Easwaramma, the Divine Mother of Easwara

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WISHING A VERY HAPPY DIVINE MOTHER DAY TO ALL

 

 

 

All About EASWARAMMA

 

 

 

"Easwaramma, the Divine Mother of Easwara"

 

Easwaramma Day falls on 6th of May and this Day is celebrated by Sri Sathya Sai Organizations all over the world in the memory of Divine Mother Easwaramma who led exemplary life and set great ideals to the world. Many programmes for the welfare of the poor and needy are organized on this Day.

Shri Kondamma Raju, the grand-father of Sri Sathya Sai Baba's physical body headed the Ratnakar family of Bhardwaja Gotra that lived in a tiny village of Puttaparthi (formerly known as Golpalli, village of cows, cow-herds, sweet water) situated on the Banks of River Chittravathi in Andhra Pradesh. He led saintly life of pretty long sojourn of 116 years and had two sons, Shri Pedda Venkamma Raju and Shri Chinna Venkamma Raju. Shri Pedda Venkamma Raju was married to a simple and serene girl Namagiriamma of a very poor family who had no schooling. After her marriage, Shri Kondamma Raju re-named his daughter-in-law as Easwaramma for she was to be the mother of Easwara as prophecied by this revered Guru Venkavadhoota.

Easwarama, a pious soul, who had installed Eternal Lord Narayana in her heart, was always engrossed in spiritual pursuits. After the devout couple had already a son and two daughters, Mother Easwaramma deeply aspired for one more son. To realize her wish, she undertook vow and practiced severe austerities. Imbued in spiritual splendour, she often experience the presence of gods and goddesses around her and glimpsed unique auras of unseen beings.

Narayana too had opted to incarnate in Puttaparthi and chosen the parenting of Shri Pedda Venkamma Raju and Smt. Easwaramma whose merits of past several births had borne fruit.

Smt. Lakshamma, Easwaramma's mother-in-law, was equally an ardent devotee of Sathyanarayana. She also yearned for one more grand-son. Smt. Easwaramma revealed to her family members that her mother-in-law had narrated her.

"She had dreamt of sathyanarayana dev and she cautioned me that I should not be frightened if something happens to me through the will of God. That morning when I was at the well drawing water, a big ball of blue light came rolling towards me and I fainted and fell. I felt it glided into me."

Therefore, Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was not begotten. His incarnation was Pravesa (An entrance) and not a Prasava (encience).

It was on Monday/Tuesday night of 23rd November, 1926, that Smt. Lakshamma, mother-in-law of Smt. Easwaramma, was performing Satyanarayana Puja at the village priest's house from 4 A.M. onwards. Inspite of calling her back to rush home as the delivery of her daughter-in-law neared, she returned on conclusion of Puja. She gave 'prasad' to Easwaramma who relished it. And the Divine Child was born at 5:06 A.M. in Ardara Nakshtra (the regoining star). The Child was named Sathyanarayana.

Mother Easwaramma was embodiment of nobility, benevolence and sacrifice. She loved children very much and guided them on the virtuous path. She always endeavoured to ameliorate the sufferings of down-trodden. She never asked Swami for anything for herself. She played significant role in the task of ushering in a new Era for humanity. Her main objective in life was welfare of the society.

One day, holding his both hands, the great Mother Easwaramma pleaded to Swami to construct a small hospital as she could not withstand the sufferings of sick particularly the children. It was built. Puttaparthi has now Sri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital besides a General Hospital. A Super-Speciality Hospital has also been built by Swami at White-field Bangalore. Millions of patients have been receiving best free medical treatment and medicines free of any charge.

After some time, Mother approached Swami to build a school in the village. It was built and she was delighted to visit it and shower her love and blessings on the children. Puttaparthi is a Deemed University now and provides best quality free education upto Post-Graduate level including professional courses like MBA, MFM and M Tech. free of any charge. Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning at Puttaparthi has Prasanthi Nilayam, Anantapur and Brindaban (White-field) Bangalore Campuses.

Her next wish to provide drinking water to the village which was also fulfilled. Swami provided hundreds of crores of rupees for the massive drinking water projects and thus alleviated the sufferings of millions of drought-hit population of human beings and animals.

Mother Easwaramma had sudden and sacred end at Bangalore at 7 P.M. on 6th May, 1972, while sitting in Verandah. She loudly called "Swami, Swami Swami" thrice. Swami responded saying "Coming, Coming" and she breathed her last.

EASWARAMMA-THE CHOSEN MOTHER - book is a befitting tribute to the life of Easwaramma whom Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai Baba the God incarnated chose to be His Mother. It provides rare glimpses into her psyche; her curiosity, compassion and wonder. She was tenderhearted and pious and like an earnest sadhak, had to trudge along the inner path that leads from Maya to the Master.

This short narrative of the earthly life of Easwaramma ('God's Mother') pictures lucidly her expanding awareness, and delineates hesitations, hazards and hopes that she had to encounter.

Naturally simple, meek and modest, she always stepped back from publicity, admiration and adoration. As Mother of the global family of Sai, her love had to be all-enveloping and unconditional.

When we review the life of the Mother of the Avatar, we find ourselves progressing through curiosity, expectations, compassion and wonder and landing in appreciation, admiration and adoration. Easwaramma was allotted the well-nigh-impossible task of expanding her awareness beyond the ring of hills, beyond the barricade of tradition and taboo and the wall of custom and caste. Burdened with the prestigious and pardonable pride of the most precious motherhood a woman could aspire to, she could not inspite of consistent effort jettison the homage she attracted from all the continents. Even while in this predicament, she, like any other earnest sadhak anxious to win His Grace, had to trudge along the inner path that leads from multiplicity to unity, from dispersion to concentration and meditation, from egoism to detachment, from passion to serenity, from unconcern to the love that cares and shares, from Maya to the Master

And, all this journey while busy as mother and grandmother in the Raju family as well as in the fast multiplying multi-lingual, multi-racial, multi-cradle, global family of Sai. As Mother, her love had to be all enveloping, all protective and unconditional. It was mainly through the teachings and Grace of Baba that she succeeded in this assignment of expanding and deepening her love. Baba, in His elucidation of Dharma, has revealed that woman represents the concretization of God's beneficence. She has a natural aptitude for spiritual endeavor, being endowed with fortitude, meekness and modesty. She is intelligent and vigilant. She has an innate sense of honor and loyalty to virtue. Easwaramma, as the closet devotee of Sai, was aided by Him to uplift herself to the heights marked out for the ideal woman.

Swami has often declared that this Sai Avatar descended because the saints and sadhu of all lands prayed for His arrival. "I chose the mother who was to experience my closeness during gestation. The Avatar alone has this freedom of choice. In other cases, karma determines the time and place, the group and the grade," He had said. The mother is the first recipient of the Avatar's Grace. The father, who protects and nourishes the mother, is rewarded with the fame bestowed on his name. When Pedda Venkappa Raju threw off his mortal coil in 1963, Swami wrote a note for the sake of those who lamented the loss of the 'father'. It was published in the "Sanathana Sarathi". "Well, you say that he was a blessed soul since he passed away in the fullness of years without falling ill and incomplete possession of his memory and consciousness. It was not thus alone that he was blessed. These are mere signs and pointers. On the day that he could

be known as the 'father' of the Manifestation, on the say that this Manifestation allowed it to be known that he was his 'son', that very day, he was blessed and his life was rendered holy and sanctified. This good fortune can be won by only one individual, in one entire age (Yuga). It is beyond the reach of others."

 

EASWARAMMA- the love with which she treated the women blossomed wider as she watched Swami healing the stricken. He showered Compassion on them and applied vibhuti profusely on their brows. Easwaramma decided that she would not condemn or ridicule any women on the basis of her apparent faults or failings for they were only, she knew, the symptoms of maladjustment or neglect or persecution and poverty.

The Mother thus became more than their own mother to an ever-increasing number of women in distress. She was a friend with a burnished mind. Contemplating the Mother among those who were rescued by Swami, the publisher likes to repeat Rabindranath's exclamatory poem on Women:

 

'Women! You are blest!You have your home, your household work-In the midst of it you keep a little gapThrough which you hear the cry of the weak.You bring your offering of service,And pour out your love,Your patience is endless-Their helplessness calls out your mercy.

The devotees discovered in her a never falling source of strength and wisdom. They sought her out more and more often and honored her as the Mother, assigning her distinct roles during festivals and holy days. Easwaramma did not yield as soon as the women surrounded her and pleaded that she should guide them or bless them. But how long could she keep them at bay? On holy days dedicated to the worship of Varalakshmi (the Goddess of Wealth ready to grant boons) or Gowri (the Fair Consort of Siva, mother of Ganesh), she had to accept the first offering of homage from every women who needed her. During the nine days of Navarathri, the Festival of the Mother, she was honored for the first three days as Durga (the smoothener of the path, the provider of safety and security of Her children), in the next three days as Lakshmi (the provider of food, clothing and shelter, status, power and renown) and on the last three as Saraswathi (the

Teacher who implants the yearning for learning and for liberation, for material skill and moral strength).

"We women must learn more about the world," she sighed. Swami had left Africa after addressing a Guru Poornima meeting there in the morning and had arrived in Bombay in time of the Guru Poornima celebration at Dharmakshetra in the evening, and so it happened!

The Guru heard the cry of the Mother on behalf of her daughters. Within a week of His landing on the soil of India, he inaugurated the Sri Sathya Sai Arts and Science College for Women at Anantapur, the Headquarters of the District to which Puttaparthi belonged. "Swami, you have done the right thing! Women must be as well educated as men. When one animal is bold and alert and the other is cowardly and blind, how can the cart to which they are yoked move forward?" She commented. Lakshmidevamma, the Headmistress of the Girls' High School, Anantapur, told her that Swami had promised this College a year ago when He had presided over the High School Day. "I find that the girls who complete their high school have now to go to distant colleges at Tirupati and Kurnool," He had said, "I shall therefore establish a college right here very soon." And so, the girls of Anantapur got a college, a college dedicated to the realization of the

universal and constructive ideals of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

The Mother, it must be conceded, was the foremost pupil of the 'son'. She was an exemplary housewife and an unquestioning conformist in the observance of vows, vigils and fasts declared as obligatory in the Hindu calendar. She delighted in visiting holy places, bathing in holy rivers and offering worship at shrines. And like the high cast women of Puttaparthi and other villages, she was loyal to the lawmakers who laid down the dos and don'ts, which should govern daily living and social relationships.

Woman has been extolled in ancient scriptures as well as classical poetry as grihalakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity in the Home. She is the Dharmapathni, the Companion of the Husband in the fulfillment of the Duties and Rights of wedded life as a householder.

The Puranas and Sastras stress the role of women as mother and extol the mothers, who instilled high ideals in the minds of the children of the land. The Vedas speak of Maitreyi and Gargi, as great scholars and spiritual heroines. Gargi was revered in the assembly of Vedic pundits for her mastery of the abstruse problems of the spiritual voyage into the heights of self-realization. In historical times, we have the mother of Sivaji who fed him on the epics and Puranas, and brought him up, as a brave representative of the best in Hindu culture.

What a great inspiration is this Bharathi for all of you! Our Puranas and Sastras, the Upanishads, the Vedas, the lives of the saints and seers of this land contain hundreds of such incidents which serve as beacons to light your path, Lean about them and derive benefit from them. This has always been our Divine Lord Baba's message to the women.

Duty Toward Mother"A mother may go wrong in other respects, but she will always strive for the well being of her children. Hence every son has to love the mother as the primary duty. Then he should love the father and revere the preceptor. The mother confers the body. The father protects it. The preceptor imparts knowledge and wisdom. For every human being, all these three are essential for getting on in the world."Sai Baba, SS, 6/97, p. 141"You must be prepared to make even the supreme sacrifice for showing your gratitude to the mothers. Even the Avatars, Rama, Krishna and others, owed their advent to their mothers. Everyone should pray for sacred mothers who will bring forth good children. There may be bad sons in the world, but bad mothers are rare. Most mothers lament over the bad behaviour of their children. No son who has caused distress to his mother can

come to anything good. The Telegu saying is, 'There can be no prosperity in a home where the mother sheds tears. Today we need sons who will please their mothers."Sai Baba, SS, 6/96, p. 159"Respect your mother; obey her commands. Never disrespect your mother or disappoint her. Do not hurt her feelings. Try to satisfy her in all respects. Only then the seed of devotion will sprout in you. Everyone should follow the dictum, "Maatru Devo Bhava" (Worship your mother as God.) in letter and spirit."Sri Sathya Sai Baba, SS, 6/99, p. 150"One should not disregard one's parents yielding to the vagaries of the mind."Sri Sathya Sai Baba, SS, 6/99, p. 144 "Nourish your aged parents, revere them."Sri Sathya Sai Baba, SSS, Vol. IV, p. 98

With this homage to the DIVINE MOTHER EASWARAMMA I offer this work at the Divine Lotus Feet of the UNIVERSAL MOTHER SAI on this auspicious day 06th May 2009