The Sleeper in the Cart - Suri Nagamma Letters

Listening to the stories by Kunjuswami, we had gone beyond Adi Annamalai. On reaching Vetavalam Mandapam, he asked us whether we had heard why Bhagavan had written the verse 31 of the “Supplement to the Forty Verses”.

“One night, as we were going round the hill with Bhagavan, just about here, two or three fully loaded bullock carts were passing along. The people in the cart were sound asleep, their legs stretched out, and free from all cares. Pointing them out to

us, Bhagavan said, ‘Did you see that? It is like the natural state, ‘sahaja nishta’. For the Realized One the Self (Atman) which sleeps in the body, all three states are the same, namely, that of waking, dream and deep sleep. For example, this cart is going, the man in the cart is asleep; that is like the working of the body of a Realized Soul. Supposing the man continues to sleep even when the cart stops on reaching its destination, is unloaded and the bullocks removed, and he continues to sleep all through. That is like the sleep of a Realized Soul. The body is for him a cart; while in motion, while standing still, or while being unloaded, that man goes on sleeping.’ Subsequently, the same idea was expressed in the verse referred to above, which was also written in prose in Telugu.”*

Continuing our conversation, we walked on and reached the turning which leads to the Isanya Mutt. Kunjuswami then continued his narration:

“Sometimes, while going round the hill, it would all of a sudden rain heavily. Others accompanying Bhagavan would run for shelter, but he never hurried his pace and walked on steadily, unaffected by the rain. Once at this turning, it began to rain heavily; we all ran to the Isanya Mutt, but Bhagavan walked as usual and was drenched by the time he reached the mutt. As a rule, he did not go to the mutt because they would detain him there unnecessarily; he would go alongside the hill to the Municipal Bungalow over there and sit on the narrow verandah in front of it. Except for one or two of his attendants, the rest of the party continued the walk after prostrating to him. This was because, had they all gone together as a crowd, the people of the town would come to

* “To the Realized Soul who is asleep in the gross body the states of activity, samadhi and deep sleep mean no more than a cart’s moving, stopping and being unyoked mean to a traveller who is asleep in the cart.” (Translation).

know about our circumambulation and would have gathered round and begun to do something in adoration of Bhagavan. So, after sending all the others off, he would cover himself with a shawl and reach the Ashram by a byepath. Even so, sometimes a few people would recognize him and offer him something to eat. If he went round the hill at night, he would, on nearing the town, ask us not to sing or talk loudly as that might disturb the people in their sleep.”

By the time Kunjuswami had finished telling us these incidents, it was about 2 a.m. and we had reached the town. Everything was quiet, and he again began reminiscencing to us:

“Another time, during summer, after supper we started to go round the hill. There was good moonlight and by the time we reached this place, it was as now about 2 a.m. All the people in the town were asleep and it was very quiet. Being summer, all the windows of the houses were open. All the shops were closed and locked; only the watchmen were patrolling the streets. Bhagavan, pointing this out to us, said, ‘Do you see how still the whole town is? The streets, the houses and the lights are there, but all the people are asleep except the watchmen. Hence it is all quiet. But when the day breaks, everyone will get up and there will be activity on all sides. That is like ‘savikalpa samadhi’. Do you see those big houses and small ones? The windows are open, but the one who sees is sleeping. That is like the turiya, or Fourth State. It could be said that the state of the Realized Soul is also the same and could be given as an example. It appears as though the eyes see; they, however, sleep peacefully.”

After listening to this story, we reached our homes. The next day, after finding out from those near him all the details of what had happened during our walk round the hill,

Bhagavan said, “When I hear the happy way you went round the hill, I feel envious of you. But then I cannot go out like that now.” And he laughed. “If a lot of people accompanied me, I used to go by the path through the jungle; but if I was going alone, I used to take the path along the foot of the hill.”

“Are there three paths for going round the hill?” asked a devotee.

“Yes. The one is the road, the other is along the foot of the hill, and beyond it is the jungle path,” said Bhagavan.

“So Bhagavan used to wander along all those paths?” asked the devotee.

“Why along those paths only?” said Bhagavan, “I might even say that there is no place on the hill that I have not set my foot on. There are innumerable Ayurvedic herbs on the hill; there are waterfalls in several places. That is why it is said that this mountain is the abode of siddhas (adepts with powers). Some time ago, a geophysicist came here to find out how old this hill is, and when he wrote to us on his return to his native land, he asked us to send him some stones as specimens. They were sent and, on receiving them, he compared those stones with some from other mountains (like the Himalayas) and found that those from Arunachala were older. He himself wrote to us about it.”