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72. A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi detached point of view, as the witness and not as the doer. That was the purpose of life, and Sadhana consisted exactly in that.
Bearing directly on the above let me quote from Devaraja Mudaliar's My Recollections:
“The only freedom man has is to strive for and acquire the Jnana which will enable him not to identify himself with the body. The body will go through the actions rendered inevitable by Prarabdha and man is free to identify himself with the body and be attached to the fruits of his actions, or to be detached from it and a mere witness of its activities.
To attain to such detachment Bhagavan taught the method of Self-enquiry, “Who am I?”. When we have succeeded in that, we will see actions as no longer ours but as just a necessary working of the whole.
Bhagavan was never strong, at least not after about thirty years of age. This was no doubt owing to the strain he inflicted on his body in the early years in Tiruvannamalai. For years he suffered from asthma and a photograph taken at Skandasramam shows him as little more than a skeleton. Suddenly after fifteen years, for no apparent reason, the asthma left him almost entirely, he told me. But he was always liable to bad colds and had frequent digestive trouble. Later he had more and more difficulty in walking. Innumerable oils were tried and he was massaged morning and evening, but with little effect.
One early morning in April 1942, when Bhagavan was returning from his walk on the Hill after breakfast,
