At the Feet of Bhagavan

Thought Travels Too

Mr. and Mrs S. were visitors from Peru to the Ashram. They had heard of the Maharshi and His greatness, of how He was accepted by Arunachala, and how He and Arunachala are one. To the couple, Sri Maharshi’s presence on earth seemed the second coming of the Christ Himself, so they had longed for years to meet this God-Man once in their lives.

They were too poor to find the money for their passage to India. But in their burning desire to see the God-Man in flesh and blood, they laid by each week a few coins out of their small wages, and in a few years they had enough money to become deck-passengers without the pleasant luxury of the higher classes on the ship. So they sailed for several months, and at last reached India and Tiruvannamalai.

The couple narrated all their story to Bhagavan, all the privations they had undergone to have a look at Sri Maharshi. Bhagavan was all kindness to them. He heard their story with great concern, and then remarked: “You need not have taken all this trouble. You could well have thought of me from where you were, and so could have had all the consolation of a personal visit.” This remark of Sri Bhagavan they could not easily understand, nor did it give them any consolation as they sat at His feet like Mary. Sri Maharshi did not want to disturb their pleasure in being In His immediate vicinity, and so He left them at that.

Later in the evening Sri Maharshi was enquiring about their day-to-day life, and incidentally their talk turned to Peru. The couple began picturing the landscape of Peru and were describing the sea-coast and the beach of their own town. Just then Maharshi remarked: “Is not the beach of your town paved with marble slabs, and are not coconut palms planted in between? Are there not marble benches in rows facing the sea there and did you not often sit on the fifth of those with your wife?” This remark of Sri Maharshi created great astonishment in the couple. How could Sri Bhagavan, who had never gone out of Tiruvannamalai, know so intimately such minute details about their own place?

Sri Maharshi only smiled and remarked: “It does not matter how I can tell. Enough if you know that in the Self there is no Space-Time.”