Preface to Letters From and
Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam

01 January 1978

Several devotees expressed their desire to hear interesting sayings and nectar-like utterances of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. One of them is my elder brother Sri D. S. Śāstṛi. In February 1976, I had to undergo a surgical operation for cancer at Madras. My brother, his daughter Vasantha and her husband Ramakrishna looked after me and served me with love and affection. After the surgery and during the subsequent Cobalt treatment, my brother used to sit in a chair by my bedside and read Bhagavad Gita in the mornings and Bhagavatam in the evenings. On such occasions, I related several incidents that happened in Bhagavan’s presence, which came to my mind readily. He noted down all such incidents which had not already appeared in The Letters from Sri Ramanasramam or in My Life at Sri Ramanasramam. Though later he urged me to write them down in the form of a book, I did not have the energy or the enthusiasm to do so at the time.

On 10-5-1976, I went to Bangalore for convalescing at the invitation of my sister’s son, G. R. Sarma and his wife Nirmala. It was during that time Ganesan of Sri Ramanasramam wrote to me saying that I should carefully recollect and write down in a narrative form all my reminiscences relating to Bhagavan so that in due course the Ashram could publish them. Even so I did not have the required urge or strength to sit down and write and so replied that I would take up the work when I got sufficient strength to go over to the Ashram for a long stay.

On 12-10-76 my sister’s daughter, Prafulla and her husband S. V. Avadhani, invited me to Bombay for a change. While there P. V. Somasundaram, the Secretary of the local Ramana Kendra, arranged a meeting of the devotees on 21- 10-76 and asked me to speak. When I told him that I was not accustomed to public speaking he said I could write down what I wished to say and that he would arrange with my nephew to translate the same into English and read it out at the meeting. I had therefore no alternative but to agree to his request. On 18-11-76, I sat under an Aswatha tree in the park outside the Bank House in Nariman Point, Bombay, where my nephew resided and began writing these reminiscences. I felt it was the call of Bhagavan and I thought I should not ignore it any longer. That was how I came to write again.

Four years ago, I wrote My Life at Sri Ramanasramam and because of the shortness of the time, it is just possible some repetitions have crept into these writings through oversight. I request readers to bear with me in this regard.