Swamiji’s Dog Ramo
Immediately
after Swamiji's mahasamadhi, Steve and Wes were staying at the Bangalore ashram
where they continually experienced Swamiji's presence.
On one occasion, a uniquely beautiful crow alighted near Steve and gave him a look that was Swamiji. He also saw Swamiji in Swamiji's dog (Ramo by name), birds, and various people looking at him. He knew the difference between when it was Swamiji and when it was just a crow, dog or person.
Once he was meditating by Swamiji's Samadhi when Ramo came up and affectionately licked him. He did not break his meditation, but he felt grateful for Swamiji's blessing. Swamiji's presence in various living beings was soon confirmed in a rather dramatic way.
The next morning, Steve was walking towards the Samadhi for meditation and saw Ramo. He could not walk by the dog without giving him an affectionate hug. Ramo immediately followed him to the Samadhi.
Wes was already in deep meditation by the Samadhi. Ramo bounded up to Wes and put his
two paws on Wes' chest. At that moment, Wes felt a surge of energy pass through his heart chakra, as if the touch had
opened the chakra. He opened his eyes and instead of seeing the dog Ramo, saw Swamiji hugging him.
Top: Ramo, Swamiji's dog, at the gates to the Bangalore ashram.
Right: Swamiji's cow, Bangalore ashram.
See also Shivabalayogi in Different Forms.
Lamba's Dog
Shivabalayogi and Lamba’s Dog
The story of Shivabalayogi and Lamba’s Dog is told by Kodandam. It was in 1966 that Shivabalayogi accepted B. S. Lamba’s invitation to visit his house at Mokampur, near Dehradun. With Swamiji was a small group of attendants, Kodandam, Adinarayana, Malaya and Veerabhadraiah.
The Lambas had a very fierce dog which they would let loose at exactly nine o’clock every night. We were told that we had to be in our rooms before nine, and if we were not, then the Lambas would not be responsible. The dog was so ferocious that even Lamba and his family could not care for it properly. It was very dirty, its hair was matted, and it smelled badly.
Adinarayana, Malaya and Veerabhadraiah had a room on the other side of the house from Swamiji’s room. They had to walk through the yard to get there. I would sleep on the floor in Swamiji’s room. One night the dog was let loose before these people could get inside their room. They were walking through the yard when the dog started coming at them. They shouted to me to open the door and ran back to Swamiji’s room. I got them in and managed to shut the mesh door before the dog hit the door. Adinarayana had fallen down and scraped his knee and one of the others had a cut on his face.
That incident made me do something. The dog was too dangerous.
In the early afternoons the Lambas and the people in the house used to go to sleep. Even Swamiji’s devotees would nap. So the next afternoon, instead of sleeping, I told Swamiji that I would go out for a walk.
I took a box of sweets which devotees had given to Swamiji as prashad and went to the garden where the dog was tied to a tree. The dog saw me and started barking angrily, pulling at the rope with which it was tied. I stood at a distance and threw the dog a sweet. The dog took it and I threw it another and as many as the dog would eat. After about ten minutes, the dog was wagging its tail happily.
Every early afternoon I made a point of feeding prashad to the dog. As the dog got more and more used to being fed this way, I could get closer and closer to him until I was feeding and stroking the dog with my own hand. The dog had become my friend.
A few nights later we were all sitting and chatting with Swamiji when he told us it was almost nine and time for the others to return to their room before the dog was let loose. I said, “No problem Swamiji. Don’t worry about the dog.” They asked me what I had done, but I just told them not to worry.
The dog was let loose and we allowed him to come to Swamiji’s room. The dog should have had no idea which of us was Swamiji, but he immediately went to the dais and sat quietly at Swamiji’s side.
Swamiji asked me what I had done. I replied that I had just fed it some sweets from the prashad that the devotees had brought. Swamiji asked us to bring some more prashad and he fed it to the dog. Every night this would be the routine. The dog would be released at nine and he would immediately come to Swamiji’s room and happily sit by his side while I brought some prashad for him to eat.
One day Swamiji told me that it was time to have some fun with the Lambas. At four o’clock the Lambas came for Swamiji’s darshan and sat talking with him. Swamiji quietly gave me the signal and I went out to the garden and untied the dog. The Lambas saw this being done and started yelling at me, “What are you doing! That dog is dangerous!”
Swamiji just said, “That dog is not yours any more. He is ours. See what he does when let loose.”
The dog meekly came into Swamiji’s room, walked up to the dais, and sat down beside Swamiji. This made Lamba exclaim, “That dog is more fortunate than I am. I can’t sit on your dais but that dog can.”
Until
the last visit in 1991,
Swamiji always stayed at Maisie’s house when he was in Seattle, usually for ten
days at a time.
A few devotees were sitting with Swamiji in the living room. Maisie had a cat. It came into the room and stood before Swamiji, looking at him. Swamiji said that the cat was doing pranam (bowing). He teased that the cat had a better mind than we did because It knew it was a cat while our minds are confused.
The dog was stinking so much that from the next day onwards I started taking care of it. I gave him a bath and trimmed and combed his matted hair. The dog became more and more tame. He ate all the sweets that Swamiji’s devotees dropped and became healthily fat. It was obvious that the dog loved Swamiji very much.
When Swamiji left Dehradun, the dog began to pine with sorrow. He missed Swamiji very much and longed for his return. But Swamiji did not come for a long time and the dog became increasingly weak. By the time Swamiji returned, the dog had lost his eyesight, but he came up to Swamiji, recognized his smell, and sat next to him. Swamiji patted the dog and fed him food. Shortly afterwards the dog died.
Graham Wagstaff, U.K.
Swamiji was sitting on our sofa and the devotees were sitting on the floor. We have a very friendly white cat that came in, walked all the way past every person on the floor, then straight up to Swamiji and sat in front of him, absolutely motionless. The cats eyes went into a daze. I was in a joking mood and pretended to initiate the cat on behalf of Swamiji. I pushed between the cat’s eyebrows.
Then Swamiji made an amazing noise that people can’t make. It was like noise like a tiger cub would make. It was such an animal noise and he made it so effortlessly that you couldn’t believe that he was just sitting there with that big smile on his face making that noise.
The cat tore into the other room looking for the other animal. Swamiji laughed and made the noise again and the cat rushed around looking for the source of the noise. When the cat settled down and came back, Swamiji insisted that it take prashad.
He got an apple, which cats are not interested in, blessed it, and gave it to the cat. The cat sniffed it and Swamiji said, “Ah, that’s it.”