Yogavratananda ji:
“‘Prana prayana Utsav’
That is how one may call it, the spirit with which Swami Agehanandaji left his body. This will not surprise those who knew him, for this was the spirit which characterized his whole life time.
I have seen that however early I get up in the morning I would always find him in the temple before me, be it 3.30 a.m. or 4 a.m. Whenever I tried to go there before him say at 3.15 a.m. so that I could wipe the temple floors, etc. in order to lighten his burden of work, I would invariably find him already at work. Even if I try to do some chore on my own he will gently say ‘I will do it, I will do it’ and take away from my hands broom stick or whatever I was having in my hands for doing that task. I tried many times to help in Puja work, be it cleaning the floors, shrine, plucking flowers, making garlands, etc. (but he would not let me)”
Sampurnananda : ‘Making garlands?’
Yogavratananda ji:
Yes. He used to make fine garlands. He made beautiful hibiscus garlands. I pointed out to him several times that hibiscus flowers sticks tight to Thakur’s picture when it starts to fade in the evening. When he became convinced of the point he changed to other flowers. Sometimes when he felt like doing a hibiscus garland he took care to remove it before evening and make another garland again for the evening.
I presume he used to get up before 3 a.m. He would start his work in the shrine by 3.30 a.m. I sent some small boys to do some work in the shrine like cleaning floors, etc.
Sampurnananda : ‘He didn’t mind it?’
Yogavratananda ji:
He happily allowed them to work. He used to prepare some Prasad for them.
Sampurnananda : ‘Prepare himself?’
Yogavratananda ji: Yes he would cook himself.
Sampurnananda : ‘What prasadam?’
Yogavratananda ji:
Payasam, coffee, tea, etc. Or he would ask the cook to prepare some uppuma, etc. in the evening and would give that to the boys.
Sampurnananda : ‘Where did he do his cooking? In the temple?’
Yogavratananda ji: No, he would cook in the ashrama kitchen.
Sampurnananda : ‘So he would do everything himself?’
Yogavratananda ji:
He would start cooking, but some of us used to take it out from him and he would allow us.
He used to love everybody without exception. Be it small children, or grown-ups or V.I.P., it was so tangible that he loved them all. It was not a showy love, it was a caring love. He would do things for them.
If children do pranams to him he would not fail to give them at least two chocolates. Many children used to go to him and he would give them chocolates. We tried to stop them going that way, but they would go...
Sampurnananda : ‘Why did you try to stop?’
Yogavratanandaji:
Well, many used to enter the Ashrama one way and go out the other way as a short-cut. We stopped grown-up people doing this, but we did not have the heart to stop children doing this, seeing Maharaj’s affection for them. Children loved him. They did pranams to him, receive his affection filled chocolates, and go away happily.
At 3.30 in the afternoon after opening the shrine, he used to prepare coffee using milk powder.
Sampurnananda : ‘You had enough milk in the ashrama. There are cows, right?’
Yogavratanandaji:
Yes, there was milk, cows, everything. But that milk was kept for use in the ashrama in the evening. We used to sell the excess milk.
Sampurnananda : ‘Sell?’
Yogavratananda ji:
Yes, we sold excess milk. Agehanandaji had no complaints about it. When I was there, I often used to set aside some milk for Maharaj.
Sampurnananda : ‘Was that was during Jaitranandaji’s time?’
Yogavratanandaji:
Yes. It was Jaitrananda ji who brought Agehanandaji to Tiruvalla. Samagranandaji continued the all the practices of Jaitranandaji as a matter of policy. ‘Oh, Maharaj gets milk powder from devotees, don’t worry’
Samagranandaji used to reply to me when I tried to carry some milk for Agehanandaji. But if I sometimes take away a litre of milk and give it to Agehanandaji, Samagranandaji wouldn’t make too much fuss. He would just express the policy and leave it at that.
Every morning at 4.30 Agehanandaji would keep coffee ready for us. After Mangala Arati we had to just go and take it.
Sampurnananda : ‘Where did he make it?’
Yogavratananda ji:
In the kitchen. And that was a scary thing. Because sometime Maharaj would not have closed the knob of the gas oven properly, on the previous night. Every night I tried to check up the knobs before I go to bed or the first thing in the morning. It was fine coffee. And we used to get it twice every day, morning and evening.
He was an occasional contributor of spiritual write-ups to English newspapers. People from Bangalore and Mysore used to come and meet with him often. Their donations used to be a good source of income for the ashrama. We used to arrange their stays either in the Ashrama or outside.
He was a voracious reader. We could find him even at 10.30 reading some books with the extra aid of a torch. In Tiruvalla everybody retires to their rooms by 7.30 at night after supper at 7 p.m.
His Arati is a note-worthy affair. He will do his Deepa Arati. (We have only deepa) Then he would come and sit with us and start ‘Khandana Bhava bandhana’. We would have already started and would have completed a stanza or two, but he would start again, we had to join him.
Sampurnananda : “‘So you had two ‘Khandana bhava bandhan’?”
Yogavratanandaji:
(laughing) Yes. And after that he would do ‘Om Hrim’ and ‘Sarva Mangala’, sing some extra one or two songs, and promptly proceed to close the temple. That we are ready to sing more wouldn’t matter with him. A mug of offered milk would be added to the evening coffee. He used to give this prasadi coffee to everybody. If there were more people, there might be some more water in the coffee or lesser volume or both.
He was remarkably punctual in all his acts. I had this blessed privilege to have lived with him for four years.
Sampurnananda : ‘How was his relation with Samagrananda ji?’
Yogavratananda ji:
Oh, it was very cordial, very close. Samagranandaji tried to do everything according to the wishes of Agehanandaji. Agehananda ji never spoke anything against Samagrananda ji.
Sampurnananda : ‘How was the relation with Jaitranandaji?’
Yogavratananda ji:
That too was very good. Jaitranandaji brought Agehanandaji to Tiruvalla. There used to be lot of fun and laughter between them. We used to hear occasional loud laughter. With Samagranandaji it was a bit different. Samagranandaji’s nature is not about laughter. It is more about a very pleasant and gentle demeanor.
Sampurnananda : ‘Samagrananda ji would be about 7 or 8 years younger than Agehananda ji while Jaitrananda ji would be about two years older than Agehananda ji, right?’
Yogavratananda ji:
Yes, I suppose so. Everybody had great love and affection towards Maharaj (Agehananda ji). Maharaj loved everybody and that love was laced with humility.
And we had another noble soul there, Swami Ramanujananda ji. I used to remark very often, these three are like Bhagavan (God) to me. There are like Iswar (God) to me.
Sampurnananda : ‘Yes, they were gods, but you still had to leave them ?
Yogavratananda ji:
Yes, Belur Math called me.
The End
O Santi Santi Santi Hari Om Tat Sat
Transcript of interview with
Swami Yogavratananda (Suthan Maharaj)
Intervewer : Swami Sampurnananda
