Parambhaktananda and Paramjyoti had just finished having tea. Their landlord's wife had sent in some food for them so they could relax their first evening. "We have to resume our earlier names, now. Enough with these spiritual names given to us by ... ahem."
And so Paramabhaktananda became Gurunathan again, and Paramjyoti became Jyoti (light).
"Now our kind landlady has sent us enough food for two days. What will we do, this will go bad.", said Jyoti.
"I shall write a letter to my brother telling him of the strange turn of events", said Gurunathan.
* * *
The elephants were merrily walking, swaying joyously, with the german family. The children were delighted. Soon they could see a group of cottages. With the little devanagari script that Volker had picked up he said aloud, "Hey that's OM!" looking at some lettering over a door.
One elephants ears suddenly shook.
"... Namo .... Ramanaya", he completed slowly reading the letter.
The elephants deposited them at the door of the cottage. Then they trumpeted loudly.
From the cottage came running out a startled Gurunathan and Jyoti.
"I am sorry," apologized Volker, "These elephants brought us here! We don't wish to disturb you, we were looking for a place to bathe before going for Bhagavan Ramana's darshan."
"Oooh, devotees of Bhagavan, you are most welcome here! From where have you come?"
"Well, we have a house over in that direction. We had gone on vacation for a few weeks. Upon returning we found it to be occupied --"
" by a mean looking Ox", interrupted Heinrich.
" and some strange people!", added Elfi.
"We thought we would bathe and then let Bhagavan know about it --"
"and then these elefinks picked up our luggage and brought us here!" shouted Heinrich.
"And one has a turban! ", shouted Elfi.
"Mama, can i keep this elefink? He shakes his head whenever anyone says Om!"
"Mama, can i keep the one with the turban?"
"I believe I know where you are coming from! We too have just come from there. In your absence your house was taken over by a swami. We too were his followers. But now we have been claimed by Lord Ramana."
"These kind elephants brought us here, too", added Jyoti.
"We were reading this book written by a lion cub when we felt Bhagavan's call", confessed Jyoti, her eyes misting at the memory of the cubs playing.
"Lion cub!", shouted Elfi.
"We saw four of them at the mansion!", added Heinrich.
"FOUR!! Yes, there were four!", said Jyoti excitedly.
"Can we keep the four cubs as pets, Mama?" implored the two children.
"Well well, won't you come in? Surely you don't want to stand outside all day?", laughed Gurunathan.
"You can have a bath and go for Bhagavan's darshan.", said Jyoti. "We can accommodate you here itself till your mansion is freed. We have enough dinner for all of us, if you don't mind Indian food!"
At the caves, Volker had written his problem on a sheet of paper. One devotee read out his note to Bhagavan, translating it to Tamil. Bhagavan gave no reply.
But for Volker and his family it was enough that Bhagavan knew. "For all you know even what has happened in our absence was orchestrated by the Lord and we accept it with peace and love", he told his wife, Helga who agreed.
For them the joy of being in Bhagavan's presence superceded all other matters. Even if they lost the mansion, they could find some other smaller arrangement here and live their lives out peacefully under the shade of Bhagavan's feet.
Little did they know that some small little prankster had spread a rumor that the police were coming in full force to the mansion, along with an army contingent. And many villagers had gathered along with them. Forest officials were coming on huge dragons and those seventeen foot tall lions everyone was terrified of would also make an appearance. Someone even reported that the matter had reached the ears of the recently coronated King George V and he was coming personally to look into the matter.
The german family had no idea that there was a mad scramble at the mansion to clear out before the mansion was raided. Money and jewelry was being madly stashed away into suitcases and placed on bullock carts to be taken to the railway station.
The german family sat there in peace, forgetting all they owned. For them all they owned was Bhagavan Ramana, and He owned them totally.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
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