Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Chadwick Day (April 17th)

Major Chadwick was a well-known and ardent devotee of Sri Bhagavan, who stayed at the Ashram for over a quarter of a century without any thought of return to England. He used to spend many hours in meditation adhering strictly to a regular time-table. He was a model of steadfast sadhana which he kept up after Bhagavan's Mahasamadhi till the end of his life in 1962.
April 17th is observed at the Sri Ramanasramam as Chadwick Day.

The above picture of Major Chadwick's shrine was taken in January 2007.

The site Arunachala-Ramana pays him a tribute on "One of Us".

Various articles of his are available on this link.
I might add that April 14th was the date of the Mahasamadhi of Bhagavan as per the Gregorian Calendar. The Akshara Mana Malai was chanted outside the Nirvana Room at 8pm this April 14th. This year Bhagavan's aradhana will be observed on May 14th as per the Indian Calendar.

The photograph of Major Chadwick (also known as Sadhu Arunachala) is taken from arunachala.org.

His reminiscences (A Sadhu's Reminiscences) are available in pdf format (220kb) here.