Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

Knowing that he takes photographs, some people from here
arranged to get the elephant which lives in the Thousand-
pillared Mandapam in Arunachaleswarar Temple and keep
it in the open space by the side of the Jubilee Hall. Bhagavan
on his return from the bathroom stood by the side of the
elephant and was giving it a feed, when that American took
a photo. Yesterday morning, after 10 o’clock, someone
brought the photo to Bhagavan, to show it to him. All people
began to see it with some curiosity. They were talking amongst
themselves about something that was written on the back of
that photo. As I did not understand what all they were talking
about, I asked Bhagavan about it quietly in a low tone.

Bhagavan: “Nothing particular. On the back of the
photo it is written, ‘A big Self which does not know the body
and a big body which does not know the Self are at one
place’.”
Devotee: “What exactly could be his idea in writing thus?”
Bhagavan: “That is easy. Though that elephant has such
a big body it does not know the Self. For that reason, whatever
food is given to it, it stands there dissatisfied trumpeting
unceasingly. Perhaps because of that or for some other reason,
it is stated to be a big body without knowing the Self. I stood
there somehow with a shaky body; so again, perhaps because
of that or for any other reason, it is stated that I am the ‘Big
Self not knowing the body’. That might be his idea.”
Devotee: “That is true. Bhagavan always appears
unconcerned about the body, does he not?”
Bhagavan (with a smile): “That’s it. That’s it. Chintha
Dikshitulu has written saying that I am like a statue in the
Madras Museum. Sowris has written saying that I am like a
celluloid doll. People say something or other.”
Devotee: “I suppose Jada Bharata also used to appear
as though he was not concerned about the body.”
Bhagavan: “What you say is true.”
Devotee: “Is it because he was a big Self who did not
know his body that he got the name Jada Bharatha?”
Bhagavan: “What else could it have been? It cannot
mean that he was lying down inertly like an inanimate being.

It means that he was the personification of the Self who did
not care for his body.”
As an illustration of this Bhagavan himself in his early
days was sitting in the Arunachala Temple compound either
under a Madhuka (Iluppai) tree or in a flower garden or in the
vehicles’ mandap or here and there without caring for his body.

People who were coming and going, used to say, “He is sitting
like a jada (dull-witted person); he must be a mad fellow,” and
they never paid any attention to him. And Bhagavan has told
us several times that he used to be amused at such talk and
wish such madness would overtake all people. Not only that,
when under the instructions of the Sarvadhikari, Kunjuswami
was serving Bhagavan as an attendant, he found Bhagavan’s
body and head were shaking and faltering and so, when there
was no one else there but close disciples, he asked Bhagavan,
“Bhagavan, although only in middle age, strangely enough,
has a shaking of the head and of the body necessitating the aid
of a stick for walking. What could be the reason for it?” Bhagavan
replied, it seems, with a smile, “What is there so strange in it? If
a big elephant is tied down in a small hut, what else will happen
to that hut except troubles of all sorts? This is the same.”
Do you see what profound meaning there is in those
words? Without revealing this meaning to all people, he says
humorously now and then, “Do you see? While all of you
have two legs, I have three.”
It is said in Mahavakya Ratnamala about a Jnani:
ANxv3⁄4fv1⁄2aip mUkv1⁄2 mhI—cret!,
He conducts himself in the world as a blind or a dull or a
dumb man.