when Jnana dawns

[Guest guest]

Ranganathan:

 

"When, after making some efforts for a job at Madras, I returned to Bhagavan he

said, "You told me you had provided for your wife and children. Your elder

brother told me they are undergoing hardship." I did not reply, for Bhagavan

knows all and is also all powerful. I again went to Madras, and finding my

efforts for a job there were in vain, returned to Bhagavan and stayed with him

for some time.

 

During that time, one night, when I was sleeping outside on a double cot that

was lying there, Bhagavan suddenly came and sat near my feet. Seeing this I got

up. Bhagavan asked me, "What is the matter with you? Are you restless and not

getting sleep because of your family troubles? Would it be enough for you if you

get rupees 10,000?" I kept silent.

 

Once when Bhagavan and I were going round the hill he said, "There are herbs on

this hill which could transmute base metals into gold." Then also I kept silent.

Bhagavan used often to joke with me and laugh asking "Oh! Are you suffering very

much?" He then told me, "When a man sleeps he dreams he is being beaten and that

he is suffering terribly. All that would be quite real at that time. But when he

wakes up he knows it was only a dream. Similarly when Jnana dawns, all the

miseries of this world would appear to be merely a dream."

 

In a few days, I returned to Madurai and through a friend got a manager's job in

a motor company. Later, I was also appointed as an agent for the sale of buses

in Ramnad and Madurai by another company, with a commission of 5 percent on all

sales effected by me. From this and in other ways I got rupees 10,000; and I

spent them on the marriages of two of my daughters and for clearing off debts.

 

I never used to mention my family troubles to Bhagavan, nor ask Him for

anything. He was himself looking after me and my family, so why should I make

any requests for this or that in particular? I left everything to him. I used to

tell Bhagavan frequently, "I have entrusted my body, possessions, soul, all to

Bhagavan. The entire burden of my family is hereafter yours. I am hereafter only

your servant, doing only your behests. I am a puppet moved by your strings."

Bhagavan used to laugh and say "Oh, Oh." It never occurred to me to ask him for

any wealth. ""

 

(The Maharshi, No. 1 1997)