Our Bhagavan-Stories

[Subramanian.R]

An article from "Anon", that appears in Arunachala's Ramana,
Boundless Ocean of Grace, Volume 6:-

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi personifies, to many devotees, the Universal Father.  Instances are many when devotees felt that they were looking at their own
father when they saw Bhagavan.

I vividly remember a friend of our family, who had accompanied us to
Ramansramam, in 1947, exclaimed in delight, as soon as he saw Bhagavan,
"Here is my father, just as he looked in his later life!"  Far back in 1933, when
my own father was drawn to Bhagavan Ramana for the first time, he actually saw
'his father' with the same physical traits.  And as recently as 1966, after the
passing of my father, I cannot but be touched by the striking resemblance between
his and Bhagavan's appearance.  Indeed Bhagavan Ramana is the embodiment of Fatherhood, that is at once universal and transcendental.

In 1945, while I was sleeping I had a dream that I was sitting in a corner of a room.  Suddenly Bhagavan Ramana entered the room and I rushed to Him.  He appeared again in my dream, and while He touched me in my dream, I had a vision of a Jyoti, (Light) brighter than the brilliance of thousand suns.  Waves of bliss and
tranquility took possession of my whole frame.  He raised His finger and then
told me:  O Child, do you understand what that Jyoti is?  This is the real
Karthikai Deepam.

In 1947, when I was travelling to Coimbatore from Madras, I broke my journey
and I was in the Asramam, our home.  It was a Friday, a New Moon Day.  As I
entered the divine presence of Bhagavan Ramana, I felt that I was submerging
in a sea, only this was the sea of bliss and tranquility.  We were there for the
whole of forenoon and except a swift piercing look that Bhagavan blessed me
with, nothing happened.  Nothing mattered any more.....

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

Bhaurao Athavale was a Maharashtrian and before he had the first darshan of Bhagavan Ramana in 1922, he used to visit Alandi near Pune, to have darshan
of the samadhi of Janeshwar.  The family also had held one yogi, Swami
Narasimha Saraswathy, as the family guru.  This guru was no longer in body. 

Athavale further writes:-

Even though the Swami left this world and was enshrined in samadhi before
my birth, that many devotees had the good luck to have his darshan even after
his nirvana, made me ardently feel that I should have his darshan in flesh and
blood and I used to pray so to him for many years.  In spite of many happy
incidents of grace in our family, my yearning for his darshan remained unsatisfied, though I was insistent on it.   I was not even satisfied with his darshan
in a dream and so continued to pray for the same off and on.

From 1939 to 1942, I suffered from sciatica due to over exertion in my engineering work and became very weak.  As I did not like, in this state, to be a burden to
my old father, I went to Vai, a sacred place on the bank of Krishna, about 70 kms
from Pune, rather dejected about my health.  Still I used to pray to the Swami
of Alandi to give me darshan.  After some months of disappointment,
I changed my prayer to the Swami that I should at least have a darshan of a
great Mahatma like the Swami before my death.


In February 1942, I had a dream where there was a Cave in a Hill and a Master,
about 22 years old, was sitting there, with some disciples with matted locks. 

After this only distant friend of mine, who had been returning to Maharashtra
after a visit to Rameswaram and other south Indian temples came and told me
that he met a great Siddha Purusha in a small town called Tiruvannamalai, in
Madras Province. 

I immediately grew restless and started in that very condition by rail to
Tiruvannamalai via Madras and reached that holy place on the third morning at dawn.

As I approached the Hall at 6 am, the driver of the bullock cart
who took me inside, showed me Bhagavan Ramana.  As I prostrated before
Him, He asked kindly:  "Are you coming from Pune?  You seem to be quite exhausted..."  I was wonderstruck, since I had not informed anyone in the
Asramam about my coming.  Nevertheless, all arrangements for my stay had
been arranged by the Asramam manager. 

In the afternoon, when I sat before Him, He kindly inquired about my health.   I immediately told him about my health and my life story and my desire to have the darshan of Swami Narasimha Saraswathy etc., etc.,   I also handed over a
photograph of Narasimha Saraswathy to Him.  He smiled and indicated His
divine intimacy with the Swami. 

He then graciously said to me:  You can stay here in peace.  You disease is not incurable.  He quoted a verse from Srimad Bhagavad Gita (II.14):  O Son of Kunti,
the contacts between the senses and objects, which give rise to the feelings of
heat and cold, pleasure and pain etc., are all transitory and fleeting.  Bear with
them, O Arjuna.

I felt extremely relieved.  In three months, I was completely relieved from my
sciatica which is only due to His Grace. 

Arunachala Siva. 

(Source:  Arunachala's Ramana, Boundless Ocean of Grace,
Volume 6. Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai.)

[Subramanian.R]

Bhagavan Ramana's humor was quite subtle, invariably.  His humor was not
hurting anyone but at the same time making a point for correction.

Once, too many incense sticks and dasangam were lighted in the Old Hall.
As people who have gone to the Asramam noticed, the Old Hall is quite small
and apart from Bhagavan's sofa, where He was always sitting or reclining,
it can accommodate only about 30 people.  Since the smoke coming out of the
incense sticks and dasangam were huge, Bhagavan Ramana who was sitting very
close to them, was finding it difficult even to breathe.  The smoke engulfed the
whole Hall.  Bhagavan Ramana was ostensibly irritated.  He told the attendants:
"See, here a living Swami is sitting and this Swami is not able to even breathe.
Go and place all the sticks and dasangam to the Kallu Swami (the stone idol of
Bhagavan, which had been installed in the front hall of Mother's Temple, with a
stone sofa).  The Kallu Swami will have no difficulty in breathing..Nor would it complain....Anyway, tomorrow you are all going to put garlands and light incense sticks only to that Kallu Swami." 

Everyone in the Hall burst into laughter.  The attendant put out some of the incense sticks and dasangam, to reduce the volume of smoke.  There was however, a
prophetic line in Bhagavan Ramana's outburst.  Yes. The living Swami attained Maha
Nirvana and then only Kallu Swami remains today!  But the Asramam authorities
have seen to it, that there is no garland for Bhagavan Ramana's staute, nor
incense sticks and dasangam are lighted.

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

This is the description of "A Pilgrim"  sometime in late 1946, when
he had darshan of Bhagavan Ramana:-

"As I approached the Maharshi's room, I could feel the peace that was radiating
from His room.  I entered the room and then came my first shock.  I expected to see something glorious, a face surrounded by a halo etc., (!)  I didn't find any of those.  Has He not said, I was reminded, in His answer that Self Realization does not
mean that something would descend upon us as something glorious?  Has He not
said: "People seem to think that by practicing some elaborate sadhana, the Self
would one day descend upon them as something very big and with tremendous
glory that they would then have what is called 'Sakshatkaram?

In the afternoon, Bhagavan answered my questions.

Q: You have said that you know no such period of sadhana.  You never performed
Japa or chanted any mantra.  You were in your natural state.  I have not done any sadhana worth the name.  Can I say that I am in my natural state?  But my
natural state is so different from yours.  Does that mean that the natural state of
ordinary persons and realized persons are different?

Bhagavan:  What you think to be your natural state is your unnatural state!
(And this was my second shock that shook me from the slumber of my pet notions).  With your intellect and imagination, you have constructed the castles of your pet notions and desires.  But do you know who has built up these castles, who  is the culprit, the real owner?  The "I" who really owns them and the "I" of your conception are quite different.  Is it necessary that you put forth some efforts to come into
the "I" who owns these, the "I" behind all states?

Would you have to walk any distance to walk into the "I" that is always you?  Yhis is what I meant by saying that no sadhana is required for Self Realization.  All that is required is to refrain from doing anything, by remaining still and being simply what
one really is. You have to only dehypnotize yourself of your unnatural state.
Then you have asked whether there is any difference between the natural state
of ordinary persons and realized persons.  What have they realized?   They can
realize only what is Real in them.  What is Real in them is Real in you also.  So
where is the difference?

Even then, some may ask, the Maharshi continued, reminding me so vividly of
those Upanishadic Rishis, "Where is the conviction that one's Self is Sakshat all
right, that no sadhana is required at all for Self Realization?  Well, do you need anybody to come and convince you that you are seated before me and talking
to me?  You know for certain that you are seated here and talking to me."

You can doubt and question everything but how can you doubt the "I" that
questions everything?  That "I" is your natural state.  Would you have to labor
or do sadhana to come into this natural state?

(Source:  Arunachala's Ramana.  Boundless Ocean of Grace,
Volume 6, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

Elinaor Pauline Noye had a critical health at that time.  She still traveled from
San Fransisco to New Orleans by boat.  She collapsed in New Orleans, and had
to take medical treatment there for two weeks.  Then, she traveled by steamship
to Cape Town, South Africa.  In the cold nights of Cape Town, she was filled
with inexplicable fear, without knowing what she was afraid about.  She again
rested in Durban for one month.  From Durban, she took a steamship again to
Madras and reached the city somewhat better.  But the hot conditions of Madras
again made her ill.  She was asked to go to Kodaikanal, but she broke her journey
at Madurai and came to Tiruvannamalai, in all taking about 3 1/2 months!

She writes further:-

"I would like to say here, that the one reason why I had been in such a run-down condition was that I had not slept well for years, although I had been taking
medicine, which never gave me any relief.  Although I said nothing to Bhagavan
about this, the amazing thing was that I slept soundly the first night and
thereafter without taking any medicine, though I lacked the many comforts I had
been accustomed to.  I received the "Medicine of all medicines", the unfailing grace
of the Lord, whose name is Heart.  I arose next morning, feeling refreshed as
though I was born anew! Soon after, one afternoon, as I was standing by the
rear gate, Bhagavan stopped, while on His way to the Hillside, and asked me, if I
had more peace.  His loving solicitude made me feel quite at home.  And when
He smiled, my joy knew no bounds.     

During those sacred hours with the Master, I unconsciously absorbed the Truth
which He lives.  It filled all my being.  As a writer has said:  "The Maharshi's life
is but one more instance of that Indian ideal of teaching through life and through words....His life is, in fact, His highest teaching.  His teachings are but a literary expression of His Realization."

My love blossomed into deep devotion and I was filed with ineffable peace.  The
things which seemed so vital before were no longer of any importance.  I could
see things in their correct perspective.  The heartaches of yesterday and thoughts
of tomorrow faded into oblivion.

(Source:  Arunachala's Ramana, Boundless Ocean of Grace, Volume
6, Sri Ramansramam, Tiruvannamalai.  Elenor Pauline Noye's article
abridged by me.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

Swami Madhavatirtha, a sannyasi and the author of Sri Ramana Maharshi's
teachings in Gujarati, writes about his questions and Bhagavan's replies:-

Question:  It is believed that the vijnanamaya sarira will not be attacked by
disease, will not grow old, and will not die without one's desire.

Bhagavan:  The body itself is a disease.  To wish for a long stay in that disease
is not the aim of a Jnani.  Anyhow, one has to give up identification with the
body.  Just as 'I am the body consciousness' prevents one from attaining the
Self Knowledge, in the same way, one who has got the conviction that he is not
the body, will become liberated even without his desire.

Q: What about bringing down God's power in the human body?

Bhagavan:  If after surrendering, one still has a desire, then surrender has not
been successful.  If one has the attitude, "If the higher power is to come down,
it must come in my body", this will only increase identification with the body.
Truly speaking, there is no need for any such descent.  After the destruction
of the "I am the body"  idea, the individual becomes the form of the Absolute.
In that state, there is no above or below, front or back.

(Source:  Arunachala's Ramana, Boundless Ocean of Grace,
Volume 6. Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

Sri Ramananda Swarnagiri:-  I have not yet learnt to control my mind so I
intend to seek ekantavasam (life in solitude) in North India and want
Sri Bhagavan's grace.

Bhagavan:  You have come all the way to Tiruvannamalai for ekantavasam, and
that in the immediate presence and vicinity of Ramana Bhagavan, yet you do not appear to have obtained the mental quiet.  You now want to go elsewhere and
from there you will desire to go to some other place.  You do not realize that
it is your mind that drives you in this manner.  Control that first and you
will be happy wherever you are.  I do not know if you have read Swami
Vivekananda lectures.  It is my impression that he has somewhere told the story
of a man trying to bury his shadow and finding that every sod of earth he put in
the grave, he had dug for it, it only appeared again, so that it could never be
buried.  Such is the case of a person who tries to bury his thoughts.  One must therefore attempt to get at the very bottom from which the thought springs
forth and root out thought, mind and desire.

Devotee:  When I spent an hour or two on the Hill yonder, I sometimes found
even better peace than here, which suggests that a solitary place is after all
more conducive to mind-control.

Bhagavan:  True, but if you had stayed there for an hour longer you would have
found that place too not giving you, the calm of which you speak.  Control the
mind and even Hell will be Heaven to you.  All other talk of solitude, living in a
forest etc., is mere prattle.

Devotee:  If solitude and abandonment of home were not required where then
was the necessity for Sri Bhagavan to come here in His seventeenth year?

Bhagavan:  If that same force that took this (meaning Himself) here, should take
you also out of your home by all means let it, but there is no use of your
deserting your home by an effort of your own.  Your duty lies in practice, continuous practice of Self-inquiry.

Devotee:  Is it not necessary to seek the company of the wise, the Saints and
Sages?

Bhagavan:  Yes. But the best satsangham is inhering in your "Self".  It is also the
real guhavasam, living in the cave.  Dwelling in the cave is retiring into your
"Self". Association with the wise will certainly help a great deal.

Devotee:  I appear to get the same stillness of thought by tracing the root of the mantra which I repeat, as I would, if I put the "Who am I?" inquiry.  Is there any
harm in my continuing the mantra in this manner or is it essential I should only
use "Who am I?"

Bhagavan:  No.  You can trace the root of any thought or mantra and continue to
do still you have answer to your query.

Devotee:  What is the effect of Japas or mantras?

Bhagavan:  Diversion.  The mind is a channel, a swift current of thought and a mantra is a dam put up in the way of this current to divert the water to where it is needed.

Devotee:  Sometime, after the stillness of thought intervened, I used to hear
first some sound resembling that which one would hear "I" the midst of a rolling
mill, and then, a little later, a sound like that of a steam-engine whistle.  This was
only during meditation, when I was at home, but here the sound is heard all times, irrespective of whether I am before you or am walking round the Asramam.  (The present experience is that of the sound is like that of a humming bee.)

Bhagavan:  Ask who hears the sound.  Repeat the question now and then.

(Source:  Crumbs from the Table.  Chapter on Control of Mind.  Sri Ramananda Swarnagiri.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

SMARANAT ARUNACHALAM:


Smaranat Arunachalam is a famous saying and tells us that the mere memory
of Arunachala can bring salvation.  Bhagavan Ramana Himself has written a
Tamil poem on this under Sri Arunachala Maahatmyam (Tamizh poems).

Smaranat Ramana Maharshi - may well be added as a true supplementary saying.
I have gone to Him often during these forty years and more.  I do not know why.  Probably, I have done so because of some karma bond or vasana, or because of
some collective affinity.  Can any of us find any satisfying reason for the
deepest things of life say, for instance, birth or death or spiritual knowledge or experience of Blessedness or Holiness?  "The companionship of previous births
rooted in the depths of Unconsciousness" says the supreme poet of India, Kalidasa.

I have seen the Maharshi when He was in a small cave up the Hillside, shunning human society and wrapped in uncanny and unbroken silence.  I have seen Him when
He came a little down the Hillside and dwelt on its lower stretches.  A room with
a verandah all round took the place of the narrow dimunitive cave.  Whenever I
saw Him,. during these later days, I used to ply Him with questions about the soul
and He used to smile and give brief, bright, blessed replies dispelling doubt.
I have seen Him since a in a spacious room amidst a handsome pile of buildings
which are yet growing in number and in size.  A shrine was built in memory of
His Holy Mother, who has passed into the Beyond and become one with God.
His present abode is at the foot of the Hill.  His coming down thus from the
Hillside to the Hill base is symbolical of the new urge, the urge to commune with
God and also to build the Kingdom of God on the earth.

Was it the stately presence of the silent Hill seen through the windows that spoke
to our souls with a solemn silent stillness?

Was it the holy mood of the Master in His introverted introspection?

Was it still small voice of everyone there wrapped into a kindred mood by a
force subtle and unseen, but powerful and felt within?  We sat there, and time
rolled on while we were oblivious to its course.

Each felt a sense of inner release and was as happy as a bird.

This sense of happiness and inner peace is one that want.  And that is why they
come again and again to Him, even after His Maha Nirvana.  The abidance into
that inner happiness and peace is the seekers' want and His grace is bound to do
that for the sincere seekers.

(Source:  Arunachala's Ramana. Boundless Ocean of Grace, Volume
6, an article by Sri K.S. Ramaswami Sastri.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

In April 1943, an elderly gentleman rushed forward from the back of the Hall,
produced a pencil, wrote a question on a piece of paper and handed over it
to the Maharshi.  Bhagavan read it and smiled broadly.  It was a question on
Time and Space.

Bhagavan:  May I know who is putting this question - Space, yourself, or Time?

Visitor:  Of course, I.

Bhagavan:  Do you know that I?

Visitor: (after a little hesitation), Leave the I-question to the philosophers and
answer my question. 

Voice:  What?  Is Time or Space dearer to you than your self?

Bhagavan:  (seeing the visitor nonplussed)  All these questions are superfluous.
One thing you must bear in mind is that no question can be solved without Self Knowledge.  On the realization of the Self, everything becomes clear and all
problems are solved.


**

Bhagavan in some other contexts had said:  Time and Space are mental creations.
For a Jnani who has over come the mind, the concepts which are mental creations, have no meaning whatsoever.

**

The Vedas have said about creation theories only to make the seeker
understand the vastness of Space and Time and through this vastness, understand
the Creator.  There is no other purpose than this.

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

On 15th July 1936, Mr. Cohen reads the Sad Darsanam of Bhagavan Ramana to himself in the Old Hall.  Verse 30 fascinates him.  He reads aloud and says:
"From this Verse, I understand that the quest must start with the mind and
not the Heart, but Bhagavan always speaks of the Heart, perhaps as the last
stage in the practice."

Bhagavan: Quite so.  It has to begin with the mind turned inward to
oppose the rushing of thoughts and to understand the location of the "I".
When the mind eventually sinks in the Heart, undisturbed bliss is overwhelmingly
felt.  There is then feeling which is not divorced from Pure Awareness,
i.e head and heart become one and the same.

Mr. Cohen:  In the verse 266 of Viveka Choodamani, Sri Sankara says that
Brahman can be realized by the buddhi, (intellect), the subtle intellect, which
means that the intellect can be of great help; in fact indispensable for
Realization. 

Bhagavan:  The buddhi is rightly translated as the subtle intellect, but here
it means the Cave of the Heart.  Nevertheless, the subtle intellect, can also
realize the Brahman and is therefore of the utmost importance, (reads aloud Verse 266).

"In the Cave of the Buddhi (subtle intellect), there is the Brahman,
distinct from gross and subtle, the Existence-Absolute-Supreme,
the One without a second.  For one, who lives in this Cave of Brahman,
O Beloved, there is no more entrance into a woman's womb."

(Source:  Guru Ramana, S.S. Cohen.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

On 17th August 1948, at around 10.15 a.m. Mr. Rappold, an American devotee
opens his eyes from meditation in which he seems to have been deeply sunk
and raises his voice:

Rappold:  Bhagavan!  What should a devotee do at the time of death?

Bhagavan:  A devotee never dies, rather he is already dead.  Then He stops
and waits for a competent translator.  Devaraja Mudaliar enters.  Bhagavan
completes the answer.)  What should a devotee do at the time of death?
What can he do?  Whatever a man thinks in his life time, so he does in his last
moment -- the worldly man thinks of his worldly affairs and the devotee of devotion and spiritual matters.  But a Jnani having no thoughts of any kind, remains the same.  His thoughts, having died long ago, his body also died with them.  Therefore for
him, there is no such thing as death.

Again, people fear death, because they fear to lose their possessions.  When they
go to sleep, they do not have such fear at all.  Although, sleep resembles death
in leaving all possessions behind, it causes no fear in their hearts because of the knowledge that the next morning they will enter into their possessions once
again.  The Jnani, having no sense of possession, is entirely free from the fear
of death.  He remains the same after death as before it.

(Source:  Guru Ramana, S.S. Cohen.)

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

Once while in Skandasramam,  Mother Azahgamma told her son:
"As your father was bringing in those days, it would be nice if we
have small brinjals (blue round one, famous in Tamizh Nadu and
Karnataka), I can prepare you a nice brinjal curry with a lot of
til oil and chilly powder!"  Bhagavan Ramana smiled and told her:
"Amma!  How can you expect this beggar-son to bring you brinjals
to make brinjal curry?" 

In the evening, a villager brought a basket full of small brinjals
to Amma and Bhagavan!  Bhagavan Ramana smiled and said:
"Amma!  Have you chanted any special mantras to get brinjals?
Now, you prepare nice brinjal curry and we can eat!"

Mother knows who has willed for small brinjals to be brought to
Skandasramam. 

Once one knows the Self,
What else is there to know?

          -  Sri Bhagavan.

Arunachala Siva

[Subramanian.R]

One afternoon, an old widow, about 60 years old, came with a group of women
into the Old Hall, prostrated to Bhagavan Ramana and stood for sometime.
Bhagavan Ramana looked at her and exclaimed:  "Oh, Is it you?" - ("Subbu Kuttiya?"
in Tamizh.) The old lady became very shy and simply rushed out of the Old Hall.

Bhagavan then told the devotees:  Do you know who she is? Her family and my
family were living in Tiruchuzhi in the same house in two portions.  I used to
go into our kitchen and help my mother in some odd jobs in cooking. Amma used
to say that this girl would be married to me!  However, this girl's mother used
to say:  "O, How can I marry my daughter to this boy, who always wears a
codpiece and help his mother in cooking like a female?"

Bhagavan continued:  "Thank God, I did not marry her. There was no marriage
in my life.  Otherwise, what would have happened to me now?"     

The devotees laughed heartily, about the hidden meaning in
Bhagavan Ramana's words!

Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

More About Ramaswami Pillai:

Once a party came to have darshan of Bhagavan Ramana.  On their way,
(close to Tiruvannamalai), their motor-car met with a minor accident, where
an old lady was badly bruised.  They could not much help the situation.
They admitted her into a nearby dispensary and left some money for the
expenses and proceeded.  As soon as they came to Bhagavan Ramana, they
narrated this incident.  Bhagavan Ramana was not quite happy about the
visitors' indifference, but did not say anything.

He must have given some instructions to Ramaswami Pillai.  Sri Pillai rushed
to the hospital in his cycle, checked up with the doctors and came to know that
the old lady's bruises were not serious and she had been given necessary
cleaning up of the injuries, along with medication and she had been discharged.
Sri Pillai became peaceful.  He rushed back in cycle.  He informed Bhagavan
Ramana and also the visitors concerned, who had a sigh of relief.  He
had bicycled  about 20 miles in about 2 hours and he was quite tired but did
not show any indication of his pain in his legs and shoulders.

***

On a similar occasion, as there was already some delay to proceed to the
station and catch the train, the visitors quickly took leave of Bhagavan Ramana
and left the Asramam.  The evening supper consisting of Tiruchuzhi dosas,
could not be taken by them.  Bhagavan Ramana asked Ramaswami Pillai
to take the packet of Tiruchuzhi dosas and go to the station to deliver it to
the visitors if possible.

Sri Pillai rushed to the station and to his relief found that the train had not
yet then left.  He checked up for the compartment quickly and handed over
the packet of Tiruchuzhi dosas.   The visitors joyfully accepted the gift of
Bhagavan Ramana.  Sri Pillai also became very happy and reported the incident
when he had returned to the Asramam.

(Source:  Arunachala's Ramana, Boundless Ocean of Grace,
Volume 4)

Arunachala Siva. 

[Subramanian.R]

Namam as is called in Tamizh, means Trisurnam, which Sri Vaishnavties apply
on their foreheads.  They mark red vertical line at the midpoint of the eyebrows
and then mark two white lines on either side.  This is like applying Vibhuti by
Saivites and Advaitis.

Once a devotee asked Bhagavan Ramana whether he could mark a Namam
on His forehead.  Bhagavan Ramana said: "Why not? But ask Nayana
(Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni) to have it first. Accordingly, the white and red
sticks were placed along with a mirror beside Nayana when he was sitting
for lunch.  Nayana saw them and without murmur applied the Namam on his
forehead. Bhagavan Ramana on seeing him, applied Namam to His forehead also.

After a minute, Nayana looked at Bhagavan Ramana and asked: "Bhagavan!
What is this new Vesham, (adornment) today? Bhagavan Ramana laughed
and said:  "You have marked.  So also I have." 

Nayana was wonderstruck.  He picked up the mirror and looked at his face. 
There was a Namam, which he had marked without even thinking about it!

Everyone laughed!   Bhagavan Ramana and Nayana also joined the devotees
in hearty laughter.

(Smt. Kanakammal's Reminiscences.)

Arunachala Siva.