The Sri Ramana Maharshi biopic film JNANI: The Silent Sage of Arunachala is beautifully assembled with astonishing archival photos and first hand account interviews. Even though I’m a new comer to Ramana Maharshi — known for Self-inquiry — I feel what he conveyed and taught seem well represented in JNANI. Just witnessing the images of Ramana seem to quiet the mind resulting in a peaceful and awake contentment. The still photo in this post depicts Ramana Maharshi in the rain with a clear reflection of his immediate background on the wet ground but without a trace of Ramana’s body reflected.
There’s nothing but honor and respect for Ramana Maharshi, one of Earth’s most profound figures in recent times. And it is with this same honor and respect that I relate the following mundane questions, perhaps spurred on by a background interest in parapolitics. Unfortunately, underhanded politics work their way into spiritual matters. The intent is not to take any sides — either locally, with various nations or even globally — but to bring any needed awareness in order to bring truth to light for better viewpoints and better (future) individual and collective decision making while allowing any irrelevant lines of inquiry to easily fall away:
Disability
- Were there other accomplished sages and saints of similar stature during his time, without much popularity, and who don’t look a little physically disabled?
- Could Ramana’s popularity be related in any way with disability? As in, “oh, you want to be a great enlightened sage? OK, then here’s a role model with a portly/unfit body from neglecting his health”. [The potential purpose being those in power’s attempt to initially discourage a path of self-realization for those still attached to egos, images and personalities.]
- And could his promotion as a popular spiritual figure possibly impact Hinduism division(s) (and diminish its numbers) via divide and conquer tactics?
Westerners and Eastern Politics
- Who were the Westerners Maurice Frydman and Major A. W. Chadwick (a major Ramana Maharshi figure with no current Wikipedia entry)?
- What was Frydman engineering background, and how and why was an engineer so instrumental in the Indian independence movement?
- Being connected to Theosophists Wanda Dynowska and Jiddu Krishnamurti, what was Frydman’s position in Theosophy, if any?
- Wanda Dynowska helped with Tibetan refugees in India and the film mentions Frydman’s instrumental part in bringing the Dalai Lama to India. Without doing a deep dive into the CIA’s role in China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama’s flight to India, I also wonder about such possible Intelligence Agency connections for these two Western figures — a ghostly WW I veteran, and an engineer with secret society connections and high level political involvement.
- Taking liberties by extrapolating the aforementioned for thought experiments: Even with or without any known or unknown deliberate CIA influences on the situation, could the Dalai Lama signify/symbolize/signal CIA dominance by them saving the savior-like Bodhisattvas of Tibet? And from one perspective, could the CIA be seen as sort of besting a spiritual sect by providing seeming harmony and a better political climate for Tibetans in India while making China look like the bad guys (as perhaps another subtle reason for potential war) all the while, in a way, currently lording over a powerful foreign spiritual religion behind the scenes as a background influence (by means of “rescue”, emplacement, politics and normalizing Tibetan Buddhism into western culture, a la Free Tibet, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman’s father Robert Thurman, etc.)?
Miscellaneous Questions
- Is he carrying a teapot in several photos? If so, any significance?
- Is the true nature, big Self that he realized the Atman or perhaps Para Brahman?
Integrating Presence 