Bharatham : Uthishtatha-Jagratha : (wef-05/11/2012. )

51. It was October 4, 1948. "What a nice cottage! Is it for meditation purposes?" wondered a visitor, gazing as he was in the direction of the Master’s dwelling, beyond which on the river bank stood a small shed. "No, no, it is not a cottage in the sense that you take it to be. I shall explain it to you," said the Master, and took the visitor along. And what was there inside? An old, emaciated bull in a dying condition. "My God!" exclaimed the visitor. "Yes, you have just said it," put in the Master. "It is your own God. Don’t you see your God in this bull, too?" Two Ashramites were there tending to the bull. In the evening the poor creature died, despite all attention, and under the Master’s instructions was consigned to Mother Ganges with Maha Mantra Kirtan. A bull in a dying condition, a dog with an ulcer on its head, a crow mauled by a monkey—they all found a ready helper and sympathiser in the Master. No creature

50. In the summer months the Ashram is full of flies. A sanitary inspector suggested an insecticide. "Swamiji, it will kill the flies." The Master looked at him in studied silence. The inspector repeated his promise with great solicitude. This time the Master returned a mystic smile and said, "Inspector Saheb, it should prevent flies from coming, not kill them." As the Master was returning to his room one day from the office, he noticed crowds of large, black ants cutting across his path. He tried to proceed without hurting them. It was impossible, so he retraced his steps and went to his room by a circuitous way. During Kirtan time one night the Master saw a visitor suddenly crush a scorpion with the butt of his torch. After Kirtan he asked the person why he killed the creature. "It stings people," replied the visitor. The Master retorted, "By killing one scorpion are you able to save people from the stings of scorpions of which there are

49. "First, I bow to the Ganges through the window, then I salute the Himalayas. I salute the door, the window, the commode," he told a stunned Swami Krishnananda, then general secretary of the Ashram. The Master then went on to recite stanza after stanza of Sanskrit verses in praise of the numerous Deities beloved of the devout Hindu, saying that all these hymns he recited while in the toilet. A direct result of this habit of seeing the Divine in everything was that the Master could not suffer to see even an insect injured. While he was bathing in the Ganges, if an insect came floating by struggling for life, he would at once take it into his palm and leave it on the bank. He revealed to his disciples, without the least trace of repugnance on his face, "If a worm or an insect were struggling for life in faecal matter, I would remove and protect it." Sri N. Ananthanarayanan  To be continued ...  

48. It was now dark. The Master was coming on his way to the Satsang. They told him about the injured man. The Master changed direction and turned towards the hospital ward. He went near the patient’s bedside and stood still for awhile as the onlookers eagerly awaited his reaction. "Let us now chant the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra for the health and speedy recovery of Dilip Kumar Roy." With the announcement, the Master began chanting the Mantra. He called for a tin of biscuits and placed it on a bedside stool. He instructed the attendants, "Lord Narayana has come in this form. Please give him the biscuits in the morning with tea or milk." The gossiping devotees were silenced! The Master saw God in animals, nay, even in inanimate things. He bowed mentally to ants and asses, to stones, trees and rivers, to the sky, the sun and the moon, to chairs and tables, to pillars and posts. He talked to them. He told his students again and again, "Practise this Sadhana