Ramalinga Adigal

Ramalinga Adigal in attaining the state of light as did the Siddhas before him, transformed his gross body into light particles and came back to reveal the mystery in his songs the ThiruArutpa. The final closure to his life chapter was shown in meditation to Mother Mira Alfassa who related it to Gangadharan. The article "A Vision of Dematerialization of Ramalinga's Living Body" was carried in the now-defunct website http://www.ramalinga.com. I am glad I took notes from this website of this priceless moment in history. Even before he attained the state on the eve of Thaipusam on 30.1.1874, his guru knew Ramalingam's state as Gnana Bharathi writes in his “Tamil Mannin Thanthai”. 

The story goes as follows.

Drawn by the divine and having worshiped him since young, at 12 years of age Ramalingam followed a guru and traveled the hills and the plains to the abodes of the Siddhas. Coming to know that there was indeed a way to remain immortal he sat in tapas for 12 years under the tutelage of his guru. At the end of the 12-year tapas, his body glittered like gold and his guru himself could not bring himself to see Ramalingam as he shone with a blinding brightness. Could this be the reason Ramalinga Adigal covered himself or rather draped himself in cloth from head to toe in later years? This reminds me of Supramania Swami who initially while building his kudil left a window and opening so that he could watch the Arunachala hill sitting in the living area, soon was forced to close the opening as he said that he could not bring himself to look at the fiery hill where Siddhas and Rishis went on with their chores. 

Gnana Bharathi writes that Ramalingam had attained a body that could not be affected by the five elements and could not be brought down by any other factors. His body was to know no hunger and thirst too, said his guru. His guru blessed him to teach the path to others so that they too could defeat death. Ramalingam was 24 by then. 

Ramalingam came back into the society. What he saw disturbed him a lot. He felt the sufferings of the innocent people who were being manipulated by certain quarters in all ways possible. Coming back into the society of the day, he fought the problems that had cropped up and infiltrated society during his absence and years of seclusion. Besides discrimination based on caste and the multitude of religions that had arisen, he saw other faiths moving in and encroaching on the locals who were in a dire state of disarray. He began a journey of propagating his newfound path, the worship of light. Ramalingam began to teach people to worship the Jothi. If before these we were shown God as having many forms, he brought us to the worship of light. From form to no form. For one who had abstained from naming his guru, he abstained from giving God a form too. It is said that numerous attempts were made to take his photo but surprisingly his image could never be caught on film. Could the reason his photo could not be taken - be to ensure that no one would deviate and be sidetracked in worshiping him instead of the formless God he was talking about? 

Beginning from Chennai his journey brought him to Thiruvotriyur and Tirutani. Moving to Pondicherry and then later to Chidambaram, Sirgazhi, and Vaitheeswaram, he moved south to Madurai, Thiruvathavur, Thiruperunturai, and Karunkuzhi. He briefly goes back to Madurai, before settling at Karunkuzhi from where he used to frequent Chidambaram. The locals at Vadalur donated a piece of land some 80 acres in size. He started the Dharma Salai to feed the hungry; the Sanmarga Sangam to bring together his followers and the Sanmarga Bhotini Padasalai to educate them in divine knowledge or Gnanam. Staying at Karunguzhi he began to supervise and direct the construction of all these buildings. 

We now fast forward to the days after his arrival at Methukuppam and before his disappearance as narrated by a local whose grandfather was a witness to it as he was a neighbor. Ramalinga Adigal after his sojourn taking up a hut that was used once a year by visiting Brahmin priests to the village of Methukuppam to carry out religious observances, initially telling those around that he would enter the room and come out after 7 days, later he told them that he would enter the room and stay there for 48 days. The impatient onlookers lost their patience and attempted to use the key to the lock but it would not open. Ramalinga Adigal appeared after the said days. Finally, he mentioned he would be inside some 2 1/2 kadigai which no one knew the meaning of. When he did not come out various attempts were made to enter the room. As the key could not unlock the lock again, a blacksmith was called to break the lock. He went blind before he could even attempt. An attempt to saw the lock became futile too. Finally thinking that they could break through the thatched roof, a vicious cobra stood guard on the roof. All attempt was given up and instead, three layers of "coverings' or enclosures were built to surround the original hut. Going by his testimony no one has been or seen inside the room after Ramalinga Adigal entered it. For all we know he could be in Samadhi within the four walls for the last 150 years. 

The rest is told by Mother Mira Alfassa.

He was verily a supreme form of the divine. A flood of light radiated from his pure and luminous body in all directions. The intensity of the flood of light that radiated from his whole body was very powerful and one shall have the strength and capacity to bear and receive it. My (Mother Mira Alfassa) whole body vibrated with joy and pleasantness because of the vision of the light of his body.

After some time of concentration, he rose up and saw the physical sky. The full moon was shedding its blissful cool rays over the earth. A little distance away from the moon was seen a very bright dazzling star of light. Vallalar poured his concentrated gaze at it for some time. He became enraptured with blissful joy in his heart, which radiated on his face. A little time thereafter, he again sat on the white seat of the plank and entered into deep concentration.

Though Vallalar was inside the closed and bolted room, he could see clearly the whole universe with its tiers of many worlds of mind, life, and the physical including the physical earth and sky with its moon, stars, and clouds.

When he was thus absorbed in deep concentration, an effulgent truth-light of grace broke out from his heart and with its unique heat began to burn his radiant physical body very slowly, as at a snail's speed, and that in an upward direction, from the heart towards the head. The burning of the body may be somewhat likened to that of an incense stick which however burns downwards by its inner heat of fire, forming ash covering but without the falling down of the ash-form. 

When the upper part of his radiant body was burnt completely from heart to head, there was left in its place a form of pure white substance, which also radiated its light of consciousness. The burnt part, however, showed all its features intact and clearly, and even the burnt hair of his head was seen distinctly as luminous white hair. 

Then the heat of the pure light of grace descended to burn the lower part.

After the whole body was thus burnt, Vallalar was seen as a bodily form of pure white substance from head to foot, radiating its light. The white form kept intact all the different kinds of cells of his body and all the distinctive features and formations of his interior and exterior body. His bodily form did not shrink in size after the burning. I saw no visible flame nor sensed its heat during the burning of his living body, nor smoke, nor any bad smell as of burnt tissues, nor heard any cracking noise as of burnt bones. Instead, there was a sweet fragrance since the time his body began to burn and it spread everywhere. I sensed in my heart an ineffable calmness and silence, which gave me in turn a state of bliss.

Now a second stage of burning began. The unique heat of grace light began to burn slowly Valalalar's luminous form of white substance from head to foot downwards. When his white substance full of its radiating light, was thus burnt completely, the white substance became very fine sub-atomic conscious particles, which permeated and pervaded the entire universe and the farther pure worlds of consciousness beyond. The fine, white, and conscious particles with their radiating light also entered into and got distributed everywhere on the earth and even in matter. After the universal pervasive distribution of the particles, they could be seen no more and disappeared from my sight. Now there pervaded everywhere the sweet, soft, and fine fragrance of camphor which gave my body a blissful sensation and enraptured my heart as well.

Then I had the rare vision of Vallalar's universal luminous golden form. In fact, the immensity of his golden form is contained in the whole universe. This form too disappeared from my view and was replaced by another vision in which I saw the golden light of truth-knowledge and grace entering into all the directions more speedily than the lightning. It permeated and pervaded the whole universe and the farther pure worlds of consciousness. It entered into our earth and all its crores of the physical forms of beings and objects and in the apparently insensible matter and even in the very dark realm of the vast in conscience. All the forms that were permeated by the golden light of truth changed into golden forms of beings and objects. The golden light entered my whole Adhara including the physical body. My body felt in all the cells vibrations of ease and pleasantness. Then I heard some words of grace. However, they were indistinctly heard and could not be deciphered, as I was absorbed in a rapture of bliss due to the sublime vision and experiences. Thus, the vision lasted an hour and ended.

Gnana Bharathi ends his book by mentioning that Ramalinga Adigal before he entered the room at Sittivalagam Thirumaligai in 1874 and merged with God told those who had gathered that although he would be out of sight, he would be around another 42,000 years as a Gnana Siddhar and after that take on the form of a Pranava Degi or the Pranava Degam. He went into a "Peranandha Nittirai" or the "Sleep of Joy".