Concern for my nutrition
Whenever I was supervising construction work, Bhagavan would often tell me,

‘You are working hard in the heat of the day. You may eat whatever you want.’

The serving ladies, aware of Bhagavan’s concern for me, always served me large amounts of curd and ghee to counteract the heat.
I also had a remedy of my own. In the summer, when the heat was almost unbearable, I found that mixing a chopped raw onion with my food helped me to keep my body cool. I ate so much raw onion one summer that many peopled started to call me ‘Vengaya Swami’ (Onion Swami)

Jnanam is more important than Iddlies
I had asked Bhagavan some spiritual questions but before he had a chance to complete his answer, Chinnaswami interrupted us by saying, ‘Why are you asking questions while Bhagavan is eating?’

Before continuing with his answer, Bhagavan turned to Chinnaswami and said, ‘Jnanam is more important than eating iddlies. This time will never come again. If we stop talking now, a suitable occasion may not come again.’

I will serve him myself
Bhagavan made me work very hard but at the same time he was always very kind and considerate towards me. Once incident which happened in the dining room shows this very well. I had spent the whole morning supervising masons who were constructing some steps near the dispensary. If I had not been present it is quite likely that they would either have failed to put enough packing under the stones, or put the stones themselves in the wrong place. The work took so long I was very late for my lunch.

When I reached the dining room I found that the food which had been served on my plate had gone cold and that there were several wasps sitting on it. One of the servers scolded me for being late. ‘You may be working, ‘ she said, ‘but we are also working. You should not turn up late like this, you should come on time.’

Bhagavan, who was outside at the time, cleaning his teeth overheard what they were saying.

He called out in a loud voice: ‘Annamalai Swami is not keeping himself idle. If he had come earlier, the work which he has been supervising would not have been done properly. If you need some rest you can go and have a rest. I will come and serve Annamalai Swami myself.’

Bhagavan lets me cook
Since I was a non-brahmin I was not allowed to do any of the cooking. Bhagavan knew the sentiments of orthodox brahmins and went to a lot of trouble to avoid offending them. There was one occasion when Bhagavan broke the rules and let me do some cooking. It was the morning after a jayanti celebration. All the cooks were asleep, completely exhausted after feeding thousands of people the day before. Bhagavan took me, Madhava Swami and Ramakrishna Swami into the kitchen to make uppuma because it was clear that the cooks were not going to wake up in time to prepare the breakfast. Under Bhagavan’s supervision we cut vegetables, shredded coconuts and made a large pot of rava uppuma

No difference between you and I
This is an example of Bhagavan’s care to not offend others’ feelings. As I was walking with Bhagavan towards toe cowshed we noticed some women cleaning rice near one of the guest rooms. One of them had recently spat out some betel juice on the path that we were walking on. Using his bare foot, Bhagavan covered and buried the juice under a little mound of earth.

Not wanting Bhagavan’s feet to come in contact with the saliva, I tried to stop him by saying, ‘Why is Bhagavan doing this? I will do it.’

Bhagavan ignored my offer. ‘What is the difference between “you” and “I”? he asked. ‘Many brahmins will go this way to the patashala. If they happened to see this on the path they would be very upset. I am only burying it to avoid hurting their feelings.’

Kaivalya Navanitam
I once asked Bhagavan, ‘What are the most important verses in Kaivalya Navanitam?’ I gave my copy of the book to Bhagavan who immediately picked out verses twelve and thirteen from chapter one:

After reading them out Bhagavan remarked, ‘All the other verses in Kaivalyam are just an elaboration and a commentary on these two verses’.

Six Books to read
On another occasion when I asked Bhagavan to select some reading material for me, he gave me a short-list of six books:

• Kaivalya Navanitam
• Ribhu Gitā
• Ashtāvakra Gitā
• Ellām Ondrē
• Swarūpa Sāram and
• Yoga Vāsishta.

He laid particular stress on Ellām Ondrē, telling me, ‘If you want mōksha write, read and practise the instructions in Ellām Ondrē.

Chanting Ribhu Gita
In additional to the regular pārāyanam in the morning, we also chanted a lot from the Ribhu Gita. Bhagavan had such a high opinion of this book that he told several of us to read it regularly as part of our sādhanā. He even said that constant reading of this book leads to samādhi.

I was one of the devotees who was told to read this book regularly.

Become nothing
There was a devotee in the ashram who, for me at least, exemplified Bhagavan’s teachings on humility and selfless devotion. His name was Viran and was employed to carry water, but in addition he did whatever was asked of him immediately without any complaint whatsoever. Even if it was in the middle of the night. He was from a low caste, so when people addressed him disrespectfully, Bhagavan would immediately show his disapproval.