Darling Ramana

Chapter 4

Smt.Subbalakshmi, wife of Dr.M.R.Krishnamurthi Iyer, is a very staunch devotee of Sri Bhagavan. She described another beautiful incident of Bhagavan’s overflowing Grace. One day in the streets a portrait of Sri Seshadri Swami was being taken round in a procession, with the usual playing of pipes and beating of drums. On seeing it, Smt.Subbalakshmi got a strong urge to have a large portrait of Bhagavan in her home and to worship it. She then went inside the house and bolted the door. Soon after, someone knocked at the door. When she opened it, to her great surprise, there was a man holding a big framed photo of Sri Bhagavan! He said that he was coming from Tirupattur, that he was an electrician by profession, and that he was directed to leave the photo there. He added that he would return after paying a visit to the Ashram. I garlanded Bhagavan’s photo and was in ecstasy. My children returned from school and seeing the beautiful photo of Bhagavan they also jumped with joy, shouting: ‘Bhagavan has come to our house’. When my husband returned home, the children reported to him that Bhagavan had come to their home. He was surprised when I told him that I thought that he had sent the photo through the electrician. When we were at lunch, the person returned from the Ashram. He explained: ‘I did some electrical work in Major Chadwick’s room. When he offered money, I pleaded with him to give me instead the large framed photo of Sri Bhagavan, which he did. I was worshiping it in my house, doing regular puja. One day, I got possessed; I was heard shouting: ‘Go and give this photo at once to Dr.Krishnamurthi Iyer residing in Avarankattu Street.’ My father directed me to you and now I am giving you the photo!’ So saying, he went away. The same evening we all went to Bhagavan and told him the whole story. Ramana, the Darling, looked benignly at me and at my family-members, and there reigned only Peace!”

One day, Major Chadwick (Sadhu Arunachala) who had settled down at the Ashram and had never even thought of going back to England, called Sri K. Natesan and requested him to show Sri Bhagavan a piece of paper, in which he had given a definition for Self-Realisation. Sri Bhagavan read it and appreciated it very much. The slip of paper contained the words: “Self-realisation: It is the death while yet alive of that which lives after death.”

In his youth, Sri Natesan used to go away from home on pilgrimage to holy places, without informing his parents, who would report it with great concern to Sri Bhagavan. Bhagavan used to advise Natesan: “When you go away, why don’t you leave a message, so that your parents and others know you are on a pilgrimage?” Once, Natesan was away for sometime and many were worried. When he did return, Bhagavan asked him which places he had visited. Natesan replied that he was in Tiruttani, Padaiveedu and Tirupati. Bhagavan pointedly asked him: “What was in your mind at that time?” Straight came the spontaneous answer from Natesan in the form of a verse he quoted from Sri Ramana Gita.

“Lord, not on Swamimalai, nor on Tiruttani Hill, nor on top of Venkatachala (Tirupati) do you now dwell. In reality you are in Arunachala!”

Ramana smiled!

When I asked S.S.Cohen what was the last question he had put to Bhagavan, he replied: “It was in 1949. Bhagavan was seated outside the New Hall, facing Arunachala. Muruganar and a few others were by His side. I reverentially approached Bhagavan and said: “I want to do only the right thing. The difficulty is that I do not know at the time of decision-taking whether what I wish to do is the right thing or not. If you could give me a formula, a yardstick, with which I could arrive at the right decision, at any cost, I will do only that right thing and not falter. Please guide me”. Bhagavan became very stern and said: “There is no such shortcut for living. You have to take your own decisions, take the responsibility for them and reap their consequences too.”

I asked Cohen to explain it. He was kind: “Asking for a shortcut for decision-making is the mind’s mischief. It is the mind which wants to shirk its responsibility, but yet wants its own perpetuation. You cannot have the cake and eat it also. So long as you want to take decisions, it positively indicates the operation of the mind. As long as the mind operates, it cannot do so except on the parallel lines of likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes imbalance one’s decisions. Disequilibrium is the forte of the mind. In acts of pairs of opposites alone the mind can exist. Hence, right action is possible only in total surrender. For that, Grace is needed. Before doing any act, surrender your mind to Bhagavan and act. It will be the right action. In every sentence, every word that He uttered, Bhagavan drove home the truth that mind has to be eschewed finally!”

When Maurice Frydman was working as owner-cum-engineer in a firm in Bangalore, he absorbed into his firm some of the sons of the Ashram inmates like T.K. Sundaresa Iyer. Every Saturday evening he would come to the Ashram and go back to Bangalore the next night in his jeep along with these lads. When someone asked Maurice why he spent so much money coming every week instead of once a month or so, quick came his reply: “What to do? My battery can last only one week and then it dries up. I have to come here to Bhagavan to have it recharged!”

Once Maurice Frydman wrote a poem and handed it over to Bhagavan. Long after he had left, Bhagavan commented. “Maurice Frydman prays: ‘Just as in a King’s court a dancer has to go on dancing till the King signs to him to stop, though the dancer would be absolutely exhausted, Oh Bhagavan! when are you going to throw your glance of grace at me and bid me to stop this whirlpool of activities?’ Appayya Dikshitar has written a verse in Sanskrit on these lines. Maurice must have had the same bhava and written this, as he could not have read Dikshitar at all!”

Mrs. Roda McIver, an old devotee, once narrated the following incidents:

(1) “One, Kamalrani, who was observing silence, put before Bhagavan a long message, all written out nicely on big sheets of paper. Bhagavan said: ‘Is this silence?’ and returned the papers to her without reading them. According to Bhagavan, real silence is of the mind, not of the tongue alone. I also recollect Bhagavan’s comment: ‘Yes, yes! Excellent silence!’ when it was reported to Him that a particular sadhu had written more than fifty books during a period of several years of complete silence!”

(2) “Two visitors came to Bhagavan and one of them said: ‘My friend has taken as his guru a man who is not even a sadhu. I brought him here so that he would give up this guru and follow you, Bhagavan. Please make him do so’. Bhagavan replied sternly: ‘Who are you to say who is the right guru for him? By what power can you make out what a man really is? And are you sure that the guru counts so much? All depends on the disciple. Even if you worship a stone with great devotion it will be seen as God’.”

(3) “Bhagavan never liked people to talk ill of others and would take the side of the accused party. On one occasion a rich lady-devotee adopted an outcast boy, but after some time he disappeared with some of her jewellery. When she complained to Bhagavan, He said: ‘Your jewels made you lose your boy’!”

One day, when Sri Ramaswami Pillai entered the Old Hall, there was a discussion going on as to who was the greater of the two: Siva or Sakti (God or Goddess). Bhagavan, as usual, sat in silence, with a look of amusement. The trend of the talk was that without Sakti (power) Siva could not do anything and this argument looked invincible. Ramaswami Pillai also joined the fray and said: “Yes, yes! ‘He’ is contained in ‘She’!” The Sakti party became jubilant. “But”, interrupted Pillai:” ‘He’ can be independent and be without ‘She’; but ‘She’ cannot be without ‘He’!” The Siva- party looked triumphant. Bhagavan laughed till tears came to His eyes; He enjoyed this spelling-game thoroughly!