From: ~~~ Robert Adams: Collected Works
August 2nd, 1992
I had been living in Ramana ashram for about a year and a half.
This was the end of 1948.
I stayed with Arthur Osborne, in his house.
In those days when foreigners came they were put up with
Arthur Osborne most of the time without him knowing.
And on one particular evening about 4 o clock
Sri Ramana walked into the cottage and he brought me a mango.
And he sat down on a stool in the corner of the room.
I sat on the bed.
We looked at each other and we smiled.
He gave me one of his beautiful grins of his.
And I knew that we should keep silent
we should say anything because there is nothing to say.
But all of a sudden he asked me a question.
I asked him,
"Ramana what is more important
to be in the presence of a sage or
to practice atma-vichara by yourself,
self-inquiry?"
I had already known the answer but it seemed
the right thing to do was to ask him the question.
And he knew that I knew the answer .
He waited a few seconds and then he said,
"The sage is atma-vichara.
The sage is the Self, your Self."
Therefore when one is in the presence of the sage
all of the sadhana is being done at an accelerating rate.
Everything that has to be done is being done.
When one is in the presence of a true sage.
So again I asked him,
"How come so many people have come to you
and only certain people feel it.
Some people feel nothing.
Some people go away disappointed.
And some people get all of their dreams fulfilled?"
Again I knew the answer.
So he waited a minute or so and he said,
"This depends on the maturity of the seeker.
It depends on the sincerity of the seeker.
As you can see many people come here to visit me.
To make a judgement and then they go look for another teacher.
They go somewhere else.
They travel all through India.
And then they go back to England or to Holland or to the United States
and they tell their friends that they have seen 10 sages.
Yet nothing has happened to them.
But if one is sincere and surrenders totally to the sage then the sage,
the grace of the sage will automatically be felt by this individual
and this individual makes tremendous progress.
But the person really has to be sincere.
I mean he has to be a devotee.
To forget about him or herself totally,
completely and merge in the sage."
I then asked him another question,
"What is the easiest way and most effective way
to do atma-vichara, self-inquiry?"
Again he smiled and waited a few seconds and then he said,
"To always be aware consciously in all situations of the I-am.
No matter what you're doing where you are
be aware of the I -am in your heart.
This is the most effective practice."
His head started shaking and I also asked about this.
"Why do you have this weakness?"
I found out later his head was shaking for the last forty years.
He again explained to me that when he had his experience
when he was sixteen years old it was like putting an elephant in a hut.
What happens when you put an elephant in a hut?
The hut shakes all over.
It breaks to pieces.
When he had his near death experience he told me
his body shook to pieces as-it-were and left him weak.
This is interesting to remember.
I asked him,
"Why didn't this happen to me at the time?"
And he explained to me
that I had an experience not of death but of life.
Which is a little different.
I asked him,
"What determines these experiences?"
He said, "Karma."
I then left it alone.
He walked with a cane, with a stick.
This was 1949, he was very sick.
That is how his body appeared.
And his attendant came in took him to his toilet
where he was supposed to go about 4 o clock and he left.
~~~~~~~
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