From Mother to Devotee
To be the “Mother” of the Avatar is undoubtedly a blessed and unique privilege for any woman. But to recognize the Divinity of the Avatar and to accept one’s own role as one of the devotees of the Avatar is not an easy process. How this change occurred gradually in the case of Easwaramma—”the chosen Mother”—is graphically described by Prof. Kasturi in his account of Easwaramma’s life as the Mother of the Avatar. “When we review the life of the Mother of the Avatar,” he writes, “we find ourselves progressing through curiosity, expectation, compassion, and wonder and landing in appreciation, admiration, and adoration.”
The following are extracts from the chapter of the book in which Prof. Kasturi describes how Easwaramma reacted to the adoration that grew from day to day after the young Sathya had declared Himself as the reincarnation of the Sai Baba of Shirdi.
Sathya, acclaimed as Sai Baba, was surrounded and served by those who had once sought consolation from Sai Baba at Shirdi and now had discovered that He had appeared in the world once again after seemollanghana—the crossing of the border. (This ritual is observed by kings and rulers who cross the borders of their territories on Vijayadashami, the Day of Victory. Shirdi Sai Baba had chosen this day of Vijayadashami, 1918, to leave His body, thus giving to this ritual the subtler meaning of crossing the borders of worldly existence.) The people who came, drawn by the teenaged Baba, into His presence were the four types spoken of as the Lord’s devotees by Sri Krishna: (1) Those stricken with physical or mental illness, (2) those drawn through curiosity, (3) those seeking relief from poverty, and (4) those who are consciously seeking the Divine. The trickle of bhaktas [devotees] from Bangalore swelled to a steady stream fed by tributaries from Trichinopoly, Madras, Hyderabad, Kuppam, and Erode. Easwaramma staggered under the impact of the Mystery that generated such love and adulation.
Sathya continued to harp on the `mayic’ role she was destined to play. He no longer referred to her as Amma or Thalli (Mother). The word He used instead was cold and distant, with no acknowledgement whatsoever of a filial tie, Grham Ammayi—daughter of the house! It was a term appropriate from an ageless patron toward a very young innocent. `Grham [house]‘ perhaps gave her some slight comfort—it meant at least that she was no wandering waif but belonged to a home, to a family.
A Glimpse of Shirdi
Swami says that only those who have mastered the scriptures can know Him, however fragmentarily. According to the Bhagavatam, the Krishna Avatar was announced by Vishnu in a disembodied voice. The voice declared, “I will be born in the grham (house) of Vasudeva.” So the `father’ was ‘grham abbayi‘ and the ‘mother’ was ‘grham ammayi’ for Krishna also. And there was the unforgettable day Sathya had led her into a dark room in the Puttaparthi house and pointed to the south‑western corner, there glowing in the dark was a mosque with the old saint Shirdi Baba seated before it on a mat.
Fortunately, Swami had not followed this old fakir [mendicant] too closely in the manner of dress, for that Baba seemed to favor tears and stitches, his kafni [robe] showing gaping holes on the shoulders and chest.
“Swami” or “Baba”
“Swami!” It had taken Easwaramma a few months to get acclimatized to that word. She had first heard it used by some women devotees from Kuppam and she liked it much better than the other one—Baba; that sounded strange and outlandish. ‘Baba’ seemed to render Sathya unapproachable, beyond the horizon of adoration and affection. But this Kuppam word brought Sathya near, though yet a little far; it allowed speech though a little whisper; it tolerated touch though only the feet if permitted. So Easwaramma joined the groups of devotees who venerated her ‘son’ as Swami (Master). The word became sweeter and sweeter as the days went by.
Eager inquiries on ponderous pundit problems were pressing around Sathya, and when Easwaramma saw Him surrounded she petitioned God fervently that His answers to them may turn out correct and satisfying. Many of them were learned scholars and it was easy to guess that their questions were chiefly intended as challenges and tests. The Uravakonda Sastry, who was learned in the classic texts of India, had told her that Sathya must have been a prodigious pundit in His previous life. Yet Easwaramma felt that her prayers would help to sustain Him in this role. Pilgrims complained to her that as they boarded the bus to Bukkapatnam, the people there who wanted to turn them away ridiculed them. They announced that Baba had been exposed, that He had lost His powers and He no longer granted darshan [sight of a holy person]. There was a rumor rife in Penukonda and Dharmavaram that the Sai Baba phase in Sathya would prove disastrous. Naturally, she prayed more and more earnestly that the miraculous and the mysterious in her son would persist for years and years.
One afternoon a 60‑year-old ascetic, stark naked and legless, was carried in a litter into the inner hall of the mandir [temple]. The old man was observing a vow of silence but his disciples demanded that the young Baba should touch the old guru’s stumps and seek his blessings. About 30 people waited expectantly for Baba’s reaction. Swami’s first move was to throw a towel at the old man so that he could cover himself! Easwaramma was shocked. A shudder of fear crept up her spine. What would this man’s disciples do now? But Baba began to speak soft and low. “The vow of silence allows you to speak when it is most necessary,” He told the Sanyasi. “And silence must prevail in the head and heart and mind, not on the tongue. When you have to be carried about in this way by men, however devout, the best you can do is always to remain still somewhere. Why place your burden on four others? I shall bear your burden. I will feed you, clothe you, and provide you shelter wherever you may be. I have come for this, to give you guidance and take you to the goal!” To everybody’s relief the disciples silently picked up the litter and bore their guru, now wrapped up in his towel, back to Bukkapatnam and beyond.
Those that remained in the mandir were lost in silence. Easwaramma, however, was versed in the folkways of rural India; she feared that the silent guru might revenge himself with a black formula aimed at Sathya and promptly vowed that she would perform a propitiatory rite in the Shiva Temple. Poor mother, swinging between courage and fear, yet experiencing glimpses of a strange joy when the veil over the unknowable was occasionally blown aside by the breeze of Baba’s benediction.
Gradually, Easwaramma’s visits to the mandir became more frequent. She lingered in the hall longer and longer, gazing upon Swami; she sat watching with awe the expanding aura of His love. Slowly but surely Easwaramma was freeing herself from the bonds of affection and slipping into the role of a devotee.
(Sai devotees all over the world observe May 6 as Easwaramma Day. —Ed.)
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, May 1991
