Letter 110

(110) VISIONS IN DREAM
Prev Next
17th April, 1947
The day before yesterday at about 8 or 9 in the morning, an elderly man of a middle class family, who knew Ayurveda, came to Bhagavan, prostrated before him and said, “Swami, this is good for phlegm, take it.” He wanted to give some medicine. When the attendants tried to prevent him from giving it, Bhagavan stopped them, took the medicine, and told the attendants, “Look, he used to give me some medicine or other now and then from the time I was living on the hill. Let him give it. Perhaps he has had some dream.” With evident pleasure, the old man said, “I have not had any dream now, Swami. You used to have excess of phlegm at this time of the year, didn’t you? So I have brought it.” So saying he bowed and went away.

As soon as he left, a devotee sitting near Bhagavan asked, “What about the dream you referred to?” Bhagavan replied: “Oh that! While living on the hill, one evening I casually asked Palaniswamy if he had a lime fruit. He said, ‘No’. ‘If so, don’t worry’, I said. It seems that very night this person dreamt that I had asked him for a lime fruit. Next morning, as I came out he was already there and said, ‘Swami, take this lime fruit!’ ‘Yesterday, I asked him (Palaniswamy) if he had one. How did you know about it?’ I asked. In reply, he said, ‘You appeared to me in my dream and told me that you wanted a lime fruit. That is why I have brought it now’; and he placed the fruit in my hand. That is how it happened.” The devotee asked, “Is it a fact that Bhagavan appeared to him in a dream?” Bhagavan replied with a smile, “I don’t know. Who knows? He said so. That is all.” Another devotee asked, “K. K. Nambiar’s notebook also happened to be brought here in the same way, isn’t it?” Bhagavan replied, “Yes, that is so. At that time Madhavan was here. I was telling him to take out from the bureau a long notebook with a black cover so that I could write a commentary on Sri Ramana Gita in Malayalam and copy it out in that notebook. He said he would get it but forgot about it for four or five days. Meanwhile Nambiar came here and gave me a notebook of the exact size and description I was asking for. When I asked him how it was that he had brought a notebook of the sort I was asking for, he said, ‘Bhagavan appeared to me in a dream and asked me for a notebook, describing the number of pages, the breadth and length. When I went to the shop, I found one of the exact description. I have brought it.’ In the meantime, Madhavan came. I said to him, ‘Look, here is the book. You have given it to me, haven’t you?’ He was surprised and, remembering my instructions, took out my notebook from the bureau which was found to be exactly of the same size. It was just sufficient for Sri Ramana Gita with the slokas and the commentary. As soon as that work was over, Nambiar came and took it away, saying he would get it printed but at the same time hesitated to hand over the book containing Bhagavan’s handwriting to the press. So, he got another copy made, which he sent to the press and kept the original himself. It must still be with him.

Even Rajagopalan did almost the same thing once. As the stock of our ink was finished I told the people here once or twice to replenish it. The next day or the day after he brought a big jar of ink while returning from some place. When I asked him how he came to know that the ink was needed here, he said that Bhagavan appeared to him in a dream and told him that ink was needed. ‘So I brought it,’ he said. That is how things happen from time to time,” said Bhagavan.

That devotee said, “They say that Bhagavan himself told them. Is that a fact?” Bhagavan replied, “What do I know? They said so. That is all.” The devotee again said, “Even so, isn’t it surprising that what was needed here should be seen by them in a dream?” Bhagavan nodded his head in approval and kept quiet.