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| sunrise in Devipuram |
Who is Guruji? He is a scientist, a perfectionist of the first order, a walking encyclopedia, an authority on Srividya and Tantra and, above all, a brahma nishta, carrying those who take refuge at his feet to that great source, the Sarva Yoni. If you ask him how a aircraft’s landing gear works, and you’ll get an answer detailed down to the last nut and bolt. If you ask him about the practical application of the Fourier Transform in mathematics, he’ll explain it to you. If you ask
him about the deepest significance of Maha Shodashi Mantra, he’ll draw a few diagrams and explain it to you, as if you were kid in first grade and he was your mother teaching you addition and subtraction – only now the subject concerns the Universes and Galaxies.
Transform in mathematics, he’ll explain it to you. If you ask him about the deepest significance of Maha Shodashi Mantra, he’ll draw a few diagrams and explain it to you, as if you were kid in first grade and he was your mother teaching you addition and subtraction – only now the subject concerns the Universes and Galaxies.
Guruji is silent. He speaks hardly at all. His face reflects that silence within – an unfathomable depth. When he speaks, it is for a purpose – the words slowly and gently flow out, and soon the silence reigns supreme again. Disciples find him answering their questions with more silence than words. The very pauses he makes between sentences and words often suffice to convey what you sought him for. But he claims nothing – not for the spiritual progress of his disciples; not for his being an extremely knowledgeable Guru. He simply says it is Universal Mother who is doing everything, and requests that we not unnecessarily bring his name into picture. His spiritual discourses are quite scientific, mixing both science and spirituality to give everyone a good grasp of various aspects of how God’s rules work scientifically in the world. Goddess Lalita is “anEka kOti brahmAnda jananI”, and since Guru is no one else but Her, you’ll learn to create Universes and destroy them, thus becoming a Godly disciple; even a super-Einstein. No one would ever come to know that somewhere in space, Universes are being created. If you’re able to create Universes having become Him, then what is He? Though Guruji’s discourses deeply involve Sastra and many unrevealed aspects of Mantra Sastra, they always end in making us contemplate the Maha Vakyas and realize our true self.
He has a decent HP computer with the latest Intel processor and he works on it for at least eight hours a day. He himself designs animation presentations – from jotting down the storyboard, to splitting it into different scenes, and all the way up to coding them in MX-Director software. His productions have the strength of a rich aesthetic sense. It is not uncommon that, over time, people who work with him gradually get the same aesthetic sense themselves and start developing a richer taste in every aspect of life. If you drive a stick-shift car for him, he’ll make you a better driver, teaching you how a good driver effectively utilizes gears compared to brakes. If he hands over a job to you, he expects you to work on it with 200 percent effort and blesses you with the strength and passion to perform.
What about Guruji the man? How does he look? He wears the simplest white clothes – white dhoti with half sleeves; an unpressed cotton kurta; no pomp whatsoever. Guruji does not care about his dress. Amma makes sure that he dresses comfortably and decently. After his bath, he puts on whatever clothes are placed on the table near the bathroom by Amma. For the many functions that he must preside over, he’ll simply get up from the bed in the evening after his two hours nap, wash his face, have a small cup of sugarless tea and get into the car with the same simple clothes – sometimes a crumpled kurta speckled with a few drops of dried sambar spilt while taking lunch.
If a spiritual leader visits Devipuram, he will make them sit on the chair while he sits on the ground and listens to them. If Devipuram staff members try to hold that huge, traditional umbrella over him during any function, he’ll chase them away with a few blasts, silently explaining that “the whole akasa (Space) is my umbrella”. If any disciple showers him with undue extra respect, he’ll ignore them totally. He won’t even look at them. He never appeals to anyone’s ego nor complains about anything. He eats a simple diet without complaining for salt and spice. He attends calls on the Devipuram phone himself. He never avoids a call from one of his disciples or anyone who wants to talk to him. He sometimes fields close to 50 calls a day without any expression on his face. He
is simple.
On the other hand, he encourages people to live the life they want without any second thoughts. He assures them that they don’t have to forego anything to gain liberation. He says that the whole of Devipuram stands for that: Creativity, Adoration and Beauty. He suggests the latest tattoos that replace mehndi to women who visit Devipuram. He advises people to decorate Devi to their fullest satisfaction, however they want. He is a mix of traditional values and modernism. He has a passion for creativity and inventiveness. He approaches his work like a scientist, meticulously attending to details, whether it’s writing down the title on a freshly burnt CD or constructing of a complex, 54-foot-high Sri Chakra temple.
There is an aStottara Sata nAmavali (Hymn of One Hundred and Eight Names) of Guruji, revealed by Devi to Sri Haran Aiya of the Rajarajeshwari Peetam in Rush, New York, which includes a shloka for meditating on his form. The sloka has a line “sakala vidyAlankAriNIm” – the one who is decorated with varieties of knowledge. You can experience this line if you spend a few days in Devipuram.
But Guruji is difficult to understand. There is way of defining him into any particular category. Even longtime disciples struggle to cope with the enigma, to thoroughly understand him. It appears as though it is the Super-Mind itself that is working through him; a mind that is difficult if not impossible to comprehend.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra speaks of realized souls being able to momentarily create minds for themselves on an as-needed basis and destroy them soon after – well, we can experience that here at Devipuram. For it appears as if the mind Guruji creates for himself in one situation does not bear any relation to the mind he creates for himself in another. Every mind seems freshly minted. Still, you will never fail to perceive his unconditional love and the assurance that you’re progressing steadfastly in your spiritual sadhana.
No one knows whether Guruji abides in some other world, quickly descending to ours to talk with us and then returning whence he came, somewhere else in Universe. Devi revealed one more of his names:
| nirvikalpAnanda sAgara hamsAya namah |
“The swan that ever swims in the ocean of nirvikalpa.” One early morning in Devipuram, Guruji silently allowed a disciple to place a few vilva patras (bilva leaves) on his head instead of directing him to go to Shivalaya and pay homage to Shiva. Anakapalle Gurugaru, Guruji’s Guru – an avadhoota, an adept in 42 of 64 tantras – said of Guruji in one of his speeches that for his tapas on brahma jnana, he should have been in samadhi forever – but because of Devi’s will, He came to build this temple at Devipuram. If you have always entertained thoughts
Guruji Amma
If Guruji is the life-force of Devipuram, then Guruji Amma – Guruji’s wife – is the spinal cord. The whole of Devipuram functions effectively because of her – Srimati Annapoornamba. She is the most loveable, friendly of mothers and a highly disciplined taskmaster. If Guruji takes things easy, Amma makes sure that everything is spic-and-span, and attended to by all with the utmost care. She often gives every staff member a bag full of guavas or mangoes to carry home for their kids – but she also makes sure they discharge their duties without fail. She is a project manager and administrator of high caliber, and efficiently handles both jobs and people of all different kinds.
She attends to the needs of Guruji throughout the day. Whatever she may be doing, if Guruji calls her she comes running to him. Let Guruji ask for whatever documents or records – even if they are ten years old – and Amma will go into the storage room and be back with the requested materials within 10 minutes. She maintains accounts of the daily sales of different photos, CDs, books and maintenance tickets. She needs no calculators or fancy organizers – for her, her brain is enough.
Amma decides the daily menu in the canteen, measures the ingredients and gives them to the cook. Things are very systematic and streamlined; if there is a surprise delicacy each day, it is due to Amma. She is an expert in making different Pachadis, the ones that need careful preparation to last for a year. She decides when the harvest of Mangoes will be. She directs “Ammatalli” to shake the gooseberries and tamarinds in Devipuram only after they’ve been there in the tree for at
least two months. She knows the techniques of preserving the invaluable resources of Devipuram throughout the year.
Whereas Guruji distributes his seven hours of sleep into three short naps at periodic gaps, Amma sleeps for a solid six hours during one stretch in the night. She never sleeps in the daytime – she works for 16 to 18 hours a day without ever getting bored or upset. Even today, at age 67, she is there in the canteen at 5.30 a.m. sharp, boiling milk for everyone’s tea. You have to see it to believe it! Even while watching TV occasionally, she’ll also be silently making small wicks from cotton wool. And if she makes a trip to the Vizag house, she’ll carry a ball of cotton wool to continue this wick-making there. Once she has made enough wicks, she’ll switch to making broomsticks from dry coconut leaves herself, taking hundreds of sticks patiently off the leafs. One day, the wireless phone in Devipuram started ringing with its distinctive musical ring tone. Amma quickly told a disciple
in Telugu, mocking that ringing tone in her own funny way, “Occhindi, Babu! Vellu! Ngoyyong ... Ngoyyong (Go friend! It has come! Ngoyyong ... Ngoyyong)!” The disciple, surprised at her spot-on imitation of the ring, had to laugh out loud before picking up the call. If she opens a squeaky door, she’ll also mock that sound immediately, making everyone around giggle silently.
When a senior seeker came to Devipuram to discuss a depressive disorder he was suffering from, Amma told him, “What is the use of sadhana? You should be able to see you depressions as if they were happening to a third person. Because you are that observing Atma always.” Even today, she never misses her daily pujas. She has been chanting Durga Saptasathi for the last 20-plus years – every single day, without fail.
Amma divides the flowers everyday for different shrines, sends kumkum to the temple as it is required, prepares the samagri required for homas on Tuesdays, and makes sure Guruji has his food and medicines on time. She assigns eight hours of work to staff members. She attends to Guruji whenever he calls. She attends to phone calls patiently. She makes those delicious long-asting Avakaais and other pachadis. She maintains the accounts. She knows where everything is. It’s plain to see that the whole of Devipuram depends upon her for so much of its everyday, normal functioning. She is usually awake until 10.30 or 11:00 p.m. every night. She works and works and works, without a break, without wasting a minute.
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