33. ESTABLISHMENT OF
SRI RAMANASRAMAM
FOR some days after Alagamma's samadhi people stayedclose by. They had to fetch water from Paliteertham
with great difficulty. Observing this, Bhagavan dug into
the soil at a moist place and there was a spring. A larger
pit was dug and enough water was obtained . This came
to be known as Ramanateertham or aghasamanam.
Daily pooja had to be performed for the
Matrubhuteswara linga. The samadhi was in the midst of a
graveyard and close to a forest where leopards roamed about
in the night. After the first ten days it was difficult to find
anyone to stay at the samadhi. Therefore, Niranjanananda
Swami would come down from Skandasramam every day
to perform pooja. In course of time he also found this to be
difficult. A few days later he erected a thatched roof over
the samadhi and began staying there, Dandapaniswami
joined him after a few months. He was energetic enough
to collect funds to get part of the forest cleared and the
ground levelled. The Maharshi also would visit the place
every day. Meanwhile, the jayanti of Bhagavan neared.
Dandapani wished to celebrate the jayanti at the samadhi.
A week before the jayanti Bhagavan visited the samadhi
and stayed back. Nobody knew the reason for it, though a
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few speculated that it was for the convenience of the visitors
who found it difficult to visit him and serve him atop the
hill. But the real reason was quite different. Bhagavan himself
said that one morning when he came out of Skandasramam
some irresistible power dragged him down and that he came
down even forgetting for the moment that back at
Skandasramam the ashramites would be waiting for him at
meal time. "Did I come here of my own volition? Not at
all, it was due to the will of something else," said Bhagavan.
Earlier, the power of Arunachala drew him to this place,
now the power of Amba residing in Matrubhuteswara must
have done similarly.
Quite surprisingly, from that day on, the influence
of that sakti became manifest in all activities. It was as if
in the presence of Bhagavan that power acted just as prakriti [?]
would in the presence of purusha! Its first job was to
transform the face of the Ashram itself.
To start with, there was only one hut at the samadhi
but in 1924 two huts, one opposite the samadhi and the
other to the north of that got erected. For bathing, the
waters of Paliteertham and for pooja the waters of
Ramanateertham were used. As for food, several devotees
from the town came with offerings; in addition, some
vessels were also donated to enable the Ashram to have a
kitchen. People also donated money. Books like Ramana Geeta
were sold at a book shop called Ramaneeya
Granthalaya and the proceeds given to the Ashram.
Dandapani and others utilised that money for buying
vessels and food articles. No money could be saved.
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With all this, the Ashram did face difficulties. On
any given day at least ten persons dined there. This practice
gave ideas to a group of robbers. They thought that the
Ashram was affluent; so on the night of June 26, 1924
they came for a robbery. Earlier also some robbers had
entered the pooja room and decamped with whatever they
could lay their hands on. But the present gang was made
of sterner stuff.
The Swami was resting in the hut opposite the
samadhi and a few disciples rested near the windows of
the hut. On hearing some noise, Kunjuswami and Mastan
resting near the window woke up. They heard voices
outside saying, "There are six people inside." "Who's, out
there?," shouted Mastan. The response was a shattering
sound of the window panes. The disciples were terrified
and sought the safety of the Swami's proximity and went
close to him. The objective of the robbers was to terrify
them. The Maharshi was unmoved and unperturbed.
Kunjuswami opened the door in the north and
brought RamakrishnaSwami resting in the northern hut
for help. With the opening of the doors, the dogs Jack
and Karuppan rushed out and began barking . The thieves
beat them up. Karuppan, already sick, returned to the
hut, Jack ran away somewhere.
Bhagavan and Kunjuswami said to the thieves, "
There is nothing much for you to take from here, you
may as well come in and take whatever you wish." But
the thieves did not want to do so, they began removing a
window. Kunjuswami was a youth and was all excitement.
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He said that he would go out and beat up the thieves and
started to move towards the southern door. Bhagavan
prevented him saying, "They are carrying out their
dharma. Let them do what they please. Our dharma [?] is to
be tolerant and we should not leave it." Kunju was pacified.
The increasing tolerance of the ashramites only spurred
the thieves into further activity. To create the impression
that they had firearms they blasted a fire cracker. The
ashramites responded, "Do not mind Kunju's words, come
in and take whatever you want." On getting to know the
name of one of the inmates, the thieves threatened that
they would harm Kunju. By then Kunju had left by the
northern door to the town to fetch some help.
Ramakrishna said to the thieves, "Why all this fuss?
Do come in and take whatever you want." Fools that
they were, the thieves said they would set fire to the
thatched roof. The Maharshi responded saying that there
was no need for any such thing and that he and his disciples
would go out of the hut. That was what the thieves wanted
and agreed to that proposal. The Maharshi was concerned
about Karuppan the dog and directed Ramakrishna to
take away the dog to a place of safety, which Ramakrishna
did. Before he returned Bhagavan accompanied by
Mastan, Thangavelu Pillai and Munuswamy Iyer came
out of the northern door. The thieves were there by then
and beat up each one of them with sticks as they emerged
from the hut. They hurt the Maharshi on the left thigh.
To this the Maharshi said "If you are not satisfied, you
may strike the other thigh also." The thieves did not
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hesitate to do so but meanwhile Ramakrishna returned
and warded off the blows with his hands. Slowly, he
escorted the Maharshi to the northern hut. All the
ashramites gathered there. The thieves ordered them to
stay there and not stir out. The Swami replied, "The hall
is yours now, do whatever you please."
One of the thieves came back and demanded a
lantern. At Bhagavan's behest, Ramakrishna provided one.
A little later another fellow came and demanded the keys
of the cupboard. But Kunju had taken the keys with him
already which information was passed on to the thieves.
Thereupon they broke open the cupboard. All that they
could get were a razor, a few silver pooja items, a little rice
and six rupees saved by Thangavelu. Naturally the thieves
were disappointed and showed it; one of them raised a
stick and threatening Bhagavan, said "Where have you
kept all your money?" "We are poor sannyasis, we survive
on what others give us. We never had any money at all,"
said Bhagavan. However much the thieves pressed, that
was the only reply they could get. The thieves left
disappointed.
The Swami suggested to Ramakrishna that he should
apply an ointment and obtain some relief from the pain.
When Ramakrishna asked the Swami what had happened
to him, he replied "I have also had the pooja." Ramakrishna
then noticed the injury on Bhagavan's thigh. He was
enraged, and picking up an iron rod he began going out
saying, "I will go there and see what those fellows are upto."
Bhagavan grasped his intention and said, "We should not
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give up our sadhu-dharma. If you go there and hit someone
may die in the fracas. People will blame us and rightly too.
Those thieves are ignorant and do not know what they are
doing whereas we who can discriminate between dharma [?]
and adharma should not leave dharma. If by accident, the
tongue gets bitten do you remove all the teeth?" So saying
Bhagavan pacified Ramakrishna. By about two o'clock the
thieves left the Ashram.
Thereafter Bhagavan sat with his disciples, in the
northern cottage and was discussing peacefully a Vedantic
subject, as if nothing had happened till then. A little later,
Kunju returned accompanied by the village `Maniam'
(administrative official), Ramakrishna Iyer, and two police
constables. The police made enquiries about the robbery.
Very casually, Bhagavan replied "Some ignorant fools tried
to rob the Ashram expecting a lot but returned
disappointed, empty-handed". The police noted the
statement and left. Munuswami, a boy who stayed at the
Ashram ran behind the police and told them that the thieves
beat up Bhagavan. `Maniam' also gave a statement at the
police station. The following morning a group of police
officials — the Deputy Superintendent, the Circle Inspector,
the Sub Inspector and the Head Constable visited the
Ashram to make enquires. Bhagavan did not tell anyone
about the injuries inflicted on him. Neither then nor ever
after did Bhagavan utter a single harsh word about the
thieves. He never even recollected it. A few days later the
thieves who were criminal tribals were caught along with
the stolen articles and were sentenced to imprisonment.
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By 1926, a few more constructions took place. Along
with this expansion squabbles arose among the disciples
as to who should manage the affairs of the Ashram. How
true it is to say that the desire to exercise power is as
strong as the desire to earn money and have possessions.
By 1930, a situation arose where nobody bothered about
the impending Jayanthi of Bhagavan and doubts arose
whether the Ashram would survive at all. A few disciples
gathered and decided that Niranjanananda Swami should
be the sarvadhikari (Chief Executive). But some others
filed a suit in a court against this. To avoid further problems
some devotees prevailed upon Bhagavan to execute a
power-of-attorney in favour of Niranjanananda Swami
and a will specifying how the management of the Ashram
should be carried on. There was no dearth of people who
were keen to cause problems for the Ashram even later .
After Niranjanananda Swami became the sarvadhikari
in 1930, the construction activity in the Ashram was
spectacular. Several buildings like the office, the book
depot, the store room, the dining hall, the guest room,
the Veda pathasala, and the goshala were constructed the
last named, largely because of Lakshmi the cow who
became a sort of an adopted daughter of the Ashram.
As time passed, facilities for visitors and inmates of
the Ashram were added. Notable among these was the
guest house built by the Raja of Morvi across the road
opposite the Ashram.
Narasimhaswami was one of those who came to pursue
his sadhana. He built himself a small cottage at a grove, to
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the west of the Ashram known as Palakothu. At Palakothu
there was a perennial spring, the Agastyateertham.
The entire family of Aurobindo Bose of Bangalore
was devoted to Bhagavan. They settled down at Arunachala
close to the Ashram. They acquired a large piece of land,
built four cottages and named the compound as
Mahasthana. Those cottages were meant chiefly for
westeners who were finding it inconvenient to stay at the
Ashram.
Adjacent to Mahasthana three cottages were put up
by McIver. Similarly, other compounds arose like the
Chettiar compound and Gounder compound. Thus was
formed Ramananagar. Maybe this was decided upon by
Bhagavan much earlier.
Both Chadwick an Englishman and Devaraja
Mudaliar who were disciples of Bhagavan built rooms for
themselves in the Ashram compound itself. Adjacent to
their rooms Yogi Ramaiah and Subbarama Reddy
constructed their rooms. All these four were close to the
flower garden lying to the west of the hall where Bhagavan
stayed.
A dispensary also had come up to the north east of
the flower garden to cater to the medical needs of visitors
and Ashram inmates. Ashramites also spent substantial
amounts in renovating Paliteertham and built steps to
approach the waters. A library housing numerous volumes
in various languages was also established.
Huge sums were needed to build all these. The
ashramites never sought any donations, also they had no
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capital to start with. The amounts given unasked by
visitors, and the amounts received by the sales of Ashram
publications constituted the main sources. There were a
number of devotees who served in the Ashram expecting
no return. Actually, Ashram employees were few; the
devotees got nothing in return but Bhagavan's grace. Work
always would go on from four in the morning to about
eleven in the night. With the passage of time, providing
food for unexpected guests ceased to be a problem.