Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya
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Sri Niranjananandaswami (Chinna Swami) III
Chinna Swami was austere, strict, efficient, and an unrelenting disciplinarian. By 1938, he needed assistance in the Ashram. He sent word to his son, my father, and the whole family to join him. I was two years old when my father brought me to Ramanashram. Chinna Swami was just as strict with his son, my father. He never favored him--so much so, that my father was disappointed with him. Similarly, Chinna Swami rubbed many people the wrong way with his blunt manner, but, as many devotees say, those stories must be looked at impartially and in context. It is important that we see both sides of the character of this man. It is to be noticed that the records of all those who were offended by Chinna Swami's disciplinary action and complained, conveniently omitted their last sentences. I actually interviewed these complainants, including Muruganar, Ramaswami Pillai, Chadwick, Viswanatha Swami, Annamalai Swami, Kunju Swami, Devaraja Mudaliar, Suri Nagamma, and Munagala Venkataramaia among the long list of Chinna Swami's victims. They unanimously agreed, ―Chinna Swami's harshness did affect us and at that moment our egos were deeply hurt. There is no doubt about it. But in later years we understood that it was divine providence and that unless he had treated us like that, we would have continued to be immersed in management activities and would not have pursued our spiritual aspiration.
Muruganar also told me, ―Chinna Swami repeatedly slighted me and even refused me food at the Ashram. I had to go out on the streets and beg for my food. The reason for Chinna Swami's refusal was that he wanted me to continue performing pooja in the Mother's shrine and also assist him with the correspondence in the office. I did not do that, so I had to leave. But Ganesan, I assure you that my going away granted me two spiritual boons. Now I tell you honestly, but for Chinna Swami, I might have still been doing pooja in Ramanashram even today and assisting in writing letters. What are those two boons? I asked him. ―I could get the proximity and presence of Bhagavan at any time, day and night. Had I been committed to management work, I could not have had that. The second boon was that I was so ecstatic, that I wanted to write poems. I wrote forty thousand verses on Bhagavan and Bhagavan's teaching. These were written in silence and seclusion. With external activity this might not have happened. Chinna Swami was a vital instrument in my gaining these two boons.
One of the kitchen assistants told me that Chinna Swami was used by Bhagavan as a washerman's stone only to clear the devotees' ―dirt, their vasanas, and cause them to devote all their attention to spiritual sadhana. To fulfill this role, Chinna Swami perpetually received a dreadful reputation. Balarama Reddiar told me, ―Though there were seemingly shortcomings in Chinna Swami's management, it is a fact witnessed by me repeatedly, that Bhagavan supported him. When I once complained to Bhagavan about Chinna Swami, he instantly corrected me, and I steadily stood by that correction all my life at the Ashram. Bhagavan curtly asked me, ―Have you come all this way to sort out lapses in the Ashram management? Attend to the business, for which you came. Find out whom from inside raises these complaints. Leave the rest to the Higher Power. Be still.
Viswanatha Swami explained to me why all the senior devotees went to Palakothu. He was saying, ―We do that so that we may pursue our sadhana. Bhagavan approved of that. He would ask us, ―In which way you are going to build your hut? And also Bhagavan would suggest to us, ―Go to these streets to beg. That enabled us to be with Bhagavan all the rest of the time. What we are today was possible because of our coming away from the institution. Bhagavan approved of it. Viswanatha Swami was the worst affected. Once he was ill and without food for three days. Coming to know of it, Santamma took him to the dining hall, through the kitchen, and made him sit on the first row, from where Bhagavan was quite visible. Food was served, and when all were about to eat, Chinna Swami came, pulled Viswanatha Swami by the hand and sent him out. Bhagavan was witnessing all this and did not say anything nor object to it. However, it was Viswanatha Swami who assisted Chinna Swami in his last days, when Chinna Swami was bedridden.
Surprised, I asked him, ―How could you do that after being so deeply hurt and insulted? He replied, ―When I was in Dindigul, Bhagavan appeared to me in a dream and asked me to come to Ramanashram. I immediately left for the Ashram. It was 1952, and Bhagavan had already dropped his body. I had no idea why Bhagavan asked me to come. Chinna Swami was terminally ill, and there was nobody to attend him. I felt that this was the purpose for which Bhagavan had asked me to come. I waited on him day and night, nursing and bathing him. One day Chinna Swami held my hands and asked for forgiveness. Chinna Swami spent his last two days looking at Bhagavan's picture, all the time chanting ―Ramana, Ramana. At the time of his death, he stretched out his arms with his eyes closed, his face serene, happy, and luminous. Viswanatha Swami said, ―Bhagavan has absorbed him in the Heart Sky of Arunachala.
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