S.S. Cohen - from Residual Reminiscenses of RAMANA

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Before the second World War, a European disciple of Bhagavan brought with him a friend from Germany whose knowledge of Bhagavan's teaching may be definitely depicted as nil. He and I were walking together one afternoon talking about the political conditions then prevailing in Germany. As usual, the urchins living in the mantapams in Chengam Road, seeing a white face and blue eyes, stretched their hands demanding money. My companion made signs to them to go away, but they persisted, the more so as they saw him getting angry. The more they persisted the angrier he became. I told him to take no notice of them. All of a sudden, he broke from me and pursued them, sometimes pelting them with stones, which they reciprocated in kind, till I ran after him and stopped him. I told him had he ignored them they would have gone as they do whenever I pass them, because they know I never give them anything. Examining his body I found it luckily safe from the stones

cast at it.

 

We reached the hall when I felt he was going to tell Bhagvan blaming the ashram for permitting wandering tribes to live so close to it, which I did not want him to do. So, as soon as he started to speak I forestalled him by saying that the boys on the road were taking him for a rich European and had been giving him trouble by abusing him. Bhagvan sat quiet for a second and said: "Abusing whom? They saw a white body and thought it to be very rich and so would give them money. Had he believed that they were abusing the body, not him, he would have added to their abuses and curses on his owm body and thus they would have left him in peace. You see how a senseless matter could have turned very serious out of sheer avidya. All this comes from the body; it is man's greatest enemy, which one should treat as it deserves. In this case, ignoring the beggars would have been the most salutary."

 

~ Residual Reminiscenses of RAMANA

By S.S. Cohen

 

 

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