← Ramana Periya Puranam

The Mother Principle

In the book Who am I?, Bhagavan says that one who operates without egoism, will look upon every woman as the Universal Mother. So, how did the Universal Mother look after her son?

After his death experience in Madurai, Bhagavan often went to the Meenakshi temple there. He would stand in front of Mother Meenakshi’s idol for hours together, looking at her eyes. Tears would flow from his eyes. Significantly, Meenakshi means ‘one with fish like eyes’. (The Hindu scriptures describe three kinds of spiritual initiations. One of them is the way of the fish. The fish is said to have the power of hatching its eggs by just looking at them. Therefore, the inner meaning of the name Meenakshi is ‘the mother who blesses or initiates with her eyes’.) The unique gift that Mother Meenakshi gave her son Venkataraman was the power to initiate and bless his devotees with just his look. In fact, almost every devotee of Bhagavan has talked about how the very first look from him, pushed them inwards and gave them a never before experience of joy, peace and silence. This was why, even on his last day, Bhagavan insisted that devotees be allowed to have his darshan - to give each one of them his final look of blessing.

After he came from Madurai to Tiruvannamalai, Bhagavan was in a state of unbroken, natural samadhi. While he was absorbed thus in Pathalalinga, the dark, dank, underground niche in the Arunachaleswara temple, his body was feasted on by insects and vermin while he himself remained without food or care. The Divine Mother, by her grace, first sent Ratnammal.