Ganapathy Muni, Kapali Shastri and M.P. Pandit

Uma Sahasranam Michael (hanumandaz) wrote, @ 2006-02-17 14:49:00

Some 25 Years ago I had a life transforming experience, which hooked me up to the Divine Mother. I wrote about this in my experience report in 'The Mother' (by Adilakshmi). The book which triggered this experience I could never again get back. It involved three authors, and two opposite tradition: The Ramana, and the Aurobindo one.

• One author was the originator of the poems which were originally in Sanskrit, his name is Sri Ganapathy Muni, and he was one of the earliest disciples of Ramana Maharshi, who actually coned this name 'Ramana Maharshi' together and wrote one of the earliest books about his teachings called the 'Ramana Gita' now.
• The second author was a disciple of both Ganapathi Muni and of Ramana equally, but who later changed to be a disciple of Aurobindo and the Mother, and even after he switched still worked and translated for Ramana. His name is Kapali Shastri, and his is the translation of the Sanskrit verses into english. His collected works I got and they contain a part of this translation.
• The third author, under whose name the little booklet was published is M.P. Pandit, a disciple of Kapali Shastri and subsequently of Aurobindo and the Mother. He recently died. His was the commentary, the selection of verses in the book. The original work is called Uma Sahasranam, which means thousand names of the Mother Divine.

Ganapathi Muni was a tantric, and adorer of the Divine Mother, and the work was intended to be his thank you to the Divine Mother - UMA - for finding his Guru Ramana. He had made a pledge to finish off the whole work up to a certain time, but found that a significant number of verses had to be still done. As he was in Ramanas presence he suddenly felt a strong inspiration and the remaining verses flowed out effortlessly. Ramana sat in Samadhi, his eyes closed. After Muni had finished the last verse Ramana opened his eyes and asked: Did you write everything down? (that was transmitted).

I must also say that I would not have understood (if that is the right term, as it is more intuitional knowledge) anything without the comments of Pandit. The whole thing happened for me, one year before I met Mother. In the experience, I was drawn to the book and felt an electric current. After a nights sleep while waking up I had a vision of the Divine Mother in the form of a golden spiral, and felt an unmistaken female Divine Presence in my room. The effects of the experience was felt for several days. Kapali Shastri's collected works contain reminiscences of his experience with the Mother as well as with Ramana, his works on the Vedas and the Tantras, in the light of Sri Aurobindos philosophy.