The day after Sri Bhagavan had told us about the greatness of walking around Arunachala he was suddenly reminded of a short verse he had written many years before. In the early 1930s Sri Somasundara Swami had approached Sri Bhagavan with a new notebook and requested him to write one akshara [letter] in it. Aksharam also means 'the indestructible".

So Sri Bhagavan wrote in Tamil, '0ne aksharam shines always of itself in the Heart. How can it be written?'

This verse found its way into Guru Vachaka Kovai and was later translated into Sanskrit and Telugu by Sri Bhagavan himself.

This somehow reminded Sri Bhagavan of another verse in Guru Vachaka Kovai that discourages aspirants from judging teachers by the powers they manifest.

Sri Bhagavan remarked, commenting and explaining the verse, 'The jnani is ever in ecstasy and fullness, sporting in chidakasa [the space of consciousness]. For the world to attribute to him siddhis is like determining the glory of the sun from the mates in a sunbeam that is projected in a dark chamber.'

Miraculous events did happen in Sri Bhagavan's presence, but not through any act of will on Sri Bhagavan's part. When these so-called miracles occurred, Sri Bhagavan would often be as surprised and wonder-struck as the rest of us. Sri Bhagavan himself told us about one such occurrence.

'Some time ago a paralytic was brought in a conveyance. He was carried into the hall and placed before me. I was looking at him, as usual. After about half an hour the man with some effort got up by himself and prostrated. Rising to his feet he came forward and handed a notebook to me. I found it to be his horoscope. As I glanced through it I read a portion that stated that he would be stricken with paralysis, which would be of short duration because, at around the same time, he would have the darshan of a mahatma, by whose grace he would be miraculously cured. The man, after expressing his fervent gratitude, walked by himself to his conveyance outside the hall. All people present were struck dumb with amazement. I also shared their sense of wonder, because I had not consciously done anything to help him.'

Then #SriRamanaMaharshi again repeated that a jnani could not have any sankalpa of his own.