Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

2. Even on these birthdays that occur once a year, we ought
to lament that we have got this body and fallen into this
world. Instead we celebrate the event with a feast. To rejoice
over it is like decorating a corpse. Wisdom consists in
realising the Self and in getting absorbed therein.

“This is the purport of those verses. It appears that it
is a custom amongst a certain section of people in Malabar
to weep when a child is born in the house and celebrate a
death with pomp. Really one should lament having left one’s
real state, and taken birth again in this world, and not
celebrate it as a festive occasion.” I asked, “But what did
Iswaraswamy write?” “Oh! He! He wrote, praising me as
an Avatar (incarnation of God) and all that. That was a
pastime with him in those days. He used to compose one
verse and in return I used to compose one, and so on. We
wrote many verses, but nobody took the trouble to preserve
them. Most of the time we two were alone in those days;
there were no facilities for food etc. Who would stay?
Nowadays as all facilities are provided, many people gather
around me and sit here. But what was there in those days?
If any visitors came, they used to stay for a little while, and
then go away. That was all.”
On my request to give me a Telugu translation of those
birthday verses, he wrote one and gave it to me.