Need of the Hour

(An interesting anecdote in the divine life of Shri Kaviyogi Suddhananda Bharathi when he met the great sage of Arunachala – Sri Ramana Maharishi)
Sri Suddhanandha Bharathi was a multifaceted personality. He was a great freedom fighter, a keen spiritualist, speaker par excellence, a insightful social reformer, and above all a great Yogi too.He was led to Sri Ramana Maharishi feet and had fortune of being in Maharishi’s presence many a time. He has recorded his interactions with Sri Ramana Maharishi and one such significant incident is
summarized here.
His last political public meeting was at Tuticorin under the leadership of Sri V.O. Chidambaranar. Though his topic of speech was political regarding freedom struggle, it was somehow redirected to religion and spirituality. The central theme was “The need of the hour”. In his speech, he emphasized that all must turn their energies toward becoming more spiritual and the accumulated spiritual strength can determine the destiny of India indirectly.
He spent a day in contemplation and this reinforced this idealogy. He sent a letter to Sri Kavya Kanta Ganapathy in this regard also.
He also got an opportunity to have darshan of Maharishi. This time Ganapathy Muni took him close to Sri Ramana Maharishi . Sri Suddhanandha Bharathi was immersed in deep meditation. India, Independence, Home rule, even ‘the need of the hour’ all disappeared. An hour would have passed.
Ganapathy Muni slowly tapped me back to the outer world. Ganapathy Muni mentioned to Sri Ramanar on Bharathi’s letter titled ‘the need of the hour’. Sri Ramana Maharishi after a few minutes of silence wrote back a response. That response was so
profound yet practical:
“The need of the hour is to feel no need at all, but to heed what is written and search” !!