Guru Ramana - Memories & Notes, S.S. Cohen, #8

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When the audience shrank, the Master at times became

humorously autobiographical about his early school and homelife, or about his many experiences on the hill with sadhus,

devotees, etc. One of the stories was about a “miracle” he hadonce performed in Skandashram, when his mother one day,leaving him inside a room in deep samadhi, bolted him infrom outside and went to the town, and, on her return, toher great surprise, found him seated under a tree in the gardenoutside, and the door still bolted, as she had left it. She wasso impressed by this “miracle” that she told it to everyone shemet. The truth was, Bhagavan said, that he had unbolted thetwo door-shutters from inside and then re-bolted them, asbefore, from outside, from sheer habit.

 

Again and again the Master spoke of his early life in the

big Arunachaleshwara temple in the first year of his escape toTiruvannamalai (1896). Whilst urchins troubled him,educated adults had much respect for him, although he wasthen still in his teens. Pious men used to seek his companyalmost daily on the steps of Subramanya's shrine. Two lawyers,in particular, were assiduous in this respect. On a certainHindu festival day they prepared a grand dinner and came totake him to it, but his immovable silence indicated his refusalof their invitation. There was no alternative for them but touse force, which they did by joining hands and bodily liftinghim, till he agreed to walk with them. Bhagavan said thatthat was the only house in Tiruvannamalai where he ate once.

Another time he was also bodily carried and bundled into awaiting cart and fed, but that was not in a private house butin Ishanya Mutt - an Ashram - like institution for sannyasis ofa special caste in the northern end of the town.

 

Then there came a break in my life at Tiruvannamalai.

By the end of 1938 I felt I must go away for a while, as thenext chapter will narrate: not to part company with mysadhana, but, on the contrary, to prevent it from degeneratinginto a colourless, monotonous routine, which I feared might

wreck, or dry up the perennial inspirations which are necessaryfor continued efforts. So I planned a leisurely tour in SouthIndia. I visited temples and stayed in holy places for long orshort durations, as the spiritual moods took me. EverywhereI was well received. No temple closed its doors in my faceanywhere, as it was done to non-Hindus. Wherever I wentBhagavan's name acted like a charm, particularly as I hadadopted the Indian dress from the beginning (1936), lived inBrahmin streets, and ate Brahmin food, which was purevegetarian. I even for the time discarded the wearing offootwear, bathed in Hindu bathing-tanks, and attendedevening temple worship with the smearing of ashes on myarms and forehead. This proved of much benefit at that stageof my sadhana.

 

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