More on Ramana

this sage
when he was young
played a lot with other boys
he loved the games of athletics
he loved the joy of running through the open
spaces
he one day did not take to his studies so well
he all of the sudden showed little interest in worldly
matters
he would sit in the temples surrounded by the saints pictures
with the lingam in the cool dark inner cave of the temple
sitting still and silent
deeply absorbed in the energies of light and love
it shook him fiercely to imagine lives spent
in such an immaculate way
and within such deep surrender, love and devotion to God
he would be alone a lot this child
but never lonely for he was always inside himself in
peace
one day he walked away from his family and home
he walked to the trains in india and bought a ticket
and never returned
he went to the mountain to be as a renunciate
this mountain was of the purest form
it was like heaven itself and it drew him in like a magnet
he wandered before getting to this great mountain
and slept on the streets
he tore a bit of material to make a loin cloth
and then it rained fresh and pure on his skin
which he considered the standard bathing ritual for sadhus
and he tossed his few coins in the gutter
walked into the temple of saints
and never returned to the world
he lived as a chaste being
and had no desire for worldly pleasure, wealth or anything else
he wanted nothing from any soul
he simply lived in pure beingness and this was enough
to aide others to freedom

when he came to the mountain
there was a bright light that shone
on the top of it
it guided him inward to the Self
he did not stop at the entrance
he went into the heart of the rock
where there was a vacuous force
a pulling that
stripped the mind bare of it's
varnish of the world
he sat down like a man that was
reborn
in him
there was not any more pridely airs
not any more to be known or seen
or heard or touched or tasted
not any more to be searched for
he had found that which is in all
the stillness that is of it's own light
the stillness that is of it's own presence
that is not of the identity
and with this said
he was now to be called a sage
though there was no one to claim
this name
in him it mattered not
what he was called
what was the absolute that
was nothing and all
to be called?
he was that timeless beauty always
and had he walked away from the
entrance to the heart
his life would have taken
a very different turn indeed
not one that was the deathless
as the Buddha
as the Guru
as Christ
something else entirely
like the man of the world
who is not awake
and not ever could he
be away from this heaven
that is of the earth
not distinct
not filled with thoughts and concepts
empty
eternally resting in
sat chit ananda