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Birthday

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi did not believe in celebrating birthdays as it promotes identification with the temporary physical body. However, devotees insisted on celebrating his birthday in 1912. In response, he wrote two verses emphasizing that one's true birthday is when we realize our eternal self. He also said it is better to lament taking birth than to celebrate it. In 1923, when devotees again wanted to celebrate his birthday, he pointed to a 200-year-old tree and asked if it celebrated its birthday each year. Ultimately the celebrations did become an annual tradition at the ashram. The author also shares cooking a traditional pumpkin dish for their own birthday, noting cooking was part of the spiritual practice in Ramana

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Ravi Sridhar
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127 views3 pages

Birthday

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi did not believe in celebrating birthdays as it promotes identification with the temporary physical body. However, devotees insisted on celebrating his birthday in 1912. In response, he wrote two verses emphasizing that one's true birthday is when we realize our eternal self. He also said it is better to lament taking birth than to celebrate it. In 1923, when devotees again wanted to celebrate his birthday, he pointed to a 200-year-old tree and asked if it celebrated its birthday each year. Ultimately the celebrations did become an annual tradition at the ashram. The author also shares cooking a traditional pumpkin dish for their own birthday, noting cooking was part of the spiritual practice in Ramana

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Ravi Sridhar
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My deepest pranams to each and everyone who has wished me on my

birthday. And I specially thank Sri Venkaraman G for his write up. Here
are two incidents, one most profound, the other humour tinged, yet
equally profound, both Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s take on
birthdays.
--------------------

It was in 1912 that devotees first wanted to celebrate Ramana


Maharshi’s Jayanthi. He was residing at the Virupaksha cave on the
Arunachala hill. Bhagavan didn’t want celebration of the body, as his
core teaching was ‘Who am I’ and its main ingredient was that humans
should not identify themselves with their body. This identification was
the cause of all human suffering. But the devotees persisted. And
ultimately had their way, celebrating Bhagavan’s birthday with a feast.
Whereupon he wrote two verses on the true significance of birthday.

1. You who intend to celebrate the birthday, first ascertain as to whence


you were born. The day that we attain a place in that everlasting life
which is beyond the reach of births and deaths is our real birthday.
2. Even on these birthdays that occur once a year, we ought to lament
that we have got this body and fallen into this world. Instead, we
celebrate the event with a feast. To rejoice over it is like decorating a
corpse. Wisdom consists in realising the Self and in getting absorbed
therein.
Bhagavan, while explaining the purport of the above two verses said
some time in the 1940s, “It appears that it is a custom amongst a certain
section of people in Malabar to weep when a child is born in the house
and celebrate a death with pomp. Really one should lament having left
one’s real state, and taken birth again in this world, and not celebrate it
as a festive occasion”.
……………….
Visitors to Ramanasramam would have noticed the old இலுப்பை
மரம் Illupai tree just as you enter the main ashram gate. It is about
300 years old now. Well, let it be there. We will come to it.
It was in December 1922 that Bhagavan came down from
Skandasramam to his mother's Samadhi to permanently live there. On
January 3rd 1923 was to be his birthday, which we call Jayanti.
Devotees who were with him wished that now that they had come to a
bigger place, Bhagavan's Jayanti should be celebrated in a grand
manner. He did not agree. They did not stop pestering him. He then
remarked, "அதோ அந்த இலுப்ப மரம் இருக்கே, அதுக்கு
200 வயசாச்சு. அது என்ன வருஷா வருஷம்
தன்னோட பொறந்த நாளை கொண்டாடிண்டிருக்கா?
Look at that Illupai tree there. It is about 200 years old. Does it celebrate
its birthday every year?”

Well, ultimately the devotees' wishes prevailed. Celebrating Bhagavan's


Jayanti became a regular feature.
……………

Some friends have asked me as to what special dish I cooked for my


birthday. The friends who asked were those who know that I am a
cooker, sorry cook too apart from being a writer (a self-published one at
that) and a singer (who sings at home). I did cook, but no sweet. I made
மலபார் ஓலன் ഓലൻ Malabar Olan, a dish made with
பூசணிக்காய் and பரங்கிக்காய் the white and yellow pumpkins
வெள்ளைப் பயறு and topped up with தேங்காய் பால்
தேங்காய் எண்ணெய் coconut milk and coconut oil. This was
taught to me by my mother. Looking at the photos, cooks and gourmets
can comment on the authenticity of my preparation.
For both of us (Ravi & Sridhar), cooking, singing and writing are all
three aids to our spiritual sadhana. Our Sadguru Bhagavan Sri Ramana
Maharshi had made cooking a spiritual sadhana for the lady cooks in the
Ramanasramam kitchen of those days.

Photos: 1) The Illupai tree under which Bhagavan stands and admires
the white peacock sitting on a Vauxhall car; 2) The Illuppai tree today;
3), 4) and 5) the beginning, middle and end result of my cooking the
Olan.

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