The Razor's Edge (spoiler)
Written 9-3-2000
A few months ago, someone suggested that I read Somerset Maugham's novel "The Razor's Edge" because they felt that the novel's protagonist was in many ways very similar to me (Sitaram).
Recently, the movie version of "The Razor's Edge" aired on Public Television.
Of course, I made a special point to watch it, because I had become very curious as to what it might possibly be about, and whether I would see myself at all in the character.
The story is about a young man of modest means (from a small inheritance, $3000 per year, but in the early 1900's that was a lot.... even in the 1950's families could live on that sum). He became engaged to a young woman who associated with a wealthy upper class, but was not herself wealthy.
His main goal was to travel the world in search of wisdom and knowlege regarding the fundamental philosophical questions of life. His young fiancee wanted him to settle down at a practical career so that they might become prosperous and enjoy the finer material things of life.
He realizes that they are not suited to each other, so they break off their engagement. She marries a man who is more career/investments oriented, and who also has some considerable wealth. Our hero leaves America to live in Paris, study, contemplate, and have a variety of adventures with more earthy and 'down to earth' people.
He seems to take jobs as a laborer, or at least socialize with laborers and longshoremen. He spends several weeks playing cards with a flamboyant, rough and tumble man who is rumored to cheat at the game.
One night, during a card game, the this card-shark tells our hero that he once went to India to visit a "holy man". He describes this holy man as most remarkable because it is not by anything he says or teaches that he helps people, but merely by his presence.
Of course, this "holy man", who remains unnamed in the movie, was in real life Ramana Maharshi, whom Somerset Maughm visited for a week.
When our hero asks the cardshark why he was moved to visit India, he answers that he is always travelling about, trying to escape someone whom he has wronged. In every port and city, he constantly expects at any moment to feel a hand on his shoulder and find that he has been tracked down and discovered.
Our hero asks the cardshark "Wouldnt it be better to stop running and face your punishment?"
"Oh, no.", he answers, "it is not punishment I would have to face, for I could easily face execution or imprisonment. It is love and forgiveness which I must face, and which I cannot endure. For, you see, it is no person whom I have wronged, but it is God. God is the one who relentlessly pursues me and whom I forever flee. For I am a de-frocked priest."
Now, getting back to the real life pilgrimage of Somerset Maugham to Ramana Maharshi:
On Maugham 's first day at the Ashram, he wandered by the room where Ramana Maharshi was seated with his devotees. Maugham did not enter the room, for he was wearing big klunky boots, which he did not feel like removing (and he would not be allowed in with boots or shoes on). So Maugham simply peeked in the room to observe the scene, and then went up to his room. Maharshi Ramana was aware of his visitor, and the next day went to Maugham's room for a private meeting. As was Ramana's practice, he simply sat in silence gazing at Maugham. Maugham became slightly uneasy and nervous after the first minute or two, and asked "Is there anything that I should be doing now. Is something supposed to happen?" (an understandable western apprehension and expectation). Appearantly, at some point during the visit, Maugham became quite overcome for some reason and fainted briefly. Maugham returned to England, but before leaving, requested that any books or literature availble from the Ashram be forwarded to him in England.
Of course the scene in the novel/movie, "The Razor's Edge", depicts the "holy man", not as Ramana Maharshi looked and acted, but as a more "western" and verbal holy man with a long flowing beard and a library of books.
The holy man sends our hero up to a hut in the mountains to meditate for some weeks, hinting that "sometimes strange things happen when alone in those mountans", and adding "but what happens depends on YOU."
Some weeks later, the Holy Man goes to visit him in the mountain hut, and our hero relates his experience: "at the moment of dawn, when night turns to day, I experienced a oneness with God." The holy man tells him to return to his country and his people, and that this experience of oneness will remain with him for the rest of his life.
I did see an incredible similarity between the character in the book and myself, although the book's character had fewer flaws and shortcoming than I have.
Here is a little background on the real life Ramana Maharshi whom Maughm visited, and some detail regarding Maharshi's literature, which Maughm requested:
Venkataraman, later to be known as Ramana Maharshi, was born at the end of 1879 and left his body in April 1950.
He was a normal boy loving games but not much interested in his lessons, though he had a good memory when he cared to study. He was an abnormally heavy sleeper and once they had to break open the door of the room in which he slept before they could wake him up. His friends took advantage of this abnormality. They would pull him off his bed while still asleep and take him with them, buffeting him and playing on him every trick which they would not dare to try when he was awake. It is possible that his natural ability for heavy sleep was associated with his future attainment; the tremendous power of his concentration.
He was not much interested in religion, though he would pay the usual visits to the temple, customary for any normal Hindu boy.
At the age of 16, in the upstairs room of his uncle's house, he had the great experience which was going to change everything. Let us hear what he himself said about it:
As I sat alone, there was nothing wrong with my health. But a sudden and unmistakable fear of death seized me. I felt I was going to die. Why I should have so felt cannot be explained by anything felt in the body. Nor could I explain it to myself then. I did not however trouble myself to discover if the fear was well grounded. I felt "I am going to die," and at once set about thinking out what I sould do. I did not care to consult doctors or elders or even friends. I felt I had to solve the problem myself then and there.
"The shock of death made me at once introspective, or introverted. I said to myself mentally, 'Now, death has come. What does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies.' I at once dramatized the scene of death. I extended my limbs and held them rigid as though rigor-mortis had set in. I imitated a corpse to lend an air of reality to my further investigation. I held my breath and kept my mouth closed, pressing my lips tightly together so that no sound might escape. Let not the word 'I' or any other word be uttered! ......
Let us consider what had happened to young Venkataraman in that upper room. When he lay on the floor death had come to him. 'What was that death he experienced but he death of the ego? The ego itself is entirely illusory as such, as the Buddhists say, but granted that even if it has a sort of existence there is nothing permanent about it. It changes from moment to moment. One ego decides to do something on the morrow, but when tomorrow comes another ego is in charge and refuses to do it. So we change from day to day, or rather the egos with which we associate ourselves change. But behind each of them is the permanent witness. But the witness is not confined to witnessing to doings of the little ego, it is the Supreme Witness, or that Bhagavan called the SELF. There is only one Self, and this is the only permanent thing there is.
So Venkataraman had died. After this happened he had no longer any name, he never signed anything or acknowledged any name as his. People called him Ramana, and he knew that they were talking about him when they did so, but even if they had called him by any other name he would have acknowledge it. Shortly afterwards when he left home, he left an unsigned note to inform them of his departure.
In this one short hour in that upper room, Venkataraman had become a fully realized soul. From that day on, his life was, from a mundane point of view, almost eventless. He left home shortly afterwards and went to settle in Tiruvannamalai where he remained for the rest of his life.
Ramana Maharshi had written a small pamphlet called "Who am I?". Here is contained the very essence of his teachings. Though Ramana was only 21 when he wrote it, it is complete and has never needed to be changed. Ramana always insisted that the book should be sold so cheaply that even the poorest person might afford it. Originally, the book cost no more than ten cents. The teachings in this book are direct from his own experience and in no way were influenced by his readings of Upanisads and other sacred scriptures, which were only brought to him by others later in his life, for him to read and explain. Later reading of this ancient sacred scriptures, Ramana realized the philosophic import of what had happened to him and was so able to co-ordinate his experiences and fit them into the Hindu tradition. But the very essence of what is necessary for Self-realization is contained in Ramana's little pamphlet. No more is needed.
