Akka Mahadevi

The legendary saint Akka Mahadevi was born around 1130 A.D.  in Udutadi. Udutadi is a small village in Shimoga District, at present in Karnataka, India. 

She hailed from an orthodox Veera Saiva family. Her parents were Nirmalshetti and Sumathi. Both the parents were belongs to a literate community of the time. She was given proper education and brought up as an intellectual and pious maiden. In a early age she displayed a very strong inclination to religious matters. She became a great poet of the time who sang the glory of Lord Siva. 

She was married to king Kaushigan with some prenuptial agreements about her belief and practices . The king was a Jain (follower of Jainism). When time went on, her belief and practices were disrespected by the king. This caused a strong disagreement and conflict between them.  She rejected her family life and left the palace as a Digambari. Digamabari is a practice of nudity as an absolute pre-requisite in Jainism to the medicament's path and to attain moksha.

She covered her body with her tresses.  When Allama Prabu, a mystic-saint and a didactic poet asked her for the reason she is covering her body as she chose to be Digambari. She answered him that it is to prevent others to get distracted by her nudity. He respected her purity of the heart and started to call her as Akka (elder sister) Maha Devi.  

She was  praying to Lord Shiva (Chenna Mallikarjuna) with a Madhura Bhava. Madhura bhava is traditionally understood as a form of devotion where a person is absolutely make the Lord as her worldly and eternal soul mate. Akka Maha Devi declared herself as the bride of Lord Shiva and was singing the glory of Him. All her poems and songs (called as Vachanas) ends with Chenna Mallikarjuna. The poems are simple but with a higher order experiences. For example, this is one of her poems.

Lord, see my mind touches you
Yet doesn’t reach you;
My mind is troubled.
Like a toll-keeper at the city gates,
My mind is unhappy.
It cannot become empty
Forgetting duality.
Show me how you can become me,
O Chennamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender.

She became a wandering saint-poet. She was travelling to many places singing the glory of the Lord. Her life as was a great inspiration for women empowerment and enlightenment at that time. She also took part in many gatherings of the learned to discuss as well as debate about the philosophy of emancipation and enlightenment.  

At the end of a life, she was practicing tapas (spiritual exercise leading to moksha) in the thick forest cave at Kadali, Srisailam. The place was located near to her beloved Lord Chenna Mallikarjuna. She then had herself united with her Lord in 1166 AD.

Gopal's Ma

Gopal Ma

Born as Aghormani Devi(1822) at Kamarhati, Kolkata. She was a child widow. She was initiated with her chosen deity (Child Krishna) and given  Gopala mantra. Since then, her spiritual life began. She has devoted her whole love, life and energy to the child Krishna.

She was born in a orthodox brahmin family. She shaved her head as customary rules for a widow. She started a hermit life with a little money  she got from selling her jewellery and properties. She led a intensively contemplative life in a temple garden at Kamarhati.

Here is the little description of  her daily routine for more than 30 years starting from 1852 till 1883.
She would rise at 2 am to do her spiritual practices (pooja, japa and tapa) till 8 am. She cleans the temple and all the pooja vessels, picking flowers, making garlands and sandal paste for the temple deities. And then she takes  a bath at the Ganga river and meditate under a Bilva tree. After meditation she will cook food and offered it as prasad for the the boy Krishna. She partakes the prasad and takes little rest. She then starts again her japa until evening . It is followed by listening to the bhajan and kirtans sang in the temple. She takes a light supper at night and starts her japa again until midnight.

Gopal Ma stayed here alone

In 1884 she met her Guru, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Sri Ramakrishna has never talked any spiritual matters to Gopal's Ma but he was the one who started to call her as Gopal's Ma. He would ask for food whenever she contacted him. 1885 she gained a vision that Sri Ramakrishna is melting into boy Krishna. Since then, she started to have uninterrupted visions of boy Krishna day and night - singing, dancing and playing. Sri Ramakrishna has told her that she has attained the goal of her spiritual practices.  

She was grief stricken when Sri Ramakrishna passed away (1886). But she had the repeated vision of the Master who had consoled her and brought her out from the grief. She went on with her daily routine of doing japa with her Gopala Mantra. Occasionally, she visited the Baranagore monastery (Sri Ramakrishna's monk disciples stayed here, led by Swami Vivekananada). She fell ill in 1903 but never stop her daily japas. She had chanted her Gopala Mantra million and million of times until the day of her demise. She was taken care by Sister Nivedita during her last few years. She died on 9th July 1906 at the bank of the river Ganga.

Ramalingga Swamigal

Ramalingga Swamigal also known as - Ramaligga Adigalaar
                                                       - Arutprakasa Vallalaar Ramalingga Swami 
                                                       - Vallalaar

Parents - Ramaiah Pillai and Chinnamaiar

Birth Place - Maruthur (a village in Chitambaram, Tamil Nadu)

Born on 5th October 1823 and lived until 30th January 1874.

One of the greatest saints of 19th century, he...

a. was a critic, poet, writer, publisher and commentator and

b. had knowledge in occultism, alchemy, astrology and

c. traditional medicine practitioner particularly in the nutritional and medical values of herbs and leaves.

d. was a musician  with a keen musical taste for lyrical songs

e. a great soul with his highest and sublime realizations of the Divine, particularly that of Truth-consciousness (Satya Jnana).

Centres

He established 'Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga Satya Sanggam" , 'Satya Ngana Sabai" and 'Satya Darma Sala".

a. Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga Satya Sanggam -  centre for advocating a casteless society and equanimity in achieving universal self-hood

b. Satya Ngana Sabai - centre for teaching the True Knowledge (nyana)

c. Satya Darma Sala - centre for feeding the poor

Literary works

1. Thiruvarutpa  (compilations of 5818 poems about universal love and peace)

2. Manumurai Kanda Vaasagam

3. Jeeva Karunya Ozhukkam

Teachings

1. Service to the mankind is the path to Moksha.

2. God is the personifications of mercy and knowledge.

3. Path of final intelligence is "Jeevakarunyam" (mercy, compassion and benevolence).

His Maha Mantra is

" ArutperunJothi ArutperunJothi TaniperumKarunai ArutperunJothi". 

Maha Avathar Babaji

Also being called as - Kriya Babaji Nagaraj
                                     Mahavathar Babaji
                                     Siva Baba

Birth Place - Tamil Nadu India
Birth name - Nagarajan
Guru - Bogar

He is a great soul who has conquered death and attained the supreme state of enlightenment. He is still living at the Himalayan mountain and only visible to the fortunate few. They have encountered him wandering at Himalayan mountain ranch, occasionally. According to them, he appeared as a sixteen years old youth.

Paramahansa Yogananda in his book 'Autobiography of a Yogi' wrote how Babaji as revealed himself to Lahiriya Mahasaya (the guru of Sri Yukteswer Giri). Sri Yukteswer Giri is the guru Of Paramahansa Yogananda. The ancient science of Kriya Yoga was handed over to Lahiriya Mahasaya by Babaji (between 1861-1935).

This ancient science knowledge had been lost due time of Dark Ages of Hindu Religion. Babaji had discovered and clarified it as a simple technique to freed humankind from karma or the lawful chain of cause- effect equilibriums.

Kriya Yoga is a technique that teaches, "union(yoga) with the infinite through a certain action or rite (kriya). It is a simple method that teaches the way to prevent the decay of tissues in human body. Some yogis have used this knowledge to make their  bodies to materialize and dematerialize at will.

 

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa 

1. Born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay (18 Februari 1836- 16 August 1886)

2. Birthplace Kamarpukur, West Bengal, India.

3. A priest of the Dahshineswar Kali temple, Calcutta.

4. His wife and spiritual counterpart, Saradha Devi (1853- 1920).

5. His spiritual teachers are :-

   a. Bhairavi Brahmani

       -Tantrism - focus on worship of shakti.
         It see all aspects of the natural world as manifestation of divine shakti.

   b. Totapuri 

       - Advaita Vedanta - a philosophy which emphasis on non dualism. 

        "Brahman alone is real, and the world is illusory; I have no separate               existence; I am that Brahman alone."

6. Totapuri initiated Ramakrishna into Sanyasa.

7.Ramakrishana's teaching - 'All the religion lead to the same God'.

8. His religious thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission.

9. Most prominent disciples is Swami Vivekananda ( 1863- 1902).

                                                                Monastic disciples

                                             Swami Vivekananda (sitting at the centre)