One night, in a dream, a young boy clad in a cod piece and with a clean shaven head placed something in her hand and disappeared. He was possibly a sannyasi. She consulted a person knowledgeable in omens, who said that the boy was Kumaraswami, the family deity of her in-laws. She concluded that he gave her a prasadam in the dream but she had no way of knowing the form of the prasadam.
Sivaprakasam Pillai was a student of Philosophy at college. Even as a student the question of “Who am I?” arose in him. Before he could find an answer to the question by himself, he qualified as a graduate and got appointed in the Revenue Department of Arcot district. When he visited Arunachala in 1902 on inspection work, he heard people extol the silent Brahmana Swami on the hill as a pure, realised soul and as one who was also an embodiment of detachment. He visited the Swami expecting that he would be able to solve the question which arose in him while he was a student.
One of those who came to serve the Swami after he reached the Virupaksha cave was Gambhiram Seshayya, municipal overseer. Right from 1900 he was a regular visitor to the Swami. He was a Rama bhakta who constantly chanted Rama’s name. He looked upon himself as a servant of the Swami and swept the cave regularly. As he had interest in yoga he studied Rajayoga of Swami Vivekananda and other texts; he also studied the Rama Geeta in English but he could not master them. As his knowledge of Sanskrit was poor he had a large number of doubts-in order to get them cleared, he would bring those texts to the Swami, who read them and wrote down their substance in Tamil on small pieces of paper. Thereupon Seshayya would raise further questions for which also the Swami gave answers in writing.
Legend has it that Easwara resided in Arunachala in four forms. The first was the dazzling form without a beginning or an end causing amazement to Brahma and Vishnu, the second was the linga form of Arunachaleswara, the third Arunagiri and the fourth Arunagiri yogi in siddha form.
Arunachala is of brilliant light, yet it appears in brick red colour as a stone
“One with the knowledge of Brahman must be Brahman itself.” Yet in this illusory world his physical body was very much visible, it was performing some functions. Hence for a liberated being there might be no karma but his body did not escape the efforts of karma.
Several thoughts crossed their minds – could Nagaswami have scolded Venkataraman for neglecting his studies, even if it were so what was wrong with it? Could Subbu Iyer’s wife have harassed him with a lot of household chores? But she was not that type at all. Did the school teacher warn him that he might not get through his examinations. Comments flew past on these lines. But was this all true? When the call of the Supreme comes, it becomes irresistible and no worldly attachment can even come in the way. Venkataraman had no such attachment, all that he was interested in was lying in the lap of his Father. How could such a one stay at home?