Sometime in 1926, four years after Sri Bhagavan came

to live at the foot of the holy hill beside the samadhi of

the mother, Arunachalam Pillai of Kumaramangalam,
near Gudiyatham, entered the ashram with a cow and
her young female calf and offered them to Sri Bhagavan
in token of his devotion. Bhagavan tried to dissuade
him, pointing out that there were no proper facilities at
the ashram for looking after the cow and the calf. He
told him that since he had already presented them to
Bhagavan, that was enough, and he could now take
them back with him and look after them not as his but
as Bhagavan’s. Seeing his insistence and the devotion
behind it, Ramanatha Brahmachari, who was then living
near Bhagavan and who passed away a few years before
him after many years of his gracious company, declared
energetically, ‘I will look after the cow and the calf’. As
the calf came on a Friday, she was named Lakshmi.
Ramanatha somehow tended the cow and the calf for
two or three months. Lakshmi was very playful,
jumping about as she pleased, and while so doing, she
ruined all the vegetable plants that were growing. If
anyone chided her, she used to come to Bhagavan for
protection. he used to tell the ashramites that if they so
desired they could put up a fence to protect their plants.
Poor chap! Ramanathan could not put up with all these
troubles from the other inmates of the ashram and so
handed over the cow and the calf to a keeper of cattle
downtown. When she was pregnant for the third time,
one evening she was unwilling to leave Bhagavan and
go home. Like Nandini of Vasishta, she was shedding
tears and lay close to the couch.
Bhagavan was visibly affected. Softly passing his hand
over her face he said, ‘What! You say you can’t go
away. You only want to stay here? What am I to do?
‘Looking at the others, he said, ‘Look, Lakshmi is
weeping, saying she cannot go away. She is pregnant
and may have confinement at any moment. She must go
a long distance and again come here in the morning.
She cannot refrain from coming here. What is she to
do? ‘At last Bhagavan somehow coaxed her and sent
her away. That very night she delivered. At about the
same time Pashupati had some domestic difficulties.
Unable to bear the burden of this Lakshmi with all her
vagaries, he brought her and her three calves and
presented them to Bhagavan. Lakshmi lay at
Bhagavan’s feet and would not rise. Placing his right
hand on her head and pressing it, he asked if she would
like to stay here permanently. She closed her eyes and
lay still as if in a trance. Noticing that, Bhagavan
pointed out to the others that she appeared as though her
responsibility for her calves was over, for they had been
placed in Bhagavan’s charge.
Subsequently, for three or four years Lakshmi was
presenting with a calf every year on Jayanti day.
Afterwards, that practice stopped. Altogether she had
nine deliveries. Bhagavan did not give Lakshmi special
treatment simply because he regarded her as a favoured
pet. He allowed her the freedom of the ashram because
he recognized that she was a highly advanced devotee
who had taken the form of a cow in order to be with
him.
Once, when Lakshmi was pregnant for the third time,
she came into the hall after lunch. Bhagavan was
reading a newspaper at the time. Lakshmi came near
him and started licking the papers. Bhagavan looked up
and said, ‘Wait a little, Lakshmi,’ but Lakshmi went on
licking. Bhagavan laid his paper aside, put his hands
behind Lakshmi’s horns and rested his head against
hers. They stayed like this for quite a long time. After
about ten minutes, Bhagavan turned to nagamma and
said, ‘Do you know what Lakshmi is doing? She is
in samadhi.’ it was then noticed that tears were flowing
in streams down her broad cheeks. Her breathing had
stopped, and her eyes were fixed on Bhagavan.
One morning in January 1947 Lakshmi the cow entered
the hall hurriedly with her legs, body and tail full of
mud, with blood oozing out of her nose and with a half-
severed rope around her neck. She went straight to the
sofa where Bhagavan sat. The attendants began saying
with some disgust that she had come in with mud on her
body. Bhagavan, however, said with affection, ‘Let her
come. Let her come. What does it matter how she
comes? ‘Addressing the cow, he said, ‘Come, my dear.
Please come near.’ So saying, he passed his hand over
the body lightly, patted her on the neck and looking at
the face said, ‘What is this? Some blood is oozing!
‘One of the attendants said, ‘Recently they put a rope
through her nose’. ‘Ho! Is that the reason? That is why
she has come here to complain about it. Is it not very
painful for her? Unable to bear the pain, she has come
running to complain to me even without washing her
body. What to do? Give her some iddlies or something,’
said Bhagavan, evincing great solicitude for her
predicament. The attendants gave her some plantains
and thus managed to send her out. After all of us
returned to the hall and sat down, Bhagavan remarked,
looking at the attendants, ‘Do not all of you come to me
to relate your troubles? She too has done the same
thing. Why, then, are you vexed with her for coming
here with mud on her? When we have troubles, do we
consider whether our clothes are all right or our hair is
properly brushed?’
(Letters from and Recollections of Sri
Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma pp. 74-5)

Whenever Lakshmi came for darshan she would walk

very fast, not caring about anyone who stood in the
way. It was left to the devotees to decide whether they
wanted to get out of the way or be trampled on. When
she reached Bhagavan’s couch, she would often stand in
front of Bhagavan and put her head on his feet. If she
came a little closer, he would gently caress her head and
neck. Often, they would be so close together, Lakshmi’s
saliva would fall on Bhagavan’s body. If any special
food was served in the ashram, Bhagavan would serve
some to Lakshmi in the hall itself.
Chinnaswami had made an arrangement with a local
mason to build a small cowshed that would cost not
more than Rs 500. Bhagavan wanted a bigger
cowshed…At about 10 a.m. one morning, before the
construction began, Chinnaswami organised a small
inauguration ceremony on the site of his small cowshed.
[This was the function that Lakshmi brought Bhagavan
to attend.] After everyone had left Bhagavan suggested
that the plan must be changed.
‘Many cows will come here in the next few years,’ he
said. ‘Even if we build a big cowshed, there will be so
many cows that some of them will have to be kept
outside. We must make a larger cowshed and you,
rather than this mason, must supervise its construction.’
Bhagavan changed the venue for the cow shed and
insisted that he wanted all four walls to be forty-eight
feet long…Bhagavan often came to the cowshed to give
instructions and to see what progress had been made.
He even used to visit the site during the night. Once, as
we were supervising the work together, Bhagavan said;
‘If you build this cowshed for Lakshmi, we will get all
the necessary punya [merit or good karma that accrues
from performing virtuous acts] to build a bookstore, a
dining room and a shrine for the mother. All this will
happen in due course. This will eventually become a
town.’
Bhagavan had a frugal, thrifty personality that made
him complain about any kind of waste. He would, for
example, pick up mustard seeds from the kitchen floor
and ask that they be stored for later use; he made
Annamalai Swami straighten out rusty, bent nails and
reuse them in the light of these lifelong habits it was
quite remarkable that Bhagavan went over
Chinnaswami’s head and ordered a massive cowshed to
be built out of expensive materials. Bhagavan rarely
interfered in the management of the ashram, but in this
particular instance he took complete control of the
cowshed project.
The ashram buildings that existed in the year that
Bhagavan ordered this new cowshed had all been made
out of cheap or free materials. These primitive buildings
were a direct consequence of the ashram’s strained
finances and Bhagavan’s known preference for cheap or
free materials. However, when Bhagavan spoke to
Annamalai Swami about the new cowshed, he declared
that he wanted the building to be constructed out of
dressed-granite blocks. The roof of the inner courtyard,
he added, was to be supported with teak beams. This is
an extremely expensive way of building, and Bhagavan
must have been aware that the ashram was not in a
position to finance such a project. The scale of the
building, as well as its materials, was astounding. When
it was finally built, it dwarfed every other building in
the ashram, being at least twice the size of the hall that
Bhagavan himself received visitors in. All this was for
Lakshmi. There were, it is true, a few other cows in the
ashram at the time, but Bhagavan made it quite clear on
several occasions that he was doing this for Lakshmi.
Bhagavan’s prophecy turned out to be true. Though
there were no funds for the project when the
foundations were dug, by the time the building was
finished the ashram was receiving so many donations
for buildings, surplus funds were available to begin
work on other projects such as a bookstore and an
office. I should mention that constructing a building to
get punyafor future projects was also a major departure
for Bhagavan. His general attitude to finance was,
‘Arunachala gives us everything we need’.
The construction of the cowshed marked a turning point
in the ashram’s history. Prior to its construction, ashram
buildings were generally small and primitive. In the
years that followed many new granite buildings were
constructed: the ashram office, the Veda Patasala, the
kitchen and dining room, and finally the magnificent
temple erected over the samadhi of Bhagavan’s mother.
Along with the growth of these physical structures there
was a corresponding increase in the flow of visitors to
the ashram. Was there really a connection between
Bhagavan’s decision to build this cowshed and the huge
growth that followed? It may appear to be a strange
claim, but when Lakshmi passed away in 1948,
Bhagavan himself commented, ‘Because of her our
family has grown to this extent’. When the cowshed
was finally completed, Lakshmi herself brought
Bhagavan to the opening ceremony.
One morning when Lakshmi was seriously ill and
would not survive the day; The room built for the calves
was vacated, cleaned and Lakshmi was given a bed of
straw to lie down on. As it was Friday she was as usual
decorated with turmeric paste. She had a vermilion
mark on her forehead and a garland of flowers round
the neck and horns. Venkataratnam [Bhagavan’s
attendant] was sitting by her side, fanning her. Lakshmi
was lying down with her majestic look, spreading lustre
all around.
When Bhagavan came to the cowshed at 9.45 as usual,
he came to Lakshmi. Bhagavan sat on the hay by her
side, lifted her head with both his hands and passed one
of his hands lightly over her face and throat. Then,
placing his left hand on the head, he began pressing
with the right-hand fingers her throat right down to the
heart.
After pressing like that for about a quarter of an hour he
said, addressing Lakshmi, ‘What do you say, mother?
Do you want me to stay here alone? I could stay but
what to do? All the people would be round you as in the
case of my mother. Even so, why? Shall I go? ‘Lakshmi
remained calm, devoid of all the bonds of this world
and of the pains of her body, as though she were
in samadhi. Bhagavan sat there unwilling to move and
with a heart full of compassion.
Turning towards Lakshmi and gently stroking her head
and neck, he said, ‘What do you say? May I go?’
Subbalakshmi said, ‘She will feel happy if Bhagavan is
by her side’.
‘That is so, but what to do?’
So saying and looking into the eyes of Lakshmi,
Bhagavan said, ‘What? May I go? Won’t you tell me?’
Lakshmi looked at him proudly. What reply Bhagavan
got we do not know but he got up and went away
saying, ‘See that the flies do not get into the mouth’.
With the divine touch of Bhagavan, the outer breath of
Lakshmi began subsiding and the movement of the
body began to decrease. When the doctor came at 10.30
and gave an injection, Lakshmi remained unaffected, as
if the body was not hers. There was no death agony. Her
sight was calm and clear. The doctor turned her over
into the posture of Nandi, put some medicine on the
boils and went away instructing us to keep some
support for the head. Laxmi then got absorbed in
Bhagwan. Ten minutes later Bhagavan came into the
shed, saying, ‘Is it all over?’ and squatted by her side.
He took her face in both his hands as though she were a
little child. Lifting it he said, ‘O Lakshmi, Lakshmi,’
and then to us, controlling his tears, he said, ‘Because
of her our family has grown to this extent’. When all
were praising Lakshmi, Bhagavan asked, ‘I suppose the
doctor has not troubled her much, did he? How did her
life cease?’
We told him everything that happened.
‘That is all right. Did you notice this? The right ear is
uppermost now. Till yesterday she was lying down on
her other side. Because of the boil she was turned over
to this side. So, this ear had to come up. Look, in the
case of people who die in Kasi [Benares], people say
Lord Siva will whisper in the right ear. Lakshmi too has
her right ear up.’ Bhagavan had brought about the
liberation of both his mother and Lakshmi the cow by
destroying the vasanas, the mental tendencies and
desires that would have otherwise resulted in a rebirth.
He accomplished this by placing one of his hands on the
heart centres of these devotees as their death was
approaching.
There was much speculation in Ramanasramam that
Lakshmi was the reincarnation of Keeraipatti, an old
woman who fed Bhagavan for several years when he
lived at Virupaksha Cave and Skandashram. Keerai is a
Tamil term for edible leaves such as spinach and Patti,
meaning grandmother, is a respectful form of address
for elderly women. Bhagavan never publicly confirmed
or denied that Lakshmi was the reincarnation of
Keeraipatti, but he was happy to pass on this theory to
visitors and devotees. One of the devotees approached
Bhagwan and said, ‘We ourselves see that animals and
birds are getting deliverance [moksha] in your presence;
but is it not true that only human beings can get
moksha?’
‘Why? It is stated that a mahapurusha [great saint]
gave moksha to a thorn bush,’ said Bhagavan with a
smile.
Lakshmi the cow is no longer in the cowshed. She has
been freed from the bonds of the body and is now
merged in the lustrous Atman of Sri Ramana.