Page 25 - Path to Perfection

reading Bhagavad Gita but could not grasp the conditions therein by reading and his craving continued. Later he asked a local priest to prescribe some method of worship and he asked him to do “Rama japa”. He tried this only for a week but was not able to observe any change in his condition and his craving continued unabated. Then he tried to do idol worship but found it gross and dragging him further low and therefore he gave it up. This craving continued for many more years.
Sri Ramchandra started studying at the age of 6 under a tutor. But unfortunately he contracted typhoid and had to discontinue studies for an year. The illness made him forget all that he learned till then. Perhaps because he has to learn different things, God wanted to keep his mind a clean state – a state of mind without any impressions – a tabula – rasa. He continued his studies in a school. But that was dotted with failures mainly because he was very poor in mathematics. Once in order to find an excuse for not doing homework in mathematics he put a finger in a wasp-hive and preferred that suffering to the punishment from the teacher for non-performance. Of course, he regretted for this option later. Ridiculous story from one point of view but this is innocence at its nascent state.
His mother’s training in moral values was his guiding spirit. He was honest to the core. He found once a rupee (a big amount those days) in the school compound. He dutifully handed over the same to the head master to be returned to the rightful owner. The head master sent a note to all classes regarding the same simultaneously praising the boy for his gesture.
He practiced riding a horse, which was purchased for him by his father and used to go school riding. He was so skillful in this that he used to ride without a syce (groom) also. He was also a good hockey player and was the captain of his class team. But his sensitive Nature made him say good bye to this game as his head master did not give materials to play in the leisure time.
Meantime, because of his prayerful mind searching for the Master, he developed enormous sensitivity that he got from the day of his birth. He could sense things like his cloths and that or others by the smell of it and was also capable of knowing the character of the persons by the smell of their perspiration. His craving to know the real nature of God continued always in the background of his mind. By 14 years this matured enough to come to the conclusion that he decided that if he went to any person seeking his Guru he would definitely