an unexpected start to the day

In the morning, Volker and Helga were woken up by the happy laughter of Elfi and Heinrich. For a moment they wondered where they were, and then it all came back to them ... the little cottage of the kind Bhagavan devotees.

"That's my elefink! Mine has the turban."
"And there's mine!"
"Mine's beckoning me with his trunk."
"Mine is trumpeting for me to come to him."
"Even if Mama and Papa do not allow us to keep the elefinks, maybe the elefinks will keep us!"

The elephants' invitation to come out and play was irresistible. Elfi and Heinrich ran outside.

"Children! Children!" called their mother. "You have not even washed your faces to greet the day! Come back!"

But by the time Helga had run outside after them, the children were quite a distance away, riding on the elephants. Volker came running out too.

"So much has changed since we left just a few weeks ago on our trip ... our home taken over by Swami Namechangeananda and his crew ... our children making friends with some young elephants ... Come on, we'd better try to catch up."

Before long a much bigger elephant came along and knelt down for them to get on.

"A sympathetic mother, helping us catch up," said Helga, getting on without a second thought.

"How can you tell?" asked Volker.

"Oh, I just can," said Helga with a knowing smile, and sure enough, the mother elephant took them straight to a pond where the young elephants were giving the little humans a shower with their trunks.

"They must have heard you say we had not washed our faces," said Elfie, water streaming down her face. "This is much better than being washed with a scratchy old face cloth."

"You have not had breakfast either!" said Helga, who liked things to be orderly.

At this, the little elephant who always did cute things with his ears when he heard the word Om went over to a chest, hidden behind a rock, and brought it back. The elephant with the binoculars opened it.

Helga gasped. Inside was a complete breakfast, enough for both humans and elephants. There was a big flask of fresh buttermilk, and a box labeled (with quite young handwriting) Ramana Munch, and another labeled Krishna Krunch.



The children tried it and declared it the tastiest breakfast they had ever eaten.

A wonderful evening together

Volker and his family had returned from Bhagavan's darshan. Nothing had been spoken but his family knew that the Lord had heard them, and His decision, whatever it was, was welcomed by them.

They enjoyed the south indian meal prepared by the landlady. Jyoti had purchased some appalams (paapadums) in their absence and prepared them. They enjoyed the crisp pappadums.

Gurunathan narrated in brief what they had been through with a lot of help from Jyoti. Jyoti took over at the part when they began reading the book "Have Love For All Creatures". The german family listened with great interest to the stories about Bhagavan and the lion cubs. Then Volker and Helga told them more about Bhagavan. They kept talking late into the night.

Gurunathan and Jyoti knew very little of Bhagavan. They were eager to hear every detail of his life. Tears flowed quite freely as they heard about young Venkataraman's journey. Heinrich and Elfi would add in details about his childhood days. It seemed they did not want to come to the part of Bhagavan growing up! Stories about young Venkat sleeping while he was carried away often beaten up were told in great detail by the children.

The children enacted the death experience of Bhagavan. Gurunathan and Jyoti were completely confused about the order of events since the children kept hijacking the flow and going back into childhood, or forward into the later years.

Now suddenly from Venkat being picked up while asleep in school, they jumped to the times when He sat still for weeks in the various temples and was lifted and carried from one to another by devotees.

"When will I have my death experience?", demanded Elfi.
"I can't wait!!!", shouted Heinrich. Everyone laughed and dabbed their eyes upon hearing this.
"I am going to go to Bhagavan first thing tomorrow and ask him for it!", declared Elfi.
"I intend having mine tonight itself!", said Heinrich not to be left behind.

For Gurunathan and Jyoti, the past was something dark they wanted to forget, while the future was blank and unfathomable. They had no idea where Bhagavan would take them. They were melting rapidly but where would this melting take them, they did not know. It had all happened so suddenly, like just moments ago.

For Volker and Helga, Bhagavan had been a part of their every moment for many years, and would always be. The past and future and present were one, one happy continuity, whichever way they looked all they could see was Bhagavan. They were beginning to get past that point when one believed Bhagavan Ramana to be limited to one body, and so they knew deep down that Bhagavan was always with them wherever they were. They were beginning to see and know Him in everything. They had sunk so deep into Bhagavan that they were always in a state of deep peace. That maddening desire to be liberated which had caused so much pain had melted along with all other desires.

Heinrich and Elfi dozed off listening to stories of Bhagavan. Seeing this, the parents decided it was time to sleep too. Tomorrow would be a long day.

The germans have Bhagavan's darshan

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.

more surprises at the mansion

"What is the meaning of this, Volker?" demanded Helga.

Volker looked maddeningly innocent. What an act! she thought.

"Er, Dmitri ... umm ... great to see you ... but how did you get in?" asked Volker.

"How did I get in? Why, through the front door. Heavens, that seems an age ago!"

Helga began tapping her foot impatiently. A foot swollen from such long flights. "Who minds this foot pain?" she tried to ask silently, but a wave of anger broke right over the question and she shouted, "Volker! How dare you invite people without asking me!"

"I didn't invite him," said Volker.

Could he possibly be telling the truth?

Helga noticed Elfi and Heinrich leaning out of the window. "Stop that! Were you raised in a barn? Where are your manners?"

Instead of flinching, both Elfi and Heinrich turned to her with huge happy smiles and said, "We are trying to see where the lions and leopard went. Can we invite them for supper?"

Helga felt she was about to go into a screaming fit at any second.

"I expect you are longing to fall at Swamimiracleananda's feet!" said Dmitri in a jolly voice, trying to lighten things up.

"What?" asked the whole German family.

"Why are you calling Bhagavan that?" asked Elfi. "He never takes credit for miracles."

Dmitri looked baffled. "Never? It is one of his favourite topics! Just this morning he said he could make vibhuti pour out of his murtis into the hands of his devotees. Big heaps of it!"

"He would never say such a thing!" said little Heinrich.

"Be polite to our guest," corrected Volker, but turning back to Dmitri, he said, "I'm afraid Heinrich is right ... Bhagavan would not say that."

There was a sudden bang from the next room.

"What? Are there more people here than you?" asked Helga in alarm.

"Well, of course Swami Miracleananda himself," said Dmitri.

"Stop calling Bhagavan that ridiculous name!" said Elfi sternly. "And where is Bhagavan's picture?"

Her family realised that the beautiful photograph of Bhagavan that used to hang beside the Arunachala-facing window was missing!

"And what do you mean he lives here?" asked Heinrich. "Once a little girl asked him to go and visit at her house, and he said he could not, because then people would not know where to find him."

There was another much louder crash from the living room.

"Goodness!" said Dmitri. "Just let me check on his holiness. You wait here ..."

The family looked at each other, totally bewildered.

In the next room, Dmitri found Swami Miracleananda trying to struggle out the window!



"Wait! Wait!" Dmitri shouted.

But Miracleananda seemed absolutely determined to leave right away.

The cubses could not resist a small peak in the door. From the living room, they could hear the sounds of crunching window-frame and Dmitri's pleas.



They dashed to a hiding spot behind a big tree. From there, they saw Miracleananda suddenly leap through the enlarged window and run away at quite a clip.

It was later reported that he went straight to the train station. To each person he encountered on the way, he explained, "This mountain is not sacred enough to welcome my divinity ... I must journey on, in search of a place whose sacredness is on a par with my own."

Just who is this Swami Thisananda ?

Dmitri and Volker were both very surprised to see each other. Dmitri had never mentioned to Volker that he had joined Swami Blissananda's cult. Volker had never mentioned to Dmitri that he was going on a vacation with his family and his mansion would be empty.

Then Dmitri smiled and asked Volker, "Volker, I had no idea you were a devotee of Blissananda. How wonderful."
"Swami who ?" asked Volker.
"Oh, don't you know. He is no longer Swami K. He has changed his name several times in the last few weeks. Maybe you know him as MiracleAnanda or Krackaswami or some other of his many names. Oh, by the way, where are you putting up? We are rather filled up nowadays, I am afraid we may have no place for you!"

Suddenly Heinrich asked aloud, "Papa, what are all these people doing in our house?"
Volker looked embarrassed.
Then Elfi piped in, "Are they staying over? When are they going to go?"
"These are strange people, Papa. I don't like them at all.", said Heinrich loudly.

"Dmitri, we need to talk. Helga, please take these kids into the other room", said Volker.
Before they could sit down, Helga shrieked. "Volker! There IS an ox in the next room. A mean looking Ox!"
"Shhh!" said Dmitri angrily, "That's Swami Blissananda! He will be furious to be treated like that. His attendants are strangely enough not here, or they would have barred you from entering the next room. You did not even prostrate before going in?!!"

"Dmitri, I have no idea what you are talking about. This is our home. We went on vacation some time back. I believe you and whoever he is, Flossananda or --"
"Blissananda Maharaj!", Dmitri corrected.
"-- whatever, you are all illegally occupying our home."
Dmitri iksploded in anger and outrage, "How can you suggest such a thing. He is God, the creator of the universe! He cannot illegally occupy anything! All belongs to Him!"

"Perhaps I should have a world with his highness", announced Helga with sarcasm.
"No, you cannot. You have to pay a big donation in order to have his darshan. And only once you have attended our Enlightenment Deeksha can you have that precious darshan", clarified Dmitri.
"Can we not call the police, Mama?" asked Elfi.
"Yes, i would like a ride in a police car!" shouted Heinrich excitedly.

"No wait!", said Helga. "Could i have a word with you Volker?"
They stepped out.
"I think we should first inform Bhagavan. We should have a bath someplace and then go immediately for His darshan. It is Arunachala Ramana who has called us here, we are under His protection."
Volker nodded. How fortunate I am, God, to have such a sensible wife, he thought.

They stood there for a moment, lost, wondering where they could bathe. Volker chanted in a german accent "Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya!"
His wife and children immediately repeated it after him with joy.
"Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Arunachala Ramanaya!"

As they uttered these sacred words, they heard an elephant trumpeting. And a lion roaring. They looked all around in shock!

From the back of the house came charging three baby elephants, with one spotted leopard on one of them.
The elephants stopped in front of them lifting their trunks playfully.
"Can we atleast play with the elefinks?" asked Heinrich.
"Where have the lions gone?" asked Elfi.

Before they could wonder the elephants had lifted their luggage, and also placed the children on their backs. The children squealed with joy. The parents had no choice but to follow the elephants.

"Mama, Papa, Elfi, LOOK, My elefink has a white turban!", shouted Heinrich.
"My elefink smells of coconut shampoo!", shouted Elfi, sniffing deeply.
"Mine, too."
"Mine has a nice binocular!", shouted Elfi.
"Mine ..... ...... doesn't!", said Heinrich looking crestfallen.

And so they went, leaving their mansion behind, happily, laughing, knowing not where they were headed, but knowing that Father Arunachala was in-charge.

The owners return

Parambhaktananda and his wife were sitting under the shade of a large tree. Strangely, someone walking by asked them where they were staying. Both shook their heads. The stranger told them that he was leaving today and they could rent his room for as long as they wanted. They thanked him profusely.
He took them down to meet the landlord. A very reasonable rate was decided upon. Paramjyoti noted that the window had a wonderful view of Arunachala Hill. The living room had a large photograph of Bhagavan which belonged to the landlord, so it would stay.
"I prefer to give this room to devotees of Bhagavan Ramana", he confided.
The room came with basic furnishing, so the couple could just move in.

In the evening they sat quietly in the small group of people outside th cave. Each time someone arrived they would think: Oh, this certainly is the owner of the book.
After a while everyone left. Bhagavan was sitting quietly. Parambhaktananda and Paramjyoti sat quietly too, wondering what to do. They closed their eyes and sat for a while.

Then they heard a rustle in the bush, but did not open their eyes. This was their first day here and they did not want Bhagavan to think they were easily distractable!
A minute or two passed and they suddenly heard footsteps very close to them.
Paramjyoti opened her eyes a tiny bit. She started! Parambhaktananda heard her take in a sudden breath and opened his eyes. He too almost fainted at the sight he saw.

In front of them a large full-grown lioness was picking up the book with her teeth. Three cubs were jumping about Bhagavan's feet. Suddenly it made sense!

The book did say something like "Creature: Lion" on the introductory page. How silly of her to think a human had written the book. So this was that lion family of which she had read stories. These were those young cubs. And ofcourse, one of them had a beautiful turban on his head. This had to be them.

Now they sat in a corner. Mother Lioness was opening the book carefully with her paws, and the three lion cubs were peering at the book. Could they actually read? Certainly, if they wrote the book, then they could read!

Then the cubs suddenly looked up. She and her husband immediately looked down so the lions would not feel they were being watched. From the corner of their eyes they saw another cub running up. Wait, he had spots on him. The four cubs began reading the book carefully.

After a while the lioness and four cubs prostrated and left. The couple took this opportunity to prostrate too. How good it felt. Until now they had prostrated many hundred times, mostly mechanically to many different people, babas, swamis, and deities in temples. But this was true prostration. It was not just their hands and feet prostrating, it was like their mind and heart was surrendering to creation.

The young handsome swami, barely in his early twenties, much younger than them, He seemed like creation itself. Loving Him felt like loving creation, falling at His holy feet felt like falling at the feet of creation. This is NOT a new bondage, Parambhaktananda thought, this devotion is true freedom!

Finally, they somehow got up, folded their hands and backed out of the room. Once again, Parambhaktananda looked around at the sky, the trees, the earth, and it all seemed different.

They saw the most joyous sight outside. Paramjyoti laughed and cried at the same time.
The Mother lioness was trying to walk. First one cub jumped onto her shoulder. Then the second jumped on, pushing the first off. Then the third pushed the second off. And this went on. Mum was trying to walk with the book held carefully in her mouth. Finally, she had to put the book down, and give them a stern glare. Then they filed away quietly.

They made their way to the mansion. Hurry it will get dark, urged Parambhaktananda. They got their luggage out of the barn. Slowly they tried lugging it. It was hard, they were emotionally exhausted. A monkey on the tree seemed to be laughing at them, then he ran away.

They quietly struggle on, the light was beginning to fade. And then they heard a rustle in the bushes. Three baby elephants came bursting out. The monkey was sitting on one of them. And the spotted cub was sitting on another. Before the couple could react, the bags were loaded onto the elephants backs. The monkey beckoned them to follow.

In no time at all, they had reached the cottage where they were staying. The bags were gently laid at the door. The three elephants sort of bowed and receded. The spotted cub and the monkey got on and they went off.
"Did you notice one thing", asked Paramjyoti to her husband, "One of the elephants had a little turban on him!"
"Really? Strange! ", replied her husband."... But i doubt i will ever be surprised by anything in my life again. It has been the most amazing day of my life."

They both sat silently on the couch, staring at the photograph of Sri Bhagavan Ramana, not knowing what to say, or even think.

Home at last!

At last the German family were almost home! Their return had been delayed twice because of a protracted family crisis.

"Papa! My trains!" said little Heinrich, suddenly remembering his favourite toys. "Will you help me set up the track?"

"Of course, of course," said his father, but something in Volker's voice made his wife look sharply over at him.

Her gaze followed his. The taxi was just pulling up in front of their house. After the endless-seeming trip home, how eagerly they were all longing to get washed up and fall into bed (or in amongst their toys). What a blessing they had not allowed anyone to house-sit ... no need to worry if the sheets were clean, the towels ...



But why on earth was the front door standing open?

"Volker! I hope someone has not broken in!' said Helga in alarm.

"Mama, there is an ox peeking out of the livingroom window," said Elfi.

"Child! Stop this nonsense!" hissed Helga. What a time for Elfi to indulge in her silly nonsense. How unfair life was! They had moved all the way to Arunachala, and here was their child spouting lies, as if immune to the influence of the Mountain.

"No, Mama, I just saw him. A great big ox, with an nasty air about him. I saw his eyes. He tried to trick me."

It was all Helga could do not to smack the child. She herself had been raised by very strict parents in Germany .... the slightest nonsense had been dealt with quickly and firmly. What a trial it was to be married to Volker, who would not hear of the children being spanked when they deserved it.

"Papa, I saw him too," said Heinrich.

Volker was trying to pay the taxi driver who was keeping his eyes averted from the mansion and shuffling uneasily.

"Driver," said Helga suddenly. "I will pay you double if you will enter the house and look in each room and closet before we go in with the children ... just to be on the safe side." She smiled what she hoped was a very winning smile, and added, "Likely it was just the wind that blew the door open," knowing full well this could not possibly have happened.

But at her suggestion, the driver gave a big involuntary shudder which he tried to pass off as the start of a coughing fit. When he could speak, he said he had promised to take a family to Chennai and was running late. The moment he had their bags out of the trunk, he turned and sped away.

"Scared of that ox," remarked Elfi quietly.

"Stop trying to get your mother's goat," said Volker, walking uneasily toward the open front door.

"I SAW the ox," said Elfi. "And he DID try to pull a trick on me with his eyes."

"And on me," said Heinrich, perhaps out of loyalty to his slightly older sister, or perhaps just not wanting to left out of any interesting tricks.

When Volker stepped into the kitchen, he was even more surprised than if he had been greeted by an ox. There was his old university friend, Dmitri! How bizarre.

"Dmitri, lovely to see you," said Volker, not knowing what else to say.



Nobody noticed a small very cute face at the window.

The cubses had managed to arrange themselves in a nice tall stack so the smallest of them could see what was going on in the mansion.



But Spotty's binoculars fell and bumped Tirucub on the head, and he jumped in surprise, and they all came tumbling down on top of each other with a lot of little squeals and chuckles and thumps and bumps.

Somehow, only Elfi heard it and she nipped over to the window.



"Mama! There are a whole lot of lions and a leopard and a nice pair of binoculars outside in the flowerbed," she announced.

Her mother, already furious that some old friend of Volker's had managed to effect an entrance (no doubt invited by Volker, who must have mailed him the key or hidden it for him!), was ready to start spitting tacks.