How Sundarammal Camt to the Ashram...

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How Sundarammal Came to the AshramDuring April, 1953, Sundarammal arrived [at

Arunachala] to spend forty-eight days in retreat in a hut close to that of

Lakshmi Devi, for whom she had a great admiration. We were thus living very

close to each other, but apart from the customary greetings, neither she nor I

made any attempt to get into conversation.One day, towards the end of her

retreat, she invited me and some other sadhus to share a meal at her cell. It

was the Telugu New Year's Day. It was then, before the meal began, that she

told me her story.She belonged to a wealthy Telugu family of Madras. She

married young but very soon lost her husband. As a widow, she continued to live

at home, surrounded by the love of her parents and brothers. She rarely went

out, and when she did, it was always with her father. One day he took her to

the neighboring temple to hear a talk given by a sadhu. This sadhu was a

devotee of the Maharshi. He told his audience about the sage's 'conversion',

his disappearance from the world [leaving Madurai], his resort to the mountain

of Arunachala, and the rest. Sundarammal was deeply moved. She begged her

father to allow her to accompany some pilgrims to Arunachala. He refused, but

promised that he would soon take her there himself.But the promise was not

fulfilled. Sundarammal passed the time thinking of Ramana and praying to him.

She soon lost her appetite and was unable to sleep. But her father always had

some specially urgent work which prevented him from taking her to

Tiruvannamalai.One afternoon, about four o'clock, she seemed to see Ramana

coming down the mountain and approaching her. "Sundarammal, have no fear!" he

said to her. "It is I. Enough of this weeping and not eating or sleeping. Come,

I am expecting you." Her heart was filled with joy. Once more she appealed to

her father, and once more he put off the pilgrimage to another day.Some weeks

later, she was alone one night in her room, weeping and calling on the

Maharshi. Then, quite worn out, she fell asleep. Suddenly she felt a blow on

her side and awoke with a start. It was about three o' clock in the morning.

There was the Maharshi standing by the head of her cot. "Come," was all he

said.She followed him downstairs, crossed the hall and came out on the

verandah. Hardly had she reached it when to her alarm she found herself alone.

The Maharshi had disappeared. She sat down uneasily.Soon a rickshaw appeared

and the rickshaw puller said: "Is this Number 12, and are you Sundarammal? An

old sadhu told me to come here and take you to the bus. Get in." Sundarammal

thought quite simply, "It is Bhagavan, the Maharshi," and got into the

rickshaw.At the bus stand she and the rickshaw puller were both surprised not

to find the old sadhu. However, she asked for the Tiruvannamalai bus and got

in.Somewhere on the way her bus passed another one from which someone alighted

and then entered the Tiruvannamalai bus. "Are you Sundarammal?" he asked. "Yes,

I am," she replied. "Good. Bhagavan has sent me to look for you."In the evening

she reached Tiruvannamalai and retired for the night in one of the large halls

kept for pilgrims. She prepared a cake to offer to Bhagavan and fell asleep

full of joy.The next morning she went to the Ashram and fell at the feet of

Bhagavan. "Here you are at last," he said to her.Some days later her brothers

arrived, unable to understand how this child, who by herself had never set foot

outside her home, could have managed to reach Tiruvannamalai. But Sundarammal

was so deeply absorbed that she never even saw her brothers, either in the hall

or at midday in the dining hall. Only in the evening were they able to approach

her. They told her how upset everyone was at home and begged her to return. If

she wanted, they would build her a hermitage in the garden. But nothing moved

her and the brothers even spoke of taking her home by force. "If you do, I will

throw myself into a well," she said. Her brothers had to yield, but they soon

returned with their father. They found her in a cottage near the Ashram and

arranged for her continued stay there as well as they could.During the fifteen

years that remained of the Maharshi's life, she never left Tiruvannamalai even

for a day.This was the story that Sundarammal told me that morning—Sundarammal

who could never speak of God without her voice breaking with emotion and her

eyes filling with tears. Swami Abhishiktananda