Sakkarai Amma Temple, Thiruvanmiyur – History
Sakkarai Amma (also called as Anandamba) was born in
1854 in a village called Devikapuram near Polur of Thiruvannamalai District,
Tamilnadu (India), Anandamba’s favourite spot to spend hours together in
solitude was a corner in the western corridor of the famous Devikapuram
Periyanayagi Amman Temple, facing the sanctum sanctorum of the principal deity,
the consort of Shiva. Anandamba would always sit in the same spot convenient to
view the deity, and concentrate on the manifestation of the primordial energy.
The temple is at the centre of the village and its name Devikapuram rightly
indicates it is the town of the deity.
Anandamba's house was adjacent to the temple, and her
father Sesha Gurukkal was one of the priests of the temple. This helped
young Anandamba to frequently go to the temple and sit in meditation that came
to her naturally. She would mutter Shiva Studi, a devotional sloka praising
Shiva taught by her father. The young Anandamba used to experience amazingly
peaceful and happy inner self whenever she was meditating. The experience
prompted her to meditate quite effortlessly, as if a fish in the water. While
girls of her age were spending their times in playing, Anandamba enjoyed
sitting quiet in meditation.
According to the customs of the days, Anandamba was
given in marriage when she was just nine years old. Her husband Sambasiva was
24-year-old widower. He was the head of a small monastery in Komaleeswaranpet,
Chennai (Madras). This locality is now known as Pudupet. The former name of the
place was derived from Komaleeswarar, since there is a temple for the Lord by
that name. After attaining puberty, Anandamba was sent to Komaleeswaranpet to
live with her husband. The monastery was also the residence of Sambasiva. He
was indifferent toward her, treating her totally like a maid, seeking pleasures
elsewhere. This was a blessing in disguise for Anandamba. Right from her tender
age, she was not inclined to normal family life, her mind always immersed in
spirituality. She would go to Komaleeswaran Temple and spend her time after
attending to household chorus.
At home, there was a raised platform in a corner of the
terrace that served as the seat of meditation. Sambasiva, because of his
reckless lifestyle, died early and Anandamba was widowed at the age of just
twenty. Her kith and kin wept for the misfortune but for Anandamba, it gave her
immense relief from being a traditional housewife. She could now devote her
full time in meditating on Shiva. Since she was widowed, her father took her
home in Devikapuram and after a short while, she went to Polur, where her
brother was residing. Her Polur days enabled her to blossom into a fully
matured spiritual soul. She had an opportunity to meet Nakshatra Gunamba,
a woman saint who lived in a hillock called Nakshatra Kundru (The Star Hillock)
near Polur.
The town was also the abode of Sri Vittoba Swami, the
silent mendicant of high spiritual order with whom she could commune. She also
came in contact with few more spiritually advanced persons, who frequented
Polur either on their way to nearby Thiruvannamalai, the centre of saints and
mystics or returning from there. Anandamba was drawn most toward Nakshatra
Gunamba and a kind of intimacy developed between them. Gunamba took Anandamba
as her disciple and treated as her own child. When Anandamba told her that she
would have to return to Chennai soon and how would she be able to contain the
separation from her.
To this, it seems the compassionate Nakshatra Gunamba
consoled her saying that she could come to her whenever she felt like and
blessed her with the feat of flying in the air like a bird. This feat is
called “lahima,” one of the eight ‘siddhis’ (yogic achievements)
attained after vigorous practices of yoga. Nakshatra Gunamba was so attached
toward Anandamba and impressed by her devotion that she had even transformed
all her spiritual prowess to Anandamba, when she decided to cast her mortal
remains aside. In later years, Sri Sakkarai Amma once revealed that she
was none other than Nakshatra Gunamba.
Nakshatra Gunamba had also assured Anandamba that
she would soon immerse in eternal bliss or total happiness in tune with her
name “Ananda,” meaning happiness irrespective of physical or worldly pleasures
or sorrows. It is assumed that Nakshatra Gunamba initiated Anandamba
into Sri Chakra Upasana, an intense spiritual practice of observing
Godliness in the female form. Returning back to Chennai that is Madras,
Anandamba continued her meditation at the terrace of her residence. She
forgot all her worldly obligations, even foregoing food and drink many a
time. The relatives who stayed with her thought that she had gone mentally
deranged having lost her husband at a very young age.
They did not mind when she started staying in the
terrace permanently and at times going out and sit at the entrance of the
temple of Sri Komaleeswara. They would simply place meagre food and water in a
small room in the upstairs where Anandamba used to stay in the nights. She
would spend the whole day sitting on the raised platform, following the intense
spiritual practice of Sri Chakra. The day of attainment of bliss arrived one
fine day as predicted by Nakshatra Gunamba, when Anandamba was in deep
meditation. She was suddenly flooded by blinding rays of a very bright circular
light, leaving her with the feeling that she herself had been lit and was
shining.
She started laughing hysterically and since then the
laughter became a permanent feature of her. People engrossed in their mundane
activities, took her to be lunatic. It was by this time Doctor M.C. Nanjunda
Rao happened to meet Anandamba. He was not only a benevolent medico treating
the poor free but also a philanthropist donating for all good causes and taking
active part in varied social services. A staunch nationalist, he was also with
a spiritual bent of mind. In those days, Anandamba’s brother Arunachalam came
to stay with his sister at the monastery and he fell ill during the course of
time. Dr. Nanjunda Rao was requested to treat him and that was how Dr. Rao had
an occasion to know Anandamba. Once, he heard the loud laughter of Anandamba
from the upstairs and enquired about it.
The relatives casually remarked that it was a mad woman
staying in the upstairs who did nothing but laughing aloud always. She might
have lost her mental faculty probably because she was widowed at a very young
age, they added. Dr. Rao became curious. He started observing the behavior of
Anandamba since then. Once, when he saw her sitting and merrily laughing
at the entrance of Komaleeswara Temple, he approached her and asked politely
the reason for her uninterrupted laughing.
Anandamba stopped laughing and smiled at Dr. Rao. “My
son,” she said, “The inherent nature of the soul is experiencing happiness
always. The pleasure and sorrow affect the physical structure of the body only.
You are not the body. You are in a body; that’s all. And that is, what all
happen to the body that is your temporary cage do not relate to you that is the
atman, the inner self. The inner self is destined to be happy always. And you
know a happy person always enjoys and laughs in amusement at watching things
around. Those who are ignorant about this fact would only weep or be happy that
relate to the body!”
Her words struck Dr. Nanjunda Rao like a powerful
lightening. He could immediately identify her as a spiritually advanced person.
Since then, he started interacting with her regularly and shortly became her
disciple. He came to know that she was a Sri Chakra Upasaka and
started referring her as Sri Chakkarathamma, meaning ‘The Mother of Sri
Chakra.’ Gradually, it became ‘Sakkarai Amma’ in the people’s tongue and
that was also quite apt for her: it meant Sugar (Sweet) Mother. Dr Rao took his
guru Sri Sakkarai Amma on various pilgrimage including Varanasi, the holiest of
holy places. He took her to Thiruvannamalai also once, where she met Sri
Seshadri Swami and Sri Ramana, the two spiritual giants of the day. When she
asked the blessings of Sri Ramana, he said she was already a blessed soul.
Many have noticed Sri Sakkarai Amma flying like a bird,
going places. Sri Thiru. Vi. Kalyana Sundara Mudaliyar, a great Tamil
scholar and social activist of yesteryears had recorded in his book
“Ulloli” (The Inner Light) that he had once seen Sri Sakkarai Amma gliding
like a huge bird and hopping on the parapet wall of the hostel terrace. He
further states that she was subjected to various scientific tests under Dr
Edgar Thurston, CIE, the then curator of Madras Museum to find out Sri Sakkarai
Amma’s mysterious feat of flying like a bird. He then concluded that some
humans rarely possess inbuilt mechanism of wings and Sri Sakkarai Amma was one
bestowed with that kind of mechanism.
In early 1901, Sri Sakkarai Amma wanted to visit
Marundeeswarar Temple in Thiruvanmiyur. Dr Nanjunda Rao took her to the
temple. A few, who have also become her disciples by then, followed them. Sri
Sakkarai Amma prayed at the temple for the blessings on all her disciples. While
returning from the temple, Sri Sakkarai Amma pointed out a casuarinas grove on
the way and told Dr. Rao that she would soon put aside her mortal remains and
it should be buried there. Rao felt sad to hear that but nodded silently.
She said, “My Samadhi will be scarcely noticed by
people, leave alone revering it. But it will become a centre of immense
spiritual power, comforting whoever comes there to pray. The spot will be a Temple
of Peace”. As predicted, Sri Sakkarai Amma left her physical frame on February
28, 1901. Her mortal remains were taken in a procession and buried in the spot
identified by her. Dr. Rao had already bought the spot and a piece of land
around it, soon after his guru Sri Sakkarai Amma showed the place where she
wanted her body to be laid.
Dr. Rao built a Samadhi over the spot and also
constructed a small temple. As predicted by Sri Sakkarai Amma, the temple was
hardly noticed by the people. It took exactly a century for people to realize
the greatness of the place. It was all miracle that suddenly words somehow
spread about the spiritual vibrations emanating from the Samadhi of Sri
Sakkarai Amma and devotees, as if pulled by a forceful magnetic field, throng
the temple every day, mornings and evenings, non-stop, from far and wide.
Calm and quiet, mild and melodious voice of chanting the
glories of Sri Sakkarai Amma and Sri Lalitha Sahasranamam (adoring the Almighty
in the manifestation of feminine form depicting cosmic energy) in the air,
pleasant aroma from flowering trees and plants all around make the temple of
Sri Sakkarai Amma different from other traditional ones. The serene atmosphere
ever present in the temple pacifies any troubled or agitated mind engrossed in
worries and immediately grants peace of mind that has been hitherto
unattainable. With the grace emanating from the sanctum sanctorum of Sri
Sakkarai Amma, one could easily feel good, regain self-confidence and solace,
recharge all energy points in the physical body. Sri Sakkarai Amma is the
embodiment of eternal bliss and merciful, compassionate as much as the real
mother toward her infants granting whatever they seek and also whatever is good
for their wellbeing.