Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi and Creatures

Luxmi the cow first came to Sri Ramana December, 1926. Lakshmi was 6 months old.One day the cow Lakshmi came to the Hall. She went straight to Bhagavan, put her head on Bhagavan’s shoulder and wept. Bhagavan sat very quietly and gently stroked her head. “Why are you so sad?” he would whisper in her ears. “Who has hurt you? Cheer up, my dear, stop crying. I am here to befriend you.” Lakshmi stopped crying, gave Bhagavan a few licks and went away, comforted. The Bhagavan I Knew by Voruganti Krishnayya As told to G. Vankatachalam. Translated from Telugu by Surya Prasad Ramana Smrti Souvenir Jackie the dog ~~~ When Bhagavan was living on the hill, a big monkey came one day when he was having his food, and sat near him. Bhagavan was about to put a morsel of food into his mouth, but when he saw the monkey he gave it the morsel. The monkey took it, put it on the plate and gave Bhagavan a square slap on the cheek. “What do you mean, you fellow? Why are you angry? I gave you the first morsel!” exclaimed Bhagavan. Then he understood his mistake. It was a king monkey and he had to be treated in the right royal manner. Bhagavan called for a separate leaf plate and a full meal was served to the king, who ate it all with dignity and proudly went away. Tales of Bhagavan Ramana Smrti Souvenir Translated from Telugu by Surya Prasad Sri Ramana Maharshi with cheetah cubs 18th January, 1946 About a year ago, some person who was rearing two baby cheetahs brought them into Bhagavan's presence. When they were fondled and given milk, not only did they move freely amongst the people in the hall, but they got on to the sofa with Bhagavan's welcome and slept soundly thereon. One of the Ashram devotees took a photo of that unusual group. From about 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Bhagavan confined himself to one end of the sofa keeping the cubs on the sofa in the same position all the time. They woke up afterwards and were there till about 4 p.m., moving about freely in the hall. Once again, before Bhagavan went up the hill at the usual time, photos were taken with the cheetah cubs on the sofa and also on the table in front of the sofa. They were published in the Sunday Times later. The wonder of it was that even the cheetah cubs lay down happily on the sofa, overpowered by sleep induced by the touch of Bhagavan's hands. While they were there, the squirrels came and ate nuts and the sparrows came and ate broken rice, as usual. In olden days, when animals and birds of all sorts moved about together without enmity in any place, people used to think that it was perhaps a Rishi Ashram. ~ Suri Nagamma, Letters from Sri Ramanasramam ~~~ Once a monkey tried to bring her new born baby through a window near Ramana’s couch. The attendants were preventing her. Ramana chided them as follows, “Don’t all of you bring your newborn babies to me? She also wants to do so. Why should you prevent her?” ~ A R Natarajan, Timeless in Time When Bhagavan was staying in the Old Hall, he was literally surrounded by squirrels. They would run all over his couch, on his body, and even under his pillows. Ramana had to be extremely careful before he sat or leaned lest some squirrels be crushed by the weight of his body. ~ A R Natarajan, Timeless in Time On June 17, 1948, Lakshmi fell ill. The following morning June 18 it looked as if her end was near. At about 10 o’clock in the morning Ramana went to her. He found her breathing hard and she was lying prostrate. Taking her head into his arms, stroking her neck, Ramana fixed his gaze in her eyes. Her breathing became steady immediately. Tears began to trickle from her eyes. Ramana’s eyes too overflowed as he looked at her with great love. How could those nearby hold by their emotions? He asked tenderly, “Amma (mother), do you want me to be near you? I must go now as people are waiting for me in the hall. But wherever I may be, I am always with you.” Then he placed his hand on her head as though giving diksha. He put his hand over her heart also and then caressed her, placing his cheek against her face. When he convinced himself that her heart was pure, free from all vasanas entailing rebirth and centred solely on him, he took leave of her and returned to the hall. Her eyes were calm and peaceful. She was conscious up to the end and left the body at 11:30 a.m. quite peacefully. On her tomb was engraved an epitaph by Ramana which makes it quite clear that she attained liberation. ~ D.: Does one who has realized the Self lose the sense of ‘I’? R.: Absolutely. D.: Then there is not difference between yourself and myself, that man over there, my servant. Are all the same? R.: All are the same, including those monkeys. D.: But the monkeys are not people. Are they not different? R.: They are exactly the same as people. All are the same in One Consciousness. ~ A R Natarajan, Timeless in Time ~~~ At Skandasramam a peacock would follow Bhagavan everywhere. One day a huge black cobra appeared in the Ashram and the peacock attacked it fiercely. The cobra spread its hood and the two natural enemies were poised for a fight to the death, when Bhagavan came quite near the cobra and said: "Why did you come here? That peacock will kill you. Better go away at once." The cobra immediately lowered its hood and slithered away. ~ from At The Feet of Bhagavan ~~~At about 4 p.m. Sri Bhagavan, who was writing something intently, turned his eyes slowly towards the window to the north; he closed the fountain pen with the cap and put it in its case; he closed the notebook and put it aside; he removed his spectacles, folded them in the case and left them aside. He leaned back a little, looked up overhead, turned his face this way and that and looked here and there. He passed his hand over his face and looked contemplative. Then he turned to someone in the hall and said softly: "The pair of sparrows just came here and complained to me that their nest had been removed. I looked up and found their nest missing." Then he called for the attendant, Madhava Swami, and asked: "Madhava, did anyone remove the sparrows' nest?" The attendant, who walked in leisurely, answered with an air of unconcern: "I removed the nests as often as they were built. I removed the last one this very afternoon." M: That's it. That is why the sparrows complained. The poor little ones! How they take the pieces of straw and shreds in their tiny beaks and struggle to build their nests! Attendant: But why should they build here, over our heads? M: Well-well. Let us see who succeeds in the end. (After a short time Sri Bhagavan went out.) ~~~ Can a cracked egg be hatched? It was the early hours of the morning in the Hall of Sri Bhagavan. He had had His bath, and now went to the farther end of the Hall to take His towel that hung from a horizontally suspended bamboo, at one end of which a sparrow had built her nest and laid therein three or four eggs. In the process of taking His towel Sri Bhagavan's hand came against the nest, which shook violently, so that one of the eggs dropped down. In this way the egg was cracked; Sri Bhagavan was taken aback, aghast. He cried out to Madhavan, the personal attendant. "Look, look what I have done today!" So saying, He took the cracked egg in His hand looked at it with His tender eyes, and exclaimed: "Oh, the poor mother will be so sorrow-stricken, perhaps angry with me also, at my causing the destruction of her expected little one! Can the cracked eggshell be pieced together again? Let us try!" So saying, He took a piece of cloth, wetted it, wrapped it around the broken egg, and put it back in the mother's nest. Every three hours He would take out the cracked egg, remove the cloth, place the egg on His roseate palm, and gaze at it with His tender eyes for minutes together. What was He really doing at this time? How can we say? Was He sending with those wonderful looks of gentle Grace life-giving beams into the cracked egg, putting ever newer warmth and life into it? That is a mystery none can solve. Yet He kept on saying: "Let the crack be healed! Cannot this be hatched even now? Let the little one come from this broken egg!" This anxious concern and tenderness of Sri Maharshi continued from day to day for about a week. So the fortunate egg lay in the nest with its wet bandage cloth, only to be fondled by Sri Maharshi with divine touch and benign look. On the seventh day, He takes out the egg, and with the astonishment of a schoolboy announces: "Look what a wonder! The crack has closed, and so the mother will be happy and will hatch her egg after all! My God has freed me from the sin of causing the loss of a life. Let us wait patiently for the blessed young one to come out!" A few more days pass, and at length one fine morning Bhagavan finds the egg has been hatched1 and the little bird has come out. With gleeful smiling face radiant with the usual light, He takes the child in His hand, caresses it with lips, stroking it with His soft hand, and passes it on for all the bystanders to admire. He receives it back at last into His own hands, and is so happy that one little germ of life has been able to evolve in spite of the unhappy accident to it in the embryo. from At The Feet of Bhagavan ~~~ Mudaliar Swami, son of the lady who brings bhiksha every day to Sri Bhagavan, related the following interesting incident: During the time Sri Bhagavan was staying in Virupaksha Cave, Sri Bhagavan and Mudaliar Swami were walking together behind the Skandasramam site. There was a huge rock about 15 feet high; it was a cleft, a girl (a shepherdess) was standing there crying. Sri Bhagavan asked the reason of her sorrow. She said, "A sheep of mine has slipped into this cleft; so I am crying." Sri Bhagavan descended into the cleft, took the sheep on his shoulders, climbed up to the surface and delivered the sheep to her. Mudaliar Swami says that it was a very remarkable feat for any human being. from Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi ~~~ Once the Maharshi set out on giripradakshina with his disciples by a short-route across the hill. He asked Jacki to go down the hill to the town. Accordingly, Jack left and was sighted by the Maharshi on its way down. Midway on their walk the Maharshi changed course and walked down the hill. As they were descending, Jack was returning from the town. The Maharshi then directed Jack to go back to the ashram. Though reluctant to leave Bhagavan's company, as an obedient fellow, Jack went back to the ashram. Jack was soft and austere in his ways. His daily routine was like this: early in the morning he would visit a devadasi's (temple dancer's) house for breakfast and then go to a priest's house to accompany him to the shrine at Guha Namassivaya. After that he would go to Virupaksha cave for Bhagavan's darshan and later to a resting place nearby. Around 9.30 in the morning he would visit the shrine at Guha Namassivaya for prasadam and get back to his place of rest. Again by evening he would visit the devadasi's house for food. After supper he would go to a math to keep company with the priest. To the extent possible he would spend his time in the vicinity of Arunachaleswara, much like a yogi. ~ from Ramana Leela

Sri Ramanarpanamastu