Ramana Maharshi does not like anyone to wait for him for their breakfast

In August 1943, I shifted my residence from the town to a house in Raju Chettiar’s compound in Ramana Nagar.After coming to Tiruvannamalai, I got into the habit of taking coffee in the mornings. At the new house, milk was being supplied very late; sometimes as late as even 8 or 9 a.m.

As I had no work to do till then, I was going to the Ashram in the early morning hours. A lady devotee who is rather egoistic, was coming there earlier still. There used to be two or three ladies also with her.

While I was sitting somewhere near the back door of the dining hall, they were sitting right in front of the main door which was facing the bathroom of Bhagavan. According to the existing practice, the bell for the breakfast used to be rung as Bhagavan came out of the bathroom and he went direct into the dining hall.

Bhagavan expressed several times his embarrassment about his going in for breakfast while some devotees were waiting just opposite to him without having had their breakfast: “Look at that. While all those are standing there with empty stomachs, not having even their morning coffee I feel awkward in going in and eating sumptuously.”

No serious notice was taken of his remarks. One day, after having his breakfast he was going out to the hill when he happened to notice me standing at the back door. Grieved at it he remarked, “See. Nagamma also is standing there.

She does not eat anything in the nights. She looks tired. She is not able to have her morning coffee because the milkman comes late. How could I eat heartily leaving all these people hungry? What to do?” It seems he had remarked thus twice or thrice.

A few days later Ramakrishnaswami, Bhagavan’s attendant, told me about this. “Ayyo! If only I had known that this would cause some pain and embarrassment to Bhagavan,
I would never have come that side,” I said, and stopped going to that side from that day onwards. I went to the Ashram only after Bhagavan returned from his morning walk on the hill.

Ramakrishnaswami appears to have informed Bhagavan about this, and so Bhagavan is reported to have said, “Oho! I see.You have told Nagamma, all right. But tell the other ladies and see what happens.” “Why not? I shall tell them and see that they heed my words,” he said confidently.

Accordingly he spoke to them the next day. Are they the people to care for him? Instead, they remonstrated with him saying, “Mind your business. What do you lose if we stand here? We have not come here for your coffee. This is all your fabrication.

Bhagavan will not say anything like that.” When Bhagavan came to know about this, he had a hearty laugh. He said, “So you have had it. You said that they would heed your words.

Are these people like Nagamma to take it in the right spirit? If you say anything further, they will state that Bhagavan himself had permitted them to stand there.

Supposing you say Bhagavan never permitted this, they will say he gave the permission not verbally but in silence. If that too is disbelieved,they will say Bhagavan told them so in a dream. What can you do then? That is how they behave,” said Bhagavan.

Source: Letters from Sri Ramanasramam VOLUMES I, II & Letters from and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam By SURI NAGAMMA Translated by D. S. SASTRI

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Ramana Maharshi Says If You Eat Just What Is Necessary, Ailments Will Be Avoided

22nd October, 1947

Bhagavan’s body has become much reduced of late and some of the devotees have been saying that it is due to his not taking enough of nourishing food. Having heard this a Bengali lady brought some pieces of guava sprinkled with salt and chilly powder, and said beseechingly, “Bhagavan, you are getting very thin; it is good to eat fruit like this. Please accept my humble offering.”

Bhagavan said with a smile, “Who is it that is thinner? You or I?”

She said it was Bhagavan.

Bhagavan: “That is nice. Who exactly has grown thin will be known if the weight is taken. If you like, you may eat those fruits every day yourself. Why this for me? It is all right; you have brought them to day, but please do not bring them again.”

So saying, Bhagavan took a few pieces and said to his attendants, “See how lean she is! Please give her several of these pieces and distribute the rest to the others.”

One of those who could venture to talk to Bhagavan more freely said, “Bhagavan, you have recently very much reduced the amount of food you take daily. It’s not good.”

“Oho!” said Bhagavan. “Who told you that? I am taking whatever I require. What good would there be in my taking more food and getting fat? By getting fat, do you know how many ailments one suffers? The more you eat, the greater will grow the strength of the ailment. If you eat just what is necessary, ailments will be avoided.”

“Why have you given up taking even pepper-water and buttermilk?” said another devotee.

“You enquire why?” said Bhagavan. “If you observe what is being done when the meals are served, you yourself will understand. Buttermilk is brought into the dining hall in big buckets with large ladles. When taking out the buttermilk for serving me, the ladle is full, but when the same is served to the very next person, the ladle is only half full. When I saw that, I got disgusted and felt that I myself should not take any more than half a ladleful.”

“Why not at least take fruit juice?” said the devotee.

“So this has started again!” said Bhagavan. “Everyone says the same thing. How will all that be possible for me?”

“What do you mean, Bhagavan? We get quite a lot of fruit. Why say that it is impossible? You yourself have stated that what is offered voluntarily can be accepted.”

“So that is it!” said Bhagavan. “If I did say that such offerings could be accepted, did that mean that the people around could be ignored?”

“True,” said the devotee, “but quite a lot of fruit is received; it can be distributed to the others too.”

“All is very well,” said Bhagavan, “but where have we the wherewithal to give them all? The fruit is shown here to the Swami as an offering, a naivedya, and then taken away. It is kept locked in the store room. The keys are in the charge of the store-keeper. Who will go and ask him? In the same way, the various articles here are in the custody of someone or other; I have none. This is the result of being a spiritual
preceptor!” said Bhagavan smiling.

It seems that some fifteen days back, someone brought some green pepper. Bhagavan had that pepper, some myrobalams, acetic acid, salt and other ingredients mixed,ground and made into little pills. Today Sivanandan came in to enquire whether he could get the pills for Bhagavan, as they are supposed to be good against phlegm and Bhagavan had been using them now and then during the cold weather.

As Sivanandan had not enquired about them all these fifteen days and is doing it only now, Bhagavan said with a laugh,“I see, you have now remembered about them. Yes, yes, you have been waiting to see whether I would ask for them, and thereby test me. Were I to ask, you would say, ‘What is this? Swami has begun to ask about everything and is worrying us’. What am I to do? They feel that if they but salute me once, I should thereafter do everything they want. People say that spiritual preceptorship (swamitvam), is a matter for happiness. But see, this is what it is to be a spiritual preceptor.Would it not be good if a book is written on spiritual preceptorship?”

“Bhagavan is saying something unusual,” said a devotee.

Bhagavan replying with a smile, said, “What is there unusual about it? It is all true. ‘Swami is seated on a sofa with a soft mattress spread on it. What is there for him to worry about?’ That is what people think. But do they know about our troubles? That is why I say that it would be good for a big book to be written on spiritual preceptorship.

If all the things that have happened here during the last years had been written in the form of a book, it would be as big as the Mahabharatham! Anyone who cares to write it, may do so even now!” he said.

“Who would write all that?” said a devotee.

“Why not?” said Bhagavan. “If a book recording these events is written, all people will then know that spiritual preceptorship consists in saying, ‘Yes, yes,’ and ‘All right, all right’. What is the difficulty in writing about it?”

So saying, Bhagavan looked at me and with a laugh said, “Why? If you like, you can write it!”

Source: Letters from Sri Ramanasramam VOLUMES I, II & Letters from and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam By SURI NAGAMMA Translated by D. S. SASTRI

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Ramana Maharshi's Simplicity In Eating Habits

6th March, 1949

One afternoon, the attendants brought in sweetmeats, given in large quantities to the Ashram by devotees, and sought permission of Bhagavan to distribute them amongst the people in the hall as there were lots of them and it would be difficult to dispose of them otherwise.

Just then an old woman arrived,feeling her way with the aid of a walking stick, and brought with her two or three dosais (pancakes) enclosed in a banyanleaf bowl. As soon as she entered the hall, she went straight to Bhagavan and of her own accord said, “Swami,take these dosais. I am sorry, I had nothing better to bring.”

So saying, she tried to hand them over to Bhagavan direct.People nearby tried to prevent her from doing so by saying,“Please put them somewhere else.” She got angry and said,“You had better keep quiet. Who are you to tell me? You have all come here yesterday or the day before. What do you know? Was it not I that got this platform built for Swami and made him sit here? You say I should not go near him.

Enough, enough.” All were taken aback by her authoritative attitude. Bhagavan stretched out his hand and accepted her offerings with the greatest kindness, saying, “Grandma, they are little children, who do not know what is what. Please do not take it otherwise. With what flour did you prepare these dosais? Are none of your brother’s sons looking after you properly? How are you able to maintain yourself? Did you come walking, or in a cart?”

Thus enquiring about her welfare, Bhagavan began eating the dosais. They were not
properly roasted but he ate them with great relish as if they were equal to nectar.

The old woman sat there overwhelmed with joy and unimaginable happiness. Bhagavan afterwards asked for some sweetmeats, took a little of each variety, said that was
enough for him and instructed his attendants to distribute the rest amongst themselves and the people there, giving the rest of his share to the old woman.

She got up, prostrated before Bhagavan, took her share of the sweetmeats as prasadam and left saying, “What does it matter how others look after me, Swami? By your grace I am selling dosais and making a living out of the business. It is enough if I could pass the rest of my life thus.”

After she left, the attendants asked, “Instead of eating those dosais which are not properly roasted, why not give them to us and eat the sweets?” Bhagavan said, “Oh! Those sweets, you think, will be much more tasty than these dosais? If you want, you eat all the sweets. These dosais are enough for me.” The attendants could say no more.

Looking at me, Bhagavan said, “Poor old woman, what can she do? She brought what she had. When I was on the hill, she and her husband used to come to me. She used to
bring me something to eat now and then. After her husband passed away, she lived with her brother. Even he passed away.

As her brother’s sons did not look after her properly and turned her out, she has been staying somewhere else and has been living by selling dosais it seems. It is she that had a platform constructed near Mother’s Samadhi where I used to sit and had it covered by palm leaves.

Till then, I used to sit under a tree. ‘Aye! Swami is sitting on the floor and is
exposed to the sun!’ So saying, she got the platform built. It is her brother’s son that has repaired Draupadamma’s temple.

Having grown old, she does not come here often. See how she has come here all this distance, with great effort, helped by the walking stick!” He ate all the dosais without leaving even a crumb.

Sources:

1) Letters from Sri Ramanasramam VOLUMES I, II & Letters from and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam By SURI NAGAMMA Translated by D. S. SASTRI
2) Arunachala's Ramana Volume VIII Book

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Ramana Maharshi About Greatness Of Humility

1) One’s greatness increases to the extent one becomes humble. The reason why God is Supreme to such an extent that the whole universe bows to Him,is His sublime state of humility in which the deluded ego never rises unknowingly.

2) For a wise aspirant who seeks to gain true greatness,it is best to pay his homage [namaskarams] to others until complete egolessness is achieved. On the other
hand, it is indeed dangerous for him to accept homage from others.

3) A devotee asked Sri Bhagavan, “What is your feeling when hundreds of people come and do pranams to you?” Without hesitation,

Sri Bhagavan replied: “First I do my namaskarams to each one of them as soon as they enter this room, and then only they do so. Subsiding one’s ego is the right and real form of doing namaskarams. Do I not have more chances each day to do such namaskarams than anyone who comes here?”

4) The hollow and flimsy straw floats high on the surface of the sea, while the heavy pearl lies low at the bottom of the sea. Likewise, though the worthless one is positioned above, he is really low, and though the great one is positioned below, he is never low.

Sadhu Om: The last two lines of this verse are verse 973 of Tirukkural, the 3rd verse in the chapter entitled ‘Greatness’.

One day, some devotees contrived to send away from the presence of Sri Bhagavan a person who adamantly wanted a seat no less high than that of Sri Bhagavan.

Guessing what had happened,Sri Bhagavan at once remarked, pointing his finger above
his head, “Oh, you are very happy in driving him away; but what will you do with this one?” Just above the head of Sri Bhagavan,there was a monkey sitting on the branch of a tree stretching its tail towards him! The devotees felt repentant for their mistake.Is not this incident a direct and practical explanation of this verse?

Source: GURU VACHAKA KOVAI The Light of Supreme Truth or THE COLLECTION OF GURU’S SAYINGS translated from original Tamil By Sadhu Om and Michael James

Guru Vachaka Kovai is the biggest collection of Bhagavan’s spoken teachings that was thoroughly checked and revised by him during his lifetime. As such it has a unique place in the Ramana literature.

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