Some of my favourite photos of Mastergaru & Ammagaru (1980s except the black and white one)

Wordless at the what this image inspires in me

Mixing food to feed us rice balls. Hidden is their tapasic power given freely to us with Love! What of our romantic love in front of This Great Expanse of Love!

Very rare photos Pujya Master and Ammagaru in the yard of their residence at Vidyanagar, Masergaru's tapobhumi (land of tapas)

HE had time for children and time for His work. No irritiation!

Mastergaru appears to be blessing some devotee bowing. Always on the go, no time for stills!

Permaculture - Spirituality - Relevance to today's world

In today's post-post-modern, post 9/11, post Vietnam (or the whichever country is the lastest victim, post-existential crisis of identity, we are really so conforming and blindly West-driven (i.e.headless driven) that it is shocking. Now the West has some genuinely good things to offer us but few people take those up. My non-Indian friends agree. And if you don't agree with me, good. Let's now talk of being a bit more self-aware.
From clothing to choice of careers and homes we live in, we have moved beyond creating 'Little India's' in California or Sydney. We are creating 'Little America (as if there is only One America)' while in India!!
It doesn't occur to us that most of our current clothing (yes, trousers, collared shirts, jeans, closed shoes ...) is genuinely unsuitable to our climate or what it is costing The Earth to provide us with the granite counters and floors which cost the earth!

If you brought the ingredients from a regular store, this is inedible

We think we are choosing our own meal but sadly we are not. We are not eating baby carrots, crisp cabbage or lettuce and spinach with cubes of cottage cheese and dash of lemon, in our 'healthy' salad dinner. We are eating  nephrotoxic hard metals (http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/2/2125) and carcinogenic pesticides ( see http://indiaforsafefood.in/farminginindia) to name a few.

We believe we are educated, hard-working, ethical, aware, upstanding global citizens but we close our eyes and noses at the our own toilets and garbage and 'delegate' this personal responsibility to the less unfortunate or the nameless workers of municipal corporations.

We go to great trouble to find the one great love of our live, our future spouses. Then go to greater trouble to refrain from coffee, alcohol etc to deliver healthy babies and then promptly 'schedule' their arrival into the world as per Leaves offered by our faceless corporate giants and modern medicine. We then promptly find 'Child care' facilities with people and establishments doing so clearly as a business to make money. And our consciences are salved. If we even believe such a thing as a conscience exists. After all has it been scientifically proven? Can you see it? (sure, just like you can see the oxygen you breathe).


So what can we do about it? Should we stop eating altogether?, should we rip off our clothes and hold candle-lit dharnas at India Gate?, should we go off into almost extinct Wild with our families, eat roots and berries and live like primitives?...

On an aside, that last primitive bit is very interesting. I don't know if I can identify anything edible in a forest or make my own swiss knife and underwear!!!

What we can do, while we continue with our lives is first change our thinking, change how we do the little things (like what we first do on waking up), then our children's education, along with growing herbs and so forth to what we dream of. Discussed not so long ago by Pujya Saimaster in this unique Speech for children given at Mahanandi in Telugu.

Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja Enlightening Listeners

Mahanandi Speech by Pujya Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja Part A

Mahanandi Speech by Pujya Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja PartB

Anyone who does listen to these is missing something in life!
So that was Permaculture being discussed by Mastergaru!!!
As Babugaru (Dwarakanath Ekkirala Jnaneswar) puts it, the basis of spirituality (as in 'living life correctly') and Permaculture are the same. It all begins with the Three Ethics  of

1) Earth Care
2) People Care
3) Fair share or Return of Surplus

Unless and until we understand these completely and make that it it our  prime directive as one founder of Permaculture, Bill Mollison says, '...to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children', we do not live. We exist as parasites and the world has no Future.

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P. S. so many gems and all in Telugu!!! What a loss to us English speaking world. Praying for the day when these will be available in English transcript.

Wither Human being ?

Swami Vivekananda has said, 'So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them'. The Bible says 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you (Matthew 7:12)'. 

But the unspoken question all of us appear to have is  that we are overburdened with our lives and problems, we have come into Baba's fold to find solutions to our own problems, what can we do for others?

One of the oft repeated themes in Ammagaru's messages at Satsangs at Nagole is there can be no spirituality without 'being human' in the first place. Without basic kindness and consideration for others, we are just 'manushya rupena mrigah charanti' (beasts in the garb of men/women).

It does not always mean great acts of social service. Simple things such as not hogging the best spot under the fan, the wall support, the seating area (while many others stand outside), the front spot etc in the satsang hall indicate how much we care about others and inversely about ourselves! We are inherently selfish and the only way to get out of it is to start doing things for others. 

In this respect Ammagaru believes that the old way of village life was better. Everyone knew everyone else and came forward to help. Whereas in our insulated independent houses and apartment complexes, we often do no even know whether our neighbours are in or not, whether they are ill or have visitors and perhaps simply making tea could help them out. Further, everyone knowing everyone's business also acted as  collective social restraint on individuals deviating from positive behaviour.

On this topic, it is worth our while to read DJ's post on  Society and the Individual.

Easier said than done, one might say, but one has to begin somewhere and better late than never!

Please feel free to post your comments.

Food, Festival and Family

With Diwali just past and Christmas and New Year round the corner, the general mood is festive. And food is synonymous with festivals and family time. Interestingly, every mahatma has performed leelas in relation to food.

Sri Krishna in the Mahabharata, saved the Pandavas in the forest from the sage Durvasa's curse, by partaking a single morsel of rice left over in their Akshayapatra, thus in effect feeding all the hungry sages.

In the Sree Guru Charitra (click the title to read the book), Chapter 19, there is the story of Bhaskara Sharma, a poor but devout brahmin who came to offer food to  Sree Guru with provisions enough for only three persons. The Master asked him to invite all for lunch. When he did so, '...they (other disciples) heckled him saying, ' We are more numerous than the grains you have cooked. How dare you invite all of us?'....When the food was being served it was found that though the preparations were meagre, what was being served was enormous in quantity...'

In The Supreme Master (click the title to read the book), Chapter 2, there is a similar great leela performed by Sri Akkalkot Maharaj. 

One of our fondest memories of Pujyasri Mastergaru is an occasion when he mixed rice with his own hands and fed young and old alike. During the summer months, when it is very hot in Ongole, and kids would often skip food in favour of cool drinks, Ammagaru would herself mix rice and making every one sit around her, with lively words would make them eat enough to last a few mealtimes. At Nagole too the tradition continues. Ammagaru has taught us to cook for large numbers, for everyone is family!, and spend our leisure time together. Ammagaru herself plans surprise, special treats made out of the simplest ingredients; made all the more special because there is no formal occasion for it. And the taste is indescribably delicious. While we savour the food, all we are asked to do is to think, ' What am I here for? What do I hope to achieve? Have I achieved it? '  

Such is their love and grace!

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The Gospel of Matthew VI: 

[31] 'Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?' 

[32] (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

[33] But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

[34] Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof


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Seeds of Spiritual life

In the Chapter 'A Sketch of His Life (II)', Sai Baba the Master (click here to read), Mastergaru says,

          '... Once when he (Baba) went to Rahata he had brought with him  several varieties of seeds. After     cleaning and levelling a certain plot of the village land, he planted the seeds and watered them regularly....This went on regularly for quite some time and in due course a beautiful garden grew up. Visualizing the whole process, it seemed symbolic of the elevation of a god-forsaken village lke Shirdi into a powerful spiritual centre and the common rung of the society that came to him into a luscious spiritual crop...'

At hitherto god-forsaken Nagole too, Ammagaru with her own hands started beautiful flower and vegetable gardens. The size, strength, colour and variety of blooms vies with those of international horitculture companies.Every morning and evening, Ammagaru herself selects and arranges the blooms to decorate Shirdi Sai Baba and Pujya's Mastergaru's photos and peetham. This pulangi seva is one of the most delicate and beautiful of sevas to see at Nagole. It has taught me that the dedication to offering of flowers to Baba (which most of us take care of by plucking a few common flowers from our garden or buying the routine 'chataku' and maala at the market) is starting from the stage of sowing of seeds, right up to the final eye-catching flower arrangement. For are not Baba and Master, Kings among Mahatmas? And if we do so much for our pathetic faces every morning, how much more should we be doing for them!! 

Vegetables too - all the leafy varieties plus tomatoes, brinjals, beans, tamarind, carrots, beets, spinach to mention a few, are planted under Ammagaru's precise directions and grown organically. Ammagaru taught all the children here to grow from cuttings in pots and also got them to sow all the grains etc we eat, so that they learn to recognise the  plants that provide our daily meal. Ammagaru taught that beginning with hoeing the ground, sowing, watering etc, we should perform every action with Baba Namam, with the prayer in our hearts that the food thus grown, should sow seeds of bhakhti and brotherhood in everyone of us.  

Jai Sai Master

Jai Sai Master!

Divyajanani Alivelu Mangatayaru garu at her residence in Nagole, Hyderabad, India

Salutations to Pujya Ammagaru, praying for her presence on this blog and seeking her blessings for this first post.

'Manasa bhajare guru charanam, manasa bhajare guru charanam, dustara bhava sagarataranam'

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Note: All the thoughts and views expressed in this blog are my own and are in no way associated with any individual or organisation. I humbly claim all errors as mine and credits, if any, are the outcome of His blessings. For information on complete works, authorised notifications and events review vist www.saibharadwaja.org. Jai Sai Master!