This chapter is taken from The Silent Power – Selections from The Mountain Path and The Call Divine
An inevitable consequence of Bhagavan’s state as a jivan mukta, permanently established in the egoless State, was that he could not claim any rights, even the right to choose what shall be done or not done to his body, because from his point of view, that body was not his. Also, he was so full of compassion, that he could not bear to hurt anyone’s feelings. Anyone that came to him offering edibles or medicine, was sure of its being accepted, though he did not want it. Once he said, “Nature cure is right. But….” And he did not complete the sentence.
Yet he showed his real view of drugs by implication. When a quantity of a drug had to be taken for a certain period, he would take only one dose and would never take a second; that is, he would not follow the prescription as one who believed in the goodness of the drug would do, so as to benefit by it.
The same was the case when an operation was proposed. He submitted to the operation only to please the person who wanted to do him good.
On the last occasion, when a number of doctors and surgeons who came from Madras wanted to operate on him to remove the cancer he was having, he first very gently suggested that it was not necessary. He did that because he knew the future, that the end was near. The doctors did not take the hint. They insisted on operating and hence Sri Bhagavan submitted to the operation without an anaesthetic. The operation lasted for nearly three hours and produced a severe shock, from which the body never recovered.
When all these medical efforts had failed, a number of devotees came to him and prayed to him to use his spiritual powers to heal the disease. Bhagavan replied, “I did not want any treatment. It was you that wanted it.” After a brief pause he added, “In two more days it will become all right”. What he meant was that the end would come then. And it came exactly as he said.