Dear Sri Subramanian Sir,
He gave it to stop me from reaching Him. Now that I am stopped He is taking it away fast. I prayed to the Hill Medicine as you prescribed, and I experienced relief then and there. Thanks very much, sir.
Dear sir, once you posted great Sage and Poet, Sri Manikkavachagar’s Secret Exclamation:
“See, see, how He is caught in the net of my Bhakti!”
Ji. Yes. He is captured by love alone. And this applies to the enquirer as well. Has Sri Bhagwan not taught that one who wants to know and be the Self must love the Self? His True Seat is the Core of one’s being, as the Self, as the Heart. Therefore, though I have been stopped from reaching Him in Tiruvannamalai, but, nevertheless, He beckons to reach Him there where He abides as the Pure Awareness. Has he not said that this and that place are only within you?
In this context I wish to post an anecdote from ‘Living by the Words of Bhagwan’ as follows:
Sri Annamalai Swami narrates:
Ramanatha Brahmachari first came in the days when Bhagwan was living in Virupaksha Cave. He had a very distinctive appearance because he was very short, wore thick glasses, and always covered his body with a large amount of vibhuti. In the Virupaksha days he used to go for bhiksha in town. He would bring whatever food he had managed to beg to Virupaksha Cave, serve it to Bhagwan, and then afterwards eat whatever remained.
One day, as he was bringing some food to Bhagwan, he met his father on the hill. He was sitting outside Guhai Namasivaya Temple about halfway between the town and Virupaksha Cave. His father said that he was hungry and asked for some of the food which his son had begged.
Ramanatha Brahmachari, thinking that it would be improper and disrespectful to feed anyone, even his own father, before Bhagwan had received his share, told his father, “Come with me to Bhagwan. We can share the food there.’
His father, who had no interest in Bhagwan, refused to come. He asked his son to give him some food and then leave, but Ramanatha Brahmachari refused.
Bhagwan had been observing all this from Virupaksha cave. When Ramanatha Brhamachari finally arrived there Bhagwan told him, ‘I will not take any of your food unless you first serve your father’.
Ramanatha Brahmachari went back to Guhai Namasivaya Temple, but instead of following Bhagwan’s instructions he again asked his father to come and eat with Bhagwan at Virupaksha Cave. When his father, for the second time, refused to come, Ramanatha Brahmachari went back to Viupaksha Cave without giving him any food.
Bhagwan again told him, this time more firmly, ‘I will only eat if you feed your father first. Go and feed him.’
This time Ramanatha obeyed the order, fed his father and returned to Virupaksha Cave with the remaining food. I mention this story only because it shows how great his devotion to Bhagwan was and how little he cared anything else, including his own family.
Source: Living by the Words of Bhagwan
Dear sir, Sri Annamalai Swami mentions that Sri Ramanatha Brahmachari used to feed Sri Bhagwan with such love and devotion that Sri Bhagwan felt that He had been captured by his love.
Sri Bhagwan once said, “I am only afraid of two devotees, Ramanatha Brahmachari and Mudaliar Patti.’
Sri Swami observes that it was not physical fear, it was more a feeling of helplessness.
Sri Swami, “If a devotee has a strong and burning love for his Guru, the Guru is compelled to do anything that the devotee asks. Bhagwan always felt apprehensive whenever Ramanatha Brahmachari appeared because He knew that he would be unable to resist any of his requests. Ramakrishna Paramahansa once expressed the same idea when He said: ‘When you have attained ecstatic love you have found the rope to tie God with.’
ECSTATIC LOVE AND DEVOTION RENDER EVEN GOD HELPLESS!
Pranam,
Anil