story of Sri Arunachala Bhakta Bhagawat, the man who sits faithfully on the ashrama floor chanting and singing his devotional hymns every night, since December 7, 1966. On several occasions, from the time the ashrama began, no one would come and the man would be alone in the ashrama singing with open heart. He was intoxicated like a madman or a drunkard with his dream of having a residential ashrama in the open-air surroundings "where people from Wall Street can sit on the grass." Also the dream of building a temple on Fifth Avenue in honour of the great sage and holy man of modern India, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, continued to rise in his heart.
Many friends would come to the small and peaceful ashrama and join the life of practice for a few years or a few months and then leave to pursue their personal plans and dreams. Sri Bhagawat would continue his spiritual practices with the firm conviction that disappointments and broken plans come only to make us strong and fit for the future. In this way, through the many struggles and heartbreaks of eight years, the dream grew in strength along with the courage and fortitude of this man who had travelled in his early youth from a small Indian village to America.
Renowned throughout the Eastern world as a great sage in the line of Dakshinamurti and Sankara, Bhagavan Ramana was throughout His life, and even after continues to be, the Father and Mother of thousands of devotees all over the world. Not only those who knew Him alive, but also those who resorted to Him after His Brahma Nirvana in 1950, continue to feel His inspiring presence in their lives.
As a mere boy of 16 He got spiritually enlightened and left his home, in Madurai, drawn to the Feet of Arunachala for good. Although Sri Bhagavan’s teaching was mainly in silence, His responses to His devotees from far and near have been recorded.
It is due to the presence of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in the life of Sri Arunachala Ashrama for devotees of the Western Hemisphere came into being.
In the fall of 1970, a young couple from New Jersey, Joan and Matthew Greenblatt, both only 19 years old, entered the ashrama and joined the life of the nightly spiritual practices with much devotional fervour. Sri Arunachala Ashrama in New York City did they feel the inner awakening which transformed their lives, turning the mind inward to the eternal Source of joy.
Drawn by the spiritual practice of nightly recitation, chanting and sitting in silence, as well as the warm and simple devotional nature of their new friend Arunachala Bhakta Bhagawat, Srimati Jnanadeviji and Madhavaji Maharaj (Joan and Mathew) woud come and come again until their daily life and the life of service to the ashrama merged.
In the autumn of 1971, a modest offer came from a friend to buy a small farm in Nova Scotia. Without a second thought, the couple became the instruments of Divine Grace in the life of Sri Bhagawat. Within twelve hours of giving notice that they would go in search of the residential ashrama, the young couple was driving North in a yellow Volkswagen given as a wedding present. Without being deterred for a single momert they drove straight to the benefactor’s home near Halifax, Nova Scotia, only to find that his enthusiasm for the new country retreat had diminished.
The young couple soon found themselves alone in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia with all their savings in traveller’s cheques and the brand new car. As they found all the people to be friendly in this foreign land, they went knocking from door to door asking each person they met about farms for sale. Every evening they would return from their search to the home of an elderly couple, the Taylors of Clarence, Nova Scotia. As the search for the country retreat continued, the feeling began to grow in the minds of the young couple that the farmhouse, where they returned in the evening for warm food and conversation, was their own home. The Taylors had been planning to sell their land and retire to town life at an indefinite date.
This is how the couple, with no money of their own, came to put a down payment on the farm of 140 acres at the foot of the northern mountain range in the peace-infused Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia.
With this trip the work of fund-raising began for Srimati Jnanadeviji and Sti Madhavaji Maharaj who begged and borrowed from each person they knew and many they never knew before, Nevertheless, all the efforts at raising the several thousand dollars needed to pay for the farm bore no fruit until a month before the appointed date to go North in the spring. At last, in the form of gifts and donations, the funds came in. With exuberance the life of spiritual practice and the hard work of converting a farm into the residential ashrama for all children of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi began.
From the end of April, 1972, the young couple and a friend, Sri Dinesha Dayalu (Dennis Hartel of Tonawanda, New York), have been working full time to make the farm a home for all sincere devotees, friends, aspirants and children of the universal Spirit who came to its door. The work both in New York and Nova Scotia continues with all faith, energy and dedication by the Grace of Arunachala Bhakta Bhagawat, with the dream of the country retreat where all would be welcome, (Permanent residence cannot be taken up until the aspirants spend a year of practice and service at the Sixth Street Center.)
The country ashrama is dedicated to living the simple life of hard work and whole-hearted practice of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teaching of Self Enquiry of “Who am I?” and total surrender to the divine Presence in our human lives. Every evening at 7 and morning before dawn, Sanskrit hymns and chants resound with the sweetness and clarity that comes directly from the heart. This is followed by silence, then the reading of teachings, and, finally, the serving of prasad (food). All are welcome, and visitors are asked to have three hours at their disposal for their stay.
We can only pray with gratitude for the blessings heaped upon these frail instruments. All praises be to Life Universal in the form of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi who has brought the dream of the man from the backwoods of India, Sri Bhagawat, into realization.
“To those who are self-attuned and who worship Me with loving devotion, I give that union with understanding, whereby they come to me.”
The Bhagavad Gita, Ch. X. v.10
Ashram Bulletin
Homage to the Master by Devotees
of “Arunachala Ashrama”[2]
Dedicated to the Master, Sri Ramana, and His teaching of Vichara Marga, Arunachala Ashrama was founded by a humble devotee from Bihar (in India), Sri Arunachala Bhakta Bhagawat, in New York City on December 7, 1966. With His grace the Ashrama has ever since remained open for all sincere seekers of Truth.
Later, in 1972, in the beautiful Annapolis Valley in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, Canada, a permanent residential Ashrama blossomed from the main New York City Centre. After this Center was opened, seven members of the Ashrama visited Arunachala in August, 1973.[3] They also then visited Madurai and Tiruchuzhi, so sacred to the devotees of Sri Maharshi.
This year, only two devotees from the New York Ashram could visit our Ashram ; they are Sri Arunachala Bhakta Bhagawat and Sri Dennis Hartel; they stayed at the Ashram for two months during which time they visited Madurai, Tiruchuzhi and also the native place of Sri Bhagawat in Bihar.
During this visit, Sri Bhagawat’s constant prayer to Sri Bhagavan was to enable him construct a Temple for Bhagavan on the Fifth Avenue of New York City.
Sri Dennis was very busy taking pictures of the Ashram, the places hallowed by the stay of Sri Bhagavan in and around Arunachala. Sri Bhagawat was busy in contacting the old devotees of Bhagavan and recording their speeches and bhajans. He was particularly happy that he was able to have a closer contact with Sri Ramaswami Pillai this time. A series of talks by him have been tape-recorded.
Our Ashram President, Sri T.Nenkataraman, honoured these devout bhaktas by duly presenting them shawls through Sri Viswanatha Swami and Sri Kunju Swami, as a mark of appreciation of their Jaudable services in the distant continent of America. Through our Managing Editor a few sacred relics were also presented to them which would be preserved in the New York Centre and in Nova Scotia. They propose to bring out a comprehensive Pictorial Souvenir on our Master, to be released during the Centenary of Bhagavan. Towards this noble endeavour they propose engaging an expert photographer, who is also a devotee of Bhagavan in U.S.A. We wish them all success.
On their way back they spent four useful days in Bombay, where they were received by Sri A.D.Vazirani Davysons, and Sri P.V.Somasundaram, our representative in Bombay. Sri Bhagawat has written very highly praising the dedication and devotion of Sri Somasundaram. Prominent devotees in Bombay were introduced by him to these devotees from America,
Sri Dennis Hartel writes : “With Sri Bhagavan’s Grace I have been blessed to visit His sacred abode on three occasions . First being August 1973 for about three weeks. Second and third have been this year itself; in the month of March for three weeks, and again after one month’s absence, May 6 to 22, 1977.
“I cannot write anything about Sri Ramanasramam that has not been already expressed by so many. But to us there is ever-increasing satisfaction, peace and fulfilment to see how our Divine Master continues to do His work in silence. Just to sit inside the Ashram premises, to touch the stone structures, to witness the daily pujas or see the administrative work go on, is wonderful. Where else in India, or even the world, is such a place which an earnest aspirant may visit, finding all the necessary facilities to immerse himself in spiritual ideals, and where is such a place where our Master’s tender care and guidance is so palpably felt. Here one surely finds his mind turning toward Sri Bhagavan.
“Again, I have been blessed to have the wonderful experience of visiting all the places connected with the life of Sri Bhagavan prior to His coming to the feet of Arunachala, that is Tiruchuzhi, Madurai, Tirukoilur and other places. Also in 1973 with a group of devotees from America, we undertook the same pilgrimage. Also all the places connected with and consecrated by Sri Bhagavan here in Tiruvannamalai prior to His final residence at Sri Ramanasramam have been visited along with the places where our Master resided. All the time we remembered Sri Bhagavan’s teaching that our real happiness is to abide in Him in the Heart. Sri Bhagavan never allows His devotees to lose themselves in this world ; He keeps them firmly on the road that leads to Him.
“I have had the rare good fortune to have personal contact with those old and stalwart devotees who have been with Sri Bhagavan since their early youth. What wonderful lessons we find in their very life of complete and total submission to Sri Bhagavan. For a young and new aspirant like myself this contact is invaluable and I thank Sri Bhagavan for giving me such wonderful opportunities.
“In the Bhagavad-Gita (Ch. IV, v.34) Bhagavan Sri Krishna says :
‘tadviddhi pranipatena priprasnena sevaya updekshyanti te jnanam jnaninas tatvadarsinah’
which means : ‘Know that by earnest surrender, by enquiry and by service; the wise who have realised the truth will instruct you in that knowledge.’
“I have been reminded of this verse time and again in the life of these most marvellous devotees of our Master and I pray to Sri Bhagavan that I may remember this verse always.
“I need not say anything concerning Sri Bhagavan’s most wonderful teachings, I know my limitations and inexperience. But I can say this much - that from the time Bhagavan came into my life in 1971 no other teaching or Master or practice had any charm or any attraction for me. This, again is due to the benign blessing of our Master.
“Before concluding I would like to express my gratitude to so many. Especially I thank the management which has unreservedly and happily fulfilled all our wishes. All the Ashram workers and employees were a constant source of inspiration and guidance to us. All the old and new residing devotees are Sri Bhagavan’s children and servants and our life has been blessed simply to see them; we humbly touch the feet of them all, All this is Sri Bhagavan’s work, still continuing by His never-failing Grace and we pray that His guiding Grace may be with us for ever.”
To Spanish-speaking Devotees
We wish to announce that translations into Spanish of the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi have been undertaken at Arunachala Ashrama, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi Center, Inc., in New York City. All devotees fluent in both English and Spanish languages are invited to lend a hand in this endeavor so that all people of the Spanish-speaking world might profit from the most sublime and beatific teachings and life of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Under the supervision of the President of Sri Ramanasramam the work is being done.
Anyone wishing to aid in this endeavor is requested to contact us at:
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi Center, Inc. 342 East 6 Street, New York, NY 10003, U.S.A.
Telephone : (212) 477-4060; 854-0322