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Sri Shivabalayogi
2.
The Touch
by Prof. S. K. Ramachandra Rao
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Sri Shivabalayogi (1968)
It was Sunday the 7th of August 1949 (Shravana Shukla Chaturdashi of Virodhi Samvatsara). Sathyaraju was alone at home, his mother and grandfather having gone to Kakinada. Sathyaraju after finishing his domestic chores, left home at about 7 a.m. and returned at noon after playing with his playmates. Then his friend Gangaraju came home and pressed Sathyaraju to accompany him for a bath in the Godavari Canal. [A canal of the river Godavari flows on the outskirts of Adivarapupeta.] Sathyaraju, though unwilling, yielded to Gangaraju’s pressure and started. He spent some time playing on the canal bund with some of his friends, took coffee in a hotel nearby and then stepped into the canal with Gangaraju. Other boys, about ten in number, strolled to the nearby palmyra groves and began to pluck the fruits. When both Sathyaraju and Gangaraju came up the canal after bath, fruits fell of their own accord from one of the palmyra trees, all of a sudden. Boys ran towards them, picked them up and gave them to Sathyaraju and Gangaraju.
Sathyaraju held the fruit he got and was trying to squeeze the juice out of it. Suddenly, his body began to tremble all over, and the sound resembling OMKAR was heard from inside the fruit. Sathyaraju was startled when he heard this strange sound. Then a dazzling light, like that of bright sunlight, flashed forth and the fruit, at which he was staring all the while got merged in that light. Instantaneously the fruit took the shape of a Shiva Longa, which soon broke in twain and a man, seven foot tall, stood before him. This unknown person beckoned Sathyaraju to sit. Sathyaraju, although frightened marshaled all his courage and protested, “Why should I sit?” Nevertheless, without waiting for the reply, he sat down. Then the man who appeared before him asked him to sit in “Padmasana” (lotus posture) at which he pleaded his inability to do so. Then the man himself sat, and showed Sathyaraju how to sit in “Baddha-padmasana.” And then he touched the forehead of between the eyebrows with his middle finger and gently patted on his head. Sathyaraju immediately lost consciousness.
The palmyra fruit was in his hands all the while. The juice squeezed out, was flowing and was dripping over his elbow. The boys seeing Sathyaraju sitting motionless with closed eyes thought that he was pretending to be a Sadhu, and began to make fun of him. They began to pester him in several ways since he did not respond to their call. In fact, Sathyaraju was lost to the outside world. Several of the village boys did not like him, and his own relatives had not taken kindly to his success in business; jealousy haunted many in that village. Now they began to torment him under the pretext of waking him up. Nine boys were there. Some pulled him out of his padmasana; some beat him with sticks; some gave him blows with their fist. The palmyra fruit juice was rubbed all over his body. Notwithstanding all this Sathyaraju did not regain consciousness. The boys carried him to the canal and put him in the water. Still Sathyaraju did not wake up. Now the boys were indeed frightened. Scared that people might accuse them, they cleaned the dirt which they had smeared over his body and carried him back and sat him on the canal bund. Suspecting that he was now dead, they left him there, ran home and informed his relatives. Neither his mother nor his grandfather, was at that time in the village.
Some six or seven people came from the village and stood around Sathyaraju. One Gora Mallana from among this group disliked him most. He snatched this opportunity and began to beat him with a big club ostensibly to bring him back to consciousness. Sathyaraju suddenly regained consciousness when one of the blows accidently touched the place between the eyebrows. Sathyaraju had lost consciousness when the stranger touched this spot and patted his head. Touched at the same spot he regained consciousness. Sathyaraju stood up as soon as he regained consciousness and requested the persons standing next to him to give him a piece of cloth. When one of them offered a towel, Sathyaraju removed the shorts he was wearing and tied the towel around his waist. The assembled persons pestered him with questions. “What, are you a sadhu? Are you possessed by spirits? Are you possessed by the devil? Has the village deity come over you?” Sathyaraju made no reply. Then two of the persons assembled caught hold of his hands and carried him towards his house.
As soon as he reached his house he stood at ease, legs apart. His legs got stiff like wooden ones, and he could not negotiate the house steps. They were not able to push him forward, however much they tried. Some ten or twelve persons tried in vain for over an hour to bend his knees. At last, with great difficulty they made him sit on the outer verandah. Several among the assembled persons came to the conclusion that he was possessed by evil spirit and burnt incense to propitiate. Some said that this was occult; some diagnosed it as hysteria; and some denounced it as only a make-believe. Among them, only a Harijan, an old man of about sixty years named Peddakamaraju, suggested that Sathyaraju was now transformed into a YOGI.
From evening till eight in the night, people of the village gathered around him and pestered the boy in various ways. Relatives of his forced milk down his throat. As night set in, he was at last left alone. Sathyaraju sat by himself in the verandah in front of his house. When he was sitting like this he felt that the curious sound was still emerging from the distant canal bund where he had lost consciousness and that it was inviting him. At about eleven in the night, he returned to the canal bund and sat at the same place.
It started raining very heavily, late in the night and continued till the next afternoon. Eager to know Sathyaraju’s state of affairs the villagers came near his house and when they did not find him there, proceeded to the canal bund. Having sat all through the night unconscious, and in the open, Sathyaraju was drenched to the skin. The villagers carried him and sat him down under a Banyan tree; they placed a palmyra leaf for an umbrella over him to protect him from the rain. Even that day it rained heavily. Sceptics arrived and tried in vain to wake him up. At 9 in the night some Harijan boys who were passing that way heard some strange sound coming from the place where Sathyaraju sat, hurried to the village and informed the people of this. The villagers came, and stood at a distance. They heard the sonorous sound resembling “OM” for nearly three-quarters of an hour. When this sound ceased the men made bold to approach Sathyaraju, lifted him and carried him to his house. He stayed in the house for the night. The next morning however at 6:30 he partook of the food offered by his relatives and left home at seven. He came to the canal bund and sat at same place. Soon after, he began to vomit and had great bodily discomfort. At that time, only one of his playmates, Govind was by his side, and he looked after him. A woman from the village approached Sathyaraju, who was still seated on the canal bund, and taking him to be a “BALA YOGI” worshipped him by placing cocoanut, flowers and scented sticks in front of him. At about 4:30 the same evening, the villagers took it into their heads to erect a pandal of the palmyra leaves under the nearby Banyan tree, and pleaded with Sathyaraju to sit under it. Sathyaraju agreed.
The same evening, at 5:30, his mother Parvatamma and grandfather Goli Sathyam returned to Adivarapuepta. Parvatamma was shocked to learn of her son’s plight. She went to the canal bund, stood before her some and weeping bitterly implored him to return home. Goli Sathyam, who believed that Sathyaraju was the prop of the family, was disappointed at this sudden transformation. The boy did not speak with his mother; he informed her by signs that he would not return home and closed his eyes again.
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