The life and legacy of Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy (Part-2)

            One day, a fifteen year old Muslim boy, Sheik Saheb came to the Ashram to become a disciple of Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy. Swamy's sons refused to allow him in because he was a Muslim. Swamy rebuked them for their intolerance and allowed the boy to enter. He renamed the boy as Sidhayya who turned out to be the most loyal and devoted of his disciples. Siddhayya is none other than Ananda Bhairava and in accepting him as disciple Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy was fulfilling a boon he granted earlier. Swamy gave Sidhayya initiation into many spiritual practices including Taraka Yoga. Accompanied by his disciples, Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy made a tour of all the important districts in the Andhra region. He halted for some time at Hyderabad and convening a meeting of goldsmiths. He gave discourses on the three important goals of life in the outer, middle and inner planes. He surprised everyone in the court of the Nawab by lighting a lamp that had water. After predicting the future of the Hyderabad regime he returned home. Among the hundreds of miracles performed by Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy, mention may be made of his gulping down molten iron, of teaching a lesson to the arrogant Brahmins of Nandyal by making Sidhayya eat up all the rice they prepared for serving at a feast, of describing to a Nawab the features of a colt still in the womb of its mother, of proving to a group of hostile scholars that there is no scriptural injunction against non Brahmins’ learning and reciting Vedas.

            Swamy noticed that the other disciples alienated Sidhayya, and avoiding him all the time. Swamy pointed to the carcass of a dog and ordered his disciples to eat it. The carcass was decomposed, worm-ridden and emitting an unbearably foul smell. No one wanted to look at it or approach it. Sidhayya sat by its side and began eating it with joy and happiness. This demonstration of Sidhayya's implicit obedience to the words of the Guru shamed the disciples into repentance. A Brahmin couple fell on the feet of Swamy and begged him to cure the man of the dreadful disease of leprosy. Swamy cured it just by touching him. The Nawab of Kadapa was angry that the Muslim born Sidhayya became the disciple of a Hindu saint and sent word to Sidhayya to come and give an explanation for his conduct. Sidhayya’s impassioned speech on Adwaita not only placated the Muslim countries but converted all of them into devotees of Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy. The Nawab felt insulted that Siddhayya did not bow down to him and rebuked him for his insolence. Sidhayya asked the attendants of the Nawab to bring into the hall a big black chunk of rock. When it was brought in, Sidhayya bowed down to it and immediately it broke into a thousand pieces. Sidhayya told the Nawab that had he bowed to him, the Nawab’s head also would have broken into pieces. Understanding that Sidhayya had now acquired such spiritual status that only Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy was fit to receive obeisance from him the Nawab begged for forgiveness.

            Kakkayya, who was a cobbler, heard Swamy’s discourse on six energy centers (Chakras) in the body. He murdered his sleeping wife and dissected her body to see the deities presiding over each of the chakras. Failing to see any deities, he rushed to the Asram and fell on Swamy’s feet. He made a confession of what he did and kept weeping. Swamy accompanied him to his hut along with Sidhayya. He invoked the deities of the chakras and showed them to Siddhayya and Kakkayya and then with a touch of his hand he restored Kakkayya’s wife to life. Once a group of thieves entered the Ashram at night lost their eyesight. Next day, taking pity on the blind robbers Swamy talked to them about the need for honesty and right living and restored their eye sight. At another time when, without telling him his wife Govindamma cooked payasam (a sweet dish) to be offered to Goddess Poleramma made the deity come in person to partake of the offering. On the last day of his earthly existence he gave trustee ship of the Ashram to his son Govindachari and then told his wife that all their sons will meet with an early death, that there would be no progeny to supervise the Ashram and that their daughter’s descendants would take charge of the mutt. That day he deliberately sent Sidhayya on an errand to collect flowers for the worship of God because he knew that Sidhayya can’t bear the sight of his beloved Guru’s dying. When Sidhayya came to know of Swamy’s death, he was overcome by grief and tired to commit suicide. Taking pity on him Swamy came out of the grave to present him with his sceptre, sandals, ring and cane. He blessed him with clairvoyance and commanded him to go to the village Mudumala get married and spend his life in the Rajayoga path. Sidhayya obeyed every one of these commands.
            After he left the physical body, hundreds of Swamy’s disciples propagated his teachings and travelled from one place to another chanting the predictions written by him. Like Vemana’s teachings, the chants of Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy also are simple and evoke immediate emotional response from listeners. Some of his predictions are in prose form. Some are written as moral maxims. Some offer exposition on philosophy, spiritualism, and yoga practice. Some are written as couplets. Many poems were written in praise of Kalikamba (Goddess Kali). Some of these contain cryptic esoteric truths. These will be intelligible only to initiates in yoga. His songs are most popular among religious mendicants. At the time of Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy’s advent, India was plunged in religious feuds between Hindus and Muslims. Humanism was crushed in the name of the illusory supremacy of caste. He preached the religion of love which cuts across all manmade barriers of creed, sect and caste. His disciples included Brahmins like Annajayya, Muslims like Siddhayya and ‘untouchables’ like Kakkayya. His progressive outlook is reflected in marrying a mature maiden like Govindamma at a time when child marriages were the accepted social convention. Most Nawabs of the time were his ardent devotees and this helped in promoting communal harmony.