a reminder on the way 1

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THE MOUNTAIN PATH

 

Vol I JANUARY 1964 No. 1

 

 

 

 

LETTERS TO A BROTHER - I

 

By NAGAMMA

10th Sept. 1947

 

REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE

 

 

Nagamma is an Andhra lady who was living here in the lifetime of Bhagavan. Her brother also is a great devotee but could pay only occasional visits here, as he was the Manager of a Bank in Madras. Therefore Nagamma formed the habit of writing him reports of the doings and sayings of Bhagavan. Some of these letters have been put together as a book and published by the Ashram, but what follows has not yet been published in English.

 

At a quarter to ten this morning, just as Bhagavan was getting up to go for his usual short mid-morning walk, an Andhra young man approached the couch and said:

“ Swami, I have come here because I want to perform tapas

(austerities) and don’t know what would be a good place for it.

I will go for the purpose wherever you tell me.”

 

Bhagavan did not answer. He was stooping down rubbing his legs and knees, as he often does before beginning to walk, on account of the rheumatism in them, and was smiling quietly to himself.

We, of course, were waiting eagerly for what he would say. A moment later he took the staff that he uses to steady himself in walking and, looking at the young man, said:

 

“How can I tell you where to stay?

It is best to stay where you are.”

And with a smile he went out.

 

The young man was bewildered.

 

“What is the meaning of this?” he exclaimed. “Being an elderly person I thought he would tell me some holy place where I could stay, but instead of that he tells me to stay where I am. I am now near this couch. Does that mean that I should stay here? Was it to receive such a reply that I approached him? Is this a matter for joking?”

 

One of the devotees took him out of the hall and explained:

“Even when Bhagavan says something in a light vein there is always some deep meaning in it.

Where the feeling ‘I’ arises is one’s Self.

Tapas means knowing where the Self is and abiding there.

For that one has to know who one is ; and what then does it matter where one stays ? That is what he meant.”

He thus pacified the young man and sent him away.

 

Similarly, someone asked yesterday Swami, how can we find the Atma ? “

 

“You are in the Atma, so how can there be any difficulty in finding it Bhagavan replied.

 

“You say that I am in the Atma, but where exactly is that Atma,” the questioner persisted.

 

“If you abide in the heart and search patiently you will find it.”

 

The questioner still seemed unsatisfied and made the rather curious objection

that there was no room in his heart for him to stay in it.

 

Bhagavan turned to one of the devotees sitting there and said, smiling

 

“ Look how he worries about where Atma is!

What can I tell him?What is Atma?It is all-pervading.

When I tell him that it is called ‘Heart’ he says there is

no room in it for him to stay.

What can I do ?

To say that there is no room in the heart after filling it full of vasanas (inherent tendencies and cravings) is like grumbling that there is no room

to sit down in a house as big as Ceylon.

If all the junk is thrown out won’t there be room?

Vasanas are swept away and thrown out there.

The body itself is junk.

These people are like someone who fills all the rooms

of his house chock full of junk which is not necessary for his body

and then complains that there is no room for his body in it.

In the same way they fill the mind with all sorts of vasanas and then say there is no room for the Self in it.

If all vasanas are swept away and thrown out there

there will be plenty of room and it will all be Atma.

Then there will be no such thing as a separate ‘I’,

so what need then for room, or who would occupy the room?

Instead of seeking the Self they say ‘no room! no room!’,

just like shutting your eyes and saying there is no sun.

What can be done?”

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