Dr. M. Anantanarayana Rao
Bhagavan once remarked, “For the physical body to drop, it has to catch some kind of disease.” Bhagavan was afflicted with sarcoma on his left elbow. Sarcoma is one of the most painful forms of cancer. This was, in a way, the beginning of the end. What is fascinating is the way Bhagavan drew top specialists to him. Bhagavan had to bring all these doctors together because the final scene of the drama had to be enacted - it was time for Bhagavan to drop his body.
Dr. Anantanarayana Rao was a well established veterinarian. In 1929, he was traveling by train from Bombay. He was to get down at the next station when the person sitting beside him gave him a small picture of Bhagavan and told him, “This is a great sage who lives in Tiruvannamalai, South India.” Since Dr. Rao held sages and saints in great respect, he accepted the photograph with gratitude. Dr. Rao left for London in 1930 for further studies and forgot all about the photograph. But, would Bhagavan let him forget? In 1932, the government appointed Dr. Rao to conduct a medical study in South India. When he came south, he remembered the photograph that he had been given on the train. He told his wife, “We are going to meet a saint.” He arrived in Tiruvannamalai with his wife and his friend, Dr. Siva Rao, who also served Bhagavan.
Dr. Anantanarayana Rao had constantly been associated with saints and sages. However, when he saw Bhagavan in 1932 the thought flashed vividly through his mind, “Here is God in human form. This is what the scriptures have described about the satguru, the jivanmukta, the siddha purusha and the jnani.” He started frequenting the ashram as often as possible. On his second visit, he not only understood the divinity of the Maharshi but also gained an insight into the teaching of Self Enquiry. Sitting in the presence of Bhagavan, he attained the state of quietude almost effortlessly. Whatever he had read about the state of inner bliss and inner perfection, he experienced by merely sitting before Bhagavan. With this experience, began his constant practice of Self Enquiry.
In 1943, he constructed a house opposite the ashram and lived there. He maintained a garden within the compound of his house where he grew special fruit trees that would yield fruits quickly. The first fruits of these trees were always offered to Bhagavan. Bhagavan would cut the fruit into pieces, take a piece and then ask Dr. Rao to distribute the rest of the pieces among the other devotees gathered there. The strange thing about it was that for almost three years, the doctor himself never got a single piece of fruit as prasad. On one such occasion, he returned to Bhagavan with the empty plate after distributing the prasad. With anguish in his heart, he thought, “Why haven’t I yet received prasad from Bhagavan?” Just then, Bhagavan called out, “Anantanarayana Rao, come here. I have observed that in all these years you have always distributed fruits to everyone, but you have never got a single piece of fruit.” Then, taking out a slice of fruit that was near his own slice, he said, “I have kept a piece for you. Come and take it.” Dr. Rao was thrilled! Recalling the incident, Dr. Rao told me, “Bhagavan gave it with his own hand. I received it and ate it; it was a spiritual experience because Bhagavan put me in that state.”
As a seeker, he learnt two lessons from this. Firstly, a seeker should be able to give away everything, without the feeling of having to hold on to it. Then, one should wait for the satguru’s grace. Having imbibed these two spiritual lessons, he prayed, “Bhagavan, I want to serve you personally.” By this, he meant that he wanted the opportunity to massage the feet of Bhagavan because the Hindu scriptures say that one gains a great deal spiritually by touching the feet of a holy person. He had this good fortune in 1948 when Niranjanananda Swami asked him, “Can you be Bhagavan’s personal attendant?” He was told that as a personal attendant it would be his duty and privilege to massage the limbs of Bhagavan. Dr. Anantanarayana Rao was deliriously happy!
However, Bhagavan distributed even the parts of his body equally as he did everything else! He would let one attendant massage his right arm; the other would attend to his left arm and so on and so forth. Dr. Rao felt that even these small actions of Bhagavan had great significance. “Every word, every gesture, had the greatest significance. The ultimate truth would be there. It was not just a momentary, fleeting experience.” It was not without reason that Dr. Rao was given not Bhagavan’s feet, but his left arm to massage. This was the arm that was affected by cancer. “Even in this, Bhagavan was so compassionate,” commented Dr. Rao, “He gave me his left arm so that I could bandage it till the last day.”
He was there when Bhagavan took his last breath. I too had the privilege of being in the presence of Bhagavan then. During the last few moments, since they wanted to administer oxygen to Bhagavan, the doctors requested everyone to leave the room. Everyone left - my grandfather, my father and Bhagavan’s sister. I was standing outside the Nirvana Room. T. P. Ramachandra Iyer told me, “Hey, stay here.” In this manner, I was blessed because I could see the ‘light’. Dr. Anantanarayana Rao, along with Dr. R. Subramaniam and Dr. T. N. Krishnaswami were also there.
(l to r) Sundaram (present President of the Ashram), Dr. Anantanarayana Rao, T. N. Venkataraman.
(l to r) S. Doraiswamy Iyer, TPR, Sri Bhagavan, Dr. Subramanian (Sadhu Brahmaniam) (second row) Niranjanananda Swami, Dr. Shankar Rau, Sivananda Swami, Dr. Anantanarayana Rao