A Saint called Abhayaananda

                                          Sri Sulini Durgambayai Namaha
                                          Sri Raja Rajeshwari Krupa Kataksha Siddirasthu
                                          Sri Satguru Abhayaananda Swami Sahayam

         For people who know these names, it would appear as a treasure as they know its significance and sanctity. For people who are not familiar/ do not know these names, please read the story below and spread the glory of God.
        Before you get into the story there's a question for you. Have you ever listened to a stranger saying,"What are you doing here? You are not meant for this. Leave everything and do good for others". If a normal practical man hears this, he would neglect these words and go in his own way. But, there was a Man ; a man of great thoughts paid attention to all the above said words and changed his entire life style.

        And here comes the most important line of the story - for people who have no belief in God, please do not proceed further. You can read some other blogs or some of my later posts.

        Here goes the story of a Saint who lived with God,who knew only to help others, who constructed a temple at Coimbatore, healed physical/mental illness,created a history, and one day attained Samadhi.
        The RajPurohit family in Coimbatore was celebrating the arrival of a baby boy in late 19th century. He was named Venkata Kuppu. It was their family tradition to name boys in subsequent generations as Venkata Kuppu or Venkata Subbu. (Venkata Kuppu's Son would be Venkata Kuppu and Venkata Kuppu's son would be Venkata Subbu). Days passed by and He went through all ceremonies that a bachelor would come across in a Telugu Brahmin community. He attained the age of Grihastashrama and He was married to a girl called Visalakshi, who was from Anaimalai(the place where the famous Masaniamman Temple is located). They lived happily having the philosophy Be Content with Contentment in mind.
        But every human in this world is born for something. If they had no aims/goals in life, then their life becomes that of an animal. Sri Venkata Kuppu Sastri was a Forest Guard then and he used to ride horse to deliver some of the official letters. Here again,  there is a debate whether He was a Forest Guard or a Forest Ranger. Since that is of very less importance to us, let us concentrate on what history He has made. He was on his official duty and riding a horse in Anaimalai Forest. This was the place where He was enlightened by the Master, who is none other than God Himself. Suddenly, on his way, He was stopped by a Man who had a huge and a majestic look. When the Man appeared in front of Sastri, there was a huge storm which would noramlly blow off a human. The Man told,"You are not born for this. You are born for a noble cause". It was the turn for Sastri to question. He asked,"Who are you?". The majestic Man laughed like a thunder and that was the precious time in Sastri's life. Yes. He really saw who the Majestic Man was. He was none other than the Lord Himself. Sastri saw His darshan when the Man replied,"I am Bhairava" and the first Mantropadesh was given to Sastri. Sastri, now fully on his way to know Himself, came down the Hills, resigned his job, threw away the official wear and started to live a life of a Sanyasi.
        Now, there was a straight line drawn between Him and God. Meanwhile, He visited Kasi(Varanasi) where He was blessed with second Upadesh. The Upadesh was given by a person called Kasivasi Arulnambi Thambiran or Kasivasi Sachithananda Thambiran. Sastri made Thambiran  as his Guru and learnt all tantras and mantras. He returned to Coimbatore and became a Sakthi Upasakar. He made an Idol of Goddess Durgamba and called Her as Sulini Dirgamba or Bala  or Sri Raja Rajeshwari. He performed so many miracles then and slowly, gained disciples and Shishyas thereby. He initially placed the Goddess in His pooja room at home. Later on, when disciples gathered and their count increased, He constructed a temple nearby within a distance of 10 mts, and called the place where He kept Her as JothiPeetam.
        He was later named as Sri Abhayaananda by his Shishyas. Each and every Shishya was given a name that ends with nanda. He was not only a Saint, but also a person who cured diseases through medicines found by Him. He has cured so many people who had huge physical instability. He framed niyamas for Sulini Durgamba Temple. The festivals like MahaShivratri, Thaipoosam, Navratri, and Masimakam are the biggest ones celebrated in the Temple. Mahashivratri and Thaipoosam came into picture because there is a Shiva Linga and Sri Kumara Swami Idol in the Temple. Unline other Temples, Navratri is celebrated for eighteen days.
        When He was alive, Yagna would be performed on each day of Navratri and taking the God outside for a street ride would be one of the biggest functions in the city. Now, due to lack of people, that is reduced to some extent. Swami has performed miracles, not only when He was alive, but even after His Samadhi. Some of His miracles are below:
Sitting in Temple with some Shishyas, He has spotted one lady entering into the street with so many problems within her. The same moment, He has told His Shishyas,”There is one lady entering into the street. I am going to take her as my Disciple”eHe. He did not find any difference between men and women, but for Him, all are under God.
A disciple of Him was severely ill and was at the last stage of life. The disciple was staying at a place midway between Chennai and Salem. The family was praying to Swami and within next few min, to all of their surprise, Swami was there at their place. Through His powers, He got the disciple’s life back to this Earth. After so many days, a letter said the truth. The disciple and his family thanked Swami for curing him and getting him back to life. The disciples at Coimbatore read this letter , but were confused as Swami was at Coimbatore with disciples at the same time that was mentioned in the letter. They straightaway asked Swami for which they got a reply,” Yes. It was me who cured his disease and it was me who was talking to you at the same time”. Everyone who heard this was speechless at that moment.
        He has written some poems on Sri Sulini Durgamba and Sri Balagurunatha Swami, in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. Looks like He was perfect in English too through some of His reply letters to some queries on Horoscopes from disciples. Apart from Sri Raja Rajeshwari Temple, He managed one more Temple as requested by His Kannada sub-ordinates. The temple is called “Sri Subramanya Swami Bajanai Matalayam”, where Lord Subramanya is the Primary Deity. The Viboothi or the Sacred Ash in the Temple would never be given to anyone before the Abhisheka is performed to the Vel moorthy. Similar is the case with Sri Raja Rajeshwari Temple where viboothi Abhisheka is performed to the Goddess Herself.
        Swami used to write Yantras for curing so many people’s disorders physically, mentally and for peace at their homes. Along with Him, His shishyas were also involved in that. Once He constructed Sri Raja Rajeshwari Temple at Coimbatore, He had never been to any places in search of any happiness or peace. Sri Raja Rajeshwari Temple was the place where His soul found real happiness. People used to say that He would treat Goddess Raja Rajeshwari as His mother and daughter. For Him, the only happiness was to be with Her. He was also famous for driving away evil spirits from people. He was more interested in poojas and things that would make God and people happy. People say that He stayed only in Temple at nights and would just come home for daily duties.
        At times, He used to visit graveyard with His shishyas and put chakras and ask them to sit inside the chakra. He would out a condition that in any case, they are not supposed to come out of it no matter what happens and hold the Earth for grip. Then He used to do poojas, after which Lord Rudhra(who is said to stay at grave) would come before Him and clear His doubts on so many tantras and mantras. Though the shishyas would not see the Lord Himself, they conveyed it to the family that they could hear the talk and the storm during the time Swami and the Lord had the conversation.
        Even Swami was not spared to the worldly Dharma. He left the world on a day after Vinayaka Chaturthi. He left the world on the same thithi as that of His wife after performing His wife’s Shrardh. His wish was to construct a Brindavan after His demise. This could have been completed by taking a handful of mud from the place He was buried and putting the same in temple and constructing a Brindavan by Keeping the Goddess above the Brindavan. But because of a mad and a stupid person called Vellalore Ramakrishna Iyer (a famous person who always created problems for the RajPurohit family), this was not possible as He was against Swami’s wish saying that a Hindu Brahmin should not be buried. There was a nig fight happening at the graveyard because of this and Swami’s Youngest Son Rajan could not control his temper as a result of which he put the glowing fire sticks on His head(which is carried in a pot along with the person who leaves the body). This is the only leftover wish of Swamiji, which remains unfulfilled.
        When Swamiji was alive, each and every day at temple was a festival; though they could not manage the expenses after His demise. Slowly, the later generations of His shishyas moved to various places for work and now, the temple’s expenses are manages by Swamiji’s family. Even after His demise, miracles still happen which are countless. Devotees have come saying that the Goddess appeared in their dream who was followed by Swamiji and they directed the devotee to the temple.
One of the notable incidents: It was the time when the temple was being constructed again nearly after 100 years in 1998. The Idols were placed at home and a devotee visited the home then. She was speechless when she saw the photo of Swamiji near God. She was quite sure that all her problems would be solved quickly. Given is part of the conversation that she had with Swamiji’s family, “One lady who was so beautiful came in my dream and showed the way to this temple. An old man followed the lady and He said that He was searching the Lady as She was not there at Her place. Then the half-constructed Temple appeared in my dream, the Lady and the Old Man directed me to come to Sri Raja Rajeshwari Temple. As soon as I got up, I followed the path that appeared in my dream and I found this temple. This is the same half-constructed temple that I saw in my dream. The same state it is ,in, now in reality. How blessed I am. And the Old Man I saw in my dream is none other than the person who is in the photo”. Her hands bowed towards Swamiji’s photo. Everyone was stunned to hear her words. Even today, miracles keep on happening and Swami’s blessings are seen naked when the blessed family lives happily ever after.
        People would come asking for peace, for driving away evil spirits, for getting married, for childbirth, for vimochana from bad drishti, for future predictions based on Horoscope, for mental peace and stability, for disease cure, which would be solved by Him in no matter of time. He has written ‘n’ number of songs on various Gods and unfortunately, the family is in search of that. In some unfortunate situation, the book in which He had written songs was stolen by someone because of which His work is unknown. But to those people, I would say, it is just a poem written by someone and in the next generations, it would go unknown and could be thrown. The person may think that keeping the poems with him/her may bring good to him/her. Believe me! You share good and notice you yourself will notice that you get 100 times more good and prosperity in life. But for the family, who are in search of the book, it is their own life and this way, they could spread His teachings and writings to the world and try to make the temple and Swamiji famous. When I write this, tears fill my eyes and I pray Swamiji that His teachings and writings should be spread to people and if at all it needs any negotiation, we can bear it.
      If people wonder why I write this in my blog, I would say them,”The Swami whose story is told above is none other than my Great Grand Father(my mother’s father’s father)”. I feel good and the pleasure is mine. Even now, I feel it is not me myself who is writing about Him. I feel He comes within me and directs what alphabets that I need to hit on to make words. After all, I am neither an orator nor a narrator.
        Similar post would be found in my brother’s old blog too under the topic “A Saint called Abhayaananda”. Since I write about Him, I could not find a better topic, so sharing the same topic that my brother used. Excuse me anna!.Others, please visit his blog. I could not spare writing about him too. You can find details about his site in my previous blog. If you need to know any details, please comment right here and I would get back to you.