Boyhood Days - Suri Nagamma Letters - Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi

The morning of the day on which I returned from Tiruchuli passed off with enquiries about the welfare of all the people. I went into Bhagavan’s presence in the afternoon a little earlier than usual, that is, by about 2 o’clock. As soon as I prostrated and got up Bhagavan asked me, “Did you have a bath in the Shoola Theertham?”

I: “No. The water in it is not quite good now. We bathed in tank which was at a little distance from there.”

Bhagavan: “Yes. The water will not be so good at this time of the year. In the month of Magha, on the day of the star Magha, it swells and the water rises. The Abhisheka festival of the Deity is celebrated on that day, that is, on the 10th day of the Brahmotsavam. That day, the Deity is brought to the Mandapam and the Abhishekam is done with the water of the Trisula Theertha. After the Abhishekam is over, all the people bathe in that tank. In my boyhood days, all of us used to join together and draw on the steps some signs in order to see how much the water rose everyday. It used to be amusing. The rising of the water used to start ten days earlier and used to submerge the steps at the rate of one step per day and become full by the full moon day. To us, it was great fun. Some people have said that the water was not rising properly of late. Our people went there last year to test it and found that it was rising properly. They were thus satisfied that what has been stated in the puranas was not untrue.”

I: “People say that on that day Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati also come there. Is that so?”

Bhagavan: “That is so. It has been mentioned thus in the Sthalapurana (puranam of the place). As soon as the

Abhisheka of the Swami is over, the water goes down at the rate of one step per day. We used to play in the Kalyana Mandapam which is by the side of the temple. The classes of our school were also held there for some time. You have seen it, haven’t you?”

I: “Yes. I have seen it. It seems that one Mr. Muthirulappa Mudali is Bhagavan’s boyhood-friend. He showed us all those places. I have seen also the Telugu people who were living to the right of your house. They have kept a photo of Bhagavan and are worshipping it.”

Bhagavan: “Oh! Those people! In those days I used to be in their house for the major portion of the day. People who were older than myself and those of my age have all passed away by now. Only one of them, who is younger than myself, is still alive. I got accustomed to talking Telugu by talking with them.”

I: “Is that how you got into the habit of addressing your father ‘Nayana’, as the Telugus do?”

Bhagavan: “No. That was through Lakshmana Iyer. He knew Telugu very well. He taught me to call father ‘Nayana’. After I began calling father ‘Nayana’ all the people got used to calling him ‘Nayana’. Lakshmana Iyer was very fond of me. While all were calling me Venkataraman, he alone used to call me ‘Ramana’ and ‘Ramani’. Ultimately that name became permanent.”

Rajagopala Iyer: Did Ganapati Sastri know about this when he gave Bhagavan the name ‘Ramana Maharshi?’

Bhagavan: “No. How could he know? Long afterwards, during some conversation, I myself told him about this. That’s all.”

I: “Was Lakshmana Iyer living in the house to the left of your house?”

Bhagavan: “No, no. He was living for some time in the left portion of our house. He came there because he was

transferred to that place. He was employed for a long time in Andhra Desa, and that is how he was able to speak Telugu well. He was afraid that he might forget it, and so, used to speak to me in Telugu only. The family of Karpura Sundara Bhattar, who now performs pujas in our house, were living even then in the house next to ours. The father of Karpura Sundara Bhattar is still alive. You saw him, didn’t you?”

I: “Yes. I saw him. He has become very old.”

Bhagavan: “He is, however, two or three years younger than myself. He had two or three stepbrothers older than myself. They used to tease him always. One day he got a sugarcane and a knife, and as he could not cut it himself, he requested his brothers to help him, but they went away without heeding his request. He began weeping. I felt sorry for him. I took the sugarcane and tried to cut it. My finger got cut and began to bleed. Even so, I felt sorry for him because he was weeping and was a little fellow, so somehow I managed to cut the cane into pieces. I tied my finger with a wet cloth; the bleeding, however did not stop. I was called for food as it was meal time. I went and sat but could not use my hand for mixing the food; father mixed it for me. He had my finger bandaged afterwards. He enquired and found out what had happened. That cut did not heal up for about a month.”

I: “So help and sympathy have been natural to Bhagavan from boyhood itself?”

Bhagavan: “That is all right. What is there in that?” So saying and changing the topic, Bhagavan said again, “They are priests, you see. So, when it was their turn to do the puja of the Kalayar Temple, they used to prepare the food at home and send it to the temple through the boys. Sometimes I used to go there with the boys. We used to bathe in the Koundinya River, pour a vessel-full of water on the Linga in

the temple, offer the food by way of Nivedana and then eat it. The children in the Pallematam, a village adjacent to the temple, used to join us there. We used to play together till nightfall and then go home.”

I: “Sundaramurthi used to live there, didn’t he?”

Bhagavan: “Yes. He went up on the Jyotirvanam(vehicle of Light) from there only.”

I: “What did you do when the river was full? Was there another way?”

Bhagavan: “No. That is the only way. But then the river usually had water only up to the waist. If at any time there were floods, we used to go by boat. On such occasions the boys were not sent. The elders themselves used to go. The floods used to subside in a few days. Did you not bathe there?”

I: “We did bathe. We do not know why, but the water had some bad smell and so it was no good for drinking.”

Bhagavan: “That is true. The water is no good for drinking. As it is supposed to have some sulphur in it which is good for skin diseases, people bathe in it. That’s all. It is stated in one of the puranas that a king by name Somaseethala bathed in it and got cured of leprosy. Once when I had an itch, mother made me bathe in it every day. That is a jivavahini (perennial), a river with water flowing in it throughout the year. Even in the worst summer, water will be flowing in some corner or other. It seems that when Koundinya was doing tapas in that place, there was no water and so he prayed to Siva for it. It was then that the river was born as a perennial stream and flowed under the name ‘Papahari’ (destroyer of sins). As it was born for the sake of Koundinya, it was also known as Koundinya River.”

I: “It is stated in Ramana Leela, that that place is known as Koundinya Kshetra. Is it so?”

Bhagavan: “Yes, yes. As Koundinya performed tapas at that place, somebody wrote that Jnanasambandha was born into their family. That is also stated in the Ramana Leela.”

I: “If that is so, Sambandar belongs to the Koundinya Gothra?”

Bhagavan: “Yes. That is why our Venkatakrishnayya wrote down his name in the Ramana Leela as ‘Krishna Koundinya.’ He wrote that Bhagavan was born in Koundinya Kshetra, the river is Koundinya, the chief disciple Ganapati Muni is a Koundinya. Several people think that Bhagavan in his previous birth was Jnanasambandar, as Jnanasambandar was Koundinya and all Koundinyas are Vasishtas and all people of the Vasishta family are Advaitins, and so Swami belongs to that family. That is how it is stated in Ramana Leela. ‘I wrote the biography of Ramana and so I am a Koundinya; so we all belong to the same family tree, the same Advaitin family’. That is how Krishnayya writes in the biography.” So saying, Bhagavan smiled.

I: “Oh! That is the theory?”

Bhagavan: “Yes. That is so. Ganapati Sastri and his disciples write their gothra first. Krishnayya is one of the disciples. That is also another reason.”

A devotee: “That Kshetra Puranam (purana of the place) has not been written in detail.”

Bhagavan: “No. It seems it is mentioned in a portion of Skanda Puranam itself. There is a manuscript in Sanskrit and also, a brief puranam in Tamil. In Jyotirvana Mahatmyam also, there are some stories here and there in Tamil, relating to the kshetra. It would be good if somebody were to put them all together and write them in prose.”

Rajagopala Iyer: “Viswanatha Brahmachari might perhaps do it?”

Bhagavan: “Who knows? He must agree to look into all those puranams and write it.”

Devotee: “We should tell him and see.”

Bhagavan: “All right. Do it.”

As soon as Viswanatha Brahmachari came that evening, Bhagavan told him with a smile that all the devotees felt that it would be good if he wrote the Trisula Pura Mahatmyam (Tiruchulipuranam) in prose. It was only after this that Viswanatha Brahmachari went through all the relative puranas, with the help of Bhagavan, translated the relative portions and wrote the Trisula Pura Mahatmyam in Tamil prose. It was immediately published. Naganarya wrote it in verse in Telugu. That has not been published yet.