Education and Boyhood
 

At Chennai, the elder brother Sabapathi studied the Tamil literature under the able guidance of a great scholar. His hard work and industrious mind enabled him to give religious discourses in Tamil at the request of some rich people. Besides he used to conduct classes to elementary school boys on patio of houses.

With the income received from the above sources, he looked after the needs of the family to some extent and thus led a peaceful life. Ramalingam was five years old then. The elder brother, taking the opportunity of being a teacher, started to teach his young the elementry principle underlying the Tamil literature. Finding the boy not evincing any interest in the initial stage, Sabapathy thought that he would fulfil his desire in course of time. Even thenm the boy did not take any interest; instead he used to go to Knadakottam, a temple located in George Town, Chennai and used to absorb himself with divine prayers. Thinking that the boy was not amenable in the presence of his brother, the latter thought that the young boy could improve under the guidance of a third person and thus entrusted the responsibility of teaching him to his oqn preceptor, under whom he took his studies.

With proficiency in Tamil literature, the latter tried his best to impart the boy with his elite and put the former in the right path. There also Ramalingam evinced little interest, but used to go to the temple, recite songs in praise of the presiding deity, Lord Muruga and enter into deep meditation. Hearing the news that the boy was singing in a melodious voice, the preceptor went through some of the poems sung by the disciple and was fully amazed to find them heart-warming and bhakthi rendering ones. He felt that such pieces could not be sung even by well trained poets and concluded that it was a rare gife the God has showered on this little boy.

So saying, he also gave up his tuition, exclaiming that the young boy was placed in a far better position than himself. The efforts taken by one and all to impart him the school teaching thus proved futile. Sabapathy, the elder brother who was the head of the family become much worried about his brother’s career wanted to turn the boy under threats. By this, the young was not given food and clothing and ultimately driven out of his home. Even such drastic action taken by Sabapathy did not yield any desired result.

Instead, this made the young boy to become firm in getting fully absorbed and devote his time in performing worship and offering prayers to the Almighty from his inner mind. Days passed. His sister-in-law who was much afectionate towards the plight of the young boy was much worried since she looked after the needs the boy without the knowledge of her husband.

One day she pleaded before the boy to be attentive to his studies as her husband wanted, so as to avoid all the difficulties so far experienced and thus turn a new leaf to the betterment of the family as a whole. The affectionate and motherly advice of the lady had the desired effect and at last Ramalingam consented to take up his studies in right earnest as desired by his brother and requested her to set apart a room in the house for this purpose. The young lady convveyed the news to her husband and after a hard pursuit, Sabapathy gave his approval.

On an auspicious day a room in the upstairs was provided to the boy to carry on his studies without any disturbance. The study preferred by the young boy was a different one to that construed by the world. Hence a deadlock also prevailed here. Instead of collectiong books on literature and concentrating on the same, the boy collected the things for performing pooja, lit a lamp and placed a mirror in front of it within the room.

Sitting before it, concentrated on a certain spot in the mirror where the brilliance of the lamp fell and used to be lost in deep meditation. As providence would have it, Ramalingam beheld the glorious vision of Lord Muruga, shedding his Grace and Divinity, and this engulfed the entire space therein. His mortal frame was filled with divine ecstacy, and the joy overpowered him, which made him to sing ethereal songs in praise of the Lord. By the Divine Grace so obtined Ramalingam was blessed with the knowledge of all arts and skills and gifted with the ability and talent to perform miracles and Siddhis (wondrous deeds). Without the knowledge of the little boy, the sister-in-law used to witness the occurence with awe and unspoeakable amazement. Now we shall try to annotate the type of study that Ramalingam had from the experience gained at the soul level. It has been acknowledged by all that God is one and existing eternally in and out of everything in the whole universe of boundless space.

But the Inner Truth of God’s existence is beyond one’s conception, because it is working from the innermost with the spirit of all powerful Omnigrace. This divine attribute of God is due to come out from each soul-atom for its Eternal Godly life of endless Bliss. This is what we see in the case of the saint Ramalingam. This unimaginable form is within. It is Changeless and not destructible. This is termed as the soul beings. To gain experience and live a Blessed life, all the outer forms come to play but disappear after some time. Ramalingam gained his experience only from the inner soul. Even from his childhood, that soul atom is his abode and thus he concentrated on it more deeply. This made him to realise that the inner soul is his real preceptor and so he did not evince much interst towards the teachings of the wordly scholars. His firm belief that the so called scholars are gifted only with a fraction of the grace of the Almighty, any tuition given under their leadership cannot make them to reap the benefit to the full extent. In other words the beneficiaries can only be termed as infants. Without knowing the real aim of the saint Ramalingam, outsiders became rather vexed with his behaviour and tried to bring him down according to their wish.

The Omnigracious God did not let him down as he knows fully well about the needs of the young boy and the time when the soul be equipped with the same. At the time of need, the almighty embraced the child and thus the latter was gifted with so much powers, which could not be obtained by anybody else. The above happening has confirmed to the world that Ramalingam did not go to any school and had no preceptor (Guru) from the outer world. According to him, education means the art of obtaining deathlessness and live for ever. Even now we see that there is an universal awareness that literacy should form the main theme and illiteracy should be wiped out at the earliest. Unless mankind is awakened to follow the teachings of the saint to the fullest extent, peace cannot be attained in the internal arena of political, cultural and social affairs.

The world is heading towards the growing madness for wealth, pleasure and power by the people and this will invite war and calamity and the impending danger of total destruction will becom inevitable. In the above circumstances, this chapter will be an eye-opener to the entire world. We shall peep into the next chapter now.


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First Launched on Apr-16-1998. Last updated:Aug.04.2013