The Final Words of Swami Rama Tirtha

In 1906, Swami Rama Tirtha, a much beloved ecstatic vedAntin, abandoned this world at the young age of thirty-three - like Jesus and Adi shaMkarAchArya. He was ill and during a bath in the river, he was drawn into a whirlpool. After trying four times to swim out of it, he was carried away. His body was found ten days later, frozen in the meditation posture, and his lips where like when he would sing OM.

These are his final written words,

O death, go and strike my body: I have millions of bodies to live in. I will dress myself in the moonbeams, in the gauze made of fine silvery threads, and pass my time in tranquil rest. I will sing my songs in the form of hill streams and brooks, in the form of the rolling waves; I will move on. I am the soft-footed wind which walks on in ecstasy. I am the ever-gliding form which does on as time. I descend as waterfalls on the mountain slopes, reviving the faded plants. I made the roses burst into laughter. I made the nightingale sing her mournful ditties; I knocked at the doors and woke up the sleeping ones, wiping the tears of the one, blowing the veil from the face of the other. I teased those near and also far. I teased you too. See, I go, I go, with nothing in my possession, permitting nobody to touch me.

OM shAnti

The Essence of advaita

Here is the video of a talk I gave at the SIG retreat back in the fall of 2009. There is no question that I totally butcher the Sanskrit. But, more importantly, the some of the great and worthy ideas of the vedAnta are introduced for meditation. And these are always valuable to revisit.

OM shAnti


Post update 11/05/2011: The original link seems to be no longer available. To watch the video click here. Thank you!