Hall Attendants
Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says, “Out of thousands, perhaps one strives for spiritual perfection. Out of those who strive, perhaps one knows me as I AM.” There is also an ancient saying that goes, “Many are called, but only a few are chosen.”
The inner aspiration to seek the truth, or mumukshutva, is a very rare and extraordinary trait. One needs the grace of God to be a seeker. It is also said that it takes a great deal of struggle and many years of striving in order to arrive at the truth. But, for Bhagavan it was as easy as reading the letters of the alphabet. Why was this? It is because he was none other than Arunachala reincarnated. Hence, the rocks and boulders in the form of Bhagavan’s devotees also followed suit and attained bliss. There was no necessity for them to strive in the conventional way because they had already seen the truth. This was Arunachala leela, the divine drama. To quote Bhagavan, “It is a great game of pretending.” That is the way all his devotees did sadhana and finally got absorbed in Arunachala. In other words, they came from the truth; they lived the truth, and then went back to the truth.
Three kinds of people came to Bhagavan: Seekers who came to meditate and contemplate before Bhagavan, focused on personal sadhana. To this set belonged Muruganar, Munagala Venkataramaiah, Viswanatha Swami and others. The other kind came to serve at the ashram office. The ashram could only function with various people doing their duty, and these people carried out their duty with the approval of Bhagavan. For instance, my grandfather, Niranjanananda Swami was the sarvadhikari, the storekeeper and also held other responsibilities. The third kind of people who came to the ashram became personal attendants of Bhagavan. These attendants were all men and they stayed within the ashram so that they could dedicate their entire time to the service of Bhagavan.
Kunju Swami, himself a personal attendant of Bhagavan right from the days of Skandashram and later on at Ramanasramam, gave a beautiful account of the kind of interaction between Bhagavan and his personal attendants: “Bhagavan would sleep on the sofa in the hall; the other attendants and I would sleep near the sofa. It was Bhagavan’s habit to get up at three thirty and go out. As soon as he got up from the sofa, one of us would hand him the torchlight; not once was it necessary for him to call out to us by our name or wake us up for the torchlight. The minute he got up, we too seemed to get up automatically and without any effort on our part. Bhagavan’s glance in our direction transmitted a brilliant light within us and we would wake up at once. Bhagavan never gave us orders. He liked to do things himself, but being his attendants we would always anticipate his needs in advance and do what was necessary.”
These individuals were not doing just physical work; Bhagavan was also focussing on the improvement of their personal sadhana. About this, Kunju Swami said, “I once asked Bhagavan permission to stay outside the ashram so that I could devote all my time to spiritual sadhana. I told Bhagavan that just doing service did not give me complete satisfaction. Bhagavan commented, ‘Real service does not lie in washing my clothes, but in cleansing the mind.’ As far as spiritual practices were concerned, Bhagavan once remarked that the practice of Self Enquiry was mandatory. Everyone should practise contemplation or dhyana whenever there is time. If this is not possible, they could practise japa or the repetition of the sacred name. If even this is difficult because of distractions, a person can always recite sacred verses from the scriptures or verses composed by sages and saints. A person should be engaged in practising one of these four things.”
Once Kunju Swami started staying outside the ashram, other personal attendants came to serve Bhagavan. These attendants were blessed to the core because they served Bhagavan day and night. The relationship between guru and disciple is rather unique. Being Arunachala himself, Bhagavan was in a constant state of perfect poise and inner felicity since he was achala or ‘unmoved’. He was forever in that state, but these rocks of Arunachala who came in the form of devotees were constantly reminded about who they were so that they could regain their inner identity of ‘I AM’. Such were the blessings showered on these devotees by Bhagavan. This was the kind of real drama being enacted in this Arunachala Ramana leela. Bhagavan remained in that state so that he could constantly remind others that this was the state they should seek and remain in.
For many years, I did not understand why I had the good fortune of being so closely associated with Bhagavan’s attendants, receiving their limitless love and affection. I wondered what I had done to deserve it. Today, I know: I received this boundless love and warmth so that I can share these gems of Bhagavan with all of you. The great thing about these devotees is that no matter what their involvement was with the outside world, they never lost touch with the inner truth.
Hall Attendants - (l to r) Rangaswamy, Satyananda Swami, T.P.Ramachandra Iyer, Venkataratnam, Ramakrishna Swami, Subrahmaniam, Sivananda Swami
S. Doraiswamy Iyer with Sri Bhagavan inside the ‘New Hall’