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A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi
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sad at this mishap, as everybody felt that the betel did help the body to bear its pain. But what did the health of the body matter, he would say. “The body itself is the worst sickness.”
Bhagavan always radiated tremendous peace, but on those occasions when crowds were attracted to the Ashram such as Jayanthi, Mahapooja, Deepam and such functions, this increased to an extraordinary degree. The numbers seemed to call up some reserve of hidden force, and it was a great experience to sit with him at such times. His eyes took on a far-away look and he sat absolutely still as if unconscious of his surroundings, except for an occasional smile of recognition as some old devotee prostrated.
Bhagavan never encouraged people who came and started to confess their sins. He would not allow them to continue but shut them up by telling them not to dwell on the past but to find out who they were now in the present. The point was not the act but attachment to it that mattered. Dwelling on it in retrospect was the worst thing they could possibly do. This itself was attachment.
After three months I moved into a room that had been built for me at the far end of the Ashram and here Bhagavan came for the opening ceremony. He sat for a short time while the Vedas were chanted by some Patasala boys from town. Our own Patasala was not opened until 1937.
In March 1939 Somerset Maugham came to the Ashram. Many accounts have been given of his visit and all of them different. As I was the principal person
