(rendered into English by Dr. Sista Shanta)
(Continued from the Previous Issue)
My sixteenth song “Listen to the story Oh ye brothers, listen Oh ye sisters” was written on 18-5-57.
An idea flashed in my mind that I should compose Mother’s biography in songs. I know it is audacious on my part to make such an attempt. It is like trying to hold the waters of an ocean in a pot. So I thought I shall attempt to narrate the life history in a brief form in the genre of “Burra katha” (Burra katha is folk narrative form in vernacular languages where both prose and poetry are used in an effective and interesting way to tell stories from the epics or folklore). The outcome was this song. It is something similar to writing the Ramayana, the great epic poem, in one verse. (Eka sloki).
Listen to this story oh ye brothers, listen oh ye sisters This is the story that evokes the emotion of compassion Which was neither heard nor seen earlier.
This is the burden of the song. This song especially reflects Mother’s philosophy.
A rose flowered amidst thorns.
Mother’s heart is extremely tender like the soft delicate rose. She was born in a small village in an orthodox Brahmin family. She lived in a very conservative traditional family. Sometimes these rigid conventions are like the thorns in the flesh. But she was above caste, color, and religion and she became a mother to many needy one, right from her childhood. She gave away the money which was with her, her jewelry, her clothes and even the morsel of food that she was about to eat, out of concern for the needy and afflicted. She served people personally. All these actions of her’s were not approved by her own family members and she was almost excommunicated. Therefore I called the society vulgar and mean. (asabhya samajam).
Like the blind crow (which could not see the truth)
The mean society plagued mother
Mother was eighteen months old. She sat in the Shambhavi Mudra (one of the yogic postures) under the Pomegranate tree, with her eyes half closed, with one leg stretched forward and one leg backward. At a tender age when she could barely speak she stated that in Mannava village in the Rajyalakshmi Temple, the pontiff of Kutralam Sri Sri Sri Mouna Swami placed Rajarajeswari Yantram and not Rajya Lakshmi yantra under the idol of the chief Deity in the temple. Grandmother quickly took her under her wing covering her with her saree pallo (as if to ward off the evil eye of others) Grandmother said “Why are you bothered about everything” and grandmother apparently heard an inner voice as an answer to her question, “Yes because everything is mine”. Therefore I wrote becoming everything she was the creator and caretaker of everything. (She looked after the entire creation)
Another incident from her childhood. On one occasion Mother’s mother felt that she will not live long. She took Mother into her arms and asked her “when I die where will you stay?” Little Amma answered “wherever you place me. When you are not there I shall be the Mother (to everyone). A few days after this incident Grandmother passed away. Mother questioned the grief stricken grandfather “When the person whom God has sent is taken away by God according to his will, to become one with Him why should we cry grandfather?” Grandfather was wonder struck at such a logical analysis and the perception of the true nature of the actual reality. Therefore I said.
Then alone she discovered that all is Brahman.
When she was five years old, in her conversation with Sri Lakshmanacharyulu she gave a clear hint that her cousin Brahmandam Nageswara Rao will be her husband. She said “Nagendrudu has wound himself around me. I have allowed him to do so. This Nagendrudu will come as Nageswarudu. He is my prop and I am his from”. So I said she discovered her life’s companion long ago” It is usually said “the words of a babe are the words of God. But it is not so. That which has no equivocation is the word of God. Mother declared that “everyone will be liberated (andariki sugathe). These pearls of wisdom were uttered when she was barely four or five years old. Mother is the embodiment of Sanatana Dharma. the essence of Brahman is the essence of Brahmins. And that Brahman is Mother. But people considered Mother not as a yogi but as a rogi (patient).
She drank the juice of tamarind long ago is what I wrote. Mother is fond of tamarind, tamarind leaves and tamarind juice. It does not mean that she likes what is sour. (The Telugu word for tamarind is “Chinta” ; this word also means “worry”. There is a pun on the word ‘chinta’). So our worries, our thoughts (chintalu) and our anxieties are our offerings to Mother.
As a child once Mother sat under a Tamarind tree for eleven days with her eyes closed and without any movement. On the twelfth day she opened her eyes. She felt extremely thirsty and there was neither a well nor a lake nearby. Mother looked at the Tamarind tree intensely and the tree fell, producing the sound of Omkar. From the center of the trunk spurted out, like a fountain, the juice of Tamarind. Mother drank gowns full of juice. It suddenly started pouring down. The perfume of the earth permeated the whole atmosphere and the earth turned green. That was the first of the monsoon showers. That is the reason why I said.
Long ago she drank the juice of the Tamarind.
(The reference is both to the tamarind tree as well as worries).