Sorupa Saram

Apologies for the lack of contributions to the blog in recent times. I hope to remedy that with some long posts later in the year. Meanwhile, I am happy to announce that I have recently brought out an edition of Sorupa Saram that contains the original Tamil verses, an English translation of them, and an introduction that summarises the available information about its author Sorupananda, his chief disciple, Tattuvaraya.

Information about the text and its author can be found in one of my earlier posts:

http://sri-ramana-maharshi.blogspot.in/2011/05/tattuvaraya-and-sorupananda.html 

The text has been revised by T. V. Venkatasubramanian and myself since it was published in 2011 on this blog.

The book is available in India from the Sri Ramanasramam Book Depot. Those ordering from outside India can obtain it from my site:

http://www.davidgodman.org/books/buybooks.shtml

New Telugu Book

The devotees of Annamalai Swami have recently brought out a Telugu edition of Annamalai Swami: Final Talks. Unfortunately, the Ramanasramam management has decided that it does not want to stock this book in the Ramanasramam Book Depot. Telugu-knowing devotees who would like to purchase a copy of this new book should contact Sundaram, Annamalai Swami's former manager, attendant and interpreter. His email address is gurudeva000@gmail.com. 

Sundaram also has Tamil copies of Annamalai Swami's Final Talks and his Diary.

Open Thread

Ravi just informed me by email that the previous Open Thread, started last year, had reached 5,000 comments, and that it was refusing to take any more. 

Please continue all your discussions here.

Annamalai Swami Photos

A week or so ago Sundaram Swami, who was both Annamalai Swami's interpreter and his ashram manager, lent me two albums of Annamalai Swami photos. I had asked to see what he had collected since I was planning to include some new photos in the next printing of Final Talks. There were many photos in the album I had never seen before, and I am sure that most readers of this blog will not have seen them before either. I asked for his permission to post some of them here, and he happily agreed.

First, though, here are some older photos, taken in the 1930s, when Annamalai Swami was working in Ramanasramam. These have been taken from the Sri Ramanasramam Archives and are reproduced here with the kind permission of the ashram president.

This is the cover photo of Living by the Words of Bhagavan. When I was looking for old photos of Annamalai Swami the 1980s, he told me he was usually easy to spot in group pictures because of three features: folded arms, copious vibhuti on the forehead, and a necklace containing a single rudraksha bead.

In Living by the Words of Bhagavan Annamalai Swami noted, 'In those days [early 1930s] Lakshmi could wander wherever she wished. Sometimes someone would take her to graze near the Samudram Lake, but mostly she stayed in the ashram.'

In these two photos Annamalai Swami is taking Lakshmi out to graze on the lower slopes of Arunachala.

The next photo, of Annamalai Swami standing outside the ashram kitchen and storeroom in the 1930s, turned up fairly recently in an album of pictures that had been taken or assembled by Dr Mees.

The same album contained this photo of Chadwick and Annamalai Swami. I included it in the most recent edition of Living by the Words of Bhagavan.

Next is a cropped extract from an ashram group photo:

Left to right, top row: Annamalai Swami, Ramanatha Brahmachari, not known, Ramaswami Pillai, Kunju Swami.

Sitting: T. P. Ramachandra Iyer, Bhagavan, Chinnaswami.

Here is Annamalai Swami in some other group photos of this era. Look for the man with folded arms, vibhuti, and a rudraksha necklace.

There are two people here with vibhuti, a rudraksha necklace and folded arms. The one in the centre is Annamalai Swami while the one on the extreme left is Madhava Swami, Bhagavan's attendant for most of the 1930s.

There are very few photos of Annamalai Swami from the first forty years (1942-82) he spent in Palakottu, after he left Ramanasramam. The next three are probably from the 1980s:

The next three show Annamalai Swami walking on Arunachala in the 80s or 90s. He went for a walk there every day. Regular visitors to Ramanasramam will note that this area is now well reforested. In Annamalai Swami's later years it was mostly bare rock, lemon grass, and the occasional thorny bush.

This is the small room where Annamalai Swami met with visitors in the 1980s and 90s. The devotee on the floor, reading to him, is Sundaram.

And finally, here is a selection of photos I found in Sundaram's albums. They were all taken inside Annamalai Swami's ashram in the 80s and 90s. The final photo is of Annamalai Swami's samadhi shrine.