Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

Bhagavan: “That is nice. Who exactly has grown thin
will be known if the weight is taken. If you like, you may eat
those fruits every day yourself. Why this for me? It is all
right; you have brought them to day, but please do not bring
them again.” So saying, Bhagavan took a few pieces and said
to his attendants, “See how lean she is! Please give her several
of these pieces and distribute the rest to the others.”
One of those who could venture to talk to Bhagavan
more freely said, “Bhagavan, you have recently very much
reduced the amount of food you take daily. It’s not good.”
“Oho!” said Bhagavan. “Who told you that? I am taking
whatever I require. What good would there be in my taking
more food and getting fat? By getting fat, do you know how
many ailments one suffers? The more you eat, the greater
will grow the strength of the ailment. If you eat just what is
necessary, ailments will be avoided.”
“Why have you given up taking even pepper-water and
buttermilk?” said another devotee.

“You enquire why?” said Bhagavan. “If you observe what
is being done when the meals are served, you yourself will
understand. Buttermilk is brought into the dining hall in big
buckets with large ladles. When taking out the buttermilk for
serving me, the ladle is full, but when the same is served to
the very next person, the ladle is only half full. When I saw
that, I got disgusted and felt that I myself should not take any
more than half a ladleful.”
“Why not at least take fruit juice?” said the devotee.

“So this has started again!” said Bhagavan. “Everyone
says the same thing. How will all that be possible for me?”
“What do you mean, Bhagavan? We get quite a lot of
fruit. Why say that it is impossible? You yourself have stated
that what is offered voluntarily can be accepted.”
“So that is it!” said Bhagavan. “If I did say that such
offerings could be accepted, did that mean that the people
around could be ignored?”
“True,” said the devotee, “but quite a lot of fruit is
received; it can be distributed to the others too.”
“All is very well,” said Bhagavan, “but where have we
the wherewithal to give them all? The fruit is shown here to
the Swami as an offering, a naivedya, and then taken away. It
is kept locked in the store room. The keys are in the charge
of the store-keeper. Who will go and ask him? In the same
way, the various articles here are in the custody of someone
or other; I have none. This is the result of being a spiritual
preceptor!” said Bhagavan smiling.

It seems that some fifteen days back, someone brought
some green pepper. Bhagavan had that pepper, some
myrobalams, acetic acid, salt and other ingredients mixed,
ground and made into little pills. Today Sivanandan came
in to enquire whether he could get the pills for Bhagavan, as
they are supposed to be good against phlegm and Bhagavan
had been using them now and then during the cold weather.

As Sivanandan had not enquired about them all these fifteen
days and is doing it only now, Bhagavan said with a laugh,
“I see, you have now remembered about them. Yes, yes, you
have been waiting to see whether I would ask for them, and
thereby test me. Were I to ask, you would say, ‘What is this?
Swami has begun to ask about everything and is worrying
us’. What am I to do? They feel that if they but salute me
once, I should thereafter do everything they want. People
say that spiritual preceptorship (swamitvam), is a matter for
happiness. But see, this is what it is to be a spiritual preceptor.

Would it not be good if a book is written on spiritual
preceptorship?”
“Bhagavan is saying something unusual,” said a devotee.

Bhagavan replying with a smile, said, “What is there
unusual about it? It is all true. ‘Swami is seated on a sofa
with a soft mattress spread on it. What is there for him to
worry about?’ That is what people think. But do they know
about our troubles? That is why I say that it would be good
for a big book to be written on spiritual preceptorship. If all
the things that have happened here during the last years
had been written in the form of a book, it would be as big as
the Mahabharatham! Anyone who cares to write it, may do so
even now!” he said.

“Who would write all that?” said a devotee.

“Why not?” said Bhagavan. “If a book recording these
events is written, all people will then know that spiritual
preceptorship consists in saying, ‘Yes, yes,’ and ‘All right, all
right’. What is the difficulty in writing about it?”
So saying, Bhagavan looked at me and with a laugh
said, “Why? If you like, you can write it!”