Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna said: “The manifestation of God is through his incarnation. The devotees should worship and serve an incarnation as long as he lives in a human body . . . Not all, by any means, can recognise an incarnation of God.
Here is one section of the devotees of Bhagavan who attach great importance to his being an avatara, while others overlook or even deny such over emphasis. Why should we worry? We know that he is more than an avatara. Indeed, Bhagavan himself once said: ‘The Jnani is more than an avatara.’
It is not the body which desires to obtain the grace. Therefore it is clear that it is awareness which shines here as ‘you’. To you who are of the nature of awareness there is no connection during sleep with the body, the senses, the vital airs and the mind.
His first memory of Sri Bhagavan’s Grace goes back to about 1925, when he was four years old. It was then a routine that twice a year Ashram inmates were treated for cleaning their stomachs by doses of castor oil and herbal kashayam. After a dose of oil at night, followed by one of kashayam very early the next morning an early and frugal lunch consisting of a small quantity of rice mixed liberally with a special light rasam and mango kernels was served. On one such morning, Venkataraman was being served much more rasam than he wanted, and he blurted out ‘BUS’ (Hindi for ‘enough’) to stop the server, uncle Ranga Rao, from giving him more. Sri Bhagavan heard this remark and, punning on the word, regaled the diners with laughter by saying, “Yes, BUS, runs outside on the Chengam road to your father’s place.”
Natesan always used to spend a few minutes with Bhagavan after his monthly work had been completed. In those few minutes he would have Bhagavan’s uninterrupted and undivided attention. Natesan now considers these short sessions listening to the compassionate words of Bhagavan to be the happiest moments of his life.
“Do you say that in your dreams?” Bhagavan would ask. “They seemed perfectly consistent and real to you then. It is only now, in your waking state that you question the reality of the experience. This is not logical.”