Bhagavan rarely asked anyone for anything. Once, a stranger sat in his presence in the hall. Bhagavan looked at him and asked, “Next time, will you please bring me some cashew nuts?” Everybody was surprised. Bhagavan was a shy person and not one known to come forward to talk to new visitors. Here, most extraordinarily, he was not only volunteering to talk to a stranger but almost begging him to bring something for him. Soon everyone knew the reason. It was for the squirrels. They would not eat peanuts and were partial to cashew nuts. The ashram management felt differently: “They are only squirrels. If they are hungry, they will eat anything. We can feed them peanuts.” But they never touched the peanuts. Six or seven squirrels stood complaining in front of Bhagavan. That is what Bhagavan said, “They are cajoling me and asking me where their food is.” World War-Il was going on at the time and cashew nut production had been nationalized, making them unavailable in the market. There was no cashew in the ashram kitchen and the store had only a few which the cooks wanted to save for their cooking. Bhagavan sent for cashew four times, but they said, “These few cashew nuts are for making sweets.” Finally, Bhagavan’s boundless compassion won over his natural restraint and taciturnity to get cashew nuts for the squirrels through the visitor. Bhagavan could often be seen breaking the cashew nuts into small pieces and keeping them in a small box. The only thing he asked for was cashew for the squirrels!
Snakes and peacocks also frequently found their way to Ramanasramam. The great master gave us an example of his compassion even in his last moments. Just before Bhagavan dropped the body, he asked to be helped up into padmasana. A white peacock was making sounds outside. After five minutes, Bhagavan opened his eyes and said, “He is hungry, feed him.” (In India, animals and birds are usually referred to in the neutral gender as ‘it’. But Bhagavan always attributed referred to them as ‘he’ or ‘she’.) These are one of the last few sentences he spoke. Bhagavan’s compassion to animals and birds cannot even be called extraordinary, because he treated every being alike. It is only because we perceive the difference between the animal kingdom and mankind that we glorify Bhagavan’s love for animals. Bhagavan was not paying any special attention to them - he was paying equal attention to all.