Ramana Maharshi Recollects His The First Bath And The First Shave After Coming To Tiruvannamalai

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12th April, 1948“After I came to this place, Tiruvannamalai, I had no bath for four months. One day, when I was in the compound of the Arunachala Temple, the wife of a devotee by name Ponnuswami, came unexpectedly, pulled me along, made me sit, cleaned my head with soap-nut powder and gave me a bath. 

She had been coming to the temple every now and then; so I had thought that she had come as usual, but that day, she had come there prepared! That was my first bath.”“Were you bathing regularly everyday afterwards?” I asked.

“No, there was no question of a bath; who was to make me bathe? Who was the one to bathe? After that, a year or so passed in the same way. I had been in Gurumurtham for some time, you see, and as not many people came there

every day, no one bothered me.Even so, a lady, by name Minakshi, who used now and then to bring food to give me,one day brought a large pot and began to boil water. I thought it was for some use for herself, but, taking from a basket some oil, soap-nut, etc., she said, ‘Swami, please come’.

I did not move. But would she keep quiet! She pulled me by the arm, made me sit, smeared the oil all over my body and bathed me. The hair on the head which had got matted for want of care, was now spread out and hung down like the mane of a lion. 

That was my second bath. After that,Palaniswami came and everything was adjusted into routine of daily baths.”“No, that is so,” said Bhagavan, “it was never written then. Shaving was also like that. The shave I had on the day I came here has been recorded; the second was after a year and a half. 

The hair had got matted and woven like a basket. Small stones and dust had settled down in it and the head used to feel heavy. I had also long nails, and a frightful appearance.

So people pressed me to have a shave, and I yielded. When my head was shaven clean, I began to wonder whether I had a head or not, it felt so light. I shook my head this way and that to assure myself that it was there. That showed the

amount of burden I had been carrying on my head.”Source: Letters from Sri Ramanasramam VOLUMES I, II & Letters from and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam By SURI NAGAMMA Translated by D. S. SASTRI

-- Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

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