Sampurnamma's memories of Bhagavan

The lives of the very fortunate devotees who got to serve during Bhagavan's mortal life continue to be a deep inspiration to devotees today. Reading accounts and memoirs is a great way of understanding Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi's life, as well His teachings. It is often said that His life itself was a teaching.

Some words of Bhagavan that she recollects are:

You must cover your vegetables when you cook them. Only then will they keep their flavor and be fit to eat. It is the same with the mind. You must put a lid over it and let it simmer quietly. Then only does a man become food fit for God to eat.

Bhagavan would allow nothing to go to waste. He once explained,

"Yes, this is my way. Everything is in my care, and I let nothing go to waste. In these matters I am quite strict."

One another occasion:

 "This is the property of my father Arunachala. I have to preserve it and pass it on to His children"

 

It is the cooking that matters, not the cook or the eater. A thing well done, with love and devotion, is its own reward. What happens to it later matters little, for it is out of our hands.

Once when Bhagavan noticed that she was afraid walking along along the jungle path, he told her, "Why are you afraid? Am i not with you?". He later told the ashram manager, "Why are you surprised? Was she alone? Was i not with her all the time?"

Once during her periods, when she sat hungry in the mantapam outside the ashram, Bhagavan ordered that she be brought in and fed decently. When people protested that she was impure Bhagavan replied, "Who is pure and who is impure? All are one, all are the same!"

This was Bhagavan's lesson of compassion towards all.
See Ramana Smriti