in the Patala-Lingam

[Guest guest]

Ramana lived first in the Thousand Pillared Hall in the

Arunachaleswara-Temple.

 

"One day, when the young Swami was sitting on the central dais

of the mantapam plunged in meditation, he found stones whizzing

from behind and front. Luckily they did not hit his body.

But he moved to the dark recess of a large pit (known as Patala

Lingam) in the mantapam, where he hoped to be free from such

attentions.

 

The change, however, proved to be from the frying pan into the fire.

The dark pit, despite the sacred imaged in it, was never lit, or

swept or cleaned. It was damp and full of insects.

 

As the young Mouni sat there, enjoying the bliss of his soul,

scorpions, ants, mosquitoes, and other verming, the rightful

occupants of the pit, attached themselves to the intruder's body

and rejoiced in drinking his blood.

The nether side of his thigs and legs, as he sat there, were

full of sores from which blood and pus issued. ...

 

When one Ratnammal, who went into the pit to give him food,

pointed out these disadvantages and invited him to her house,

the Swami gave no response by act, word or even gesture;

and when she left a clean piece of cloth, requesting him to

use it as a bed or a seat at least, to ward off the attack of the

pests, he never cared even to touch it.

 

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Narasimha Swami: Self Realization

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