Ernakulam

(i) Friend of Bird and Beast

At Shoranur Ramdas met Sanjivarao who had come to escort him. For the first few days he was put up at his house. Now a remittance and a telegram came from Madhavrao Kulkarni of Anjangaum, requesting him to start immediately so as to be present at the religious celebration held annually in his house. But owing to the indifferent health of Ramdas, due to frequent attacks of malaria even after reaching Ernakulam, the friends here resolutely stood against his travelling to such a distant place as Sholapur. He had to submit, and the money having been returned, Madhavrao was duly informed by the friends through a joint letter that Ramdas’ then condition of health did not permit of his travelling and that he needed perfect rest for some time. Ramdas proposed to Sanjivarao to provide him with a dwelling place outside the town so that people who wanted to see him might visit him there and have talks with him. Soon a house about a mile from the town was pitched upon for his stay. A day prior to his shifting to this house, a friend, a pious brahmin, came to see Ramdas at Sanjivarao’s abode. Ramdas was sitting on a chair facing the entrance in the front room. The time was about eight in the morning. The brahmin ascended the first front step and stopped suddenly and stood stock-still like a statue, gazing at Ramdas. He possessed large eyes which looked at Ramdas with a winkless stare. A minute or two later he came inside and took a chair beside Ramdas. He was still gazing on Ramdas. For five minutes there was complete silence. Then he broke out into speech.

“Do you know,” he asked, “why I stood on the steps gazing on you so intently? I shall tell you. I beheld a strange phenomenon. The moment my eyes rested on your figure I saw a brilliant flame of light all around your body. It was a pure dazzling light. I was transfixed at the sight. The light was there for a few seconds and it vanished, and then I entered the room.”

Ramdas shifted to the house outside the town. It consisted of three small rooms and an open verandah. The house was situated in the middle of a garden of coconut palms. Ernakulam is a sandy place, being close to the Arabian sea, the shores of which are studded with beautiful coconut groves. The main produce of the land is coconut out of which oil and other foodstuffs are extracted and exported in large quantities.

In the evenings and mornings visitors used to come to his retreat to see and have talks with him. They would put him questions on religious subjects and he would, drawing upon his experiences, attempt to elucidate them. High Government officials, vakils and professors would also give him the joy of their society. The neighbourhood in which he lived was of Christians whose fowls and goats that wandered around had free access to the house. He would feed them with plantains and grains which he received as presents from the visitors. The pregnant hens would lay their eggs on his bedding at day-time, believing that they would be safe there. They clearly exhibited an anxiety to preserve and protect them from their marauding masters who would deprive them of their offspring still in the egg.

But the sons of these masters came to the house in search of eggs and would carry them off. One day a poor hen missed her egg from the bedding of Ramdas on which she had laid it. Ramdas at the time was sitting outside in the verandah. He was alone. The hen directly came to him with questioning looks and cried “Ko-Ko-Ko” – meaning: “What became of my egg that I laid on your bed?”

“Mother, what can Ramdas do?” Ramdas replied. “The sons of your masters come here and take away your eggs in your absence.”

The same story would repeat itself again and again. When Ramdas was one morning feeding and talking to some goats, two Christian padres came to see him. Observing Ramdas’ friendly intercourse with the animals they spoke of the famous Saint Francis of Assisi whose life, they said, was similar to the one which Ramdas led.

The Lord, through the friends at Ernakulam, willed that Ramdas should write this narrative in continuation of the first book “In Quest of God.” He was provided with the necessary writing materials. Ramdas commenced to put down on paper the story of his life, but gave it up after inditing a few pages. He had then, at the outset, jotted down the main points of the narrative on a scrap book, and these notes, which were preserved, are utilized now for reference.

Here Ramdas was again joined by the raja yogi who had instructed him in the practice of pranayama. Among the visitors was a prominent Malayalee vakil, Narayana Menon, who took it into his head to adopt sannyas. He also received initiation into the practice of breath-control, and the raja yogi began to deride at all other methods of concentration. Ramdas was holding up the repetition of God’s Name as the easiest and best path to reach God, while the raja yogi openly condemned this method and spoke of it disparagingly to the visitors on whom Ramdas was impressing its importance. There was a clash. The visitors were perplexed and Ramdas was at his wit’s end and submitted to the will of God, and God solved the problem in His own inscrutable manner. The raja yogi was residing in Ernakulam for a pretty long time, even before Ramdas visited the place, and he had freely and indiscriminately instructed many people in this practice, with the result that it worked a good deal of harm among them, and there was a rush of these poor unlettered folk to this house, where, they had heard, the yogi stayed. They complained of heart palpitation, cough, loss of memory, wasting disease and what not! This storm cooled down the ardour of the yogi. He stopped urging his pet method and also giving instructions relating to pranayama.

(ii) Qualities of a Sadhu

About this time another sannyasi turned up. He entered the house, and seeing some plantains in a cupboard helped himself to them, and then coming to Ramdas, said:

“I want a bath; get me some hot water ready, at once.” Now there was no arrangement in the house for heating water. Ramdas and the yogi used to have cold baths. Ramdas made him aware of the situation.

“No excuses,” he shouted, “hot water, quick. I have had no bath for several days. You see, I insist on having it here and now.”

There was an earthen water-pot. The yogi quietly mounted it on three stones which he fetched from the compound, and with dry coconut branches lit a fire and the water was heated. Ramdas and the yogi then gave him a bath. The yogi washed his dirty clothes. The whole thing was performed by both in the best of humour. After bath he commanded:

“Where is the meal? I am hungry.”

The meals for Ramdas and the yogi used to come from the city at twelve midday. The time then was ten o’clock. He was told about the time of meals. Ramdas was prepared to forego his meal for the sannyasi for that day. So he asked the friend to wait till the meal arrived.

“I cannot wait,” he said, “I am going out. I will try to get food somewhere in the town.” Saying this, he walked away. At twelve the meals arrived. Ramdas proposed to the yogi to wait for some time, as there was a chance of the sannyasi turning up. They waited for nearly half-an-hour but the sannyasi did not put in an appearance. The raja yogi suggested that they might finish the meals so that the carrier might not wait for the vessels very long, and added that the sadhu might have procured food in the city. So they took their food.

Just after the meal was over and the vessels were cleaned, the sannyasi entered the house with hasty and eager steps and directly went to the room where the dinner was served, and there he found nothing but a most tantalizing after-dinner smell of food, at which he sniffed.

“Where is food for me?” he bawled out.

He gave such a furious stare at Ramdas that if he could swallow up Ramdas by his gaze he would certainly have done so that instant.

“Fine fellows! – you have eaten everything and left nothing for me?” he spoke with withering scorn.

“You too shall have your meal, swami, but since you did not come in time, you will have to wait another half-an-hour,” Ramdas replied. He then instructed the meal carrier to run at once to a certain friend’s house and fetch double meals. The obliging young man, in half-an-hour, brought a sufficiently large quantity of food, and the hungry sannyasi had a satisfactory meal.

The sannyasi stayed for the day. That evening visitors poured in as usual but when they saw the sannyasi there, they manifested uneasiness and anxiety. Two early visitors spoke out their mind in his presence, and said:

“This sannyasi is a great pest. He comes to our houses and worries our lives out of us. He is not satisfied with mere food. He also wants money. We poor people cannot afford to meet his demands. Further he threatens to hurl curses at us. We do not set much value on his curses, but his behaviour is quite intolerable. We would have dealt with him in a drastic manner, but we respect the colour of the cloth he wears.”

While this open indictment was made to his face, the sannyasi, with one leg resting in a lordly style on the other and his right hand twisting one side of his moustache, was smiling most approvingly as though he were listening to some glorious exploits of which he was the hero. Ramdas then briefly spoke to him about the true qualities of a sadhu.

“If a sadhu were to remain for a long time at any particular place, he must live outside the town and go to it only to receive his bhiksha. He must never harass the householders. He must cultivate patience and forgiveness. He must never enter their houses without the permission of the master of the house. He should not ask for money, but be satisfied only with the food that is offered to him. To wish ill of anybody or heap curses on anyone is quite contrary to the principles of a sadhu. When he wears the sannyasi robes, he should never by his conduct disgrace the cloth. The cloth stands for absolute renunciation. If he finds himself unfit for it, he must never adopt it, or, if he has taken to it through an error of judgment, he ought to give it up as soon as he discovers the mistake, lest people be deceived by his appearance.

“He must never frequent the bazaars. He must adhere to his solitary abode and do the necessary sadhanas, or enlighten those who go to him for spiritual help. If his trust in the supreme Truth and his confidence in his own desireless efforts are weak and, as a consequence, he cannot progress towards a life which is self-sufficient and independent, he would do well to abandon the sadhu’s garb and life and take to any honest profession for his living, suited to his nature. To be a pest and burden to society is to court evil for himself, besides being a nuisance to those who come in contact with him.”

The sannyasi listened with eagerness and concentration to Ramdas’ speech, a smile playing about his lips. In the night the sannyasi was given a cloth to cover himself. Early next morning, as he got up from the mat on which he was lying, he said that he was leaving Ernakulam that day, and taking the cloth with him left the place and did not come again.

(iii) Your Body Is His Expression

Now Ramcharandas, who was for some time roaming in some villages of South Kanara, thought of travelling towards Northern India. As he desired to see Ramdas before finally leaving the south, one day he suddenly turned up at the retreat. Ramdas was happy to see him.

In the course of conversation with him Ramdas spoke to him of the divine vision:

“God-vision is nothing but to realise and feel His presence within yourself and everywhere about you; because God is an all-pervading spirit, permeating the entire universe. The manifested worlds are not different from Him, since they are but His own expression in terms of name and form.”

But the boy was not impressed at this presentation of Truth, and he said in a tone of utter dissatisfaction:

“Swamiji, I would have nothing of your nirguna or impersonal aspect of God. I want to behold Him as saguna. I crave for the darshan of the Ram-panchayatan, i.e. as Rama, Sita, Lakshman, Bharat and Hanuman. You are always harping on the same tune – His formless aspect.”

Ramdas smiled and replied:

“The saguna you are after is an image of your own mind and it cannot satisfy you. You ought to rise beyond all forms of sight and mind. The true saguna or body of the Lord is the universe itself in which He is immanent and by His power He is causing, in this manifestation, birth, growth, and dissolution of all beings and things. He is also transcendent as pure spirit. Your body is one of His expressions. Your activity has its inception in the infinite power of God. Don’t be deluded by a desire to behold things which are conditioned and momentary – mere phantoms of your mind. Have the true longing to realise your immortal nature and your union with the omnipotent and omnipresent God, who is the supreme Lord of the universe. Purify your mind and heart by proper discipline and entitle yourself to this glorious vision, and attain perfect freedom and eternal bliss.”

Ramcharandas remained silent. A short time after this he took leave of Ramdas.