Ramana's Devotion

I went back to Ramanasramam and asked the Maharshi, 'Are you the person who appeared to me in Madras and told me, "Krishna bhakti alone is true"?' He heard my question but he didn't give me a reply.

While I was waiting for an answer, a group of devotees came from Vrindavan. They were on a tour of pilgrimage places in the South. On their visit to Tirupati they had heard that there was swami in Tiruvanamalai who was worth visiting. So, they all came along to have darshan. The leader presented the Maharshi with a picture of Krishna playing the flute for Radha. It was a beautiful picture. As the Maharshi was looking at the picture, tears started trickling down his cheeks. When you have intense devotion for Krishna, you can easily pick out other devotees who have that same passion. I could see that these were real tears of devotion and that they came from the heart and not from the mind. As I watched the tears trickling down his cheeks, I felt them trickling into my own Heart. It was a divine shower that filled my own Heart with love. He was so happy looking at that picture, and I felt so happy looking at him appreciate it.

I thought to myself, "This man has been hiding his devotion from me. He doesn't like to show it publicly, but now I have found out his secret. He is just as much a bhakta as I am."

A bird cannot fly without two wings. After this revalation I saw that the Maharshi was soaring on the twin wings of bhakti and jnana [ devotion and transcendental knowledge ]. From that moment on, my doubts evaporated and I had immense faith in him.

- From Nothing Ever Happened, Vol 1 by David Godman