Part 1 - Tales Of Ramana Maharshi Recounted By Chalam

This happened about two years before Bhagavan’s Maha Nirvana. One morning Bhagavan was in the hall surrounded by devotees from many lands. It was time for lunch and
everybody was hungry. Some were already in the dining hall,waiting for Bhagavan to come.

At that time Bhagavan was suffering from severe rheumatism in his knees, which were
swollen and gave him severe pain; to get up he had to rub them first to remove the stiffness and it would take some time.At last he got up slowly from the sofa, and leaning on his walking stick, was about to go through the doorway when he
noticed a village milkman, wrapped in a cotton shawl, with a mudpot hanging on a strap from his shoulder.

Bhagavan stopped, looked at him and exclaimed, “Look, is it not Chinnappaya”? “Yes, it is me, Swami,” the villager replied with devotion and respect. Bhagavan asked him, “How are you? Are you well? You have come to see me? Very well. But what is in your pot? Have you brought some koolu (gruel)”? “Yes Swami, I have brought some koolu”, replied the milkman shyly. “Then come on, let me have it”.

Bhagavan put away his stick, cupped his two hands together and bent forward
holding his hands near his lips. The milkman started pouring the porridge from his pot in a thin stream into Bhagavan’s hands, as he sipped it with his chin between his wrists. The poor man’s face was beaming with joy and Bhagavan was drinking steadily, as if the grey porridge was nectar to him.

The dining hall was full of hungry and somewhat angry people. One of them came out to see what could be the cause of the delay in Bhagavan’s coming, and when he saw what kind of lunch Bhagavan was taking, he exclaimed, “How unfair, Bhagavan.We are all waiting for you and you are late for the sake of this peasant”!

Bhagavan grew indignant. “What,do you all think that I am here for your sakes only? Do I belong to you? Did you care for me when I was on the hill? Nobody wanted me then, only the shepherds, who would share their koolu with me.” And he went into the dining hall followed by the milkman and his pot.

Source : RAMANA SMRTI Sri Ramana Maharshi Birth Centenary Offering 1980