← Treasure Trove of Sri Bhagavan’s Grace

Sadhu Om

Sri Sadhu Om was a great Tamil poet and one of the staunchest followers of Sri Bhagavan's Direct path of Self-enquiry. His grasp of Sri Bhagavan's teachings was profound, and his adherence to them was unswerving.

Though one of the foremost devotees of Sri Bhagavan, Sri Sadhu Om chose to live unnoticed by the World, He exemplified Bhagavan Sri Ramana’s principal practical precept, that one should deny oneself at every step and turn of life, should give no importance to one's individual entity, and should thereby completely erase the ‘ego’.

Sri Sadhu Om's attitude of shunning any kind of public appreciation or prominence is expressed clearly in the following prayer he wrote to Sri Bhagavan:

" Not to teach the world, the myth, Not to gain a mass of wealth, Not for name and fame that hails, ' There a Sage in Samadhi dwells, Flock you all and worship Him 'Tis not for these I sing this hymn; Only for the great reward, The death of ‘ego’, I pray, my Lord! "

— Sri Ramana Guruvarul Antadi, verse 68

Sri Bhagavan had taught only two paths, viz., Self-Enquiry and Surrender (both of which necessarily imply and stress the non rising of the ‘ego’), and both these paths find rich and happy expression in the thousands of Tamil songs and verses of Sri Sadhu Om.

Rather than any of his poetical works, it is Sadhu Om’s prose work, Sri Ramana Vazhi, and its English translation, The Path of Sri Ramana, has earned Sadhu Om the lasting gratitude and appreciation of the devotees of Sri Bhagavan.

We should gratefully make a mention of his intimate and long-standing association with Sri Muruganar. On the very first day that Sadhu Om had darshan of Sri Bhagavan, he was sent by Him to meet with Sri Muruganar (living at Palakottu) and to show him his Tamil Composition.

Through his association with Sri Muruganar, Sadhu Om was able to gain a deeper insight into the abstruse and cryptic style of Tamil used by Sri Bhagavan in His works, and also to perfect his own innate poetic genius. In return, Sadhu Om did singular service to Sri Muruganar in having helped him to finalize his verses and to preserve them for posterity.

Consequently, Sadhu Om was entrusted with the task of editing the fourteen thousand unpublished verses of Sri Muruganar into a massive nine-volume work under the title Sri Ramana Jnana Bodham.

Sadhu Om's continued and valuable service to Ramana-bhaktas in general and Ramana-literature in particular, is a great asset, indeed.

Sadhu Om with Sri Muruganar