This Chapter is taken From The Book ”Guru Ramana – Memories and Notes” (Part III Diary)by S.S.Cohen
Introductory
The years 1948-50 saw the evening shadows gathering and closing on the mortal coil of the Master. Advancing age brought a series of mishaps to it – a fall, a nervous hiccup lasting many days, a clinging rheumatism, and lastly a malignant tumour, which inch by inch ate up the flesh of his left arm, poisoned his blood and, finally, rang down the curtain on a life, purer than which there has never been nor will ever be.
Of these two critical years I felt a strong urge to keep a diary to record the Maharshi’s movements, talks, and the condition of his health, for no other object than to perpetuate for myself his blessed memory. But after his Mahanirvana I felt the same urge to share it with his devotees in order to bring back to them those hallowed scenes and events which marked the last days of his earthly life. Some of the talks I incorporated in Part II of this book.
Since that never-to-be-forgotten night of April 14, 1950, when the Maharshi for the last time laid down his body and completely merged in the peace everlasting, from which there is no return, many of his close disciples have also shed their bodies and followed him. The others who are still with us, and who in the beginning took some time to recover from the painful void which his physical absence had created in their lives, continue to feel his holy presence particularly in their meditation, which proves the scriptural pledge that the spiritual link that nature forges between Master and disciple, time, the all-destroyer, has no power to break, till the disciple succeeds in scaling the same height as the Master and attains union with Him. 16th June, 1948
An article about Sri Maharshi has appeared in the Free Press, Madras. Professor Subbaramayyah of Nellore reads it aloud, so that all present may hear. Sri Maharshi intently follows in another copy, so intently that one would think he was correcting an important manuscript. He occasionally passes humorous remarks and broadly smiles. In the end hedirects his attendant to cut and paste it in the special file.