hvs

Reposted from my Facebook post on my teacher Hari V. Sahasrabuddhe (hvs)

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5th Sept, birthday of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, is celebrated as teacher's day.
As it happened I received a post quoting Ramana on the power of the Guru.
I cannot pretend to really understand the quote, yet it has a mysterious emotional appeal. Since it was teacher's day and everyone was posting around/about that I shared the quote [1]

Who is Free?

Re-posting an old 'thought-dialogue' with Ramana (also called Ramana Maharshi) for 15th August, Indian Independence day
 It has been constructed by taking different parts of his writings/talks and stringing them together.  The continuity of the ideas in this form is my (invention). The individual ideas are his… hopefully!

Politician:

Today is the birthday of Sri Ramana Maharshi. The tallest sons of India ranging from Jamnalal Bajaj, Rajendra Prasad, Rajaji and Mahatma Gandhi revered him so we may consider him one amongst the great freedom fighters of India...

Veteran Freedom Fighter (an old man):

Enough! Enough! You people keep on harping on freedom only to cover up your mal-performance and misdeeds. Fighting for freedom was our big mistake. All the evils of the British have continued and increased with you people, the modern Indian politicians. I know for certain that if Mahatma Gandhi had been left alive he would have said the same. Already in his last days he was saying that power was going into the hands of people that could not be trusted. O Woe! Woe to our motherland!