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.

The life and legacy of Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy (Part-1)

In the village named Brahmandapuram, there used to live a sinless saint called Paripurnacharya with his wife Prakruthamba, who was a chaste woman. She gave birth to a child in the middle of a forest en route their home from pilgrimage. The couple died immediately after his birth, and the child was noticed by the sage Atri, who was attracted by the divine aura of that child. He also noticed the shodasha kala (16 divine qualities) in his face and considered the big star originated in the eastern part of the sky as a premonition of his birth. He took that child to his Ashram (Hermitage) and started rearing him with cow’s milk. He gave him a name ‘Veeram Bhotlayya’.

Veera Bhojayacharya and Veera Papamamba of Nandikonda village went to pilgrimage. They cited a hermitage and went inside; there they were welcomed by sage Atri, who asked their whereabouts. Veera Bhojayacharya explained him that he was the owner of Papaghni Mutt. And as they don’t have children, they were on a pilgrimage visiting sacred places and serving saints. Sage Atri found them to be very pious and filled with satva gunas (good qualities). He gave them the child and told them not to scold him or treat him badly. The couple happily received the divine looking child and returned to Papaghni Mutt. Veeram Bhotlayya grew up under the care of foster parents, and he used to impress everyone by his extraordinary intelligence and spiritual bent of mind. He explained her illusory nature of attachments and preached her Sankhya Sutram. Realizing that her son is an enlightened soul, Papamamba gave him permission to leave home and go on a pilgrimage to holy places. While he was visiting Harihara Kshetra, he came across a yogi named Ananda Bhairava, who confessed to him that he took to Sanyasa as a mark of repentance on his inadvertent killing of a cow. To liberate him from the sin of killing a cow Veeram Bhotlayya initiated him into Dwadasakshari mantra and gave him the boon that in his next birth he will be born as a Muslim and when he comes of age he would become his chief disciple.

Later Veeram Bhotlayya changed his name as ‘Veerappayacharya’, and reached Garima Reddy Achamma’s house in Banaganapalle. Achamma initially entrusted him with the task of tending cows was surprised when some villagers informed her that he is leaving the cows in open fields and going somewhere. She didn’t ask him anything, but quietly followed him the next morning. He had taken the cattle to Ravvala konda area and drew a line around them with his stick, and proceeded towards a Palm Tree. That palm tree automatically bent itself so that he could pluck the palm leaves easily. He plucked the leaves and then the tree on its own became upright again. The cattle implicitly obeyed his command and Achamma realized that the boy was not an ordinary shepherd but must be a God man of great powers. He then went inside a cave, and she silently followed him and to her consternation, that dark cave was entirely dazzling as though light of a thousand suns had entered inside the cave. She went inside and got mesmerized to see the divine swami sitting and scribbling something on palm-leaf parchments. She fell at his feet, and begged to be excused for having treated him as a menial. Achamma was one of the few who were given the privilege of listening to the future predictions written in the form of chants by Sri Veerappayacharya.

He performed many miracles during his 12 years stay in that village. He restored eyesight to Achamma’s son, Brahmananda Reddy by suggesting a retribution for the sins of a past life. Once the Nawab of that region who was jealous of the fame of Veerappayacharya sent word to him and after a hypocritical show of respect and courtesy, presented him a platter covered with a muslin cloth. Knowing that meat was taboo to the Hindu sage he still filled the plate with dishes made of meat. Veerappayacharya accepted the plate and removed the cloth cover. To the utter amazement of the Nawab and his courtiers the platter was heaped with beautiful flowers with no trace of meat anywhere. The Nawab fell at his feet begging forgiveness and donated land for the founding of an Ashram by Veeram Bhotlayya. Annajayya, a Brahmin disciple used to look after the mutt and Ashram and it is he who made the predictions of his master known to the public. He buried the palm-leaf parchments inside a pit in the Banaganapalle mutt, and a tamarind tree grew over that pit. In the twelfth year of his stay, entrusting the change of the Ashram to Annajayya, he left for ‘Kandimallaya Palle’, a village in Kadapa.

            He introduced himself to the villagers as ‘Potuluri Veera Brahmam’, and used to work as a carpenter. He soon became the spiritual leader of the village community. While visiting the temple in a nearby hamlet, Pedakomerla, he chanced to come across a funeral procession. Going near the bier, he sprinkled holy ash (Vibhuthi) on the corpse and to the amazement of everyone the dead man got down and shocked to see himself over a bier. This created a sensation in the village and most of the villagers began worshipping Veera Brahmam as the very incarnation of God. A few non-believers wanted to play a trick on him. One of them lay down on a bier pretending to be dead and the rest approached Veera Brahmam with the request that their friend’s life be revived. Wishing to teach them a lesson Veera Brahmam said their friend could not be brought back to life. The non believers gleefully asked their friend to sit up but were shocked to see that he was really dead. Moved by their pitiful pleas for forgiveness and help, Veera Brahmam brought the young man back to life and this won for him the respect and admiration of everyone. Veera Brahmam accorded to a few seekers of that village knowledge of his Kalagnanam chants pertaining to events that would take place in the future. Sivakotayya was one of those seekers and he reverentially offered his dauaghter Govindamma as bride to Veera Brahmam. Hearing that Govindamma had chosen to remain unmarried all these years as it was her wish to marry a man who is an embodiment of divinity, Veera Brahmam smilingly gave his consent. After the marriage the couple returned to Kandimallya Palli and from there left on a pilgrimage to holy places. After a short visit to Banaganapalle they returned to Kandimallaya palli. Devotees built an Ashram for them and Veera Brahmam began to be worshipped by them as ‘Sri Veera Brahmendra Swamy’. The couple were blessed with four sons and a daughter. All the children were devout like their parents and took active part in the spiritual programme conducted in the Ashram.