(Continued from Previous Issue)
Moulali was a muslim person drawn towards Amma while she was in Bapatla during one of her visits there in her early childhood. Though he was a muslim by birth, he grew up amidst Hindu families and thus developed faith in one of the Hindu deities. Having been blessed by Amma with mysterious visions, he chooses to stay at nearby places wherever Amma happened to stay, earning his livelihood by begging just to have the benefit of Amma’s darshan.
Once when Amma, aged 11 years, was in Mannava(Amma’s birth place), Moulali stayed in Doppalapudi, a nearby village, begging alms daily for his survival. It was mid-summer and during that year famine-like conditions prevailed in and around Mannava with scorching sun during the day, cracked-up fields, parched water bodies etc. During such conditions, Amma sat under a tamarind tree in a tamarind grove for 11 days at a stretch with her eyes closed. At her home, nobody bothered about Amma’s whereabouts and her movements. When she opened her eyes on the 12th day, her tongue turned dry out of acute thirst. With no water to be found anywhere around, Amma stared intensely and straight at the trunk of a tamarind tree for half-an-hour without blinking her eyelids, when the trunk of the tree broke away accompanied by a loud sound akin to ‘OM!’ and was heard throughout the village as that of a thunderbolt. Immediately, dark clouds from nowhere gathered, resulting in heavy rain which cooled down the whole village, bringing back to life many creatures and plants which were on the verge of perishing. Amma continued to sit there in spite of the heavy rain. When the trunk of the tamarind tree broke away, foam-like liquid oozed out from inside the trunk. Then Amma went there, took that liquid with both of her hands and drank it till her thirst was quenched.
Amma extended her stay there, sitting under the tree for another 11 days unmindful of her drenched clothes. Moulali keeps visiting Amma quite often during these 23 days, continuing to earn his food by begging in the neighboring Doppalapudi village. As he sits before Amma during these visits, he goes through several experiences. On a full-moon day during one of his visits, he witnesses with awe, around midnight, a huge serpent winding around Amma with its countless hoods opened and covering Amma’s head about half-a-meter above and shining brilliantly and waving in the moonshine. Wondering at the sight and whether it was his illusion, he goes closer to Amma. As he approaches her, he finds the serpent with enhanced brilliance resembling an umbrella with each of its hoods appearing as a rod and the skin of the serpent as the cloth of the umbrella. As he stares at the serpent stunned, he deliberates within himself and gets the impression that the great ‘Aadiseshu’ himself is acting as an umbrella to Amma, protecting her from rain and sun. As he keeps watching it, several forms appear and, later, all these forms disappear and Amma appears wearing a crown and having several heads bearing Amma’s form. Then he argues with himself that when all these forms are Amma’s, where is the need for someone else to protect her? He comes to the conclusion that Amma is the source of all avatars and there is no need for further proof.
In a recent issue of ‘Viswajanani’ (Jan, 2010) Telugu monthly magazine published on behalf of SVJP, an incident as narrated by Mannava Buchiraju Sarma (Raju bava) which was described to him by Amma herself is reported. It runs as follows:
When Amma was 12 years old and during the first occasion of Amma attaining puberty while in Mannava, she goes out of the house on the 11th day (In the Hindu family tradition, particularly in the South Indian Brahmin community, a girl during the first occasion of her attaining puberty is not allowed to go out of the house until after 10 days) and sits in a Lotus’ posture under a ‘Jammi’ tree about 20 yards away and opposite a big snake-pit on the eastern side of the village. Then, a bubble the size of a berry emerges from her genital organ, gradually grows to the size of a jack fruit and blows up, spraying a kind of liquid with remarkable fragrance. Now, Amma rises bodily into the air and moves towards the snake-pit and stays still, about 2 meters above the snake-pit. Then, a serpent (Nagendra) comes out with its hood opened up and looks towards Amma, upon which she feels that Nagendra was merging her and the whole of Mannava village into himself. She spends about half-an-hour there with Nagendra (It appears she did not reveal to Raju bava what exactly transpired between the two during this period). Later, Amma returns to her original place sitting in the same posture and moving in the air as she did earlier, comes down and goes back home afterwards. To some of the questions asked by Raju bava, she said that the whole creation is within Nagendra and encompassed by Nagendra!
A very interesting event taken from the treasure of information as recorded by Late Sri Rajupalepu Ramachandra Rao and published in Telugu in the Jan-Mar, 2010 issue of Mother of All under the serial feature ‘Avatara Samayamulu’ is worth paying attention to in this context:
During 1936-37 (when Amma was 13 years of age) two Nurses from the Missionary Hospital in Ponnur (Guntur Dist., of A.P.) took Amma along with them to Thiruvannamalai to have a darshan of Swami Ramana Maharshi. Then, it is reported, that Amma appeared to Swami Ramana in the form of ‘Devi’ (Goddess) holding him in her arms as a child with a large serpent by her side. Soon after this incident, when his natural mother was in the process of shedding her mortal coil, he caused (?) awakening in her with his touch and he consecrated ‘Matrubhuteswara’ over her grave. The implication seems to be, according to Sri Ramachandra Rao, that he demonstrated that ‘Matrubhuteswari’ in the form of his natural mother gave birth to him. Thus he not only came to understand the relation between him & Amma but also had a direct experience of this relationship.
Another incident that raises our curiosity about this close relation between Amma and the Serpent (Nagendra) is the one narrated by Raju bava who happened to be a witness as well as a participant in the incident that took place during 1956 in Jillellamudi. There were only three people, apart from Amma, at the time of this incident Raju bava, his wife-to-be Prabhavati akkayya and Hyma in the hut where Amma lived along with the members of the family for the past several years. Opposite this hut was a larger hut which formed the office space for Nanna garu as village head (Karanam). There was a snake-pit abutting a cracked ceramic jar (Some of the earliest visitors reported having seen a snake appear there now and then). One evening when this incident happened, it appears Amma went into trance (this was quite frequent with Amma in those days) and these three people were watching intensely at Amma. They were preparing to give ‘Aarati’ to Amma, putting a lump of camphor in a plate, soon she returned to normal state (This was the practice in vogue during such situations). Thus, they gave ‘Aarati’ to Amma on her return to normal state, when Amma instructed Raju bava to put that burning camphor in the ceramic jar (apparently implying that the Aarati should first be given to Nagendra, presumed to be there in the jar). Raju bava did as instructed. Then, there was a brilliant glow of white light from inside the jar (normally we find reddish yellow flame and light when we burn camphor) with smoke up to the neck of the jar. When he returned back, Amma, pointing to an empty silver bowl, asked him to place this bowl near the jar. Raju bava followed the instruction. After a little while again Amma asked him to go and fetch the bowl back. When he went to do so, he found to his utter surprise that the bowl was full to the brim with nectar-like liquid!! On bringing it back, Amma asked him to distribute it to all those present there, including himself. He did so and when he tasted it, he found to his amazement that it was not only of peculiar sweetness but also had an indescribable fragrance. Raju bava infers that the source of this liquid is none but Nagendra, the serpent itself.
The intimate relationship between Amma and the serpent Nagendra is presented to us in much more revealing fashion from the treasure trove of diaries of Late Sri Rajupalepu Ramachandra Rao, tracing this back even to the ‘previous’ life of Amma. This was reported in the form of an article in Telugu under the title ‘Avatara Samayamulu’ and serialized in Mother of All (MOA). One installment of this article published in MOA relates to various forms Amma had assumed during the past 300 years (Apparently described to him by Amma herself) prior to Her sojourn in the present form (The author adds a note reminding the readers that there could be past to this past 300 years revealed to him).
After taking birth in different continents in South Africa among tribals, granting salvation to those coming across her sight as far as it extended; Southern Australia, again liberating many of them; in Sweden and America (it is not known whether it is North or South America) and finally takes birth as Anasuya and Bala Tripurasundadari in Southern Tamilnadu, about 3 to 4 miles from Tenkasi.
After leaving one of the attributes at that place in the form of a girl aged 10 years in the southern traditional attire, apparently to provide proof to people as to what immortality is (it is understood that this attribute remained in the same form at that place even till the day this was being recorded), the second attribute left Kanyakumari, taking birth as Rajyalakshmi in Madurai, as Varalakshmi in Thanjavur in the next birth and in several forms in several places during the next 100 years.
For the present context, we come to Tiruttani in Tamilnadu, where she had taken the form of a serpent; that is to say, though the form is that of a serpent, it had the skin of humans. It had 11 hoods, one nose, two eyes, three (eyes) on the rear side and was living winding itself around a banyan tree. Later, she (it) turned the tree into a stony one and also turned herself into stony form. One day, a hunter with bow & arrows, a trident and covering himself with a raw rug (made out of raw hair of sheep and generally worn by shepherds) reached there. He stood on the stony form of the serpent with his trident firmly fixed on this serpent. Though he felt it hard as a stone when he placed his foot over it, he swooned on seeing blood oozing out from where he fixed his trident. Immediately he heard the voice of a person assuming the form of a lady and saying: “No worry my child! I myself am that blood”. Later, the very form of the serpent started being worshiped even till today. The place has since then grown into a pilgrimage center!
Thus, the incidents described here not only provide an unequivocal evidence to the intimate association between Amma and the Serpent but also reveal an undifferentiated relation between the ‘Shakti’, that is Amma and the Power of the Serpent Nagendra.
Pray that Amma, the ‘Shiva Shakti Aikya Rupini’ that is ‘Sri Lalithambika” grant us the vision to realize her true form!
Jayaho Mata!