An Excerpt from 'Ramana Smrti'

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Here is a story from Bhagavan's childhood days.

The book can be downloaded from the downloads page of

www.ramana-maharshi.org.

 

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The following account was given by M.S. Venkataraman

who was a clerk in the Health Department of the District Board

in Madurai.

M.S. Venkataraman was then just about ten years old, too

young to participate fully in the outdoor adventures of the

company. Nevertheless he had his share in them. The members

of his family were co-tenants of the house with Subbier's

family. Every night, when the whole house was silent in sleep,

Nagasami and Ramana whose beds were in a remote corner

of the house, would appropriately adjust their pillows and

cover them up with their bedsheets so that it would create the

impression of their presence in their beds. It was the duty of

little Venkataraman to bolt the door of the house when the

brothers went out at about 11 p.m., and to admit them on their

return at about 4 a.m.

..........

 

The following account was obtained from Suppiah Thevar

who was himself an active participant in those activities.

The venue of the activities, fixed well in advance, would be

either the sandy river bed of the Vaigai or the Pillaiyarpaliam

Kanmoi (rain fed tank) close to Aruppukottai road, the outskirts

of Madurai city. Every member of the group would, while

passing the house of Ramana, leave a pebble at the door step.

Nagasami and Ramana, as leaders of the group, would be the

last to sally forth from the house after a check of the pebbles

showed that all their friends had gone to the place of the meeting.

There was rarely a defaulter. Ramana and his playmates had a

jolly time playing games on the sandy bed of the Vaigai river

or engaging in swimming contests in the Pillaiyarpaliam tank.

They would then return sufficiently early to their beds without

exciting the least suspicion of their absence from home.

 

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Source: 'Ramana Smrti' page 79 - Sri Ramana's boyhood in Madurai

by N.R. Krishnamurthi Aiyer

 

Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya!