Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

The rising of the water used to start ten days earlier and
used to submerge the steps at the rate of one step per day
and become full by the full moon day. To us, it was great
fun. Some people have said that the water was not rising
properly of late. Our people went there last year to test it
and found that it was rising properly. They were thus satisfied
that what has been stated in the puranas was not untrue.”
I: “People say that on that day Ganga, Yamuna and
Saraswati also come there. Is that so?”
Bhagavan: “That is so. It has been mentioned thus in
the Sthalapurana (puranam of the place). As soon as the
Abhisheka of the Swami is over, the water goes down at the
rate of one step per day. We used to play in the Kalyana
Mandapam which is by the side of the temple. The classes of
our school were also held there for some time. You have
seen it, haven’t you?”
I: “Yes. I have seen it. It seems that one Mr. Muthirulappa
Mudali is Bhagavan’s boyhood-friend. He showed us all those
places. I have seen also the Telugu people who were living to
the right of your house. They have kept a photo of Bhagavan
and are worshipping it.”
Bhagavan: “Oh! Those people! In those days I used to be
in their house for the major portion of the day. People who were
older than myself and those of my age have all passed away by
now. Only one of them, who is younger than myself, is still alive.

I got accustomed to talking Telugu by talking with them.”
I: “Is that how you got into the habit of addressing your
father ‘Nayana’, as the Telugus do?”
Bhagavan: “No. That was through Lakshmana Iyer. He
knew Telugu very well. He taught me to call father ‘Nayana’.

After I began calling father ‘Nayana’ all the people got used
to calling him ‘Nayana’. Lakshmana Iyer was very fond of
me. While all were calling me Venkataraman, he alone used
to call me ‘Ramana’ and ‘Ramani’. Ultimately that name
became permanent.”
Rajagopala Iyer: Did Ganapati Sastri know about this
when he gave Bhagavan the name ‘Ramana Maharshi?’
Bhagavan: “No. How could he know? Long afterwards,
during some conversation, I myself told him about this. That’s
all.”
I: “Was Lakshmana Iyer living in the house to the left
of your house?”
Bhagavan: “No, no. He was living for some time in the
left portion of our house. He came there because he was
transferred to that place. He was employed for a long time
in Andhra Desa, and that is how he was able to speak Telugu
well. He was afraid that he might forget it, and so, used to
speak to me in Telugu only. The family of Karpura Sundara
Bhattar, who now performs pujas in our house, were living
even then in the house next to ours. The father of Karpura
Sundara Bhattar is still alive. You saw him, didn’t you?”
I: “Yes. I saw him. He has become very old.”
Bhagavan: “He is, however, two or three years younger
than myself. He had two or three stepbrothers older than
myself. They used to tease him always. One day he got a
sugarcane and a knife, and as he could not cut it himself, he
requested his brothers to help him, but they went away
without heeding his request. He began weeping. I felt sorry
for him. I took the sugarcane and tried to cut it. My finger
got cut and began to bleed. Even so, I felt sorry for him
because he was weeping and was a little fellow, so somehow
I managed to cut the cane into pieces. I tied my finger with
a wet cloth; the bleeding, however did not stop. I was called
for food as it was meal time. I went and sat but could not use
my hand for mixing the food; father mixed it for me. He
had my finger bandaged afterwards. He enquired and found
out what had happened. That cut did not heal up for about
a month.”
I: “So help and sympathy have been natural to Bhagavan
from boyhood itself?”
Bhagavan: “That is all right. What is there in that?” So
saying and changing the topic, Bhagavan said again, “They
are priests, you see. So, when it was their turn to do the puja
of the Kalayar Temple, they used to prepare the food at
home and send it to the temple through the boys. Sometimes
I used to go there with the boys. We used to bathe in the
Koundinya River, pour a vessel-full of water on the Linga in
the temple, offer the food by way of Nivedana and then eat
it. The children in the Pallematam, a village adjacent to the
temple, used to join us there. We used to play together till
nightfall and then go home.”
I: “Sundaramurthi used to live there, didn’t he?”
Bhagavan: “Yes. He went up on the Jyotirvanam(vehicle
of Light) from there only.”
I: “What did you do when the river was full? Was there
another way?”
Bhagavan: “No. That is the only way. But then the river
usually had water only up to the waist. If at any time there
were floods, we used to go by boat. On such occasions the
boys were not sent. The elders themselves used to go. The
floods used to subside in a few days. Did you not bathe
there?”
I: “We did bathe. We do not know why, but the water had
some bad smell and so it was no good for drinking.”
Bhagavan: “That is true. The water is no good for
drinking. As it is supposed to have some sulphur in it which is
good for skin diseases, people bathe in it. That’s all. It is stated
in one of the puranas that a king by name Somaseethala bathed
in it and got cured of leprosy. Once when I had an itch, mother
made me bathe in it every day. That is a jivavahini (perennial),
a river with water flowing in it throughout the year. Even in
the worst summer, water will be flowing in some corner or
other. It seems that when Koundinya was doing tapas in that
place, there was no water and so he prayed to Siva for it. It
was then that the river was born as a perennial stream and
flowed under the name ‘Papahari’ (destroyer of sins). As it was
born for the sake of Koundinya, it was also known as
Koundinya River.”
I: “It is stated in Ramana Leela, that that place is known
as Koundinya Kshetra. Is it so?”
Bhagavan: “Yes, yes. As Koundinya performed tapas at
that place, somebody wrote that Jnanasambandha was born
into their family. That is also stated in the Ramana Leela.”
I: “If that is so, Sambandar belongs to the Koundinya
Gothra?”
Bhagavan: “Yes. That is why our Venkatakrishnayya wrote
down his name in the Ramana Leela as ‘Krishna Koundinya.’
He wrote that Bhagavan was born in Koundinya Kshetra, the
river is Koundinya, the chief disciple Ganapati Muni is a
Koundinya. Several people think that Bhagavan in his previous
birth was Jnanasambandar, as Jnanasambandar was Koundinya
and all Koundinyas are Vasishtas and all people of the Vasishta
family are Advaitins, and so Swami belongs to that family. That
is how it is stated in Ramana Leela. ‘I wrote the biography of
Ramana and so I am a Koundinya; so we all belong to the same
family tree, the same Advaitin family’. That is how Krishnayya
writes in the biography.” So saying, Bhagavan smiled.

I: “Oh! That is the theory?”
Bhagavan: “Yes. That is so. Ganapati Sastri and his
disciples write their gothra first. Krishnayya is one of the
disciples. That is also another reason.”
A devotee: “That Kshetra Puranam (purana of the place)
has not been written in detail.”
Bhagavan: “No. It seems it is mentioned in a portion of
Skanda Puranam itself. There is a manuscript in Sanskrit and
also, a brief puranam in Tamil. In Jyotirvana Mahatmyam also,
there are some stories here and there in Tamil, relating to the
kshetra. It would be good if somebody were to put them all
together and write them in prose.”
Rajagopala Iyer: “Viswanatha Brahmachari might
perhaps do it?”
Bhagavan: “Who knows? He must agree to look into all
those puranams and write it.”
Devotee: “We should tell him and see.”
Bhagavan: “All right. Do it.”
As soon as Viswanatha Brahmachari came that evening,
Bhagavan told him with a smile that all the devotees felt that
it would be good if he wrote the Trisula Pura Mahatmyam
(Tiruchulipuranam) in prose. It was only after this that
Viswanatha Brahmachari went through all the relative
puranas, with the help of Bhagavan, translated the relative
portions and wrote the Trisula Pura Mahatmyam in Tamil
prose. It was immediately published. Naganarya wrote it in
verse in Telugu. That has not been published yet.