Called Sri Ramanananda Mathalayam, it was the first ‘Ramana Centre’ to be established outside Tiruvannamalai. With the object of serving such devotees, Akhilandamma and Masthan Swami (whom she introduced to Bhagavan) established a math or centre there in 1914. When she stayed in her native village with her mother, many of Bhagavan’s devotees used to come and stay at her house. On each visit she would bring food for Bhagavan and his devotees. She frequently came at other times during the year. She invariably came for Bhagavan’s birthday celebration, for the Deepam festival and for Jnanasambandhar Guru puja. From 1903 onwards she was a regular visitor. It was not until 1903, when she visited Sri Bhagavan on the hill, that she first felt his power. This darshan did not make a great impression on her. On that occasion she saw the temple priest collecting the abhishekam milk from the Amman shrine and giving it to Bhagavan.
She first saw Bhagavan in 1896 while he was residing in the Arunachaleswara temple. Though she was primarily attracted to Ramana Maharshi, she also served Seshadri Swami and Vitthoba, an eccentric saint who lived in Polur, about thirty kilometres north of Tiruvannamalai. Under the social conditions that prevailed at the time, it was not possible for her to remarry, so when she grew up she decided to devote her life to serving sadhus. However, since Akhilandamma’s husband died when she was only seven years old, she spent all her childhood and youth at her parents’ home. Such child brides usually lived with their parents till they reached puberty, at which point they would move to their husband’s home. Following a tradition that was still prevalent at the time, she was ‘married’ at the age of five. This is how I summed up her association with Bhagavan in the introduction to her chapter in The Power of the Presence, part one:Īkhilandamma was born in 1871 in a small village called Desur, located about fifty kilometres northeast of Tiruvannamalai. Akhilandamma was one of Ramana Maharshi’s earliest devotees.
0 kommentar(er)
