Bhagavan himself gave me the instructions. I was to build two parallel walls out of stone, 6 feet high and 8 feet apart. ‘As you build the walls’, advised Bhagavan, ‘fill the space between them with mud. If you mix earth and water together and compress it, it will be very strong.’ As I was carrying out Bhagavan’s instructions several groups of devotees came to watch and even made fun of the project, comparing it to a large dam. They thought I was wasting the ashram’s money (which was very scarce in those days). I was unperturbed by their comments and criticisms because I knew that I was merely following Bhagavan’s instructions. I completed the project by adding two sets of stone steps so that Bhagavan and the devotees could easily climb over the wall on their way to Arunachala.

The bas-reliefs of Arunachala
When the storeroom was completed, Bhagavan asked me to make a bas-relief (sculpture) of Arunachala over the entrance. I had no idea how to scult lime-plaster into a 3-dimensional picture.

‘I don’t know how to start making a figure like this,’ I told Bhagavan. ‘What do I do?’
Bhagavan took a piece of paper and drew a picture of Arunachala on it. Apart from the summit there were three lower peaks outlined against the sky. He told me that the main peak represented Siva while the three subsidiary ones represented Ambal, Vinayaka and Subramania.
‘But Bhagavan I have no idea how to mould lime into shapes like this. How do I do it?’ I said.
This time Bhagavan refused to give me any hints. ‘This is Annamalai, You are also Annamalai. You should know how to do it without my telling you’, he said.

I accepted the challenge and tried to execute it, but my determination was not enough to compensate for my lack of experience. For three days I sat their playing with lime plaster. I failed in all my attempts.

The next day, following Bhagavan’s instructions I made another identical bas-relief over the inside of the entrance door. I was surprised how easily I acquired all the necessary skills to supervise construction work. The resident devotees were surprised too. Tenamma Patti, one of the ashram cooks, once asked Bhagavan about this.

‘Annamalai Swami has a lot of devotion towards Bhagavan,’ she said. ‘That is easy to understand. But he has also become an expert in building construction, apparently without any study or training. How is that possible?’

Bhagavan surprised her by saying, ‘He was an engineer in his last life’.

It was very unusual for Bhagavan to make a statement like this. It was clear that he knew of the previous lives of at least some of his devotees but he kept this knowledge to himself.

A large cowshed
Chinnaswami made an arrangement with a local mason to build a small cowshed for under Rs. 500. He felt that since Lakshmi was the only cow in the ashram, a small cowshed would be sufficient. Plans were made and a small muhurtam (inauguration ceremeony) at the site was done. Before the construction began, Bhagavan took me aside and told me that the plan must be changed.

Many cows will come here in the next few years,’ he said. “Even if we build a big cowshed there will be so many cows that some of them will have to be kept outside. We must make a larger cowshed and you, rather than this mason, must supervise its constsruction.’

He showed me exactly where it had to be built, by marking lines on the ground and said all four walls had to be 48 feet long.

And then he added a peculiar provision: ‘If Chinnaswami comes and argues with you about this plan, don’t tell him that I asked you to work like this. Pretend that you are doing it on your own authority.’

I never asked Bhagavan why he wanted his role in this affair to be kept secret.

I started the construction by digging the large trenches for the foundation. When Chinnaswami came to see the progress he was dumbfounded. ‘Who gave you the authority to change the plan?’, he asked. I replied that I was doing it on my own authority. Chinnaswami ordered me to revert to the original plan, but I refused.

This led to a major confrontation. He shouted at me, abused me but I didn’t budge. He walked out of the ashram and sat on a rock for several hours, making critical remarks about me. ‘I am going to leave the ashram’ he repeatedly complained. ‘Let him take care of it.’ Several devotees went to Bhagavan and told him that Chinnaswami was very angry and that he will only return to the ashram if Annamalai Swami was thrown out.

Bhagavan normally did not interfere when Chinnaswami dismissed workers, but on this occasion he backed me up by saying, ‘If Annamalai Swami goes away, I will also go away’.

Chinnaswami withdrew his threat but still continued to oppose the construction. He had a vote taken, where everyone voted in favor of his original plan. I didn’t vote.

Seeing this, Bhagavan enquired ‘What is your opinion?’.
I told him ‘I think that we should build a very big cowshed on the foundations that I started this morning.’
Bhagavan just said ‘Now it seems that people here are divided into two parties. Let us see which of the two plans finally materialises.’
That was his last word on the matter. He got up and left the hall.

I continued with the project, suffering a constant barrage of complaints from Chinnaswami. And then saying that we couldn’t afford this project, he threw a bag of coins that narrowly missed my head. I went straight to Bhagavan and told him about this. Bhagavan gave me a long list of things, including food, which he said he did not need. He refused pain balm for his legs and betel nut as well. When the devotees observed all this, they contributed some money to help with the construction for two days. And then as if by a miracle, a prince in North India came to the rescue. He was about to be killed by a tiger during a hunting expedition when he had prayed to Bhagavan. His prayers were answered and he immediately sent a money order for Rs. 1,000 to the ashram and a tiger skin along with it!

As the cowshed was nearing completion, Chinnaswami came to me and said: ‘This building will be a success because of Bhagavan’s plan. It is only because of his grace that we have been able to finance it. Now I believe you.’

Towards the end of the construction of the cowshed, the ashram had received so many donations. Chinnaswami, after getting permission from Bhagavan, decided to start several other building projects. He came up to me and said:

‘I am going to Burma for a few weeks in order to buy enough teakwood to build a big dining room and kitchen here. While I am away you should start work on a bathroom for Bhagavan, an office and a bookstore. I am confident that you will do a good job because I know from past experience that you will work according to the plans of Bhagavan.’

The Maharaja of Mysore had already given a donation from Bhagavan’s bathroom, so I was able to start on that work almost immediately. The work on these projects went very smoothly and I was able to complete them without any untoward incidents.

The building which now contains the ashram office and bookstore was constructed after Bhagavan’s death. The office and bookstore that were originally built are now used to store and dispatch the ashram’s publications. Bhagavan’s bathroom is the small room which is attached to the north side of the old office, as shown in the diagram. It has a small door which faces the mountain.

This picture also shows the revetment wall that was described above, and the stream beyond it.

When Bhagavan gave jobs to ashram workers he always expected them to be done properly. He never tolerated sloppy workmanship. He would either take the ashram worker off the job or insist that they do the work again. Sometimes, he would personally intervene and do the work himself.

A few times I had to repair the job that someone else had done. On one occasion Bhagavan made me fix the wall around the ashram well, which was built very poorly by some outside workers. After I had fixed it, he showed the workers the wall and without voicing any criticism he said, ‘Look how well Annamalai Swami has repaired this wall that you built’.