Ribhu Gita - T V Ramamurthy

One of Bhagavan’s favorite traditional spiritual works was the Ribhu Gita. It is an important text in the history of his instruction for those close devotees who gravitated to him. Bhagavan’s first attendant, Palaniswami, brought a copy to Bhagavan’s attention while he was residing at the mango grove near Gurumurtham in 1898. Later in life Bhagavan related how surprised he was at the time to hear an exact description of his own state recited in the Ribhu Gita and that it had been experienced by others and was the bliss of the Self sought after by all true seekers.

"I had read no books other than Periapuranam, my Bible lessons and bits of Tayumanavar or Tevaram. My notion of God (Isvara) was similar to that found in the Puranas. I had not heard then of Brahman, samsara, etc. I had no idea that there was an Essence or Impersonal Real underlying everything, and that myself and Isvara were both identical with it. At Tiruvannamalai, as I listened to Ribhu Gita and other works, I picked up these facts and discovered that these books were analyzing and naming what I had previously felt intuitively without analysis and name. In the language of the books, I could describe my mental or spiritual condition after awakening, as suddha manas or vijnana, i.e., the Intuition of the Illumined". (Self-Realization by BV Narasimhaswami, Ch.5)

© "The Mountain Path" (Advent 2003) published by Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai 606 603. Website: www.ramana-maharshi.org. Reprinted with permission.

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