15. YOGA SIDDHI
THE Saiva sadhus of the South had a number of mathsreferred to as adheenams. Among them
"Tiruvannamalai adheenam" founded by Daivasikamani
Desikar was one of the most important. It had several
branches all over the land and the one at Kunnakudi was
the most prosperous. Perhaps for this reason one of the
successor heads, made it his headquarters. The samadhi of
Deivasikamani was built at Kilnathur, a suburb of
Tiruvannamalai. A temple also was constructed over the
Samadhi. This came to be known as Gurumurtam. At the
time of this story, pooja and other services at Gurumurtam
were being performed by Annamalai Tambiran. Tambiran
also once stayed at Kunnakudi but left the place and moved
over to Tiruvannamalai for personal reasons. Tambiran
spent his time singing thevarams (the Saivite hymns
composed by Appar, Sundaramurti and Jnana
Sambandar), performing pooja at the Samadhi, going out
and collecting alms of which he distributed some to the
poor. He led a very principled and austere life.
Tambiran happened to see the Swami in tapas [?] under
the iluppai tree. He was astonished and made it a point to
have his darshan as frequently as possible. He thought that
it would be nice to take the Swami to Gurumurtam — it
would benefit him personally and be convenient to the
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Swami too. So he broached the matter with Nayanar. Both
of them pleaded with the Swami saying, "Gurumurtam
will be convenient for Swami, there will be no nuisance
from the crowds. Yet it is close to Arunachala. Swami must
consent to come there." Swami consented. In February
1897, he moved to Gurumurtam and since then he came
to be known as the "Swami of Gurumurtam."
Gurumurtam: The tapas [?] continued uninterrupted at
this place. The austerity became more severe, indifference
towards physical comfort increased. The Swami never bathed
or cleaned himself, his locks became matted, his nails grew
long and curved, his hands fell into disuse.
Gurumurtam was full of ants but the Swami cared
nothing about it. He was in their midst unmindful of the
havoc wrought by them. He was immersed in the Self. To
protect the Swami from ants someone provided a stool
with the legs immersed in water. But as the Swami was
leaning against a wall, the ants continued to infest the
place. The area which touched the Swami's back got
darkened — this patch could be seen for a very long time
even after the Swami left Gurumurtam.
How could one observing such severe austerity fail
to evoke respect? Looking at his long nails people
concluded that he was very old, they also believed that he
could perform miracles. People in large numbers began
thronging the place hoping that their desires for health,
wealth, progeny would be fulfilled by him. They came
with various offerings. Starting with mere darshan soon
people began composing various hymns in his praise! Those
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attending on the Swami erected temporary barricades to
prevent people from coming near him. But the people
would not agree to leave without the Swami partaking of
the eatables brought by them as offerings. Everyone wanted
the punya of offering something or the other to the Swami
— this led to quarrels among them also. There had been a
time when no food was available at all but now there was
a surfeit of it. To solve this, it was decided that only one
devotee could offer food on any given day -- there were
only seven days in a week but those who wanted to serve
ran into hundreds. Even this did not work out well. Above
all, what the Swami took was very little, even that only
once a day. All the offerings would be mixed up and as
quite a lot of milk formed the major part of the offerings
the mixture became fluid. The Swami would open his
eyes only once around midday, when a tumblerful of this
liquid would be offered to him. That was all that the
Swami took before resuming his meditation.
Regulated diet is always advisable. But for the Swami
it could not be enforced then or even later. Frustrated at
this state of affairs, the Swami once said much later, "the
deity in the temple is lucky. People offer him some food by
merely showing it to him and take it back with themselves.
But here the Swami must accept whatever is offered even if
unwell. If I don't touch it, nobody else will."
There was no light at Gurumurtam, Swami himself was
the light. After a few months a Chettiar arranged lighting.
Tambiran's devotion and faith increased as the months
passed by. Once, he took to worshipping the Swami himself
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after completing the usual pooja at the math [?]. He went
through the usual process, which the Swami could not
tolerate. Tambiran thought that by his example, the
visitors' devotion to the Swami would increase. The
following day, before Tambiran returned from the town
the Swami wrote on the wall in Tamil with a charcoal
piece, "This is enough for this" and showed it to Tambiran
at meal time. The latter could not understand it. The
next day, the Swami added, "Filling the stomach" and
showed it to Tambiran. Even then Tambiran did not stop.
Only when the Swami went out at pooja time Tambiran
realized that the Swami would not accept this service and
gave it up.
The people did not know who exactly the Swami
was — they merely referred to him as "Brahmana Swami"
or "Gurumurtam Swami". After seeing that the Swami
wrote on the wall for Tambiran they concluded that the
Swami was a Tamilian, well-versed in Tamil. A little after
this, the original name of the Swami got revealed in the
following manner.
Venkatarama Iyer was an official in the local taluka
office. He was free till about eleven o' clock in the morning
and made it a point to visit Gurumurtam every day and
spend a couple of hours there. He was determined to find
out the Swami's original name and asked Tambiran who
confessed his ignorance; finally he told the Swami, "I won't
leave this place without knowing Swami's real name ?
whatever be the consequences — even if I lose my job or
starve." Saying this, he gave a piece of paper and a pencil
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to the Swami. As he was a good person, the Swami wrote
in English "Venkataraman, Tiruchuzhi". Venkatarama Iyer
could not make out "zhi" in the spelling. The Swami had
a copy of Periapuranam which had hymns by
Sundaramurthi on Sri Bhoominateswara. As the Swami
had studied it at Madurai, he picked up that portion of
the book and showed it to Venkatarama Iyer and thereby
cleared his doubt. At that moment Tambiran was present
and thus he got to know the Swami's original name.
After about two months, Tambiran asked Nayanar
to look after the Swami as he had to leave the town for
about a week. But he never returned for nearly a year.
Meanwhile, a few weeks after Tambiran left, Nayanar was
summoned by the management of his math [?]. Hence he
also had to leave Arunachala. The Swami was left without
any attendant.
This particular deficiency soon got covered. There
was a devotee, Nagalingaswami at Arunachala. After his
demise, one Palani Swami, a Malayalee stayed in his house.
He would serve at the Vinayaka temple near the
Ayyankulam street and then would partake of the offerings
once a day even without adding any salt. Watching his
devotion and service-mindedness Srinivasa Iyer, a village
official of Eraiyur, said to him, "Why do you waste your
life serving this deity of stone? At Gurumurtam there is a
living god. Watching his tapas [?] we are reminded of great
devotees like Dhruva of whom we read in the puranas.
You serve him and lead a blissful life. Presently there is
none to look after him." Encouraged by these adulatory
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references to the Swami, Palaniswami went to
Gurumurtam. By then, the Swami had been at that place
for about five months. How could anyone fail to develop
devotion to the Swami watching his state? Palaniswami
thought, "This Swami is my refuge. Devotion to him will
surely help me immensely," and began serving the Swami.
To start with, he worshipped the stone Vinayaka also, but
as his devotion towards the Swami increased, he thought,
"It is because of my pooja of Vinayaka, that I have obtained
this guru. Why continue with that pooja anymore?" From
that day, he never left the Swami who was his all — father,
mother, guru and God!
With the arrival of Palaniswami, the nuisance of the
crowds lessened for the Swami. During his absence, Palani
would lock the door from outside, leaving the Swami
within. This arrangement helped the Swami a lot in his
meditation. He lost all awareness of day and night, day of
the week, east and west! Because of such severe austerity
he became utterly weak and incapable of getting up and
walking even a few steps. In such a state, he fainted once
as he neared the door. He was not even aware that
Palaniswami caught hold of him and prevented him from
hurting himself. As his intake of food was almost nothing
the normal body functions got badly disturbed.
An interesting incident occurred once, which
demonstrates the utter detachment of the Swami. In the
garden close to Gurumurtam there were tamarind trees.
Some old thieves, no longer capable of undertaking
arduous jobs, thought of stealing tamarind from the trees.
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There was no one around except the Swami who was
alone without his attendant. The thieves saw him and
apprehended that he might watch them and inform others.
One of the thieves said to the other, "This man sits
motionless with his eyes closed and does not utter a single
word. Let us pour some cactus juice in his eyes and see if
he reacts." Yet the Swami did not move or say anything.
He seemed to be completely unconcerned about what
happened either to his body or to the tamarind trees. The
thieves were astonished at this extraordinary self control
of the Swami and told themselves "Let us leave him alone
and get on with our job."
The Swami stayed at Gurumurtam for a year and a
half. People always used to go there and disturb the Swami's
tapas [?]. Close to Gurumurtam was a mango grove whose
owner, Venkataramana Naicker invited the Swami to stay
in his garden so that he could be in peace. He also assured
the Swami that nobody would be allowed to visit him
without his permission.
At this request, the Swami, and with him Palaniswami
also, moved over in April-May of 1898. Two platforms
were erected for them amidst the mango trees and there
both of them lived, like watchmen.