SWAMI RAMDAS

A BIOGRAPHY

1884-1963

SWAMI RAMDAS was born in 1884 at Hosdrug, Kerala, India, and named
Vittal Rao by his parents, Sri Balakrishna Rao and Smt. Lalita Bai, a devout
Saraswat couple. He lived the ordinary life of a householder in and around his
community until age thirty-six. During that time he experienced a variety of
trials and tribulations from the worldly point of view, but in his case they
caused him to enquire deeply into the true meaning of life. An intense spritual
transformation occured in him basically out of nowhere and suddenly he was
filled with an overwhelming wave of dispassion. In the process he came to
realize the futility of worldly pursuits, and the need for real, everlasting peace
and happiness. Inspired by the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami
Vivekananda and Swami Ram Tirtha, he became convinced that God alone
can give one eternal peace and happiness. The path of pure devotion and
self-surrender shone forth for him with an irresistible appeal. All attachments
to family, friends and business dropped away just as a fully ripened fruit falls
from the tree. He was inwardly ready to give himself up wholly and
unreservedly to God.

At that critical time, his father, noticing his son's waning interest in secular
pursuits and his waxing love for and devotion to God, initiated him into
the Ram mantram and assured him that by repeating it unstintingly he would,
in due time, find the true peace and happiness he was thirsting for. As the
mantram took hold of him, he found his life filled with Ram. It was then that he
renounced the samsaric life and went forth in quest of God as a
mendicant sadhu. This first year of his new life is described by him in his
autobiography, In Quest of God.[1]

It was thus that on one morning in December 1922 he left home by train. He
did not know where he was going, nor was he anxious about it. He only knew
that he was obeying the divine command of his beloved Ram, and was
therefore sure that He would guide him unerringly. The mantram "OM SRI
RAM JAI RAM JAI JAI RAM" was ever on his lips and in his heart. Besides
chanting the divine Name, his practice was to look upon everything in the
world as forms of Ram--God--and to accept everything that happened as
happening by the will of Ram alone.

Eventually he was directed to Srirangam. Here he bathed in the holy Cauvery

and, after offering up his old white clothes to the sacred river, donned the
ochre robes of a sannyasin and underwent spiritual rebirth. It was at this time,
prompted by Ram Himself, Vittal Rao assumed the new name
of Ramdas (servant of Ram) and took the inviolable vows of sannyasa,
renunciation. Ramdas never referred to himself in the first person again.

With the name of God constantly on his lips, he continued his travels in the
company of itinerant sadhus. The journey took him to Tiruvannamalai, where
he met with Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi and prayed for his grace.

Sri Ramana had just moved out of the caves he had spent twenty-two years in
on the holy mountain Arunachala and taken up residency at his newly
constructed ashram at the base of the mountain along with his longtime
attendant Palaniswami. In those days the ashram was not much more than a
thatched shed or hut and, as Ramdas entered the ashram, seeing the saint for
the first time, fell prostrate at his feet. Ramdas was told that the young swami
knew English, so he addressed him thus: "Maharaj, here stands before thee a
humble slave. Have pity on him. His only prayer to thee is to give him thy
blessing."

About this experience Ramdas has said, "The Maharshi, turning his beautiful
eyes towards Ramdas, and looking intently for a few minutes into his eyes as
though he was pouring into Ramdas his blessings through those orbs, nodded
his head to say he had blessed. A thrill of inexpressible joy coursed through
the frame of Ramdas, his whole body quivering like a leaf in the breeze."

In that ecstatic state he left Maharshi's presence and went to spend nearly a
month in a cave on the slopes of Arunachala in constant chanting of Ramnam.
This was the first occasion that he went into solitude and during this period of
solitude he never bathed, shaved, or cut his hair. When he ate, he only ate
very little. After twenty-one days, when he came out of the cave he saw a
strange, all-pervasive light: everything was Ram and only Ram.

"And it came one morning apocalyptically - when, lo, the entire

landscape changed: All was Rama, nothing but Rama - wherever
Ramdas looked! Everything was ensouled by Rama - vivid, marvellous,
rapturous - the trees, the shrubs, the ants, the cows, the cats, the dogs -
even inanimate things pulsated with the marvellous presence of the one
Rama. And Ramdas danced in joy, like a boy who, when given a lovely
present, can't help breaking out into a dance. And so it was with
Ramdas: he danced with joy and rushed at a tree in front, which he
embraced because it was not a tree but Rama Himself! A man was
passing by, Ramdas ran towards him and embraced him, calling out:
'Rama, O Rama!' The man got scared and bolted. But Ramdas gave him
chase and dragged him back to his cave. The man noted that Ramdas
had not a tooth in his head and so felt a little reassured: at least the
loony would not be able to bite him!"
FROM: The Mountain Path
 THE MEENAKSHI TEMPLE IN MADURA
(please click image)

In the late 1920s a young traveler from America inadvertently bumped into
Swami Ramdas one night in the Meenakshi Temple in Madura after the two of
them met previously in the caves of Elephanta three years earlier. The young
American would eventually gain fame in a sort of oxymoron sort of way, i.e.,
anonymously, in The Razor's Edge, written by the astute British playwright
and author William Somerset Maugham --- who, by the way, also met the
Maharshi albeit at a later date. Given the name Larry Darrell in the book by
Maugham, that same American, in real life, totally and fully following Ramdas'
advice, went to see Sri Ramana. Through the grace and light of the Maharshi
the anonymous American Awakened to the Absolute.[2]

Below the anonymous American personally relates his Awakening experience

as found in the source so cited. Notice the parallels to the previous quote
regarding Ramdas' experience:

"After a year of studying, meditating, and working at stoop labor in and

around the fields near the ashrama, he took to taking long solitary
pilgrimages into the mountains. One morning high in the mountains he
was waiting in his usual spot to watch the sunrise. That morning when
the very first glint of light pierced the very top edge of the distant
mountains the rays fell across his eyes and shot straight through his
pupils directly into his brain. His mind exploded. He actually thought he
had physically blown to bits in a brilliant flash of light, that the whole
back of his head had been blown off and opened to eternity. The initial
sensations abated in a series of bodily contractions and convulsions,
leaving him shaking and trembling. Rubbing his arms he could see he
was still alive and whole. Never was he so exhilerated, like walking on
air, his insides bursting with pleasure. He wanted to yell to the whole
world how wonderful he felt, and although there wasn't a fellow human
being around for miles to hear his exuberance, he ran down the
mountain path toward the forester's hut where he stayed yelling and
screaming like a crazy man."
FROM: THE RAZOR'S EDGE: True or False?

Following his experience in the caves of Arunachala, Ramdas continued his

travels for nearly eight years, travels which took him to many parts of India
many times, including the caves of Elephanta, the southern temple city of
Madura, the sacred shrines of the Himalayas, the city of Bombay, as well as
Mangalore, where he spent three months in the Panch-Pandava Caves at
Kadri. It was here that he had his first experience of nirvikalpa samadhi.
About this experience it has been written:

"For some days his meditation consisted of only the mental repetition of
the Ram-mantram. Then, the mantram having stopped automatically, he
beheld a small circular light before his mental vision which yielded him thrills
of delight. This experience having continued for some days, he felt a dazzling
light like lightning flashing before his eyes, which ultimately permeated and
absorbed him. Now an inexpressible bliss filled every pore of his physical
frame. When this state was coming on, he would at the outset become
oblivious of his hands and feet and gradually his entire body. Lost in this
trance-state he would sit for two or three hours. Still, a subtle awareness of
external objects was maintained in this state.

"For two years from the time of the significant change which had come over
him, Ramdas had been prepared to enter into the very depths of his being for
the realization of the immutable, calm and eternal spirit of God. Here he had
to transcend name, form, thought and will--every feeling of the heart and
faculty of the mind. The world had then appeared to him as a dim shadow--a
dreamy nothing. The vision then was mainly internal. It was only for the glory
of the Atman in His pristine purity, peace and joy as an all-pervading,
immanent, immortal and glowing spirit.

"In the earlier stages this vision was occasionally lost, pulling him down to the
old life of diversity with its turmoil of like and dislike, joy and grief. But he
would be drawn in again into the silence and calmness of the spirit. A stage
was soon reached when this dwelling in the spirit became a permanent and
unvarying experience with no more failing off from it, and then the still more
exalted state came on: his hither inner vision projected outwards. First a
glimpse of this new vision dazzled him off and on. This was the working of
divine love. He would feel as though his very soul had expanded like the
blossoming of a flower and by a flash, as it were, enveloped the whole
universe, embracing all in a subtle halo of love and light. This experience
granted him a bliss infinitely greater than he had in the previous state. Now it
was that Ramdas began to cry out, 'Ram is all. It is He as everybody and
everything!' This condition was for some months coming on and vanishing.
When it wore away, he would instinctively go into solitude. When it was
present, he freely mixed in the world, preaching the glory of divine love and
bliss. With this externalized vision Ramdas' mission began. Its fullness and
magnificence was revealed to him during his stay in the Kadri cave, and here
the experience became more sustained and continuous. The vision of God
shone in his eyes and he would see none but Him in all objects. Now wave
after wave of joy arose in him. He realized that he had attained to a
consciousness full of splendour, power and bliss."

He continued his travels around the breadth and width of India the next few
years, finally settling down in a small ashram built by one of his devotees at
Kasaragod, Kerala. Eventually God's will caused him to leave Kasaragod and
settle down in Kanhangad, where the present Anandashram was founded in
the year 1931. This Ashram became a field to put into practice the universal
love he gained as a result of his universal vision.

Having realized his oneness with the Absolute, Ramdas maintained a subtle
individuality to enjoy his relationship with the Divine as a child towards its
mother or a servant towards its master. He had great reverence for all saints
and sages. Whenever he referred to them, he would say that he was only a
child of all saints. He had great respect and reverence for Bhagavan Sri
Ramana. Of him he has said:
"Sri Ramana Maharshi was in all respects a remarkable saint. After
realizing the Eternal, he lived in the Eternal. His advent was a veritable
blessing on this earth. By his contact thousands were saved from the
clutches of doubt and sorrow. He lived what he preached and preached
what he lived. He exerted a wonderful influence and created in the hearts
of ignorant men and women a consciousness of their inherent Divinity.
He awakened the sleeping soul to the awareness of its immortal and all-
blissful nature. By his very presence he rid the hearts of people of their
base and unbridled passions. The faithful derived the greatest benefit by
communion with him."

As Ramdas had attained realization by taking to uninterrupted chanting of the

divine name Ram, coupled with contemplation of the attributes of God, he
always extolled the virtue of nama-japa in sadhana. Based upon his personal
experience, Ramdas assured all seekers that nama-japa would lead them to
the supreme heights of realization of one's oneness with the Almighty. On the
power of the Divine Name he has this to say:

"The Divine Name is pregnant with a great power to transform the world.
It can create light where there is darkness, love where there is hate,
order where there is chaos, and happiness where there is misery. The
Name can change the entire atmosphere of the world from one of
bitterness, illwill and fear to that of mutual love, goodwill and trust. For
the Name is God Himself. To bring nearer the day of human liberation
from the sway of hatred and misery, the way is the recognition of the
supremacy of God over all things and keeping the mind in tune with the
Universal by the chanting of the Divine Name."

On and off throughout the years there has been concern expressed by some
regarding the discrepancies between how Swami Ramdas is typically seen in
photographs dressed in full length white dhoti and how Maugham describes
the holy man Darrell met in the temple, intimating by inference that the person
so suggested as being Swami Ramdas may in fact might not have been.

It should be noted that in the beginning of his book Maugham makes it clear
that, "I have invented nothing. To save embarrassment to people still living I
have given to the persons who play a part in this story names of my own
contriving, and I have in other ways taken pains to make sure that no one
should recognize them." Why Maugham did not chose to take pains in regards
to Ramdas is not known. It is quite clear by Maugham's description of the holy
man in the temple and how Ramdas presented himself later that he changed
his apprearance quite dramatically over the years. If you remember from the
above, when he went into the caves near the Ramana ashram that he went
into solitude, and during that period of solitude he never bathed, shaved, or
cut his hair. How long he remained like that is not known. It is not known
either if the transformation remained by the time of publication of The Razor's
Edge or not, and even if it were so, that Maugham would be privy to the
information. [3]

"Two years later I was down south at a place called Madura. One night in
the temple someone touched me on the arm. I turned around and saw a
bearded man with long black hair, dressed in nothing but a loincloth, with
the staff and the begging bowl of the holy man.

"He asked me what I'd been doing and I told him; he asked me where I
was going and I said to Travancore; he told me to go and see Sri
Ganesha (Sri Ramana Maharshi). "He will give you what you are looking
for.'"

Ramdas attained mahasamadhi in 1963.

LARRY DARRELL, THE HOLY MAN, AND SWAMI

RAMDAS

MAP AND HISTORY OF THE RAMANA ASHRAM

 OM SRI RAM JAI RAM JAI JAI RAM

Fundamentally, our experience as experienced is not different from the Zen

master's. Where
we differ is that we place a fog, a particular kind of conceptual overlay onto that
experience
and then make an emotional investment in that overlay, taking it to be "real" in and
of itself.

(PLEASE CLICK)

ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT IN A NUTSHELL

 CLICK
HERE FOR
ENLIGHTENMENT

ON THE RAZOR'S
EDGE

SEE:
SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: THE LAST AMERICAN
DARSHAN
RECOUNTING A YOUNG BOY'S NEARLY INSTANT TRANSFORMATION INTO THE ABSOLUTE DURING HIS ONLY DARSHAN WITH
THE MAHARSHI

THE MEETING: An Untold Story of Sri Ramana

THE RAZOR'S EDGE: TRUE OR FALSE?

WHEN INFINITIES COLLIDE

E-MAIL
THE WANDERLING
(please click)
MAJOR HISTORICAL BUDDHIST MASTERS, ZEN ANCESTORS AND ZEN
PATRIARCHS

Bodhidharma, Hui K'o, Hui Shen, Hui Neng, Shih-t'ou Hsi-

ch'ien, Zhaozhou, Moshan Liaoran,
Mugai Nyodai, Kuan Yin, Tung-Shan, Te Shan, Dogen

It should be noted the contents of the above Ramdas page has been recaptured from archived
pages of the original that showed up on the internet as early as October 2002 under a now
defunct Angelfire page, then updated and re-edited by the original author for our purposes here.
Portions of this article researched from the December 1993 issue of The Mountain Path, the
Ramdas autobiography In Quest of God and remembrances from a personal meeting with the
Swami in 1954.(see).
FOOTNOTE [1]:

For access to a complete PDF online version of the Ramdas autobiography In

Quest of God as currently available please go to the following link:

LARRY DARRELL, THE HOLY MAN, AND SWAMI RAMDAS

FOOTNOTE [2]:

The young American so mentioned as having met Ramdas was the same
person who was to become the Wanderling's Mentor. His to-be mentor,
following the war, after seeing his best friend die for no apparent reason,
threw himself into a series of menial jobs during the day and studying books
all night long while traveling all over Europe searching for an answer to it all.
Following the suggestion of the Benedictine monk Father Ensheim he met
during his quest, he traveled to India seeking the answers to life. The summer
of the year 1925 found him getting off a boat in Bombay on his way to the
Hemis monastery in Tibet in search of the Hemis Manuscripts, a set of
ancient texts said by the good Father as indicating Jesus traveled in India and
Tibet between the ages of 12 through 30. On his way to Hemis, just before
leaving Bombay he went to see the caves at Elephanta and while there met
Swami Ramdas.

As mentioned, Ramdas was on a spiritual pilgrimage throughout India,

traveling the width and breadth of the country, top to bottom, side to side, a
pilgrimage that started in 1922 and not ending until 1931 and just happened to
be at Elephanta at the same time as the Wanderling's mentor.

In the process of those travels, one of the many holy places Ramdas sought
out and stayed was a small cave in Himalayas overlooking the upper reaches
of the Ganges River called Arundhati's Cave, also called 'the Jesus Cave'
because through legend it is said Jesus of Nazareth stayed there for a time in
meditation during his so called 'missing years of the bible.' In the book, In The
Vision of God, by Ramdas, the following is found:

"It was on the fifth day, maybe after midnight; the nights were pitch
dark. Ramdas usually sat up the whole night in the cave. The cave was
suddenly lit up by a strange light. Ramdas saw seated before him, on the
floor about three or four feet from him, the figure of a man. His face
was dazzling with a heavenly splendor. The features were fine, regular
and beautiful. There was a short, black, glossy beard and moustache on
the face. The lips were crimson red, revealing milk-white, lustrous teeth.
Soft shining black curls flowed down his shoulders. He wore a long, dark,
chocolate colored robe or gown with wide, loose sleeves. What fascinated
Ramdas were his eyes. They were scintillating like twin stars. The rays
they were emitting were filled with tenderness, love and compassion.
Ramdas gazed on them, charmed and delighted. It struck him: 'This is
Jesus Christ.' There was another beside him, but Ramdas' eyes were not
for him, although he was aware of his presence. He might be a disciple.
Now Christ's lips moved. He was speaking. Ramdas listened, but could not
make out what he said. The tongue sounded strange and unknown to him.
For perhaps a minute he spoke; then the vision vanished, while the glow of
light remained in the cave for some minutes more. Ramdas was completely
immersed in ecstasy and only came to external consciousness after broad
daylight."

My mentor, out of pure conincidence, during his travels, stayed at the 'Jesus
cave' as well, although he reported no such experiences as Ramdas. If it was
before or after Ramdas' visit is not known, however, to my knowledge they did
not meet or bump into each other there in the classical sense.

JESUS IN INDIA: PROS AND CONS

BHARATI KRISNA TIRTHA

The Hemis Manuscripts, said to exist in at least two monasteries high in the
Himalayas, are not the only substantiating "proof" of Jesus being in India
during his so-called missing years as found in the bible. There are it
seems, ancient records in the Jagannath Temple archives in Puri, clear
across the sub-continent from the Buddhist temples of the Himalayas to the
Hindu temples along the coast of India, independent of those said to be at the
Hemis monastery that say the same thing about Jesus being in India.

In the Hemis Manuscripts it is stated that Issa (Jesus) spent six years in
Jagannath (now Puri) and other holy cities of the Hindus, before going to live
for a further six years in the Himalayas. In relation, Chapter V and VI
translations are said to reveal the following:

CHAPTER V
5) He passed six years at Juggernaut (i.e., Puri), at Rajagriha, at Benares,
and in the other holy cities. Everyone loved him, for Issa lived in peace with
the Vaisyas and the Sudras, whom he instructed in the holy scriptures.

CHAPTER VI
2) But Issa, warned of his danger by the Sudras, left the neighborhood of
Juggernaut by night, reached the mountain, and established himself in the
country of Gautamides, the birthplace of the great Buddha Sakyamuni, in the
midst of a people worshipping the one and sublime Brahma.

4) Six years after, Issa, whom the Buddha had elected to spread his holy
word, had become a perfect expositor of the sacred writings.
5) Then he left Nepal and the Himalayan mountains, descended into the
valley of Rajputana, and went towards the west, preaching to diverse peoples
the supreme perfection of man.

THE JAGANNATH TEMPLE IN PURI, THE MOST MYSTERIOUS TEMPLE IN ALL OF

INDIA

Not long after I was drafted into the Army and becoming firmly established
member of the military as a private slick-sleeve and master code sender par
excellence, I basically woke up one morning to find myself nowhere near
anything I recognized. After being usurped into a series of mitigating
circumstances I wasn't able to untangle or sidestep quickly enough, including
a couple of warlords, followed by the downstream outflow from those warlord
encounters, encounters of which were put into place by others well beyond my
control, found me even farther away, high in the mountains of the Himalayas
beyond the confines of any warlord or tentacles of a military hierarchy.

In the first I ended up sitting in a near Nirodha state outside the one time
entrance of an ancient and dilapidated monastery, the ruins of which were
perched precariously high up on the side of some steep Chinese mountain
situated somewhere along the southern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau.
The second found me still sitting , except now in Darshan in the old hall of the
ashram of the venerated Indian holy man the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
in Tiruvannamalai, South India hundreds and hundreds of miles away from
any monastery and the Himalayas.

It was me going to the U.S. Consulate in Madras after leaving the Ramana
ashram in an attempt to get back to the monastery and eventually my unit, is
what put me in Calcutta, the consulate having sent me there for a flight --- a
flight that turned out to be a major disaster literally, and I mean literally. In
more ways than one, my return involved a good number of areas of war torn
Southeast Asia, the WWII Japanese Invasion of India, the crash of a C-47
high in the rarefied air in the Tibetan area of the Himalayas after being lost on
a flight from Calcutta, a CNAC mechanic, and an otherwise not involved U.S.
Army captain on R & R who wrote A Soldier's Story and got involved after he
flew over the mountains of Tibet from China only to end up visiting the
Ramana ashram at the same time I was there.
CHINA NATIONAL AIR CORPORATION (CNAC) DOUGLAS C-47 SKYTRAIN CIRCA
1944

A a few years before I was drafted, in 1959 or shortly thereafter, my mentor

met with Sri Daya Mata. As I have related elsewhere on this page, Sri Daya
had gone to India in 1959 and during her travels met with Sri Bharati Krishna
Tirtha, the Shankaracharya of Puri, who had seen her in California the year
before.

While visiting Sri Bharati in Puri she discussed Jesus having been in Puri
during the time of his "missing years," telling Sri Bharati that Paramahansa
Yogananda had told her many times that Christ spent a great deal of those
missing years in India. Sri Bharati replied with:

"That is true. I have studied ancient records in the Puri Jagannath

Temple archives confirming these facts. He was known as 'Isha,' and
during part of his time in India he stayed in the Jagannath Temple. When
he returned to his part of the world, he expounded the teachings that
are known today as Christianity."

Sometime later, but still prior to me being drafted, my mentor told me Sri Daya
had shared information with him regarding the Jagannath Temple in Puri and
the ancient records that Sri Bharati had studied regarding Jesus being in
India. My mentor told me had he had that same information beforehand, he
may have never gone to the Hemis monastery, but to Puri instead. Besides he
said, the Jagannath Temple is said to have secreted away in one or all of the
four idols within the temple what is known as Brahma Padartha, life substance
or life material, the substance or material in this case being a so called "tooth
relic" of the Buddha. Re the following from the source so cited:

"Brahma Padarthas are core materials in the four wooden deities of Sri
Jagannath temple. These core materials are transferred from the old
idols to the new in a metaphor of immortality of soul and its
reincarnations.

"The four "badagrahis" entitled to perform the transfer of Brahma

Padartha get the chance to see and touch these secret core material kept
within the four idols. Bound by a vow, they never disclose the identity of
Brahma Padartha to anyone. Till date, generations of these daitapati
servitors have steadfastly kept the identity of Brahma Padartha a closely
guarded secret."(source)

Knowing such things through my mentor as well as being self learned on the
same subject matter stemming from a curiosity-based need to know about
such things, and since Puri was well within striking distance to where I was in
Calcutta, especially considering a certain level of infrastructure available to
me, I decided to visit the Jagannath Temple myself and see if I could become
privy to any answers surrounding some of the mysteries I had heard so much
about.
The Jagannath Temple lets Hindus and Buddhist into the interior grounds and
temple, but not Christians and Muslims. Falling into a "you look more like
Christian camp" I was immediately questioned and held in abeyance. It was
only after I was able to forge past lower level guardians that things changed.
The treatment afforded me upon seeing my necklace completely negated any
questioning, actually escalating me into a more deeply accepted realm.
However, like the generations of daitapati servitors have steadfastly kept the
identity of Brahma Padartha a closely guarded secret I too am relegated to
such status, thus no more can be said.

RETURN TO THE MONASTERY

BEFORE LEAVING CALCUTTA----------------------------------------------------- AFTER

LEAVING CALCUTTA
-----
FOOTNOTE [3]:
In the text above, regarding how Ramdas may or may not have presented
himself in how he dressed Maugham writes:

"Two years later I was down south at a place called Madura. One night in
the temple someone touched me on the arm. I turned around and saw a
bearded man with long black hair, dressed in nothing but a loincloth, with
the staff and the begging bowl of the holy man."

It should be noted that Vijayananda (Adolphe Jacques Weintrob), a French

doctor who at age 37, met Swami Ramdas in the Autumn of 1952. In In the
Steps of the Yogis (First Edition 1978), Part III: Sages and Yogis of
Contemporary India, Chapter III, Ramdas, Vijayananda writes, from a
personal conversations with Ramdas himself, says the following:

"Ramdas was once a Sannyassi (a monk) and used to wear the orange robe.
"I had a beard and long hair like you," he told me one day. But now he
dresses simply in a white dhoti, "like everybody else," for he has
transcended the monastic state and has become an ativarnashrami (one
who has risen above social castes and stages of existence)."

As well, on the cover of his book In Quest of God Ramdas is depicted in a

saffron robe --- which more or less should substantiate such attire.

A reader by the name Ken Jaegers contacted the author of the above
Ramdas works and reported there is as well a photo of Ramdas found in an
Anandashram publication titled "With My Master," that was probably taken
sometime in the early 1930's, just when the Larry Darrell character was in
India and Ramdas was on his pilgrimage, clearly showing Ramdas with a full
beard and long hair --- albeit gray and not black.
The dimensions of the outside wall of the Meenakshi Temple complex is 847
by 792 feet. The temple has 12 large gopurams, or gates. The main entrance
is on the eastern side of the temple. There are four huge gopurams with
beautifully painted colored statues on the outer wall. The southern tower, built
in the 16th century, is the largest one and is 170 feet high with a 108 by 67
foot base. It has over 1,500 sculptures on it. There are two huge yalis, which
are like a combined lion and elephant, on both sides of the tower.

The inner sanctums are restricted to Hindus only, but everyone can go
anywhere else on the temple grounds. About the temple Maugham has Larry
Darrell say, "I stayed in Madura for some time. I think it's the only temple in
India in which the white man can walk about freely so long as he doesn't enter
the holy of holies. At nightfall it is packed with people. Men, women, and
children." It is interesting to visit the temple both during the day and at night,
as the dark corridors, with lamps burning here and there, are very impressive.
 Temple Map Copyright 1990, Christopher Tadgell
The History of Architecture in India
Phaidon Press, Limited, Singapore

THE BEST OF THE MAUGHAM BIOGRAPHIES:

  WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM
Good biography. Lots of Maugham graphics, from early
childhood to late adult.
 W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM: A BIOGRAPHY
 MAUGHAM
 LITERARY AMBULANCE DRIVERS
Everybody knows Hemingway drove an ambulance during
WWI, nobody knows Maugham did.
 THE ART COLLECTION OF W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

SPIRITUAL GUIDES, GURUS, AND TEACHERS INFLUENTIAL IN

DARRELL'S LIFE OTHER THAN THE MAHARSHI:

 SWAMI RAMDAS
 YASUTANI HAKUUN ROSHI
 FATHER ENSHEIM
Includes a section on the missing years of the Razor's Edge
 KOSTI