Arunachala Ramana: Eternal Ocean of Grace (sets of 7 Books)

Language: EnglishPages: 3523 (223 B/W Illustrations)IntroductionAt the close of the nineteenth century, South India, or at least a part of it, was being slowly introduced to Western civilization, customs and industry, and railway lines were laid connecting important cities. However, life in the remote parts of South India was exactly the same as it had been centuries ago. During this period if a traveller were to take a country road from the temple city of Madurai in South India and travel westwards, he would have had to pass through one of the most arid areas of India. He would have seen men clad in loincloths toiling under the hot sun to grow a few grains of corn and millet for their families. Occasionally the traveller might have crossed green fields of paddy, where the mode of irrigation was a peculiar see-saw device used for drawing the water. The passerby might also have heard the singing of folk songs by these yeomen, a custom that has all but vanished with the advent of mechanical farming.Further on his way the traveller would have come across small villages consisting of cottages with thatched rooves and naked children playing around. These children and their parents lived in abject poverty. If the monsoon was bountiful the family would enjoy two square meals a day for a few months. The rest of the year they subsisted on gruel and spinach. Their domestic requirements were met by a barter system. Once in a week there used to be a village fair where neighbouring villagers would bring things to buy and sell - their farm produce, provisions, vegetables, condiments, corn, pulses, toys, trinkets and coarse cloth for garments. However, the affluent ones living in the cities had things brought to their houses. During the harvest season they bought their annual requirement of rice and stored