From the chapter PART III Diary of the book “Guru Ramana – Memories and Notes” by S. S. Cohen.
24th April
Radium has been applied to Sri Maharshi’s wound for the first time today. Everyone is depressed, but Sri Bhagavan himself is as jovial as ever, though visibly weaker. At 3 p.m. Mr. Kalyana Sundaram, a devotee and an ex-Ashram worker, brings him a postcard from his brother in which the latter enquires after Maharshi’s health and asks whether the Master had that morning undergone the third operation, to which Maharshi replied: “No, it is not an operation, but radium application. The lump is growing from inside like a lingam, but it is giving me no trouble. I am feeling no pain nor any inconvenience. The doctors have taken some slough from it and have sent it to America to see if they can use radium or not, but no answer has so far come. There are two kinds of tumours – malignant and non-malignant. Whatever it may be, it will take time to heal. Why worry?” After a few minutes attendant Venkata Ratnam goes to enquire on his own initiative and returns to inform Bhagavan that no slough has been sent to America, at which Maharshi exclaims “Is that so?” and waves his hand to indicate his indifference. We all smiled at his ingenuousness.