“CAN you tell me why the Jillellamudi Mother is said to be divine?”
“Oh yes. But let me first know your concept of a divine being.
” “Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, Krishna Chaitanya were divine beings.”
Why do you say they were divine?”
One characteristic of divine beings is that, persons who visited them felt infinite peace in their presence.
“Visitors to Mother feel blissful peace when they sit near her. They are not vexed to be sitting near her for any length of time. Children, ladies, men and even animals have been known to have loved just to stay in her presence. A friend of mine, Sri. R. Lak shminarayana told me that in the early days of his visits to Mother, he felt blissful peace while just sitting near her. I myself noted the complete disappearance of memories of unpleasant treatment by friends or relatives, while I stayed at Jillellamudi. I believe that it is this blissful experience that prompts a visitor to come again to see her. “
“Divine beings were known to have transformed ordinary humans into pure beings by mere touch.”
“I do not quite understand what you mean by ‘pure beings’; but, if their subsequent implicit faith in such divine persons is an indication of what you call “Transformation,” there are a good. number of persons I know, who turned into ardent devotees of Mother after just a touch of her finger, hand, or sight. Sri Sesha egirirao, the editor of this periodical, experienced a ‘shock’ by th touch of her finger when he first visited her and he continued in an ecstatic mood for a week after that. Sri Swayampakula Sree ramamurthy of Nellore experienced a thrill when Mother put her palm on his arm, and remained in a wakeful trance for the few hours he stayed at Jillellamudi. Srimati P. Sayamma could not Comprehend what was happening to her, while Mother fixed her eyes on her. Smt. Vasundhara saw Mother’s form in all the pillars supporting a pandal and felt completely enveloped by Mother on all sides. Sri Bhadradri Ramasastry “felt feverish” at her touch while sitting by her side. Snakes were known to have meekly en joyed her stroking of their hoods.”
“Miracles?”
“No. I do not mean to mention her miracles. We see snakes appearing to have got captivated by a charmer: but, to put up with the touch of a stranger’s hand over their hoods requires a liking which ordinary beings cannot induce. ‘
“Does she get into trances?”
“If you mean by trance, a wakeful ‘absent mindedness’, yes. In the early days of my visits, I noticed that, with eyes wide open. she would appear to be looking into herself, not at the external world. When I put her a question, it would appear as if her attention made a right-about-turn, and expression came over her face as she replied. The difference between the absent-minded and the wakeful states was very very thin, but noticeable nevertheless. Nowadays, however, I don’t see the difference. I notice silence and talking as the two sides of her impersonal existence.”
Impersonal existence ? What do you mean?”
She talks with us, discusses, and her hands move. But nothing seems to be clinging to her, as it does to us. Personal modulation of the voice is absolutely minimum. The only indivi dual tinge we can notice is in an argument, which She does as a Mother does with a child. Her father stayed at Jillellamudi in his last days. Everyday, she was sitting by his bedside for sometime, to rub his feet or hands. We would also sit round her in suc’ moments. The old man died there subsequently. But she didn’t mention a syllable about his death to me, or to any other visitor, who was with her by her father’s side in his last days. It is the same with her mother-in-law, who died earlier. As a child of four years, we are told, she did not weep when her mother died but even questioned her sympathisers, “Where did mother go?’ Today, she greets every visitor with motherly love, she addresses everyone as child, but she never asks even her ‘nearest’ devoteh to stay for a day or two more, when he seeks her benediction to go. We do not see her taking any food, but at times, we can see her, grabbing the whole of a devotee’s offering of fruits, rose flowers, or tulasi garland, with the gusto that Krishna showed to Kuchela’s parched rice! She handed over to me an invitation card for the threadmarriage function, but when someone suggested that it is Mother’s own invitation, she said immediately, Mother’s invitation? No. That is there since his birth.” One can find that her being is not of a normal human, but of the universal self.”
“I am able to see what you think she could be. Does she, at any time, make clear the fact that she is the Self, or is it only impli cit in her actions and words?”
“For new visitors, it is not so explicit, though sometimes, there are clear indications. Padmaji heard the divine name’ “Jayaho maatha sree Anasuya, Rajarajeswari sree Paraatparie,, chanted by the local devotees at Jillellamu li, and said to himself: These appreciators go to the very extreme of expressions; they make fuss of deification of an individual”. Mother immediately’ said, as if she was replying to him, “Yes child, it is only their fuss. I am one just like you!” I told her while taking leave of her after my first visit, “Krishna Bhikshu’s letter, came a month ago from Aruna chala; I do not know where he is now, may be at Kakinada, Nellore, or Tiruvannamalai”. She said, after two or three seconds, “Yes. He is in Arunachala”. Knowing other’s thoughts and seeing through long distances are just indications of the power that the Self is (or has, as we put it). But several times, she talks as the Self: “I that is all I'”, “I’ does not mean Anasuyamma, but the ‘I’ that is all over”, “When I say ‘I’, I mean all. All of you are in me” etc.
“Fine story. But I would like to have a clearer and more convincing picture of her divinity.
Try by seeing her yourself”.