I hope many of you would have heard of a bus stop called Swamiyar madam between K.K Nagar and Powerhouse (Chennai). This place gained its name because of -Paramahamsa omkara swami’s Samadhi. I have been visiting this place since my school days and it is too late for me to publish Paramahamsa omkara swami’s details in this blog. As far as my memory goes this was my first conscious visit to a jeeva odukka sthalam.
Omkara swami was born on 10-6-1921 in village near Thiruttani that was
10 miles away. During his young age he has been a great devotee of lord
Rama. His high schooling happened in Thirutani. He had a strange habit
of walking long distance while chanting the Rama mantra. During this
walk time alone he preferred seclusion and hence avoided company and
enjoyed observing the greeneries and mountains. Over a period of time he
developed strong attachment towards education and knowledge and created
a free library in his village. He then completed S.S.L.C and higher
studies without failing on any subjects.
In 1939 he
joined the junior intermediate in Pachiappa College. He managed his
education through scholarships and also a free stay @ Chennai in a
business man’s place at Nainiyappa Naicken Street. He used to walk from
there to beach and use to take bath most days and also continued the
habit of reciting Rama mantra while walking. He started developing the
habit of reading philosophical books at libraries like Connemara and
attending spiritual discourses. In the year 1942 he joined Loyola
College to continue Junior BA and was staying in Mint Street at that
time. During that period he also indulged in serving the Burma refugees
who were camping near the beach station similar to srilankan situation
these days. (Today’s name of Burma bazaar is still existent because it
was once a place where the refugees sold their goods that they had
bought from Rangoon, Burma and used it as a way to settle back in India.
Burma is now known as Myanmar). He use to go to central station and
carry the luggage of these evacuees and take them to Chetpet where free
food and shelter was provided by Indian government. He was not able to
continue his senior BA due to cost constraints. He prepared for Public
service commission exams and after that exams got an offer from Postal
Service and also an offer from Railways. Before he could take up this
work he got an interim work as clerk in T.T.D (Tirupathi). Post that he
worked as Office clerk in Chittoor and later on moved to Royapuram
Chennai as officer clerk in DTS. He then became a senior sorter in the
Madras Post Office at Park town. During this period he used to visit
Thiruvottriyur, Mylapore and Thiruvanmiyur and be in seclusion. He also
started using the money to feed poor people.
In 1946 he
created a social organization called “THE fund for the NEEDY”. This was
to help the poor people by providing food, clothes and help people who
needed education. To run this organization he collected one anna from
each contributor. During this period he started getting up at 4:30 am in
the mornings and walked to beach. He used to do japa for one hour in
the beach and return back. Over a period of time his sadhana got intense
and he started meeting certain sadhus. It seems he had met one of the
avadutha in a railway station and had accepted him as guru. With the
increasing attraction towards spirituality now he took a 10 days off and
went to his village. In his village he started practicing however was
constantly getting disturbed by known people in the first 5 days. So for
the next 5 days he came back to his brother’s place in Avadi and
started practicing very strongly. His interest towards meditation
started increasing over a period of time. At times he had gone to the
Graveyard in Thiruvotriyur by night 11pm and practiced for more than 2
to 3 hours there. He then shifted his residence to kodambakkam. He again
took a leave for 5 days off and started doing the japa full time for
that period. Post that “Om Rama” reduced to “OM” based on his guru’s
instructions. He after that use to take bath in the Vadapalani andavar
temple in the mornings and then start practice. His food habits change
to milk in the morning, rice and milk at mid-day and plantains with milk
in the night. However he took food in his vessel to office and gave it
to any poor person who came that way. He also started serving sadhu
other than the poor people. His sadhana became strong and started
getting visions which he started writing in pieces of papers. He now
returned to meet his mother (father expired by then) and after that told
his relatives that he is going to serve the world with truth going
forward. After this he had taken a 24 days leave to intensify his
practice. For this 24 days he had neem leaves+milk in the morning
coconut + milk in the mid-day and milk+ plantain in the nights. He never
brushed or bathed during this period but I guess took a bio-break in
the nights after 10pm. The 24th day was Thai-poosam and on that day no
thoughts prevailed in him. His guru brought him back to normal state and
he understood that state to be his nirvikalpa Samadhi.
Interestingly he joined back his duty and wrote a booklet named “
Fivefold dharmas for escaping from birth and deaths” and distributed
that to aspirants of truth. He took leave whenever possible and started
travelling from south to north of India distributing his booklets to
whomever he deemed fit. Many of them whom he met became his disciples
during this time. His travels intensified and he came with his next work
“Dawn of knowledge”. In 1949 he started being in Nistai for 6hrs a day
for 6 months surviving only on Milk. He attended the office between 2pm
to 9pm every day. After that he started practicing two times intensely
after taking a break. He also started feeding the needy on daily basis
from a kali temple that was near-by. In 1950 he started travelling again
and inducted people into spirituality. He showed special interest in
uplifting Harijans on education. He came back to the location near kali
temple at kodambakkam again. He now expressed his desire to get into
Samadhi on 24th of june 1950 to his disciples. Having said that he went
into Nistai from 1st of june itself. Heavy crowd started thronging and
he opened up on 20th of june and addressed the people there. Many turned
disciples on that day. On 24th many visited him and offered him milk,
plantain, garland and other fruits. He threw back the garland and also
the only cloth that he was wearing to the people there. It is said there
were 50 thousand strong people including his devotees were there. At
night 10pm some of the disciples were able to see a light in his
forehead. At night 12pm exactly the state of Samadhi happened. This
place is the jnanodaya aalayam and popularly known as Samiyaar madam.
When I use to visit in my school days his disciple was taking care of
this place. Also came to know that he also has taken Samadhi in Andhra.
So next time if you happen to pass through this place put your divine
steps in.
