--- In [email protected], "Rick Archer" <rick@...> wrote: > > > This is from Mr. Rao, one of Maharishi's first TM teachers > "Among the ardent devotees of Poojya Gurudev Brahmananda Saraswati, there was one elderly lady in Kolkatta, West Bengal, belonging to a well known family of zamindars. Mahesh affectionately called her "Mathaji". She too was most impressed by Mahesh's devotion to the great Guru, and she was fondly calling him "beta". This lady was deeply hurt and felt desolate after Gurudev passed away, and became very sad and depressed. Her health failed. For necessary treatment she was advised to go to Madanapalli, in Andhra Pradesh (South India). She called "Beta" Mahesh to accompany her. Taking it as an opportunity to serve Mother as well as Gurudev, Mahesh accompanied her to Madanapalli during 1955-56. Mathaji was admitted into the sanatorium and Mahesh had to find a place to stay in the small town of Madanapalli."
"One Krishna Iyer and his brother Narayana Iyer were running a small coffee hotel in Madanapalli Town. But there was no provision for travellers to stay overnight in that hotel. After having his meal in that hotel, Mahesh asked the Iyers for a place to stay. Since there was no provision for lodging, they suggested that he may sleep on the steps, in the nearby temple. In the rain and cold of that place it was not possible to stay outdoors. So the problem was serious. Mahesh saw a very small room next to the kitchen of the hotel and asked for permission to stay there. But it was stacked with firewood and was quite uninhabitable. Somehow Mahesh prevailed upon the owners, neatly stacked the fuel in one corner and made enough space to stretch himself. He was quite pleased with the arrangement, and the others sympathized with him too. During the day he would be spending time at the hospital to look after Mathaji and later, in the evening, he would come back to his corner at the Town Hotel." I just uploaded some more photos from Madanapalle, one of Narayan Iyer, when I still met him there in 2007. He died in December 2008, just the same year as Maharishi, and still went to his funeral in February. Narayan Iyer told me, that Maharishi first stayed at his pace, hich is just opposite of the present Maharishi Mandir, near the Ganesh shrine in Fort Road. On later visits he would stay in the Brindaban lodge in the same road. Maharishi had said, that the reason he had Mr. Iyer build the mandir was the large tree in front of it, and he said it was good to meditate under that tree. On the roof top, there is a small elevated platform, where he used to initiate people. Narayan Iyers son, Chandrashekar just moved away from Madanapalle to Kolar in Karnataka, says he still has a postcard Maharishi sent him from Rameshwara.
