A Tribute To Swami's Father, Shri Viirabhadra Shastri Garu

(By Ms. Trailokya)

[I have composed this poem as a tribute to the father of my Sadguru, His Holiness Shri Datta Swami, based on my conversations with Swami. We all know Swami as the preacher of excellent spiritual knowledge correlating all the religions, Vedantic philosophies along with science. This free verse poem throws light on the personal life of Swami and His conversations with His father. - Ms. Trailokya]

Photo of Swami’s parents, Śrī Vīrabhadra Śāstri Gāru and Smt. Hanumāyamma Gāru.

I have learnt how a human being should practically live on this earth,
after listening from my Sadguru, Shri Datta Swami, about His father.

Swami's father’s name is ‘Jannābhaṭla Vīrabhadra Śāstri’,
villagers and disciples fondly call him as ‘Siddhānti Gāru’.

He was a scholar in both Telugu and Sanskrit languages,
and also composed hundreds of spiritual books in Telugu.

He lived in Narasaraopet town in the then Andhra Pradesh,
and secured a P.G. Degree in Sanskrit from Kashi University.

He worked as a Telugu Professor for the sake of livelihood,
but, he was always interested in Astrology from childhood.

He often made astrological predictions for everything around,
be it for a cow or human being or a specific work or marriage.

The fact is that every living being or work or marriage follows,
the astrological chart based on its time of birth called lagna.

When he was a child, he noted the exact birth moment of a cow,
and created an astrological chart to predict its future life events.

He learnt from the chart that it would die in a specific time period,
and tried to protect it by instructing the caretakers to safeguard it.

But, when all the caretakers were asleep during the midnight hours,
the cow walked out and slipped into quicksand in an unmindful way.

By next morning, the cow lost its life as predicted by Swami's father,
teaching a lesson that Planets are more powerful than human beings.

The Planets are the presiding deities of inert planets having powers,
who deliver to souls the fruits of their own deeds as servants of God.

Any soul is just incapable to change its fate written by God and the Planets,
are only a part of God's administration, which brings justice to this world.

Only God has the power to change His judgement about any soul although,
the fruit is the result of our own past action done in this birth or past births.

Vīrabhadra Śāstri Garu was a steadfast devotee of God and every single day,
He recited the holy Manyu Sūktam from Veda at 4 a.m. in the early morning.

He was a religious man following the traditions and rituals with reverence,
and every Saturday, he stands on single leg and recites the Manyu Sūktam.

Siddhānti Gāru not only did the mere recitation of Manyu Sūktam with dedication,
but also integrated the Āñjaneya Pāśupatāstra Mantram with the Manyu Sūktam.

Sometimes, when Siddhānti Gāru sits in the prayer room in the early morning,
all family members used to hear his voice and observe his hand gestures as if,
he was talking with someone sitting next to him, they realised later with time,
it was none other than the powerful God Hanumān, the remover of obstacles.

Swami Himself told that He was amazed seeing His father's devotion because,
whenever he prayed for help, God Hanumān immediately came to his rescue.

When Swami was young, there was no direct bus going to Nāgulavaram and,
everyone had to get down at Kommālapāḍu and walk for 5 miles in the fields.
(Nāgulavaram is the native place of Swami and Kommālapāḍu is another village.)

Once, Swami and His father reached Kommālapāḍu late at night,
and they were also carrying some money with them additionally.

Since they have to walk along the agriculture fields in the dark,
there was high possibility of theft and attack from wild animals.

Thinking practically, Swami suggested to stay there overnight,
in a relative's house and start walking home the next morning.

Siddhānti Gāru ordered Swami to just keep quiet and follow him,
though they didn't even carry a torchlight in that pitch dark hour.

Siddhānti Gāru recited prayers on Hanumān and immediately,
Swami started hearing thunderous footsteps following them.

Swami witnessed the light of summer sun coming behind Him,
and everything became very clearly visible as if it was a midday.

The little Swami asked in wonder, "Father! Who is following us?",
he replied with smile, "The Mighty Hanumān is walking with us".

Swami could see their two long shadows falling in front of them,
due to the intense bright light moving behind them throughout.

Swami says that this was the first miracle witnessed by Him,
and the magnificent presence of God was seen with His eyes.

Another miracle happened during the wedding of Swami’s sister,
when they found that the curd to be served was totally spoiled.

Siddhānti Gāru faultlessly performed his daughter’s wedding ritual,
and the women started serving meals to the huge number of guests.

It is a habit that curd is taken with rice as the last part of one’s meal,
and they were upset to see spoiled milk when they opened curd-pot.

Entire family was worried since the guests already started the meal,
and nobody stores huge amounts of curd due to lack of refrigerators.

They rushed to Siddhānti Gāru not knowing how to solve this problem,
Siddhānti Gāru calmly walked into the prayer room without any anxiety,
after a few minutes, he came out and said that the curd is coming soon.

In no time, two people arrived from a nearby village on their bicycles,
with two big cans of curd to gift to their Guru as the token of their love,
saying that the divine intervention had guided them the previous night.

God Hanumān was just a call away from Siddhānti Gāru throughout his life,
by God's grace, whatever was predicted by him used to manifest in reality.

Due to the correctness in his predictions, many people strongly followed him,
due to the rush of visitors, there were at least 20 cars parked before his home.

Those were the days when children were crazy to run behind the moving cars,
since a car coming into the village means a very influential person is arriving.

Powerful politicians and rich business men used to obey Siddhānti Gāru and,
even the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was no exception to this long list.

One of his scholarly friends commented that his fame was growing as fast as sin,
since the sin is growing vastly in this Kali age and he couldn’t find a better simile!

Siddhānti Gāru was a fair-skinned man, but, he chose to marry a dark skinned woman,
Hanumāyamma, who was devoted to God and became a pillar of support for his life.

He was a divine soul seeing the good qualities of his better-half rather than skin colour and,
he helped his wife in the kitchen without any ego unlike other orthodox men in the country.

She used to take care of their agricultural farm while he was busy teaching at college,
when she goes to the fields and returns in the evening, it was solely Siddhānti Gāru,
who used to cook for all his children and every time he cooks dal, he preferred to put,
the Goṃgūra leaves, which were freshly available in his home garden and due to that,
the ‘Goṃgūra Dal’ became Swami’s favourite food item, which He relishes even today.

Siddhānti Gāru was a humble man, who attracted everyone with his divine charm and,
people loved to be with him due to his outstanding sense of humour blessed by God.

He cracked a new joke every minute and around 15 to 20 people were always with him,
enjoying the laughter and his home was a true heaven on earth with divine enjoyment.

Swami admires the harmless witty humour of His father and feels proud to be his son,
even during His Satsaṅgas with the devotees, Swami often cracks the jokes of His father,
to lighten the seriousness of spiritual knowledge and refresh the minds of His devotees.

Siddhānti Gāru sarcastically compared the Indian culture with Foreign culture and concluded that,
he finds only one difference between both cultures, which is that although both Sita of Ayodhya,
and Helen of Troy were abducted and caused war, Sita remained chaste dedicated to Rama only,
but, Helen fell in love with abductor also and except this, both the cultures are one and the same!

Swami revealed to us that true Yajna is sacrifice of food to hungry people and His father,
Siddhānti Gāru, used to serve food to guests and beggars every single day to please God.

The villagers, whoever came there to get some solution for their miseries, often forget them,
and laugh aloud due to his pleasant jokes, can any amount of wealth give such joy to heart?

When they offer money after their problem gets solved by his guidance, he sarcastically says,
“You have money and you are earning puṇyam by donating that money to the poor people,
I don’t have money and I am earning puṇyam by serving others using my talent in astrology,
by giving money to me, you are stealing my puṇyam also and selfishly earning all the puṇyam,
don’t you want me to earn some puṇyam by helping others with my astrological solutions?”.
(puṇyam:- merit or good karma that pleases God and brings the blessings of God)

He never accepted a rupee from poor farmers, but once, God instructed him to accept money,
from anyone if they give it willingly because it is God sending the money to him through donor.

Throughout his life, he never asked money from anyone, but, if anyone gives willingly,
he started accepting it because we should never reject anything that comes from God.

One day at Bollārum, I asked Swami why He always sits on the old recliner chair in Verandah,
Swami replied that it belongs to His father, who composed many spiritual works sitting on it.

Sitting on the recliner chair by placing a writing board on its arm rests, he wrote many books,
besides composing 24,000 verses of Sampūrṇa Rāmāyaṇam in Telugu and publishing the epic.

Swami’s father kept himself away from every luxury including an electric fan even in hot summers,
saying that anyone, who is addicted to sleeping under the fan can’t sleep when fan doesn’t work.

At night, whenever there was power-cut, every member in their house would wake up from sleep,
due to suffocation from heat, but, His self-restraint father would continue to have the deep sleep.

Siddhānti Gāru maintained the same policy of simplicity while building His house at Narasaraopet,
which is followed by Swami while building His house at Bollārum and both houses have similarities,
the houses would not at all have a grandeur look from outside or inside, but they give peacefulness,
to the mind of every person entering into the house, which is quite a miraculous experience to us.

Many devotees, who visit Swami at Bollārum say that they get peace of mind as soon as they enter,
into the house, Swami revealed the secret that it is because of the power of muhūrta based on which,
the house was constructed, Swami followed the Rohini nakshatra to i) install the gate, ii) install pillars,
iii) install the doors and iv) install the roof since Rohini star relates to exalted moon or mental peace.

Although some devotees came forward to renovate Swami’s home with attractive architectural design,
Swami smilingly refused their request saying that people would get jealous seeing that and get pained, which is not liked by Swami, who wants to see everyone happy, and Swami quotes His father’s saying,
that house is an immovable inert entity, which eats our hard earned money like moving live elephant!

One day, in the morning, Siddhānti Gāru was ready to go to court on dispute of agricultural land,
a Fakir came and sat before him, he asked “O Fakir! What do you want to consult with me? Tell”,
people often approach him for astrological remedies, but the Fakir kept silent without response,
Swami’s father told “Have you come to steal vessels from my home?”, Fakir replied with a smile,
“I am Sai Baba, I came to help you, do not worry about this false case filed against you”, saying so,
the Fakir immediately disappeared and Siddhanti Garu went to the court with relief in the mind,
the opponent spoke everything in reverse way against the training given by his own lawyer and,
the Judge dismissed the case in the favour of Swami’s father, also, the shocked opponent-lawyer,
scolded the opponent for speaking against his training even after several rehearsals given by him!

Swami’s father was particular that service to God must be done without expecting anything in return,
he bows down only before God and not before any person, no matter how rich or powerful in society.

It was an unsaid rule that whoever came to him must sit down on the floor before him,
one day, a powerful minister, who won the election for second time came to meet him,
Siddhānti Gāru was sitting on his chair as usual, but, the minister dared to sit on the cot,
this act of ego angered him and he immediately refused to guide the minister thereafter.

Since only 1 year had passed after elections, minister didn’t bother much about this refusal,
but, by the will of God, he lost the power next year due to the vote of no confidence and,
this is the best example showing God’s power over humans, who think they are powerful.

Swami showed His divinity from childhood by composing Sanskrit verses from the age of six,
and the miraculous part was that nobody taught Sanskrit language to Swami since His birth.

The jealous people around Siddhānti Gāru told that his son was possessed by a Brahmarākṣasa,
a scholarly ghost that was cursed because he did not share his knowledge to anyone while alive.

Siddhānti Gāru believed their words and sat before Swami reciting the Manyu Sūktam,
so that he can drive away the evil scholarly ghost from the body of the young Swami.

Swami asked him, “Who gave the Manyu Sūktam?”, he replied, “God gave it in the Veda”,
Swami asked, “Can you drive away the same God from Me with what God has given you?”.

Siddhānti Gāru realised that Swami was a divine child and it was proved again and again,
seeing numerous miracles performed by Swami and seeing the interest of young Swami,
to debate with old Vedantic scholars giving correct interpretations to the Veda rather than,
playing in the streets like other children and always reading the spiritual scriptures at home.

Swami used to read the spiritual books like Vedic Bhāṣyam hiding them in His textbooks,
surprised to see His intellect, the School authorities have given Him double promotion.

Swami completed His 10th grade when He was 10 and achieved a Ph.D. when He was 19,
this stood as a world record for many years, apart from proving the omnipotence of God.

Siddhānti Gāru’s friend once told him “I want to tell you something about your first son,
it is topmost secret and I will tell that to you once you prepare yourself to take this truth”,
Siddhānti Gāru was worried thinking whether Swami had done some mischief at college,
and his friend is trying to cover it up, but, after multiple requests to his scholarly friend,
he said “Being an experienced scholar in Sanskrit, I have read your son’s compositions,
and I assuredly tell you that your son is none other than the incarnation of Kālidāsa”.

By the age of 16, Swami had already composed hundreds of spiritual books in Sanskrit,
and Swami playfully tells His father, “Telugu is your kingdom and Sanskrit is My kingdom,
You don’t enter into My kingdom and I won’t enter into your kingdom!”, Swami also says,
that Sanskrit is His mother tongue since it is the language of angels in the upper worlds.

Although Swami was offered the headship of Śaṅkara Pītham at Kāśī, He refused it at once,
since His father wanted Him to become a householder being the first son of their family.

Reading Swami’s innovative Ph.D. thesis on ‘A New Supersonic Technique for Metallurgical Testing’,
a world-renowned professor invited Swami to USA and offered to join his team for further research.

Swami refused this offer also because His father told that had Swami travelled crossing a sea,
he would not allow Swami to sit with him to have meals since it was a taboo to cross the sea.

Although Swami appears to have refused these prestigious offers due to His father’s will,
Swami’s aim is to establish the universal spirituality for divine peace in the entire world.

Had Swami taken up the head position of Śaṅkara Pīṭham, He would be made to support,
only the philosophy of Shankara and not support the philosophy of Ramanuja and Madhva.

Now, Swami has perfectly correlated the three philosophies and brought unity in followers,
not only Vedantic philosophies, but also modern science was correlated with spirituality,
Swami correlated all the religious philosophies for unity among all religions in the world.

Swami’s father wanted Swami to become an Astrologer to continue His legacy,
and encouraged Swami by saying that Astrology is the ‘Rāja Sammohana Vidyā’.
(Rāja Sammohana Vidyā – The knowledge that fascinates even the Kings)

Swami replied to him saying that He is interested in the Vedānta Śāstra that is about God,
which is much greater than the Astrology or Jyotiṣa Śāstra, the science of lights of planets.

Swami explains that Jyoti means light and the actual meaning of Jyoti is only God according,
to Veda (Paraṃ Jyotirupasampadya) and the Brahma Sutras (refer Sūtra in Jyotiradhikaraṇam),
Astrology of planets is a lower subject and spiritual knowledge of God is the highest subject.

Astrology is the elementary level of spiritual knowledge, which introduces the supernatural power,
that is beyond science and it resolves worldly problems slowly bringing devotion in us towards God.

The Planets are only subordinates to the Supreme God and when there is a conflict between,
God and planets, Astrology shall be condemned before the authority of the omnipotent God.

But, total rejection of astrology is also not correct because all the planets are carrying out,
constitution written by God only and every incarnation of God follows His own constitution.

Swami always preaches His disciples to worship God without aspiring anything in return,
due to that, the number of people reaching out to Him were less compared to His father.

Swami’s father once came across a book handwritten by Swami in which he found amazing,
interpretations of all the Sūtras from Jaimini Jyotiṣa Sūtra, which were unknown even to him.

He came running to Swami and insisted, “Gopi! You must concentrate on our Astrology,
You have the capacity to shine in this field and achieve great popularity along with grace”.

Swami calmly replied, “There may be many people following you, yet their sacrifice to you,
is little, but the devotees, who come to Me after reading My knowledge will give life for Me,
diamonds are always very few in number and gravel stones are many, a few diamonds are far,
more valuable than a million gravel stones and My devotees are the diamonds in this world”.

Swami always guided people towards God and hence, His father used to advice others,
“If you want to do some worldly work, you should do it without consulting my first son,
if you consult my son, He will wash your brain and make you to drop all worldly ideas!
when my son argues, even the judge of the Supreme Court will bow down to His logic”.

Swami replied, “You cannot go to the court of law and say that I will fight the case provided,
so-and-so lawyer is not the opponent, if you say like this, there is flaw in your arguments”,
Siddhānti Gāru was stunned with this reply and put a Namaskāram (salutation) to Swami.

He humorously commented that just like the Christian Missionaries are giving Baptism to Hindus,
and converting them into Christians, Swami is converting His followers into true devotees of Datta.

Whenever a devotee comes to their house to meet Swami and asks Siddhānti Gāru, he says,
“So, my Son must have given spiritual baptism to you also! That’s why, you have come here”.

Swami not only preached the true spiritual knowledge, but also performed many miracles,
to prove the existence of unimaginable God to atheists and to help the deserving devotees.

Swami lives like a simple ordinary family man and until retirement, He earned the livelihood,
by working as Chemistry Professor in Engineering college and only in the evenings after work,
He is dedicated to God by propagating true and complete spiritual knowledge with no cost.

Siddhānti Gāru liked God Shiva very much and Hanumān is the incarnation of God Shiva only,
he often jokingly says, “Before God Vishnu, only a single line of angels stands in queue, but,
before God Shiva, two lines of queue exist - one line of angels and another line of demons,
God Shiva is like a Dādā, who is approached by both communist party and congress party!”
(Dādā – Head of all rowdies)

Generally, all devotees perform Mahānyāsa Rudrābhiṣeka to achieve materialistic benefits only,
one day, Swami did the same ritual to get extreme poverty so that His devotion grows to climax,
then, Swami got the vision that God Shiva sitting in meditation was jerked listening to His request.

From then onwards, Swami left His job and started facing severe difficulties from all angles,
there was no money even to buy enough milk and groceries to feed everyone in His family,
Swami’s wife used to mix 1 L water with 100 mL milk and serve their 4 children every day!

Swami says that His devotion to God had reached to climax during that time of poverty,
since everyone remembers only God when there are problems pushing soul to devotion.

By this, Swami is practically teaching us that difficulties are more helpful to a devotee,
because we will be without ego and constantly thinking about God with an alert mind.

In happiness, we are always non-alert and lazy affected by pride, we never think about God,
when difficulties come, we will immediately become close to God, our brain becomes alert,
and our ego gets destroyed, that’s why, Kunti asked God Kṛṣṇa to bless her with difficulties.

We worship God for either self-benefits or benefits of our family or entire society at the most,
majority of the society worship God Veṅkaṭeśvara, Goddess Lakṣmī, God Hanumān, God Śiva,
God Subrahmaṇya, God Gaṇapati and the Divine Mother, etc., with the aim of getting benefits.

It is widely known that God Datta cuts our worldly bonds (Dattaṃ chinnaṃ), due to this,
householders generally don’t worship God Datta, but, Swami worshipped only God Datta.

Siddhānti Gāru, unable to see his son and his family suffering from poverty, advised Swami,
to stop worshipping God Datta and worship other forms of God to live a happy family life.

Swami was deeply pained when He heard this from His father and He sat in worship,
before the photo of God Datta and sang a spontaneous song in Telugu that He would,
rather leave His life than leaving the worship of God Datta, who is the source of all Gods,
He told in the prayer to God Datta that even if every member of His family is put to death,
He would not stop loving God Datta and He expressed His devotion by reading the names,
of each member of His family one by one including His parents, wife and all the children,
by listening to this prayer of Swami, tears rolled from the eyes of God Datta in the photo.

Siddhānti Gāru didn’t give up on Swami and tried different ways to introduce worldly ambition,
in Him since Swami is a householder having children, he thought Swami must accumulate wealth.

Initially, he tried to insult Swami by sending over-ripened bananas to Him expecting,
Swami would become furious and start earning more money as revenge against him,
but, Swami’s devotion was unshakable, remaining detached from worldly ambitions.

Swami always bent down and touched the feet of His father whenever He went to his home,
even after facing insults and He didn’t stop this courtesy standing as the example for all of us.

Long ago, Swami bought some land with His hard earned money and registered in family’s name,
when Siddhānti Gāru asked which properties He was expecting from him, Swami smilingly replied,
“Only God Datta can maintain Me and fulfill Me, what others give Me cannot meet My expenses!”,
Hearing this outstanding reply, Siddhānti Gāru came to the conclusion that his Son will never change.

The last trial made by Siddhānti Gāru was during the division of his property between his two sons,
when Siddhānti Gāru gave major portion to his second son and minor portion to Swami, his first son,
moreover, even the properties earned by Swami were given to His brother based on unjust reasons.

A family friend was concerned about this injustice done to Swami and went to discuss this,
he asked, “Siddhānti Gāru! Is it correct to show discrimination between both your eyes?”.

Siddhānti Gāru replied, “You come to take my guidance because you believe that I can see farther,
compared to you, do you think I can make mistake in this aspect? I know very well about my sons,
my first son is a genius and even if you leave Him in Himalayas without giving a rupee to His hand,
He will preach spiritual knowledge to the Sages over there and earn money through Guru Dakṣiṇā,
my second son is not wise and even if you give him 1 lakh rupees and leave him in a commercial city,
of Mumbai, he will lose all the money and come back home with empty hands, I know horoscopes,
of both my sons and my first son will always flourish since He always has the blessings of the divine”.

When Swami heard this reply from the family friend, Swami commented, “I don’t know,
whether to feel happy that I am being praised or to feel sad that I lost many properties!”.

Bond with issues (Putreṣaṇā) is the strongest worldly bond and the bond with first son,
is the highest for any father, but, Siddhānti Gāru conquered that bond and never showed,
blind love on any of his issues, his love was fully justified according to the rules of Pravrutti.

During the last days of Swami’s mother, Swami predicted that so-and-so day will be the last,
for His mother and asked His sisters not to leave the hospital, they stayed back as told and,
Swami got His mother dressed in a silk saree and placed God Datta plated-coin in her hand,
He recited the Vedic hymns on God Shiva called the Mahānyāsa Rudra throughout the day.

After His mother took the last breath, Swami’s sisters became sad and extremely emotional,
they started blaming Swami that He had performed some black magic on her due to which,
He was able to tell the correct death time of their mother, these words made Swami very upset,
He wondered how they could forget all the prayers He was doing for the mother until that time.

Swami’s sisters complained to Siddhānti Gāru that it is their eldest brother, who killed their mother,
but, he refused to believe such horrible blame against Swami since he knows the divinity of his son.

Although Swami did not take up His father’s profession of Astrology, by Swami’s grace,
Swami’s second son having got same name of his grandfather is continuing the legacy.

It was Swami, who took complete care of His father and mother until their last days,
Siddhānti Gāru left his last breath in the house of Swami only in a very peaceful way.

On his last day, he took bath in the evening and did Sandhyā Vandanam to God, after that,
he felt some pain in the throat and asked for buttermilk, in few minutes, he left the body.

Swami says that one should lead a sinless life to attain peaceful death, it is always said that,
our death speaks about our life on earth—this doesn’t apply to incarnations of God though.

Entire town of Narasaraopet mourned at his death and people came from various places,
to walk in the funeral procession, around two thousand people participated in his funeral,
and this was covered by newspapers quoting it as a huge loss to his countless followers.

Swami stayed in the cremation ground until the entire body was burnt and at the end,
Swami observed that the brain of His father was radiating light like the bright mercury,
Swami explains that the radiance was due to his wisdom attained from true devotion.

Swami says, “Fools think only about the present and suffer in future due to lack of planning,
intelligent people think about old age and live with limited enjoyment to save for future, but,
the most brilliant people are the devotees of God, who not only think about the life on earth,
but also think about the life after death, so, they worship God with true and practical devotion,
in order to please Him, they know that God is the giver of both materialistic and spiritual boons”.

Swami’s father died on the full moon day of Vaiśākha month, the birth day of God Buddha,
His mother died on the full moon day of Āśvayuja month, the day of victory of Divine Mother.

[By contemplating the lives of great devotees, we draw strength and direction for our own spiritual journey, realizing that their devotion lights the way for our steps toward the divinity. Jaya Bhagavan Shri Datta Swami. - Ms. Trailokya]

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