Ramana Maharshi says It is not true that birth as a man is necessarily the highest

[Guest guest]

Question: It is said that the old lady Keerai Patti was born as Lakshmi. How can one, who had the unique good fortune of serving Bhagavan well and lovingly, have to be born again at all, and even if she had to be born, how could she be born as a cow? Is it not said in all our books that birth as a human being is the best birth one can have?

Bhagavan: I never said Keerai Patti had been born as a cow.I said, “I have already told Rani so. But she says, ‘It has been said and also written down in so many books and articles and Bhagavan has not denied it. So we can take it as the truth’.”

I added, “But she puts the question on the assumption that the cow is the old woman reborn, whether Bhagavan has said so or not, and she desires an answer.” Thereupon Bhagavan said,“It is not true that birth as a man is necessarily the highest, and that one must attain realisation only from being a man.Even an animal can attain Self-realisation.”

In the conversation that followed on this, Bhagavan said,“Even as a calf only some days old, Lakshmi behaved in an extraordinary way. She would daily come to me and place her head at my feet. On the day the foundation was laid for the goshala (cow-shed), she was so jubilant and came and took me for the function. Again on the day of grahapravesam she came straight to me at the time appointed and took me. In so many ways and on so many occasions, she behaved in such a sensible and extremely intelligent way that one cannot but regard it as an extraordinary cow. What are we to say about it?”

Source: DAY BY DAY WITH BHAGAVAN From the Diary of A. DEVARAJA MUDALIAR

-- Love And Love Alone

Om Namo Bhagavate Sri RamanayaPrasanth Jalasutram