EASWARAMMA DAY - HOMAGE TO EASWARAMMA

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HOMAGE TO EASWARAMMA - EASWARAMMA DAY

 

May 6

6th May 1972 was the day when Mother Easwaramma, left her mortal coil.  Every

year since then, the day is observed as Mother's Day by the Sri Sathya Sai Seva

Organisations. In the past few years, Bhagawan has been either at Brindavan or

Kodaikanal on this day. This day is marked by charity to the poor, with

Bhagawan distributing food, clothes and blankets to the weaker sections of the

society. Bhagawan emphasizes on the need to love and respect one's parents. He

also explains how much Mother Easwaramma used to love Bhagawan and His Devotees

when she was alive. He elaborates on

the greatness of Motherhood and their influential role in shaping the lives of their children.

The choice of becoming mother to the present day Avatar Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai

Baba was conferred on Easwaramma. On December 31, 1970 Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai

Baba announced: "I resolved on My birth. I decided who should be My mother" in

answer to a question from the editor of "Nav Kaal" a Bombay Daily paper. On

another occasion Swami was asked by a Pundit, well versed in the Puranas, who

felt a sudden urge to ask a

question, "Swami, was your incarnation a "Pravesha" (an Entrance) or a "Prasava"

(Enceinte). Turning to Easwaramma seated in front, He said, "Tell Rama Sharma

what happened that day near the well after your mother-in-law had warned you."

Mother said, "She had dreamt of Satyanarayana Deva and she had cautioned me that

I should not be frightened if something happens to me through the Will of God.

That morning when I was at the well drawing water, a big ball of blue light

came rolling towards me and I fainted and fell. I felt it glided into me."

Swami turned to Rama Sharma with a smile. "There you have the answer! I was not

begotten. It was Pravesha, not Prasava."

"From ancient times, it has been the practice in Bharat to revere the mother as

God. From the outset, the Vedas have declared: 'Revere the mother as God,

father as God and preceptor as God.' If they are gods, for what purpose are

they gods? In the ordinary course of daily existence, they are gods for worldly

purposes. For the human body the mother, father and preceptor are to be deemed

as divine. But, for the pursuit of life the Divine is the only God. There is

another Sanskrit saying which hails God as mother, father, kinsman, friend,

wealth, knowledge and in fact the Supreme Lord of everything. This means that

for the spiritual life, God is everything.

The mother and father are residents of the home. The preceptor dwells in his

Ashram. But God is the indweller of the heart. Only God can reside in the

heart. It is true that mother, father and preceptor are divine, but they are

not entitled to dwell in the heart. They have to be revered, adored and made

happy. God alone deserves to be worshipped. 'God is nearer to man than his

mother, closer than even the father. To give up such God is a heinous sin. This

is the truth proclaimed by Sai'. (Poem)"

"When I appeared in the form of Lord Shiva to her [Easwaramma], she would ask,

'What Swami? Why are you adorning the snakes around your neck?' I would act

innocent; 'Well I don't have any snakes on Me.' She would move away saying,

'Look, there are some snakes inside.' But later on not finding any snake

inside, she would ask for forgiveness. Like this on many occasions, she had the

experience of My Divinity. Similar was the case with Kausalya and Yashoda.

Though they knew that their sons were Divine, they used to get carried away by

their motherly affection towards them. Mothers are highly noble and virtuous.

Their nobility cannot

be described in words. It does not matter if you do not acquire worldly wealth,

but you should try to win the wealth of your mother's grace. Only then your

life will be sanctified."

EASWARAMMA-THE CHOSEN MOTHER - book is a befitting tribute to the life of

Easwaramma whom Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba the God incarnated chose to be His

Mother. It provides rare glimpses into her psyche; her curiosity, compassion and

wonder. She was tenderhearted and pious and like an earnest Sadhaks, had to

trudge along the inner path that leads from Maya to the Master.

This short narrative of the earthly life of Easwaramma ('God's Mother') pictures

lucidly her expanding awareness, and delineates hesitations, hazards and hopes

that she had to encounter.

Naturally simple, meek and modest, she always stepped back from publicity,

admiration and adoration. As Mother of the global family of Sai, her love had

to be all-enveloping and unconditional.

When we review the life of the Mother of the Avatar, we find ourselves

progressing through curiosity, expectations, compassion and wonder and landing

in appreciation, admiration and adoration. Easwaramma was allotted the

well-nigh-impossible task of expanding her awareness beyond the ring of hills,

beyond the barricade of tradition and taboo and the wall of custom and caste.

Burdened with the prestigious and pardonable pride of the most precious

motherhood a woman could aspire to, she could not inspite of consistent effort

jettison the homage she attracted from all the continents. Even while in this

predicament, she, like any other earnest Sadhaks anxious to win His Grace, had

to trudge along the inner path that leads from multiplicity to unity, from

dispersion to concentration and meditation, from egoism to detachment, from

passion to serenity, from unconcern to the love that cares and shares, from Maya to the Master.

And, all this journey while busy as mother and grandmother in the Raju family as

well as in the fast multiplying multi-lingual, multi-racial, multi-cradle,

global family of Sai. As Mother, her love had to be all enveloping, all

protective and unconditional. It was mainly through the teachings and Grace of

Baba that she succeeded in this assignment of expanding and deepening her love.

Baba, in His elucidation of Dharma, has revealed that woman represents the

concretization of God's beneficence. She has a natural aptitude for spiritual

endeavor, being endowed with fortitude, meekness and modesty. She is

intelligent and vigilant. She has an innate sense of honor and loyalty to

virtue. Easwaramma, as the closet devotee of Sai, was aided by Him to uplift

herself to the heights marked out for the ideal woman.

Swami has often declared that this Sai Avatar descended because the saints and

sadhu of all lands prayed for His arrival. "I chose the mother who was to

experience my closeness during gestation. The Avatar alone has this freedom of

choice. In other cases, karma determines the time and place, the group and the

grade," He had said. The mother is the first recipient of the Avatar's Grace.

The father, who protects and nourishes the mother, is rewarded with the fame

bestowed on his name. When Pedda Venkappa Raju threw off his mortal coil in

1963, Swami wrote a note for the sake of those who lamented the loss of the

'father'. It was published in the "Sanathana Sarathi". "Well, you say that he

was a blessed soul since he passed away in the fullness of years without

falling ill and incomplete possession of his memory and

consciousness. It was not thus alone that he was blessed. These are mere signs

and pointers. On the day that he could be known as the 'father' of the

Manifestation, on the say that this Manifestation allowed it to be known that

he was his 'son', that very day, he was blessed and his life was rendered holy

and sanctified. This good fortune can be won by only one individual, in one

entire age (Yuga). It is beyond the reach of others."

EASWARAMMA- the love with which she treated the women blossomed wider as she

watched Swami healing the stricken. He showered Compassion on them and applied

Vibhutti profusely on their brows. Easwaramma decided that she would not

condemn or ridicule any women on the basis of her apparent faults or failings

for they were only, she knew, the symptoms of maladjustment or neglect or

persecution and poverty.

The Mother thus became more than their own mother to an ever-increasing number

of women in distress. She was a friend with a burnished mind. Contemplating the

Mother among those who were rescued by Swami, the publisher likes to repeat

Rabindranath's exclamatory poem on Women:

'Women! You are blest!You have your home, your household work-In the midst of it

you keep a little gapThrough which you hear the cry of the weak.You bring your

offering of service,And pour out your love,Your patience is endless-Their

helplessness calls out your mercy.

The devotees discovered in her a never falling source of strength and wisdom.

They sought her out more and more often and honored her as the Mother,

assigning her distinct roles during festivals and holy days. Easwaramma did not

yield as soon as the women surrounded her and pleaded that she should guide them

or bless them. But how long could she keep them at bay? On holy days dedicated

to the worship of Varalakshmi (the Goddess of Wealth ready to grant boons) or

Gowri (the Fair Consort of Siva, mother of Ganesha), she had to accept the

first offering of homage from every women who needed her. During the nine days

of Navarathri, the Festival of the Mother, she was honored for the first three

days as Durga (the smoothener of the path, the provider of safety and security

of Her children), in the next three days as Lakshmi (the

provider of food, clothing and shelter, status, power and renown) and on the

last three as Saraswathi (the Teacher who implants the yearning for learning

and for liberation, for material skill and moral strength).

"We women must learn more about the world," she sighed. Swami had left Africa

after addressing a Guru Poornima meeting there in the morning and had arrived

in Bombay in time of the Guru Poornima celebration at Dharmakshetra in the

evening, and so it happened!

The Guru heard the cry of the Mother on behalf of her daughters. Within a week

of His landing on the soil of India, he inaugurated the Sri Sathya Sai Arts and

Science College for Women at Anantapur, the Headquarters of the District to

which Puttaparthi belonged. "Swami, you have done the right thing! Women must

be as well educated as men. When one animal is bold and alert and the other is

cowardly and blind, how can the cart to which they are yoked move forward?" She

commented. Lakshmidevamma, the Headmistress of the Girls' High School,

Anantapur, told her that Swami had promised this College a year ago when He had

presided over the High School Day. "I find that the girls who complete their

high school have now to go to distant colleges at Tirupati and

Kurnool," He had said, "I shall therefore establish a college right here very

soon." And so, the girls of Anantapur got a college, a college dedicated to the

realization of the universal and constructive ideals of Sathya Sai Baba.

The Mother, it must be conceded, was the foremost pupil of the 'son'. She was an

exemplary housewife and an unquestioning conformist in the observance of vows,

vigils and fasts declared as obligatory in the Hindu calendar. She delighted in

visiting holy places, bathing in holy rivers and offering worship at shrines.

And like the high cast women of Puttaparthi and other villages, she was loyal

to the lawmakers who laid down the dos and don'ts, which should govern daily

living and social relationships.

Woman has been extolled in ancient scriptures as well as classical poetry as

grihalakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity in the Home. She is the Dharmapathni,

the Companion of the Husband in the fulfillment of the Duties and Rights of

wedded life as a householder.

The Puranas and Sasthras stress the role of women as mother and extol the

mothers, who instilled high ideals in the minds of the children of the land.

The Vedas speak of Maitreyi and Gargi, as great scholars and spiritual

heroines. Gargi was revered in the assembly of Vedic pundits for her mastery of

the abstruse problems of the spiritual voyage into the heights of

self-realization. In historical times, we have the mother of Sivaji who fed him

on the epics and Puranas, and brought him up, as a brave representative of the

best in Hindu culture.

What a great inspiration is this Bharathi for all of us! Our Puranas and

Sasthras, the Upanishads, the Vedas, the lives of the saints and seers of this

land contain hundreds of such incidents which serve as beacons to light your

path, Lean about them and derive benefit from them. This has always been our

Divine Lord Baba's message to the women.

Sent with Sai love - '' 

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