Arunachala Tiruvannamalai is less than 500 km from Anandashram; but the Yogi took seven years to complete the journey. He now possessed no will of his own but was implicitly obeying the inner command, the intuition, the force, which he adores as ' Father '. Father's bidding had to be done even at risk to his life. One day the Yogi set out for Tiruchi, but obeying his 'inner voice, got off the train at Erode. Standing near the rails, he could sec a train approaching from a distance. His body’s ingrained instinct for self-preservation advised him to run away: but there was the inner voice which now commanded him to stay. And stay he did, with his left foot caught in the sleepers while the train rushed over the toes. The Yogi fainted. Later he recollected that a Gujarati gentleman had taken him to the hospital where he
was tended carefully. But such care was not intended by the Supreme. Once again obeying this higher command the Yogiji climbed out of a window and escaped from the hospital. He had no plans to visit any particular place, temple or city, but went solely under the direction of the inner prompting, which took him all over India - sometimes on foot, sometimes as a ticket-less traveller on some train. There was neither the means to boy food nor the thinking to plan a meal. Whatever came his way was accepted as divine grace "Yaddrichchaya Labha Santushtaha”,
declares the Gita while describing the perfected soul. This exactly described the Yogi not only of his wandering days, but of the whole of the rest of his life in the body. Clothing, bathing, cleaning, eating etc. became of no importance to him. The inner call urged him on to places and people where there was divine work. His inner consciousness now merged with the infinite that operated at various levels to alleviate suffering, to understand and help in solving the problems faced by the vast multitudes inhabiting this country. His innate patriotism and
love for people strengthened. His faith in the Vedas and the Sanatana Dharma was reinforced during this period.
While realisation might be a matter of a moment, the lives of all great Jnanis show that time is taken for the absorption of the Divine into every pore of the being. Sri Ramana Maharishi was able to reach the exalted stage at sixteen, but it took several years of mauna and isolation for the process to complete and reach the state known as
‘Sahaja’. ' Similarly, with J. Krishnamurti, Sri
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and a host of others. Wandering as a beggar without even a change of clothes, without even a begging bowl, the Yogi took things as they happened, impelled only by the inner voice. There might be days without food, there might be occasions when stale food cooked days earlier would be handed to him. A feast was accepted as cheerfully as a dry roti with no gravy to soften it. There were days when ticket collectors in trains detrained him. Once he was even jailed for this offence and had spent a month inside a prison.
Yogi Ramsuratkumar accepted all this as nothing but divine grace. The body suffered. Jnanis, because of their fusion with the divine, suffer infinitely more than an ordinary person. But this is where the difference comes - the ordinary person can and will pray for a reduction in personal suffering; but a saint cannot and will not pray for anything at all. The surrender to the divine will is total. Yogi Ramsuratkumar was to repeat many times that “Whatever happens is by Father's will
and therefore perfect.” How can any one demand to
alter the perfect?
In the course of the wandering, his inner voice, the voice of the Father would direct him to a particular temple; but after he arrived there, the voice would direct him to stay by the side of the temple and not enter it. Similarly he would be directed to talk to a person or bow to a person and he had no choice except to obey. The Infinite was accomplishing His purpose through the actions, speech and gestures of the Yogi, whose surrender was so complete that there was no
independent thought or action other than that which was prompted by God. Yogi Ramsuratkumar wandered all over India, seeing millions of people, many in utter poverty, many suffering from illnesses for which they could not afford medical attention. Many were victims of the rapacity, greed and violence of fellow humans. He saw, nay experienced the hand of his Father - the Divine will. He knew that past karma resulted in many sufferings; but people, driven by their physical needs and passions, were committing more mistakes. All these moved him to great depths of love and compassion. He the cosmic being, suffered with the miserable and rejoiced with the happy. He knew that the only solution was for humanity to move closer to God, and be established in God consciousness. Otherwise their miseries would only increase. He knew that part of his work henceforth would be to draw people closer to God, to persuade them to shed their avarice and greed, to allow their natural love for God and all beings to grow and flourish.
Thus sped seven years. Now at last Father decided that the Yogi had to be installed at Tiruvannamalai from where he could carry on his cosmic work.