Guest guest Posted November 13, 2005 Report Share Posted November 13, 2005 ...................................... In the end of 1939 I found myself landed inAnandashram in Kanhangad, on the north Kerala coast, ofwhich Swami Ramdas was the presiding deity. I had plannedto stay there for a few weeks, but somehow I lingered formore than eight months. Anandashram is very beautifully situated. To the east stretches a small range of sloping hillocks, almost evergreenfrom the torrential rains that fall there in both the monsoonseasons. To the west a plain gently slopes for almost four milesdown to the sea, across fields sparsely strewn with villagers’huts, coconut groves, and tobacco plantations, in betweenwhich is wedged a thin strip of the township, which is verymuch smaller than Tiruvannamalai. Being far from the publicroad the Ashram enjoys a natural, quiet and sweet, idyllicsimplicity, which made it a congenial retreat at that time forme. So, I liked the place and stayed on, and did my work inmy own way. Even the peculiar atmosphere of this Ashramsuited me in my then moods. After a short while I began todistinguish the psychical difference between it and Ramanashram, I was greatly amused when I detected the wayRamdas was affecting me. It enhanced the boyish tendencieswhich had been at times causing me much inconvenience,and which I had been trying to curb – the loquacity, thehastiness in action, the quickness of temper, the extremesensitiveness to sound, the bouts of paralysing shyness, etc. Ihad spent fifteen years (since 1925) in comparative lonelinessand silence, but Anandashram drew me out to the spontaneityof my adolescence for a good part of the time I was there. For in Ramdas's presence the heart expanded with joy, reminiscent of Krishna’s leela in Brindavan. Joy permeatedeverything: the hills, the grazing cattle, the faces round one,and the very air one breathed – all were joy-inspiring, allRamdas's RAM. In the spiritual life of some devotees whatcounts most is genuine bhakti, irrespective of labels andnomenclature, and Anandashram was, no doubt, surchargedwith it, but it was a bhakti which was nurtured by joy. Joyand love oozed out of every pore of Ramdas's being andinfected his neighbourhood. ....................... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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