Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

The other day when I went to the Ashram in the
afternoon Bhagavan was telling the devotees near him about
the peacock. “Look! A merchant manufacturing matchboxes
brought a little deer called Valli and went away similarly leaving
it here. It used to be roaming about in the Ashram. When
Bengalgram dhal and mura muras were mixed together and
placed in a plate, it used to eat all the dhal without spilling
even a grain outside, leaving the mura muras. After some time
when it began going to the forest with the goat-herds, people
who knew that it belonged to the Ashram used to bring it
back here. Subsequently, it used to come back of its own
accord. So we let it go. One day, when some panchamas broke
its leg, hoping to kill and eat it, a person who knew that it
belonged to the Ashram took pity on it and brought it back,
carrying it all the way. It was bleeding. We nursed it but
without success and after some days it breathed its last in my
lap. Annamalaiswami and I built a samadhi near the steps on
the side of the hill yonder.”
Astonished at this, I said, “We see here ourselves what
the ancients said that in Bharatakhanda (India) God comes
down as an Avatar and gives moksha to animals and birds also.”
As the peacock had run away somewhere, Krishnaswami
caught it and brought it back. Bhagavan, placing his hand
on its neck and stroking it up to the heart with the other
hand, said “You naughty chap, where did you go? How can
we manage to look after you if you go away like this? Please
don’t. There will be cruel animals elsewhere. Why not stay
on here?” Thus he cajoled it.

For a long time after that it did not go out of the Ashram
but learnt to go about the various cottages within the Ashram
compound. Seeing that, Bhagavan used to say, “It is now like
the Sarvadhikari.” This afternoon at 2-30 when I went there,
the radio was playing and the electric fan was revolving. The
peacock sat by the side of the radio, with closed eyes as if it
was immersed in dhyana. Seeing that, one person said, “See
how carefully it is listening.” Bhagavan said, “Yes. The peacocks
are very fond of music, especially if it is from the flute.”
“Though this peacock is white, it is the other peacocks
that are really beautiful,” someone said. Pointing to the
peacock, Bhagavan said, “If it is like this, it has a beauty of its
own. Those peacocks have many beautiful colours. This is
pure white without the mixture of any other colours. That
means it is suddha satva (pure self) without the mixture of
other gunas (attributes). See, in Vedantic language, the peacock
also can be taken as an example. Even the other peacocks do
not have so many colours at birth. They have only one colour.

As they grow up, they get many colours. When their tails grow,
they have any number of eyes. See how many colours and
how many eyes! Our mind also is like that. At birth, there are
no perversities. Subsequently, there will be many activities and
ideas, like the colours of the peacock.”