Bhagavan Ramana's sense of equality was legendary. When visitors came to see him - it made no difference whether they were VIPs, peasants or animals - they would all be treated with equal respect and consideration. His egalitarian concern even extended to the local trees; he discouraged his followers from picking flowers or leaves off them and he tried to ensure that whenever fruit was taken from the ashram trees it was
always done in such a way that the tree only suffered a minimum amount of pain.
Taken from "Be As You Are", Introduction, edited by David Godman.
