Once upon a time there lived a sage in a temple town by the side of a mountain. The sage was called Ramana Maharishi, the town was Tiruvannamalai and the Mountain was Arunachala. Yes, the same one up there.

Ramana lived in an ashram on the outskirts of the town, at the foot of the hill. He had a few disciples, who lived with him. One day, bad luck struck the town. A band of armed dacoits attacked them.

The entire townsfolk ran helter skelter, away from their homes, into the jungles. The ashramites, hearing the commotion also ran out of the building. At that time Bhagwan was sitting in the meditation hall with a few of the disciples. As they heard the dacoits coming towards the ashram, the meditators fled the room. Bhagwan did not move out. One disciple, I forget his name, also stayed with Bhagwan, not because he thought he should protect him, but because he had an intense desire to test the master. And what better time than this?

The dacoits ransacked the ashram, but did not get any cash/ jewelery and got majorly pissed off. They came to Bhagwan's room and hit him on the head, cursing him for being so poor, and went off. The disciple, frozen and trembling with fear, was watching this and noticed, that Bhagwan's breath had not changed a bit during the entire episode.

Only a disciple, a seeker would think to notice the master's breath at a time like this. Although he himself was terror-struck, he did not run away, and he stayed behind, not to protect the Guru, but to continue to worship him, to continue to gape at him. Even in his moments of fear, he was first a seeker, so intense that he did not run away with the others, so in love with Bhagwan that he wanted to 'see' how Bhagwan reacts to the thieves.

Or that is the reason we are told.

Whatever the reason, I bow down to this gurubandhu and I seek his blessings. Please give me similar courage, similar intensity. Whether or not I am of any use to the sangha, whether there is a sangha anymore or not, let me stay with Swami.

--
Nithyanandam,

Atmapreeta / Manjushree