Book Binding

Some people bring ancient and sacred books in a very bad condition to Bhagavan with a request to examine its contents.

Some people bring ancient and sacred books in a very bad condition to Bhagavan with a request to examine its contents. Simultaneously with the examination of the contents, Bhagavan used to arrange the pages, properly paste together the torn bits and also write in his own hand the missing portions of the text and thus give the book a new appearance. Some people used to send loose leaves of a book tied together with a string with the request to set them right after examination. On such occasions Bhagavan used to cut the papers properly, paste them together, stitch them, get them bound and on the cover paste a piece of white paper sufficient to write the name of the book in letters like pearls, underline it with red ink and thus preserve the book carefully.

In 1942, Gurram Subbaramayya sent here an old copy of Amuktamalyada written by Krishnadevaraya with a request to the Ashram that Bhagavan should read it and that thereafter it should be kept in the Ashram library. The covers of the book were loose, soiled and badly torn. Bhagavan immediately set the whole thing properly, bound it neatly, pasted a white paper on the cover, wrote the name in bold letters that appeared better than print, drew a line with red ink under it, made it look like a new book and passed it on to me saying, “See how it looks now.” The book was as beautiful as a newly-married bride and so I wrote some verses about it and reverently placed them in the hands of Bhagavan.

Sometime in June or July 1943, you remember, I was entrusted with the writing work relating to all Telugu matters

in the presence of Bhagavan. In those days when paper was scarce because of the World War, I brought from your house all the typed papers relating to your book on banking, as they were typed only on one side and so could be used for writing on the back. I used those papers to copy, in Telugu script, the Ramana Puja Vidhanam written in nagari script and prepared by Jagadeeswara Sastri. Bhagavan saw it and asked me where I had got the paper from. I told him the facts. “You have done a good thing. Others would merely throw away such papers. We can use them for rough work. I always use paper which is thrown away as useless by others. When pages are written only on one side, the written sides could be pasted together so that the unwritten sides of the page could be used profitably and bound together into a new book. We did like that quite a number of times. Why allow them to go waste?” said Bhagavan.

A devotee enquired if it was a fact that Bhagavan had picked up sheets of paper that were thrown away in a dustbin by Nayana and had bound them all together into a book. Bhagavan replied saying, “Yes, that is a fact. You know, Nayana was with us for some time in Palakothu. When he was going away from there, he threw away all the waste sheets. He was accustomed to writing only on about a half of a sheet and leaving the rest blank. There are quite a number of books which are half-written like that by him. When that is so with books, would he care for mere sheets? A number of such sheets were thrown in the dustbin. After taking food in the noon, Madhava and myself went out as usual and noticed the heap. As we did not like to waste them, we picked out the useful sheets, cut them suitably, stitched them together into a book and kept it carefully. That was almost like a newly- bound book. After sometime Nayana returned and wanted a notebook to write something. I asked Madhava to give

him that bound-book and he gave it. I kept silent, laughing to myself. However, Madhava said, ‘Nayana, these are the sheets of paper which you threw away as useless. Bhagavan saw them and asked me to pick out the useful ones, which I did, and bound them into this notebook.’ Nayana was very much surprised. I usually stitch notebooks with such papers only,” said Bhagavan.