About the time Bhagavan completed the Malayalam translation of Ramana Gita in the notebook Nambiar had brought to him following the remarkable dream we heard about in part one. Bhagavan added several appendices on the unused pages, which included Skandasapthakshari Mantra, Sri Arunachala Pancharatnam, Sri Ramana Chatvarimsat and Sri Ramana Vibhaktyashtakam.[1]
Nambiar offered to have the Malayalam text printed at Vidyavilasam Press in Tellicherry in northern Kerala at his own expense and donate the copies to the Ashram. Bhagavan suggested that he write a preface. Being inexperienced in editorial work, Nambiar sought advice from Paul Brunton and composed a three-page preface which he showed to Bhagavan for approval.
Bhagavan then raised an unexpected concern. If the original notebook were sent to the printer, its pages might be separated during typesetting. Since the notebook itself had come about through the unusual circumstances of Nambiar’s dream, Bhagavan felt the book had to be preserved in the Ashram Archives as it had a history behind it. He asked Madhavan, the attendant, to get another notebook or just a writing pad. A new writing pad was brought and Bhagavan again carefully copied in his beautiful, almost print-like handwriting all that was written in the notebook of Nambiar’s dream.
When this second manuscript was handed to Nambiar for printing, a thought occurred to him. Rather than risk Bhagavan’s handwritten copy being dismantled at the press, he bought an additional writing pad and, with his wife’s help, copied the text yet again. Their copy went to the printer, while Bhagavan’s manuscript was sent to Basel Mission Press in Mangalore for fine binding in Morocco leather with gilt edges.
When the bound volume returned, Nambiar took it to Bhagavan, who examined it and returned it with his blessings. Thereafter, Nambiar preserved it as a sacred relic, bringing it out only on important occasions, while using ordinary printed copies for daily parayana.
By this time Nambiar’s attraction to Bhagavan’s teaching had deepened considerably. The conviction that God was seated within the Heart and that the real quest was inward began to overshadow his earlier emphasis on temple worship and ritual recitation. A verse attributed to Sadasiva Brahmendra was frequently on his lips:
O Lord Siva! I ask nothing new from you. Give me only my own blissful state.
Through the Floodwaters
One evening after a torrential rain, the Sarvadhikari urgently needed to travel to Vellore regarding a court case. With no bus available, Nambiar volunteered to drive his old Austin sedan.
Near Polur they reached a flooded causeway. From the guard-rails Nambiar estimated that the water might be about eighteen inches deep, but the level was rising rapidly. With darkness closing in and no one nearby to help, he decided to attempt the crossing.
As the car entered the causeway, water surged around it and threatened to reach the ignition and the air intake system. Thus, there was a real risk of the engine stalling—or even of the vehicle being swept away. A swami travelling with them chanted, Vasudeva sarvam iti, (“All of this is Vasudeva, the Supreme God,”) while T. P. Ramachandra Iyer who was also travelling with them, added, Sarvam idam aham cha Vasudevah (“All the universe and the I as well, are Vasudeva”).
Concentrating inwardly on Bhagavan, Nambiar drove steadily forward. The car reached the opposite bank safely, and the relieved party continued on to Vellore.
The journey concerned a civil suit brought by Perumalswami, a former attendant of Bhagavan, regarding Ashram property. Perumalswami sought to have Bhagavan summoned to appear in court. Devotees appealed to the Madras authorities, arguing that making Sri Ramana to attend would be inappropriate. A Gazette Extraordinary was eventually issued granting Bhagavan exemption from personal appearance in civil proceedings, and he was instead examined by a visiting judicial commission at the Ashram.
Transfers and Dreams
At the end of November, shortly after Karthigai Deepam, Nambiar was transferred to Mangalore as District Board Engineer for South Canara. As his train left Tiruvannamalai, he watched the flame and smoke of Deepam receding in the distance—a sight that remained vivid in his memory for decades.
South Canara brought him near places already sacred to him. He visited the Mookambika Temple at Kollur, where he had practised austerities in 1922, as well as Godachadri, Chitramoola Cave and the traditional Sarvajna Peetha associated with Adi Sankara. He also frequently visited Swami Ramdas at the nearby Anandashram, Kanhangad, where he received initiation into the mantra, Sri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram.
From South Canara he was briefly transferred to Kakinada to work on the design of a new bridge across the Godavari and later, transferred to Madurai. Wherever official duties permitted, he continued returning to Ramanasramam, as he put it, to “charge” his spiritual batteries.
At Kakinada, Bhagavan appeared in a dream and alerted him to an error he was about to make in the proposed well foundations for the Godavari bridge. Nambiar regarded this as another extraordinary indication of Bhagavan’s continuing guidance.
Appendicitis
In 1942, while stationed at Madurai, Nambiar suddenly suffered a severe abdominal pain:
During those days I used to regularly practise strenuous yogic exercises. I took an enema one day and couldn’t pass all the water. That night I felt severe pain in the abdomen and in the small hours of the morning, the family doctor was sent for. As soon as he checked my condition, I was asked to get ready to go to the Headquarters Hospital with preparations to stay overnight. My wife and I went to the hospital early morning. They were ready for an operation. Colonel Cox, the Surgeon gave me a spinal anaesthesia and performed the appendix operation which lasted longer than usual, as they had to make a large incision. In the meanwhile, the swollen appendix had burst, said the surgeon. I was all the while thinking of Bhagavan and when back in the ward after the operation, while lying in a half-dazed state, I had a dream of Arunachala Hill, or perhaps ‘Kailas’ which I had not seen as the colour of the peak was more whitish than crimson.
Some months later another dream came. Bhagavan told Nambiar that he would be transferred to Madras and that he “would be going” with me. Nambiar narrates:
When I woke up, I was confused and couldn’t believe it. I had not the faintest idea that transfer to Madras was possible where there was no place for a District Board Engineer. Anyway, I wrote a letter about the dream to Sri Ramanasramam and left it there. A few days later I came to know that the City Engineer’s post in the Madras Corporation had fallen vacant due to the then incumbent having been suspended on some corruption charges and they were thinking of posting a new engineer, with some foreign qualifications. It seems the Government of Madras had suggested my name and wanted the council to take a decision. I was thereupon interviewed by the Municipal Commissioner, and the names of all the candidates were put up to the Council for a decision. I was selected for appointment. The dream came true.
In September 1943, Nambiar took charge of the post and entered the office which had been kept locked and sealed till then.
He would be in Madras for the next fifteen years as Corporation Engineer, Chairman of City Improvement Trust, Chief Engineer of Highways—till his retirement from Government service.
Niranjananandaswami subsequently asked him to act as the Ashram’s representative in Madras, helping procure stationery and building materials, communicating with devotees and attending to printing and financial matters.
A Wager on Bhagavan’s Grace
In 1944 Nambiar’s sister, Madhavi Ammal urged him to visit Tiruvannamalai by train. He hesitated because, without a car, moving around after arrival would be difficult. Half-jokingly, he said Bhagavan would have to arrange one.
Two days later an old acquaintance, Sri Venkataratnam, then Subdivisional Magistrate at Tiruvannamalai, visited Nambiar’s office and invited the entire family to stay with him. He promised to meet them at the railway station and provide a car during their visit. When the family arrived, Venkataratnam was waiting—not with one car, but two.
During their stay, Nambiar spoke of his confidence that Bhagavan looked after his devotees. Venkataratnam teasingly proposed a test. On the return journey they would have to change trains at Villupuram late at night, where first-class accommodation was notoriously difficult to obtain. Their party numbered five. Would Bhagavan arrange berths for them?
Nambiar accepted the “bet.” At Villupuram the first Madras-bound train arrived nearly full. A helpful ticket examiner found only two upper berths in separate compartments—not enough for the family. He advised them to wait for the next train. Nambiar narrates:
I would not give up hope. I was all the while praying to Sri Bhagavan and could not reconcile myself to the idea that we would be left stranded. Musing thus within myself, I felt like walking up to the front end of the train, where there were a few closed bogies adjacent to the engine. No passenger coaches are generally connected there but, on that night, there was a brand-new looking first-class bogie next to the engine nicely done up and polished and completely shuttered and closed being towed to Madras for some special purpose. On seeing it, I ran back along the platform and spoke to the ticket examiner about it. The sceptical railway official came up with me and was surprised to find a new coach with all the doors and windows locked. On opening it with a key, we found an exquisite compartment with all the seats empty. With his permission all of us entered the compartment – six berths, all to ourselves – specially reserved! I repeated aloud “Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Ramanaya! I have won the bet!”. Need we have any doubt whether Sri Bhagavan would answer the silent prayers of his devotees?
Mr. Venkataratnam’s assistant went back to Tiruvannamalai and narrated to him details about this incident. He was surprised and wrote to Nambiar admitting that he had lost the bet but that his faith in Sri Bhagavan had increased all the more. For Nambiar this was yet another addition to a growing list of miraculous incidents attributable solely to Bhagavan’s Grace.
Foreign Deputation
Another unexpected turn came early in 1946. A young engineer happened to mention to Nambiar that the Government of India was sending a delegation of engineers to Britain and the United States for advanced study in highway engineering. Nambiar was surprised to learn that several junior colleagues had already been selected while he, being temporarily deputed to the Madras Corporation, had heard nothing about it.
He immediately petitioned the Government of Madras. The request reached Sir Thomas Austin, Adviser to the Government, who insisted that Nambiar be included.
The arrangements were made hurriedly. Before leaving India, Nambiar sought Bhagavan’s blessings and informed Ramanasramam of his journey.
While in England he received a letter from the Ashram dated 17th April 1946. Its purpose, the Sarvadhikari wrote, was “just to make you feel that Bhagavan is with you even there in England.”
The letter mentioned an elderly English devotee, Mrs. Victoria Doe of Epsom, who had never visited India but deeply longed to meet someone who had sat in Bhagavan’s presence.
Aurobindo Bose, Mrs. Victoria Doe and K.K. Nambiar, UK, May 1946
Mrs. Doe
On 19th May 1946 Nambiar travelled to Epsom to meet Mrs. Doe and her daughter, Leena. The encounter moved him deeply. Mrs. Doe had never seen Bhagavan physically, yet her devotion was intense. She had read his teachings, meditated upon him and maintained a long correspondence with the Ashram. Nambiar writes:
Mrs. Doe with shaking hands took from her shelves sheaves of letters received from the Ashram and after kissing them with great reverence handed them over to me for perusal. All those were letters from the Ashram and had been meticulously preserved by her for many years. She had also with her all the English publications of Sri Ramanasramam. She opened one of the books and running her shaky finger along the inscription on the first page “with Gracious Blessings from Sri Bhagavan”, burst into tears of joy and devotion.
When she composed herself, she said “Mr. Nambiar, how lucky you are to have been able to be with him, to see him and hear him speak. Here we treasure these books and letters as representing him. Now he has sent you here. I feel that he is with us now”.
Such love, such devotion to the Sage, so tenderly expressed, moved me to the depths of my being. Verily his kingdom is the Heart of the devotee, and I have always found him there enthroned.
A fortnight later Nambiar returned and found another surprise. Aurobindo Bose, also associated with Ramanasramam, had arrived in London and had independently made a point of visiting Mrs. Doe. The two men joined Mrs. Doe and her daughter for tea in the garden and sent a joint letter to the Ashram.
Months later, Bhagavan referred to their meeting in the Hall, joking that Mrs. Doe liked Nambiar because he was quiet.
Nambiar visited Mrs. Doe again in January 1947, and many years later, in 1963, visited again with his wife. Mrs. Doe, by then in her nineties, presented Mrs. Nambiar with an old copy of Maharshi’s Gospel that she had treasured for years.
Eleanor Pauline Noye
From England, Nambiar travelled to the United States. During an official tour of California, he arranged to meet another prominent devotee, Mrs. Eleanor Pauline Noye.
Unlike Mrs. Doe, Mrs. Noye had travelled to India and spent several months at Ramanasramam. She lived in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles and hoped to return to India when circumstances permitted.
Nambiar travelled by tram from central Los Angeles to Van Nuys Tram Terminus, where Mrs. Noye met him in her car. On seeing someone who had come directly from Bhagavan, she was overcome with emotion.
Her modest home had, to Nambiar, the atmosphere of a hermitage. They spent hours speaking of Bhagavan and wrote a joint letter to the Ashram. When the letter reached Tiruvannamalai, Bhagavan read it. Devaraja Mudaliar records in his Day by Day with Bhagavan Mrs. Noye’s joy that Nambiar had visited and how she felt as though Bhagavan himself had been present.
Two days later Mrs. Noye visited Nambiar at his hotel. After dinner he accompanied her back to San Fernando Valley. Though he had little time before catching the last tram, the two sat quietly together:
Both of us sat with closed eyes, meditating on Sri Bhagavan whose physical body was more than ten thousand miles away. All the same I felt his presence. The peace that I enjoyed during those few moments was indescribable. Mrs. Noye felt the same way. I took leave of her and hurriedly retraced my way to the tram terminus. By the time I reached my Hotel at Los Angeles, my colleagues had already left for the airport. So, I hurriedly packed up, paid my dues and proceeded to the airport just in time to board the plane. I felt Bhagavan’s help right through and when I was comfortably seated in the plane and was flying high above the clouds, I felt an urge to write to the Ashram about the air journey in the small hours of the morning, the sublime feeling and the peace that enveloped me at that time…. I was told that when this letter reached the Ashram and was handed over to Bhagavan, he read it out in the hearing of all those around him and eventually gave it to some of them for perusal.
Meeting Bose in New York
Later, while travelling in America, Nambiar received word that A. Bose had left Europe and might soon be in New York. No one, however, knew where he was staying.
When Nambiar reached New York, he checked into the Embassy Hotel. He planned to contact major travel agencies the next morning in the hope that they might help locate Bose. Nambiar recounts:
Next morning I came out of my room, and standing at the elevator shaft, rang for the lift to go down to breakfast. The lift arrived, the door opened and lo! Mr. Bose was there in the lift to travel down to breakfast along with me! It might be that it was a coincidence, but it was something very remarkable indeed, if you consider that there were at that time 516 hotels in New York City and most of them of such dimensions that even while living for weeks together in the same hotel, we could have missed coming across each other. My stay in that city during this trip was only a few days. A mere fortuitous coincidence to the unbeliever, but to me it was one of those miraculous incidents of Sri Bhagavan helping his devotees. Since then, I have had many such incidents to confirm my unquestionable faith in Sri Bhagavan.
Conclusion
Behind the notebook, the flooded causeway, the unexpected appointments, Mrs. Doe in England, Mrs. Noye in California and the chance meeting with Bose in New York City lay a single conviction: geographical distance made no difference. Bhagavan’s presence was not confined to the body seated in the Old Hall.
As Nambiar’s life increasingly demonstrated to him, the true kingdom of the Guru was the Heart of the devotee—and there, wherever he travelled, he found Bhagavan always there. —
(to be continued)
[1] <https://archive.arunachala.org/docs/murugan>;
<https://archive.arunachala.org/docs/collected-worm/pancaratnam/>; <https://archive.arunachala.org/docs/ganapati-muni/catvarimsat/>;
<https://archive.arunachala.org/docs/ramana-vibhakti-ashtakam>.
