Foreword by the author - B Radha Krishna Murthy (BRK)
Prior to Swamiji reaching Hatakeswaram, a yogini used to stay there. She lived in a small kuteer for about two years. Even before Swamiji reached Hatakeswaram, she predicted His arrival to Sri Doraiswamy Naidu (who later became one of Swamiji's first devotees), “In the coming days, a siddha purusha is going to come here”. Swamiji arrived after a few months of her leaving Hatakeswaram. Swamiji started staying in the same kuteer that was used by the yogini.
Sri Swamy Poornananda, who was omnipotent always stayed humble and never displayed His powers. We were in financial troubles in those days and whenever we tried to do something for Swamiji, He would donate it all away. My companions, Kaaranki Krishna Murthy garu, Rajugaru, Chakrapani, Nagabhushan, Ramanayya and Gopalam would never speak before Swamiji. Even if something had to be conveyed to Swamiji, they would all push me forward and say, “You please tell Swamiji”.
One day when Swamiji was talking to us in a cheerful mood, I asked, “Swamiji, you talk about so many mantras. We heard you talk about so many deities. Amongst them, you said Kubera was the deity responsible for wealth. It would be great to have the blessings of Kubera. If that happens, we all would be out of our financial troubles”.
Swamiji asked, “Oh, so you want to be blessed by Kubera”?
I replied, “Yes Swamiji. If we had more money, we would be able to do better service to the devotees who come here”.
Swamiji said,
“Sure, mantras definitely yield results and Kubera’s blessings will be obtained. Either tomorrow or day-after, it is Pournami. Kubera is a yaksha and yakshas must be worshipped in the nights. On the night of Pournami, cook a kilogram of rice and perform homam with it. I will give you the mantra, you do the homam”.
On the night of Pournami, we cooked the rice by 8PM. The moon shone bright that night and under the moonlight, the forest glittered as if focus lights were installed. We were all amazed by that sight. We quickly finished bathing, applied vibhooti, folded our spare clothes and kept them inside the ashram (we are referring it as an ashram, but in reality, it was only a cone-shaped hut).
We all sat around the homagunda and were very excited that Swamiji was going to give us the mantra. Swamiji looked at me and said, “You tell the mantra”. I said, “Swamiji, but I do not know the Kubera mantra”. To that Swamiji replied, “Ok. I will tell you the mantra and then, you tell the others”. I was delighted that I was the first one getting the mantra. Swamiji told me the mantra and accordingly I told the same to all the others. Meanwhile, Swamiji instructed some of them to perform the homam with rice, the others with sesame seeds and asked me to come with Him. On that moon-lit night of Pournami, Swamiji took me on a long walk towards Kailasa Dwaram. After walking for long in the forest, we returned and sat down under a tree close to the ashram. It was around 3:30AM then. Swamiji said to me, “All night they have been performing homam sincerely. Go and check what mantra they are chanting”. I went and checked but had forgotten the actual mantra myself. So, I just repeated the mantra they were chanting to Swamiji. Immediately Swamiji exclaimed, “Oh that is Agnideva’s mantra”!
That way, Kubera’s mantram was changed to Agnideva’s mantra. They performed the homam all-night while chanting the Agnideva mantra. Swamiji said, “That’s ok, at least they have done something”. In the meantime, a spark of fire flew from the homagunda and fell on the kuteer. In an over-excited state of performing the homam, they never observed that. In some time, the kuteer caught on fire. By the time we noticed and reached the spot, the entire kuteer and the belongings inside it were completely burnt. However, Swamiji’s koupina, the box of vibhooti and the box of kumkum remained untouched by the fire. That was a fact of great amusement to all of us. We all plunged into sorrow and regret that we caused the burning of our Guru’s kuteer with our homam.
Swamiji said, “Praaptham is required for anything to happen”. After sunrise, we cleared the remains of the kuteer. Chakrapani ran down to Sundipenta and brought us fresh clothes for all of them. After getting dressed, they all left to their respective houses. Immediately, two contractors namely Guruvayya and Ramayya came for Swamiji’s darshan. They offered to build a shed in that area. Within a week, they completely cleared the debris, built a basement and made a shed with 3 parts using 6-8 steel sheets, wooden pillars and thatches. In those 3 parts, there were two 9x9 rooms and one 9x18 sized hall. The hall was used for Swamiji's darshan to devotees. Swamiji stayed in one 9x9 room and the other one was made into a kitchen. Looking at these rooms on top of the basement, Swamiji humorously said,
"Oho! It looks like we have leveled 'up' now".
In this way, the ashram took a new shape. If not by Kubera mantra, in this way, we were able to do seva to Swamiji by chanting the Agni mantra.
to be continued...
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