There are a few people on Facebook and elsewhere, that claim Robert Adams was a fraud, that he never met Ramana because there is no record of him ever being there, and no one present during the late 40s can remember him.
My response is that there is very little proof that Robert ever existed in life at all until he suddenly broke on the scene in Los Angeles in 1989. But this is the Robert I knew. He was very humble. Very quiet and self-effacing. He rarely spoke. If you entered a room with a dozen people, you may not even have noticed him.
Robert shunned attention in the spotlight. He was constantly deliberately losing students. He did things that ruffled their feathers and they left. His stated goal was to have 10 students in his life that got his message and could spread his message. 10 students who got enlightened and became teachers themselves. He was not interested in large numbers of people. He did not want to have an ashram. He told stories about leaving behind an ashram he created in New Mexico. He shunned Muktananda's invitation to become a swami.
He was shy and retiring. And I'll bet even in 1948 he was not an extrovert. He was not a people person. He did not live in the ashram, but around it. And when he told stories about his time in Ramana's ashram and with Ramana they were told with such detail and conviction I felt no doubt that he was telling the truth, especially about the time when he met Ramana on apath, took off all of his clothes. and prostrated himself before Romana. When he told that story, his eyes were filled with tears. He ended it by saying this is how you have to be with your teacher: humble, devoted, surrender,and he saidit almost shouting it as an essential truth.
Some even doubt Robert's stated awakening experience, saying it was only a mystical experience. That same person claimed that enlightened beings stop searching when they become enlightened, forgetting classically that there are many stages after awakening before approaching 'final enlightenment'.
Classically the Zen oxherding figures come to mind, 10 stages post awakening before your training is complete. The great Zen Master Joshu stated he had 17 great Satori and thousands of small ones. His Zen training took place over a period of 60 years before he finally settled as a teacher.
If I were asked if I remembered the many people that had came and gone at the international Buddhist meditation center in the early 1970s where I was a month for three years, I can't say that I remember any but a small number of people. People looking for evidence that Robert was at Ramana ashram in 1948 or 1949 50 years later would be hard to prove or find acceptible proof of his presence. This is more or less what I would expect.
Remember, Robert was like a ghost in his entire life. He left no footprint, and less than a dozen photos.
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