A reputed poet who lived hundred and fifty years ago had written a few verses saying that the hardest task for man in the world is Self realization. Muruganar was very upset with this. “It should be the easiest. How can Self realization be the most difficult?” he reasoned. He began writing in Bhagavan’s presence, “Self knowledge is the easiest thing there is.” However, he could not go further because he did not know how to put it convincingly. He left the sheet of paper on Bhagavan’s sofa and walked off. When he came back, Bhagavan had written the Atma Vidhya Keertanam, a few verses on Self knowledge, which described Bhagavan’s own state of experience and how it is easy for every one of us to attain: “Lo, very easy is Self knowledge, lo, very easy indeed. Even for the most infirm, so real is the Self that compared with it a gooseberry in one’s hand appears a mere illusion. The thought ‘I am the body’ is the thread on which various thoughts are strung together. Diving within enquiring, ‘Who am I and whence am I?’ all other thoughts vanish, and as ‘I-I’ within the Heart cave, the Self shines of its own accord. Such Self awareness is the only heaven, stillness and abode of bliss.”
If we examine Bhagavan’s relationship with Muruganar, it will be found that Self realization is indeed the easiest to attain. For Muruganar, there was no God except Bhagavan, no path except Self Enquiry and no other purpose in life other than abiding in the Self, in the silence. The crowning brilliance in his life was not just his books and his bringing out the truth from Bhagavan — it was the fact that he actually lived every word that he wrote.
Impressed with his poetic skills, he was offered wealth and luxury by kings if he would only grace their courts. But he chose to be a beggar in the streets of Tiruvannamalai and to be in Bhagavan’s shadow — only to live the truth. Muruganar lived the teaching every day, every hour, every minute. Since he was with Bhagavan all the time, he earned the nickname ‘shadow of Bhagavan’. The relationship between Muruganar and Bhagavan is the practical demonstration of the guru-shishya relationship that is extolled in Hindu scriptures. All Hindu texts are written in question and answer format, with the disciple asking the question and the guru giving the answer, even on ethical issues. We will soon see how beautifully the guru-disciple relationship is brought out in the Hindu culture when we examine the rest of Muruganar’s life.
Muruganar communicated with Bhagavan all the time. Bhagavan was not a well read person, whereas