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88 A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi could still my mind sufficiently so that such a thing would not happen, then what was the need of suicide?
It was during the war, many people were talking about aeroplanes, bombs and other wonderful things that were being made for the sake of destruction. Bhagavan remarked that there was nothing very wonderful in all that, they had had all these things before in ancient India. Rama had his flower-car which was nothing but an aeroplane, and in accounts of the ancient wars we find mentioned, fire-weapons, diamond weapons and even electric weapons besides many others which are described in ancient books. Modern man thinks he is so wonderful but the ancients knew many more things than he imagines. They had a combination of metals by which they were able to overcome gravity. People have not succeeded in doing that yet.
A question was once asked if human beings were ever reborn as animals. “Oh, yes,” said Bhagavan, “even today they will take on such forms just to be born here."
An instance of this is certainly the cow Lakshmi.
One night a dog stood on a rock at the back of the Ashram and barked without stopping. At last Bhagavan told someone to take it some food; this was done, the dog ate it and quickly went away. It was not seen again. Bhagavan explained that it was some Siddha who had taken that form to come here and have a meal as he was hungry. There were many such about he said, but they did not wish to make themselves known and so came like this.
