Gopal Ayya
Brahma shree Gopal ayya belongs to a small village in Palagad (kerala). He belonged to a good family in Kerala with sisters and an elder brother. As a regular behavior in gnanis he also use to be a student who didn¡¦t believe in reciting the text. One day he told his brother that he wanted to quit going to school and did so. Given these details and his age this should have been around the early 1930's.
Then came a twist in his life. A person from Chennai holding a high rank in government came to Palagad. During a discussion with Ayya's brother the Chennai person expressed his desire to recruit a boy to look after a shop that is due to open. The elder decided to send the younger with this person for a good start. Ayya was packed for a new beginning to run a shop in Chennai when he was 14 years old. On landing to Chennai in a few days the government official lost his job. So the plan to create
a shop got dropped. (Ayya while saying this use to laugh and then say There should be a reason created for a person to start for his destiny. "However the destiny is the one that matters and not the reason¨)
After which he got a job of care taker, to take care of an old paralytic lady. He use to take care of the lady and was treated like her son in the house. He uses to go through Dinamani - a Tamil daily to understand Tamil. (His mastery of language during my interaction with him this year has been mind blowing ¡K. especially on siddhar songs. Somehow I mull that people from Kerala have a better mastery in Tamil, since both Karana gurus who initiated me were from there
and displayed tremendous wisdom of the language.)
Rightly remembering a Thirumoolar song here..
"Iraivan ennai nanraga seidhanan thannai nanraga tamil seiyum mare¨
When he was 18 years, I guess it must be in the late of 1930s his initiation in vaasi yogam happened by a siddha physician and a kalari/fight expert who was Sivananda Parmahamsar¡¦s disciple. The physician was in Chennai otteri a part of North Madras that created lot of siddha physicians. (Sivanandar here refers to the one who created Siddha Samajam in Vadakara and not the one in Rishikesh).
After this initiation he used to attend meetings of Sivanandar and follow him along with rest of the disciples to hear his speeches on Gnanam. The physician also trained ayya on certain key siddha medicines on vaadham and skin related troubles.
Ayya after this served different people (most of them like a care taker) for many years together. He practiced the art of siddha medicine and vaasi for years now and mastered them well. At some point in time he decided to walk away from this crowded Chennai. He reached a mountain close to Vandavasi and stayed on the mountain for 7 years. People around the mountain helped him on food and others for this period.
During this time another Vidhyarthi named (Bramashree Madhavan) had come to meet him. Thiru Madhavan had come to meet a person in Thiru-annamalai to look at his Naadi. (Naadi is a palm leaf carrying predictions about individuals). Both of them travelled from Vandavasi to Thiru-annamalai and met a Wahab (A Muslim brother who studies naadi inThiruvannamalai). Thiru Madhavan who was 50 at that time was destined to marry per Naadi and he didnt believe it. (However eventually he married and had kids before taking his Samadhi in perungalathur).
After this Wahab took a leaf for Ayya and said that he was destined to go to a place called Pakkam that has lot of Samadhi, which is near to Chennai.
The sentence is as follows from the naadi....
"Gnanigal Samadhi seer seiyum nilaigal undu pakkathjl..idhu poorva
janamathil gnanigalal vagukakapattadhu¨
This means "you are destined to take care of samathis of gnanis near a place called pakkam. It is designed previously as your destination by Gnanis¨
He came twice from Vandavasi to chennai and couldn't find the place.Interestingly he came to the correct place also once. There was a sivalingam (on top of sadhanandar Samadhi) and he mistook this to be the ruins of a temple and went back. He had to go to Wahab again since he couldn't find the place. This time the Wahab said one more clues stating that the place is surrounded by anthills and lots of snakes. With all that information he could find this place finally (which is the current Sadhananda Ashram)
So in 1960 Gopalswami came from Vandavasi mountain to sadhanandar ashramam (perungalathur, near Chennai). The places of full of snakes and ant hills during that period. Ayya and Narayanasami (son of sadhanandar's disciple) built the ruins on the existing temple and converted to a place that is reachable today.
After this he created a small building suitable for vidhyarthis to come and practice yogam whenever they wanted to. (More on sadhanandar has been already published in a separate message). He consolidated knowledge of Siddha vedam, Siddhar songs, Avvai kural and 6th thirumarai of Vallalar
Sadhanandar and Ayya
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Once in ayya¡¦s dream Sadhanandar appeared and asked for a kumbabiskem on his tower. These big souls always funnily ask their beloved to do these kinds of things. Ayya is not a believer of temple, mantra and etc as siddha vedam only preaches internal worship. He was left with no option since Sadhanandar has asked Ayya (Sivanandhar¡¦s disciple).His only source was creating Siddha medicine and selling it to collect money. He started collecting money during this period for that. During this time 2 commoners came to him once for medicine. One of them said ¡§Can Malayala swami ( swami who has come from Kerala) cure this disease in my leg. Ayya looked at the leg which was black and suffering skin disease. Ayya said I can cure
if you pay me money however simultaneously he was thinking how can the person know if I ¡¥m from kerala. The person who came for treatment asked why does Sami (sanyasi) need Money. Ayya said it is needed for a kumbabhiskem. The man smiled and said they why dont YOU FINISH MY KUMBABHISEKAM soon. It took Ayya time to understand that it was Sadhanandar who came asking for the medicine. He says that incident was more or less like a state of dream and sleep. He has narrated this couple of times to me
Vallalar Perumaan and Ayya
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During giving deekshai to others he used to add pranavam in a different manner. This doesn¡¦t belong to Sivanandar. I use to nag him on certain things amongst which, this is also one. He once laughed and told Vallalar gave this pranavam to me in soochmam. Hence I add this with my deekshai to others. Ayya always claimed that vallal peruman was very well built and tall, much better than posters seen at sanmargam. He also clarified that there was no bhaspam outside (on his forehead) for vallalar. He had a strange dream with perumaan once. A house key was given to ayya by Vallal. Ayya wanted perumaan to accompany to house instead of getting the key. He always regretted when we talk about Ramalinga swamigal and will say "Radhakrishna I
should have got that key from Ramalingam¨.
Personally I"ve been to sanmargam of vallalar and it is hard to see a real follower of vallalar principles. Ayya was a very ardent fan of vallal perumaan since they were no different from the concepts of siddhavedam (By Sivanandar). He was concerned that the practice of Vallalar is not done instead only annadhanam and song happens at sanmarga sangam.
Ayya and Bhairava Gathi
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Once Ayya and other vidhyarthis (mostly his disciples who got viddhai/initiation from him) went to a place, which is a place for Mayamma¦s Samadhi. Ayya thought of having Sajjini ( a traditional method of consuming food that was in practice by yogis and ashram in last yugas). However the host was not happy about the idea. Ayya said not having Sajjini and having food on individual leaves is a habit of dog. The host got further offended since Mayamma¡¦s favorite was dog and the host were literally worshipping dogs. The food was served and while going back ayya came to know that host was sincere follower of Mayamma and dogs. He called the host now and did the "BHAIRAVA GATHI¨ and said the one inside the Samadhi is my sister. Seeing the gathi (Pranayama) the host went running to shop and bought 2 garlands. He place one garland on ayya and other on Mayamma"s Samadhi.
Ayya and my meeting
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In one of my reading I was suppose to get in touch with Arunachala swami Samadhi and get his blessing. After that there was a message for me to do 3 continous full moon visits to Saturagiri. These trips happened with my cousin brother and another senior also. I came in touch with Krishnan sir (agnilingam) who helped me big time in and around Saturagiri. Again I believe this whole thing happened after my enthralling visit of North Poigai nallur ( the seeva odukkam) of korakkar. I will stop here about Sathuragiri and its abodes since it will take more than a book to explain the power center of siddhars
After all these visits I knew something was happening to me. Me my cousin brother and Nag sir once met in Tambaram and they took me to Gopal Ayya. He was simple as usual with looks of smug. The conversation started and I started saying about my old guru and practices etc in brief. He asked me his usual question can you tell me about Siva, Vishnu and Bramha. I saidHead , neck to hip, hip and down. He said you are there but not exactly. Then we discussed on few things and it was all heated up to know more on truth. After that guess he recognized something and said RadhaKrishna will come to you house. I understood where he was heading to..now. Immediately I told him that I will not ask you. He said I will not give you this if you don't ask for and thats a rule of Sivanandar One fine day I picked him from Sadhananda ashramam to my place. He stayed with me and my family for lunch. He gave me (rather engineered with perfection) on what next for me. It was interesting because he could figure out the issues I had on these.
Other friends
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After that I use to spend most of my week-ends with him. Sudharshan (Ireland) and Vivek (US) who met and stayed with him. During one of the visits he asked me to close his nostrils. His mouth and nose can be closed together for minutes and yet he will be so comfortable doing his practice. His knowledge on siddhar songs are an amazing fact which I can forget till now
His characteristics
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He loves good food, hates beating up children; hates attitude of humans who don¡¦t take time to think about themselves, he is an extremely good cook (has been providing annadhana for 40 years-like sai baba where he himself is a chef), extremely un assuming, Passionate about alchemy and with a mind of a baby and full- fledged vaasi-yogi
Trip to Vadakkara
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This was his last trip before samathi and I¡¦m sure this made me understand his binding and love with Sivanandar. The trip was excellent and he was sick when we started this trip. Inbetween this trip I had to carry him physically to hospitals in the night when he developed a pain. I guess he was going thro' a transformation to take Samadhi. I can see him go thro' a change which is unexplainable. Despite his health, we use to meditate from early morning s like 3.30 after which he will ask me to go thro' songs of agathiar. Wherever explanation was required for songs he gave me those details He took a vaasi method that raised sound which is like a wood banging to metal. The method was so strong I had no option than to just watch him.
His Relationship with great souls
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His relationship was good with Sathanandar, Vallalar and other gnanis who have taken seeva oddukam there in Ashramam. The doors of ashrama will get knocked by them if you don't get up and practice on time :-) His deekshai involved methods and techniques of Sivanandar and Vallalar,which he gave to people without any fuss.
Jeeva karunya ozlukkam
=====================
Jeevan = life force energy/life/energy in us
Karunya = preserve with care/ extreme care/karunai+unyam
Ozlukaam = practice/discipline/kriya
One who can't understand and preserve his life with love, can never
love others
Anbe sivam = Thirumoola nathar
Ullam perum kovil oon udambu aalyam
Vallal piranuku vaai gopura vassal
Thela thelintavanuku ***(seevan sivalingam)***
Kalla pulan aindum kala manivillaku
