Joyful Reunion, and a Pradakshina

In the morning, Spotty peaked over hopefully. And there they were, back from camping!



It was a joyful reunion. Everybody hugged Spotty. Mum Lioness had cleaned the cubs so well they no longer smelled of smoke. She had had to clean every inch of them!



Then the cubses and Mum Lioness made Spotty tell them everything that had happened to him while they were away. And Spotty made them recount every detail of the things they had seen and done on their trip.



"Next time we will just INSIST that Med Tiger lets you come with us," the cubses told Spotty.

Just then Balanandaswami and Fluffy Swami came along.



Fluffy Swami insisted Mum Lioness feed him. He was still learning to talk and called her Muvah Yionesh.

Then everyone said at once, "Let's go see the young Swami!"

They set out right away. Fluffy Swami wanted to ride with Omcub.



When they reached the young Swami, he told them he was just about to go on a pradakshina of Arunachala. He invited them all to join him.



Med Tiger bounded along as they were starting out.



"I want to see the Ganesha shrine!" said Arunacub excitedly.

They all walked along, sometimes feasting their eyes on the extreme beauty of the young Swami, and sometimes on the glory of his father who was just to their right. Lots of birds and monkeys and other creatures peaked out of trees and from behind bushes, each one melting with happiness at the sight of the Swami.

The cubses meet a fish on their camping trip

Well, Med Tiger was right that the cubses were camping, but it was not all brick and concrete ... a pond was involved, and to the cubses' horror, they learned that some cruelty was afoot with the nice fish that lived in that pond. The cubses were down at the pond's edge, wondering what Spotty was up to and missing him, when a fish swam over to them and explained the problem the fish were having.

"There is this awful thing called fishing," the fish explained, "and you would think from the name that it means fish having fun, going about their fishy business and doing fishy things ... like swimming and sometimes jumping ..."

The cubses leaned in close.



"It is not that AT ALL," continued the fish. "Big creatures called homans or whomins or something like that go into that shop over there and buy something called bait. They put it on a sharp hook and put the hook in our pond. A lot of us are onto this trick. We swim in the opposite directions when we see little tastey morsels just hanging around looking innocent. But many of the younger fish, secially the babies, fall for the trick. And some of our elders who have failing eyesight and can't make out that there is a thin piece of plastic string attached to the nibble ..."

"Why on earth are humanses doing this?" asked Arunacub. "What is the trick FOR?"

"They think it is great fun!" said the fish.

"FUN?"

"Yes, well, you see, the gullible fish swallow the bait ... and then get dragged up out of the pond into the air where they can't breathe. Then there is often lots of cheering and shouting of CAUGHT ONE! and HOW BIG and such."

Tirucub paced back and forth in distress, hearing this. "Do they not understand the fish are Bhagavan?" he asked quietly.

"Then what?" Arunacub dared to ask the fish. "What happens next with this "FUN"?"

"In this pond, the hrumins have to throw us back in ... some ponds they take us away and ... and ... and ... eat us. But here that is not allowed. They drag the hook back out and they are supposed to put us back in so someone else can have the fun of doing it all over again. But the shock of being in the air, and the ordeal of having the hook pulled out ... some of us die. Specially the babies. Other have to carry on life with the sorest throat you can imagine."

The fish looked back up and saw only two cubs were listening. "Sorry if I upset the littlest," he said kindly.

But Omcub was dashing to the store. He saw the sign.



And there below were the stacks of bait. By some fluke Arunacub had found a huge wad of money earlier when they were walking. Omcub ran back and got Arunacub and Tirucub. They bought all the jars of bait.

When they got back to the pond they gave all the jars to the fish.

"You give them to your friends directly, " Om said. "We don't want them to get careless about eating floating bait."

"Thank you!" said the fish, and he called his friends for a little feast.

All that weekend, people came to the shop looking for bait.

"Sorry, fresh out," the owners had to keep explaining.

Some humans tried to fish without bait.

The cubses watched from the shore. None of the fish fell for the unbaited hook. They were busy having their feast on the other side of the pond and talking about the cubses who had listened to their plight with such compassion.



Mysteriously, all attempts to order or find or bring in more bait for that pond failed, from that day on. Bait suppliers did not answer their phones. People bringing their own bait lost it on the way to the pond. The shop owners always forgot the reason for their outing when they went out to buy a new supply.

Never again was a fish caught there. Over time, the stories got more and more dramatic about what sorts of creatures had lowered things into the water, and why. Fish told their their children, and the children told their children, and all would swim in circles of relief that those days were long past.

(post mostly by omcub)

Spotty can't find the cubses !!!

Spotty woke up, and was surprised to find the neighbourhood was very quiet. He peeped out of his window but could see no cubs. Their cave appeared dark. He focussed his new binoculars and looked again, but the cave seemed empty. He could make out a little sign posted outside in Om's handwriting but it was a bit smudgy (like always, when will Om learn to keep his elbows off the paper until the ink dries!).

He came out and looked at the sign. It said very simply "Bakina Vile". He came racing back to Stripes and shook him awake. Stripes said "Oh did i not tell you --" and then torned over and fell asleep again. Spotty tried shaking Stripes but Stripes was farst asleep and would not budge. Biting, pulling etc had no effeck.

On a sudden hunch, Spotty raced down the the mansion. What an awful sight awaited him. There was garbage thrown out of the windows. The beautiful manicured lawn was strewn with wrappers and rotting leftovers, flies swarming over the waste. He held his breath and looked from behind some foliage.

His eyes fell upon a sign on which was scribbled "Keep awt". Then another one which said "Trespassers will be bewitched". Ha, he thought, the troublesome sadhus are the trespassers. Let's see what fate Arunachala metes out to them. He could hear loud snoring. Two different kinds of snores.

He decided to change into a bird and spy through the windows, but which bird. A hummingbird ? No, the humming could awaken the swamis. An eagle ? No, the large wings flapping could alert them. A peacock ? Don't be silly, he told himself, the whole hill would wake up! All the birds he could think of made shrill sounds, like the warblers on the hill, and he didn't want the bird to inadvertently warble or cry out. So he said "Om" three times and "I wish to be a silent bird".

In a moment he found himself standing on the ground, and realized he was a white stork! And he felt awfully hot here, perhaps being used to cooler climates. Then he rememborized Bhagavan and the sparrow stories, and having no other ideas changed himself into a sparrow. Off he went, peeping thru the windows. But there were no cubs inside. The mansion was a worse mess than the outside lawn. The kitchen looked as though there had been a fire in there. The swamis were sprawled on the floor with bottles of awful smelling stuff in their hands.
He sneezed!

One swami stirred but then went back to sleep. He glided through the other rooms but they were all empty. He came out feeling a bit tired of flying. Then he became Spotty again and raced back to the cave.

Again he asked Stripes and Stripes said "oh, Mum Lioness asked to tell you that they -" and he fell asleep again. "They what ?" shouted Spotty. "They have gone --". It was pointless.

Dejected, he went over to the other side of the hill looking for the young swami. Somehow he felt he would feel better seeing the young swami. He looked into the swami's eyeses and somehow he knew that the swami understood. After a few moments, the swami torned to someone and said, "See, he is missing his friends and is looking all over for them. He is asking for help". The swami torned to Spotty and said, "Don't worry, the cubses have gone camping and will be back tomorrow".

Spotty bent his head, and then came back to the cave happily (but not before devouring a few fresh iddlies that Palaniswamy gave him). Stripes was stirring a bit.
Spotty pulled his tail and asked him, "What does camping mean ?"
"Oo, camping is when you leave the safety of the forest and trees and animals, and go into town for a while. Where you relax by being in the midst of brick and concrete houses, surrounded by humans -"
"Sounds awful", interrupted Spotty.
" - and stay away from animals. There are dangerous cars racing by, you can get hurt any moment. And then you have to watch television cos there's nothing else to do. Frankly, its terrorfying, you need a lot of courage for that sort of thing, it very, very noisy out there ... Only the adventurous and daring go camping. Oh, i did tell you, did i not, that the cubs have gone camping?"
"Yes, like fifty times", replied Spotty sarcastically.

Then Spotty shuddered, "I hope the cubses don't get bitten by any humans while camping, or frightened by the cars and loud noises and tellyvijun."
"By the way, I wonder what our troublesome sadhus are doing." said Stripes suppressing a yawn.
"I wonder, too." replied Spotty as he started making some lassi for them both.

At the Feet of Bhagavan

Bala looks into Bhagavan's eyes

Balanandaswami (Bala) looked into the eyes of the young swami. (This was the same one whom Jagaswami had troubled so much). Their eyes met. Something happened.

Bala felt he was looking at his real father for the first time. He also strangely felt he was looking at himself. For the first time, i see my self, he thought. He fell in love with the young swami. Tears welled in his eyes.

He fell at the feet of the young swami, pressing his cheeks in.

Bala prostrates at the young swami's feet

Later when he got up, and sat down, he saw the little fox cub was there, too. Fluffy, the little fox, cub had curled up in Mum Lionesses lap. and for once, Om cub didn't seem to mind giving up the best place in the house to someone else. In fact he was only too happy to do so.

Fluffy was picked up by the cubs one by one (snatched from Mum Lioness), and put on their own laps. He was being pulled and fought over, and seemed to like it for a while but finally got a bit tired of having one cub pull one leg, and another pull the other. And so he snapped a bit, and the cubs took a step back in mock fright.

Then Mum Lioness gave Bala what must have been the most important lesson of his life. She taught him how to pick Fluffy by his neck and carry him. He tried it carefully, and all giggled at his earnest attempts. Then the cubs insisted on following.

Bala picks Fluffy swami

After a while, Fluffy had had enough of being picked by the neck and had to signal his displeasure with a cute growl. He told the cubs that henceforth they would be charged for the privilege of picking him up by the neck. Charged about one iddli per pick. Tiru feigned shock at this with his signature open-mouthed, eyes-popping, jaw-dropping look of shock. The other cubs imitated him. Fluffy refused to go back on his words or bargain, even though the shocked look was very convincing.

Tirucub fakes disbelief

Then the cubs and Bala sat around Fluffy licking him and kissing him. His bat-ears were one favorite, and so was his wonderfully bushy tail. But what they loved the most was his long nose. It always looked a little bewildered (frankly so did Bala's). Finally, Fluffy decided he had gone from moist to soggy to dripping, and any more kissing and the cubs would be dehydrated!

As they turned to go home for lunch, the young swami asked them all to come in the evening, as he was going to tell them a story!

Back home, Tiru was telling Bala (and Fluffy swami), you see that tree there, on which you used to spy on us? Bala nodded innocently. You would not believe that Spotty used to spy on us from the same spot! It seemed like ages ago to both Spotty and Bala. Om said, hopefully moah and moah people will spy on us from that lucky tree, and become our friends.
Aruna then said, I am going to put a charm on that tree so that only those who are Bhagavan's devotees, or about to become his, can climb it. He muttered Om thrice and the charm was on.

The cubs then took Bala for a round of the house showing him all the pictures of Bhagavan. Pizza aroma wafted in from the kitchen. Each room had Bhagavan's pictures. Somehow Bala knew that the sage with the white beard was none other than the young swami on the hill.

Later over lunch, Bala addressed the cubses mother as Aunt Lioness, but Spotty insisted that she be called Mum Lioness by all. We can say goodbye to the "Aunt" thing now, he declared.

Om then began telling Bala about pradakshina. They all planned to do a pradakshina the next day, most likely along with Bhagavan. One by one they all fell asleep at Mum Lionesses feet.

plunged

"Bala!" Balananda heard his name being called from behind him. He turned.

There came those bounding cubs.

"Want to come meet our best friend?" they called to him. "We are just going to see him."

Balanandaswami pictured some exuberant little creature, very much like them. Perhaps a cute little wolfcub who knew physics and could do pawsprings.

"Alright," he said, coming down from the rock.

"Hurry!" they called, taking off like Olympic track stars.

"What's the rush?" he shouted after them.



"When he calls us, we don't like to delay," they explained over their shoulders, not slowing down a bit.

Called? He had not heard the call of any little cub or pup. They must have very sharp hearing.

He was running so fast to keep up he hardly knew which direction they were going in.

Then they all skidded to a stop. Balanandaswami looked up.

There was the young Swami. His eyes were huge and luminous. Balanandaswami looked into them, and plunged into a pool of bliss. His mind vanished.



The cubses watched this happily and asked Brahmana Swami, "Is he yours now?"

The young swami smiled and his eyes said: "He always was, and he always will be."

Balanandaswami remained perfectly still, drowned in the ecstasy of Brahmana Swami's grace.

"My future is in Your hands"

Balananda stood on the large rock that sits on the path from the Skandasramam down to the Sri Ramanasramam.

He looked down at the whole of Tiruvannamalai in front of him, the large Arunachaleswara Temple, and some scattered houses and temples here and there. (Remember that these were early days and little had been developed as yet). This was the Tiruvannamalai of the early days of Bhagavan, the wandering days, the days prior to even Virupaksha Cave, when Bhagavan was not yet named Bhagavan, when Bhagavan was nameless, referred to as the young swami, or the Brahman Swamy, or Chinnaswami... the days when Arunachala itself was in the ecstacy of His beloved son returning to him after so long.

For centuries, maybe since the time the earth was born, Arunachala had sat still waiting ... waiting ... waiting for the coming of Bhagavan Ramana. And now the wait was over. The son was here, his gentle feet kissing the cheeks of Father Arunachala.

And so, in this holiest spot in the universe, the Arunachala Hill, sat a little creature on a rock, feeling like the skies had suddenly opened up to reveal something behind them, or the skies had crashed, and something heavenly had poured through.

It was like a new beginning. When the first ray of God's love breaks upon a living being, it is like being born again. What was he to do?

Would he go back to the troublesome sadhus (Jagaswami and Krackiswami) and explain that he was leaving them forever? That would result in an argument, a lot of lies (from them), a long pointless debate.

Or would he just not meet them at all, never tell them that he was off. Just vanish from their lives without a word.

Or would he go back and pretend to be one of them, and double-cross them ? Pretend he was trying to catch Spotty but really be on the cubses side. That sounded exciting especially since he was known to be cunning, but to what benefit. He was sortanly no longer wanting to establish himself as an enlightened guru. All he could think of doing was to surrender to this loving power which had enveloped him, snuggled him in fact, like a loving mother. So this was out.

Balananda not sure which way to go, but welcomes the future with open arms

He felt he must do his bit in helping the cubs against the designs of the troublesome sadhus. Also, their siddhis in the hands of Jagaswami could be dangerous.

What was very clear to Bala was what he was NOT going to do henceforth. But what he should do, was unclear.

Out of the blue, the face of that young peaceful swami, whom Jags had troubled quite a bit, came to him. And then a thought crossed his mind that whatever power had brought him to this point, would carry him further.

The young swami on the hill

He had lived all along, at odds with the world, struggling against it, always worried about tomorrow and what ups-and-downs it might bring. But now he felt in harmony, he felt a deep trust of the power governing this world, there was only a sense of excitement at what this loving power had planned for him, and what new wonders it would deal him next.

"Now you need to deliver the goods."

Balanandaswami's paws grew heavy as he neared the mansion. There was a smell of grilling creature which nauseated him. And a lot of nasty smoke.

He decided he would quietly ease his way through the backdoor and slip up to bed.

No such luck.



"Bala! Look what a mess we have gotten into with you shirking your duties. You are supposed to be the cook. Jags and I know nothing about saucepans and seasonings! Get in here at once."

Balananda looked over and saw the terrible mess. Grilling pans ruined. Charred things dumped into the sink. Burned pots on the floor. Smoke billowing everywhere. For the first time he had a sudden image of the German family returning from the Alps and walking in to this.

"You take over. Clean this up and start afresh," bossed Jagaswami. "We'll be strategizing in the livingroom. Bring the food in there. And then go and get that Spotty and bring him back here. You've had enough time studying his habits. Now you need to deliver the goods ... the cub. To us."

Balananda was left alone in the kitchen. Spotty had licked him clean only an hour ago, when he had been a little foxcub. Spotty had taught him how to lap blackberry shake from the mugs Mum Lioness had served the shakes in. Spotty had nibbled the iddli crumbs from his (Bala's) fur. He could not possibly deliver Spotty to Jags and Kracks. Who knew what they would do to him! (he recalled his own plans, and shivered.)



He was staring at a saucepan on the floor when his legs seemed to start walking of their own accord. They walked him right out the door. The air, as he left the mansion behind, was so sweet! He breathed in big lungfuls of it.

But where was he going? He was amazed at the way his legs were just carrying him along with no planning on his part.



That was when he heard the cry. His legs rushed him toward the source of the sound.

There, under a fern, he found a tiny baby fox crying his heart out.



He picked up the baby. From his own cubhood, he knew that cry. Hunger. Fear.

He could not possibly leave the baby here alone. But what was he to do with him? Where could he take him?

Just then he heard the snapping of twigs, the crunching of leaves, the chuckling of cubses.

"Balanandaswami!" they greeted him. They looked with surprise at the little cub on his back.

"That little chap looks azackly like the baby vohrshun of you," said Omcub. "But he is hungry..."

"I know he is, but what to do about it?" asked Balanandaswami.