Single-handed he worked... (Ramaswami Pillai)

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Ramaswami Pillai came as a youth straight from college in 1911 and stayed. Like

Viswanathan and Muruganar, he remained a sadhu; however, in his case the path

was rather through devotion and service. Once in 1947 Sri Bhagavan injured his

foot on a stone during his daily walk on the hill. Next day Ramaswami Pillai,

grey-haired already but still robust, set out to make steps and a path up the

hillside. Single-handed he worked, from dawn to dusk, day after day until the

path was finished, the edges firmly shored up with stone, steps chiselled out

where there was a rock platform, built up where there was an earten slope. It

was well and thoroughly constructed, so thoroughly that the monsoon rains have

not washed it away since; however it has not been kept in repair because

shortly after it was finished Sri Bhagavan's failing health compelled him to

give up his walks on the hill. (from Ramana Maharshi and the Path of

Self-Knowledge, Osborne, Rider,1978; 163)