Another animal story

[Guest guest]

A friend of mine recently talked to the last surviving daughter of Rangan, a man

who was at school with Bhagavan in the 1890s. She is now seventy-seven, is

blind, and she lives in Madras.

Prior to her birth her parents had produced six girls and two boys, a very

problematic combination for Hindu parents who try to utilise the dowries

obtained for their sons to pay for the marriages of their daughters. Rangan had

hoped for a son, but when his eighth child turned out to be another girl, he

decided to call her 'Mangalam'. The mangalam is sung at the end of musical

concerts, and by giving her this name Rangan was hoping that this would be his

final child.

Soon after her birth Rangan went to Bhagavan and complained, 'I am getting

more and more girl children. What can I do?'

Bhagavan replied, 'Name her "Alagamma" [the name of Bhagavan's mother] and

you will have no more children.'

Rangan came home and told his wife what Bhagavan had said and they both

agreed to change the name from Mangalam to Alagammal. As Bhagavan had predicted,

this was their final child.

In 1939 the ten-year-old Alagammal went with her father to Sri Ramanasramam

to attend the Jayanti celebrations. This is her report of an incident she

witnessed in the hall:

'Cow Lakshmi came into the hall in the morning as usual. Bhagavan initially

gave her a banana leaf to eat, but she refused it. He then offered her some

banana but she refused that as well.

'Bhagavan asked, "What's wrong, Lakshmi? Why are you not eating? Are you

angry?"

'Lakshmi put her mouth near Bhagavan's ear as if she was saying something to

him.

'After listening to her for some time Bhagavan remarked, "Oh, is that so?"

'He called for Chinnaswami to come into the hall.

'When Chinnaswami arrived, Bhagavan asked him, "Pichai [bhagavan's nickname

for his younger brother] Lakshmi is complaining that she has not been given

iddlies today. Why not?"

'Chinnaswami replied, "Lots of people came today. The iddlies we prepared ran

out. We made some uppuma to feed everyone else. We offered some of this uppuma

to Lakshmi but she refused to eat it."

'"Are there no iddlies left at all?" asked Bhagavan. "Lakshmi only wants

iddlies."

'Chinnaswami answered, "We kept four for Mouna Swami who has gone to town on

business".

'"Two iddlies are enough for Mouna Swami," said Bhagavan. "Give the other two

to Lakshmi."

'The two iddlies were brought to the hall and given to Lakshmi. After that

she happily ate the bananas leaf and the banana that had been offered to her

earlier and then walked away.'

 

Taken from a conversation with Alagammal about two months ago.

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear David,

 

Thanks for sharing this information with all of us. with all of us.Reading the

mail made us feel that as if all the events are happening at present.Attached is

a photo of the Cow Lakshmi with Ramana. Hoping to hear such very good

information like this one.

 

Thanks

Aravindh

 

David Godman <godmandavid wrote:

A friend of mine recently talked to the last surviving daughter of Rangan, a man

who was at school with Bhagavan in the 1890s. She is now seventy-seven...