In plain words
Subbaraju and Venkatramaraju were the sons of his younger brother. He shared out his property among all four. ‘I need no property. Just give me ‘Sathyam’; that is enough. If ‘Sathyam’ alone is with me, he himself will see to everything,’ he said. Then they gave me to him as his property. Even now this body is just this tall. Then I was still very short. Every morning I would run to the school at Bukkapatnam, come back at midday, eat, and go again. In this way time went on passing. He used to call me ‘Sathya’. He never called me ‘Sathyanarayana’. All the others used to call me ‘Raju’. No one used to call me by my name. Sometimes, when I came home in the evening, Kondamaraju: ‘My boy, Sathya! Someone in that house has a fever, it seems. If you make a little rasam with your own hand and give it, they will get well,’ he would say. At their request I would make the rasam and give it. The pepper rasam I made worked as a great medicine for fever.
One night I pretended to be asleep. He too pretended to be asleep. After a while, from my breath, ‘Om…. Om…’ could be heard. He was astonished. He put his ear close to my breath and listened. After he got up at daybreak: ‘Sathya! We must make a festival of today, my boy,’ he said. When I asked, ‘Why, grandfather?’, he said, ‘The Omkāra could be heard from your breath.’ ‘Is that anything new today? It has always been there,’ I said. In this way Kondamaraju had many experiences. That whole family earned a great name and standing. They never stooped to injustice, wrongdoing or misconduct.
One day, before he went, Kondamaraju put some money in my hand: ‘Swami! I have been running a small trade in a shop. I may have forgotten to give someone a penny or two. I must not go in debt to anyone else. So change this money into small coins and have it scattered over my dead body when they carry it out. Whatever debt remains will then be cleared,’ he said.