Richard Schiffman writes about how Totapuri spotted Ramakrishna, “... the very moment his hawk’s eyes alighted on the huddled figure of Ramakrishna rapt with inward joy on the ghat steps, Totapuri’s mind froze in its tracks, stunned".
Unlike Ramakrishna who had been granted a vision by the gods and had recognized Naren on meeting him the first time, Totapuri did not recognize Ramakrishna when he first caught sight of him amidst a gathering of pilgrims by the Ganges. Totapuri had not received the divine edict to search out Ramakrishna and to instruct him.
Richard Schiffman continues to write,
Quite against the aloof habits of his sadhu’s life he (Totapuri) felt compelled to make an unusual offer.
Totapuri strode to Ramakrishna and addressed him, “My son I see that you have already traveled far along the way to truth. If you wish it I can help you reach the next stage. I will teach you Vedanta.”
The prospect of fresh spiritual instruction thrilled Ramakrishna as always with a joyous expectancy. “I will have to get my mother’s permission first,” replied Ramakrishna and off he went to the temple of Kali. He was back in a moment and conveyed his mother’s consent to Totapuri. The divine mother had given her assent revealing that it was for the purpose of his instruction in non-dualism that she had brought Totapuri to Dakshineswar. From that moment onward Ramakrishna gave himself unreservedly to the holy man’s care.
Ramakrishna struggled mightily, Richard Schiffman writes, to follow Totapuri’s instruction on meditation.
It was no use; the last and most subtle barrier, the golden chain of his devotion, barred the path. The personal God who had lighted his way and guided his steps now stood as a barrier to the realization of the impersonal reality.
Richard Schiffman conveys Ramakrishna’s own electrifying description,
“I tried on several occasions to concentrate my mind on the truth of Advaita Vedanta; but each time the form of the Mother intervened. I said to Totapuri in despair, “It’s no good. I will never be able to lift my spirit to the unconditioned state and find myself face to face with the Atman!”
"He replied severely, “What do you mean you can’t? You must!”
"Looking about him he found a shard of glass. He took it and struck the point between my eyes, saying, and “Concentrate your mind on that point.”
"Then I began to meditate with all my might, and soon the gracious form of the Divine Mother appeared. I used my discrimination as a sword and cut her in two. The last barrier vanished and my spirit immediately precipitated itself beyond the plane of the conditioned. I lost myself in Samadhi.”
B.V.Narasimha Swami in SELF REALIZATION - THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI describes vividly the very first moment, after Ramana’s arrival in Tiruvannamalai on the morning of 1 September 1896, when Ramana sees Arunachaleswarer.
With quick steps and a bounding heart Ramana proceeded straight to the great temple of Arunachaleswarar. The gates of the three high compound walls and all the inner doors were open. There was not a soul beside him there; and it looked as though the father was thus preparing to welcome his beloved son who marched straight to the innermost shrine without any hindrance. He stood awhile there in ecstasy and then left the sanctuary.
In 1947 with a burning desire to realize his innate divinity, Ramsuratkumar set off in search of a master. The search for his spiritual father brought him first to Sri Aurobindo and later to Ramana.
Truman Caylor Wadlington in his book YOGI
RAMSURATKUMAR - THE GODCHILD OF TIRUVANNAMALAI writes,
Meeting the Maharishi’s (Ramana) gaze he went into a visual rapport with him and completely lost himself in the timeless wonder of that Godly soul. He felt as though he existed during that short while not as his solitary physical body but something far greater, far more glorious and vast. His innermost being underwent a spiritual transfiguration.
After spending three days with Ramana, he moved on to Swami Ramdas.
Truman Caylor Wadlington writes, “However, unlike his meetings with Ramana and Aurobindo he felt no attraction to Ramdas.” Ramsuratkumar could not bring himself to accept Ramdas’s life of luxury. He returned to his home in Kashi. Ramsuratkumar visited Ramdas repeatedly but he felt the same way towards Ramdas each time he was with Ramdas.
When Ramana followed by Aurobindo, passed
away, Ramsuratkumar thought that he should open himself to the remaining sole savior
Ramdas. In 1952, he arrived again at Ramdas’s ashrams; only this time Ramdas
turned out to be an entirely different person.
Truman writes,
It is interesting to note that when he arrived the third time the holy man was actually awaiting his arrival in expectation and greeted him just as a father would have received his own son.
Ma Devaki writes in YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR -THE
DIVINE BEGGAR, published by Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, July 2008,
According to Sri Yogiji, the four years of tutelage under Sri Aurobindo and Maharishi Ramana were a period of ceaseless transformation of the human into the divine - a period of construction of all that was conducive, destruction of all that was dross and sublimation of all into greater and greater awakening. His days see-sawed between heights of ecstasy and depths of gloom.
When finally the Yogi came to Ramdas,
He was already a ripe fruit needing but a gentle tap from the Siddha of Kerala (Ramdas) for final consummation with God. Now a divine madness, bordering sometimes on the vestiges of insanity, gripped him uncontrollably. Yogi Ramsuratkumar laughed and wept, sang and danced and yet other times sat still as a stone or rolled on the ground, ecstatically overwhelmed by beatific surges of divine consciousness.
For many years Ramdas had secretly worked on the disciple to accustom his body gradually to higher rates of vibration. Then Ramdas initiated him into the repetition of the Ram Mantra. What was to transpire immediately was a vivification of the centers or Chakras of the inner man, a radical elimination of all impurities and a sudden influx of energy directed through the master and accompanied by a release of latent spiritual fire within the disciple. The initiation would throw him into the cosmic dimensions of the divine mind and open doors to fields of activity and realms of consciousness hitherto unknown to him.
When the initiation was complete Swami Ramdas remained silent for a moment and then said, “Go and repeat this mantra day and night all the twenty four hours.”
In WAVES OF LOVE published by Yogi Ramsuratkumar Bhavan Mauritius, 2009, the yogi is quoted,
“Swami (Ramdas) has killed this beggar, but life has come. Millions and millions of salutations at the lotus feet of my Master, Swami Ramdas! He has initiated this beggar in Ram Nam and has asked to chant it all the twenty-four hours. This beggar began to do it and in the space of a week, this beggar has this madness. The same madness still continues.”
Truman writes,
In the course of only seven days and seven nights the yogi made the great exodus from the kingdom of man to the kingdom of God. The latent forces released within him combined with the power of the master whipped him out of bondage into limitless freedom and from the mists of human intelligence into the luminous consciousness of the divine mind.
Ramsuratkumar left the home of his master for Tiruvannamalai but only arrived at Tiruvannamalai after seven long years having wandered the length and breadth of India.
“In his early autobiography IN QUEST OF GOD published by Anandaashram, Ramdas describes how he attained the divine vision through the grace of the Maharishi.” Swami Ramdas too had been with Ramana Maharishi as quoted in the FRAGRANT PETALS published by Sri Ramanasramam, 2005.
Ramdas addressed Ramana on his first visit to the Maharishi,“Maharaj here stands before thee a humble slave. Have pity on him. His only prayer to thee is to give him thy blessing.”
Ramana turned to look at Ramdas and nodded his head. A thrill of inexpressible joy coursed through Ramdas, his whole body quivering like a leaf in the breeze.
Swami Ramdas in VISION, the monthly journal of Anandaashram comments further about his state,
"Ramdas went to Ramana in a state of complete obliviousness of the world. He felt thrills of ecstasy in his presence. The Maharishi made the awakening permanent in Ramdas."
Ramdas dived into deep meditation in a cave atop the mountain Arunachala. He held undisturbed communion with Lord Rama.