Some Stories from Bhagavan's Life

 1. Smt T. R. Kanakammal Once, when Bhagavan saw an attendant approaching the hall with the walking stick in his hand, he said to us with a twinkle in his eyes, "Look! Here comes my walking stick! You have seen the monkey trainer teaching his monkeys to dance at the sight of the stick. This monkey must now start dancing, for the stick is here!" Once Bhagavan was telling us all about some of the interesting incidents that occurred before the Asramam was built. This is one such anecdote. "Rangaswamy Iyengar, a Vaishnavite devotee, had a peculiar desire. He wanted to see me wearing the namam (the traditional mark a Vaishnavite puts on his forehead). He kept on repeating that it would be good to see Bhagavan wearing a namam.  "After a while, I said to him, 'Alright! I will do it to please you, but only on one condition. You must make Nayana (as Ganapathi Muni was known) wear a namam first. If Nayana does it, I will follow suit.' The red and white chalks were pla...

 By Sri Viswanatha Swami Viswanatha Swami distant relative of Sri Ramana, was brought up by the Maharshi's mother. He fully surrendered himself to Sri Ramana in 1923 and till 1950 spent most of his time either with the Maharshi or with Ganapati Muni. He was a scholar of Tamil and Sanskrit and translated many Ashram publications into Tamil. He edited The Mountain Path for some time and authored the famous Ramana Ashtotra. His Reminiscences:  Sri Muruganar came to Bhagavan during September holidays in 1923 . He was then a Tamil Pandit in a Christian girls high school in Madras. He had studied Tirukural with great devotion and was following its teachings in his own life. No wonder he was held in the highest esteem by his pupils as well as by his fellow teachers.  Muruganar came to know of Bhagavan Ramana through some devotees in Madras as well as Dandapani Swami, who was his father-in-law. Conditions in his family life also favoured renunciation: yet he continued working, c...

The third of February 1936 , early morning, saw my horse- cart rolling on the uneven two-and-a-half-mile road from Tiruvannamalai railway station to Ramanashram. Two sleepless nights in the train from Bombay found me tired in body and mind. My head was swimming and my senses were confused. I had hoped for some rest in the Ashram, but when I arrived there at last, there was not a soul to be seen anywhere. Presently, a corpulent man with a giant rugged head and scarlet-red lips from perpetual chewing of betel-nuts appeared.    He was, I later discovered, "the legal adviser" of the Ashram, who sometimes acted as the de facto sarvadhikari (manager) as well. "Is that Mr. Cohen? Follow me quickly before the Maharshi goes out for his walk," he called out. I obeyed, extremely eager to see the great Sage, who had haunted me night and day for three long months. I was led to a small dining room, at the door of which I was asked to remove my shoes. As I was trying to unlace th...

"There's No Use of having Devotion, Respect, Love for Me Alone Without Having It for Others As Well" -------------------------------------------------------------- In 1944 , I stayed in the Ashram for one week. One Monday at lunch time I heard the attendant telling Bhagavan, "Tonight we are all having puri". (a dish deep fried from wheat flour)  Bhagavan said calmly,  "Okay, but there should only be rice on my leaf ". We all sat for dinner at 7.30pm. I sat next to Bhagavan. There's a rule in the ashram. Bhagavan should be served only after all are served. That day Bhagavan was uncommonly serious. After serving everyone the server came to Bhagavan.  Bhagavan said in a loud voice "put rice".  The server was standing there trembling. Chinnaswamy was standing far away with a pained countenance. "Doesn't Bhagavan eat puri?", I asked. "Um, the doctor said wheat is not good for this body", he said.  "Doctor Nambiar u...

Building works, part 14 As the cowshed was nearing completion (Chinnaswami) came up to me and said, 'This building will be a success because of Bhagavan's plan. It is only because of his grace that we have been able to finance it. Now I believe you.'  Bhagavan often came to the cowshed to give instructions and to see what progress had been made. He even used to visit the site during the night.  Once, as we were supervising the work together, Bhagavan told me, 'If you build this cowshed for Lakshmi, we will get all the necessary punya [merit accumulated from performing virtuous acts] to build a bookstore, a dining room, and a shrine for the Mother. All this will happen in due course. This area will eventually become a town.'  Lakshmi herself often came to see how we were progressing with her new home. If Bhagavan were there he would often pat her on the head and say, 'You must wait for a few more days. The work isn't finished yet.'  In those days Lakshmi ...

When Masthan Swami became ill, he moved from his village to another village because he did not want to give anyone trouble. Rarely did Bhagavan go out of his way for anybody, but in this case Bhagavan called Desurammal and said, "Wherever Masthan Swami goes, be with him and look after him."  I have rarely heard of Bhagavan giving this kind of instruction for the sake of any other devotee. Masthan Swami's last days were very beautiful. After he dropped his body, Desurammal came to Bhagavan and narrated, "Bhagavan, in his last days we thought he was in delirium. He was saying, 'Nandi has descended and Siva's celestial devotees, the bhutaganas, are dancing, saying, 'Masthan! Come, come, come to us.'"  She continued, "Perhaps, he was blabbering in his delirium. But Bhagavan, in his last moment he stood up. It was absolutely impossible for him to stand up in that state. He stood up and then with tears in his eyes said, 'Apeethakuchambal has c...

Sambasiva Rao was the eldest brother of a large family who came from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. All of them were devoted to Bhagavan. They were introduced to Bhagavan shortly after their father, Venkatachalamaiah Garu, passed away. A few days later his wife had a dream in which her late husband appeared in their puja room. He was worshipping the gods there along with someone she had never seen before.  Venkatachalamaiah Garu spoke to her and said, 'I am going away now. I am leaving my entire family in this man's charge.'  It was not until much later that his wife identified the other man in the dream as Bhagavan.  It was the third brother, Satyanarayana Rao, who was the main cause of the rest of the family coming into contact with Bhagavan. When he was employed as a schoolteacher in Vellore, he became acquainted with Pranavanandam Garu, a great bhakta of Bhagavan. Since Vellore was only about fifty miles from Ramanasramam, he visited regularly and soon became a devotee.  Sa...