Impossible to hide anything from Bhagavan

Sri Annamalai Swami

In the years that followed I had many other spiritual talks with Bhagavan (Ramana Maharshi) but his basic message never changed. It was always, 'Do self-enquiry, stop identifying with the body and try to be aware of the Self which is your real nature.' Prior to these early conversations I had been spending several hours each day performing elaborate pujas and anushtanas. When I asked B if I should continue with them he replied, "You need not do any of these pujas any more. If you practise Self-Enquiry that alone will be enough."

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When I had been an attendant for about about two weeks the Collector from Vellore came to have B's darshan. He was called Ranganathan and he brought a large plate of sweets as an offering to B. B asked me to distribute the sweets to everyone in the ashram, including those who were not then present in the hall. While I was distributing the sweets to the people outside the hall, I went to a place where none could see me and secretly helped myself to about double the quantity that I was serving to everyone else. When the distribution was completed I went back to the hall and put the plate underneath B's sofa. 

B looked at me and said, "Did you take twice as much as everyone else?"

I was shocked because I was sure no one had seen me do it. 

"I took it when no one was looking. How does Bhagavan know?"

B made no answer. That incident made me realize that it is impossible to hide anything from Bhagavan. From that time one I automatically assumed that B always knew what I was doing. This new knowledge made me more alert and more attentive to my work because I didn't want to commit any similar mistakes again.