Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

With overflowing affection and love, Bhagavan drew them
near him, saying, “Come dears! Come! You won’t go back?
You wish to stay on here? All right, stay on; a cage will be
coming.” As he thus petted them with affection, they became
absolutely quiet, closed their eyes as if they were in samadhi,
and stayed on there without moving this way or that.

Bhagavan thereupon keeping them on his lap stopped petting
them, and with his gracious eyes fixed on them, sat in silence,
deeply immersed in samadhi.

It took nearly an hour for the devotees in the Ashram
to find and bring a cage for them. The wonder of it is, all
through that one hour, the pigeons sat in Bhagavan’s lap
without moving one way or the other as if they were a pair
of yogis in samadhi. What could we say about their good
fortune? Is it not the result of their punya in previous births
that this great sage should seat them on his lap, cajole them
by patting them from the head down to the feet with his
hands, bless them and thereby bestow on them divine bliss?
Not only that, when the cage was brought in, Bhagavan
patted them cajolingly and put them in the cage, saying,
“Please go in. Be safe in the cage.” Then Bhagavan said,
“In the Bhagavatham, pigeons also are stated to be in the
hierarchy of Gurus, in the chapter relating to Yadu
Samvadam. I remember having read that story long ago.”
While the pigeons were on his lap, one devotee came
and asked, “What is this?” Bhagavan said, without attachment
but assuming responsibility, “Who knows? They come, and
decline to go back. They say they will stay here only. Another
family has come up on me, as if what I already have is not
enough.”
Dear brother, it is very interesting to witness these
strange happenings. It is said that in olden days Emperor
Bharatha renounced the world and performed great tapas
(meditation), but towards the end of his life he could think
only of his pet deer and so was born a deer in his next life.

In Vedanta Sastras, in the Bharatham and Bhagavatham there
are many stories like this. Bhagavan had told us long ago:
“Any living being that comes to me, it is only to work out the
balance of its karma. So don’t prevent anyone from coming
to me.” When I looked at those pigeons, it occurred to me
that they might be great saints who had fallen from their
austerity in meditation; otherwise, how could they get into
the lap of Bhagavan, a privilege which is impossible for
ordinary people? In canto V of Bhagavatham there is a verse
which says that people born in Bharatavarsha are blessed,
since Hari has come there a number of times as an avatar
and blessed them by His precepts, help and guidance. The
above incident is an illustration of this, is it not? What do
you say?