Next Theme in Blog - Upadesa Saram

Dear All,

In few days from now, we will be dealing with a sacred treatise "Upadesa Saram" written by Ramana Maharshi.

The brief background of this book is given below. 

This treatise contains 30 verses and gives background and essence of the three path -  Karma, Bhakti & Jnana. 

The original text written in Tamil and was called “Upadesa Undiyar”. Undiyar means “sit and run”, and is a meter in poetry. 

The poem was then translated into Malayalam, then Telugu, and then Sanskrit (due to a suggestion from one of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s disciples) by the Maharshi himself.

How did it originate? 

Murugunar, a Tamil scholar, was writing a book on the Maharshi, Ramana Sannidhi Murai (“In the Presence of Ramana”). He was summarizing the lives of Shiva found in various Puranas. 

In one of these stories, was a story of some Sadhakas who were following the path of Poorva Meemamsa, which says “Action is the Supreme. It is self-sufficient to give results”. 

They used to do many rituals to obtain their desired fruit of enjoyment. There is no concept of God among these Mimamsakas. They believed that just by “working hard” they could achieve whatever they wanted.

The story goes that Mohini and Shiva both came to destroy the Yagas of these Mimamsakas. Their strategy was that Mohini would attract away the men, and Shiva would draw away the women. The ploy worked perfectly. When the men realized what had happened, they fell prostrate at the feet of Shiva, who then taught them the true purpose of action. 

Lord Shiva’s Upadesh or “Teaching” has never been detailed in any Purana, only just mentioned. The Puranas only say that these Meemamsakas realized the error of their philosophy and became devout saints thereafter, attaining the ultimate goal of Vedanta.

It was in response to Murugunar’s appeal as to what the Upadesha of Shiva was, that Sri Ramana Maharshi wrote the original Tamil poem, which is the subject of this book. 

In the original, each of the 30 verses ended with “Undi-para”. The verses are addressed to the Mimamsakas, that is, those who hold the materialistic view that acquiring the fruits of action is the only thing worth striving for.

Love.