Bhagavan never responded in a negative way to criticism.

[Guest guest]

Question: So would you say that Bhagavan was very tolerant of people who treated him badly?

 

Annamalai Swami: Yes. He never responded in a negative way to criticism. Sometimes he would even laugh when people said bad things about him. He was indifferent to praise and blame. They didn’t touch him.

When Perumal Swami printed his insulting book about Bhagavan, Bhagavan simply said, ‘Keep the book in front of the ashram so that people can read it there. The good people won’t believe it, but when the bad people read it, they will stay away and leave me in peace.’

This happened in the 1930s at a time when large crowds of people were starting to come to Ramanasramam. Perumal Swami did a good job of distributing the book himself, for many of the casual visitors from town stopped coming. It was a bit of a break for us because many people would just come at meal times, hoping to get a free meal. These freeloaders were a disturbance for all of us.

 

~ ANNAMALAI SWAMI

Final Talks

edited by David Godman