Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

In 1942, Gurram Subbaramayya sent here an old copy
of Amuktamalyada written by Krishnadevaraya with a request
to the Ashram that Bhagavan should read it and that
thereafter it should be kept in the Ashram library. The covers
of the book were loose, soiled and badly torn. Bhagavan
immediately set the whole thing properly, bound it neatly,
pasted a white paper on the cover, wrote the name in bold
letters that appeared better than print, drew a line with red
ink under it, made it look like a new book and passed it on
to me saying, “See how it looks now.” The book was as
beautiful as a newly-married bride and so I wrote some verses
about it and reverently placed them in the hands of
Bhagavan.

Sometime in June or July 1943, you remember, I was
entrusted with the writing work relating to all Telugu matters
in the presence of Bhagavan. In those days when paper was
scarce because of the World War, I brought from your house
all the typed papers relating to your book on banking, as
they were typed only on one side and so could be used for
writing on the back. I used those papers to copy, in Telugu
script, the Ramana Puja Vidhanam written in nagari script
and prepared by Jagadeeswara Sastri. Bhagavan saw it and
asked me where I had got the paper from. I told him the
facts. “You have done a good thing. Others would merely
throw away such papers. We can use them for rough work. I
always use paper which is thrown away as useless by others.

When pages are written only on one side, the written sides
could be pasted together so that the unwritten sides of the
page could be used profitably and bound together into a
new book. We did like that quite a number of times. Why
allow them to go waste?” said Bhagavan.

A devotee enquired if it was a fact that Bhagavan had
picked up sheets of paper that were thrown away in a dustbin
by Nayana and had bound them all together into a book.

Bhagavan replied saying, “Yes, that is a fact. You know,
Nayana was with us for some time in Palakothu. When he
was going away from there, he threw away all the waste sheets.

He was accustomed to writing only on about a half of a sheet
and leaving the rest blank. There are quite a number of
books which are half-written like that by him. When that is
so with books, would he care for mere sheets? A number of
such sheets were thrown in the dustbin. After taking food in
the noon, Madhava and myself went out as usual and noticed
the heap. As we did not like to waste them, we picked out
the useful sheets, cut them suitably, stitched them together
into a book and kept it carefully. That was almost like a newly-
bound book. After sometime Nayana returned and wanted
a notebook to write something. I asked Madhava to give
him that bound-book and he gave it. I kept silent, laughing
to myself. However, Madhava said, ‘Nayana, these are the
sheets of paper which you threw away as useless. Bhagavan
saw them and asked me to pick out the useful ones, which I
did, and bound them into this notebook.’ Nayana was very
much surprised. I usually stitch notebooks with such papers
only,” said Bhagavan.